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- Actor
- Producer
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John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary
Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.
Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family
from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern California, where they
tried ranching in the Mojave Desert. Until the ranch failed, Marion and
his younger brother
Robert E. Morrison swam in an
irrigation ditch and rode a horse to school. When the ranch failed, the
family moved to Glendale, California, where Marion delivered medicines
for his father, sold newspapers and had an Airedale dog named "Duke"
(the source of his own nickname). He did well at school both
academically and in football. When he narrowly failed admission to
Annapolis he went to USC on a football scholarship 1925-7.
Tom Mix got him a summer job as a prop
man in exchange for football tickets. On the set he became close
friends with director John Ford for
whom, among others, he began doing bit parts, some billed as
John Wayne. His first featured film
was Men Without Women (1930).
After more than 70 low-budget westerns and adventures, mostly routine,
Wayne's career was stuck in a rut until Ford cast him in
Stagecoach (1939), the movie that made
him a star. He appeared in nearly 250 movies, many of epic proportions.
From 1942-43 he was in a radio series, "The Three Sheets to the Wind",
and in 1944 he helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the
Preservation of American Ideals, a Conservative political organization,
later becoming its President. His conservative political stance was
also reflected in The Alamo (1960),
which he produced, directed and starred in. His patriotic stand was
enshrined in
The Green Berets (1968) which he
co-directed and starred in. Over the years Wayne was beset with health
problems. In September 1964 he had a cancerous left lung removed;
in 1977 when Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope was being made,
John Waynes archive voice was used for the character Garindan ezz Zavor,
later in March 1978 there was heart valve replacement surgery; and in January
1979 his stomach was removed. He received the Best Actor nomination for
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and
finally got the Oscar for his role as one-eyed Rooster Cogburn in
True Grit (1969). A Congressional Gold
Medal was struck in his honor in 1979. He is perhaps best remembered
for his parts in Ford's cavalry trilogy -
Fort Apache (1948),
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
and Rio Grande (1950).- Actress
- Soundtrack
With blonde hair, big blue eyes and a big smile, Joan Blondell was usually cast as the wisecracking working girl who was the lead's best friend.
Joan was born Rose Blondell in Manhattan, New York, the daughter of Katie and Eddie Blondell, who were vaudeville performers. Her father was a Polish Jewish immigrant, and her mother was of Irish heritage. Joan was on the stage when she was three years old. For years, she toured the circuit with her parents and joined a stock company when she was 17. She made her New York debut with the Ziegfeld Follies and appeared in several Broadway productions.
She was starring with James Cagney on Broadway in "Penny Arcade" (1929) when Warner Brothers decided to film the play as Sinners' Holiday (1930). Both Cagney and Joan were given the leads, and the film was a success. She would be teamed with Cagney again in The Public Enemy (1931) and
Blonde Crazy (1931) among others. In The Office Wife (1930), she stole the scene when she was dressing for work. While Warner Brothers made Cagney a star, Joan never rose to that level. In gangster movies or musicals, her performances were good enough for second leads, but not first lead. In the 1930s, she made a career playing gold-diggers and happy-go-lucky girlfriends. She would be paired with Dick Powell in ten musicals during these years, and they were married for ten years. By 1939, Joan had left Warner Brothers to become an independent actress, but by then, the blonde role was being defined by actresses like Veronica Lake. Her work slowed greatly as she went into straight comedy or dramatic roles. Three of her better roles were in Topper Returns (1941), Cry 'Havoc' (1943), and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). By the 50s, Joan would garner an Academy Award nomination for The Blue Veil (1951), but her biggest career successes would be on the stage, including a musical version of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."
In 1957, Joan would again appear on the screen as a drunk in Lizzie (1957) and as mature companion to Jayne Mansfield in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). While she would appear in a number of television shows during the 50s and 60s, she had the regular role of Winifred on The Real McCoys (1957) during the 1963 season. Her role in the drama The Cincinnati Kid (1965) was well received, but most of her remaining films would be comedies such as Waterhole #3 (1967) and Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971). Still in demand for TV, she was cast as Lottie on Here Come the Brides (1968) and as Peggy on Banyon (1971).- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Ted Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in
Philippi, West Virginia. He was a well respected actor who portrayed
many different characters during his film and television career. His
most notable role was Lurch, the faithful butler on the television
series
The Addams Family (1964).
His most memorable dialogue as Lurch would be, "You rang?", whenever
someone summoned him. Due to his large size, (6ft. 9in.) he portrayed
larger than life characters. His deep voice, was used for narrations
and for dubbing certain character's voices. His acting career spanned
three decades. Ted Cassidy died in 1979 from complications following
open-heart surgery. His live-in girlfriend had his remains cremated,
then buried in the backyard of their Woodland Hills home.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The favorite leading man of star
Bette Davis was born George Brendan Nolan in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland (although his place of birth has also been variosuly given as Raharabeg, County Roscommon and Shannonbridge, County Offaly). He was the youngest of five children born to shopkeeper John J. Nolan and Mary (McGuinness) Nolan, who lived on Main Street in Ballinasloe. His parents separated, making him an orphan from the tender age of eleven. From 1915, he lived with maternal relatives in New York until he was old enough to earn money. To make ends meet, he briefly became a sheep herder and even crossed the Atlantic to find work in the gold fields of South Africa.
George eventually returned to Ireland to study at the University of Dublin. By 1921, he had become -- despite his paternal ancestors' service in the British Army -- a despatch courier for Irish Republican Army guerrilla leader Michael Collins during the "The Troubles". At his time he was hunted by the Black and Tans with a bounty on his head. Goerge had, by then, developed an interest in acting and (partly to cover up his nightly activities for Sinn Fein) joined the Abbey Theatre Players. Tipped off by a double agent to his imminent arrest by British soldiers, he went into hiding and later skipped town. His return to acting was necessitated by the need for a sustainable source of income. By August 1921, he had returned to the U.S. via Canada.
Back in New York four years later, he toured with the hit play 'Abie's Irish Rose' and then with stock companies in Colorado, Florida, and Massachusetts, appearing in the ensemble cast of 'The Nightingale' on Broadway' (1927). Another three years on, George co-starred (with Alice Brady and Clark Gable) in the short-lived play 'Love, Honor and Betray'.
He worked in Hollywood from 1930, initially playing farmers, doctors and partner of Rin Tin Tin,
before Warner Brothers finally recognised his potential as a handsome leading man
for some of their more temperamental female stars. One of those was
Ruth Chatterton who picked him to play
opposite her in The Rich Are Always with Us (1932). This was the first of four films he made with the actress, whom he eventually married. They divorced after just two years. A specialist in dapper, sophisticated gentlemen, George gave reliable support to such stars as Greta Garbo,
Hedy Lamarr,
Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis (with whom he appeared in 11 films). However, he could rarely be described as dynamic. In his own words, all a good leading man needed 'was a good haircut since an audience was only ever likely to see the back of his head'. On the other hand, he was able to accumulate six marriages, among his wives another Warner Brothers star (Ann Sheridan).
At his best opposite Davis (with whom he had an affair), the two appeared in 11 films together, including Front Page Woman (1935),
Dark Victory (1939), The Old Maid (1939), and The Rains Came (1939). When lead roles became scarce, he appeared against type as the maniacal murderer
in the Robert Siodmak-directed thriller
The Spiral Staircase (1946). Following that, there were several B-movies on both sides of the Atlantic, after which Brent retired from acting to concentrate on breeding race horses. He died of emphysema in 1979, aged 75.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Jean Dorothy Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, to substitute teacher Dorothy Arline (Benson) and pharmacist Edward Waldemar Seberg. Her father was of Swedish descent and her mother was of English and German ancestry.
One month before her 18th birthday, Jean landed the title role
in Otto Preminger's
Saint Joan (1957) after a
much-publicized contest involving some 18,000 hopefuls. The failure of
that film and the only moderate success of her next,
Bonjour Tristesse (1958),
combined to stall Seberg's career, until her role in
Jean-Luc Godard's landmark feature,
Breathless (1960),
brought her renewed international attention. Seberg gave a memorable
performance as a schizophrenic in the title role of
Robert Rossen's
Lilith (1964) opposite
Warren Beatty and went on to
appear in over 30 films in Hollywood and Europe.
In the late 1960s, Seberg became involved in anti-war politics and was
the target of an undercover campaign by the FBI to discredit her
because of her association with several members of the Black Panther
party. She was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Paris in 1979.- Actor
- Soundtrack
At the age of seven, he and his family moved to Oregon. After studying
at the University of Oregon, he followed in his father's footsteps and
became a dentist, graduating from North Pacific Dental College. From
1929 to 1937, he practiced oral surgery in Eugene, Oregon. He then
moved his practice to Altadena, CA. There he joined the Pasadena
Community Playhouse, eventually giving up dentistry at the age of 36 to
become an actor. He made his film debut in 1939. His chubby face and
gravelly voice were featured in over 100 films, but he is perhaps best
known for TV roles in
Hopalong Cassidy (1952),
Judge Roy Bean (1955),
Petticoat Junction (1963),
and Cade's County (1971).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Lean, tall American character actor Arthur Hunnicutt was known for
playing humorously wise rural roles. He attended Arkansas State
Teachers College in his native state, but was forced to drop out in his
third year due to lack of funds. He joined a theatre company in
Massachusetts, then migrated to New York, where he began to find acting
roles on Broadway and on tour. He played in numerous productions,
including the leading role in "Tobacco Road", a part his rangy country
persona was made for. He took a few roles in small films in the early
1940s, then returned to stage work. In 1949 he came back to Hollywood
permanently and began a long career as a reliable supporting player.
