Biographies (A-F)

Nina Foch

2010-04-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Nina Foch was born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock on April 20, 1924 in Leiden, Holland. Her mother was American actress and singer Consuelo Flowertown and her father was Dutch classical music conductor Dirk Fock.

Nina Foch's made her film debut in Wagon Wheels West (1943).

During the 1940s and 1950s, she frequently played cool, aloof, and often foreign women of sophistication.

She appeared in films such as A Song to Remember (1945), The Dark Past (1948), Johnny Allegro (1949), An American in Paris (1951), The Ten Commandments (1956), and
Spartacus (1960).

In 1954, Nina Foch played Erica Martin in the boardroom drama Executive Suite starring William Holden. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

From the late 1960s and until her death, Nina Foch was a familiar face on television. She appeared in over 100 television shows and made for television movies. Her television credits include Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, Barnaby Jones, Lou Grant, Trapper John M.D., Murder She Wrote, Hunter, L.A. Law and Dharma & Greg.

In 2000, she gave a delightful performance as Nina Van Horn's former agent in an episode of Just Shoot Me in which she seduces David Spade's character and tries to get Nina's character to kill her so she can have a highly publized death.

One of Nina Foch's final roles as Dr. Ducky Mallard's elderly mother on N.C.I.S.

Nina Foch also had an active career on Broadway appearing in John Loves Mary, Twelfth Night, King Lear, and The Taming of the Shrew.

Nina Foch has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures.

Bette Davis

2010-04-05T15:08:00.000-07:00

She had a reputation for being forthright and demanding. She was the first person to be nominated for a record ten Academy Awards. She was nominated for Academy Awards four decades straight. She was nominated for an Academy Award five straight years in a row. She was the first female president of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was a co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen.

Since Bette Davis's arrival in Hollywood on December 13, 1930, things have never been the same again.

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born on April 5, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ruth Favor and Harlow Davis, a patent attorney.

Young Bette was inspired to become an actress after seeing Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921).

In 1926, she saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Bette Davis later recalled that it inspired her full commitment to acting, and said, "Before that performance I wanted to be an actress. When it ended, I had to be an actress.."

Bette Davis auditioned for admission to Eva LeGallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by LeGallienne who described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous". She next auditioned for the John Murray Anderson School of Theatre where she was accepted.

She auditioned for George Cukor's stock theater company, and although he was not very impressed, he gave Bette Davis her first paid acting assignment anyway – a one-week stint playing the part of a chorus girl in the play Broadway. She was next chosen to play Hedwig, the character she had seen in The Wild Duck.

In 1929, she made her Broadway debut in Broken Dishes and followed it with Solid South. A Universal Studios talent scout saw her perform and invited her to Hollywood for a screen test. She would abandon Broadway for Hollywood in 1930. She would later return to Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s to star in Two's Company and Night of the Iguana.

Bette Davis failed her first several screen tests and Universal Studios was considering letting her go. However, Cinematographer Karl Freund told Universal Studios she had "lovely eyes" and would be suitable for The Bad Sister (1931), in which she subsequently made her film debut.

Roles soon followed in films such as Waterloo Bridge (1931), Seed (1931), Hell's House (1932), The Menace (1932), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) and Fashions of 1934 (1934).

After more than 20 film roles, Bette Davis had her big break. She was cast in the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage (1934).

When Bette Davis was not nominated for an Academy Award for Of Human Bondage, The Hollywood Citizen News questioned the omission and Norma Shearer, herself a nominee, joined a campaign to have Bette Davis nominated.

This prompted an announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said that under the circumstances "any voter ... may write on the ballot his or her personal choice for the winners", thus allowing, for the only time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not officially nominated for an award.

The uproar led to a change in Academy voting procedures the following year, whereby nominations were determined by votes from all eligible members of a particular branch, rather than by a smaller committee, with results independently tabulated by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse.

Following Human Bondage (1934), Bette Davis appeared in films such as Housewife (1934), The Girl from 10th Avenue (1935), and Special Agent (1935).

In 1935, she was cast to play Joyce Heath in Dangerous (1935). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the performance.

Roles followed in The Petrified Forest (1936), Marked Woman (1937), Kid Galahad (1937) and That Certain Woman (1937).

In 1938, she was cast to play Julie Marsden in Jezebel. She won her second Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

The next year she appeared as Judith Traherne in Dark Victory (1939). She would be nominated for her third Academy Award for Best Actress.

After starring in Juarez (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), and All This, and Heaven Too (1940), Bette Davis starred as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter (1940) which earned Bette her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

The four time nominee and two time Academy Award winner was one of the top box office stars. She starred in films such as The Great Lie (1941), The Shining Victory (1941) and The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941).

In 1941, she would earn her fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance of Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1941).

Bette Davis next appeared in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) before starring in Now, Voyager (1942) which earned Bette Davis her sixth Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress.

She next appeared in Watch on the Rhine (1942) before earning her record seventh Academy Award nomination for Mr. Skeffington (1944).

The later part of the 1940s, Bette Davis appeared in The Corn Is Green (1945), A Stolen Life (1946), Deception (1946), June Bride (1948), and Beyond the Forest (1949).

In 1950, Bette Davis received her eighth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance as Margo Channing in All About Eve. Her nighth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress would occur two years later for her performance in The Star (1952).

The 1950s and early 1960s brought Bette Davis roles in The Catered Affair (1956), The Virgin Queen (1955), and Pocketful of Miracles (1961).

In 1962, Bette Davis would receive her tenth Academy Award nomination for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. This movie also marked the first time she was cast opposite arch enemy Joan Crawford.

In 1964, Bette Davis appeared in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).

Following Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, Bette Davis devoted most of her time to made for television movies. In 1979 she won a Best Actress Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979) (TV).

In 1974, Bette Davis was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award. She also has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures and one for television.

Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989 of breast cancer.

Doris Day

2010-04-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Doris Day was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents were Alma Sophia Welz and Wilhelm von Kappelhoff, a music teacher. She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired.

Doris Day developed an early interest in dance, and in the mid-1930s formed a dance duo that performed locally in Cincinnati. A car accident on October 13, 1937 damaged her legs and curtailed her prospects as a professional dancer. While recovering, Doris Day took singing lessons, and at 17 she began performing locally.

While singing with the Les Brown band and briefly with Bob Hope, Doris Day toured extensively across the United States. Her popularity as a radio performer and vocalist, which included a second hit record My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time, led directly to a career in films.

Doris Day made her film debut as Miss Georgia Garrett in Romance on the High Seas (1948).

The next twenty years she appeared in films such as Young Man with a Horn (1950),
Lullaby of Broadway (1951), Calamity Jane (1953), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956),
The Pajama Game (1957), Teacher's Pet (1958), Pillow Talk (1959), Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960), That Touch of Mink (1962), Send Me No Flowers (1964), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and With Six You Get Eggroll (1968).

From 1968 to 1973, Doris Day starred in her own television show The Doris Day Show.

After The Doris Day Show, she retired from the entertainment industry and devoted her time to animal rights.

Doris Day's interest in animal welfare and related issues apparently dates to her teen years when she was recovering from an automobile accident and took her dog Tiny for a walk without a leash. Tiny ran into the street and was killed by a passing car. Then tt was during the location filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated, that Doris Day began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.

Doris Day founded the Doris Day Animal League which was merged into The Humane Society of the United States in 2006. She also founded the annual Spay Day USA which is a one day spay/neuter event now managed by the Humane Society of the United States.

Doris Day was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom for improving conditions for animals throughout the US and beyond.

Doris Day was two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for Recording and one for Motion Pictures.

Doris Day was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
for: Pillow Talk (1959).

In 1989 she won the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

An accomplish singer and Grammy award winner, she has recorded over 650 songs. Doris Day is most known for her song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)", which she introduced in the 1956 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).

Sentimental Journey and Secret Love were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Other notable songs of Doris Day include Love Somebody, It's Magic, A Guy is A Guy, Tea for Two, Young Man with a Horn, On Moonlight Bay, My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time, Ain't We Got Fun, Autumn Leaves, and Imagination.

At the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Joan Crawford

2010-03-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Joan Crawford starred in more than 100 films during her 45 year career. From silent films to box office queen to box office poision to Academy Award winner, Joan Crawford was of our most talented and top female actresses of the silver screen.

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1905 in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Thomas E. LeSueur and Anna Bell Johnson.

As a child, she was nicknamed "Billie." She loved watching vaudeville acts and desired to become a professional dancer.

Under the name Lucille LeSueur, Joan Crawford began dancing in the choruses of traveling revues and was spotted dancing in Detroit by producer Jacob J. Shubert.

Jacob Shubert put her in the chorus line for his 1924 show Innocent Eyes at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in New York City. She was next cast in the Broadway show The Passing Show of 1924.

In 1925, as Lucille LeSueur, her first film was Pretty Ladies in 1925, which starred ZaSu Pitts.

MGM publicity head Pete Smith recognized her ability but felt that her name sounded fake. Smith organized a contest in conjunction with a fan magazine named Movie Weekly to allow readers to select her new name. Joan Crawford was born.

Joan Crawford appeared in more than 30 silent films. Her first credited role was in Sally, Irene and Mary (1925) in which she played Irene, a struggling chorus girl. However, it was her role as Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) that catapulted her to stardom. The role established her as a symbol of modern 1920s-style femininity.

Joan Crawford also appeared in silent films such as The Merry Widow (1925), Old Clothes (1925), Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926), The Taxi Dancer (1927) and The Unknown (1927).

In 1929, Joan Crawford appeared in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) which was the first audible tap dance on the screen.

In 1929, Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery starred in Untamed, her first talkie.

From 1929 to 1938, Joan Crawford was one of the leading female stars of film. In 1937 she was named First Queen of the Movies.

During this period her films included Possessed (1931), Grand Hotel (1932), Rain (1932), Dancing Lady (1932), Sadie McKee (1934), No More Ladies (1935), Love on the Run (1936), The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937), and The Bride Wore Red (1937).

In 1938 the Independent Film Journal named her and several other stars (like Katharine Hepburn) as "box office poison" based on their supposed lack of popular appeal.

Joan Crawford quickly overcame this label of "box office poison." In 1939, Joan Crawford made a comeback with her role as home-wrecker Crystal Allen in director George Cukor's comedy The Women. She also broke from the label by taking the unglamorous role of Julie in Strange Cargo (1940). Joan Crawford then starred as a facially disfigured blackmailer in A Woman's Face (1941). While the film was only a moderate box office success, her performance was hailed by many critics.

In 1945, Joan Crawford starred in Mildred Pierce, earning her first Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress and her one and only Academy Award.

After Mildred Pierce, Joan Crawford was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952).

During the 1940s and 1950s, Joan Crawford appeared in films such as Humoresque (1946), Daisy Kenyon (1948), Flamingo Road (1949), Johnny Guitar (1952), Autumn Leaves (1956), and The Best of Everything (1959).

In 1962, Joan Crawford starred with long time enemy Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. They would appear together in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte in 1964.

In 1970, Crawford was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Joan Crawford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures.

During World War II, Joan Crawford was active on the home front. She founded a group called America's Women's Volunteer Services which took care of children whose mothers worked in the defense factories. She also raised money to train dogs for the armed forces. She donated her entire salary from They All Kissed the Bride (1942) to the Red Cross who found Carole Lombard's body (Joan took over Carole's role after she was killed). She raised money to buy food and cots for the children left homelesss by the air raids in England. She nitted socks and scarves for soliders.

