RIP 2013
entertainment notables who passed on in 2013
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A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a journalist, beginning as a newspaper copy boy. Although he succeeded in becoming a reporter, he discovered the theater and made his stage debut at age 17. He served as a radioman in the Royal Navy for two years, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.
O'Toole spent several years on-stage at the Bristol Old Vic, then made an inconspicuous film debut in the Disney classic Kidnapped (1960). In 1962, he was chosen by David Lean to play T.E. Lawrence in Lean's epic drama Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The role made O'Toole an international superstar and received him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1963, he played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theater. He continued successfully in artistically rich films as well as less artistic but commercially rewarding projects. He received Academy Award nominations (but no Oscar) for seven different films.
However, medical problems (originally thought to have been brought on by his drinking but which turned out to be stomach cancer) threatened to destroy his career and life in the 1970s. He survived by giving up alcohol and, after serious medical treatment, returned to films with triumphant performances in The Stunt Man (1980) and My Favorite Year (1982). His youthful beauty lost to time and drink, O'Toole has found meaningful roles increasingly difficult to come by, though he remained one of the greatest actors of his generation. He had two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips. He also had a son, Lorcan O'Toole, by model Karen Brown.
On December 14, 2013, Peter O'Toole died at age 81 in London, England.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Paul William Walker IV was born in Glendale, California. He grew up together with his brothers, Caleb and Cody, and sisters, Ashlie and Amie. Their parents, Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor, and Cheryl (Crabtree) Walker, a model, separated around September 2004. His grandfather, William Walker, was a Pearl Harbor survivor and a Navy middleweight boxing champion, while his maternal grandfather commanded a tank battalion in Italy under General Patton during World War II. Paul grew up active in sports like soccer and surfing. He had English and German ancestry.
Paul was cast for the first season of the family sitcom, Throb (1986) and began modeling until he received a script for the 1994 movie, Tammy and the T-Rex (1994). He attended high school at Village Christian High School in Sun Valley, California, graduating in 1991. With encouragement from friends and an old casting agent who remembered him as a child, he decided to try his luck again with acting shortly after returning from College.
He starred in Meet the Deedles (1998), a campy, silly but surprisingly fun film which failed to garner much attention. However, lack of attention would not be a problem for Paul Walker for long. With Pleasantville (1998), he appeared in his first hit. As the town stud (a la 1950s) who more than meets his match in modern day Reese Witherspoon, he was one of the most memorable characters of the film. That same year, Paul and his then-girlfriend Rebecca had a baby girl named Meadow Walker (Meadow Rain Walker). Even though Paul publicly admitted that Meadow was not planned, he said that she is his number one priority. Paul and Rebecca separated and Meadow lives with her mother in Hawaii. She often visited with Paul as his homes in Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach, California.
Roles in the teen hits Varsity Blues (1999), She's All That (1999) and The Skulls (2000) cemented Walker's continued rise to celebrity. He was chosen to be one of the young stars featured on the cover of Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue in April 2000. While the other stars on the cover, brooded and tried their best to look sexy and serious, Paul smiled brightly and showed why he is not part of the norm. This is one young actor who certainly stood apart from the rest of the crowd, not only with his talent but with his attitude. The Dallas Morning News commented in March of 2000 that, "Paul is one of the rarest birds in Hollywood- a pretension free movie star." The latest blockbuster hit, The Fast and the Furious (2001), had raised his stardom to an even higher level.
His fighting scenes in movies lead to a passion for martial arts. He has studied various forms of Jujitsu, Taekwondo, Jeet Kune Do and Eskrima. Paul mentioned in a magazine interview that he had hoped enroll in the Keysi Fighting Method when it comes to the United States. Other than practicing martial arts, Paul enjoyed relaxing at home with his daughter, Meadow Rain, surfing near his Huntington Beach abode, walking his dogs and just driving.
When Paul seriously did get a break from the entertainment business, he said he loved traveling. Paul had traveled to India, Fiji, Costa Rica, Sarawak, Brunei, Borneo and other parts of the Asian continent. Tragically, Paul Walker died in a car crash on Saturday November 30, 2013, after attending a charity event for "Reach Out Worldwide".
