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- Director
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Inspired by Fred Astaire's dancing in Flying Down to Rio (1933), Stanley Donen (pronounced 'Dawn-en') attended dance classes from the age of ten. He later recalled that the only thing he wanted to be was a tap dancer.
He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, to Helen Pauline (Cohen) and Mordecai Moses Donen, a dress-shop manager, of Russian-Jewish and German-Jewish descent. Donen debuted on Broadway at seventeen. While working as an assistant choreographer in 1941, he met and befriended the actor Gene Kelly, Kelly being the brash, extrovert and energetic side of the burgeoning partnership, Donen the more refined and relaxed. Three years later, the two men renewed their collaboration in Hollywood and did much to reinvigorate the musical genre. For the next decade, they worked side-by-side as choreographers and co-directors (a relationship Donen described as 'wonderful' but 'also trying at times'), linked to MGM's Arthur Freed unit. Between them, they directed classic musicals like On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952) and co-wrote the original story for Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). Freed, by the way, was the producer almost single-handedly responsible for the high standard of MGM's A-grade musicals in the 40s and 50s. A former vaudevillian and song-plugger, Freed was an astute judge of talent and encouraged gifted individuals from other media (like radio or theatre) to become involved with pictures. Moreover, he gave artists like Kelly and Donen free rein to express their creative flair.
In 1949, MGM signed Donen to a seven-year contract as director in his own right. From then on, he and Kelly went their separate ways. After directing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Donen moved on to Paramount for Funny Face (1957), then to Warner Brothers for The Pajama Game (1957) and Damn Yankees (1958). As musicals waned in popularity, Donen branched out into other genres. He began to direct and produce elegant, lavish romantic dramas like the delightful Indiscreet (1958), sophisticated comedies like The Grass Is Greener (1960) and Two for the Road (1967) (which starred Donen's favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn), as well as the top-shelf thrillers Charade (1963) (the best film Alfred Hitchcock never directed, again with Hepburn) and Arabesque (1966). Arguably, his most out-of-character film from this period was the esoteric mephistophelean (and very British) farce Bedazzled (1967), featuring the irrepressible comic talents of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
The 1970s heralded a steady decline in the quality of Donen's output. None of his later efforts seemed to have the panache of his earlier work: not the tepid adventure-comedy Lucky Lady (1975) (despite a good cast and sumptuous production look) nor the nostalgic musical fantasy The Little Prince (1974), based on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A failure at the box office, the latter also marked the end of the Frederick Loewe-Alan Jay Lerner musical partnership. Donen's career may have finished on a low with a weak sojourn into science fiction that was Saturn 3 (1980) and the absolutely dreadful comedy Blame It on Rio (1984), but his reputation as one of the giants of the classic Hollywood musical is assured. Donen received an Honorary Oscar in 1998 ""for a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit, and visual innovation.''- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Performed as a folk musician in Greenwich Village and Los Angeles before being selected for the Monkees TV show. Made 58 TV episodes 6 albums, a TV special, and a movie before leaving the Monkees in 1969 Released a solo single in 1982. Rejoined the Monkees for tours and an from 1986 to 1989. Released his first solo album, "Stranger Things Have Happened", in 1994- Beverley Owen was born Beverley Ogg in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Thursday, May 13th, 1937. In high school and college, she was always doing television, theatre, and radio programs. She then moved to New York to pursue an acting career after graduating from the University of Michigan. She was fired many a time for her lack of typing skills while working at CBS, and for Ed Sullivan. She later became senior typist for the children's program, Captain Kangaroo (1955) show. She did many small parts in shows until she got the role of "Marilyn Munster" on The Munsters (1964). But after just thirteen episodes, were filmed, she left the show to get married. She is now divorced, but has two daughters, Polly and Kate. She is not always recognized as "Marilyn" because, on the show, she wore a blonde wig. In 1989, she got her master's degree in Early American History.
- John Findlater was born on 28 August 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Airport (1970), With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) and Meteor (1979). He was married to Vicki DeBenedictis and Catherine Mary Stewart. He died on 21 February 2019.
- While other actresses would have long given up a stalled career out of pure frustration after decades of mostly uncredited extra/bit parts and little reward, perennial starlet Sue Casey somehow found the stamina to maintain ... for six decades! In films from 1946, the voluptuous brunette, at most, became a campy vixen in a few 1960s "drive-in" bombs, yet has always held a remarkably appreciative outlook as to how things turned out.