His wonderfully written and vibrantly played role in the
Howard Hawks Western
The Big Sky (1952) won him acclaim
and an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor. He continued playing
similar characters, almost always sympathetic, for the remainder of his
career. He was stricken with cancer of the tongue and died in 1979.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Estelle Merle Thompson was born in India on February 19, 1911 of Welsh and Ceylonese (now Sri Lankan) descent. She was educated in that country until the age of 17, when she left for London. She began her career in British films with mostly forgettable roles or bit parts. She appeared in an uncredited role in Alf's Button (1930), a pattern that would unfortunately repeat itself regularly over the next three years.
However, movie moguls eventually saw an untapped talent in their midst and began grooming Oberon for something bigger. Finally she landed a part with substance: the role of Ysobel d'Aunay in Men of Tomorrow (1932). That was quickly followed by The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). After her portrayal of Lady Marguerite Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Hollywood beckoned and she left to try her hand in US films. American movie executives already had some idea of her talent due to her role in Vagabond Violinist (1934) (US title: Vagabond Violinist) was a success in that country. With her nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel (1935), Oberon became a star in both the UK and the USA.
Her work in that film resulted in offers for more quality pictures, and she appeared in several well received films, such as These Three (1936), Over the Moon (1939) and The Divorce of Lady X (1938). Her most critically acclaimed performance--hailed by some critics as "masterful" -- was as Cathy Linton in Wuthering Heights (1939). The 1940s proved to be a very busy decade for her, as she appeared in no less than 15 films. After her role in Berlin Express (1948) she would not be seen on the screen again until four years later, as Elizabeth Rockwell in Pardon My French (1951). She was off the screen again for more than a year, returning in Désirée (1954).
Unfortunately, Oberon began appearing in fewer and fewer films over the ensuing years. There were no films for her in 1955, only one in 1956 and then none until Of Love and Desire (1963). In between she did appear on television to host Assignment Foreign Legion (1956). Her final film was Interval (1973). After her career finally ended she lived in quiet retirement until her death of a massive stroke on November 23, 1979, in Malibu, California. Oberon was 68 and had kept her beauty to the end.- Hope Summers could portray a friendly neighbor or companion as she did for Frances Bavier's Aunt Bee character on many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (1960) or a seemingly amiable satanist in Rosemary's Baby (1968).
Born in Mattoon, Illinois, she developed an early interest in the theater. Graduating from Northwestern School of Speech in Evanston, Illinois, she subsequently taught speech and diction there. This, in turn, led to her the head position in the Speech Department at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, teaching students privately on the side as well. In the 1930s Hope began to focus on acting. She found work in community and stock theaters in Illinois and earned some notice for putting on one-woman shows such as "Backstage of Broadway." She made use of her vocal eloquence by building up her resumé on radio, performing in scores of dramatic shows, including "Authors' Playhouse," "First Night," "Ma Perkins", and "Step-Mother".
In 1950 Hope transferred her talents to the new medium of television and earned a regular role on the comedy series Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel (1950). By the age of 50 she was customarily called upon to play slightly older than she was, appearing in a number of minuscule matron roles in such films as Zero Hour! (1957), Hound-Dog Man (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), Spencer's Mountain (1963), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), Charley Varrick (1973) and her last, Foul Play (1978). She never had any major stand-out roles in movies; TV would be a more prolific choice of medium. Her gently stern, old-fashioned looks allowed her to be a part of many small-town settings, including Dennis the Menace (1959) and Petticoat Junction (1963), and in various western locales such as Maverick (1957) and Wagon Train (1957).
She played a rustic regular for many years on The Rifleman (1958). Usually assigned to play teachers, nurses and other helpful, nurturing types, her characters were also known to be inveterate gossips. Hope worked until close to the end of her life, passing away from heart failure in 1979. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Beckinsale was an English actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms. His best known characters were prison inmate Leonard Arthur "Lennie" Godber in "Porridge" (1974-1977) and its sequel series "Going Straight" (1978), and medical student Alan Moore in "Rising Damp" (1974-1978).
Beckinsale was born in the suburban town of Carlton, Nottinghamshire, which is part of the Borough of Gedling. His father Arthur John Beckinsale was Anglo-Burmese, while his mother Maggie Barlow was English. Beckinsale claimed to be a distant cousin of actor Charles Laughton (1899-1962).
Beckinsale attended College House Junior School in Chilwell, and performed in many school plays. His first notable role was that of Dopey the Dwarf in a school play adaptation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". He also appeared in school plays while attending Alderman White Secondary Modern School. In 1962, he decided to drop out of school and pursue a career as a professional actor. At age 15, Beckinsale was too young to attend drama school. He financially supported himself through a series of odd jobs.
In 1963, Beckinsale was enrolled at Nottingham College, Clarendon, pursuing a drama teacher's training programme. In 1965, Beckinsale applied for training the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He was accepted there with his second audition, one of only 31 applicants accepted. During his training, Beckinsale accepted a comedy award. He graduated in 1968.
Following his graduation, Beckinsale started appearing in repertory theatre. He toured the United Kingdom with such roles as the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz", Sir Andrew Aguecheek in "Twelfth Night", and the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet. He made his television debut in 1969, playing a one-shot police officer character in the soap opera "Coronation Street". He next gained a minor role in the drama series "A Family at War" (1970-1972).
His first major television role was that of leading Geoffrey Scrimshaw in the sitcom "The Lovers" (1970-1971). The premise was having a mismatched couple, with a romantic girl paired with a sex-obsessed boyfriend. It was a minor ratings hit and brought some much-needed fame to Beckinsale.
Beckinsale's career reached new heights with the hit sitcoms "Porridge" and "Rising Damp". He also appeared in the sequel series "Going Straight", with the humorous concept of former prison inmates trying to rebuild their lives and seeking honest jobs. His final major role was as the leading actor in the sitcom "Bloomers", but only five episodes were completed before his death.
In December, 1978, while filming episodes for "Bloomers", Beckinsale suffered from dizzy spells. He was worried about his health and sought medical help, but his doctor reassured him that his only health problems were "an overactive stomach lining, and slightly high cholesterol". He subsequently had further signs of ill health, but he attributed them to his nerves.
By 18 March, 1979, Beckinsale was suffering from pain in his chest and arms, but decided against seeking further help. He went to bed, and was found dead the next morning. He had died during the night due to a heart attack. At the time of his death, his wife Judy Loe was recovering in hospital after having an operation. A post-mortem examination revealed that his recent health problems were the results of undiagnosed coronary artery disease. He was only 31 at the time of his death.
Beckinsale was cremated in Bracknell, Berkshire, and his remains were taken to Mortlake Crematorium. A memorial service for him was attended by 300 people, a testament to his popularity. In his will, he left about 65,000 pounds for his wife and daughters. Only 18,000 pounds were left after taxes.- Actor
- Director
- Special Effects
Handsome, athletic leading man Jon Hall was the son of actor Felix Locher
and a Tahitian princess. Hall was married three times, two of which
were to entertainers: singer Frances Langford and actress Raquel Torres. His third
wife was a psychiatrist. They married in 1969 and lived in Los Angeles
with her two sons and a daughter.- Described in the press as the heir apparent to James Stewart and Jack Lemmon, Jim Hutton broke out of the pack with his funny, awkward TV Thompson in Where the Boys Are (1960). Son of Col. Thomas R. Hutton and Helen Ryan, his parents divorced when he was an infant. Jim recalled seeing his father only twice before his death, and moved to Albany, New York, in 1938. A bright but troublesome child (claiming to have been in five high schools and a boarding school), he excelled as a writer and won a journalism scholarship when he began writing sports for his high school newspaper. At Syracuse University, he lost his position in the school of journalism (and scholarship) when he was bitten by the acting bug. He subsequently lost academic ambition and failed three classes as a freshman. He used his summers to train in summer stock, but his intentions to continue academic pursuits were ended when he was expelled from Syracuse as a sophomore and again at Niagara College as a junior.
He lived in Greenwich Village for almost a year to pursue a career on the stage, but when out of money and unable to pay his rent or buy food, he joined the army and was assigned to special services to act in training films. He was later stationed in Berlin, where he founded the American Community Theater, by renovating an abandoned theater for a GI production of the play "Harvey" (which he starred in). Receiving high praise from officers including official commendation, his superior officer agreed to assign Hutton to manage the theater as part of his official duties and he produced, directed, and acted in five productions over two years, receiving the European Theater Award for Best GI Theater. One of his productions, The Caine Mutiny (1954), received the attention of director Douglas Sirk, who offered him the significant role of "Hirschland" in A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) as a young Nazi who commits suicide. Using his entire military leave to film for 22 days, Universal was so impressed they offered him a contract, but he still had 18 months of service. Within five days of his military discharge, he had married and moved to Hollywood to pursue a career, but by then the offer was off the table from Universal. He eventually landed at MGM. The first role of significance to get attention (and use his new stage name of Jim Hutton) was the first season The Twilight Zone (1959) episode, And When the Sky Was Opened (1959), which earned the newbie good notice within the industry. Eventually, he landed his breakout role of "TV Thompson" in Where the Boys Are (1960), paired with new-comer Paula Prentiss. He came in third in 1960's Golden Laurel Awards Top Male New Personality, was named one of Motion Picture Herald's Stars of Tomorrow, was a Photoplay Favorite Male Newcomer nominee, and Screen World Award winner for Most Promising Personality.