Joan Crawford was so dedicated to her fans that she always personally responded to her fan mail by typing them responses on blue paper and autographing it. A great deal of her spare time and weekends were spent doing this.

Joan Crawford died on May 10, 1977.

In November 1978, a year and a half after Joan Crawford's death, Christina published an exposé titled Mommie Dearest which contained allegations that Crawford was emotionally and physically abusive to her and her brother Christopher.

Many of Joan Crawford's friends and co-workers, including Van Johnson, Ann Blyth, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, George Cukor, Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Cesar Romero and many others (including Joan Crawford's other daughters, Cathy and Cindy) denounced the book, categorically denying any abuse. An Add taken out in Variety magazine by her friends stated it was "A Disgusting Portrait of one of Hollywood's Most Generous and Most Talented People."

Although most of Hollywood stated that Mommie Dearest was fiction and revenge by Christina Crawford (who had been cut from her mother's will), some of Hollywood stated there were many truths in the book. For example, Bette Davis and Betty Hutton.

The saddest part of Mommie Dearest, is Joan Crawford never had the opportunity to defend the book. We never hear Joan's side. However, her children Cathy and Cindy and now her grandson Casey speak in support of Joan Crawford.

Unfortunately a younger generation only knows Joan Crawford as Mommie Dearest. Whether Mommie Dearest is true, false or partly true, nothing will ever change the fact that Joan Crawford was one of our most talented actresses whose films are worth watching. She was an actress with spunk and drive who provided audiences with memorable performances for over 45 years.

Edgar Buchanan

2010-03-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Edgar Buchanan was one of the most popular character actors of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Edgar Buchanan was born William Edgar Buchanan on March 20, 1903 in Humansville, Missouri. At the age of 7, he moved with his family to Oregon.

Like his father, Edgar Buchanan became a successful dentist. While in dental school, Edgar Buchanan met Mildred Marguerite Spence. The two married on April 14, 1928.

Edgar Buchanan graduated from North Pacific Dental College. From 1929 to 1939 he practiced oral surgery in Eugene, Oregon with his wife. They moved his practice to Altadena, California in 1939.

Edgar Buchanan joined the Pasadena Playhouse as an actor. He appeared in his first film in 1939, My Son Is Guilty at the age of thirty-six, after which he turned his dentistry practice over to his wife.

Edgar Buchanan appeared in more than 100 movies working along side John Wayne, Jean Arthur, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Alan Ladd, Myrna Loy, William Holden and Barbara Stanwyck.

He appeared in films such as Too Many Husbands (1940), The Sea Hawk (1940), Penny Serenade (1941), You Belong to Me (1941), The Talk of the Town (1942), The Sea of Grass (1947), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), Shane (1953), Wichita (1955), Donovan's Reef (1963) and McLintock! (1963).

Edgar Buchanan most frequently appeared along side Glenn Ford. They made 12 films together: My Son Is Guilty (1939), Arizona (1940), Texas (1941), The Desperadoes (1943), Destroyer (1943), Framed (1947), The Man from Colorado (1948), Lust for Gold (1949), Human Desire (1954), The Sheepman (1958), It Started with a Kiss (1959)
Cimarron (1960) and The Rounders (1965).

From 1971 to 1972, Edgar Buchanan (J.J. Jackson) and Glenn Ford (Sam Cade) starred in the television show Cade's County.

From 1952 to 1954, Edgar Buchanan played Red Connors in the television show Hopalong Cassidy.

From 1956 to 1957, Edgar Buchanan was Judge Roy Bean in the television show Judge Roy Bean.

In 1963, Edgar Buchanan was cast in the role he is most famous for: Uncle Joe on the hit sitcom Petticoat Junction. He would play Uncle Joe in 222 episodes from 1963 to 1970. He would also play Uncle Joe in guest appearances on Green Acres and The Beverely Hillbillies.

Edgar Buchanan made his final appearance in the 1974 film Benji with his Petticoat Junction co-star Higgins. Higgins had a close rapport with the actor Edgar Buchanan. The two actors had an obvious fondness for one another, which is especially clear in Benji.

Edgar Buchanan died on April 4, 1979 due to complications of a stroke.

Claire Bloom

2010-02-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

Claire Bloom was born Patricia Claire Blume on February 15, 1931 in London, England. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Grew and Edward Max Blume.

Claire Bloom began her training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Claire Bloom made her debut on BBC radio programmes. She made her stage debut in 1946, when she was 15, with the Oxford Repertory Theatre. Her London stage debut was in 1947 in the hit Christopher Fry play The Lady's Not For Burning.

Claire Bloom made her film debut in The Blind Goddess (1948).

In 1951, she was chosen by Charlie Chaplin to appear in his film Limelight. She received excellent reviews for her performance and this role made her a star.

Claire Bloom appeared in The Man Between (1953), Richard III (1955), Alexander the Great (1956), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), The Buccaneer (1958), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

In 1981, she provided the voice of Beauty in Beauty and the Beast.

Claire Bloom's Broadway debut was in King Richard II. She also appeared in Electra, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler, and Romeo and Juliet. She was nominated for a Tony for Electra. She has won two Drama Desk Awards.

Claire Bloom received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for Brideshead Revisited (1981).

As with other maturing actress during the 1970s, Claire looked toward classy film roles in TV-movies like Backstairs at the White House (1979).

From 1993 to 1995, she played Orlena Grimaldi on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns.

Claire Bloom continues to appear in movies, television and on the stage. Her most recent role was on Doctor Who.

John Carradine

2010-02-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

One of our most prolific character actor, during his 57 year career, John Carradine earned more than 300 film and television credits. It is dispute whether he or Donald Crisp appeared in more films than any other actor.

John Carradine was born Richmond Reed Carradine on February 5, 1906 in New York City, the son of of Genevieve Winifred, a surgeon, and William Reed Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press.

John Carradine made his film debut in 1930 in Bright Lights.

A favorite of director John Ford, John Carradine appeared in eleven of Ford's films: The Prisoner of Shark Island (1934), Mary of Scotland (1936), The Hurricane (1937) Submarine Patrol (1938), Four Men and a Prayer (1938), Stagecoach (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Last Hurrah (1958), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

A few of John Carradine's most notable film credits include The Invisible Man (1933),Captains Courageous (1937), Jesse James (1939), The Three Musketeers (1939), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), Five Came Back (1939), The Return of Frank James (1940), Man Hunt (1941), The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), The Court Jester (1955), The Ten Commandments (1956), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).

Four of John Carradine's five sons became actors: David Carradine, Robert Carradine, Keith Carradine, and Bruce Carradine.

John Carradine appeared in several episodes of Kung Fu with son David Carradine.

In The Long Riders (1981) he appeared with sons Keith, Robert and David.

John Carradine was known for playing dark evil sinister characters. However, in a very different role, John Carradine won a Daytime Emmy in 1985 for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Program for "Young People's Specials" for the episode "Umbrella Jack".

John Carradine also had a significant Broadway career. He made his Broadway debut in The Duchess of Malfi. His Broadway credits include Galileo, Volpone, Frankenstein, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Time of Your Life,
The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Leading Lady, and The Cup of Trembling.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, John Carradine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

On November 27, 1988, John Carradine died of natural causes in Milan, Italy at age 82. His final words were: "Milan: What a beautiful place to die".

John Forsythe

2010-01-29T13:39:00.001-08:00

John Forsythe was born John Lincoln Freund on January 29, 1918 in Penns Grove, New Jersey. The son of Samuel Jeremiah Freund, a stockbroker and Blance Materson. John grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

During World War II, John Forsythe served with the US Army Corps. During World War II he also worked with injured soldiers who had developed speech problems.

After World War II, he became a baseball announcer and a drama teacher. Joan Collins would co-star opposite him on Dynasty (1981), was one of his drama students.

In 1943, he signed a contract with Warner Brothers and made his film debut in Northern Pursuit (1943) and his second film was Destination Tokyo (1943). During the 1940s and 1950s he also appeared in The Captive City (1952), The Glass Web (1953), Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The Trouble With Harry (1955), and The Ambassador's Daughter (1956).

During the 1950s, John Forsythe was a familiar face on television appearing in episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents, Suspense, Kraft Television Theater, and Studio One.

In 1957, John Forsythe was cast to play single father Bentley Gregg in the sitcom Bachelor Father. The show would run for 157 episodes and four seasons ending in 1962.

During the 1960s, John appeared in such films as Madame X (1966), In Cold Blood (1967) and Topaz (1969). He also frequently appeared on television, making appearances in Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, The Dick Powell Show and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

In 1965, John Forsythe starred in the short lived The John Forsythe Show.

The 1970s brought John Forsythe one of his most famous roles, as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the 1970s crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976–1981).

The 1980s brought John Forsythe another famous role, as patriarch Blake Carrington in Dynasty (1981-1989). This role would bring Forsythe three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He was also nominated six times for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Series, winning in 1983 and 1984. In 1984, he also won a Soap Opera Digest Award for his performance as Blake Carrington.

During the 1990s, he appeared as Sen. William Franklin Powers in the short lived series The Powers That Be.

At age 82, he would once again play Charles Townsend in the movie Charlie's Angels (2000) and would reprise the role in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).

John Forsythe owned and bred Thoroughbred racehorses for many years and was a member of the Board of Directors of Hollywood Park Racetrack. He was the recipient of the 1988 Eclipse Award of Merit for his contibution in promoting the sport of Thoroughbred racing.

John Forsythe has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television.

Ernest Borgnine

2010-01-23T16:16:00.000-08:00

Ernest Borgnine's career has spanned over five decades. He is known for his gruff, but gentle voice. At the age of 93, Ernest Borgnine is still active in both films and television.

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnine on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. The son of Charles Borgnine and Anna Boselli who had emigrated from Carpi (near Modena) Italy.

As an only child, Ernest enjoyed most sports, especially boxing, but took no real interest in acting. At 18, after graduating from high school in New Haven, and undecided about his future career, he joined the navy, where he stayed for ten years until leaving in 1945. During World War II he reached the rank of Gunner's Mate 1st Class. Ernest's military decorations included the American Campaign Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, and the World War II Victory Medal.

In 2004, Borgnine received the honorary rank of Chief Petty Officer from the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Terry D. Scott—the US Navy's highest ranking enlisted sailor at the time—for Borgnine's support of the Navy and naval families worldwide.

After leaving the Navy, Ernest Borgnine worked a variety of factory jobs. His mother suggested that his forceful personality could make him suitable for a career in acting, and Borgnine promptly enrolled at the Randall School of Drama in Hartford. After completing the course he joined Robert Porterfield's famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, staying there for four years, undertaking odd jobs and playing every type of role imaginable.

Ernest Borgnine's big break came in 1949, when he made his acting debut on Broadway playing a male nurse in "Harvey".

In 1951 Ernest Borgnine moved to Los Angeles to pursue a movie career, and made his film debut as Bill Street in The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951).

Ernest Borgnine's big movie break came when he was cast in the role of Sgt. "Fatso" Judson in From Here to Eternity (1953).

Ernest Borgnine's film credits include Johnny Guitar (1954), Vera Cruz (1954), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Marty (1955), The Last Command (1955), The Catered Affair (1956), The Badlanders (1958), Torpedo Run (1958), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Revengers (1972), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Law and Disorder (1974), Convoy (1978), Escape from New York (1981), Moving Target (1988), The Long Ride Home (2003) and Another Harvest Moon (2008).

