Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 1,529
- Born the eldest son and third child of James and Mary Defoe, Defoe received a very good education, as his father intended him to become a Presbyterian minister, but he chose to become a merchant instead. In 1684 he joined the army of the rebel Duke of Monmouth, but when the rebellion failed, Defoe was forced into semi-exile. He went bankrupt in 1692, and began writing professionally. He wrote a satirical pamphlet in 1703 called "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters", for which he was pilloried. After a stint in Newgate prison and more troubles with his bankruptcy, Defoe wrote "Robinson Crusoe" and "Moll Flanders", both of which were great successes. Labeled a social historian for his interest in colonization, economics, and exploration, Defoe died of a lethargy in Cripplegate on 24 April 1731.
- Auguste Maquet was born on 13 September 1813 in Paris, France. Auguste was a writer, known for Three Musketeers (1932), Monte Cristo (1929) and La maison du baigneur (1914). Auguste died on 8 January 1888 in Paris, France.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Clara Schumann was born on 13 September 1819 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony [now Saxony, Germany]. She was a composer, known for Management (2008), Ammonite (2020) and The Europeans (1979). She was married to Robert Schumann. She died on 20 May 1896 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse-Nassau, [now Hesse], Germany.- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach was born on 13 September 1830 in Schloss Zdislawitz, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Zdislavice, Kromeríz, Czech Republic]. She was a writer, known for Heimatland (1955), Ruf der Wälder (1965) and Krambambuli (1940). She was married to Moritz von Ebner-Eschenbach. She died on 12 March 1916 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now in Austria].
- Soundtrack
Ernest Gillet was born on 13 September 1856 in Paris, France. Ernest died on 6 May 1940 in Paris, France.- Milton Hershey was born on 13 September 1857 in Derry Church, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Catherine Sweeney. He died on 13 October 1945 in Hershey, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Canadian novelist "Ralph Connor" was born Charles William Gordon in Glengarry, Ontario, Canada, in 1860. His parents were from Scotland, and his father was a Presbyterian minister. When he was 10 the family moved from the almost frontier settlement of Glengarry to a more "settled" area of Ontario called Zorra, but young Charles always longed for the wilds of Glengarry--as evidenced by the fact that many of his later novels were set there.
He and his brother attended the University of Toronto, and a year after graduation Charles put himself through Knox College, a divinity school. He traveled to Scotland in 1883 and attended the University of Edinburgh for two years. Returning to Canada, he saw a need to minister to the religious needs of the miners and loggers of the Canadian Rockies, and did that until 1893, when he was sent to England for a year. When World War I broke out he served as chaplain for the 43rd Cameron Highlanders unit of the British army. In 1920 he was made chairman of the Council of Industry for Manitoba and the next year he was chosen as Moderator for the General Presbyterian Assembly of Canada.
One day in 1897 a friend who was the editor of "Westminister Magazine" asked him to write a story for the publication. It garnered so much interest that Gordon decided to expand it into a novel, and called it "Black Rock". He used the name "Ralph Connor" for the book because his editor wired him asking if he wanted to use his real name or a pseudonym, thinking that using his real name on an adventure novel might take away from his ministerial work. Gordon happened to glance at a letter he had just received, and the letterhead read "Brit. Can. Nor. West. Mission"; he liked the sound of that, so wired back, "Use Cannor". However, the telegrapher accidentally misspelled it "Connor"; his editor decided to add the name "Ralph", and "Ralph Connor" was born. That first book and subsequent ones became immensely popular in Canada, and he wrote a new one an average of once a year. In 1898 Gordon married Helen King, who was the daughter of a fellow clergyman, and they had seven children together.
He died in Canada in 1937, age 77. - Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri, to businessman John Fletcher Pershing and homemaker Ann Elizabeth Thompson. Pershing's great-great-grandfather, Frederick Pershing, whose name originally was Pfersching, emigrated from Alsace, leaving Amsterdam on the ship Jacob, and arriving in Philadelphia on October 2, 1749. Pershing's mother was of English descent. He also had five siblings: brothers James F. (1862-1933) and Ward (1874-1909), and sisters Mary Elizabeth (1864-1928), Anna May (1867-1955) and Grace (1867-1903); three other children died in infancy. When the Civil War began, his father supported the Union and was a sutler for the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. General of the Armies John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing (September 13, 1860 - July 15, 1948) was a senior United States Army officer. His most famous post was when he served as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on the Western Front in World War I, 1917-18.