Prentiss and Jim Hutton were immediately paired into three other films, The Honeymoon Machine (1961), Bachelor in Paradise (1961), and The Horizontal Lieutenant (1962). But despite their likable personalities and on-screen chemistry, none of the films captured the magic of the first film. Frustrated, Hutton campaigned for the lead in Period of Adjustment and then refused jobs for 15 months until MGM agreed to give him better roles or dissolve their exclusive contract. He agreed to appear with Connie Francis in the film Looking for Love (1964) if he were let go to pursue work independently.
Once free from contracts, he was selected by Sam Peckinpah for the role of the young lieutenant in Major Dundee (1965). Dundee's turbulent production was the primary subject of reviews, yet the subsequent reassessment of the flawed film (particularly by Peckinpah scholars) has garnered Hutton posthumous praise for his youthful and exuberant performance. "Dundee" was followed by several acting veterans taking an interest in the underused actor's career, including Burt Lancaster in The Hallelujah Trail (1965), Cary Grant in Walk Don't Run (1966), and John Wayne in The Green Berets (1968). Like his later-appreciated performance in "Dundee", his role in The Green Berets (1968) was overlooked due to the film's controversial political stance on Vietnam. Yet, it has become common to see Hutton's performance as one of the bright spots in the film, thanks to his ability to incorporate his natural comic skills and cocky swagger into the role of wartime cynical scavenger who becomes the heroic adoptive father of a Vietnamese orphan. His work in these films, and leading roles in the underrated heist farce, Who's Minding the Mint? (1967), showed his growth as an actor. However, when all three of his 1965 releases flopped at the box office, his Hollywood stock took a major tumble, particularly when Gene Kelly dropped him from the lead in of A Guide for the Married Man (1967), one month before production started.
Film roles dried up and he was relegated to TV work, which coincided with what he called an eight-year depression. It wasn't until 1975 that he experienced a career comeback with the cult detective series Ellery Queen (1975), which coincided with an upturn of theater work and reunion with his son, actor Timothy Hutton, who moved in with him at this time at 15 years old. Tragically, his comeback didn't last long, as he died of liver cancer in 1979, two days after his 45th birthday. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Born as Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas, she had a brother and four sisters. Her family moved to Independence, Kansas, and later studied drama under Anna Ingleman and William Inge. Their next move, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, brought her to that city's Little Theatre, which provided her the money she needed to study under Eva Le Gallienne in New York. After arriving in 1932 she had trouble finding stage work until she began a two-year stint in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "Music in the Air".
She next understudied Ethel Merman in the hit "Anything Goes." Her first starring role was as Kay Thompson's last minute replacement in "Hooray for What!", starring Ed Wynn. In 1945, while starring in a touring company of "Voice of the Turtle" she had a nervous breakdown. After undergoing psychotherapy and limited movie work, she returned to the play at the La Jolla (California) Playhouse, where she was seen by Desi Arnaz who decided she was perfect for the role of Ethel Mertz (Ball and Arnaz's first choice, Bea Benaderet, was unavailable) in the I Love Lucy (1951) television series.
At first she didn't want the part (too frumpy), and hated being cast as the wife of William Frawley (she was 42, he was 64, and the two never got along). Frawley, an alcoholic and on the professional skids had actively campaigned for the role of Fred Mertz after learning that Gale Gordon was also unavailable. Desi Arnaz hired him, but only under strict conditions regarding alcohol consumption and professionalism. The runaway success of the series forced the two to work together but Frawley never forgave Vance for a comment she made about the disparity in their ages, which he overheard. After I Love Lucy (1951) ended she divorced her third husband, married again to John Dodds, and they moved to Stamford, Connecticut, the first time she had lived east of the Mississippi (aside from work) in many years.
In 1962, she began work on The Lucy Show (1962), but the pressures of long-distance commuting didn't suit her, so after three years she limited her herself to guest appearances. In 1974, she and her husband moved to Belvedere, California (just north of San Francisco Bay) so she could be near her sister. She battled ill-health throughout much of the 1970s and died in 1979, aged 70, of breast and bone cancer.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Jack Haley was a movie and vaudeville actor who is always remembered as
the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (1939). The Tin Man role was originally was going to
Buddy Ebsen, but due to allergic reaction from the aluminum powder makeup,
Ebsen was taken out of the casting and Haley replaced him. To avoid the
same problem arising, they used aluminum paste for Haley instead of the
powder. Haley starred in over thirty other movies.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Elsie Charlotte (Hennessy) and John Charles Smith. She was of English and Irish descent. Pickford began in the theater at age seven. Then known as "Baby Gladys Smith", she toured with her family in a number of theater companies. At some point, at her devout maternal grandmother's insistence, when young Gladys was seriously ill with diphtheria, she received a Catholic baptism and her middle name was changed to "Marie".
In 1907, she adopted a family name Pickford and joined the David Belasco troupe, appearing in the long-running The Warrens of Virginia". She began in films in 1909 with the 'American Mutoscope & Biograph [us]', working with director D.W. Griffith.
For a short time in 1911, to earn more money, she joined the IMP Film Co. under Carl Laemmle. She returned to Biograph in 1912, then, in 1913 joined the Famous Players Film Company under Adolph Zukor. She then joined First National Exhibitor's Circuit in 1918. In 1919, she co-founded United Artists with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and then-future husband, Douglas Fairbanks.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in 1911, in small-town Galesville, Wisconsin, to Lena (Toppen) and Raymond Joseph Kienzle, a contractor and builder. He was of German and Norwegian descent. Ray's early experience with film came with some radio broadcasting in high school. He left the University of Chicago after a year, but made such an impression on his professor and writer Thornton Wilder that he was recommended for a scholarship with Frank Lloyd Wright, where he learned the importance of space and geography, not to mention his later love for CinemaScope. When political differences came between the seasoned architect and his young protégé, Ray left for New York and became immersed in the radical theater.
He joined the Theatre of Action , which is where he met his good friend Elia Kazan, and later the Group Theatre. Times were tough and money was tight, but Ray loved the bohemian lifestyle of the close-knit group and enjoyed one of the happiest times of his life. Anybody who met him always noted his intellect and amazing energy. During this period he, along with his fellow Theater Group members, was also active in Socialist/Communist movement (which curiously went unnoticed during the Red Scare). In January 1937, Ray was put in charge of local theater activities by the Department of Agriculture's Resettlement Administration and moved to Washington with his wife Jean Evans, who was pregnant with his first child, Anthony. He also, along with Alan Lomax, traveled around the south and recorded folk musicians for the Library of Congress. The collaboration proved worthy, and in the early 40s Lomax and Ray were hired by CBS to produce a regular evening slot, headed by Woody Guthrie. In between this time Ray divorced his wife. Ray soon met John Houseman, who would become a very close friend. Houseman asked Ray to produce shows for the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information, which ended quickly due to political pressures. Meanwhile, Ray's good friend of the Group Theatre days Elia Kazan had been called to Hollywood to make his feature film debut A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), and hired Ray to be his assistant, where Ray was first introduced to filmmaking. Houseman called Ray back to New York where Ray made his live TV debut with the enormously popular Sorry, Wrong Number (1946), plus some other radio work.
In 1946 Houseman lent Ray the novel "Thieves Like Us" by Edward Anderson, and Ray fell in love with it; he was familiar with the Depression-era south. He worked hard at the adaptation, and though uncredited for the screenplay, Ray actually contributed a large amount to it. There was never any question of Ray directing the film, and under the sympathetic eyes of producers Houseman and Dore Schary, who was well-known for giving first-time writers and directors breaks, Ray enjoyed possibly the only truly happy film making experience of his career. The film stars Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell as young, naive lovers trying to let their love blossom while running from the law. The film is remembered today for Ray's unique use of the camera (this was one of the first times a helicopter was used to shoot action), a fast pace, and above all, his extreme empathy for society's outsiders. Sadly, the film was shelved for two years due to Howard Hughes's takeover of RKO, and the film was released to a single theater in England to great reviews before it was finally released in the U.S.
Ray was eager to go back to work and quickly accepted a project without thinking. That film was A Woman's Secret (1949), which Ray probably would've turned down had he though twice about going back to work, as it bears little of his fingerprints. The film is only memorable because it is where Ray met actress Gloria Grahame, who became his second wife. Ray referred to the film as "a disastrous experience, among other things because I met her." When she became pregnant, Grahame divorced her husband and married Ray, because they thought it was the right thing to do. The same day that she became divorced, Ray and Grahame were wed in Las Vegas, but their marriage was over before it even started; Grahame spent their honeymoon alone while Ray gambled away nearly $40,000 in one night. Though RKO's publicity department alleged that Grahame and Ray met after Grahame's separation and that their son Timothy was born nearly 4 months premature, certain obvious truths contradict that statement. The marriage was disastrous; the two separated a year later and their attempt at professional friendship ended when Ray caught Grahame in bed with his son by Jean Evans. They divorced in 1952. Although They Live by Night (1948) was still unreleased in the US at this time, several Hollywood stars had their own private screening rooms and the film was seen by several important people.