Ernest Borgnine won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in Marty (1955).

On television, he is best known for playing Quinton McHale in the 1962-66 series McHale's Navy and the mid 1980s action series Airwolf.

He also provided the voice of the character Mermaid Man in the series, SpongeBob SquarePants and the voice of Carface in All Dogs Go to Heaven.

He has also appeared on A Grandpa For Christmas, 7th Heaven, Touched by an Angel, Walker, Texas Ranger, JAG and Murder She Wrote.

In 2009, at the age of 92 he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance on ER.

Ernest Borgnine was the very first "center square" on "The Hollywood Squares" (1965).

Ernest Borgnine is an active Freemason and is presently the Honorary Chairman of the Scottish Rite RiteCare Program, which sponsors 175 Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinics, Centers, and Programs nationwide.

Ernest Borgnine has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures.

Ernest Borgnine is still active and will be in two movies debuting in 2010: Red and Snatched.

Dead End Kids

2010-01-06T15:30:00.000-08:00

In 1934, Sidney Kingsley wrote a play about a group of children growing up on the streets of New York City. A total of fourteen children were hired to play various roles in the play entitled Dead End. The play opened at the Belasco Theatre on October 28, 1935 and ran for two years, totalling 684 performances.

Samuel Goldwyn and director William Wyler saw the play and decided to turn it into a film. They paid $165,000 for the rights to the film and began auditioning actors in Los Angeles.

Failing to find actors that could convey the emotions they saw in the play, Goldwyn and Wyler hired six of the original Kids (Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsly, Gabriel Dell, and Leo Gorcey) to star in the film. The Kids were all signed to two-year contracts, allowing for possible future films, and began working on the 1937 United Artists' film, Dead End.

The Dead End Kids only made one movie for Goldwyn. During production, the boys ran wild around the studio, destroying property, including crashing a truck into a sound stage. Goldwyn chose not to use them again and sold their contract to Warner Brothers.

At Warner Brothers, the Dead End Kids made six films including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). The last one was in 1939, when they were released from their contracts due to more antics on the studio lot.

The Dead End Kids proved to be so popular that they continued to make movies under various names, including The East Side Kids, The Little Tough Guys, and The Bowery Boys, until 1958.

In total, the various teams that made up 'The Dead End Kids' a total of 89 films and three serials for four different studios during their 21 year long film career.

The team was awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame for motion pictures in February, 1994. Sadly, only Bernard Punsly and Huntz Hall of the original Dead End Kids attended as they were the only surviving Dead End Kids.

The original Dead End Kids in the films were Billy Halop (Tommy), Bobby Jordan (Angel), Huntz Hall (Dippy), Bernard Punsly (Milty), Gabriel Dell (T.B.), and Leo Gorcey (Spit).

Billy Halop (Tommy) was born on February 11, 1920 and died on November 9, 1976. Billy Halop made 67 movies and television shows during his 38 year career. In his later years, he had a reoccurring role on All in the Family as Bert Munson.

Billy Halop's sister Florence Halop is most known for her role as Flo on the televsion sitcom Night Court.

Bobby Jordan (Angel) was the youngest Dead End Kid born on April 1, 1923. Bobby died on September 10, 1965. He appeared in 69 films and television shows from 1937 to 1961. Bobby's credits include Bonanza, Route 66, Maverick, and Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949).

Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall (Dippy) was born on August 15, 1919. Huntz died on January 30, 1999. He appeared in 116 films and television shows from 1937 to 1993. Huntz appeared on Different Strokes, Flipper, and Herbie Rides Again (1974).

Bernard Punsly (Milty) was born on July 11, 1923. Bernard retired in 1943 after making 19 films. He left show business and became a physician. When Huntz Hall died in 1999, Punsly became the last surviving cast member of the Dead End Kids.

Gabriel Dell (T.B.) was born on October 8, 1919 and died on July 3, 1988. He appeared in 81 films and television shows from 1937 to 1982. He went on to appear in Earthquake (1974), Barney Miller, Sanford and Son, and I Dream of Jeanie.

Leo B. Gorcey (Spit) was the oldest Dead End Kid born on June 3, 1917. He died on June 2, 1961. Leo appeared in 90 films and television shows from 1937 to 1966, including playing the First Cab Driver in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). He also appeared in Invisible Stripes (1939) and Docks of New York (1945). Leo's father was actor Bernard Gorcey. Leo's brother David Gorcey also became a Dead End Kid.

Dana Andrews

2010-01-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

Dana Andrews was a leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, and despite an impressive career he has never been award a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on January 1, 1909 in Covington County, Mississippi. The son of Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister and Annis Speed.

Dana Andrews studied business administration at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas, but took a bookkeeping job with Gulf Oil in 1929 prior to graduating.

In 1931 he hitchhiked to California, hoping to get work as an actor. Dana's early jobs included digging ditches, driving a school bus, picking oranges, a stock boy and pumping gas.

Dana's employer at a Van Nuys gas station believed in him and agreed to invest in him, asking to be repaid if and when Andrews made it as an actor. Van Nuys was right, Dana had something special.

Andrews studied opera and also entered the Pasadena Community Playhouse, the famed theatre company and drama school. Although, the movies did not really capture on Dana Andrew's singing voice.

In 1940, Dana Andrews made his film debut in The Westerner.

Dana Andrews most memorable roles were as the gangster in the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, playing a lynching victim in The Ox Bow Incident (1943), and a soldier returning home in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

Dana Andrews signature role was in the 1944 film noir Laura, playing an obsessed detective opposite Gene Tierney.

He appeared with actress Gene Tierney in five films: Tobacco Road (1941), Belle Starr (1941), Laura (1944), The Iron Curtain (1948) and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950).

Dana Andrews also appeared in State Fair (1945) The Iron Curtain (1948) Three Hours to Kill (1954) Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) In Harm's Way (1965) The Devil's Brigade (1968) and Airport 1975 (1974).

Dana Andrews served as President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1963 to 1965.

Dana Andrews was one of the first to speak out against the degradation of the acting profession, particularly actresses doing nude scenes just to get a role.

Dana Andrews is one of the first actors to do a public service announcement about alcoholism, having battled alcoholism himself.

Dana Andrews married Mary Todd on November 17, 1939 and they were married until his death, 53 years.

Dana Andrews died on December 17, 1992 of pneumonia complicated by by congestive heart failure.

Humphrey Bogart

2009-12-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born on December 25, 1899 in New York City. He was the first child of Belmont Bogart,a surgeon and Maud Humphrey, a commericial illustrator.

Humphrey Bogart's career began as a model for Mellins Baby Food. His mother used a drawing of baby Humphrey in a well-known ad campaign for Mellins Baby Food.

From his father, Bogart inherited a tendency for needling people, a fondness for fishing, a life-long love of sailing, and an attraction to strong-willed women.

In 1918, Humphrey Bogart followed his love for the sea and enlisted in the United States Navy in the spring of 1918 and served during World War I.

It was during his naval stint that Bogart may have gotten his trademark scar and developed his characteristic lisp.

Humphrey Bogart had been raised to believe acting was beneath a gentleman, but he enjoyed stage acting. He never took acting lessons, but was persistent and worked steadily at his craft. He appeared in at least seventeen Broadway productions between 1922 and 1935. He appeared in such productions as Drifting (his first Broadway play), Meet the Wife, Saturday's Children, Our Wife, Invitation to Murder and The Petrified Forest.

Humphrey Bogart's film debut was in The Dancing Town (1928).

In 1936, Humphrey Bogart got his big break when he was cast as Duke Mantee (a role he originated on Broadway) in the film version of The Petrified Forest. Originally the studio wanted Edward G. Robinson for the role of Duke Mantee. But Leslie Howard campaigned for Humphrey Bogart and won. Bogart never forgot Leslie Howard for this favor.

Humphrey Bogart starred in such classic films as Marked Woman (1937), Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Dark Victory (1939), They Drive by Night (1940), High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Sahara (1943), Passage to Marseille (1944), To Have and Have Not (1944), Conflict (1945), The Big Sleep (1946),
Dark Passage (1947), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948),
In a Lonely Place (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Caine Mutiny (1954),
Sabrina (1954), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), and The Desperate Hours (1955).

Humphrey Bogart's final film was The Harder They Fall (1956).

Humphrey Bogart was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Caine Mutiny and Casablanca.

He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The African Queen.

Humphrey Bogart has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures.

While filming To Have and Have Not, Bogart met Lauren Bacall. When they met, Bacall was nineteen and Bogart was forty five.

Bogart and Bacall then married in a small ceremony at the country home of Bogart's close friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Bromfield at Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio on May 21, 1945.

Bogart and Bacall had two children: Stephen Humphrey Bogart, named after Bogart's character's nickname in To Have and Have Not, and Leslie Howard Bogart, named after actor Leslie Howard, who had been killed in World War II.

Humphrey Bogart rarely appeared on television. However, he and Lauren Bacall appeared on Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person. Bogart was also featured on The Jack Benny Show.

Bogart performed radio adaptations of some of his best known films, such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. He also recorded a long-running radio series called Bold Venture with Lauren Bacall.

Bogart was an excellent chess player, almost of master strength. Before he made any money from acting, he would hustle players for dimes and quarters, playing in New York parks and at Coney Island. The chess scenes in Casablanca had not been in the original script, but were put in at his insistence. During World War II, Bogart would play chess with the servicemen by mail.

Bogart is credited with five of the American Film Institute's top 100 quotations in American cinema, the most by any actor:

5th: "Here's looking at you, kid" – Casablanca
14th: "The stuff that dreams are made of." – The Maltese Falcon
20th: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." – Casablanca
43rd: "We'll always have Paris." – Casablanca
67th: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." – Casablanca

Ranked #1 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest screen actors.

Frank Sinatra's group of friends known as The Rat Pack was actually originally a group of Bogart's friends, including Sinatra, who enjoyed drinking heavily.

They referred to themselves as The Holmby Hills Rat Pack, derived from the Holmby Hills section of Hollywood where the Bogarts lived.

The origin of the term The Rat Pack was this: One morning, after a night of heavy drinking by Bogart and his friends, Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall walked into the room, looked at the group and flatly stated, "You look like a God-damned rat pack." Bogart enjoyed the term, and a legend was born.

Humphrey Bogart died at the age of 57 on January 14, 1957 of throat cancer.

Kirk Douglas

2009-12-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. The son of Bryna Sanglel and Herschel "Harry" Danielovitch, a businessman.

Coming from a poor family, as a boy, Kirk Douglas sold snacks to mill workers to earn enough to buy milk and bread. Later, he delivered newspapers and claims to have worked at more than forty jobs before becoming an actor.

During high school, he acted in school plays, and discovered "The one thing in my life that I always knew, that was always constant, was that I wanted to be an actor."

Kirk Douglas talked his way into St. Lawrence University and received a loan, which he paid back by working part-time as a gardener and a janitor. He was a standout on the wrestling team.

Kirk Douglas's acting talents were noticed at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and he received a special scholarship. One of his classmates was Betty Joan Perske (better known as Lauren Bacall), who would play an important role in launching his film career.