Several of Paul's films were released after his death, include Hours (2013), Brick Mansions (2014), and his final starring role in The Fast and the Furious series, Furious 7 (2015), part of which was completed after his death. The film's closing scenes paid tribute to Walker, whose character met with a happy ending, and rode off into the sunset. He appeared archival footage in Fast X (2023).- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Esther Jane Williams was born on August 8, 1921 in Inglewood, California. Her youth was spent as a teenage swimming champion and she won three United States National championships. She eventually was spotted by a MGM talent scout while working in a Los Angeles department store. She made her film debut with MGM in an "Andy Hardy" picture called Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942). She became Mickey Rooney's love interest in the movie, and her character was called Sheila Brooks. Following this movie, stardom was not far away. MGM created a special sub-genre for her known as "Aqua Musicals". Her first swimming role was in Bathing Beauty (1944). This was a simple movie compared to her later big splashes such as Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), co-starring Victor Mature and Walter Pidgeon. Esther Williams was often called "America's Mermaid", as it appeared that she could stay underwater forever!
Following the decline of the once lucrative MGM aqua musical, she attempted dramatic roles. The Unguarded Moment (1956), is one example of this new found dramatic confidence. It co-starred George Nader and John Saxon. Also, The Big Show (1961), co-starring Cliff Robertson and Robert Vaughn was another dramatic role. Overall, Esther's acting skills were limited and, as a musical star in the audience's eyes, she was unsuccessful. She retired from the movie industry in the 1960s, returning as a star guest in That's Entertainment! III (1994) discussing her appearance in MGM films. She certainly is recognized today for bringing enjoyment, escapism and entertainment on the big screen and has also a highly successful business in swimwear. Occasional television work discussing her contribution to the film industry is a treat for her fans from time to time.
Esther Williams died at age 91 in her sleep on June 6, 2013 in her home in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of the finest classical and contemporary leading ladies ever to grace the 20th century American stage, five-time Tony Award winner Julie Harris was rather remote and reserved on camera, finding her true glow in front of the theatre lights. The freckled, red-haired actress not only was nominated for a whopping total of ten Tony awards and was a Sarah Siddons Award recipient for her work on the Chicago stage, she also earned awards in other areas of the entertainment industry, including three Emmys (of 11 nominations), a Grammy and an Academy Award nomination. (Note: Harris would hold the record for the most competitive Tony performance wins (five) for a couple of decades. Angela Lansbury finally caught up with her in 2009 and singer/actress Audra McDonald surpassed them both in 2014 with six). While Harris certainly lacked the buoyancy and glamor usually associated with being a movie star, she certainly made an impact in the early to mid 1950s with three iconic leading roles, two of which she resurrected from the Broadway stage. After that she pretty much deserted film.
Born Julie Ann Harris on December 2, 1925, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she was the daughter of William Pickett, an investment banker, and Elsie L. (née Smith) Harris, a nurse. Graduating from Grosse Pointe Country Day School, an early interest in the performance arts was encouraged by her family. Moving to New York City, Julie attended The Hewitt School and later trained as a teenager at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School & Camp in Colorado. A mentor there, Charlotte Perry, saw great hope for young Julie and was insistent that her protégé study at the Yale School of Drama. Julie did just that -- for about a year.
Also trained at the New York School of Drama and one of the earliest members of the Acting Studio, young Julie made her Broadway debut in 1945 at age 19 in the comedy "It's a Gift". Despite its lukewarm reception, the demure, diminutive (5'3"), and delicate-looking thespian moved on. She apprenticed on Broadway for the next few years with ensemble parts in "King Henry IV, Part II" (1946), "Oedipus Rex" (1946), "The Playboy of the Western World" (1946), "Alice in Wonderland" (as the White Rabbit) (1947), and Macbeth" (1948).
More prominent roles came her way in such short-lived Broadway plays as "Sundown Beach" (1948), "The Young and Fair" (1948), "Magnolia Alley" (1949) and "Montserrat (1949). This led to her star-making theatre role at age 24 as sensitive 12-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams in the classic drama "The Member of the Wedding" (1950) opposite veteran actress Ethel Waters and based on the Carson McCullers novel. The play ran for over a year. The Member of the Wedding (1952) would eventually be transferred to film and, despite being untried talents on film, director Fred Zinnemann wisely included both Harris and young Brandon De Wilde (as young John Henry) to reenact their stage triumphs along with Ms. Waters. Harris, at 27, received her first and only Academy Award nomination as the coming-of-age Georgian tomboy.