One such person was Humphrey Bogart, who was so impressed with the debut that he invited Ray to direct his first independent production, Knock on Any Door (1949), for a loan-out at Columbia. Though Bogart was initially puzzled by Ray's intensely emotional style of directing, the two had a lot in common and became good friends. The film became a modest success, but Ray had misgivings and later said, "I wish Luis Buñuel had made The Young and the Damned (1950) before I made Knock on Any Door (1949), because I would have made a hell of a lot better film." Indeed, though the subject (juvenile delinquents) is close to Ray's heart, the film is too perhaps too polemic for its own good. Back at RKO, Ray was obliged to make films close to Howard Hughes's heart but not to his own. Despite Ray's leftist views and previous association with the Communist Party, his friendship with Hughes benefited Ray for the better during the Red Scare, and Ray remained untouched, but was morally and contractually obligated to make films he had no care for, such as Born to Be Bad (1950), which starred Hughes' one-time lover, Joan Fontaine, and Flying Leathernecks (1951), a blatant pro-war film that went against Ray's politics. Ray also did uncredited touch-up work to film such as Roseanna McCoy (1949), The Racket (1951), Androcles and the Lion (1952), and Macao (1952) during his years at RKO. Though Ray had his misgivings on their last collaboration, Bogart must have been impressed with Ray because he was optioned for a second loan-out at Columbia. Based loosely on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place (1950) tells the story of a violent screenwriter who falls in love with a fellow Hollywood burnout while he is under investigation for a murder of a girl he barely knew. The story was changed drastically from the source novel and shaped to better suit Bogart, and the result is considered one of Bogart's best and most complex performances. Despite their marital problems, Ray insisted on casting Gloria Grahame for the role of Bogart's lover because he knew she was right for the role, and Grahame was praised for her work as well.
A critically acclaimed film at the time of its release but something of a box-office disappointment, In a Lonely Place (1950) has gained a reputation over the decades as a classic example of both film noir and existential, heartbreaking romance. Before his contract was finished at RKO, Ray was at least able to make two memorable films: On Dangerous Ground (1951) was a complex cop drama that again featured expressionistic camera moves (hand-held cameras were used, a rarity for the 1950s) and a look into a violent protagonist, and The Lusty Men (1952), a film about the complexity of coming home was disguised as a rodeo movie. It is considered an underrated work of both Robert Mitchum and Ray. After he left RKO, his first project was the pseudo Western Johnny Guitar (1954), which he never liked and hated making (mostly because of Joan Crawford) despite its box-office success. Today the film has gathered a cult status (Martin Scorsese is a big fan), and during this period the French New Wave directors began to take note of this American auteur; Jean-Luc Godard in particular idolized Ray and once stated that "the cinema is Nicholas Ray." In September of 1954, Ray wrote a treatment to "The Blind Run," about three troubled teenagers who create a new family in each other. This would form the basis for his most popular and influential film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955). After some re-writes, Ray started shopping for a lead actor. After a trip to the Strasberg Institute in New York proved fruitless, he learned that Elia Kazan had recently discovered a New York stage actor for his latest film, but he wasn't recommending him; even after Ray saw a rough cut of this actor's latest film he still wasn't sure.
It was only when Ray met 24-year-old James Dean at a party did he realize that this hot new talent would be perfect for the role of Jim Stark, a troubled youth whose world is unraveled in a 24-hour period. Ray and Dean formed a very close bond during filming, with Ray allowing Dean to improvise and even direct to his liking. The rest of the cast came together with the talents of two fifteen-year-olds: Natalie Wood (to whom Ray was rumored to have made advances) and Sal Mineo; as well as smaller roles, which Ray cast based on weeks of bizarre, improvised auditions as well as interviews with the actors. Filming was a wild ride, but it paid off; Mineo and Wood were both Oscar-nominated in the supporting acting categories, and Ray received his only Oscar nomination, for the screenplay.
Ray and Dean planned to make more movies after this, but Dean's death would never make that possible, and at least they left movie audiences with one great film. Ray loved working with younger actors and wanted to only make movies about them, but first he made Hot Blood (1956), based on research that his ex-wife had compiled about gypsies. During a stay in Paris Ray read an article called "Ten Feet Tall," about a teacher whose life fell apart because of a Cortisone addiction. Ray was fascinated by this and empathized with teachers' low pay at the time. Star and producer James Mason played Ed Avery, a family man whose life takes a nightmarish turn when he becomes addicted to Cortisone. Though a critical and financial disaster, today Bigger Than Life is considered Nicholas Ray's masterpiece and very ahead of its time. The French magazine Cahiers du Cinema named it one of the 10 best films of the 50s. In fact, the magazine was a huge admirer of Ray, and frequently would acclaim Ray's films for their style and substance while American critics dismissed them, adding to Ray's cult status as a director. Ray continued to make films, but his health started to become a problem on the set of Wind Across the Everglades (1958), and Ray was fired, with most of his footage discarded.
In the 1960s, he was invited to make two big-budget films in Spain, the Biblical epic King of Kings (1961) and 55 Days at Peking (1963), where he suffered a heart attack brought on by years of heavy drinking and smoking, not to mention stress. This sadly brought his Hollywood career to a premature finish. After his heart attack, he tried many times to direct again, but no projects made it off the ground. In addition, Ray was frequently using drugs and immersing himself in the chaos of the 1960s and the hippie generation. He did not direct again until the satirical porn short Wet Dreams (1974). Also in the 1970s, he became a teacher at New York University (one of his students was Jim Jarmusch), and despite his eccentricity, he connected with his students and together they made We Can't Go Home Again (1973), half documentary and half fiction. With the help of his friend Wim Wenders, he completed his last film, Lightning Over Water (1980), which was supposed to be about a painter dying of cancer and trying to sail to China to find a cure, but instead it became a sad documentary about Ray's last days.
Nicholas Ray died on June 6th, 1979 of lung cancer, but before his death he left the world some of the most painfully realized and contemporary motion pictures ever put on celluloid, and shared a fully realized vulnerability that will never be duplicated. Thirty years after his death, the cinema still is Nicholas Ray.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England on July 23, 1912, Wilding became a
commercial artist after leaving school. He gained employment in the art
department of a film studio in London in 1933, and he was soon
approached by producers to become a movie star-in-training due to his
dashing good looks. After debuting at age 21 in
Bitter Sweet (1933), Wilding worked
steadily in British pictures for nearly three decades. Though never a
star of the first rank, he had leading roles in numerous films,
including a part in the classic
In Which We Serve (1942).
Wilding often co-starred with Anna Neagle.
Wilding moved to Hollywood and was featured in two of
Alfred Hitchcock's lesser
efforts, Under Capricorn (1949)
and Stage Fright (1950).
Wilding's last movie role was a two-line cameo in
Robert Bolt's
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972),
which co-starred Leighton.- Born Mary Eileen "Mimi" Chesterton (nicknamed Mimi by her friends and
family) in St. Paul, Minnesota, titian beauty Claudia Jennings was
raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1966, she moved to Evanston,
Illinois, the first suburb north of Chicago just south of the Wisconsin
state line, where she graduated high school in 1968.
After joining the Hull House theater company in Chicago, she took a job
as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine in September 1968.
Photographer Pompeo Posar asked her to
test, and with a potential $5,000 check at stake -- enough for a ticket
to Hollywood -- she agreed. She eventually appeared as a Playmate in
November 1969, and later as 1970 Playmate of the Year. Re-naming
herself Claudia Jennings to avoid family embarrassment due to posing in
the nude, she became the most perennially popular Playmate of the
1970s, as well as the number one female star of "Drive-In" movies such
as The Unholy Rollers (1972)
and 'Gator Bait (1973). Her first film role was with the film Jud (1971), a low-budget, socially
conscious, independent film about a Vietnam soldier's return home.
While the film came and went without much notice, it encouraged Claudia
to go into the acting business full time.
From 1970 to 1975, she lived with songwriter/producer
Bobby Hart but, after their split,
her personal life began to spiral. She began using drugs and soon got a
reputation for being unreliable. As her cocaine use began to escalate,
her career from this point began to flounder.
One of her last theatrical film roles was a co-starring part in the
little-seen Canadian racetrack drama Fast Company (1979). After
narrowly missing the role of
Kate Jackson's replacement on
Charlie's Angels (1976) to
Shelley Hack in May 1979, she began a
tumultuous relationship with Beverly Hills realtor
Stan Herman. Following their split
later that summer, Jennings turned her life around and tried to quit
drugs and drinking, but sadly died before she could continue performing
in better films. On the morning of October 3, 1979, she was at the wheel of her VW convertible in Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, and drifted across the center divider, colliding head-on with a pickup truck near the intersection of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. She died a few minutes later before paramedics could arrive and get her to a nearby hospital. She was 29. - Actor
- Soundtrack
A genial, laid back, slumber-eyed character player especially adept at
the relaxed wisecrack or dry comment, Japanese-American actor Jack Soo
was born in Oakland, California, in 1917, his real name being Goro
Suzuki. In the post-WWII years, he entertained as a stand-up performer
in nightclubs and had made a reasonable dent on the Midwest circuit by
the time he earned his big break playing the club MC/comedian in the
Rodgers and Hammerstein hit Broadway musical "Flower Drum Song" in
1958. Three years later, Soo was upgraded to the Sammy Wong character
in the film version and decided to settle in Hollywood. Over the next
decade, despite a typical lack of roles for Asian-Americans, he managed
to find a niche for his hip, deadpan demeanor on TV and a few other
films including
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963),
the musical
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967),
and John Wayne's controversial
pro-Vietnam War film
The Green Berets (1968). Soo is
probably best remembered for his smart-aleck Detective Sgt. Nick Yemana
on Barney Miller (1975), one of
the more popular sitcoms of the 1970s alongside
Hal Linden and
Abe Vigoda. Sadly, he died of cancer during
the show's fifth season in 1979 at the height of his popularity.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Ann Dvorak was the daughter of silent film star
Anna Lehr and silents director
Edwin McKim. She entered films at the start
of sound, as a dance instructor for the lavish MGM musicals. She came
to international prominence in
Scarface (1932) with
Paul Muni, but often complained about
the lack of quality of her films, which led to arguments with her
bosses at Warners. She married British actor
Leslie Fenton in 1932, and came to Britain
to make a few films. She contributed to the British war effort driving
an ambulance. She retired from the screen in 1951, and died in 1979.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Emmaline Henry was born on 1 November 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Rosemary's Baby (1968), I Dream of Jeannie (1965) and I'm Dickens, He's Fenster (1962). She was married to Mark Roberts. She died on 8 October 1979 in Palm Springs, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Born as Bobby Wayne Pearson in Seminole, Oklahoma, on August 18, 1930, singer and comedian Jesse Pearson broke into films in 1963 with a hit, but his success was too ephemeral. After recording two singles on Decca Records that had little airplay, Pearson joined the national company of the stage musical "Bye Bye Birdie", and took the role of American rock idol Conrad Birdie who is drafted by the Army at the peak of his popularity, echoing Elvis Presley's story. After a year travelling with the show all over the United States, producer Fred Kohlmar liked Jesse's performance enough to have him repeat the Birdie part in the 1963 film version. This was followed by another funny role as Corporal Silas Geary in George Marshall's comedy western "Advance to the Rear" (1964), but as he had no more film offers, Pearson turned to television, appearing in shows such as "The Great Adventure", "McHale's Navy", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Death Valley Days", "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Bonanza".
