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1-50 of 611
- Actress
- Producer
Best known as "Lacey Underall" in Caddyshack (1980), and "Yori" in Tron (1982), Cindy Morgan was born Cynthia Ann Cichorski on September 29, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois, not far from Wrigley Field. The daughter of a Polish factory worker and a German mother, Cindy attended 12 years of Catholic school and was the first in her family to attend college.
While studying communications at Northern Illinois University, Cindy spun records on the radio. A commercial station in town wanted her to report the news for them as well, so a slight deception was needed. She used the name Cindy Morgan, taken from a story she read about Morgan le Fay when she was 12 years old.
After graduation, Cindy gave all the latest meteorological news on a TV station in Rockford, Ill. She also kept her hand in radio by working the graveyard shift at a local rock station. Then she returned to Chicago and deejayed on WSDM (now WLUP). During a labor dispute at the station, she literally quit on the air and walked out with a record still spinning on the turntable.
Cindy found employment at auto shows for Fiat, which took her to both coasts. She moved to Los Angeles in 1978 and became the Irish Spring girl. While she did TV commercials, she studied acting, and was rewarded with her first screen role in "Caddyshack", playing the role of "Lacey Underall", an over-amorous ingénue.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles Richard Moll was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Aristotle Nostradamus "Bull" Shannon, the bailiff on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1984 to 1992. He has also done extensive work as a voice actor, typically using his deep voice to portray villainous characters in animation and video games, most notably the voice of Two-Face in Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Moll passed away on October 26, 2023 at the age of 80.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lola Jean Albright was born on July 20, 1924 in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of John Paul Albright and Marion Harvey, both of whom were gospel singers. She worked as a model before moving to Hollywood in the mid-1940s, studied piano for 20 years and worked as a receptionist at radio station WAKR in Akron. Considered one of the most stylish, sultriest and beautiful actresses in Hollywood, with one of the throatiest, smokiest and most distinctive voices in the business, she starred with Kirk Douglas in the film noir Champion (1949). From 1958 to 1961, she played sultry nightclub singer Edie Hart on the popular television series Peter Gunn (1958).
She also made guest appearances on the television series Gunsmoke (1955), Bonanza (1959), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She played Constance McKenzie on the night-time soap opera Peyton Place (1964) after Dorothy Malone became sick and could no longer play the role. She received critical acclaim for her performances in A Cold Wind in August (1961), Joy House (1964) and How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967). Retired from acting, Lola Albright died at age 92 on March 23, 2017 in Toluca Lake, California.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Born in the Bronx, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents (Isidor "Ira" and Rita Blucher Miller), Richard Miller served in the U.S. Navy for a few years and earned a prize title as a middleweight boxer. He settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, where he was noticed by producer/director Roger Corman, who cast him in most of his low-budget films, often as dislikeable sorts, such as a vacuum-cleaner salesman in Not of This Earth (1957). His most memorable role would have to be that of the mentally unstable, busboy/beatnik artist Walter Paisley, whose clay sculptures are suspiciously lifelike in A Bucket of Blood (1959) (a rare starring role for him), and he is also fondly remembered for his supporting role as the flower-eating Vurson Fouch in Corman's legendary The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
Miller spent the next 20 years working in Corman productions, and starting in the late 1970s was often cast in films by director Joe Dante, appearing in credited and uncredited walk-on bits as quirky chatterboxes, and stole every scene he appeared in. He has played many variations on his famous Walter Paisley role, such as a diner owner (Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)) or a janitor (Chopping Mall (1986)). One of his best bits is the funny occult-bookshop owner in The Howling (1981). Being short (so he never played a romantic lead or a threatening villain) with wavy hair, long sideburns, a pointed nose and a face as trustworthy as a used-car dealer's, he was, and is to this day, an immediately recognizable character actor whose one-scene appearances in countless movies and TV shows guarantee audience applause.- Born in Birmingham, England, Hazel Court carried on a love affair with the world of movies and make-believe that made her a leading student at her hometown's School of Drama and later helped her land a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Graduating from bits to supporting roles to leads, Court worked in English films from the mid-'40s until the early 1960s, when she relocated to Hollywood. The flame-haired Court was married to Irish actor Dermot Walsh before she married American actor-director Don Taylor.
- Character actor John Davis Chandler was born on January 28, 1935, in Hinton, West Virginia. He was raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Tall and thin, with fair hair, piercing blue eyes, a pale complexion and a nasal, whiny voice, Chandler specialized in portraying mean, neurotic and dangerous villains. He made an impressive film debut in his sole starring part as the titular sniveling, psychotic, homicidal weasel gangster in Mad Dog Coll (1961). He acted in a trio of Westerns for director Sam Peckinpah, and is especially memorable (and frightening) as the creepy Jimmy Hammond in the magnificent Ride the High Country (1962). He was excellent as vicious punk Arthur Reardon in The Young Savages (1961). He made an effectively loathsome appearance as a vile bushwhacker in the supremely spooky horror-western The Shadow of Chikara (1977) and had a nice bit as a bounty hunter in Clint Eastwood's terrific The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). He even played a good guy--of sorts--in Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965).
