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- Music Artist
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Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica, to Norval Marley and Cedella Booker. His father was a Jamaican of English descent. His mother was a black teenager. The couple were married in 1944 but Norval left for Kingston immediately after. Norval died in 1957, seeing his son only a few times.
Bob Marley started his career with the Wailers, a group he formed with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston in 1963. Marley married Rita Marley in February 1966, and it was she who introduced him to Rastafarianism. By 1969 Bob, Tosh and Livingston had fully embraced Rastafarianism, which greatly influence Marley's music in particular and on reggae music in general. The Wailers collaborated with Lee Scratch Perry, resulting in some of the Wailers' finest tracks like "Soul Rebel", "Duppy Conquerer", "400 Years" and "Small Axe." This collaboration ended bitterly when the Wailers found that Perry, thinking the records were his, sold them in England without their consent. However, this brought the Wailers' music to the attention of Chris Blackwell, the owner of Island Records.
Blackwell immediately signed the Wailers and produced their first album, "Catch a Fire". This was followed by "Burnin'", featuring tracks as "Get Up Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff." Eric Clapton's cover of that song reached #1 in the US. In 1974 Tosh and Livingston left the Wailers to start solo careers. Marley later formed the band "Bob Marley and the Wailers", with his wife Rita as one of three backup singers called the I-Trees. This period saw the release of some groundbreaking albums, such as "Natty Dread", "Rastaman Vibration".
In 1976, during a period of spiraling political violence in Jamaica, an attempt was made on Marley's life. Marley left for England, where he lived in self-exile for two years. In England "Exodus" was produced, and it remained on the British charts for 56 straight weeks. This was followed by another successful album, "Kaya." These successes introduced reggae music to the western world for the first time, and established the beginning of Marley's international status.
In 1977 Marley consulted with a doctor when a wound in his big toe would not heal. More tests revealed malignant melanoma. He refused to have his toe amputated as his doctors recommended, claiming it contradicted his Rastafarian beliefs. Others, however, claim that the main reason behind his refusal was the possible negative impact on his dancing skills. The cancer was kept secret from the general public while Bob continued working.
Returning to Jamaica in 1978, he continued work and released "Survival" in 1979 which was followed by a successful European tour. In 1980 he was the only foreign artist to participated in the independence ceremony of Zimbabwe. It was a time of great success for Marley, and he started an American tour to reach blacks in the US. He played two shows at Madison Square Garden, but collapsed while jogging in NYC's Central Park on September 21, 1980. The cancer diagnosed earlier had spread to his brain, lungs and stomach. Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981. He was 36 years old.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Ossie Davis was born on 18 December 1917 in Cogdell, Georgia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Do the Right Thing (1989), Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). He was married to Ruby Dee. He died on 4 February 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Tomas Milian, an American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actors Studio. He appeared in a few plays on Broadway, as well as in a show by Jean Cocteau in Spoleto. Mauro Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rich cinematographic career in Italy, where he played in all manner of genres. He interpreted a mad psychopath in The Ugly Ones (1966) (aka "Bounty Killer"), a role he would then improve and diversify into an impressive gallery of neurotic and sadistic killers, first in "spaghetti westerns" (many directed by Sergio Corbucci), and then in violent action and police thrillers (many directed by Umberto Lenzi). His films gradually evolved into action comedies, as he played the recurrent characters of thief "Er Monnezza" and cop Nico Giraldi (the latter being originally based on the lead character in Serpico (1973)), two typically Roman characters who enjoyed great popularity in the '70s and '80s.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Titian-haired Margaret 'Maggie' Hayes was born Florette Regina Ottenheimer in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Jacob 'Jack' Louis Ottenheimer (1882-1943) and Clara Bussy (1877-1966). While still at high school she worked with a local stock company to get into acting. She then studied for two years at John Hopkins University, briefly entertaining the notion of becoming a nurse. Before long, however, she had joined The Barnstormers troupe of performers to become their first ever female member. A trip to New York and a night at the Stork Club resulted in a chance encounter with several prominent newspaper columnists who were also in attendance, among them Walter Winchell. Winchell decided to change her name to 'Dana Dale'. Using this moniker, she did some modelling and auditioned unsuccessfully for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). At this time, she was featured in several cigarette, automobile and fashion advertisements.