Between acting jobs Pearson worked as composer Rod McKuen's assistant. When the musician was casting a voice for his album "The Sea" (1967), he felt the actor's presence and intimate vocal quality was just what the project needed, and it became the first in a string of albums narrated by Jesse Pearson. After he won a Gold Record for the million-selling "The Sea", Pearson recorded three more albums for McKuen: "Home to the Sea" (1968), and two recordings based on poems by Walt Whitman, "The Body Electric" and "The Body Electric-2", released in the early 1970s. Billed as Jess Pearson, he also narrated the tribute album to songwriter-singer Woody Guthrie "We Ain't Down Yet" and Bolivian composer Jaime Mendoza-Nava's religious LPs "And Jesus Said..." and "Meditation in Psalms", all in 1976. Pearson also recorded the album "The Glory of Love" for RCA Victor, which remains unreleased to this day.
Back to motion pictures in 1978, Pearson narrated the Viking saga "The Norseman", starring Lee Majors and Cornel Wilde and, as the decade allowed movies with more explicit sexual representation in cinemas, he wrote and directed the adult film "The Legend of Lady Blue" (1978) and wrote "Pro-Ball Cheerleader" (1979), under the name A. Fabritzi. But by then he was diagnosed with cancer, and moved to Monroe, Louisiana with his partner, to be close to his mother. Jesse Pearson died on December 5, 1979.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy
childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After
the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from
scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he began to
make movies; he wanted to make a star of her. They separated in 1930,
although he remained married to her until 1943. His next partner was
Marguerite Renoir, whom he never married, although she took his name. He left
France in 1941 during the German invasion of France during World War II
and became a naturalized US citizen.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dolores Costello was once known as the Goddess of the Silent Screen but
is probably best remembered today as
Drew Barrymore's grandmother. She
was born in 1905 to actors
Maurice Costello and
Mae Costello. Her father began his film career in 1908 and soon
became the most popular matinée idol of his day. He gave Dolores and
her sister
Helene Costello their screen debuts in
1911. Dolores appeared in numerous pictures throughout the 1910s and
the early 1920s, mostly with her father and sister. She later appeared
on the New York stage with her sister in "George White Scandals of
1924." They were then signed by Warner Bros. where Dolores met future
husband John Barrymore.
Barrymore soon made Dolores his costar in
The Sea Beast (1926). During their
lengthy kissing scene Dolores fainted in John's arms. They married in
1928 despite the misgivings of her mother, who would die the following
year at age 45. They had two children, DeDe in 1931 and
John Drew Barrymore in 1932. Dolores
took time off from her movie career in the early 1930s to raise her
young children. Her sister Helene and her new husband, actor
Lowell Sherman, successfully convinced
Dolores to divorce Barrymore in 1935, mainly because of his excessive
drinking.
After the divorce Dolores returned to acting, appearing in several
big-budget pictures, and her career seemed to be back on track. Her
physical appearance, however, was greatly damaged from the harsh
studio makeup used in the early years. The skin on her cheeks was in
the process of deteriorating, forcing her into early retirement. She
lived in semi-seclusion on her Southern California avocado farm,
Fallbrook Ranch, where much of the memorabilia and papers from both the
Barrymore and Costello family were destroyed in a flood.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Darla Hood was born in the small town of Leedey, Oklahoma on November 8, 1931. Hood began her association with "Our Gang" at the tender age of 2 1/2, as she stated on the The Jack Benny Program (1950). Her father, James Claude Hood Jr., a banker, and especially her mother, Elizabeth Davner Hood, prodded their daughter's musical talents with singing and dancing lessons in Oklahoma City. She made an unscheduled, impromptu singing debut at Edison Hotel in Times Square when the band-leader invited her onto the stage, and the crowd roared in appreciation. By sheerest coincidence, Joe Rivkin, (an agent of Hal Roach) spotted the four year old scene stealer, screen tested her & signed her to a long-term (7 year) contract at $75 weekly.
Darla went on to perform as the leading "Rascals" actress in 51 of the popular short films plus a television movie. She recalled finding her off-camera time on set as lonely as the boys tended to group together and play such "boys" games as baseball and football. At the beginning of her association with the "Little Rascals", she appeared opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in one of their handful of feature films, The Bohemian Girl (1936). Darla Hood's tenure as most popular "Little Rascals" actress, began in 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935) and her finale, Wedding Worries (1941). Then, almost 40 years later, during the last four months of her life, she voiced her "Little Rascals" character with the animated off-screen special, The Little Rascals' Christmas Special (1979). She did not live to see it televised.
While very few of the "Our Gang" shorts were made during World War II due to the scarcity of film (a majority of them were saved for feature-length wartime propaganda films), by the time the series was to be finally revived in 1945, she had already outgrown her role. She had some trouble dealing with the inevitable transition into a teen actor and her career faltered badly. She graduated with honors from Fairfax High School (Hollywood). She found some work with Ken Murray's popular "Blackbirds" variety show on the Los Angeles stage as well as some behind-the-scenes work in the post-war years.
With her first husband, Robert W. Decker (whom she married when she was 17 years old), she formed the vocal group "Darla Hood and the Enchanters", which provided incidental background music for such classic films as A Letter to Three Wives (1949). She also made appearances in nightclubs and on television variety shows, The Ken Murray Show (1950), The Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue (1949), and she was also performed & or sang songs, on a few Merv Griffin's radio programs. Another successful outlet for her was in the field of voice-over work in cartoons and commercials "Chicken of the Sea" was her longest lasting commercial tenure, as the mermaid. She also did some "Campbell's Soup" commercials, at the same time, but fewer. In time, she became a well-oiled impressionist and trick voice artist.
In June of 1957, at the age of 25, she divorced her first husband after eight years of marriage and by whom she had her first two children (one son, Brett, and one daughter, Darla Jo). She promptly married her former manager, Jose Granson, a musical publisher. She and Granson had three children together. Hood remained small in show business until her untimely end, which came on Wednesday, June 13, 1979, when she died of congestive heart failure. She had recently had an appendectomy at Canoga Park Hospital, during which she received a blood transfusion. The transfusion caused her to contract acute hepatitis, which led to her heart failure. She passed away at a Hollywood hospital. Following her funeral, she was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, later renamed Hollywood Forever.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dick Foran was the matinée idol of the B
movies. He started as a band singer and then sang on the radio. He was
hired by Warner Brothers as a supporting actor who could croon a tune
when called upon. His good looks and good natured personality made him
a natural choice for the supporting cast. His first starring role was
in the western
Treachery Rides the Range (1936)
which was Warner Brothers answer to
Gene Autry. In the westerns that
followed, he would sing the tune while riding the horse or romancing
the gal. Whether it was
Song of the Saddle (1936) or
California Mail (1936), his
character name may be different, but 'The Singing Cowboy' tag was
always the same. While at Warner's he also played straight dramatic
roles, supporting the star. In 1940, Dick headed for Universal where he
was, again, in the supporting cast. He worked in serials,
Rangers of Fortune (1940);
horror, The Mummy's Hand (1940);
to comedy,
Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942). His
signature theme "I'll Remember April" was introduced in
Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942). After
that, roles were sporadic. He made a half dozen films in the late
fifties and did some Television. His last film role was in
Donovan's Reef (1963) with his
longtime friend John Wayne.- Actress
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Soundtrack
Laurie Bird was a cute and charming actress who appeared in only three
pictures during her regrettably short-lived career. Bird was born on
September 26, 1953 in Long Island, New York. Laurie was working as a
model when she was chosen by director
Monte Hellman, from nearly 500 women, to
portray "The Girl" in
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971). Bird
gave a fine and impressively natural performance in her film debut as
the chatty and rootless hippie wanderer, "The Girl", in Hellman's
extraordinary road movie masterpiece. She was likewise excellent as
Harry Dean Stanton's snippy young
wife, "Dody Burke White", in Hellman's bleakly fascinating character
study Cockfighter (1974). Following
her small role as Paul Simon's L.A.
girlfriend in Woody Allen's
Annie Hall (1977), Laurie quit acting,
altogether, and became a photographer. Bird committed suicide in
boyfriend Art Garfunkel's Manhattan
penthouse, at the tragically young age of 25, on June 15, 1979.