Chandler popped up in three entertaining drive-in exploitation features for director William Grefé: at his wacky best as the crazed, doped-up Acid in The Hooked Generation (1968), a foul shark poacher in the fun Jaws (1975) copy Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) and an evil pot farmer in Whiskey Mountain (1977). Among the many TV shows John did guest spots on are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Chicago Hope (1994) ER (1994), Simon & Simon (1981), Hunter (1984), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Hill Street Blues (1981), T.J. Hooker (1982), Fantasy Island (1977), The Incredible Hulk (1978), Police Woman (1974), Gunsmoke (1955), Adam-12 (1968), The Fugitive (1963), Combat! (1962), The Rifleman (1958), Route 66 (1960) and The Virginian (1962). In real life he was an avid practitioner of yoga. Chandler died at age 75 on February 16, 2010 in Toluca Lake, California. - Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents to the USA in 1908. After some years onstage as a dancer and comedian, he made his first film appearance in The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) singing "Thanks for the Memory", which became his signature tune.
In partnership with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, he appeared in the highly successful "Road to ..." comedies (1940-52), and in many others until the early 1970s. During World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars he spent much time entertaining the troops in the field. For these activities and for his continued contributions to the industry he received five honorary Academy Awards.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Robert Easton was born on 23 November 1930 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Working Girl (1988) and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975). He was married to June Bettine Grimstead. He died on 16 December 2011 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Superbly talented vocal artist and character actor supreme Robert Ridgely was born on December 24, 1931 under the name of Robert Ritterbush in New Jersey. Ridgely started out as a cabaret entertainer. In the late 1950s, he recorded 45 RPM singles for Decca Records under the name of Bob Ritterbush and as Bob Ritterbusch and Robert Ridgley after changing his name to the latter. He began his television acting career in the early 60s with guest appearances on such TV shows as Surfside 6 (1960), Sea Hunt (1958), and Maverick (1957). Ridgely had a recurring role as Lt. Frank Kimbro on the short-lived World War II TV series The Gallant Men (1962). Robert made his film debut in the 1963 feature FBI Code 98 (1963). Ridgely was occasionally cast as sleazy charmers such as unctuous emcees and announcers. Robert popped up in four comedies for Mel Brooks: Blazing Saddles (1974), High Anxiety (1977), Life Stinks (1991), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Moreover, Ridgely was in several pictures for director Jonathan Demme; he's especially memorable (and delightful) as smarmy game show host Wally "Mr. Love" Williams in the wonderful Melvin and Howard (1980). Other noteworthy movie roles are boozy, moonshine-running airplane pilot Lester Boggs in the rowdy redneck romp The Great Lester Boggs (1974), radio talk show host Bob Morton in Heart Like a Wheel (1983), and Los Angeles Mayor Ted Egan in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). Robert lent his strong, smooth, booming voice to countless animated TV programs and cartoon features; the characters he voiced include Tarzan in Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976), Flash Gordon in Flash Gordon (1979), the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak in the The World of Strawberry Shortcake (1980) and TV specials, and Thundarr in Thundarr the Barbarian (1980). Among the TV shows Ridgely had guest spots on are Designing Women (1986), Newhart (1982), Night Court (1984), Hunter (1984), The Incredible Hulk (1978), WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), Kung Fu (1972), _Bonanza_, and Get Smart (1965). In addition, he did voice-over work for numerous TV commercials. Robert gave a terrifically robust and engaging performance as jolly porno producer the Colonel James in the fantastic Boogie Nights (1997), which alas turned out to be his last movie and a worthy closer to his long and distinguished career. Robert Ridgely died at age 65 from cancer on February 8, 1997 in Toluca Lake, California.- Actor