It wasn't long before Julie's exceptional range and power won noticed nationwide. In 1952, she received her first "Best Actress" Tony Award for creating the larger-than-life role of Sally Bowles in "I Am a Camera," the stage version of one of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories ("Goodbye to Berlin" (1939). (Note: In the 1960s, Isherwood's play would be transformed successfully into the Broadway musical "Cabaret".) Harris again was invited to repeat her stage role in I Am a Camera (1955) with Laurence Harvey and Shelley Winters, winning the BAFTA "Best Foreign Actress" Award. That same year Harris starred opposite the highly emotive James Dean (she had top billing) as his love interest in the classic film East of Eden (1955), directed by Elia Kazan from the John Steinbeck novel. Strangely, Julie's brilliance in the role of Abra was completely overlooked come Oscar time...a terrible miscarriage of justice in this author's view.
After this vivid film exposure, Julie's love for the theatre completely dominated her career focus. She continued to increase her Broadway prestige with such plays as "Mademoiselle Colombe" (title role) (1954), "The Lark" (Tony Award: as Joan of Arc) (1955), "The Country Wife" (1957), "The Warm Peninsula" (1959), "Little Moon Over Alban" (1960) (which she took to Emmy-winning TV), "A Shot in the Dark" (1961), "Ready When Your Are, C.B.!" (1964), "Skyscraper" (1965), "Forty Carats" (Tony Award) (1968), "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little" ) (1971), "The Au Pair Man" (1973) and "In Praise of Love" (1974). In between she gave stellar performances on TV with her Joan of Arc in The Lark (1957); title role in Johnny Belinda (1958); Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House (1959); Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (1961); title role in Victoria Regina (1961) (for which received an Emmy award); Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (1963), and title role in Anastasia (1967).Be
In later years Harris reaped praises and honors for her awe-inspiring one-woman touring shows based on the lives of certain distaff historical figureheads. Her magnificently tormented, Tony-winning "First Lady" Mary Lincoln in "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln" (1972) was the first to be seen on stage and TV, followed by another Tony (and Grammy) Award-winning performance as poetess Emily Dickinson in "The Belle of Amherst" (1976) (directed by close friend Charles Nelson Reilly, as well as her early 1980s solo portrait of author Charlotte Brontë in "Bronte," which started out as a radio play. Julie was now placed among the theatre's luminous "ruling class" alongside legendary veterans Helen Hayes, Katharine Cornell and Judith Anderson.
As time wore on, Harris would become equally respected on film and TV for her portrayals of over-the-edge neurotics, wallflowers and eccentric maiden aunt types as witnessed by her co-starring roles in the films The Haunting (1963), Hamlet (1964) (as Ophelia), Harper (1966), You're a Big Boy Now (1966), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), The Bell Jar (1979), and the TV-movies How Awful About Allan (1970) and Home for the Holidays (1972). Perhaps a step down performance wise, the veteran actress, after a period of ill health, became a household name with her regular series work as Lilimae on the TV soap Knots Landing (1979).
At age 60, Harris continued to impress on Broadway with her 1990's versions of Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie" and Fonsia Dorsey in "The Gin Game" for which she received her tenth and final Tony nomination. She also toured successfully with a production of "Lettice and Lovage". Unlike many other actors whose film roles disintegrated with appearances in bottom-of-the-barrel lowbudgets, Julie's final two supporting films roles were in two nicely constructed period romantic comedies -- The Golden Boys (2008) and The Lightkeepers (2009).
Ill health dogged Julie's later years (she battled breast cancer in 1981 and suffered two strokes -- one in 2001 (while performing in the Chicago play "Fossils") and again in 2010). Nevertheless, she continued to work almost until the end, including narrating five historical documentaries and giving Emmy-winning voice to such women suffragettes as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Married and divorced three times, Julie had one son by her second marriage -- Peter, who became a theatre critic. She also spent time enjoying the benefits of receiving special awards and honors for her full body of work. Among these, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994, received a "Special Lifetime Achievement" Tony Award in 2002 and was a 2005 Kennedy Center honoree.
