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1-15 of 15
- Actor
- Soundtrack
American leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on New Years Day 1909 on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi. One of thirteen children, including fellow actor Steve Forrest, he was a son of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister.
Andrews studied business administration at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas, but took a bookkeeping job with Gulf Oil in 1929, aged 20, prior to graduating. In 1931, he hitchhiked to California, hoping to get work as an actor. He drove a school bus, dug ditches, picked oranges, worked as a stock boy, and pumped gas while trying without luck to break into the movies. His employer at a Van Nuys gas station believed in him and agreed to invest in him, asking to be repaid if and when Andrews made it as an actor. Andrews studied opera and also entered the Pasadena Community Playhouse, the famed theatre company and drama school. He appeared in scores of plays there in the 1930s, becoming a favorite of the company. He played opposite future star Robert Preston in a play about composers Gilbert and Sullivan, and soon thereafter was offered a contract by Samuel Goldwyn.
It was two years before Goldwyn and 20th Century-Fox (to whom Goldwyn had sold half of Andrews' contract) put him in a film, but the roles, though secondary, were mostly in top-quality pictures such as The Westerner (1940) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942). A starring role in the hit Laura (1944), followed by one in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), made him a star, but no later film quite lived up to the quality of these. During his career, he had worked with with such directors as Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan.
Andrews slipped into a steady stream of unremarkable films in which he gave sturdy performances, until age and other interests resulted in fewer appearances. In addition, his increasing alcoholism caused him to lose the confidence of some producers. Andrews took steps to curb his addiction and in his later years was an outspoken member of the National Council on Alcoholism, who decried public refusal to face the problem. He was probably the first actor to do a public service announcement about alcoholism (in 1972 for the U.S. Department of Transportation), and did public speaking tours. Andrews was one of the first to speak out against the degradation of the acting profession, particularly actresses doing nude scenes just to get a role.
Andrews was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1963, serving until 1965. He retired from films in the 1960s and made, he said, more money from real estate than he ever did in movies. Yet he and his second wife, actress Mary Todd, lived quietly in a modest home in Studio City, California. Andrews suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his later years and spent his final days in a nursing facility. He died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia in 1992, aged 83.- Christopher Jones was a brief cult star of the late '60s counterculture era and a would-be rebel successor to James Dean had he wanted it. Born William Franklin Jones amid rather impoverished surroundings to a grocery clerk in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1941, his artist mother had to be institutionalized when Chris was 4. She died in a mental facility in 1960, and this was always to haunt him. He shifted back and forth between homes and orphanages and was placed in Boys Town at one point to straighten out his life.
Chris joined the service as a young adult but went AWOL just two days later. After serving out his time on Governor's Island for this infraction, he moved to New York and studied painting, meeting a motley crew of actors and artists. Friends were startled by his moody nature and uncanny resemblance to the troubled Dean and he was encouraged to audition for the Actors Studio. He was accepted and eventually won the Broadway role of Pancho in "The Night of the Iguana" in 1961. Chris wound up marrying acting coach Lee Strasberg's daughter, Susan Strasberg, in 1965, but his erratic behavior would send her packing after three years and two children.
Chris's brooding good looks and undeniable charisma led him straight to Hollywood and, following a few TV episodic parts, earned the title film role of Chubasco (1968) co-starring then-wife Susan. He then earned cult stardom in Wild in the Streets (1968) as Max Frost, a rock star who becomes president. This popular satire, in turn, led another movie satire as the college boy Lothario in the interracial sex triangle Three in the Attic (1968) and such distinguished international projects as The Looking Glass War (1970), Jardines de España (1957) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). But the trappings of success quickly got to him.
Numerous entanglements with the Hollywood "in crowd" eventually took their toll, including those with Pamela Courson (Jim Morrison's girlfriend at the time), the ill-fated Sharon Tate, one-time co-star Pia Degermark, and Olivia Hussey. Not only did his volatile relationships with directors also leave him depressed, but his personal life remained in constant turmoil. Morrison's early drug-related death and Tate's particularly brutal murder hit him particularly hard and led to a breakdown.
Chris split the Hollywood scene altogether to regain himself but instead ended up a victim of the Sunset Strip drug culture for a time. He eventually cleaned up his act and two subsequent relationships led to five more children. He also turned to painting and sculpting as creative outlets and lived the Southern California beach scene. Little was heard until decades later when Quentin Tarantino offered him a part in Pulp Fiction (1994). The now reclusive and eccentric Jones turned down a role in that, but later decided to take on a cameo part in friend Larry Bishop's crime comedy-drama Mad Dog Time (1996) a couple of years later. This proved to be his only return to acting. Chris died of gall bladder cancer in 2014 at age 72. - Simon Scott was born on 21 September 1920 in Monterey Park, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Cold Turkey (1971), The Wild Wild West (1965) and Mod Squad (1968). He died on 11 December 1991 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Lesley Selander's film career, which lasted more than 40 years, started in the early 1920s as a teenager when he got a job at a studio as a lab technician. He soon managed to work his way into the production end of the business and secured employment as a camera operator, then an assistant director, with several side trips as a director of two-reel shorts. He directed his first feature in 1936, a western--a genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spend much of the rest of his career.