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lean-faced, intense-looking, German-born, Canada-raised Paul Koslo was at his busiest during the 1970s, usually playing shifty, untrustworthy and often downright nasty characters. He first broke into films at age 22 in the low-budget Little White Crimes (1966), and then appeared in a rush of movies taking advantage of his youthful looks, including cult favorites Vanishing Point (1971) and The Omega Man (1971), and the western Joe Kidd (1972), martial arts blaxploitation flick Cleopatra Jones (1973) and crime thriller The Stone Killer (1973). After working alongside such stars as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Walter Matthau and Charles Bronson, Koslo's career drifted towards television, and in the 1980s he regularly guest-starred on such TV series as The Incredible Hulk (1978), The A-Team (1983), Matlock (1986), MacGyver (1985) and The Fall Guy (1981). Unfortunately, most of his film work in the 1990s and beyond was "straight-to-video" fare, such as Chained Heat 2 (1993) and Inferno (1999). Koslo is well remembered by many as smart-mouthed small-time hood Bobby Kopas, trying to shake down melon grower Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk (1974).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Hayden Rorke was best known as the ever suspicious "Dr. Alfred E. Bellows" on the 1960s TV series, I Dream of Jeannie (1965). Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rorke was educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he began his stage career in the 1930s with the Hampden Theatrical Company. A veteran of numerous Broadway shows, he made his film debut in the musical, This Is the Army (1943), while in the service during World War II. His films included: An American in Paris (1951), Pillow Talk (1959) and When Worlds Collide (1951). A familiar face on TV during the 1950s, Rorke appeared on numerous shows including: The Twilight Zone (1959), Perry Mason (1957), Broken Arrow (1956) and Cheyenne (1955). His final appearance was reprising the role of "Dr. Bellows" in the TV movie: I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later (1985).- Actress
- Soundtrack
A performer since childhood (she was widely known then as "Cuddles"), pert and pretty, raven-haired Lila Lee was brought to Hollywood by Paramount mogul Jesse L. Lasky and debuted in a starring role with The Cruise of the Make-Believes (1918) as a poor girl supported by a rich admirer. Following her appearance as a servant wench in Cecil B. DeMille's Male and Female (1919), Paramount starting grooming her to eventually supplant the highly temperamental and troublesome Gloria Swanson. Lila's talent, however, was lighter in weight and, though she enjoyed great popularity in such films as Blood and Sand (1922) with Rudolph Valentino, Another Man's Wife (1924), The Midnight Girl (1925), Love, Live and Laugh (1929) co-starring George Jessel and The Unholy Three (1930) opposite Lon Chaney, Swanson had little to worry about. A series of bad judgments and highly publicized bouts with illness led to Lila's swift decline. She made a few dismal comebacks on stage and in TV soaps in the 1950s but to little fanfare. Her last picture was as a hayseed mom in the deservedly obscure Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967). Her actor-turned-writer son James Kirkwood Jr., however, earned fame on his own for penning the play "P.S. Your Cat Is Dead" and the musical "A Chorus Line." Lila died of a stroke in 1973.- Actor
- Composer
- Writer
Sonny Bono was born on 16 February 1935 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Sonny and Cher Show (1976), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Hairspray (1988). He was married to Mary Bono, Susie Coelho, Cher and Donna Rankin. He died on 5 January 1998 in South Lake Tahoe, California, USA.- Michael Nader was born on 19 February 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Dynasty (1981), Pajama Party (1964) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965). He was married to Jody Lister, Beth Windsor and Robin Weiss. He died on 23 August 2021 in Lake Tahoe, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Jon Pertwee is best known for his portrayal of the Third Doctor on the BBC's science-fiction television series Doctor Who (1963) from 1970 to 1974. He was also the first to play the role following the transition of BBC One from black and white to colour. His 60-year entertainment career included work in radio, films and cabaret. This was despite the inauspicious beginning of having been thrown out of drama school as a young man and told he had no future as an actor.
Jon Pertwee was born John (after the apostle and disciple) Devon (after the county) Roland (after his father) Pertwee (an Anglicised version of the true family name, Perthuis de Laillevault) on 7 July 1919 in the Chelsea area of London. He was the second son of famous playwright, painter and actor Roland Pertwee, and his actress wife Avice - his writer brother Michael Pertwee being three years his senior. The Pertwee family had a long connection with show business and the performing arts, and it was at Wellington House preparatory school in Westgate-On-Sea in Kent that Jon, as a small and rebellious child, was encouraged in that direction. Later, at Frensham Heights co-educational school, Jon had his first taste of "real" theatre with real women in the school stage productions of "Twelfth Night" and "Lady Princess Stream". In 1936 he auditioned for, and was accepted by, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He was later kicked out for refusing to play the part of the wind in a play.