Pershing rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated with their armies, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command, although some American divisions fought under British command, and he also allowed all-black units to be integrated with the French army.
Pershing's soldiers first saw serious battle at Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Soissons. To speed up the arrival of the doughboys, they embarked for France leaving the heavy equipment behind, and used British and French tanks, artillery, airplanes and other munitions. In September 1918 at St. Mihiel, the First Army was directly under Pershing's command; it overwhelmed the salient - the encroachment into Allied territory - that the German Army had held for three years. For the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Pershing shifted roughly 600,000 American soldiers to the heavily defended forests of the Argonne, keeping his divisions engaged in hard fighting for 47 days, alongside the French. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which the Argonne fighting was part of, contributed to Germany calling for an armistice. Pershing was of the opinion that the war should continue and that all of Germany should be occupied in an effort to permanently destroy German militarism.
Pershing is the only American to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies rank, the highest possible rank in the United States Army. Allowed to select his own insignia, Pershing chose to use four gold stars to distinguish himself from those officers who held the rank of General, which was signified with four silver stars. After the creation of the five-star General of the Army rank during World War II, his rank of General of the Armies could unofficially be considered that of a six-star general, but he died before the proposed insignia could be considered and acted on by Congress.
Some of his tactics have been criticized both by other commanders at the time and by modern historians. His reliance on costly frontal assaults, long after other Allied armies had abandoned such tactics, has been blamed for causing unnecessarily high American casualties. In addition to leading the A.E.F. to victory in World War I, Pershing notably served as a mentor to many in the generation of generals who led the United States Army during World War II, including George Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Lesley J. McNair, George S. Patton, and Douglas MacArthur. - John Alexander was born on 13 September 1864. He was an actor, known for The Petrified Forest (1936) and Men in Exile (1937). He died on 5 April 1951 in Ontario, Canada.
- Alma Aiken was born on 13 September 1864 in New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Test of Honor (1919) and The Master Mind (1920). She was married to Paul/ George William Matthews. She died on 10 September 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
- Hermann Seldeneck was born on 13 September 1864. He was an actor, known for Suchomlinow (1918), Der Schuß um Mitternacht (1914) and Liebe und Leben, 2. Teil - Die Tochter des Senators (1918). He died in April 1922.
- Karl Oscar Krantz was born on 13 September 1867 in Håby, Bohuslän, Sweden. Karl Oscar was a producer, known for Kvinnliga akademiska fotbollsklubben Virginia (1908) and Lejonjakten (1908). Karl Oscar died on 27 January 1933 in Helsingborg, Skåne län, Sweden.
- Robert Dudley was born on 13 September 1869 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Palm Beach Story (1942), The Fourteenth Man (1920) and The Night Flyer (1928). He was married to Elaine Anderson. He died on 12 November 1955 in San Clemente, California, USA.
- Belle Stoddard was born on 13 September 1869 in Remington, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Kentucky Pride (1925), The Marriage Pit (1920) and Anne Against the World (1929). She was married to Paul Menifee Johnstone. She died on 13 December 1950 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actress
Belle Johnstone was born on 13 September 1869 in Remington, Ohio, USA. She was an actress. She died on 13 December 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Erich Briese was born on 13 September 1869 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Der breite Weg (1917), Der Prinzenraub (1914) and Gib mich frei (1924). He was married to Luise Emilie Emma Samst. He died on 30 March 1947 in Berlin, Germany.
- Born in Muscatine, Iowa, he attended public schools and Iowa Wesleyan College at Mount Pleasant. He graduated from the Nebraska Wesleyan University at Lincoln in 1892, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in Omaha, Nebraska. He moved to Encampment, Wyoming in 1902 and to Casper, Wyoming in 1903. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1908 and was a judge of the sixth judicial district of Wyoming from 1913 to 1919. He resigned from the bench and resumed the practice of law at Casper.
Winter was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1923 to March 3, 1929; he was not a candidate for renomination in 1928, but was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate. He was attorney general of Puerto Rico in 1932 and 1933, and served as Acting Governor. He resumed the practice of law, and died in Casper; interment was in Highland Cemetery.
During the summer of 1903, while traveling on a train in Pennsylvania, Winter wrote the lyrics to "Wyoming", the official state song. His western novels included Grandon of Sierra, about a cowboy who gives up ranging to be a prospector in the Encampment copper rush, and Ben Warman, filmed several times, firstly as Dangerous Love (1920 film). Gold of Freedom was set in Wyoming's South Pass. - Matronly or grandmotherly, Alma Kruger appeared onscreen between 1935-47. She was 64 years old when she made her film debut in William Wyler's These Three (1936). She then proceeded to appear in over 40 films in the space of little more than a decade, appearing in, among others, Mother Carey's Chickens (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944), and Saboteur (1942). She was likely best-known as head nurse "Molly Byrd" in the Dr. Kildare and Dr. Gillespie films of the 1930s/40s. She died at age 88 in 1960.