Graduating from drama school, Douglas made his Broadway debut as a singing telegraph boy in Spring Again. He would later appear in Broadway productions of The Three Sisters, Alice in Arms, Kiss and Tell, and Woman Bites Dog.

Kirk Douglas enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941, shortly after the United States entered World War II. He was medically discharged for war injuries in 1944.

After the war, Douglas returned to New York City and found work in radio theatre and commercials. Kirk Douglas had planned to remain a stage actor but Lauren Bacall helped him get his first screen role in the film The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), starring Barbara Stanwyck.

Kirk Douglas most notable film roles include Out of the Past (1947), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Champion (1949), Young Man with a Horn (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Lust for Life (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Strangers When We Meet (1960), Spartacus (1960), Lonely Are the Brave (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), A Gunfight (1971), Posse (1975), and The Man from Snowy River (1982).

Kirk Douglas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for Lust of Life (1956), Champion (1949) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

In 1996 he received an Honorary Oscar for Life Time Achievement. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures, which was stolen and later replaced.

Kirk Douglas received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1991.

A frequent co-star of Burt Lancaster, they appeared in six movies: Tough Guys (1986), Seven Days in May (1964), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), I Walk Alone (1948), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and The Devil's Disciple (1959).

Kirk Douglas married twice, first to Diana Dill, on November 2, 1943. The couple had two sons, actor Michael Douglas and producer Joel Douglas. They divorced in 1951. He then married Anne Buydens on May 29, 1954. They had two sons, producer Peter Douglas and actor Eric Douglas. Kirk and Anne have been married 55 years.

In 1991, he survived a helicopter crash in which two people died. This sparked a search for meaning, which led him, after much study, to embrace the Judaism in which he was raised. He documented this spiritual journey in his book Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning (2001).

Now retired, Kirk Douglas blogs regularly on his MySpace account. At 93, he is the oldest celebrity blogger.

Martin Balsam

2009-11-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

Martin Balsam was a character actor of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

He was born Martin Henry Balsam on November 4, 1919 in The Bronx, New York to Lillian Weinstein and Albert Balsam, a manufacturer of ladies sportsware.

During high school, Martin Balsam was a member of the Drama Club. He later studied at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York under German director Erwin Piscator.

Martin Balsam made his Broadway debut in 1941 in Ghost for Sale.

He put his acting career on hold and joined the Army Air Forces during World War II.

After the war, he returned to Broadway and appeared in such productions as The Wanhope Building, Macbeth, and Sunbeach Down. He also appeared during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in such productions as The Liar, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real, Nowhere to Go But Up. In 1968, he won the Tony award for Best Actor for You Know I Can't Hear You When The Water is Running.

In 1947, Martin Balsam was selected by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg to be a player in the Actors Studio television program. He made his television debut in 1949 on an episode of Suspense. His television credits would include The Twilight Zone, The Eleventh Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Rawhide, Route 66, Kojak, Wagon Train, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Murder She Wrote.

In the 1980s, he played Archie Bunker's (Carroll O'Connor) partner on Archie Bunker's Place.

In 1954, Martin Balsam made his silver screen debut as Gillette in On The Waterfront.

Martin Balsam appeared in movies such as 12 Angry Men (1957), Psycho (1960), Ada (1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Cape Fear (1962), The Carpetbaggers (1964), A Thousand Clowns (1966) Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), All The President's Men (1976), Death Wish 3 (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and Cape Fear (1991).

Martin Balsam would win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for A Thousand Clowns (1966).

Martin Balsam was married three times. His first wife was Pearl Somner (1954-1956, divorced). He next married Joyce Van Patton (1959-1961, divorced). He next married Irene Miller and they were married 33 years until his death.

Martin Balsam with actress Joyce Van Patton, had one daughter actress Talia Balsam.

He is the father of Adam and Zoe Balsam from his marriage to Irene Miller.

Martin Balsam died on February 13, 1996 at the age of 76 of a heart attack.

Baby Peggy

2009-10-28T16:13:00.001-07:00

Before there was Shirley Temple, there was Baby Peggy. Debuting at the age of 3 and appearing in more than 150 shorts and films during the silent era.

Baby Peggy was born Peggy-Jean Montgomery on October 29, 1918 in Merced California to Marian and Jack Montgomery.

Her father, Jack Montgomery was a cowboy for several years all over the western states. He ended up in the movies as a stuntman and extra driving stagecoaches. He also served as Tom Mix's stunt double.

Baby Peggy was discovered while visiting the Century Studios lot on Sunset Boulevard with her mother when she was a mere 19 months old. Impressed by Peggy's well-behaved demeanor and willingness to follow directions, director Fred Fishbach hired her to appear in a series of short films with Century's canine star, Brownie the Wonder Dog.

Baby Peggy made her debut in Her Circus Man (1921) at the age of 3.

She went on to appear in nearly 150 shorts between 1920 and 1923 and nine full feature films.

Baby Peggy appeared in such shorts as On With The Show (1921), Playmates (1921), Brownie's Baby Doll (1921), Get Rich Quick Peggy (1921), Circus Clowns (1922), The Kid Reporter (1923), Little Red Riding Hood (1922), Peggy Behave (1922), The Darling of New York (1923), Hansel and Gretel (1923) and Jack and The Beanstalk (1924).

The vast majority of Baby Peggy's films have not survived and records related to their production have been lost.

A handful of Baby Peggy shorts, including Playmates (1921), Miles of Smiles (1923), and Sweetie (1923) have been discovered and preserved in film archives around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Her first full length film was Penrod (1922).

Her full length films The Family Secret, April Fool (1926), Capatin January (1924) and Helen's Babies (1924) have also survived and have been restored.

Many of Baby Peggy's popular comedies were parodies of movies that grown-up stars had made, and she delightfully imitated such legends as Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Mae Murray and Pola Negri.

Baby Peggy's film career abruptly ended in 1925 when her father had a falling out with Sol Lesser over her salary and cancelled her contract. From 1925 to 1929, Peggy enjoyed a successful career as a vaudeville performer.

Baby Peggy reportedly made at least two million dollars in her early career but her parents' bad management and free spending left her in poverty. This resulted in several nervous breakdowns in young adulthood.

At the age of seventeen, trying to escape the film industry and her parents' plans for her life, Baby Peggy ran away from home and rented an apartment with her sister Louise. She married actor Gordon Ayres in 1938, but the union was not a happy one. She divorced Ayres in 1948 and married Bob Cary (sometimes listed as Bob Carey) in 1954. They are still married today.

She adopted the name Diana Serra Cary and is now a publisher, historian and author. Her books included "What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy: The Autobiography of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star" and "Jackie Coogan: The World's Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood's Legendary Child Star."

She has also advocated reforms in child performer protection laws, most recently as a member of the organization A Minor Consideration. As a toddler she worked eight hours a day, six days a week. She was generally required to perform her own stunts, which included being held underwater in the ocean until she fainted in Sea Shores Shapes (1921) and escaping alone from a burning room in The Darling of New York (1923).

Jean Arthur

2009-10-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

Jean Arthur was born Gladys Georgianna Greene on October 17, 1900 to Johanna Augusta Nelson and Hubert Sidney Greene.

During World War I, Jean Arthur worked as a stenographer on Bond Street in lower Manhatten.

Discovered by Fox Film Studios while she was doing commercial modeling in New York City in the early 1920s, Jean Arthur debuted in the silent film Cameo Kirby (1923) directed by John Ford.

Between 1923 and 1929 she would appear in more than 40 silent films including Spring Fever (1923), The Drug Store Cowboy (1925), The Mad Racer (1926), Lightening Bill (1926), and The Broken Gate (1927).

In 1929, she would appear in her first talkie The Canary Murder Case starring William Powell as Philo Vance.

From 1929 to 1935, she would appear in such films as The Greene Murder Case (1929), The Lawyer's Secret (1931), The Defense Rests (1934), The Whole Towns Talking (1935) and The Public Menance (1935).

Jean Arthur's big break came in 1936 when she was cast in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town starring Gary Cooper. Jean was now a household name.

Jean Arthur would go on to star in The Ex Mrs. Bradford (1936), You Can't Take it With You (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Arizona (1940), The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), The Talk of the Town (1942), The More the Merrier (1943) and The Impatient Years (1944).

Jean quit movies at the height of her career in 1944, she would appear in only two more films for Oscar winning directors Billy Wilder in A Foreign Affair (1948) and George Stevens in Shane (1953).

Jean also had a successful career on Broadway starring in Peter Pan, Foreign Affairs, The Curtain Rises, The Man Who Reclaimed His Head, The Bridge of Torozko, Twenty Five Dollars an Hour, and Count Me In.

In 1954, she was to star as Joan or Arc in George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan but left the play after a nervous breakdown and battles with director Harold Clurman.

In 1966, the extremely reclusive Arthur tentatively returned to show business, playing Patricia Marshall, an attorney in her own television sitcom, The Jean Arthur Show. However, the show was cancelled mid season after only twelve episodes.

In 1967, she was coaxed back to Broadway to appear as a midwestern spinster who falls in with a group of hippies in the play The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake.

Now officially retired from acting, Jean Arthur taught drama first at Vassar College and then the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her students at Vassar included the young Meryl Streep.

While living in North Carolina she made front page news by being arrested and jailed for trespassing on a neighbor's property to console a dog she felt was being mistreated. An animal lover her entire life, Jean Arthur said she trusted them more than people.

During her 30 year film career she would appear in more than 90 movies.

Jean Arthur was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for The More The Merrier (1943) and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures.

Jean Arthur was married twice and had no children. Her first marriage to Julian Anker in 1928 was annulled after one day. She next married producer Frank Ross Jr. in 1932 and they divorced in 1949.

Jean Arthur died from heart failure at the age of 90 on June 19, 1991.

Montgomery Clift

2009-10-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Montgomery Clift was born October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska. The son of William Brooks Clift, a vice-president of Omaha National Bank, and Ethel Fogg. Montgomery had a fraternal twin sister, Roberta (aka Ethel), and a brother, William Brooks Jr.

Montgomery Clift and his siblings were raised as if they were aristocrats. Home-schooled by their mother as well as by private tutors in the United States and Europe, they did not attend a regular school until they were in their teens. Montgomery was educated in French, German, and Italian.

Montgomery Clift began his acting career on Broadway, appearing in Fly Away Home at the age of 13. Montgomery achieved success on the Broadway stage and during the next 10 years appeared in such productions as Jubilee, Dame Nature, There Shall Be No Night, Our Town, and You Touched Me.

In 1947, Montgomery Clift moved to Hollywood and made his film debut in Red River (1948) opposite John Wayne.

From 1947 to 1956, Montgomery Clift starred in such classics as The Search (1948), A Place in the Sun (1951), I Confess (1951), and From Here to Eternity (1953). During this period, he was receiving so many offers of roles that friends had to squeeze past stacks of them in order to walk up the stairs. He turned down roles in Sunset Boulevard, High Noon, and East of Eden.

Montgomery Clift would earn Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for The Search (1948), A Place in the Sun (1951), and From Here to Eternity.

On May 12, 1956. Montgomery's life would take a tragic turn. While filming Raintree Country, he was leaving a party thrown by co-star and close friend Elizabeth Taylor and crashed his car into a telephone pole. Actor and friend Kevin McCarthy witnessed the accident and alerted Taylor. Elizabeth rushed to Clift's side and manually pulled his tongue out of his throat when he began to choke and save his life. Montgomery suffered a broken jaw, broken nose, fractured sinus and several facial lacerations which required plastic surgery.