After a brief stint at Warner Brothers, and having finally settled on the stage name Maggie Hayes, she made her Broadway debut in 1940 and was signed by Paramount the following year. On screen, Maggie tended to be cast as second leads, often as 'the other woman', but was never quite fulfilled in her profession. Instead, she pursued diverse other career paths outside of acting, both in between performing and after her retirement in 1962: as fashion designer, model, owner of a boutique in Palm Beach and designing/selling jewelry in New York. She even worked for a while as a public relations executive for luxury goods department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In the late 1940s, she became fashion editor for 'Life Magazine', before returning to the New York stage and acting in television where she had some of her best roles.
Maggie Hayes was married (and divorced) three times. Her second husband was the actor Leif Erickson (of The High Chaparral (1967) fame), her third the producer Herbert B. Swope Jr..- Actress
- Soundtrack
Carol White was born on 1 April 1943 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Poor Cow (1967), The Wednesday Play (1964) and Some Call It Loving (1973). She was married to Mike King, Stuart Lerner and Mike Arnold. She died on 16 September 1991 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Plain-looking, angular-framed Doro Merande of both stage and film was one of those delightful character actresses you couldn't take your eyes off of, no matter how minuscule the part. Her careworn features were ideal for playing small-town folk and working class toilers, and she excelled at playing older than she was -- maids, doting aunts, inveterate gossips, curt secretaries and small-minded neighbors -- all topped with an amusing warble in her voice and bristly eccentric edge. Too bad then that she wasn't used more in films, but she preferred live theater and based herself for the most part on the East Coast.
She was born Dora Matthews in Kansas on March 31, 1892, and orphaned as a child. Growing up in various boarding schools, she developed an earnest interest in acting and headed straight to New York to pursued an acting career after schooling. Appearing primarily on the stock and repertory stage, she also played unbilled servile bits in a few early talking films: Interference (1928), which was Paramount's first "talkie," Personal Maid (1931), State Fair (1933), The Rogues' Tavern (1936) and Navy Wife (1935).
The actress changed her stage name to "Doro Merande" as she took her first Broadway curtain call in 1935 with "Loose Moments." Other New York plays would include "One Good Year," "Red Harvest" and "Angel Island," enhancing over 25 Broadway plays in her lifetime. She made a noticeable impression as Mrs. Soames in the classic Thornton Wilder play "Our Town," which led her straight to Hollywood to recreate her indelible character on film. When Our Town (1940) starring William Holden and Martha Scott did not lead to any other film offers, Doro returned East to her first love, the theatre. She continued intermittently on Broadway with parts in "Love's Old Sweet Song," "The More the Merrier," "Junior Miss" (replacement), "The Naked Genius," "Pick Up Girl," "Violet," "Hope for Your Best," "Apple of His Eye," "The Silver Whistle," "The Rat Race," "Four Twelves Are 48," "Lo and Behold!" and "Diary of a Scoundrel."
Returning to films in the post-war years, Doro appeared in a number of delightful film cameos, both billed and unbilled, over the years. Either adding to the comedy fun or providing amusing relief in heavier dramas, her "working class" movie credits included The Snake Pit (1948), Cover Up (1949), Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951), The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951), The Seven Year Itch (1955), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959), The Gazebo (1959), The Cardinal (1963), Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966), Hurry Sundown (1967), Skidoo (1968), Change of Habit (1969) and Making It (1971). Her final role was as Jennie, the cleaning woman, in The Front Page (1974), a part she played in both the 1969 Broadway revival and 1970 TV movie.
Doro also spiced up a number of TV shows, from the 1950's on, with the anthologies "Lux Video Theatre" and "Kraft Music Theatre," plus "Mister Peppers," "The United States Steel Hour," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Sergeant Bilko," "Thriller," "The Defenders" and "The Twilight Zone." Doro also co-starred with handsome Frank Aletter in the promising comedy series Bringing Up Buddy (1960) as one of two pampering, live-in maiden aunts. The series ended abruptly after only one season because she and the elderly costar Enid Markey, best known for playing "Jane" in the silent Tarzan movie, did not get along. Elsewhere, Doro was a recurring presence as "Aunt Ethel" in the "Honeymooners" sketch on The Jackie Gleason Show (1966).