Jon Pertwee died on 20 May 1996 of a heart attack. The BBC announced his death. He was survived by his wife Ingeborg Rhoesa, his son Sean Pertwee, a popular and talented actor, and his daughter Dariel Pertwee, an accomplished stage actress.- Actor
- Producer
Joe Lara was born in San Diego, California. He was cast to play "Tarzan" in "Tarzan: The Epic Adventures" in the early 1990s. He worked in many countries, including South Africa, Bulgaria, and Russia. He co starred in many film to video projects that were filmed in Bulgaria, Russia, and Africa. He was the longtime partner and fiancé of actress Natasha Pavlovich. They had a child together.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Michelle Nicastro was born on 31 March 1960 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for The Swan Princess (1994), When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986). She was married to Steve Stark. She died on 4 November 2010 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Transportation Department
- Location Management
Melanie Olmstead was born on 15 November 1968. Melanie is known for John Carter (2012), Point Break (2015) and Hereditary (2018). Melanie died on 25 May 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.- Katherine Squire was born on 9 March 1903 in Defiance, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for When Harry Met Sally... (1989), The Story on Page One (1959) and Studs Lonigan (1960). She was married to George Mitchell and Byron McGrath. She died on 29 March 1995 in Lake Hill, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Casting Director
- Casting Department
Peggy Rea was born on 31 March 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress and casting director, known for Grace Under Fire (1993), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and Love Field (1992). She died on 5 February 2011 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.- Actress
- Producer
Kim Porter is from Columbus, Georgia. She started out as a blushing model from the small town area. After her graduation from Columbus High School in 1988, she moved to Atlanta to pursue a bigger dream. She was in a relationship with singer Al B. Sure! and in 1991, they had a son Quincy Brown who was named after Al B. Sure's mentor, musician Quincy Jones. In 1994 she began a relationship with Sean 'Diddy' Combs. He adopted and raised Quincy and the couple also has a son, Christian Casey Combs, and twin daughters D'Lila Star and Jessie James Combs.- Sharon Elizabeth Hugueny was a leap-year baby, born on February 29, 1944, in Los Angeles, California. She was an intelligent, introspective, and sensitive child who preferred serious reading, writing, and music to the "more frivolous" interests of her peers. Sharon's parents - a World War II Navy veteran and his wife were loving, but notoriously strict with their three children (Sharon, a younger brother born in 1950, and a sister born in 1957). Any boy interested in dating teen-aged Sharon was reportedly required to pass two interviews plus a car inspection, before being allowed to take her out. However, when Warner Brothers' famous talent-scout, Solly Biano, spotted Sharon in a theatrical production of "Blue Denim" when she was fifteen, her parents did allow her to meet producer/director Delmer Daves and to accept the contract offered to her by Mr. Jack L. Warner. Sharon signed that seven-year contract on her 16th birthday. Under Warner's personal guidance, she quickly began a performing guest-star on appearances in all of Warners' television programs, such as Lawman (1958), and Maverick (1957), where she received her first on-screen kiss from star Roger Moore (and off-screen kisses from Peter Brown of "Lawman", and The Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1975)'s Robert Logan}.
While filming Parrish (1961) in 1961, actor (later, producer-and-president of Paramount) Mr. Robert Evans visited her set and was immediately bedazzled by breathtaking Sharon, whose dark beauty earned frequent comparisons by Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons to Elizabeth Taylor. Evans' feeling for Sharon was reciprocated; and so, seventeen-year-old Sharon began dating the thirty-one-year-old Evans, much to the dismay of her parents, friends, and studio. Within weeks, the two became engaged and then, on May 28, 1961, married. Unfortunately, their union was doomed from the start. Sharon was, by all accounts, extremely mature for her age; yet Evans seemed to regard her as a child, not as a wife. Their relationship deteriorated. At one time, Mr. Evans abandoned California for his clothing business, "Evan Picone", located in New York, which effectively broke her motion picture and television contract with Warner Bros. This uprooting had taken Sharon thousands of miles from her family, work, and friends; furthermore, Warner Brothers placed her on suspension. (Evans later said that "taking Sharon to New York was like forcing a Persian cat into the Amazon"). In Mexico, less than six months after they married, he arranged for a quick, no alimony, divorce, which confused his naive wife.
Sharon's career, unfortunately, never recovered. She would become one of many fine actresses of the 1960s who possessed great beauty and tremendous talent but were not provided with good-quality material to showcase their assets. From 1965 to the mid-1970s, Sharon virtually disappeared from public view, other than for a number of television guest-starring spots, such as Mannix (1967).
There followed a marriage to photographer Raymond Ross in 1968, a child, and a divorce in 1974. By 1976, she was under new management and married to Gordon Cornell Layne, founder of "Mid-America Pictures".