- Ida Vera Simonton was born on 13 September 1871 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Ida Vera was a writer, known for White Cargo (1942) and White Cargo (1929). Ida Vera died on 5 July 1931 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Actress
Viola Miles was born on 13 September 1873 in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Deceit (1923). She was married to Frank Monroe. She died on 5 November 1915 in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Arnold Schonberg was born in the Jewish ghetto of Vienna, in 1874. His parents were Ashkenazim, his mother, Pauline was from Prague, and his father, Samuel, was from Bratislava. His mother was a piano teacher, but he had little interest in early childhood. He took violin lessons when he was eight and began composing at the same time.
Later he took lessons in composition from Alexandr von Zemlinsky, who's sister he married in 1910, after his first wife left him in 1908. His earlier sextet Verklarte Nacht (1899) and Symphonic poem Pelleas and Melisande, brought him recognition from Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. He became Mahler's apprentice, and considered his master a 'saint'.
It was during the absence of a wife that Schonberg started composing without a key. He created the dodecaphonic (or twelve-tone) method of composition, which later developed into serialism. The innovative String Quartet No. 2, and Pierrot Luniare (1912) incorporated female voice and moved into atonal (or pan-tonal) method, later developed into dodecaphonic (twelve-tone), method, and further grew into serialism. His students Anton Webern, Alban Berg, and Hanns Eisler adopted this technique and thus formed the Second Viennise School. His method of teaching was based on analyzing and transmitting the music of the great classics, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Mozart', and Ludwig van Beethoven. He regarded the music of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler . In 1925 he moved to Berlin to take a master class. He wrote unfinished opera "Moses und Aron", and lived there until the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Schonberg was brought up as a Catholic, converted to Lutheranism in 1898 and remained Litheran until 1933. In 1933 he had to leave Berlin, because Nazis disregarded his conversion to Lutheranism, and treated him as a Jew. He made a stay in Paris where he formally reaffirmed his original faith. After that Schonberg went on his journey to Los Angeles, where he settled in 1934. There he revisited tonal composition and continued development of serialism, which contributed to the complexity of his difficult Violin Concerto. From 1935 to 1945 he taught at USC and UCLA Department of Music. In 1941 Schonberg became a citizen of the United States. He retired after having a heart attack in 1945. His later compositions include String Trio "A Survivor from Warsaw" and religious Choir works. His theoretical writings are still used by students. He used to say: "my music is not really modern, just badly played." He feared the number 13 (triskaidekafobia), but ironically was born on the 13th and died on Friday, the 13th of July, 1951. He was buried in Vienna.- Mrs. Auguste Lumiere was born on 13 September 1874 in Lyon, France. She was married to Auguste Lumière. She died on 25 June 1963 in Lyon, France.
- Henry F. Ashurst served as a Democrat in the United States Senate from 1912 when Arizona was admitted to the union as the 48th State. He was denied renomination by his party in 1940. He lived in Washington, DC until his death in 1962 at the age of 88.
He was one of two former United States Senators to have cameo roles in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent, the other was Guy M. Gillette of Iowa. - Antal Farkas was born on 13 September 1875 in Szentes, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. He was a writer, known for Jön az öcsém (1919). He died on 28 September 1940 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Sherwood Anderson was born on September 13, 1876, into the family of a house-painter in Camden, Ohio. He worked as a newsboy, a house-painter, and a stable groom until he moved to Chicago at the age of 17. There he attended business classes at night, while having a day job as a warehouse laborer. After his military service in Cuba during the Spanish-American war, he returned to Ohio and graduated from Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio. His marriage didn't work, and he moved to Chicago again. There he joined the Chicago Group of writers, which also included Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, and Edgar Lee Masters. They led the so-called Chicago Literary Renessance between 1900 and 1930.
After the success of his books, "Winesburg, Ohio" (1917) and "The Triumphs of the Egg" (1921) Andersen received his first 'Dial' Award for his contribution to American Literature. He went traveling and became part of the expatriate community in Europe during the 1920s. In Paris he met Gertrude Stein, whom he much admired. He encouraged Ernest Hemingway in his writing aspirations. He also gave him a letter of recommendation to Gertrude Stein, pushing Hemingway to move to Paris from Chicago, where they met in 1921. Their friendship broke after Anderson's "Dark Laughter" (1925) prompted the satirical "Torrents of Spring", a parody of Anderson by Hemingway.