In late October of 1975, the never-married veteran actress was attending a "Honeymooners" anniversary special in Miami, Florida. During that stay, she suffered a stroke and died on November 1st at a local hospital. She was 83. - Actor
- Soundtrack
At fourteen he worked as an usher at the NYC Paramount Theatre. His father was an electrician who played guitar and his mother taught piano. Damone attended PS 163 and sang in St. Finbar's choir and later attended the Alexander Hamilton Vocational High School and then Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. He left school at sixteen to support his family, but returned to graduate from Lafayette in 1997. Damone won first prize in an Arthur Godfrey talent scouts contest in 1945. His first night club appearance at the LA Martinique Club was set up by comedian Milton Berle. He was drafted and served in the army from 1951 to 1953. After he was discharged from the army he married actress Pier Angeli, whom he later divorced. Damone was later married to Becky Ann Jones from 1974 to 1982 and Diahann Carroll from 1987 to 1996. He married Rena Rowan, fashion designer and co-founder of Jones New York, in 1998. In 1999, he received a certificate of advanced study from Philadelphia University.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in Sunflower, Mississippi, in 1929, Matt "Guitar" Murphy is known as one of the most respected sidemen in the blues. He has played on albums and in concerts for everyone from Memphis Slim and James Cotton to 'Bobby Blue Bland' and Junior Parker (he even made an appearance in The Blues Brothers (1980)). Unlike many sidemen, however, he cut very few records on his own, and it wasn't until 1990 that he released his first album, "Way Down South".- Susana Dosamantes was born on 9 January 1948 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Darker Than Night (1975), Corazón salvaje (1977) and Amalia Batista (1983). She was married to Luis Rivas, Carlos Vasallo and Enrique Rubio González. She died on 2 July 2022 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Dolores Faith was born on 15 July 1941 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Phantom Planet (1961), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Wild Harvest (1962). She was married to James Robert Neal. She died on 15 February 1990 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Doris Wishman was born on 1 June 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. She was a director and producer, known for Satan Was a Lady (2001), Nude on the Moon (1961) and Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972). She was married to Louis Silverman and Jack Abrahms. She died on 10 August 2002 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Maurice Gibb was born on 22 December 1949 in Douglas, Isle of Man, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Saturday Night Fever (1977), Ready Player One (2018) and Virtuosity (1995). He was married to Yvonne Gibb and Lulu. He died on 12 January 2003 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Art Department
- Soundtrack
The only career Nelson Eddy ever considered was singing. His parents, Isabel (Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy, were singers, his grandparents were musicians. Unable to afford a teacher, he learned by imitating opera recordings. At age 14 he worked as a telephone operator in a Philadelphia iron foundry. He sold newspaper advertising and performed in amateur musicals. Dr. Edouard Lippe coached him and loaned him the money to study in Dresden and Paris. He gave his first concert recital in 1928 in Philadelphia. In 1933 he did 18 encores for an audience that included an assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who signed him to a seven-year contract. After MGM acting lessons and initial trials, his first real success came as the Yankee scout to Jeanette MacDonald's French princess in Naughty Marietta (1935), a huge box-office success made on a small budget. Eddy and MacDonald were paired twice more (Rose-Marie (1936), Maytime (1937)) when metropolitan Opera star Grace Moore was unavailable; they became an institution. Their last work together was in 1942. Critics nearly always panned his acting. He did have a large radio following (his theme song: "Short'nin Bread"). In 1959 Eddy and MacDonald issued a recording of their movie hits which sold well. In 1953 he had a fairly successful nightclub routine with Gale Sherwood which ran until his death in 1967. He and his wife Anne Denitz had no children.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Mr. Egan was the tough-talking New York City police officer whose exploits inspired the Academy Award winning film The French Connection (1971). With partner Sonny Grosso, he managed a 112-pound heroin bust in 1962, one of the biggest in New York's history. Mr. Egan was nicknamed 'Popeye' and was played in The French Connection (1971) by Gene Hackman. Mr. Egan played the role of his own boss. Mr. Egan, who retired to Fort Lauderdale, FL, in 1984, died "the toughest cop in New York", said Cheryl Kyle-Little, who shared a home with him. Kyle-Little said Mr. Egan was working on a movie deal at the time of his death.- Actor
- Writer