Sharon was en route to ABC to sign two contracts when a new tragedy intervened: Sharon was struck by a speeding police car, doing 90 mph in pursuit of a fleeing drug addict. Not only did this end Sharon's career, it very nearly ended her life. Still seeking recovery, she and Mr. Layne left Santa Monica for Lake Arrowhead, in 1987. After nineteen years under Gordon's personal around-the-clock care, on July 3, 1996, Sharon Elizabeth Hugueny Layne died at home, from misdiagnosed cancer. The "Sharon Elizabeth Hugueny Performance Arts Scholarship" has been projected to honor her memory. - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Appeared on the Andy Griffith show after Don Knotts departed. He played a bumbling deputy in the tradition of Barney Fife. After his partnership with George Carlin ended, he teamed with Avery Schreiber after meeting at Chicago's Second City comedy club. Jack appeared on Saturday Night Live In 1977 and turned to writing In in the 1980's.- Angela Stevens was born on 8 May 1925 in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), Outlaw Women (1952) and Blunder Boys (1955). She was married to George F. Zika. She died on 17 March 2016 in Canyon Lake, Riverside County, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Lawrence Dane was an exceptionally fine, versatile, and shamefully underrated Canadian character actor who was equally adept at both comedy and drama alike. Tall and lean, with silver gray hair, a gaunt face, and a distinguished air about him, Dane was often cast as smooth business executives, physicians, police officers, and stern authority figures. Born on April 3, 1937 in Masson, Quebec, Lawrence grew up in Ottawa and initially took acting lessons in order to overcome shyness. Dane first started acting on stage in the late 1950's. He soon amassed a substantial volume of film and TV show credits. Lawrence gave an especially terrific performance as one of five doctors who find themselves being terrorized by vicious vengeful hillbillies when they go camping in the remote Canadian wilderness in the harrowing Deliverance (1972) variant Rituals (1977); the multi-talented Dane also produced this gritty and suspenseful cult favorite thriller. Other notable roles Dane has played are Michael Ironside's evil business partner in David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981), Melissa Sue Anderson's father in the superior slasher item Happy Birthday to Me (1981), and Peter Weller's tough, but fair boss in the excellent killer rat knockout Of Unknown Origin (1983). Moreover, Dane displayed a delightful flair for comedy in the amusing features It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975) and Find the Lady (1976), in which he was nicely paired with a then-unknown John Candy. Lawrence continued to act in both TV shows and movies with pleasing regularity well into his 70's. He died at age 84 at his home in Ontario, Canada from pancreatic cancer on March 21, 2022.- Writer
- Actor
Martin Amis was born on 25 August 1949 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for The Zone of Interest (2023), London Fields (2018) and Saturn 3 (1980). He was married to Isabel Fonseca and Antonia Phillips. He died on 19 May 2023 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.- Barry Brown was born on 19 April 1951 in San Jose, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Bad Company (1972), Piranha (1978) and Daisy Miller (1974). He died on 27 June 1978 in Silver Lake, California, USA.
- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Writer
Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Dolores Hope was born on 27 May 1909 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Soup for Nuts (1934), There Were Times, Dear (1985) and The Christophers (1952). She was married to Bob Hope. She died on 19 September 2011 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Sailor Vincent was born on 24 October 1901 in Dracut, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Man I Love (1929), Woman Trap (1929) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He died on 12 July 1966 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Born Noble LaPorte Chisman to Thomas F and Cora Esther (LaPorte) Chisman of Indianapolis, he eventually adopted the screen name Kid Chissel. He left his Indiana home in the mid-1930's, not long after his parents had divorced. He aimed to pursue a Hollywood career. Prior to that, he worked as a locomotive fireman in Indianapolis (1930 U.S. Census). His father worked the railroad yards in Indianapolis, and at the time of Noble's birth, resided at 3018 East New York Street (1910 U.S. Census).- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Ritchie, the 'California Kid' was from a family of poverty stricken fruit pickers and was the first rock star to originate from the West Coast and one of the innovators of 'Latino rock. In an eight month career he scored three hits with 'Come On Let's Go', 'Donna' and 'La Bamba' before being killed in an air crash on February 3rd 1959 which also took the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.. He was just 17. Associate producer Daniel Valdez spent 2 1/2 years searching for Ritchie's family then discovered them living just 15 minutes from where he lived. He then spent months learning all about Ritchie before writing a script which he gave to the family for their approval and with it filming went ahead. The part of Ritchie went to the then 25 year old unknown Lou Diamond Phillips who put on 15lbs to get a chubbier face and learned how to sing and play the guitar after he'd past the audition. During the filming Lou married his own 'Donna' Julie Cyphers who was a production assistant on 'La Bamba'.- Boyish Lon McCallister started his career as a teenage bit actor in such wholesome, folksy tales as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and Judge Hardy's Children (1938). As an adult, he found the strength of his career riding on that same homespun sentiment.
Lon McCallister was born Herbert Alonzo McCallister, Jr. in Los Angeles on April 17, 1923, but was almost immediately called "Buddy" to those closest to him. He attended high school at Marken Professional School, a training ground for Hollywood hopefuls, and eventually managed to secure unbilled parts, starting with the plush Norma Shearer-Leslie Howard film vehicle Romeo and Juliet (1936).
Lon became close friends with the film's director, George Cukor, and attributed his biggest break to Cukor when he earned a supporting role as a pilot in Winged Victory (1944) after toiling in obscurity for nearly six years. Lon also stood out in the film Stage Door Canteen (1943), as the unassuming soldier who falls for canteen hostess Marjorie Riordan, and in the warm and winning horse-racing tale Home in Indiana (1944), opposite rising star Jeanne Crain.
Lon's WWII induction into the Army put a direct hit on his career momentum, but he managed to recover and pick up where he left off. For starters, Lon won a solid role in the melodramatic thriller The Red House (1947), starring Edward G. Robinson and Judith Anderson. The film also co-starred Allene Roberts, who became a lifelong friend.