Born on April 8, 1926 in Southern California, her family lived in Beverly Hills (her father was a builder) at the time of her birth but was forced to move after the crash of the stock market in 1929 to a more modest area of town. While Casey expressed no early interest in acting, her West Coast beauty was undeniable and it didn't take long before the teenager caught the eye of a talent agent who persuaded her to try with the well-oiled fantasy line, "How would you like to be a star?" Making the usual audition rounds, Casey's first extra part came with the lightweight MGM film Holiday in Mexico (1946) for Samuel Goldwyn. Young, married, and with a child in tow, she found work as Danny Kaye's boss' secretary in the The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). Promoted by the studio as a "Goldwyn Girl", she dutifully attended parades, premieres, late night parties, fashion and charity events, etc. -- anything to further advance herself. To supplement her studio income, Sue worked as a photographer and artist's model.
A diverting presence in the usual MGM comedy or drama such as Blondie's Big Deal (1949) and The Great Sinner (1949), she provided classy set decoration for the studio's prime Golden Age musicals as well, including Words and Music (1948), Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), An American in Paris (1951), The Band Wagon (1953), Deep in My Heart (1954), and the Esther Williams swimming extravaganzas Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Million Dollar Mermaid (1952). Often times she would be directed over to other major studios -- Paramount, Columbia, Universal and Warner Bros. -- and provide fetching atmosphere there. Director Raoul Walsh once complimented her as "the most beautiful extra in pictures today."
By the mid 1950s, Casey had still barely put two lines together on screen and after filming the non-descript parts of a snake charmer in 3 Ring Circus (1954), a sunbather in Rear Window (1954) and a harem girl in Son of Sinbad (1955), decided to take some time away from the cameras and concentrate on family. She went on to have three more children. By 1959, however, she was back in front of the lens as beautiful as ever but this time the focus was on television.
Successfully establishing herself as a wholesome commercial actress, she pitched everything from cereal to automobiles in over 200 assignments. Light TV guest parts also came her way in episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957), The Baileys of Balboa (1964), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), The Farmer's Daughter (1963), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Family Affair (1966), among others. As for the big screen, nothing changed. Obscure bit/extra parts continued with Bells Are Ringing (1960), The Ladies Man (1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963) and The Carpetbaggers (1964).
Finally, after nearly two decades of pursuing her dream in Hollywood, Casey nabbed a leading role! As bad girl "Vicky Lindsay" in what is arguably one of film's biggest "turkeys" of all time, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965), she attained a notoriety that led to minor cult status. The film had a non-existent budget and was received poorly in every way, shape and form upon its initial release. Casey even had to do her own hair and makeup and was forced to pick out her vixen character's clothes from her own closet. The actors were never paid until the movie was sold years later to TV (retitled as "Monster from the Surf") and that was a mere pittance. Over the years, however, the movie has reportedly gained a cult following. Two other easily dismissed co-starring roles in unmemorable campy films followed. She played a hillbilly mom in the fugitive drama Swamp Country (1966) (which starred pearly-toothed pre-Carol Burnett hunk Lyle Waggoner) and a manipulative mom and art forger in Catalina Caper (1967) (which starred former Disney star Tommy Kirk after his fall from studio grace, and (again) Lyle Waggoner).