Harris died on August 24, 2013, of congestive heart failure at her home in West Chatham, Massachusetts. She was 87.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Cory Monteith was born on May 11, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada as Cory Allan Michael Monteith. He was an actor, known for playing the singing jock Finn on the American TV show Glee (2009) and films such as Monte Carlo (2011), and Final Destination 3 (2006). He died on July 13, 2013 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jean Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in Manhattan, New York City, to Marie A. (Stapleton), an opera singer, and Joseph Edward Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. Her paternal grandparents were Irish. She was a cousin of actress Betty Jane Watson. Other relatives in show business were her uncle, Joseph E. Deming, a vaudevillian; and her brother Jack Stapleton, a stage actor. She graduated from Wadleigh High School, NYC, in 1939. She worked as a secretary before becoming an actress. Stapleton made her stage debut at the Greenwood Playhouse, Peaks Island, Maine, in the summer of 1941, and her New York stage debut in "The Corn Is Green" (1948). She appeared on Broadway in the musicals "Damn Yankees" (1955) and "Bells Are Ringing" (1956), and later repeated her roles in the movie versions (Damn Yankees (1958) and Bells Are Ringing (1960)). Her other Broadway roles included the original companies of "Rhinoceros" (1961) and "Funny Girl" (1964). Stapleton also played Abby Brewster in the 1986-87 revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace".- Actor
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Jonathan Harshman Winters III was born on November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio. His father, Jonathan Harshman Winters II, was a banker who became an alcoholic after being crushed in the Great Depression. His parents divorced in 1932. Jonathan and his mother then moved to Springfield to live with his grandmother. There his mother remarried and became a radio personality. Jonathan joined the United States Marine Corps during his senior year of high school. Upon his discharge, he entered Kenyon College and later transferred to Dayton Art Institute. He met his wife, Eileen Schauder, in 1948 and married a month later. They remain married until her death in January 11, 2009. They have a son, Jay, who is a contractor, and a daughter, Lucinda, who is a talent scout for movies.
Jonathan got his start in show business by winning a talent contest. This led to a children's television show in Dayton in 1950. This led to a game show and a talk show. Denied a requested raise, he moved the family to New York with only $56 in their pocket. Within two months, he was getting night club bookings. He suffered two nervous breakdowns, one in 1959 and another in 1961. He came out of "retirement" to work with director/writer Martin Guigui for Swing (2003) and Cattle Call (2006). He made ten Grammy-nominated comedy recordings and won once. Jonathan Winters died at age 87 of natural causes on April 11, 2013 in Montecito, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The girl who one day would be known as "Winnipeg's Sweetheart" was born at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. In her early childhood there were no obvious signs that one day she would be a bigger box office attraction than Shirley Temple. Renamed Deanna Durbin for show business purposes, by age 21 she was the most highly paid female star in the world. Her major motion pictures were Three Smart Girls (1936), Mad About Music (1938) and That Certain Age (1938). By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. Her voice was often described as "natural and beautiful" and her version of "One Fine Day" from Madame Butterfly, became a classic. Deanna was a Hollywood star in every way. There were Deanna Durbin dolls and dresses. An engineering firm named its so-called dream home in her honor. Her first screen kiss was described in a headline story across the continent. What makes Deanna Durbin's story different is that she was never comfortable with adulation. When she was at the top of her career as Hollywood's leading actress and singer, she turned her back on that world for a life of seclusion. Her first two marriages had failed, and before she married her third husband, director Charles David, she set one condition: he had to promise that she could have what she yearned for - "the life of nobody". Her seclusion is incomplete. She lives in the French village of Neauphlé-le-Château, and for over 35 years has resisted every approach from film companies. Her husband has told journalists that "Mario Lanza pleaded with her for years to make a film with him. But she will never go back to that life." She granted only one interview since 1949 to film historian David Shipman in 1983.- Actor
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WWII veteran, dance instructor and diversely talented stage & screen actor were all inclusions on the resume of this perpetually busy US actor who didn't get in front of the cameras until around the time of his fortieth birthday. The stockily built Charles Durning was one of Hollywood's most dependable and sought after supporting actors.
Durning was born in Highland Falls, New York, to Louise Marie (Leonard), a laundress, and James Gerald Durning. His father was an Irish immigrant and his mother was of Irish descent. Durning first got his start in guest appearances in early 1960's TV shows. He scored minor roles over the next decade until he really got noticed by film fans as the sneering, corrupt cop "Lt. Snyder" hassling street grifter 'Robert Redford' in the multi award winning mega-hit The Sting (1973). Durning was equally entertaining in the Billy Wilder production of The Front Page (1974), he supported screen tough guy Charles Bronson in the suspenseful western Breakheart Pass (1975) and featured as "Spermwhale Whalen" in the story of unorthodox police behavior in The Choirboys (1977).