After a long recovery, he returned to the set to finish the film. However, the pain of the accident led him to rely on alcohol and pills and Clift's health and looks deteriorated considerably.

Montgomery Clift's post-accident career has been referred to as the "longest suicide in Hollywood history" because of his alleged substance abuse. However, Clift continued to work over the next 10 years. His next three films were Lonelyhearts (1958), The Young Lions (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959).

In 1961, he costarred in John Huston's The Misfits which turned out to be Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable's final film. Marilyn Monroe, who was also having emotional problems at the time, once said that Montgomery is "The only person I know who is in worse shape than I am."

In 1962, Montgomery Clift would play Rudolph Petersen in Judgement at Nurmberg and receive his fourth Academy Award nomination.

On July 22, 1966, Montgomery Clift spent most of the day in his bedroom at his New York City townhouse. Ironically, The Misfits was on television that night and Montgomery's final words to anyone were "absolutely not" when asked if he wished to watch the movie. The next morning, Montgomery Clift was found deceased, the official cause of death was listed as heart attack brought on by occlusive coronary artery disease. Montgomery Clift was 45 years old.

June Allyson

2009-10-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

June Allyson was born Eleanor Geisman on October 7, 1917 in The Bronx, New York. Her parents were Clara Provost and Robert Geisman.

In 1925, when she was eight years old, a dead tree branch fell on her while she was bicycling. Several bones were broken, and doctors said she would never walk again. She underwent months of swimming exercises, however, and ultimately regained her ability to walk. After graduating from a wheelchair to crutches to braces, she was inspired to dance by obsessively watching Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies.

In 1938, fully recovered, she tried out for a chorus job in the Broadway show Sing Out The News. The choreographer gave her a job and a new name: Allyson, a family name, and June, for the month.

Like other musical performers in New York, the 5'1" (1.55 m) June Allyson found work in movie short subjects that were filmed there. She starred in Swing For The Prisoner of Swing (1938), The Knight is Young (1938), and All Girl Revue (1940).

June Allyson would make her official movie debut in Best Foot Forward (1943).

Some of her most notable movies include Thousands Cheer (1943), The Three Musketeers (1948), Little Women (1949), The Stratton Story (1949), Too Young to Kiss (1951), The Glen Miller Story (1953), Executive Suite (1954), Strategic Air Command (1955), The McConnell Story (1955), and The Opposite Sex (1956).

June won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for To Young to Kiss (1951).

She played James Stewart's wife in three films: The Stratton Story, The Glen Miller Story and Strategic Air Command.

In 1950, June Allyson had been signed to appear opposite her idol Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding, but had to leave the production due to pregnancy.

Like many movie stars of the 1940s and 1950s, June frequently appeared in television shows. Her television credits include Burke's Law, Airwolf, Murder She Wrote, Hart to Hart, The Love Boat, Simon & Simon, and Vega$. She also did Depends commercials throughout the 1990s.

From 1959 to 1961 she hosted and occassionally starred in her own series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson.

On August 14, 1945, June Allyson married actor Dick Powell and would have two children. They remained married until his death on January 2, 1963.

June next married Alfred Glenn Maxwell on October 13, 1963 and they would divorce in 1965, to remarry in 1966 and divorce again in 1970.

June Allyson married David Ashrow on October 30, 1976 and they would be married 29 years until her death.

June Allyson died on July 8, 2006 from pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis at the age of 88.

Mary Badham

2009-10-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

Mary Badham is one of our most loved child actors, capturing our hearts as Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).

Mary Badham was born on October 7, 1952 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father was was a retired army officer who, by the time of her birth, had become president of Bessemer Steel Co. Her English-born mother had been an actress before her marriage.

She is also the younger sister (by 14 years) of director John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, 1977 & Wargames, 1983).

Mary had no prior acting experience when she was cast to play Scout Finch in 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird. She was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category but lost to child actress Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker, 1962).

Mary remained close to fellow To Kill a Mocking Bird co-stars Brock Peters and Gregory Peck, until their deaths in 2003 and 2005. She still keeps in touch with Phillip Alford, who played her brother in the movie (who is now a successful businessman and consultant in Birmingham, Alabama).

Mary is currently married to a school teacher with two children. She is an art restorer and a college testing coordinator. She also travels around the world recalling her wonderful experiences making To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) while expounding on the book's messages of tolerance and compassion.

Mary retired from acting in 1966 at the age of 14.

She came out of retirement in 2005 to play Mrs. Nutbush (in a cameo appearance) in Our Very Own, starring Keith Carradine.

Attended the 2006 "Twilight Zone" Convention at the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, August 12-13, 2006.

Although she only appeared in two movies (To Kill a Mockingbird & This Property is Condemned, 1966) and appeared in two television shows (The Twilight Zone & Dr. Kildare) she is one of the most loved child actors of all time.

Peter Finch

2009-10-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Peter Finch will best be remembered for his role as Howard Beale and uttering the words "'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" in the 1976 movie Network.

Peter Finch was born Frederick George Peter Ingle-Finch on September 28, 1912 in London, England to George Ingle-Finch, an Australian born mountaineer and Alicia Ingle-Finch. Later it was learned that Peter's biological father was Wentworth Edward Dallas "Jock" Campbell, a Scottish Military officer. The adultery was the cause of his parent's divorce. George gained custody of Peter and he was raised by his grandmother Laura Finch. Peter was raised in France, India and Australia. Peter Finch was 45 years old before met his biological father.

Peter Finch made his film debut in Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938). He made his stage debut in 1939 in Australia and was spotted by Laurence Olivier and Olivier persuaded Finch to return to Britain to perform classic roles on the stage. Peter Finch spent the next 25 years alternating his time between the stage and movies.

Peter Finch's movies include The Power and the Glory (1941), A Son is Born (1946), The Miniver Story (1950), The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953), The Dark Avenger (1955), Robbery Under Arms (1957), The Nun's Story (1959), The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Greatest Mother of Them All (1969), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Lost Horizon (1973) and Network (1976).

Peter Finch received both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for playing a homosexual Jewish doctor in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).

Peter Finch won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor for the mad prophet of the airwaves Harold Beale in Network (1976).

Peter Finch died January 14, 1977, and received the Oscar posthumously. He and Heath Ledger are the only two people to receive an Academy Award in an acting category, posthumously.

Peter Finch's final appearance was on January 13, 1977, the day before his death. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson entertaining the audience and Carson with tales of his youth and his psychic grandmother.

Peter Finch died January 14, 1977 from a heart attack.

Lauren Bacall

2009-10-27T09:59:00.002-07:00

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924 in New York, New York. The daughter of middle class parents, her father worked as a salesman and her mother as a secretary.

When Lauren was young, she aspired to be a dancer but later became interest in acting. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

Lauren Bacall began her career as a model and appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar. The wife of director Howard Hawks spotted the picture and arranged with her husband to have Lauren take a screen test.

Lauren was then cast as Marie Browning in Hawk's To Have and Have Not (1944) opposite Humphrey Bogart. This film not only set the stage for Bacall's career but also was the beginning of one of Hollywood's greatest love stories.

Humphery Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married on May 21, 1945 and remained married until his death in 1957.

During the 1940s, Lauren Bacall appeared in such classics as The Confidential Agent (1945), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). She starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in all but The Confidential Agent in which she starred opposite Charles Boyer.

The 1950s brought Lauren Bacall roles in such films Young Man With A Horn (1950), How To Marry A Millionaire (1953), Designing Women (1957), and The Gift of Love (1958).

On January 14, 1957, Humphrey Bogart died of throat cancer. A grief stricked Bacall moved back to New York City and appeared in several Broadway plays.

In 1964, she returned to the silver screen to appear in Shock Treatment and Sex and The Single Girl. During the 1960s she also appeared in Harper (1966), opposite Paul Newman and Julie Harris.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lauren alternated her time between the stage and television appearances. She appeared in such television classics as Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre and Applause (1973). Her role in television's Applause would earn her an emmy nomination for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

She would win the Tony Award for the Broadway production of Applause.

In 1974, Lauren returned once again to the silver screen in Murder on the Orient Express. Two years later she co-starred opposite John Wayne in The Shootist (1976).

During the 1980s, she would earn her second emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for The Rockford Files. In 1988, she would earn her third emmy nomination for Outstanding Informational Special for Bacall on Bogart.

Her film credits of the 1980s include The Fan (1981), Mr. North (1988) and Tree of Hands (1989).

In 1981, she would earn her second Tony Award for the Broadway production of Woman of the Year.

During the 1990s, Lauren Bacall would receive her one and only Academy Award nomination. This was for her role in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). Although she did not win the Oscar, she did win the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award for this performance.

Lauren's film credits of the 1990s include such films as Misery (1990), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), My Fellow Americans (1996), and Presence of Mind (1999).

Lauren Bacall is still active in the entertainment industry. She has appeared in such recent ventures as Birth (2004), Manderlay (2005), These Foolish Things (2006) and Eve (2008).

In 2010, three more productions featuring Lauren Bacall are scheduled to be released. She will provide the voice of Porsche in Firedog, play May in Wild Blue Yonder, and provide the voice of The Grand Witch in Scooby Doo and the Globin King.

Jackie Cooper

2009-10-27T09:59:00.001-07:00

Jackie Cooper was one of the most talented child actors of the silver screen and managed the transistion from child actor to a successful adult career as a television director, producer and executive.

Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper Jr. in Los Angeles, California on September 15, 1922. His father left the family when Jackie was two years old. His mother, Mabel Leonard Bigelow was a stage pianist and former child actress. Cooper's maternal uncle, Jack Leonard, was a screenwriter, and his maternal aunt, Julie Leonard, was an actress married to director Norman Taurog. Cooper's stepfather was C. J. Bigelow, a studio production manager.

Born into a show business family, it was only natural that Cooper would make his film debut at the age of nine in the short Boxing Gloves (1929), one of the Our Gang comedies.

Jackie Cooper would go on to appear in 12 Our Gang comedies from 1929 to 1931 before the role that would catapult young Cooper into stardom.

In 1931, Jackie Cooper would play Skippy Skinner in the movie Skippy. This role would earn him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. At the age of nine, he became the youngest actor ever to receive a Best Actor nomination, a record he still holds today.

Jackie Cooper would go on to appear in such films as The Champ (1931), The Bowery (1933), The Choices of Andy Purcell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), O'Shaughnessy's Boy (1935), Boy of the Streets (1937), Streets of New York (1939), Life with Henry (1941), and Kilroy was Here (1947).

With the invention of television, Jackie Cooper appeared in such classics as Your Show of Shows, Kraft Television Theatre, General Electric Theater, Robert Montgomery Presents, Hennesey, Dick Powell Presents, Police Story, Ironside, Kojak, Columbo, The Rockford Files, and Murder She Wrote.

Jackie Cooper's last appearance as an actor was as J. Nash Hawkins in the television series For Jenny with Love (1989).

Jackie Cooper also appeared in Superman I, Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV.

As an adult, Cooper turned his attention towards directing and producing.

He directed such shows as Cagney & Lacey, Jake and The Fatman, Magnum P.I., The Rockford Files and Mary Tyler Moore.

Jackie Cooper would earn two emmy awards for directing, one for M*A*S*H and one for The White Shadow.

His last work as a director was in 1989 directing two episodes of Simon & Simon.