In later years, she developed a successful real estate business. She found acting work (often without an agent) intermittently on film and TV. Featured in a couple of higher-scaled movie musicals -- as a lady attendant to Vanessa Redgrave's Queen Guinevere in Camelot (1967) and as one of John Mitchum's two wives in Paint Your Wagon (1969) -- her final film resume would add such films as The Main Event (1979), Evilspeak (1981), Whitesnake: Live... in the Still of the Night (2005) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996). In American Beauty (1999), an Oscar winner for "Best Picture" and "Best Actor", lead actress Annette Bening (a Best Actress nominee for the role), plays a desperate realtor trying to sell Casey's well-to-do character a house. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Antonia Rey was born on 12 October 1926 in Havana, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Hair (1979), Klute (1971) and Jacob's Ladder (1990). She was married to Andres Castro. She died on 21 February 2019 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gus Backus occupies a rarefied place in the history of rock & roll. Having said that, it probably comes as a surprise to almost any reader that Gus Backus occupies any place whatsoever in rock & roll. His chart presence in America was minimal, and not one in 100 Americans would even know who he was. In Germany during the late '50s and early '60s, however -- a period when even second-rate English rock & roll bands could earn a decent living -- Gus Backus was virtually the flesh-and-blood embodiment of American rock & roll. Along with skiffle star Johnny Duncan, Gus Backus is one of those odd American music stars who found their stardom far from home. Home for Donald "Gus" Backus was the village of Southampton on Long Island, in New York, where he was born on September 12, 1937. He had a fairly typical childhood growing up during and after World War II. Like millions of other young Americans of the period, he discovered rhythm & blues and rock & roll during his teens as it got onto the radio. He started writing and playing his own music, under the influence of Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. The idea of a career in rock & roll was in his mind, but he had an obligation to fulfill first, to the United States government. Backus was drafted into the United States Air Force in 1956, and was stationed in Pittsburgh, PA. While stationed there, he briefly passed through the lineup of the Del-Vikings before he was transferred to Germany. He never lost his interest in rock & roll, and in 1958, while home on leave, he cut a single, "My Chick Is Fine" b/w "You Can't Go It Alone," both songs that he wrote or co-wrote, for the Carlton Records label. "My Chick Is Fine" is one of the great lost classics of rockabilly, a driving, raunchy, hard-rocking tribute to an idealized object of teenage lust that should have been a signature of the era -- it would be worth knowing who played in the band backing Backus, just to figure out if they ever got to do any more sides like it for anyone else. "You Can't Go It Alone" is a ballad in a distinctly romantic, doo wop style that might've passed muster on one of Dion's solo albums, with a gorgeous chorus and a haunting melody. The single failed to chart, and Backus returned to Weisbaden to finish out his tour of duty. He was still in uniform when he founded a singing group called the Vidells, who found some limited popularity among military audiences, but weren't permitted to perform off of their base. Backus left the group behind but remained in Germany, where he married and settled down. Backus got an offer of a chance to record from Polydor Records and made his debut for the label during the early summer of 1959 with German-language versions of Lloyd Price's "Have You Ever Had the Blues" and the Elvis Presley hit "A Fool Such as I." Neither of these sides was a success, In July 1960, he suddenly struck a chord with German audiences with a short string of huge German-language hits -- the single "Brauner Bar und Weisse Taube" was Backus' breakthrough hit, and he followed it up with two more singles, "Da Sprach der Alte Hauptling" and "Der Mann im Mond." Unfortunately, what passed for rock & roll in Germany in those days wasn't too different in character or quality from the brand of teen pop that Americans endured in the late '50s. Backus' voice was fine, and he might've been a slightly heavier competitor to Ricky Nelson, but his records, apart from the presence of an electric rhythm guitar or bass here and there, were mostly lightly orchestrated pop that happened to be sung by a younger man. "Queen of the Stars," the English-language version of "Der Mann im Mond" (i.e. "The Man in the Moon"), is a pleasantly catchy singalong number that might've been a great Spotniks vocal number, while "Listen" could've been a good post-1961-vintage Everly Brothers-style harmony number. In 1961, Backus released his first English-language single in Germany, "Priscilla," which had been a hit for Eddie Cooley five years before. It failed to chart as highly as his previous singles. Backus remained a huge recording star in Germany and was sufficiently well-known to be a presence in central Europe. By 1962, almost as a reflection of the peculiarly international nature of Backus' life and work, he began pursuing international audiences, with records such as "Happy End in Switzerland" and "Vaya con Dios." He cut records in New York and in Nashville and was making solid rock & roll-style music, doing songs by John D. Loudermilk ("Short on Love"), Boudleaux Bryant ("Big Willie Broke Jail Tonight"), and Mort Shuman ("Turn Around"), which were released in Germany. He remained a pop music phenomenon in Germany for most of the '60s. Backus did embrace the changes taking place in rock music in England and America, cutting sides that were pretty credible British Invasion-era rock & roll, some pop psychedelia, and even some folk-rock-inspired work, along with a few songs ("Touch on Your Heart" that might've given Gary Lewis & the Playboys a run for their money. Backus ceased recording in English after 1967, but has continued as a European star and a vocalist of popularity in Germany, akin to the level enjoyed by Cliff Richard in England. He left behind enough singles to fill three CDs without overlap, in idioms ranging from hardcore rockabilly and mainstream rock & roll to hillbilly-style pop/rock, to brassy big-band-type pop/rock and early Euro-pop.- Rajkumar Barjatya was a producer, known for Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Vivah (2006) and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015). He died on 21 February 2019 in Mumbai.