Andersen completed the "Dark Laughter" (1925) in New Orleans, where he shared an apartment with William Faulkner, who was also inspired by Anderson's works. In 1926 he moved to Marion, Virginia, where he built a home. There Anderson bought two weekly newspapers, one Republican, one Democrat, and edited both for 2 years. He was lecturing around the country and studied the labor conditions during the Depression. He wrote, " . . . Joseph Conrad said that a writer only began to live after he began to write. It pleased me to think I was after all but ten years old. Plenty of time ahead for such a young one." He died of peritonitis after swallowing a toothpick, during his private trip to Panama Canal, on March 8, 1941. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Adolf E. Licho was born on 13 September 1876 in Kremenchug, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine]. He was an actor and director, known for Kaddisch (1924), Kinder der Zeit (1922) and 1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand (1931). He died on 11 October 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Gusta Chrispijn-Mulder was born on 13 September 1876 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress, known for Malle gevallen (1934), Vadertje Langbeen (1938) and De familie van mijn vrouw (1935). She was married to Louis Chrispijn and Louis Chrispijn Jr.. She died on 17 June 1955 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.
- Stanley Lord was born on 13 September 1877 in Bolton, Lancashire, England.
- Writer
- Cinematographer
- Director
Wilhelm Filchner was born on 13 September 1877 in Munich, Germany. He was a writer and cinematographer, known for Om mani padme hum (1929) and Mönche, Tänzer und Soldaten (1953). He was married to Ilse Ostermeier. He died on 7 May 1957 in Zürich, Switzerland.- Edward Cecil was born on 13 September 1878 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Beast (1916), The Yankee Way (1917) and Sink or Swim (1920). He was married to Maud Warren. He died on 13 December 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Writer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Fritz Magnussen was born on 13 September 1878 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a writer and director, known for Guldspindeln (1916), Dommens dag (1918) and Skæbnesvangre vildfarelser (1918). He died on 14 April 1920 in Denmark.- Walter Young was born on 13 September 1879 in Queens, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Delinquent Parents (1938) and The Patient in Room 18 (1938). He died on 18 April 1957 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Auriol Lee was born on 13 September 1880 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Suspicion (1941) and A Royal Divorce (1938). She was married to Frederick Lloyd. She died on 2 July 1941 in Hutchinson, Kansas, USA.
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Lasky, one of the first pioneers of the Hollywood film industry and its first genuine 'mogul', was not only a consummate showman and entrepreneur, but a jack-of-all-trades. Born in San Francisco in September 1880, the son of a shoe salesman, he attended high school in San Jose and held down his first job at seventeen as a reporter for the San Francisco Post. He supplemented his scant income by moonlighting as a cornettist at local theatres. In 1899, he became infected with the prevailing gold fever and joined the rush to Alaska. He found no gold, but instead lost his own money. The next ten years saw him playing his cornet in Honolulu as the only white musician in the Royal Hawaiian Band, and then forming a vaudeville double act with his sister Blanche, touring on the East Coast and in Europe. By 1911, Lasky had established himself in New York. Already corpulent, balding, and wearing his trademark rimless glasses, looking every inch the promoter, Lasky started to produce musicals and comedy sketches for vaudeville. He also set up his own nightclub in New York, but it turned out a financial fiasco to the tune of $100,000. Having befriended the actor and writer Cecil B. DeMille, Lasky then decided to make his fortune in the burgeoning film industry.
In 1913, along with DeMille and his brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later to become Samuel Goldwyn), Lasky established the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company with a starting capital of $26,500. His first feature was to be an epic western, The Squaw Man (1914), acquired for the then-princely sum of $15,000. It was to be filmed not at the regular facilities at Ft. Lee, New Jersey, but - for added realism - on location out west. Once arrived at their destination, Flagstaff, Arizona, Lasky and his companions found themselves in the middle of an old-fashioned range war between cattlemen and sheepmen. They wisely decided to keep on going and ended up in the small Californian town of Hollywood, where they rented a barn at the corner of Vine and Selma Street for $75 a month.