Garfunkel dedicated his album, "Scissors Cut", to Laurie. The album
features a partial photograph of Laurie Bird on its back cover.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Prime character veteran Doris Packer has one of those placid, glowering veteran faces you know you've seen over and over again but just can't seem to place. Close your eyes, however, and that bosom-heavy voice of hers is absolutely unmistakable. Found quite comfortably amid plush settings, she usually was the possessor of the bluest blood in town.
A Michiganite, the delightfully austere "Mrs. Moneybags" was born on May 30, 1904, and was still quite young when her family relocated to Southern California. Doris enjoyed acting in plays in high school and studied at UCLA. Eventually she decided to move to New York and attended The Drama School under the guidance of Evelyn Thomas.
Doris graced such Broadway productions as "Back Fire" (debut, 1932), "Something More Important," "The Old Women," "Strip Girl" and "Elizabeth the Queen," while also meeting and marrying stage director Rowland G. Edwards. An avid radio performer in New York, she was a popular player on such shows as "Henry Aldrich" and "Mr. & Mrs. North."
In 1943, during World War II, Doris enlisted in the U.S. Army Women's Army Corps (WACs) and reached the rank of Technical Sergeant before her discharge. Following her husband's death in 1953, Doris relocated to the West Coast to try out film and TV. Though she never obtained a series of her own, she found a niche for herself as a haughty comedy foil, offering her inimitably huffy self to scores of sitcoms.
Doris found a recurring role on the popular comedy series, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), but is even better remembered for her stern, by-the-book "Principal Rayburn" on Leave It to Beaver (1957) and as disdainful society snob "Mrs. Chatsworth Osborne, Sr." on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959). TV guest appearances would include the comedies "I Love Lucy," "The Andy Griffith Show, "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Jack Benny Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Pete and Gladys," "Green Acres," "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" and a final spot on "A Touch of Grace" in 1973. More dramatic appearances occurred on "City Detective," "State Trooper," "Maverick," "The Thin Man," "Perry Mason" and "The Twilight Zone."
A few minor movie roles came Doris' way, but not many. They included Meet Me at the Fair (1953), Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955), Anything Goes (1956), Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), Walt Disney's Bon Voyage! (1962), Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) and The Perils of Pauline (1967). Her last film was a small part in Shampoo (1975) starring Warren Beatty. Unforgettable no matter how small the part, 74-year-old Doris passed away on March 31, 1979, in Glendale, California, of natural causes.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Luddy was an American actress and vaudeville singer from Great Falls, Montana. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Luddy regularly worked as a voice actress for the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Her best known role was voicing the co-protagonist Lady in the animated romance film "Lady and the Tramp" (1955). Her other prominent voice roles included the heroic fairy Merryweather in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) and the maternal kangaroo Kanga in the featurettes "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" (1966), "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" (1968), and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" (1974). Archive footage of Luddy's voice was also used for Kanga in the feature film "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977).
In 1908, Luddy was born in Great Falls, Montana. The city was named for its proximity to the Great Falls of the Missouri River, a series of 5 waterfalls located in north-central Montana. The city was established in 1883 by the businessman and politician Paris Gibson (1830-1920), who planned to use the waterfalls as a source for hydroelectricity. Great Falls became the first city in Montana with its own hydroelectric dam. Luddy's parents were Will and Molly Luddy.
Luddy was educated in a convent for Ursulines, a Catholic religious order dedicated to the education of girls. Luddy started performing as a singer in the vaudeville circuit during her childhood. By the late 1920s, Luddy served as an actress in a touring company with fellow vaudevillian Leo Carrillo (1880-1961). In 1929, their company toured Australia. The press in Sydney praised Luddy for "her pert audacity and vivaciousness".
During the 1930s, Luddy started regularly performing as a voice actress in radio shows. From 1936 to 1943, Luddy was part of the main cast in the anthology series "The First Nighter Program" (1930-1953). Most of the series' episodes featured romantic-comedy plots. In 1937, Luddy signed a long-term contract for her exclusive services in this series.
During World War II, Luddy was part of the main cast in the radio soap opera "Lonely Women" (1942-1943). It was one of the many soap operas created by scriptwriter Irna Phillips (1901-1973), who typically focused on depicting the complexities of modern life. Luddy voiced Judith Clark, a lovesick secretary. The cast of characters in this series was originally all-female, but male characters were among the late additions to the series.
By the 1950s, Luddy started regularly working for Disney Animation as a voice actress. By the 1960s, she started having minor roles in television. She appeared in then-popular series, such as the sitcom "Hazel" (1961-1966), and the soap opera "Days of Our Lives" (1965-).
In April 1979, Luddy died due to lung cancer. She was 70-years-old at the time of her death, dying a month before her 71st birthday. She is still fondly remembered by animation fans for her voice roles, long after her heyday. Her character of Lady became a regular supporting character in the Disney comic strip "Scamp" (1955-1988), where the eponymous protagonist was Lady's son.- The daughter of Bretislav Lvovsky, a.k.a. Emil Pick (1857-1910), a minor Czech opera composer, Lovsky was born in Vienna, where she trained at the Royal Academy of Arts and Music. She was a rising stage star in Vienna and Berlin in 1929, when she met future husband Peter Lorre. Celia accompanied the Jewish Lorre when he fled Hitler's Berlin to Vienna in 1933, then to Paris, then London where they married during the filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), in which Celia had an uncredited bit as a Russian aristocrat.
Although she accompanied Lorre to Hollywood, she did not act professionally while married; but, after their divorce in 1945, she became a Hollywood character actress, appearing in over 40 films between 1947-73, and some 200 television appearances between 1952 and 1974. Due to her accent, she played mostly European-born characters, often dignified or aristocratic; occasionally Hispanics, once a Native American (!), and T'Pau, the ruler of the planet Vulcan on Amok Time (1967). She remained a close friend of her former husband until his death in 1964, aged 59. She died of natural causes in 1979, at age 82. - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
John Carroll was born on 17 July 1906 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Flying Tigers (1942), Hi, Gaucho! (1935) and Death in the Air (1936). He was married to Lucille Ryman Carroll and Steffi Duna. He died on 24 April 1979 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Robert Karnes was born on 19 June 1917 in Watsonville, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Rocky King, Detective (1950), Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948) and Police Story (1973). He was married to Doris Karnes. He died on 4 December 1979 in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
James Nusser was born on 3 May 1905 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Gunsmoke (1955), Perry Mason (1957) and The Magical World of Disney (1954). He died on 6 June 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Tall American character actor with distinctively dark eyebrows and
graying hair. The son of an engineer, he was a respected performer on
Broadway for thirty years, beginning in 1934. He had a reputation for
being a consummate professional and a great storyteller. Despite his
military bearing and aristocratic manner, Bourneuf was versatile in
just about any part, ranging from Shakespeare to comedy and musicals.
He was in the original cast of
Eva Le Gallienne's American Repertory
Theatre. In 1947, Bourneuf received a special award for his
performances from the New York Drama Critics Circle.
Feature films rarely did justice to his abilities as an actor, though
he had a rare chance to shine as a grand-standing district attorney in
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956).
He was, however, better served by television, appearing in numerous
guest spots from as early as 1949. - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
William Gargan was an American actor, better known for playing fictional detectives Ellery Queen, Martin Kane, and Barrie Craig. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Gargan was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City. He attended St. James School in Brooklyn. While he was the younger brother of actor Edward Gargan (1902-1964), Gargan was not initially interested in an acting career. He worked as a salesman of bootleg whiskey during the Prohibition, and later as a professional detective. His life changed through a visit to his brother on a musical comedy stage/ Gargan was offered a stage job of his own, and he accepted.
Gargan started out as a theatrical actor, appearing in the play "Aloma of the South Seas". His film career started in the 1930s, and he was often typecast as as a stereotypical Irishman. He played policemen, priests, reporters, and adventurers. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joe in the romantic drama "They Knew What They Wanted" (1940). The film was an adaptation of a 1924 play by Sidney Howard (1891-1939), and Joe was depicted as a womanizing foreman who has an affair with a woman engaged to one of his workers. While Gargan's role was critically well-received, the award was instead won by rival actor Walter Brennan (1894-1974).
In the 1940s, Gargan portrayed popular detective Ellery Queen in three films: "A Close Call for Ellery Queen" (1942), "A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen" (1942), and "Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen" (1942). "Enemy Agents" was the final entry in the Ellery Queen film series. Gargan spend the rest of the decade mostly playing supporting roles in film.
Gargan found another major role as a detective, playing protagonist Martin Kane in the radio series "Martin Kane, Private Eye".(1949-1952). He also appeared in the television adaptation of the series, which lasted from 1949 to 1954. While he was the originator of the role, Gargan was eventually replaced by actor Lloyd Nolan (1902-1985). Nolan was eventually replaced by actor Lee Tracy (1898-1968). The final actor to portray Martin Kane in the original series was Mark Stevens (1916-1994). Gargan returned to the role in the sequel series "The New Adventures of Martin Kane" (1957).