Although Selander couldn't be considered an "A"-list director, his films had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked. His sense of pacing was such that his films could be counted on to move quickly and smoothly, and not just his westerns. He also made detective thrillers, action/adventure pictures and even a horror film or two. One standout that is seldom seen nowadays, however, is Return from the Sea (1954), a sentimental and lyrical story of a cynical, embittered merchant seaman and the equally disillusioned waitress he meets in a dingy diner in the waterfront section of town. It's a surprisingly sensitive work for a man who spent his career making tough, macho shoot-'em-ups, and even more of a surprise are the outstanding performances by an unlikely cast: tough-guy Neville Brand as the sailor, perennial gun moll Jan Sterling as the waitress, and a terrific job by veteran heavy John Doucette as a garrulous, happy-go-lucky cab driver determined to bring the two together. With this little jewel Selander proved he was capable of much more than cattle stampedes, Indian attacks and gangster shootouts, but unfortunately he never made another one like it.
As the market for B westerns died out, Selander--like so many of his fellow B directors--turned to television. The last few feature films he made, in the mid- and late 1960s, were a string of what's come to be known as "geezer westerns" churned out by producer A.C. Lyles, embarrassing efforts made on the cheap that were meant to give employment to aging cowboy stars; the less said about them, the better.
Lesley Selander retired from the business in 1968, and died in 1979.- Dallas Mitchell was born on 8 October 1927 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). He was married to Elsa Urbina and Elaine Neblett. He died on 13 September 2009 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
- Sound Department
- Actor
Rosen's family moved to Long Beach when he was age 7 and he graduated from Long Beach State by 1963. Shortly after he got a job at KCET as a production assistant. In 1965, channel 2 was looking for a kid's show, so Rosen pitched Dusty's Treehouse (1968) to CBS and ended up doing the show for 10 years. In the early '80s, Rosen was involved in several cable startups at the dawn of a new generation. He was also the casting director for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) and the voice director for several hit cartoon shows such as Mask (1985), My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), Captain N: The Game Master (1989), Defenders of the Earth (1986), and Fraggle Rock (1987).
Entering the '90s he was the voice director for computer game Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (1993) and also did the voice for Yuri Markarov in Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness (1994).
Over his career, Rosen won several Emmys; ten L.A. Emmys and the George Foster Peabody Award.- Animation Department
Clair Weeks was born on 14 September 1911 in Mussoorie, India. He is known for Peter Pan (1953), Banyan Deer (1959) and The Little House (1952). He died on 26 August 1996 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.- Animation Department
Gilda Palinginis was born on 11 July 1958 in Athens, Greece. She is known for Hercules (1997), Aladdin (1992) and The Little Mermaid (1989). She died on 28 November 2005 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.- Jack Haley was born on 27 January 1964 in Long Beach, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Eddie (1996), Rebound (2005) and Empty Nest (1988). He was married to Stacey Kim Haley. He died on 16 March 2015 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.
- Camera and Electrical Department
Joseph Westheimer was born in Los Angeles on May 18, 1916. His aunt was a secretary to Warner Bros. producer Bryan Foy, and young Joseph spent a lot of time at the studio with her, where he watched Al Jolson filming The Jazz Singer (1927). At age 15 Westheimer got a job as a studio messenger at Warners, then later moved to the prop department. After graduating as an electrical engineer from the California Institute of Technology, he went back to Warners, this time in the Special Effects Department under renowned cinematographer (and later director) Byron Haskin. Westheimer found his calling in the Effects Dept., and over the next few years designed and developed process screens and rear-projection equipment for the studio.
During World War II he joined the army and was stationed at Hal Roach Studios (jokingly called "Fort Roach") in Culver City, where he photographed Army training and propaganda films. He went back to Warners after the war, but in 1947 moved over to Eagle-Lion Films. Two years later he was hired as head of the Optical Effects and Insert Photography Department at Consolidated Film Industries, a major film laboratory and optical house owned by Herbert J. Yates, head of Republic Pictures.
In 1955 he started The Westheimer Company, specializing in visual and optical effects, and ran it for the next 30 years, building it into one of the most respected and reliable effects houses in the business, being especially noted for its elaborate yet classic titles. The company worked extensively in both films and TV, doing effects for such films as Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The Glory Guys (1965), and TV shows such as Star Trek (1966), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Big Valley (1965) and Honey West (1965), among others.
He died at 82 years of age on November 6, 1998, after a long illness.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Nadine Conner was born on 20 February 1907 in Compton, California, USA. She was an actress, known for General Electric Theater (1953), Omnibus (1952) and Carmen (1952). She was married to Laurance Hugh Heacock and ? Conner. She died on 1 March 2003 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.- Del Kuhn was born on 28 September 1925 in Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Devil Take Us (1955). He died on 24 March 2021 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.
- Richard Callanan was born on 31 July 1931 in Turlock, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Broken Reality (1994), The Drew Carey Show (1995) and Saving Souls (1995). He was married to Marlene Vaughn Callanan. He died on 30 June 2001 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Frank Mairich Pooler (March 29, 1926 - January 19, 2013) was an American choirmaster and Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Long Beach. Richard and Karen Carpenter were members of the choir, and Pooler is credited with helping the brother and sister develop their signature sound as the 1970s duo, The Carpenters. Richard Carpenter later composed the music to "Merry Christmas Darling," a lyric Pooler had written when he was 18. It became one of the Carpenter's most popular songs.- Frieda Caplan was born on 10 August 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was married to Alfred Hale Caplan. She died on 18 January 2020 in Los Alamitos, California, USA.