Production on the first ever feature shot in Hollywood began with one barn, one truck and a single camera (operated by Oscar Apfel) in January 1914. 'The Squaw Man' was a huge financial success, enabling Lasky to contract several new stars, including Blanche Sweet, Wallace Reid and Ina Claire. In 1915, he scooped his competitors again, by signing popular opera diva Geraldine Farrar to a three-picture deal for a fee of $20,000, a house (complete with servants), a chauffeur-driven limousine and a private railway carriage for her trip from, and back to, the Big Apple. At this time, the company counted among its regular roster, five directors, five cinematographers and some eighty contract players. All output was released through the Paramount Pictures Corporation, which had been formed by Adolph Zukor in partnership with Lasky, Goldfish and West Coast theatre proprietor W.W. Hodkinson. In 1916, Lasky merged with Zukor's Famous Players to become Famous Players Lasky (re-formed as Paramount in 1927), serving as vice president in charge of production under Zukor . In this capacity, he imprinted his artistic vision on much of the studio's output during the silent era, signing Rudolph Valentino for The Sheik (1921), discovering Maurice Chevalier in 1929, and so on. His input was also reflected in Paramount's overall predilection for adventure films and romances with a continental flavour. Paramount emerged from the silent era as the pre-eminent studio in Hollywood with the most cosmopolitan roster of stars and directors. Lasky himself became enormously wealthy, amassing a fortune estimated somewhere between $12 and $20 million - and losing it all during the Wall Street Crash.
Under pressure from the IRS and back-stabbed by his own personal assistant, Lasky was eventually ousted from his executive position at Paramount in 1932. Unsettled, he worked as an independent producer for Fox, then Warner Brothers and RKO. There was also a short-lived partnership with Mary Pickford in 1935, and, between 1938 and 1940, he produced his own radio talent show, 'Gateway to Hollywood'. During his final creative spell at Warners, he produced three seminal motion pictures: Sergeant York (1941), The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) and Rhapsody in Blue (1945). For the last few years of his life, he was virtually unemployed. In 1957, Lasky finally returned to Paramount to work on a project which was to settle his dept with the IRS. He never completed it, dying in January 1958, almost forgotten by the industry he helped to create.- Actor
- Director
Matthew Betz was born on 13 September 1881 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Big Chance (1933), The Crimson City (1928) and The Terror (1928). He was married to Lulu Slipp. He died on 26 January 1938 in Sawtelle, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Anna Esipovich was born on 13 September 1881. She was an actress, known for Ottsy i deti (1959). She died on 10 February 1970.
- Giuseppe Zago was born on 13 September 1881 in Venice, Veneto, Italy. He was an actor, known for Forbidden Music (1942), Blood Red Rose (1939) and La canzone delle rose (1919). He died on 7 December 1947 in Venice, Veneto, Italy.
- Charles Dechamps was born on 13 September 1882 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for The New Testament (1936), Tout pour l'amour (1933) and Sylvie et le fantôme (1954). He was married to Fernande Albany. He died on 25 September 1959 in Paris, France.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Erich Eriksen was born on 13 September 1882 in Berlin, Germany. He is known for Maud Rockfellers Wette (1924), Liebe, Haß und Geld (1919) and Der Skandal im Viktoria-Club (1919).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Giovanni Pastrone was born on 13 September 1883 in Montechiaro d'Asti, Piedmont, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Cabiria (1914), Julius Caesar (1909) and Il fuoco (la favilla - la vampa - la cenere) (1916). He died on 27 June 1959 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.- Writer
- Actor
- Casting Department
Lewis E. Lawes was born on 13 September 1883 in Elmira, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Invisible Stripes (1939), San Quentin (1946) and Over the Wall (1938). He died on 23 April 1947 in Garrison, New York, USA.- Soundtrack
Tom Pitts was born on 13 September 1883 in Macoupin County, Illinois, USA. Tom was married to Emma Pancher. Tom died on 28 December 1939 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.- Yet another underrated performer from the Golden Age of British films was Scottish-born character actress Jean Cadell. Jean commenced her professional stage career in 1906 with "The Inspector General" at the old Scala Theatre in the London borough of Camden. Via a stint with the Glasgow Repertory, she then made her way to Broadway (1911) and London (1912), where she appeared in small roles at major venues like the Strand and Criterion Theatres, specialising in comedy plays (her favourite was George Bernard Shaw). Though she maintained a busy theatrical career throughout, she also acted in films from 1919. During the silent era, she usually played youthfully temperamental and emancipated women. As she advanced in age, her manner became increasingly salty. This, combined with her sharp features, flaming red hair and steely blue eyes led to her being more often than not typecast as acerbic spinsters or imperious dowagers. She had a brief sojourn in Hollywood as Mrs. Micawber (opposite the inimitable W.C. Fields) in David Copperfield (1935). Back in England, she gave valuable support in Pygmalion (1938) (as Mrs. Pearce), The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) (Mrs. Sparry, sternly instructing Robert Donat to "always keep-a-hold of nurse for fear of finding something worse") and the fondly-remembered Ealing classic Whisky Galore! (1949) (as Mrs. Campbell). Jean rounded off her career with a starring role in her penultimate film, the caper comedy A Taste of Money (1961), as an ageing spinster concocting the 'perfect' Soho bank heist.