Gargan also played detective Barrie Craig in the popular radio series "Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator" (1951-1955). Unlike the hard-boiled detectives of the genre (popularized by Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe), Craig was noted for his laid-back personality. The series was suggested for adaptation to a television series, but only an unsuccessful pilot episode was filmed.
Gargan's acting career ended abruptly in 1958, when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. His larynx was surgically removed in 1960. This saved his life, but Gargan lost his distinctive voice. He spend the rest of his life speaking through an artificial voice box. He became a spokesman for the American Cancer Society, warning people about the dangers of smoking. Meanwhile he established his own production company, William Gargan Productions.
In 1979, Gargan suffered a mid-flight heart attack, while flying from New York City to San Diego. He died due to the heart attack, at the age of 73. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego, California.- Actor
- Soundtrack
As a young man, Kurt Kasznar enrolled in
Max Reinhardt's seminars. He came
to the US in the mid-30s in "The Eternal Road," in which he played at
least 12 roles. In 1941, he produced the New York show, "Crazy with the
Heat." That same year, he was drafted into the army, where he was
trained as a cinematographer and served in the Pacific. His first major
Broadway role was "The Happy Time." Kasznar also played in "The Sound
Of Music," "Barefoot in The Park," "Waiting for Godot" and "Six
Characters in Search of an Author." He has appeared in many films.- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Along with fellow Sex Pistol member, Johnny Rotten, lanky, sneering,
pock faced Sid epitomised the punk movement born in the mid 1970s in
working class England. Sid Vicious (real name John Beverly) wasn't an
original member of the Pistols, but rather joined the band after
original bassist, Glen Matlock dropped out after personality clashes
with lead singer Rotten. On stage, Sid (often stripped to the waist)
would incite the audience to get wilder and more frenzied, and his
infamous antics included spitting and spraying beer into the audience.
The British establishment despised the Pistols with a passion, and Sid
was viewed as a crude, foul mouthed hoodlum corrupting English youth
with his unclean image. Unfortunately for a naive Sid, he fell into the
company of alleged drug user, Nancy Spungen, and his world spiralled
out of control leading to the break up of the Pistols (their last show
being in San Francisco), and Sid's lame attempts to kick start his own
solo career, which included a demented cover of the popular Frank
Sinatra song "My Way", accompanied by a violent video clip. Vicious and
Spungen took up residency in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in
early 1978, however their self destructive personalities meant a
tragedy was fast approaching, and on October 12th 1978, Spungen was
found dead in their hotel room from stab wounds. Vicious was charged by
police with Spungen's murder and released on bail, pending trial.
However, only four months later in February 1979, Vicious himself was
found dead of a heroin overdose. Sid was dead at aged 21. His will
requested his ashes be poured over Nancy's grave at the King David
Cemetery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Along with Janis Joplin, Brian
Jones & Jimi Hendrix, Sid had assured himself a place in rock and roll
history, as another iconic music figure dead at a young
age.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Corinne Griffith was a popular star of the silent movies. She
started her film career at Vitagraph in 1916 and later moved to First
National, where she became one of that studio's biggest stars. At the height of
her popularity she was known as the "Orchid Lady of the Screen."
Black Oxen (1923) was one of her most
popular films. In 1925 she made Déclassé (1925), which featured a young extra named Clark Gable.
Corinne received an Academy Award nomination for her work in
The Divine Lady (1928), but
sound did not embrace her in the same way that the silent films had.
Music was a popular device used in many early sound movies, but she
quickly proved that she was not cut out to be a singer, and the fact that her acting style remained rooted in the wooden pre-sound days didn't help matters. Her last Hollywood film was released in 1930. After appearing in an
English film in 1932, she retired. She appeared in one final film,
Paradise Alley (1962), a low-budget Hugo Haas potboiler.- An alumnus of the Pasadena Playhouse, Louise Allbritton's beauty and
talent quickly got her jobs in the film industry, and she spent several
years at Universal, where she played leads in mainly second features.
She married CBS news reporter Charles Collingwood in 1946, and retired from the
screen a few years later. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Clarence Muse was born on October 14, 1889 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA as Clarence Edouard Muse. He was an actor, known for Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and The Black Stallion (1979). He was married to Irene Ena Kellman, Willabelle Burch West and Ophelia Belle Labertier. He died on October 13, 1979 in Perris, California, USA- Actor
- Soundtrack
This distinctive-looking, bushy-browed, heavy-set Welsh character actor
played dozens of rustics, sea captains, sheriffs, priests and police
officers during a forty-year long career, starting in 1926. His was the
perfect face for period drama. At the peak of his popularity, Owen
co-starred as a first mate in
Captain David Grief (1957),
a South Seas adventure based on stories by
Jack London. During the 1940's and
50's, he was prolific on radio, lending his voice to crime dramas like
"Pursuit" (CBS, 1949-52) and "Pete Kelly's Blues". His best-known role
was that of alcoholic
'wharf-bum' Jocko Madigan, drunk ex-doctor friend and sidekick of star Jack Webb,
in "Pat Novak for Hire". He also voiced Towser in
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)).- Kathleen Case was born on 31 July 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Human Desire (1954), Running Wild (1955) and The Second Greatest Sex (1955). She died on 22 July 1979 in North Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jane Hylton was born on 16 July 1927 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Here Come the Huggetts (1948), My Brother's Keeper (1948) and Passport to Pimlico (1949). She was married to Euan Lloyd and Peter Dyneley. She died on 28 February 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.- At the age of eleven, Richard Ward started in showbiz, accompanying his
two sisters in a vaudeville song and dance act called 'Dot, Flo and
Dick'. From a tap-dancing kid, Richard grew into a burly, raspy-voiced
young adult, whose physique became a major asset in his first career as
a prize-fighter. After some 30 wins, both as professional and amateur,
he quit and joined the police force, where he served for ten years as a
detective with the office of Manhattan district attorney Frank Hogan.
He also dabbled in the performing arts, appearing in such plays as
"Anna Lucasta" at the American Negro Theatre. During World War II,
Richard served as a sergeant major with the Army Signals Corps in the
South Pacific. From the 1950's, Richard concentrated on his acting,
continuing to appear on stage as well as playing dramatic roles in
television.
The high point in his career came, when he was cast in the pivotal role
of Willy Loman in the Baltimore Centerstage production of "Death of a
Salesman", directed by Lee Sankowich (as
part of an all-black cast). On the screen, his dominant gravel-voiced
persona lent itself ideally to portraying authority figures, usually
police officers like Captain Dobey in
Starsky and Hutch (1975).
In private life, he was said to have been an amiable character, whose
simple pleasures included fishing and cooking. Just prior to his
untimely death, Richard had enjoyed his first major breakthrough in
motion pictures, playing
Steve Martin's father in
The Jerk (1979), and one of the
long-term inmates in warden
Robert Redford's prison in
Brubaker (1980). - Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Minnie Riperton was born November 8, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, to
Thelma Inez (Matthews) and Daniel Webster Riperton, a Pullman porter.
At a young age, Riperton, the youngest of eight children, began taking
dancing and ballet. Once she reached high school, she began singing in
the Hyde Park A Capella Choir. From there, she signed her first
professional contract (age 16) and began singing with an all-girl group
named "The Gems" on the Chess label. After breaking from "The Gems",
Riperton made a complete switch; she joined the psychedelic rock group
"The Rotary Connection" in 1967 and was installed as the lead singer in
1968. During her time with "The Rotary Connection", Riperton met
songwriter and producer
Richard Rudolph. They married in 1969
and had a son, Marc Rudolph. Together,
Rudolph and Riperton worked on Riperton's first solo album, 1969's
"Come to My Garden", which met with only minimal success. Riperton
rejoined "The Rotary Connection" for their last album,
1971's "Hey Love". After
finishing work with them, Riperton relocated to Gainesville, Florida,
where she gave birth to her daughter
Maya Rudolph.
Eventually, she moved to Los Angeles to become a member of
Stevie Wonder's backing group,
"Wonderlove".
After touring with Wonder, she returned to the studio to work on her
second solo album, "Perfect Angel". Because of her work with
Stevie Wonder, he agreed to help produce
"Perfect Angel", which contained the international pop hit "Lovin'
You". "Lovin' You", as the story is told, was originally supposed to be
a lullaby for her then two-year-old daughter, Maya.
The year 1974 proved to be big for Riperton, as her album "Perfect
Angel" was certified gold by the RIAA. In 1975, she returned to the
studio to produce 1975's "Adventures in Paradise" and, although it
didn't mirror the success of "Perfect Angel", it was popular with R&B
audiences. The album contained the song "Inside My Love", which has now
become a classic with younger audiences. In 1976, while working on her
fourth solo album, "Stay In Love: A Romantic Fantasy Set to Music",
Riperton found that she was suffering from breast cancer. The following
year, President Jimmy Carter
presented her with the American Cancer Society's Courage Award, and she
later became the chairwoman. In 1978, Riperton signed a new contract
with Capitol Records and began work on her last album, titled "Minnie".