During World War II, Jackie Cooper served as a Captain in the US Navy.

From 1964-1969, Jackie Cooper was vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures Screen Gems television division. He was responsbile for packaging series such as Bewitched and selling them to the networks.

In 1981 wrote an autobiographical account of his traumatic years as a child star "Please Don't Shoot My Dog." The title based on his Uncle Norman Taurog, the director, threatened to shoot his dog to make him do the crying scene on the set of Skippy (1931).

Jackie Cooper is now retired and spends his time with his wife of fifty-four years, Barbara.

Sean Connery

2009-10-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sean Connery was born Thomas Sean Connery on August 25, 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother, Euphamia C. Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver.

Before going into acting, Sean Connery had many different jobs, for example he was a milkman, laborer, coffin polisher, and bodybuilder. He was also a nude model for Edinburgh art students. He joined the Royal Navy, but was discharged because of medical problems. In 1953, he entered the Mr. Universe contest, finishing third in the tall man's division. He also trained as a dancer for 11 years under Swedish dancer Yat Malmgren.

At the age of 23, he had a choice between becoming a professional footballer or an actor, and even though he showed much promise as an athlete, he chose acting and said later said it was one of his more intelligent moves.

Sean Connery's first film appearnce was an uncredited role in Lilacs In the Spring (aka Let's Make Up) in 1954. For the next several years he would have bit parts in both movies and televison before getting his big break in 1962.

In the early 1960's, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, wanted Cary Grant for the title role. However, Cary Grant turned the role down. Fleming did not like the idea of Sean Connery as James Bond, feeling he was too unrefined. Despite Fleming's concerns he went with Connery and later said Connery was ideally cast in the role.

Sean Connery found fame and fortune as the suave, sophisticated British agent, James Bond 007. His first James Bond role was in Dr. No (1962). He would play James Bond in six more films: From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds are Forever (1971). He would reprise his role in 1983 in Never Say Never Again.

Sean Connery said his favorite Bond film was From Russia With Love (1963).

In addition to the James Bond films, Sean Connery also starred in such films as Marnie (1964), The Longest Day (1962), Murder on The Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Untouchables (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt For Red October (1990), A Bridge to Far (1977) and the Great Train Robbery (1979).

Sean Connery turned down the title role in the original The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), which he later admitted was a huge mistake on his part. (the role went to Steve McQueen instead).

He also turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings series because he didn't want to film down in New Zealand for 18 months, and could not understand the novels.

Sean Connery earned an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for playing Chicago cop, Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables (1987).

He was voted Sexiest Man of the Century in 1999 by People Magazine.

In 1999, he received the award for lifetime achievement award at the Kennedy Center Honors.

He was awarded Knighthood of the British Empire in the 2000 Queen's Millennium Honors List for his services to Film Drama. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on July 5, 2000.

In 2006, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sean Connery married actress Diane Cilento in 1962 and they had one son, Jason Connery. The marriage ended in divorce in 1973. In 1975, he married his current spouse Micheline Roquebrune. He became a grandfather in 1997.

Sean Connery is one of the most talented actors of the past 50 years and left us with lines as "Bond, James Bond" and "shaken, not stirred."

Rhonda Fleming

2009-10-27T09:55:00.001-07:00

She was born Marilyn Louis on August 10, 1923 in Hollywood, California.

She was nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor.

Rhonda made her first film appearance as an uncredited dance hall girl in 1943 in the film In Old Oklahoma.

She has appeared in over 40 films, including Spellbound (1945), Out of the Past (1947), Spiral Staircase (1946), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), While the City Sleeps (1956) and The Big Circus (1959). Her most recent film was Waiting for the Wind in 1990.

During the 1950s and into the '60s, Fleming frequently appeared on television with guest-starring roles on The Red Skelton Show, The Investigators, The Dick Powell Show, Wagon Train, The Virginian, Police Woman, McMillan and Wife and the Love Boat.

In retirement, Fleming has worked for several charities, especially in the field of cancer care, and hsd served on the committees of many related organizations.

Joan Fontaine

2009-10-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Joan Fontaine was born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917 in Tokyo, Japan.

The youngest daughter of Walter Augustus de Havilland and Lilian Augusta Ruse. Her father was a British patent attorney with a practice in Japan. Her mother was a British stage actress. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland from who she has been estranged for decades.

Joan was a sickly child and upon the advise of a physician, Joan's mother moved her and her sister to the United States where they settled in California. Joan's health improved dramatically.

Joan is an extremely intelligent woman, scoring a 160 on an intelligence test when she was three.

Joan Fontaine made her stage debut in the West Coast production in Call it a Day in 1935 and soon signed an RKO contract.

Her film debut was a small role in No More Ladies (1935) starring Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery.

From 1935 to 1940, Joan appeared in such films as A Million to One (1937), You Can't Beat Love (1937), Blond Cheat (1938), Gunga Din (1939), and The Women (1939).

One night at a dinner party she was seated next to producer David O. Selznick. She and Selznick began discussing the Daphne du Maurier novel Rebecca and Selznick asked her to adution for the part of the unnamed heronie. She won the part.

In 1940, Rebecca was released and marked Hitchcock's directorial debut in America. The film was a success and Joan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

A year later she would land the role of Lina in Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) and this time she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She is th eonly actress to ever win an Academy Award for a performance in a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

During the 1940s, Joan starred in such films as The Constant Nymph (1943), Jane Eyre (1944), The Affairs of Susan (1945), Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948), and You Gotta Stay Happy (1948).

She would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for The Constant Nymph (1943).

During the 1950s and 1960s, Joan starred in Born to Be Bad (1950), Ivanhoe (1952), The Bigamist (1952), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), Island in the Sun (1957), A Certain Smile (1958), Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea (1961), and Tender is the Night (1962).

During the 1950's, Joan Fontaine would make her Broadway debut in Tea and Sympathy. Later she would also appear in Forty Carrots during the 1970s.

Joan Fontaine appeared on numerous television shows during the 1950s and 1960s including Letter to Loretta, On Trial (aka The Joseph Cotton Show), General Electric Theater, Wagon Train, and The Alfred Hitchock Hour.

During the 1970s, Joan would appear in two television shows: The Users and Cannon and spent the rest of the decade in theater and stage work.

During the 1980s, Joan Fontaine returned to television appearing in Hotel, The Love Boat, the tv mini series Crossings and on Ryans Hope (for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award).

Joan Fontaine's final appearance was in the television special Good King Wenceslas (1994).

Joan Fontaine and her sister Olivia de Havilland where the first sisters to win Academy Awards and the first ones to be nominated in the same year. In 1941, Joan won the Academy Award for Suspicion beating her sister Olivia for Hold Back the Dawn.

During World War II, Joan worked as a nurses aide and made numerous appearances at the Hollywood Canteen in support of our troops.

Joan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures.

Joan Fontaine is a licensed pilot, champion balloonist, expert rider, prize-winning tuna fisherman, a hole-in-one golfer, Cordon Bleu chef and licensed interior decorator.

Joan now resides in Carmel, California, in relative seclusion, spending her time in her gardens, and with her dogs.

Claudette Colbert

2009-10-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Claudette Colbert was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 16, 1903 in Saint-Mande, France.

The daughter of Georges Claude, a banker, and Jeanee Loew Chauchoin, a pastry cook, her family moved to the United States when she was three years old. She was raised in New York City.

Claudette Colbert began her career on Broadway. She took the name of Claudette Colbert for her broadway debut in "The Wild Westcotts" (1923).

From 1925 to 1929, she played mainly ingenue roles on Broadway. She f
ought against being typecast and received critical acclaim in the Broadway production of The Barker (1927) where she played a carnival snake charmer.

She began studying at the Art Students League, however, the Great Depression shut down most of the theaters. Claudette decided to make a go of it in films.

Her first film was For the Love of Mike (1927) directed by Frank Capra, which was a box office disaster.

Claudette Colbert's next film was The Lady Lies (1929) which was a success. Later that year she had another hit with The Hole in the Wall (1929).

In 1930, she starred opposite Fredric March in Manslaughter (1930). She would make five more movies with Fredric March: Honor Among Lovers (1931), Make Me A Star (1932), The Sign of the Cross (1932), Tonight is Ours (1933), and Land of Liberty (1929).

In 1935 she would be paired with her number on leading man, Fred MacMurray in The Gilded Lily (1935). They would go on to make six more movies together: The Bride Comes Home (1935), Maid of Salem (1937), No Time For Love (1943), Pracitally Yours (1944), The Egg and I (1947), and Family Honeymoon (1949).

However, it was the 1934 Frank Capra film, It Happened One Night that ensured she would be forever immortalized. Paired with Clark Gable, the mad cap comedy swept the Academy Awards with Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Picture, and Best Director wins for herself, Frank Capra and Clark Gable.

Her other notable films include The Phantom President (1932) with Jimmy Durante, Cleopatra (1934), Inimitation of Life (1934), Private Worlds (1935) with Charles Boyer, Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) with Henry Fonda, It's a Wonderful World (1939) with James Stewart, The Palm Beach Story (1942) with Joel McCrea, and Since You Went Away (1944) with Joseph Cotton.

She received three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress during her career. The first being for It Happened One Night (1934) for which she won her only Academy Award. She was also nominated for Since You Went Away (1944) and Private Worlds (1935).

During the 1950s, Claudette Colbert turned to televsion roles. Appearing in such classics as General Electric Theater and Robert Montgomery Presents.

Claudette Colbert's final silver screen performance was in 1961 in the movie Parrish starring Troy Donahue and Karl Malden.

During her retirement, Claudette Colbert divided her time between her apartment in Manhattan and her summer home in Barbados. After suffering a series of strokes, she passed away on July 30, 1996 at the age of 92.

She would retire from acting until 1978 when she would make one last performance in television's The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. This role earned her an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special and won her the Golden Globe award for this performance.

In 1928, she married actor Norman Foster, although they never lived together and they divorced after seven years. She next married surgeon Dr. Joel Pressman and they remained married until his death in 1968.

Irene Dunne

2009-10-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Irene Dunne was born Irene Marie Dunn on December 20, 1898 in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, a steamship inspector, and Adelaide Henry, a musician.

Irene took an early interest in acting appearing at the age of five in a local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in Louisville, Kentucky.

Irene began her career following in her mothers footsteps in music. In 1917 she studied at a music conservatory in Indianapolis. She also accepted a teaching post as a music and art instructor in East Chicago, Indiana. However, she never made it to the school. While on her way to East Chicago, she saw a newspaper ad in the Indianapolis Star and News for an annual scholarship contest run by the Chicago Music College. Irene won the contest, which enabled her to study there for a year.

She next headed for New York City, at that time it was the entertainment capital of the world. She auditioned at the Metropolitan Opera Company. However, she was rejected for being too young and inexperienced.

Irene next turned her attention to musical theater and Broadway, making her Broadway debut in 1922 in The Clinging Vine.

Her big break in musical theater came by chance. She had a chance meeting with Florenz Ziegfeld in an elevator the day after she returned from her honeymoon. She was cast as Magnolia Hawks in Show Boat.

Her performance in Show Boat caught the attention of Hollywood. In 1930 she signed with RKO Pictures. Her first film was Leathernecking (1930). However, her big Hollywood break came the next year when she appeared in Cimarron (1931) receiving her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

In 1936, she was cast as Magnolia in the movie Show Boat. Due to her comic skits in Show Boat, she was persuaded to star in her first comedy, Theodora Goes Wild (1936), this performance earned her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Irene would earn three more Academy Award nominations for her performances in The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948).