- Richard Revy studied in Vienna philosophy and was trained as stage actor in Munich, Vienna and Zurich. He later became a well respected senior director at Stadttheater Zurich and Munich Kammerspiele. Revy furthermore directed plays in Bohemia, Berlin, Breslaw, Dresden and Frankfurt/Main. In the early 30s he became busy as an actor in a couple of German movies. He also worked as an acting trainer, such as promoting Lotte Lenya. In 1934 he fled the Nazis into Switzerland before emigrating to Hollywood in 1938, where he assumed the name of Richard Ryen. He became an US citizen in November 1944.
Ironically, as was the fate for so many German-speaking actors and actresses of that time, he was mainly casted in Nazi roles, which kept him alive during the war years. His most renowned performance was that of Col. Heinze in Casablanca (1942), where he constantly had to tail his superior Major Strasser and thus was quite often visible in the picture. It was the importance of this movie that kept his appearance in the mind of the audience. Reportedly, his scenes took four weeks to shoot, earning him $400 a week.
In almost all of his Hollywood performances Richard Ryen had short and sometimes hardly noticeable roles. In The Cross of Lorraine (1943) for a change, his part as Lieutenant Schmidt of a POW camp in Germany is more distinctive. He appears as a comic relief in three scenes with a number of dialogue in German and English. He orders his subordinates Sgt. Berger and Cpl. Daxer to organize for catering and clothing across the French border. In his last sequence he is upset with Peter Lorre for delivering him French lingerie which is much too small for his opulent wife. An amusing scene.
After his last US performance in 1948 (A Foreign Affair) Richard Ryen was left unemployed and returned to Switzerland in order to take up theater work again. His retiring years were spent back in California. - Alain Leroy Locke was born on 13 September 1885 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 9 June 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Harry Fisher Jr. was born on 13 September 1885 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Yankee Girl (1915), And Percy Got Married (1915) and Billy Puts One Over (1915). He died on 21 May 1917 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Aage Schmidt was born on 13 September 1885 in Denmark. He was an actor, known for Greven af Luxemburg (1910), Blind Justice (1916) and Genboerne (1939). He died on 11 September 1949 in Denmark.
- Stanley Vine was born on 13 September 1886 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Quatermass and the Pit (1958), Lord of the Manor (1933) and The Man Who Changed His Name (1934). He died on 20 September 1968 in Fulham, London, England, UK.
- Born in Milan, Italy, September 13, 1886, Paola Pezzaglia was the only daughter of a famous VIP hair-stylist, Gerolamo Pezzaglia. Her uncle was the actor Angelo Pezzaglia. At the age of six she already enchanted her public in theatre, and she grew up as a very fine actress, with the interpretation of more than 200 pieces in Italy, Swiss, Tunis and Egypt. In 1908 she married the actor Antonio Greco, and they had a son, Ruggero. But Antonio died in 1913, only 28. In 1914 she played the character of 'Sofia' in the film 'Il fornaretto di Venezia', directed by Luigi Maggi. In 1918 she was 'Biribì' in the four-film serial movie 'Il mistero dei Montfleury'. Titles: 'Il campo maledetto', 'I bimbi di nessuno', 'La sagra dei martirii', 'Il giardino del silenzio'. In 1918 Paola Pezzaglia performed also in 'La capanna dello zio Tom', directed by Riccardo Tolentino, and 'Le peripezie dell'emulo di Fortunello e compagni', directed by Cesare Zocchi de Collani, playing the character of 'Madama Girasole'. In 1921 she was in the cast of 'La vendetta dello scemo', directed by Umberto Mucci. Paola Pezzaglia, during a successful theatrical season, died of pneumonia December 17, 1925, in Firenze, Italy, at the age of 39.
- Melli Beese was born on 13 September 1886 in Laubegast, Saxony, Germany. She was married to Charles Boutard. She died on 21 December 1925 in Berlin, Germany.