Jorge Porcel was born on 7 September 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor and writer, known for Carlito's Way (1993), El gordo de América (1976) and Fatso Catastrophe (1977). He died on 16 May 2006 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anita Sharp-Bolster was born on 28 August 1895 in Glenlohane, Kanturk, County Cork, Ireland. She was an actress, known for My Name Is Julia Ross (1945), Saboteur (1942) and The Lost Weekend (1945). She died on 1 June 1985 in North Miami, Florida, USA.- Cynthia Stone was born on 26 February 1926 in Peoria, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for That Wonderful Guy (1949), Soldiers of Fortune (1955) and Cavalcade of America (1952). She was married to Robert Davis McDougal III, Cliff Robertson and Jack Lemmon. She died on 26 December 1988 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jerry Lester was born on 16 February 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Hardly Working (1980), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and Odds and Evens (1978). He was married to Alice Elgie Wall and Ardelle Unger. He died on 23 March 1995 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lorena Rojas was born on 10 February 1971 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Corazones rotos (2001), El Cuerpo del Deseo (2005) and La quebradita (1994). She was married to Patrick Shaas. She died on 16 February 2015 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Production Designer
Gianni Versace was born on 2 December 1946 in Reggio di Calabria, Italy. He was a costume designer and production designer, known for Judge Dredd (1995), Showgirls (1995) and The Leading Man (1996). He died on 15 July 1997 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Bob Cresse was born on June 19, 1936. Cresse hailed from Sarasota, Florida and was a graduate from the University of Florida. Moreover, Bob worked the carnival circuit before eventually moving to Los Angeles, California and getting a job as a bike messenger for MGM. Cresse founded his own production and distribution company Olympic International Films in the early 1960's. Bob not only wrote and produced a handful of lurid low-budget exploitation movies, but also acted in several of these pictures as well. In addition, Cresse developed a notorious reputation for his tough and combative me-against-the-world attitude: Besides his predilection for weapons and Nazi regalia, Cresse also had two full-time bodyguards on his payroll. Bob's exploitation cinema career came to an abrupt halt following in incident in which Bob came across two men beating a woman in front of a store while walking his dog on Hollywood Boulevard. Cresse pulled out a gun and ordered the men to stop beating the woman. One of the men identified himself as a police officer and shot Bob in the stomach as well as shot his dog dead. Cresse spent seven months in the hospital recovering from his injuries. Alas, Bob didn't have any health insurance, so his lengthy stay in the hospital depleted most of the money that he had managed to funnel into a Swiss bank account. Cresse died of a heart attack at age 61 on April 6, 1998 in Miami, Florida.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Actor
Walter Stone was born on 1 February 1920 in Dunellen, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Jackie Gleason Show (1966), That's Life (1968) and The Honeymooners (1955). He was married to Elizabeth Stone. He died on 20 October 1999 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Gene Markey was born on 11 December 1895 in Jackson, Michigan, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for You're the One (1941), On the Avenue (1937) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939). He was married to Lucille Parker Wright, Myrna Loy, Hedy Lamarr and Joan Bennett. He died on 1 May 1980 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rosita Fornés was born in New York City on February 11, 1923. She was taken to Cuba by her Catalonian-Spanish parents when she was two. Her birth name was Rosalía Lourdes Elisa Palet Bonavia. Fornés became her surname at age 15 at the request of her step-father, who helped raise her from the age of 2. Fornes first won critical acclaim as a singer after winning the best prize at a widely-known Cuban talent contest (La Corte Suprema del Arte) in 1938.
After this, Fornés became one of Cuba's most prolific performers, both admired and maligned. She was at the center of certain personal and political controversies. Her visit to the United States from May to September of 1996, for instance, generated politically heated press overage in Miami. She was for many years regarded as a sex symbol, as the unchallenged blonde goddess of Cuban show business, although her true weapons in this field were a spell-binding stage presence, unbending professionalism and a beautiful singing voice.
In her twenties, already famous in Cuba, she traveled to Mexico where she became an overnight and lasting sensation. Rosita Fornés was labeled in Mexico as "La Primera Vedette de las Américas". In the 1940s and 1950s, she toured throughout Latin America, the USA, and Europe. In the latter part of the 1950's she became Spain's most popular stage diva, rivaling Spanish stars such as Celia Gamez and Sarita Montiel. In Cuba, her sold-out theatre performances and countless TV appearances made Fornés the country's top female superstar. Fornés has received numerous artistic awards in Cuba and abroad. She declared herself apolitical and a devout Catholic, and has remained in Cuba despite and since the 1959 Revolution.