The versatile Durning is equally adept at comedic roles and demonstrated his skills as "Doc Hopper" in The Muppet Movie (1979), a feisty football coach in North Dallas Forty (1979), a highly strung police officer berating maverick cop Burt Reynolds in Sharky's Machine (1981), and a light footed, dancing Governor (alongside Burt Reynolds once more) in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). Durning continued a regular on screen association with Burt Reynolds appearing in several more feature films together and as "Dr. Harlan Elldridge" in the highly popular TV series Evening Shade (1990). On par with his multitude of feature film roles, Durning has always been in high demand on television and has guest starred in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), Monk (2002) and Rescue Me (2004). Plus, he has appeared in the role of "Santa Claus" in five different television movies.- Actress
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Annette Joanne Funicello achieved teenage popularity starting in October 1955 after she debuted as a Mouseketeer. Born on October 22, 1942 in Utica, New York, the family had moved to California when she was still young. Walt Disney himself saw her performing the lead role in "Swan Lake" at her ballet school's year-end recital in Burbank and decided to have her audition along with two hundred other children. Annette became the last Mouseketeer of the twenty-four that was picked. By the run-through in 1958 of The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) in which she appeared in her own multi-segmented series entitled "Annette", she had become the most popular Mousketeer of them all and the only one kept under contract by Walt Disney after he canceled the show. Her popularity was such that by the late 1950s, she was simply known as "Annette" -- America's sweetheart and the first "crush" for many a teenage baby boomer. Whenever anyone spoke of Annette, no last name was ever needed as everyone knew who you were talking about.
The popular teenager became synonymous with wholesome entertainment and was borrowed by Danny Thomas in 1959 to play Gina, a foreign exchange student, on The Danny Thomas Show (1953) (aka "The Danny Thomas Show") and also that same year had a recurring role on the Disney television series Zorro (1957). She made her well as other Disney film vehicles for several years, including The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961) and The Monkey's Uncle (1965). During this time, the modest young singer had a couple of hit singles on the "Hot 100" charts, notably, "Tall Paul", and as a result, traveled with Dick Clark's caravan on singing tours around the country. At one point, she and teen idol Paul Anka became an item and he wrote both "Puppy Love" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" with her in mind. Their busy careers led to them parting ways.
During the early 1960s, American International Films wanted to use her in a fun-on-the-beach movie. They presented the idea to "Mr. Disney", as Annette always called him and with whom she was still under contract. To everyone's surprise, he gave his consent, with the only condition being that she make sure her navel was completely covered by a one piece bathing suit. The first movie, aptly titled Beach Party (1963) starred Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone as the older generation who explore the younger set represented by Annette (as "Dee Dee") and her love interest Frankie Avalon (as "Frankie"). The "teenage" couple (actually she was 20 and he 23) proved so popular in this that they were whisked into a number of sand-and-surf romps (Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)) that showcased the actors engaging in harmless fun while singing and dancing in the sand, and falling into silly slapstick.
After the surfing craze died out in 1965, Annette married Jack Gilardi, Paul Anka's agent, and became the mother of his three children -- Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason. While appearing in a few other movies that did nothing to further her career, including Fireball 500 (1966), Thunder Alley (1967) and Head (1968), she appeared as a guest on shows and, most famously, became the spokesperson for Skippy Peanut Butter in a host of commercials. But she phased out her career in favor of family.
She and Gilardi divorced in 1983. Three years later, she married Glen Holt, a harness racing horse breeder/trainer. Within a year into her second marriage, Annette was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She hid her condition for five years before making a formal announcement (in 1992) for fear that her uncontrollable movements might be characterized as drunkenness. She became the most famous spokesperson for the disease. Annette's life was filmed as a television movie with A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (1995) co-starring her good friend, Shelley Fabares. Receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, Annette was eventually wheelchair-ridden and went into complete seclusion.
Following a tragic March 2011 incident in which their Los Angeles house burnt to the ground and both Annette and husband Glen were hospitalized with smoke inhalation, the couple moved to Bakersfield, California. A little more than a year later, and over 25 years after she was diagnosed with this long and painful illness, Annette passed away on April 8, 2013 from complications at age 70. To the present, her foundation continues to raise money to help find cures for this and other debilitating disorders, including Lou Gehrig's disease.- Actress
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- Composer
Karen entered Northwestern University at 18 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Shortly after wards, she appeared as Marcia in the TV series The Second Hundred Years (1967).