- Ben Hecker was born on 30 August 1948 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was an actor, known for Collide (2016), Band of Brothers (2001) and Frühlingsfluten (1974). He died on 21 February 2019.
- Edward Enfield started a new career in radio in 1994, presenting a travel programme from Ireland and an edition of Dear Diary, dealing with 19th Century travellers to Greece. He then co-presented four series of Double Vision jointly with Miles Kington. Since then he has presented Free Spirits, and the last of the Down Your Way series entitled First Prize A Cabbage. His most recent radio series was Enfield Pedals After Byron, in which he cycled in Greece on the track of the poet.
On television he has appeared regularly with Anne Robinson on Watchdog (1985) and Weekend Watchdog and co-presented two series of Oldie TV with Mavis Nicholson and Richard Ingrams. He has presented Points Of View and a large number of BBC Holiday programmes.
He has also presented for the Open University, The Heaven and Earth Show (1998), and most recently for BBC1's 4X4 programme, as well as appearing on Through The Keyhole, reporting on the Cat Show and appearing in several magazine programmes such as The Vanessa Show, The Club, Food & Drink, House Style and Richard And Judy.
Edward also writes a regular column in the Oldie magazine, and he has contributed to several national publications including The Express, Mail, Evening Standard, Telegraph, Guardian, Sunday Telegraph and Radio Times. - Soundtrack
Jackie Shane was born on 15 May 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She died on 21 February 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Enzo Di Benedetto was an actor, known for Toxic Love (1983). He died on 21 February 2019.
- John Corina was born on 13 June 1960 in San Bernardino County, California, USA. He died on 21 February 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Matrena Kornilova was born on 24 March 1962 in Yakutsk, USSR. She was an actress, known for Belyy yagel (2014) and Spirit of Itchi (2020). She died on 21 February 2019.
- Paolo Brera was born on 16 September 1949 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He died on 21 February 2019 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.
- Éva Fésüs was born on 14 May 1926 in Cegléd, Hungary. She was a writer, known for Csaló az üveghegyen (1977), Nyúl a cilinderben (1983) and A palacsintás király (1973). She died on 21 February 2019 in Kaposvár, Hungary.
- Soundtrack
Sequeira Costa was born on 18 July 1929 in Luanda, Angola. He died on 21 February 2019 in Olathe, Kansas, USA.- Hilde Zadek was born on 15 December 1917 in Bromberg, Posen, Germany [now Bydgoszcz, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Großstadtnacht (1950), Unsterblicher Mozart (1954) and Was wurde aus...? (2011). She died on 21 February 2019 in Karlsruhe, Germany.
- Art Department
Bradley McFadden was born on 17 May 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Bradley is known for 20th Century Women (2016). Bradley died on 21 February 2019 in Altadena, California, USA.- Lisa Jarmon was born on 15 August 1962 in the USA. She died on 21 February 2019 in Houston, Texas, USA.
- Nick Cafardo was born on 8 May 1956 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA. He was married to Leanne Mary Wood. He died on 21 February 2019 in Fort Myers, Florida, USA.
- Alan Weisman was born on 4 August 1950 in the USA. Alan was a producer and writer, known for Sports Illustrated: 1995 the Year in Sports (1995), Sports Illustrated: 1994 the Year in Sports (1994) and 60 Minutes Sports (2013). Alan died on 21 February 2019 in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA.
- Darya Yegorycheva was born on 13 May 1981 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was an actress, known for Tyomnaya noch (2004), Moya granitsa (2002) and Glukhar (2008). She died on 21 February 2019 in Moscow, Russia.
- Jean-Christophe Benoît was born on 18 March 1925 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Aimer, rire et chanter: Jacques Offenbach (1957), L'étoile (1969) and Le Médecin malgré lui (1960). He was married to Rolande Rousse. He died on 21 February 2019 in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
- Elizeus Bán was born on 3 April 1931 in Kaposvár, Hungary. He died on 21 February 2019 in Zirc, Hungary.