At the peak of the AIDS crisis in Cuba (when AIDS sufferers where forcibly isolated into a state-run health institution), she would visit the sick and perform for them freely. In several occasions, she has regarded her film career as an "accident", and has declared in no uncertain terms that she deplores her earlier filmography, which she considers too flawed and commercial. Fornés's first husband was Mexican actor Manuel Medel with whom she had her only child, Rosa María Medel, who is also an actress. Her second husband, Cuban actor Armando Bianchi, died in 1981 in a drowning accident after 28 years of marriage.
Fornés is associated throughout the Hispanic world with other great Latin names of the period: Jorge Negrete, Emilio Tuero, Libertad Lamarque, Antonio Aguilar, María Victoria, Dolores del Río, María Félix, Agustín Lara, Ernesto Lecuona, Adolfo Guzman, and Cantinflas. No longer exploited as a sex symbol, Fornés remained an active, commanding and venerated presence in the Cuban stage scene. She still got top billing and sang at the closing of every important variety show that took place on the island.
Always considered to be the non plus ultra of glamour in Cuba's artistic circles, it was not uncommon to watch people "ooh"ing and "aah"ing at the sight of Fornés making her way through the crowds in a party or taking center stage. In the late 1990s, she performed a series of concerts in Havana (July 1997), starred in a comedy play (Nenufares en el techo del mundo), and was part of the international jury at the International Film Festival in Bahia, Brazil (October 1997). She cared for her elderly mother, Lupe. Asked whether age worried her, her response was always the same: "Age is a state of mind". And she proved it.- Judy Clayton was born on 10 February 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Truman Show (1998), Bully (2001) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). She died on 25 October 2015 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Thomas McAdam Beck was an actor during the mid to late 1930s, who first attracted attention playing romantic leads in the film series of Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto, during the years he was under contract at Fox Film and later 20th Century-Fox. Born in New York City, on December 28, 1909, he grew up in the Forest Park section of Baltimore, Maryland. Beck was so good looking by the time he was a teenager that it is said that girls used to literally swoon when he'd go down the hallway at Forest Park High, where he graduated in 1928. He entered John Hopkins University where he studied science and had intentions of becoming a doctor. At the time he also studied piano at Peabody Conservatory of Music and painting at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts, and appeared in many plays with a Baltimore theater group created by Henry Fonda. Beck finally studied engineering, but after graduating in 1932, he believed engineering jobs would be scarce during the Depression, so he turned to acting. His first professional stage appearances were with a Massachusetts theater company, but by October 1932 he was cast in his first Broadway play, "Mademoiselle". His work interested film executives, when he got noticed in 1934 as Pauline Frederick's brother in John Charles Brownell's play "Her Majesty the Widow" and was signed by Fox Films. A year later when Fox and 20th Century Pictures merged, Beck was lost in the change and saw all the major roles go to Don Ameche, Henry Fonda, Richard Greene, and Tyrone Power, although the tall and handsome young man was noticed whenever he appeared on the screen. Beck was featured in 28 films in his career, with notable roles in "Charlie Chan in Paris" (1935), "Charlie Chan in Egypt" (1935), "Charlie Chan at the Race Track" (1936), and "Charlie Chan at the Opera" (1936). He also worked with Will Rogers in George Marshall's "Life Begins at Forty" (1935), in which he played the spoiled son of a landowner; appeared as a French legionnaire in Frank Lloyd's "Under Two Flags" (1936), and as Pastor Schultz, the village priest, in Allan Dwan's "Heidi" (1937), opposite child superstar Shirley Temple. He was seen to good advantage in two 1936 Fox motion pictures, in which he had leading roles: as a pilot in Peter Lorre's first American film, the espionage thriller "Crack-Up" and as a rich socialite in the drama "Champagne Charlie". When his career seemed ready to take off, Fox refused to raise his wages for a third time, and Beck left the studio in 1939. He had never been a favorite of top executives, and he never played the games of studio politics, but one could also suspect other causes behind his dismissal, as Beck's open homosexuality and his work to promote the Screen Actors Guild to improve working conditions for actors, in those years of ideological persecution by major studios, actors and producers. Beck free-lanced for Republic Studios and Universal, but left motion pictures in 1939. After appearing on the stage in "Delicate Story" in 1940, Beck then served in the Army in the Pacific theatre during World War II, finishing as a major in 1945. After the war, he briefly returned to the theatre in New York City, appearing in 1946 with Blanche Yurka in "Temper the Wind", and then retired from acting. He worked in advertising for 17 years and then operated a real estate office in Connecticut with his longtime companion (and former advertising colleague) until they retired to Florida. In a late interview Beck confessed that he had enjoyed his work on stage more than in films, and that his only regret was not leaving Hollywood, but never working in his chosen profession, as an engineer. He also painted and wrote poetry, publishing in 1990 his book of poems «Astride the Wind», written before, during and after World War II. He died on September 23, 1995 in Miami Shores, Florida, of Alzheimer's disease and heart ailments. He is buried along with the rest of his family at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore.