The film that made her a star was Easy Rider (1969), where she worked with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and a supporting actor named Jack Nicholson. She appeared with Nicholson again the next year when they starred in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which garnered an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Karen. Her roles mainly consisted of waitresses, hookers and women on the edge. Some of her later films were disappointments at the box office, but she did receive another Golden Globe for The Great Gatsby (1974). One role for which she is well remembered is that of the jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot (1976). Another is as the woman terrorized in her apartment by a murderous Zuni doll come to life in the well received TV movie Trilogy of Terror (1975). After a number of forgettable movies, she again won rave reviews for her role in Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Since then, her film career has been busy, but the quality of the films has been uneven.- Actress
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- Soundtrack
A supremely gifted, versatile player who could reach dramatic depths, as exemplified in her weary-eyed, good-hearted waitress in The Last Picture Show (1971), or comedy heights, as in her sadistic drill captain in Private Benjamin (1980), Eileen Brennan managed to transition from lovely Broadway singing ingénue to respected film and television character actress within a decade's time. Her Hollywood career was hustling and bustling at the time of her near-fatal car accident in 1982. With courage and spirit, she recovered from her extensive facial and leg injuries, and returned to performing... slower but wiser. On top of all this, the indomitable Eileen survived a bout of alcoholism and became recognized as a breast cancer survivor, having had a mastectomy in 1990. On camera, she still tosses out those trademark barbs to the delight of all her fans, as demonstrated by her more-recent recurring roles as the prying Mrs. Bink on 7th Heaven (1996) and as Zandra, the disparaging acting coach, on Will & Grace (1998).
She was born with the highly unlikely marquee name of Verla Eileen Regina Brennan in Los Angeles, California, the child of Irish-Catholic parents Regina ("Jeanne") Manahan (or Menehan), a minor silent film player, and John Gerald Brennan, a doctor. Following grade school education, she attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and appeared in plays with the Mask and Bauble Society during that time. She then went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Her lovely soprano coupled with a flair for comedy was the winning combination that earned her the break of her budding career as the not-so-dainty title role in the off-Broadway, tongue-in-cheek operetta "Little Mary Sunshine". For this 1959 endeavor, Eileen not only won an Obie Award, but was among an esteemed group of eight other thespians who won the Theatre World Award that year for "Promising New Personality", including Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Carol Burnett and a very young Patty Duke.
Unwilling to be pigeonholed as a singing comedienne, Eileen took on one of the most arduous and demanding legit roles a young actress could ask for when she portrayed Annie Sullivan role in a major touring production of "The Miracle Worker" in 1961. After proving her dramatic mettle, she returned willingly to the musical theatre fold and made a very beguiling Anna in a production of "The King and I" (1963). She took her first Broadway bow in another comic operetta, "The Student Gypsy" (1963). In the musical, which was an unofficial sequel to her "Mary Sunshine" hit, she played a similarly-styled Merry May Glockenspiel, but the show lasted only a couple of weeks. Infinitely more successful was her deft playing of Irene Malloy alongside Carol Channing's Dolly Levi Gallagher in the original Broadway production of "Hello, Dolly!" (1964). Eileen stayed with the role for about two years.
By this time, Hollywood beckoned and Eileen never looked back... or returned to sing on Broadway. After a support role in the film comedy Divorce American Style (1967) starring Debbie Reynolds and Dick Van Dyke, Eileen's talents were selected to be showcased on the irreverent variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967). But what seemed to be an ideal forum to show off her abilities didn't. Overshadowed by the wackier talents of Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi and Jo Anne Worley, who became television comedy stars from this, Eileen seemed out of sync with the knockabout slapstick element. She left the cast before the show barely got off the ground. "Laugh-In" (1968-1973) went on to become a huge cult hit.
In retrospect, this disappointment proved to be a boon to Eileen's dramatic film career. Set in a dusty, barren town, she played up her hard looks and earned terrific reviews for her downbeat role of Genevieve, the careworn waitress, in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971). As part of a superb ensemble cast, her hard-knocks vulnerability and earthy sensuality added authenticity to the dreary Texas surroundings. Following this, she scored great marks for her brothel madam/confidante in George Roy Hill's ragtime-era Oscar winner The Sting (1973). Bogdanovich himself became a fan and used Eileen again and again in his subsequent films -- the ambitious but lackluster Daisy Miller (1974) and At Long Last Love (1975). At least, the latter movie allowed her to show off her singing voice. Her comedic instincts were on full display too in the all-star mystery spoofs Murder by Death (1976) and The Cheap Detective (1978) where she fared quite well playing take-it-on-the-chin dames.