Some of Irene's other most notable movies include My Favorite Wife (1940), Penny Serenade (1941), A Guy Named Joe (1943), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), and Life with Father (1947).

Of all of Irene's films her only color production was Life with Father (1947).

Her last film appearance was in It Grows on Trees (1952).

After retiring from the silver screen, Irene Dunne devoted her time to civic, philanthropic, and Republican political causes.

In 1957 she was appointed as a special US delegate to the United Nations during the 12th General Assembly by President Eisenhower.

In 1965 she was the first woman elected to Technicolor's board of directors.

Irene Dunne once said that her favorite film was Love Affair (1939) with Charles Boyer.

Irene was married only once to a dentist from New York named Francis Dennis Griffin. She remained with Dr. Griffin until his death in 1965. They have one adopted daughter together.

Nominated five times for an Academy Award and having never received a much deserved Honorary Award from the Acadamy, she did receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985 at the Kennedy Center Honors for her three decade career covering musical theater, Broadway, radio, television and the silver screen.

Irene Dunne passed away on September 4, 1990 of heart failure

Yvonne De Carlo

2009-10-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Before she was Lily Munster on the televison show The Munsters (1964-1966), Yvonne De Carlo graced the silver screen in such classics as McLintock (1963), The Ten Commandments (1956), Brute Force (1947) and Criss Cross (1949).

Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The daughter of an aspiring actress, Marie De Carlo, and a salesman, William Middleton.

She chose her own stage name by using her middle name and her mother's maiden name of De Carlo.

She was three years old when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet. Yvonne's mother wanted her to be in the entertainment field and enrolled her in a local dance school and also saw that she studied dramatics.

Yvonne was trained in opera and was a former chorister at St. Paul Angelica Church in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when she was a little girl.

Before she was a successful actress, she was a dancer and had worked at various nightclubs in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 1937, when Yvonne was 15, her mother took her to Hollywood to try for fame and fortune, but nothing came of it and they returned to Canada.

They returned to Hollywood in 1940, where Yvonne would dance in chorus lines at night while she checked in at the studios by day in search of film work. Yvonne's first film appearance was as an uncredited extra in the film I Look at You (1941). She went on to have many more uncredited roles in such films as Road to Morocco (1942), This Gun for Hire (1942), and For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943).

Yvonne De Carlo's first credited role was as Princess Wah-Tah in The Deerslayer (1943).

Yvonne's first title role was in Salome Where She Danced (1945) for Universal Pictures. Her next film was the western comedy Frontier Gal (1945). She went on to star in such films as Song of Scheherazade (1947), Brute Force (1947), Slave Girl (1947), Black Bart (1948), Casbah (1948), River Lady (1948), Criss Cross (1949), Silver City (1951), The Ten Commandments (1956), Band Of Angels (1957), McLintock (1963), The Power (1968) and The Seven Minutes (1971).

Yvonne's final film appearance was in 1991 in the comedy Oscar.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Yvonne De Carlo appeared on such TV programs as Bonanza (1959), The Virginian (1962) and of course, The Munsters (1964).

Yvonne De Carlo took the part of Lily on The Munsters (1964) to help pay her husband Bob Morgan's medical bills. Morgan, an actor/stuntman, had suffered near-fatal injuries while filming How The West Was Won (1962). By her own admission, Yvonne De Carlo never imagined, at the time, that Lily Munster would become her most famous role.

Her last TV movie appearance was as Norma, in the 1995 Disney remake of The Barefoot Executive, opposite Eddie Albert.

On January 8, 2007, Yvonne De Carlo died at the age of 84.

James Coburn

2009-10-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

James Coburn was an American film and television actor who appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances in his 45-year career. He was known for his deeply calm yet authoritative voice. He was a lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin.

James Coburn was born August 31, 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska to Mylet S. Johnson and James Harrison Coburn Sr, a garage mechanic. His maternal grandparents were immigrants from Sweden.

In 1950, he enlisted in the US Army serving as a disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas and narrated Army training films in Germany.

James Coburn studied acting with Jeff Corey and Stella Adler and made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Billy Budd.

In 1959, Coburn made his film debut as the sidekick to bad guy Pernell Roberts in the Randolph Scott western Ride Lonesome.

After appearing in bit parts in both movies and television shows, James Coburn's big break came in 1960 when he played knife-throwing, quick-shooting Britt in the John Sturges film The Magnificent Seven.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Coburn starred in many movies including Hell is for Heroes (1962), The Great Escape (1963), Charade (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964), Major Dundee (1965), Our Man Flint (1966), Dead Heat on a Merry Go Round (1966), In Like Flint (1967), The President's Analyst (1967), A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), and Midway (1976).

Due to severe rheumatoid arhritis, he was featured in very few films during the 1980s.

He returned to the silver screen in the 1990s, appearing in such films as Young Guns II (1990), Sister Act 2 (1993), Maverick (1994), Erarser (1996) and The Nutty Professor (1996).

In 1997, James Coburn appeared in the role of a lifetime in Affliction for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his vivid portrayal of the abusive father of Nick Nolte's character.

James Coburn continued to work through 2002, his last film appearance being in American Gun. At the time of his death, he was the voice of the "Like a Rock" Chevrolet television ad campaign.

James Coburn died on November 18, 2002 at the age of 74. He suffered a heart attack while listening to music and playing his flute at his Beverly Hills home.

Ingrid Bergman

2009-10-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

Ingrid Bergman was born August 29, 1915 in Stockholm, Sweden and passed away on her 77th birthday due to complications from breast cancer surgery.

Ingrid Bergman, named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden. Ingrid Bergman was born to a Swedish father, Justus Samuel Bergman, and a German mother, Friedel Alder Bergman. When she was three years of age, her mother died. Her father died when she was thirteen. She was then sent to live with an aunt, who died of heart complications only six months later. Afterwards she was brought up by another aunt and uncle, who had five children.

At the age of 17, Bergman auditioned for and was accepted to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. She had her first taste of acting at age 17 when she played an uncredited role of a girl standing in line in the Swedish film Landskamp (1932). It would be three more years before she would have another chance at a film. When she did, it was more than just a bit part. The film in question was Munkbrogreven (1935).

After several films established her as a class actress in Europe, Ingrid appeared in Intermezzo (1936) as Anita Hoffman. Luckily for her, American producer David O. Selznick saw it and sent a representative from MGM to gain rights to the story and have Ingrid signed to a contract. Once signed, she came to California and starred in MGM's 1939 remake of her 1936 film, Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939), reprising her original role.

Back in the US she appeared in three more films, all well-received. But it was the classic Casablanca (1942) which made her a star.

In 1943, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actres for the movie For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). She also received Academy Ward nominations for Best Actress for The Bell's of St. Mary's (1945), Joan of Arc (1938), and Hostsonaten (1978).

She received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Gaslight (1944) and Anastasia (1956). She also received a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

She also won two Emmy awards for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress for The Turn of the Screw (1959) and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for A Woman Called Golda (1982).

She also won a Tony award for Joan of Lorraine (1947).

Some of her most notable movies (not already mentioned) include Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Spellbound (1945), Saratoga Trunk (1945), Notorious (1946), Under Capricorn (1949), and Catus Flower (1969).

Her final performance was in the televison movie, A Woman Called Golda (1982) in which she played Golda Meir.

On 10 July, 1937, at the age of 21, Bergman married a dentist, Petter Lindström (who would later become a neurosurgeon). On 20 September, 1938, she gave birth to a daughter, Pia Lindstrom.

In 1949 she went to Italy to film Stromboli (1950) directed by Roberto Rossellini. They fell in love and left her husband, Dr. Peter Lindstrom, and daughter, Pia. The press and the public were outraged. She and Roberto were married in 1950 and had three children, a son (Roberto) and twin daughters, Isotta and Isabella. Roberto and Ingrind would divorce in 1957.

She was one of our most talented actresses, winning the triple crown of acting: a Tony, an Emmy (two time winner) and an Oscar (three time winner).

Charles Boyer

2009-10-26T16:35:00.001-07:00

Charles Boyer was born on August 28, 1899 in Figeac, Lot, Midi-Pyrenees, France.

Boyer appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. Starting his career on the stage, he later found success in European and Hollywood movies in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

During World War I, Charles Boyer worked as a hospital orderly and performed comic sketches for the soldiers at the hospital. He began his studies at Sorbonne, and was waiting for a chance to study acting at the Paris Conservatory. He went to Paris to finish his education but spent most of his time pursuing a theatrical career. In 1920s he was a suave and sophisticated ladies' man on the stage and also appeared in several silent films.

MGM signed him to a contract but nothing much came of his first few years in Hollywood. However, with the coming of talkies, his deep voice made him a romantic star.

His first big break came with a very small role in Jean Harlow's Red-Headed Woman (1932). Roles in Caravan (1934) with Loretta Young and Private Worlds (1935) with Claudette Colbert soon followed.

Some of his most notable films include Conquest (1937), Algiers (1938), Love Affair (1939), Gaslight (1944), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Casino Royale (1967), Barefoot in the Park (1967), and Fanny (1961).

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for Conquest (1937), Algiers (1938), Gaslight (1944) and Fanny (1961). He also received a special Tony Award in 1952 for his performance in the 1951 Broadway production of "Don Juan in Hell".

In addition to French and English, he spoke Italian, German, and Spanish and was also an avid bookworm.

Chuck Jones used his French voice and mannerisms when he created famed cartoon skunk Pepé Le Pew.

In addition, to his work in movies and theatre, he also appeared in several television shows, including a delightful performance as himself on I Love Lucy. He received an Emmy nomination for Best Continuing Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series for "Four Star Playhouse" (1952).

On February 14, 1934, he married Pat Paterson with whom he had one son, Michael. They remained married 44 years until her death from cancer on August 24, 1978. Grief strickin over the loss of his wife and the earlier death of his only son Micheal (Michael died at the age of 21 playing Russian Roulette), Charles Boyer commited suicide by taking a fatal dose of barbiturates on August 26, 1978.

Lon Chaney Sr.

2009-10-26T09:03:00.000-07:00

Lon Chaney Sr. was born April 1, 1883 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His parents were Frank H. Chaney and Emma Alice Kennedy.

Both of Lon Chaney's parents were deaf and as a child of deaf parents, Chaney became skilled in pantomine.

As a young man, he worked as a tour guide at Pikes Peak, where he developed his love for the outdoor life. He next worked at the Colorado Springs Opera House as a property boy, scene painter and stagehand.

Lon Chaney began his stage career in 1902 and began traveling with Vaudeville and theater acts.

In 1910, Lon Chaney and his family would move to California. He found work as a stage manager, actor and choreographer working for Kolb and Dill.

Lon Chaney would make his film debut in an uncredited role in The Honor of the Family (1912).

From 1912 to 1919, Lon Chaney appeared in more than 100 silent films such as Poor Jake's Demise (1913), Shon the Piper (1913), Almost an Actress (1913), Remember the Mary Magdalen (1914), The Embezzler (1914), The Old Cobbler (1914), Her Life's Story (1914), The Measure of Man (1915), All for Peggy (1915), Father and the Boys (1915), The Price of Silence (1916), The Rescue (1917), Broadway Love (1918) and The Talk of the Town (1918).