- Ethel Fleming was born on 25 December 1890 in Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Kiss (1916), Under Cover (1916) and East Lynne (1916). She was married to Ray Kroc and William Courtleigh Jr.. She died on 26 December 1965 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Pat Henning was born on 5 July 1908 in Manhattan, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for On the Waterfront (1954), The Cardinal (1963) and The Jackie Gleason Show (1966). He was married to Elizabeth. He died on 28 April 1973 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Legendary Broadway writer/producer/director George Abbott was born in 1887 in Forestville, New York. His father was mayor of Salamanca, New York, for two terms. In 1898 his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Abbott attended Kearney Military Academy. The family returned to New York, where Abbott attended Hamburg High School, graduating in 1907, and the University of Rochester (BA degree in 1911). He wrote the play "Perfectly Harmless" for University Dramatic Club. He attended Harvard University from 1911-1912, studying play writing under George Pierce Baker, and wrote "The Head of the Family" for Harvard Dramatic Club. In 1912 he won $100 in a play contest sponsored by the Bijou Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, for "The Man in the Manhole", and worked at the Bijou for a year as assistant stage manager. He made his Broadway debut as an actor in 1913 in "The Misleading Lady" (as Babe Merrill, a drunken student), followed by "The Yeoman of the Guard" (1915), "The Queen's Enemies" (1916), "Daddies" (1918), "The Broken Wing" (1920), "Dulcy" (on tour) (1921), "Zander the Great" (1923), "White Desert" (1923), "Hell-Bent for Heaven" (1924), "Lazybones" (1924), "Processional" (1925) and "Cowboy Crazy" (1926). From that point he concentrated on writing and directing, with "The Fall Guy" (his Broadway's debut, 1925), "Three Men on a Horse" (1935), "Jumbo" (1935), "On Your Toes" (1936), "The Boys from Syracuse" (1938), "Too Many Girls" (1939), "Pal Joey" (1940), "Best Foot Forward" (1941), "On the Town" (1944), "High Buttom Shoes" (1947), "Where's Charley?" (1948), "Call Me Madam" (1950), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1951), "Wonderful Town" (1953), "The Pajama Game" (1954), "Damn Yankees" (1955), "New Girl Town" (1957), "Fiorello!" (1959), "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum" (1962), "Flora, the Red Menace" (1965; Liza Minnelli's Broadway debut).
He won five Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize (for "Fiorello!"). He was nominated for an Oscar for writing All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). His daughter, Judith Abbott, is a stage actress/director and was married (1946-49) to Tom Ewell.- Elsa Patton was born on 26 August 1934 in the USA. She died on 12 May 2019 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- In one of his first film exercises the great director Martin Scorsese created an allegoric tale on the Vietnam War in the acclaimed The Big Shave (1967). However, the images don't tell exactly about the war. Instead, Marty's approach on the subject is on deeper levels while he presents his story about a man shaving his beard up to the point he starts bleeding. The actor in question is the great Peter Bernuth in his only film appearance, where he uses of minor and subtle facial expressions while shaving to the extreme point of cutting himself and losing a lot of blood.
Bernuth was married to Colleen Corby until his death in 1994, due to cancer. Almost nothing is known about his life and career, and the main legacy he gave audiences was with his magnificent and powerful presence as the lead character in this short film. - Polish-born Meyer Lansky emigrated to New York with his family and grew up in the Lower East Side. It was there that he ran into Bugsy Siegel, at the time a teenaged neighborhood gangster, and the two would remain lifelong friends. When Lansky saw the kinds of money Siegel was making from his various illegal activities--mainly gambling--he decided that this was the line of work for him. His specialty was the floating crap game, and he was so successful at that and other gambling schemes that he and Siegel soon controlled a large gang that was known as the Bugs and Meyer Mob. The gang's size, and Lansky's business acumen, attracted the attention of another local gangster, Lucky Luciano, who approached Lansky and invited him to participate in his idea of forming a national criminal syndicate. The Prohibition Era was a goldmine for Lansky and other gangsters, and he, Siegel and Luciano became incredibly wealthy from bootlegging, prostitution, drug smuggling, gambling and other rackets. In the 1930s Luciano's dream of a national crime commission became a reality, and Lansky was appointed to a seat on its board of directors. Lansky's specialty was financial matters and he proved to be a genius at laundering the mob's illegal profits and squeezing every last penny from its legal and illegal investments. When his friend Luciano was sent to prison, Lansky managed to get him an early release by ensuring his cooperation with the U.S. government in its preparation for the invasion of Sicily. After Luciano was deported to Italy, Lansky took over the management of his empire. Friendship only went so far in the mob, however. His good friend Siegel got into trouble by wasting millions of dollars of "wiseguy" money building Las Vegas, and when the decision was made to have him killed, Lansky went along with it.