Although he starred in the down-home comedy romance Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948), along with June Haver, the movie is barely remembered today except for featuring an unbilled Marilyn Monroe rowing a canoe. Lead roles for Lon in the serviceable adventures The Story of Seabiscuit (1949) with Shirley Temple, The Big Cat (1949), The Boy from Indiana (1950) and Montana Territory (1952) also came and went.
Lon ended his film career with the "B" Korean War drama Combat Squad (1953). Some reports state he lost interest and sought satisfaction elsewhere; others claim that his perennially boyish good looks and diminutive stature hurt his adult career (although it did not seem to hurt the equally short and youthful-looking Alan Ladd). In any event, Lon quit the business in the late 1950s and pursued lucrative ventures in real estate and property investment.
Never married, Lon had an off-and-on romantic relationship with fellow actor William Eythe until Eythe's untimely death in 1957. Having been in declining health for some time, he was living in the Lake Tahoe area, where he had recently bought some property, when he died on June 11, 2005, of congestive heart failure. The 82-year-old McCallister was survived by his brother Lynn and sister Kathleen. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
For more than three decades, Henry King was the most versatile and reliable (not to mention hard-working) contract director on the 20th Century-Fox lot. His tenure lasted from 1930 to 1961, spanning most of Hollywood's "golden" era. King was renowned as a specialist in literary adaptations (A Bell for Adano (1945), The Sun Also Rises (1957)) and for his nostalgic depictions of rural or small-town America (Margie (1946)). Much of his work was characterized by an uncomplicated approach and a vivid visual style rather than cinematic tricks or technical individuality. For the most part it was his meticulous attention to detail, and his reliance on superior plots and good acting, that got the job done. King was, above all, an astute judge of talent. He introduced Ronald Colman to American audiences in The White Sister (1923), drawing a mustache on the actor's clean-shaven face with a retouching pencil--the real thing later becoming a Colman trademark. King discovered Gary Cooper and cast him in a leading dramatic role in his outdoor western The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), over the initial objections of producer Samuel Goldwyn who thought Coop was just another "damn cowboy". Goldwyn quickly changed his mind after seeing the rushes. Other King discoveries included the lovely Jean Peters (in Captain from Castile (1947)) and Tyrone Power, whom he actively promoted to the point of badgering studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck to star him in Lloyd's of London (1936). Power subsequently became one of Fox's most popular stars.
All in all, not bad for a guy who had left school at 15 to work for the Norfolk & Western Railroad. After enduring the machine shops for a few years, King found more suitable employment as an apprentice actor with the touring Empire Stock Company, where he often performed song-and-dance routines in blackface. During his travels he befriended comedy actress Pearl White. While accompanying her on a visit to the Lubin film studio in Philadelphia in 1913, he was somehow talked into trying out as an actor. Before long King found himself cast as assorted western villains in scores of one-reelers. Moving to California the following year, he graduated to romantic leads in full-length feature films with the Balboa Amusement Company, often co-starring opposite popular child actress Marie Osborne. King's directing career began in 1915 and gathered momentum after he joined The American Film Manufacturing Company, and, subsequently, Thomas H. Ince. His first success was the army comedy 23 1/2 Hours' Leave (1919). By 1921 King fronted his own production company, Inspiration Pictures, releasing through First National. The rustic southern drama Tol'able David (1921) was his next critically acclaimed picture, but not until joining Goldwyn at United Artists (1925-30) did he manage to turn out a consistent string of hits, including The White Sister (1923) and Romola (1924)--both shot on location in Italy--and the archetypal tearjerker Stella Dallas (1925). For King, the transition to sound pictures was a mere formality.
In 1930 King qualified for his pilot's license and began busily scouting locations from the air, earning him the sobriquet "The Flying Director". When not airborne or on the golf course (his other passion), he demonstrated his amazing versatility with box-office hits across a wide variety of genres: striking and colorful swashbucklers (The Black Swan (1942)); romantic or religious melodramas--their sentimentality well-tempered so they never seemed maudlin--such as (The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)); epics (In Old Chicago (1938), with its splendid recreation of the 1871 great fire, the entire enterprise filmed at a staggering cost of $1.8 million); popular musicals (Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Carousel (1956)); psychological war drama (Twelve O'Clock High (1949)); and uncompromisingly tough, offbeat westerns (The Gunfighter (1950) and the underrated The Bravados (1958)). The latter three all starred King's preferred leading actor, Gregory Peck. Peck was also on hand for The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), reputedly Ernest Hemingway's favorite among all his filmed adaptations. Of course, King also had his occasional failures. Topping that list was Zanuck's pet project, the biopic Wilson (1944). Overly serious to the point of being dour, its pacifist message was lost to an audience in the middle of a world war. King's other notable dud, near the end of his career, was Beloved Infidel (1959). Badly miscast, the film chronicling the affair between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham was played out, inaccurately, as a genteel and overly glossy romance.