In 1919, Lon Chaney had a breakthrough performance as "The Frog" in The Miracle Man. This film displayed Chaney's acting ability and his talent as the master of makeup. Lon Chaney was now America's favorite character actor.

Roles would soon follow in Treasure Island (1920), Oliver Twist (1922), Flesh and Blood (1922) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).

In 1925, Lon Chaney would appear in his most famous role as The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera.

Lon Chaney's other movie credits include The Blackbird (1926), The Road to Mandalay (1926), Mr. Wu (1927), The Big City (1928) and While the City Sleeps (1928).

Lon Chaney, like Charlie Chaplin, shunned the transition to talking films and was one of the last of the silent screen stars to holdout against speaking roles.

Lon Chaney would appear in only one talkie a remake of his 1925 film The Unholy Three, in 1930 he would appear in the talking version recreating the role of Echo, a crook ventriloquist. In the 1930 movie, Lon Chaney would use five different voices thus proving he could make the transition from silent to talkies.

Lon Chaney, was a quiet person by nature and valued his privacy. He granted few interviews and disliked Hollywood's social whirl. Lon Chaney perferred spending quiet time with his family and a few close friends.

During Lon Chaney's 27 year film career he would appear in more than 150 movies. He frequently played villanious and sometimes bizarre roles.

Lon Chaney also wrote the screenplay for several of his films: The Menance to Carlotta (1914), The Tragedy of Whispering Creek (1914), Her Escape (1914), The Oyster Dredger (1915), The Chimney's Secret (1915) and The Trap (1922).

Lon Chaney also directed The Chimney's Secret (1915), The Trust (1915), The Violin Maker (1915), The Oyster Dredger (1915), For Cash (1915) and The Stool Pigeon (1915). He is also an uncredited director for The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
Lon Chaney's ability to transform himself using self-invented makeup techniques earned him the nickname of "Man of a Thousand Faces." He served as a make up artist for The Unholy Three (1930), London after Midnight (1927), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).

In 1957, Lon Chaney was the subject of a biopic titled Man of a Thousand Faces and was portrayed by James Cagney.

Lon Chaney is the father of Lon Chaney Jr. Together they would appear in only one movie, The Trap (1922) when Lon Chaney Jr. played an uncredited role and only his hands where shown.

On August 26, 1930, Lon Chaney died from a throat hemorrhage at the age of 47.

Lon Chaney Jr.

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There are four classic movie monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Wolfman. Only one person has played all four roles:

Lon Chaney Jr. was born Creighton Chaney on February 10, 1906 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of Lon Chaney Sr. and Frances Cleveland Creighton.

As a young boy, he traveled with his parents while they appeared in vaudeville. His father discouraged a career in motion pictures, wanting his son instead to pursue a more stable business.

In his early years, he worked as a butcher, ice man, clothing salesman, newsboy and plumbers helper.

In 1922, at the age of 14, he appeared as an uncredited extra in his father's film The Trap, he was merely the hands of the boy.

He attended business school and became successful working in a Los Angeles appliance corporation.

It was not until after his father's death, that he went to work in films. His first film appearances were under his real name Creighton Chaney. However, in 1935, the studio insisted he change his name to Lon Chaney Jr. as a marketing ploy. He was uncomfortable with the ploy but also was aware that the famous name could help his career.

Lon Chaney's first credited role was the part of Tom Kirby in The Black Ghost (1932).

In 1941, Lon Chaney Jr. starred in the title role of The Wolfman, a role which would typecast him for the rest of his life.

Lon Chaney Jr. appeared in classic horror movies as The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), The Mummy's Tomb (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), The Mummy's Curse (1944), House of Frankenstein (1944), and The Mummy's Ghost (1944).

Lon Chaney Jr. also appeared in such classic films as The Three Musketeers (1933), Jesse James (1939), Union Pacific (1939), Of Mice and Men (1939), My Favorite Brunette (1947), High Noon (1952), and The Defiant Ones (1958).

Lon Chaney Jr. final film appearance was in 1971 in Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

In addition to his film career, Lon Chaney Jr. also appeared on classic television shows as The Pat Boone Show, The Monkees, Rawhide, Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted Dead or Alive, Route 66, The Rifleman, Lawman, Wagon Train and The Red Skelton Show.

Lon Chaney Jr. died at the age of 67 on July 12, 1973.

Leo G. Carroll

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Leo G. Carroll was born October 25, 1892 to William and Catherine Carroll in Weedon Bec, Northamptonshire.

Leo G. Carroll made his debut on Broadway in 1912 in Rutherford & Son. In 1913, he appeared on Broadway in Everyman.

His acting career was on hold during World War I, when he served in the British Army.

After World War I, he returned to Broadway appearing in such plays as Havoc, The Constant Nymph, Speak Easy, The Perfect Alibi and The Green Bay Tree.

In 1934, he moved to Hollywood and made his film debut in Sadie McKee.

Leo G. Carroll is best known for his roles in six Alfred Hitchock films: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), Strangers on a Train (1951) and North By Northwest (1959). He appeared in more Hitchcock films than any other actor.

Leo G. Carroll also appeared in films such as The Casino Murder Case (1935), Wuthering Heights (1939), A Christmas Carol (1938), The Private Lives of Elizabeth Essex (1939), Waterloo Bridge (1940), Father of the Bride (1950), The Bad and The Beautiful (1952), The Swan (1956), and The Parent Trap (1961).

Leo G. Carroll's final film appearance was in One Spy Too Many (1966).

During Leo G. Carroll's film career he also frequently returned to his first love, Broadway. He appeared in 35 Broadway productions including Anne of England, The Late George Apley, You Never Can Tell, Mary Rose and Someone is Waiting.

On televison, Leo G. Carroll was Alexander Waverly on The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He would earn two Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

On October 16, 1972, Leo G. Carroll died iof pneumonia brought on by cancer, he was 79.

Jackie Coogan

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Jackie Coogan was born on October 26, 1914 in Los Angeles, California to John Henry Coogan Sr., a dancer and actor, and Lilian Rita Dolliver Coogan, a child star.

Before he was Uncle Fester on The Addams Family, Jackie Coogan was a child star of silent films.

Jackie Coogan began his career when he was an infant appearing in vaudeville.

At the age of 3, he made his film debut in Skinner's Baby (1917).

Charlie Chaplin discovered young Jackie in a Los Angeles vaudeville house, doing the shimmy, a popular dance at the time. Jackie was a natural mimic and delighted Chaplin with his abilities. Chaplin gave him a small part in A Day's Pleasure (1919).

In 1921, Chaplin cast him as his sidekick in the classic The Kid.

Jackie Coogan would appear in numerous films such as Oliver Twist (1922), Circus Days (1923), The Rag Man (1925), Tom Sawyer (1930), Huckleberry Finn (1931), Love in September (1936), College Swing (1938), and Sky Patrol (1939).

With the outbreak of World War II, Jackie Coogan put his acting career on hold.

In March 1941, Jackie Coogan enlisted in the US Army. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to the US Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school, he was made a Flight Officer and he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. On March 5, 1944, he was a member of the Burma Campaign.

After the war, Jackie Coogan returned to Hollywood and appeared in a few films such as Kilroy was Here (1947) and French Leave (1948).

Most of Jackie's post war career was in televison. He appeared on such classic shows as Police Story, Gunsmoke, McMillan & Wife, Ironside, The Partridge Family, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-O, Marcus Welby M.D., The Brady Bunch, Adam-12, I Dream of Jeannie, The Virginian, Perry Mason and The Andy Griffith Show.

Jackie Coogan's most memorable television role would be as Uncle Fester on The Addams Family.

Jackie Coogan was married four times. His first wife was Betty Grable (1937-1939, divorced). He next married Flower Parry (1941-1943, divorced) and they had one son. His third marriage was to Ann McCormack (1946-1951, divorced) they had one duaghter. His fourth marriage was to Dorothea Lamphere (1952 to his death) and they had two children, a son and a daughter.

Jackie Coogan's film career spanned 67 years and he made his final film appearance in The Prey (1984).

Jackie Coogan was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has his hand and foot prints in concrete out front of Grauman's Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater).

As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to 4 million, but the money was taken by his mother, Lilian, and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, for extravagances such as fur coats, diamonds, and cars. He sued them in 1938 (at age 23), but after legal expenses, he only received $126,000 of the approx. $250,000 left. When Coogan fell on hard times, Charlie Chaplin gave him some financial support.

The legal battle did, however, bring attention to child actors and resulted in the state of California enacting the California Child Actor's Bill, sometimes known as the Coogan Bill or Coogan Act. This requires that the child's employer set aside 15% of the child's earnings in a trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off.

Jackie Coogan died on March 1, 1984 at the age of 69 of cardiac arrest.

Lucille Ball

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Lucille Ball was born Lucille Désirée Ball on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. Although she was the world's most famous red head, she was actually born a burnette.

She was the Queen of Comedy and the First Lady of Television. She was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive. She was one of the most popular and influential stars in America during her lifetime, with one of Hollywood's longest careers, Ball was a movie star from the 1930s who could still be seen making films in the 1960s and 1970s; she was a radio regular in the 1940s.

She was a pioneer for women, she was the first woman to own her own film studio.

She made her film debut as an uncredited Blonde in the movie The Bowery in 1933. She signed a contract with RKO and had several small roles including one in Top Hat in 1935. She later signed with MGM.

Her more known film credits (to name just a few) include Stage Door (1937), The Big Street (1942), Five Came Back (1939), Yours Mine and Ours (1968), Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1950) and The Facts of Life (1960).

While filming Too Many Girls (1940), she met and fell madly in love with a young Cuban actor-musician named Desi Arnaz. Despite different personalities, lifestyles, religions and ages (he was six years younger), he fell hard, too, and after a passionate romance, they eloped and were married in November 30, 1940. She would suffer three miscarriages between 1942 and 1950 before finally becoming a mother one month before her 40th birthday with the birth of Luci Arnaz.

Lucy and Desi Arnaz began I Love Lucy in 1951 in the hopes of saving their crumbling marriage. Although the show was a success, they would later divorce on May 4, 1960. Lucy would marry a second time to Gary Morton on November 19, 1961 and remained married until her death.

Lucille Ball received thirteen Emmy Award nominations and four wins. She was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986 and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1989. She also received posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George H.W. Bush on July 6, 1989.

Lucille Ball died on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77 of a dissecting aortic aneurysm.

William Demarest

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William Demarest was born February 27, 1892 and passed away on December 28, 1983. Although best known for his role as Uncle Charley on my three sons, William Demarest appeared as a character actor in more than 140 films.

Prolific character player of the 1930s and 40s, later on TV, typically in cranky but endearing comedy roles. Famed for his ratchety voice and cold-fish stare, he began his career in vaudeville, moved to broadway and made his movie debut in When the Wife's Away in 1926 and worked steadily until 1978. Demarest was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting role in the real-life biography, The Jolson Story (1946).

He played Police Chief Aloysius in It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. He also appeared in the The Jazz Singer, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Palm Beach Story, Sullivan's Travels, My Favorite Spy, The Lady Eve, The Farmer's Daughter, The Great Ziegfeld, Hands Across the Table, and many more films. Like most character actors, most of his early work was uncredited. He was a favorite of director Preston Sturges.

A true classic character actor.