In the 1950s Lansky formed a friendship with Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and the mob was given basically a blank check to run all the rackets in Cuba, especially the gambling casinos, prostitution and drug smuggling, with a large cut of the profits going to Batista. From Cuba Lansky spread his gambling and prostitution rackets to other South American countries, and even had a hand--although not a public one--in the casinos in Hong Kong and Macao. Lansky's fortunes began to wane, however, in the late 1960s when the U.S. government went after him for income tax evasion. He fled to Israel, and claimed citizenship there as a returning Jew. However, after legal wrangling with the Israeli government, Lansky's visa was revoked and he was deported back to the U.S. He stood trial, but managed to avoid conviction, reportedly because of his extensive political connections. He settled into a comfortable life in Miami, Florida, where he died of a heart attack in 1983. - Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Pat Patterson was born on 19 January 1941 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for WWF Superstars (1986), Attitude Era (2012) and Undertaker - He Buries Them Alive (1994). He died on 2 December 2020 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Mark Morales was born on 19 February 1968 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Money Train (1995), The Bling Ring (2013) and Disorderlies (1987). He died on 18 February 2021 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Olga Guillot was born on 9 October 1923 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Cita con la muerte (1949), Cry of the Bewitched (1957) and Una estrella y dos estrellados (1960). She died on 12 July 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Jacky Oh was born on 3 November 1990 in Oakland, California. She was an actress, known for Switched at Love (2021), Del Playa (2017) and The 4th Quarter: Legacy (2023). She died on 31 May 2023 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dan Jackson was born in 1925 in South America, Guyana. He was an actor, known for Mysterious Island (1961), playing Cpl. Neb Nugent. The film was set during the Civil War where a group of Union soldiers and two Confederates end up on a strange Pacific island. Dan is also known for A High Wind in Jamaica, directed by Alexander Mackendrick where he played a pirate.
Other credits include: Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970).- Marcia Knight was born on 2 February 1924 in Hildreth, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for The Skydivers (1963), Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) and Darker Than Amber (1970). She died on 17 January 1980 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Joan Murphy was born on 23 September 1939 in the USA. She was an actress, known for Midnight Cowboy (1969), Mr. No Legs (1978) and Band of the Hand (1986). She was married to Joseph Adler. She died on 8 March 1995 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Pedro Zamora was born on 29 February 1972 in Havana, Cuba. He died on 11 November 1994 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Cuban actor of great success in television telenovelas (soap operas) and films. He was born in the city of Holguín, province of Oriente in Cuba. (The Oriente province no longer exists and Holguín was officially declared a province in recent years). His parents were Idelfonso Moro and Margot Rueda whose marriage had produced three children, Frank, Fernando and Flor.
In 1960, when Frank was barely 16 years old, his parents went into exile in Miami, Florida in order to escape the harsh communist dictatorship that had taken over Cuba. Frank finished his studies in Miami and when he reached adulthood decided he wanted to be an actor. Since there was not much happening at the time in Miami in the performing arts, Frank moved to Puerto Rico where the television industry offered more opportunities. With his good looks and charisma, Frank found work at the beginning as a supporting actor in various television broadcasts. He was also given the opportunity to work in the films "Antesala de la silla eléctrica" (1968) and "Libertad para la juventud" (1970) which gave evidence of his potential for the big screen. After demonstrating his born acting talent, he became a leading actor in telenovelas of great success.