Though nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director, King failed to snag the coveted trophy. However, he did win a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America in 1956. More importantly, perhaps, he seems to have enjoyed his work, stating in a 1978 interview, "I've had more fun directing pictures than most people have playing games" (New York Times, July 1 1982).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gil Stratton was originally billed as Gil Stratton, Jr. He had a young, wholesome juvenile look when, at the age of 19, he debuted on Broadway creating the role of Bud Hooper in the 1941 Broadway musical "Best Foot Forward", in which he sang and danced.
Stratton continued working in New York on stage and in radio, which got him his first featured film role with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in Girl Crazy (1943). More films roles soon followed, usually playing himself in such movies as Dangerous Years (1947) and Half Past Midnight (1948). In Stalag 17 (1953) he made a noteworthy impression as "Cookie", the stuttering narrator. His small physical stature landed him the part of "Mousie", a smaller member of Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang in The Wild One (1953).
He next played "Junior Jackson" in the 1954 sitcom That's My Boy (1954), which got the attention of management at the local Los Angeles CBS affiliate KNXT, and they offered him regular work as the daily sportscaster. That job wound up lasting more that 20 years and garnered him the reputation as one of the best sportscasters in the business.
Being in Los Angeles also afforded Stratton the opportunity to continue work in films, often playing himself as an announcer, most notably in Mae West's last film, Sextette (1977). Although officially retired and living in Hawaii (where he moved in 1984), Stratton still occasionally keeps his hand in the film and TV business, such as his role as a café manager in the not particularly well received Dismembered (2003). He maintains a home in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles, but spends most of his time in Hawaii, where he also owns a radio station.- Edward Woods was born on 5 July 1903 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Public Enemy (1931), Marriage on Approval (1933) and Hot Saturday (1932). He was married to Gabrielle Margery Morris. He died on 8 October 1989 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Stan Haze was born on 23 October 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Tina and the Professor (1994), House Party (1990) and Don't Answer the Phone! (1980). He died on 8 May 1999 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.- Patricia Gage was born on 3 March 1940 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She was an actress, known for American Psycho (2000), Highlander: The Raven (1998) and Secret Service (1992). She was married to Paxton Whitehead. She died on 31 January 2010 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
- Adam Leadbeater was born on 5 September 1968 in the USA. He was an actor, known for True Blood (2008), Days of Our Lives (1965) and Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire (2015). He died on 19 November 2020 in Lake City, Florida, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Mary Dees was born on 3 June 1911 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Cornelius William Foster. She died on 4 August 2004 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Writer
Warren Parker was born on 25 February 1904 in Alton, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Lights Out (1946), The Power of the Resurrection (1958) and The Third Man (1959). He was married to Mary Patton. He died on 31 July 1976 in Union Lake, Michigan, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Eleanor Mondale was born on 19 January 1960 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for Drop Dead Fred (1991), Ground Control (1998) and 240-Robert (1979). She was married to Chan Poling, Gregory Scott Malban and Keith Van Horne. She died on 17 September 2011 in Prior Lake, Minnesota, USA.- Nancy Hughes was born on 22 April 1951 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Nancy was married to John Hughes. Nancy died on 15 September 2019 in Lake Forest, Illinois, USA.
- Actress
- Music Department
- Composer
Known for her astonishing 4 1/2 octave vocal range, Yma Sumac (AKA Ima or Imma Sumack) is from Ichocán, Peru, a town high in the Andes. From an early age she performed in radio and movies and made recordings throughout South America. She came to the United States in the 1940s and performed with a small group of musicians and dancers. When she signed with Capitol Records in 1950 her stage name's spelling was changed to the more exotic "Yma Sumac." An urban legend that she is really "Amy Camus," a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn, originated in 1951 with a joke among musicians repeated in one of Walter Winchell's gossip columns. She has acted in several films and stage shows, and continued to perform into the 1990s. She lives in Los Angeles and has been contemplating new releases of recordings of her most recent concerts.- Robert Morris was born on 7 January 1935 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Tallahassee 7000 (1961), Naked City (1958) and The Lineup (1954). He was married to Janice Caplin. He died on 22 May 1960 in Lake Wohlford, California, USA.
- Janice Ott was born on February 14, 1951 as Janice Anne Blackburn. She lived in Issaquah, Washington and worked as a caseworker at the Youth Services Center. She was married to Jim Ott. She died on July 14, 1974 in Lake Sammamish State Park, Washington, USA. She was 23 years old.
- Helene Whitney was born in 1914 as Kenyon Fortescue and was the grandniece of Alexander Graham Bell and cousin once removed of President Theodore Roosevelt. She married Julian Louis Reynolds, heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune in 1936. But they divorced in 1939 and she started her acting work using stage names of Joyce Gardner, Helene Whitney and Helene Reynolds. After her theatrical work ended she became the proprietor of a Manhattan Art Gallery. She passed away on March 28, 1990 at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center of pneumonia.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Maurice Lionel Gosfield was born on January 28, 1913 in New York City, but raised in Philadelphia and later Evanston, Il., where he began acting with the Ralph Bellamy and Melvyn Douglas Players, later joining the summer stock theater circuit in 1930. He made his Broadway debut as Manero in the play Siege in 1937, and his other stage credits included The Petrified Forest, Three Men on a Horse and Room Service.