The album contained the hits "Memory Lane" and "Lover and Friend". Her
health continued to decline in 1979, and eventually she lost her battle
with cancer and passed away on July 12, 1979. A year after her death,
Capitol released a posthumous album, "Love Lives Forever", featuring
her recorded vocals with various singers such as
Peabo Bryson,
Michael Jackson, Shanice and
Stevie Wonder. Today, Riperton's influence
can be heard in the voices of Mariah Carey,
Chanté Moore and
Ariana Grande. Her son,
Marc Rudolph, is a music engineer. Her
daughter, Maya Rudolph, is a
regular cast member on
Saturday Night Live (1975).- Lou Frizzell was born on 10 June 1920 in Springfield, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for The Front Page (1974), The Other (1972) and Summer of '42 (1971). He died on 17 June 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claire Carleton was born on 28 September 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Mickey Rooney Show (1954), Death of a Salesman (1951) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). She was married to Fred Sherman and Walter Lewis Beadle. She died on 11 December 1979 in Northridge, California, USA.- American character actor of gruff demeanor who played in dozens of
films through the Thirties and Forties. A native of New Jersey, he was
a wagon driver for his father's laundry business before joining a
vaudeville company. He played in stock and touring companies, then was
cast in the Walter Huston production of 'Desire Under the Elms' on Broadway.
While working on the New York stage, he made a few appearances in films
shot on Long Island. In 1935 he came to Hollywood and appeared with
great frequency in supporting roles over the next decade and a half. In
the early 1950s, he was blacklisted for his political beliefs during
the Communist witch-hunts, and returned to the stage almost exclusively
thereafter. In 1976, he gained perhaps his greatest fame, as the title
character's libidinous grandfather on the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) TV series. But three
years later, he was beaten to death by robbers burgling his
apartment. - Jody grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where she had her own musical show on local radio while she was still in high school. In her later teens, she toured the south in musical comedies, performed in summer stock across America and discovered that she would never get any good roles on the New York stage because of her strong Texas accent and ever-increasing size. By the time she was 20, she was finished with theatre. Broadway didn't want her, but it turned out that Hollywood did.
"There's one girl in Hollywood who worries neither over her weight nor waistline," wrote the gossip columnist May Mann in 1940, a few years after Jody arrived on the west coast. "She is Jody Gilbert, who eats heartily, takes only enough exercise to get her where she's going and does all right in the movies. Still in her early 20s, she already weighs an imposing 197 pounds and hopes to do even better. 'I'm a girl of parts,' she says, 'and the more parts the merrier' ... 'Why,' she asks chuckling, 'should I worry over my avoirdupois? It's done all right for me so far. If I lost any one of these chins I might be just another actress. As it is, I'm a person of some weight around here.'"
Sure enough, her avoirdupois did just fine for her, bringing her close to 100 roles in movies throughout the 1940s, ranging mostly from comic fat-girl parts with one line to comic fat-girl bit parts with no lines, like her role in Ninotchka (1939), in which she appears for a few seconds as Greta Garbo's roommate, who comes home to their cramped apartment and gets into her bed in the middle of a party.
Then, in 1948, she landed the role of Rosa, "the spectacularly fat and unattractive daughter of Pasquale", a supporting character on the radio program, Life With Luigi. The show was popular enough to make the jump to television, where it ran for a couple of seasons. However, both the radio show and the television show came to an end in 1953, the year in which when an unsuccessful writer called Harvey Narcisenfield identified Jody to the House Committee Un-American Activities (HUAC) as having been a member of the Communist party.
It was the height of the blacklist. Dozens of well-known actors, directors and producers had seen their careers destroyed following an appearance before the committee, regardless of whether any pro-Communist activity could be proved, so Jody would have been quite aware of what was almost certain to happen to her -- a small-time comedy actress -- when she received the subpoena requiring her to testify. And perhaps that's why she decided to make a mockery of the proceedings.
The committee's official report records that, just after lunch on 26 May, 1953, Jody sat down at the witness table. She was accompanied by two lawyers, but, as she pointed out with a self-deprecating reference to her considerable size, there was room for only one of them to sit beside her.
Frank Tavenner, the HUAC counsel, started off by asking Jody to give the committee a general description of her career.
"My first appearance, or my first movie, or my first radio show or my first television show?" asked Jody, innocently.
"What the record of your profession has been. If you were entitled to screen credits and received them in moving pictures or in radio, or any other matter," replied Tavenner, his emphasis on credits revealing that he had no idea of the insignificance of Jody's output before Life With Luigi. She'd had only a handful of screen credits, and they'd all been within the past few years.
Jody explained: "I was a little bit surprised myself, when I sat down to count up the score the other night, because I didn't realize that I had such a fine career, because I was such an unimportant person, you see; the person that the Hollywood trade papers refer to as a good -- "
"Will you answer the question, please!" Tavenner was already frustrated with Jody, and he didn't yet know that she planned to continue to pretend to answer his simple question for as long as he could bear it without giving him any helpful information whatsoever.
Jody rambled on, as if pleased to find herself unexpectedly in the company of an eager fan who wished to find out everything that there was to know about her wonderful life as a Hollywood extra, and Tavenner grew more and more annoyed. "I didn't ask you for a detailed statement," he pointed out with exasperation, "If you would just confine yourself to answering my questions."
Jody replied mischievously, "The Long Beach papers said that I would be a talkative witness, and I don't want to disprove anything that is printed in the press."
Tavenner persevered, asking Jody to tell the committee the names of some films for which she'd received screen credits, and Jody had to repeat that she rarely received screen credits, although she always received very good notices. "All right, then," said Tavenner, "I will change the question and ask you what were some of the major pictures in which you took part?"
Jody explained that that was really a matter of semantics -- who can say what makes a picture truly major, after all?
The committee had been sitting for 10 minutes already, and the counsel hadn't yet got past his first introductory question. A further 10 minutes later, while appearing to try honestly to answer all of Tavenner's questions as helpfully as possible, Jody had somehow conceded only that she had first appeared on stage when she was four, but not what year that was, and that she lived on North Bronson Avenue in Hollywood.
Tavenner tried to get the questioning back on course by informing Jody that she had been mentioned in testimony that they had received, whereupon Jody asked if she would be allowed to confer with her counsel for about two minutes -- she acknowledged that that might cause an awkward pause, saying sympathetically, "Nobody is more aware of dead air than I am."
Tavenner exclaimed, "I am willing for you to consult with counsel, of course, but I haven't asked you a question yet!"
Jody had to turn around and ask the audience in the public gallery to be quiet. Evidently, she couldn't hear Tavenner over their laughter.
Jody continued to play to the crowd until the committee chairman reprimanded her, saying, "This is a serious matter." At that, Jody dropped her clown routine for the first time in the meeting. "It certainly is," she replied, "I lost my job."
Tavenner seized his chance and pressed on: "I say you have been identified by Mr Harvey Narcisenfeld as having been a member of the Communist party, and I want to ask you about that. Have you ever been a member of the Communist party?"
"Do you really expect me to answer that?" asked Jody.
"Yes, Miss Gilbert, please."
If Tavenner expected the meeting to proceed according to the by-now well-established script whereby an actor would avoid answering the question by simply pleading the fifth amendment before being dismissed in disgrace, he was to be disappointed.
Yes, Jody pleaded the fifth - but it was the fifth commandment, not the fifth amendment. "Honor thy father and mother that thy days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord thy God has given thee," Jody quoted, before explaining: "I choose to interpret that to mean forefathers." She didn't want to dishonor her forefathers by doing anything other than protecting the rights that they had given her, which meant that she could do no other than decline to answer Tavenner's impertinent question.
She tried to explain her reasoning further, but Tavenner had had enough, and kept asking, "Do you decline to answer the question?" and "Do you rely on the fifth amendment?"
"I actually rely on the constitution of the United States and the ten commandments," Jody retorted. "I am aware that the fifth amendment was written for the protection of the innocent, and I rely on the fifth amendment." Then, just before the committee threw her out, she managed to squeeze in one more fat joke: "I am not hiding behind the fifth amendment" -- an impossibility, given her size -- "I am standing right in front of it!"
The committee refused to allow her to make a final statement or ask a question, and, as she left the room, she pledged to do so elsewhere.
She might have done, but the press didn't report it. The newspapers that mentioned her appearance before the committee portrayed it as a confusing farce, rather than as the corrosive indictment of a vicious and unfair witch hunt that Jody was presumably aiming for. The Billings Gazette's headline is typical of the tone of the coverage: Actress Invokes Many Amendments!
It was an astonishingly brave performance, and it might even have been the first time that anyone had ever dared to treat the committee with the contempt that most of the movie-making community privately agreed it deserved, but, for Jody, the outcome was that she didn't have a day's work in the next 12 years. It was 1965 before she started to get even the smallest roles on television shows, and 1969 before she appeared in a film again, when she was an extra in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
A decade later, during which time she averaged only one television appearance a year, Jody was in a car accident. She suffered massive injuries, which killed her a few months later. She was 63, the year was 1979, and it really didn't matter whether she'd been a Communist or not. - Peter Butterworth's promising career in the British Navy Fleet Air Arm ended when the
plane which he was flying was shot down by the Germans in WW II
and he was placed in a POW camp. There he became close friends with
Talbot Rothwell (later a writer on the "Carry On" series, on which Butterworth
often worked) and the two began writing and performing sketches for
camp shows to entertain the prisoners (and to cover up the noise of
other prisoners digging escape tunnels). Never having performed in public he was petrified but gamely sang a duet with Talbot. This sparked his enthusiasm to enter show business after the war and Talbot helped and encouraged him
and he soon became a familiar
character actor in both films and television. He specialized in playing
gentle, well-meaning but somewhat eccentric characters (which, by most
accounts, is what he was in real life). He was married to impressionist
Janet Brown, who he met while doing a Summer show at Scarborough and their son, Tyler Butterworth, also became an actor. Butterworth died
suddenly in 1979, as he was waiting in the wings to go onstage in a
pantomime show.