By the mid 1970's Frank Moro was a household name in Puerto Rico as well as in other Latin American countries, and was considered one of the hottest commodities in Latin television. Ernesto Alonso, a Mexican actor turned influential producer, was impressed by Frank's talent and offered him an exclusive contract with Mexico's powerful Televisa Network. Frank accepted the offer sensing its magnitude and moved immediately to Mexico. With Alonso's experienced guidance, Frank Moro was enormously successful in Mexican television and in films from 1975 and throughout the early 1990's.
Always missing his family and friends in Miami, he accepted a contract from Miami based Univision Network to host a television show that was broadcast all over the American continent. Frank Moro was at the top of his power as an actor when a heart attack cut his life short at age 49, a death that shocked Latin show business and his fans. He was survived by his Miami family, and by a son also named Frank, born in Puerto Rico during a short-lived marriage. - Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Silvio Horta was born on 14 August 1974 in Miami, Florida, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Ugly Betty (2006), Urban Legend (1998) and The Chronicle (2001). He died on 7 January 2020 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Charles Willeford was a remarkably fine, talented, and prolific writer who wrote everything from poetry to crime fiction to literary criticism throughout the course of his impressively long and diverse career. His crime novels are distinguished by a mean'n'lean sense of narrative economy and an admirable dearth of sentimentality. He was born as Charles Ray Willeford III on January 2, 1919 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Willeford's parents both died of tuberculosis when he was a little boy and he subsequently lived either with his grandmother or at boarding schools. Charles became a hobo in his early teens. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at age sixteen and was stationed in the Philippines. Willeford served as a tank commander with the 10th Armored Division in Europe during World War II. He won several medals for his military service: The Silver Star, the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Luxembourg Croix de Guerre. Charles retired from the army as a Master Sergeant.
Willeford's first novel "High Priest of California" was published in 1953. This solid debut was followed by such equally excellent novels as "Pick-Up" (this book won a Beacon Fiction Award), "Wild Wives," "The Woman Chaser," "Cockfighter" (this particular book won the Mark Twain Award), and "The Burnt Orange Heresy." Charles achieved his greatest commercial and critical success with four outstanding novels about hapless Florida homicide detective Hoke Moseley: "Miami Blues," "New Hope for the Dead," "Sideswipe," and "The Way We Die Now." Outside of his novels, he also wrote the short story anthology "The Machine in Ward Eleven," the poetry collections "The Outcast Poets" and "Proletarian Laughter," and the nonfiction book "Something About a Soldier."
Willeford attended both Palm Beach Junior College and the University of Miami. He taught a course in humanities at the University of Miami and was an associate professor who taught classes in both philosophy and English at Miami Dade Junior College. Charles was married three times and was an associate editor for "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine." Three of Willeford's novels have been adapted into movies: Monte Hellman delivered a bleakly fascinating character study with "Cockfighter" (Charles wrote the script and has a sizable supporting role as the referee of a cockfighting tournament which climaxes the picture), George Armitage hit one out of the ballpark with the wonderfully quirky "Miami Blues," and Robinson Devor scored a bull's eye with the offbeat "The Woman Chaser." Charles popped up in a small part as a bartender in the fun redneck car chase romp "Thunder and Lightning." Charles Willeford died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 27, 1988. - Writer
- Producer
- Script and Continuity Department
Gregory Allen Howard was born on 28 January 1952 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Harriet (2019), Remember the Titans (2000) and Ali (2001). He died on 27 January 2023 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Casting Department
Dolores Keator was born on 16 February 1925 in New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Dr. No (1962) and Lord of the Flies (1963). She was married to Sanford L. Ziff, Albert Goodstein, Richard S. Keator and George William Hoppe. She died on 11 January 2011 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal was born on 12 June 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was married to Geraldine ("Geri") McGee. He died on 13 October 2008 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Jorge Martín was born on 18 September 1937 in Barcelona, Spain. He was an actor and writer, known for Escalofrío diabólico (1972), Los hijos de Scaramouche (1975) and The Magnificent Robin Hood (1970). He died on 1 September 2021 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Jackie Gayle was born on 1 March 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Bulworth (1998), Broadway Danny Rose (1984) and Tin Men (1987). He was married to Tracy Gayle. He died on 23 November 2002 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
- Paco Villa was born in 1969 in Colima, Mexico. He died on 1 May 2024 in Miami, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Corbett Monica was born on 1 June 1930 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Joey Bishop Show (1961) and The Grasshopper (1970). He was married to Helen Stover. He died on 22 July 1998 in North Miami, Florida, USA.