During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army as a Tech 4 in the 8th Armored Division.
From 1955 to 1959, Gosfield played Pvt. Duane Doberman in The Phil Silvers Show (originally titled You'll Never Get Rich in it's first season). In the biography of the show's creator Nat Hiken, he detailed the casting of the role and the effect that Gosfield had on him, the producer and Phil Silvers when he appeared in front of them:
"The dumpy, spectacularly ugly Maurice Gosfield ambled into an open casting call one day, brandishing an enormous list of credits. A handful of his bit parts on stage are easy enough to confirm; more difficult to pin down are his claims of two-thousand radio credits and one hundred TV appearances...None of the man's background, though, really mattered to Hiken and Silvers once they got a good look at him. Nat had already picked someone to play the most woebegone member of Bilko's platoon (Maurice Brenner), but immediately he knew that here was the man born for the part." Brenner was later recast as Pvt. Irving Fleischman.
In 1959, Gosfield was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He was also the voice of Benny the Ball in the animated cartoon series Top Cat (1961-62), which was partially based on the Sergeant Bilko series.
On October 14, 1964, while Gosfield was performing in a play at New York Theatre, he kept losing his balance and repeatedly falling asleep. He was diagnosed as having critical hypertension and was given seven different medications, which he was told to take for the rest of his life. On October 17, he suffered a heart attack and was rushed to New York Hospital, where he was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed. After he was admitted, his condition improved, and as a result his close friend Arnold Stang (the voice of Top Cat) told him that a remake of Top Cat was in the works, and that his role was waiting for him when he recovered. Tragically, only two hours after Stang left, Gosfield suffered a second and instantly fatal heart attack on October 19, 1964, and Stang was phoned the next morning. He then broke the sad news to producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who were both devastated by Gosfield's sudden death, and they decided not to make a new Top Cat series, as they could not find an adequate replacement for Benny the Ball's voice.
Maurice Gosfield was buried at Long Island National Cemetery, Suffolk County, New York.- Octavia Butler was born on 22 June 1947 in Pasadena, California, USA. She was a writer, known for Parable of the Sower, Kindred (2022) and Wild Seed. She died on 24 February 2006 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Actor, screenwriter and director Crane Wilbur was born Erwin Crane Wilbur on November 17, 1886, in Athens, NY. The nephew of the great stage actor Tyrone Power Sr., Wilbur first took to the boards as an actor, making his Broadway debut billed as Erwin Crane Wilbur on June 3, 1903, in a trilogy of William Butler Yeats plays, "A Pot of Broth" / "Kathleen ni Houlihan" / "The Land of Heart's Desire", put on by the Irish Literary Society at the Carnegie Lyceum.
He began appearing in films in 1910, but he made his name as a cinema actor as the male lead in The Perils of Pauline (1914), the enormously popular serial starring Pearl White. A star during the 1910s, Wilbur's career as a movie actor began petering out after he appeared as the eponymous hero of Breezy Jim (1919). As the Roaring Twenties made their debut, Wilbur went back to the stage. Between 1920-34 he had seven plays presented on Broadway: "The Ouija Board" (1920); "The Monster" (1922; revived 1933); "Easy Terms" (1925); "The Song Wtiter" (1928); "Border-Land" (1932); "Halfway to Hell" (1933); and "Are You Decent" (1934). He also staged "Halfway to Hell" and directed Donald Kirkley and Howard Burman's "Happily Ever After" in 1945. Crane also performed in "The Ouija Board", "Easy Terms" and nine other Broadway shows from 1927-32, including "A Farewell to Arms" (1930) and "Mourning Becomes Electra" (1932).
Wilbur had directed several silent pictures, but he made his sound debut as a director with the controversial The Unborn (1935), touted as "The Most Daring, Sensational Drama Ever Filmed!" The movie is an expose of the "science" of eugenics, tied to a story about the attempted forced sterilization of a married couple by the Welfare Bureau. "Tomorrow's Children" exposed the fact that many people were sterilized against their will and even without recourse to due process of law. The movie was banned in New York state on the grounds that it was "immoral", that it would "tend to corrupt morals" and that it was an incitement to crime. The ban was challenged but was upheld in the courts and on appeal as it was found to disseminate information about birth control, which was illegal at the time.
After this controversy Wilbur went on to a long and productive career, particularly in the mystery-thriller genre, as both a director and a screenwriter. He had a hand in the production of such genre classics as House of Wax (1953), The Bat (1959) (which he also directed) and Mysterious Island (1961).
Wilbur died on October 18, 1973, in Toluca Lake, CA, of complications following a stroke.