Eileen hit the apex of her comic fame playing the spiky and spiteful drill captain who mercilessly taunts and torments tenderfoot Goldie Hawn in the huge box-office hit Private Benjamin (1980). She deservedly earned a "best supporting actress" Oscar nomination for her scene-stealing contribution and was given the chance to reprise the role on the television series that followed. Starring Lorna Patterson in the Hawn role, Private Benjamin (1981) was less successful in its adaptation to the smaller screen but Eileen was better than great and earned both Emmy and Golden Globe Awards in the process.
During the show's run in 1982, Brennan had dinner one evening with good friend Goldie Hawn at a Los Angeles restaurant. They had already parted ways when Brennan was hit and critically injured by a car while crossing a street. Replaced in the television series (by "Alice" co-star Polly Holliday), her recovery and rehabilitation lasted three years, which included an addiction to painkillers. She returned to the screen in another amusing all-star comedy whodunit, Clue (1985), in which she played one of the popular game board suspects, Mrs. Peacock. While looking weaker and less mobile, she showed she had lost none of the disarming causticity that made her a character star.
Forging ahead, Eileen went on to recreate her tough luck waitress character in Texasville (1990), the sequel to The Last Picture Show (1971), and also appeared with Bette Midler in the overly mawkish Stella (1990). However, for the most part, she lent herself to playing eccentric crab apples in such lightweight fare as Rented Lips (1987), Sticky Fingers (1988), Changing Habits (1997), Pants on Fire (1998), Jeepers Creepers (2001), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005) and Naked Run (2011). She has also provided crotchety animated voices for series cartoons.
Eileen Brennan died at age 80 on July 28, 2013 at her Burbank, California home after a battle with bladder cancer. She is survived by her two sons, Patrick (formerly a basketball player, now an actor) and Sam (a singer), from her first and only marriage in the late 1960s to mid-1970s.- Actress
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Eleanor Jean Parker was born on June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio, the last of three children born to a mathematics teacher and his wife. Eleanor caught the acting bug early and began performing in school plays. She was was so serious about becoming an actor, that she attended the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, beginning when she was 15 years old. She was offered her first screen test by a 20th Century-Fox talent scout while attending Rice, but turned the opportunity down to gain professional stage experience in Cleveland after graduating from high school.
She moved on to California to continue her acting studies at the Pasadena Playhouse. It was there, while sitting in the audience of a play being put on at the Playhouse, that she was again offered a screen test - this time from a Warner Brothers' scout - and again declined, wanting to finish her first year at the Playhouse. When the year was up, Eleanor contacted Warner Brothers to take them up on their offer of a screen test and was signed as a contract player two days after it was shot.
She was cast in Raoul Walsh's They Died with Their Boots On (1941), but her performance was left on the cutting room floor.
She was then cast in short subjects and given other assignments typical of novice film actors, to enable them to learn their craft, such as voice-acting and appearances in other actors' screen tests. Finally, she was promoted to the B-picture unit, making her feature debut in Busses Roar (1942).
Her beauty meant she was not forgotten, and she was cast in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (1943), directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Walter Huston as the U.S. ambassador to the USSR. Eleanor played his daughter in the film, which became notorious in the McCarthy era for its glorification of "Uncle Joe" Stalin. The film proved significant to Eleanor, as she met a future husband on the set, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, Navy dentist. The marriage was a brief wartime affair, lasting from March 21, 1943, to December 5, 1944.
She went back to the B's with The Mysterious Doctor (1943), then bounced back to the A-list for Between Two Worlds (1944), a remake of the Leslie Howard vehicle Outward Bound (1930) in which she played Paul Henreid's fiancee (both die from suicide, but in Hollywood logic that didn't mean they couldn't frolic together on the silver screen). Eleanor then made two more B-quickies in 1944, Crime by Night (1944) and The Last Ride (1944), before graduating to the A-list for good with Pride of the Marines (1945) with John Garfield.
In the 1946 Warner Bros. remake of Of Human Bondage (1946), she took the role that Bette Davis had made good in 1934 (ironically, at rival RKO). Though Parker would be gaining kudos and Oscar nominations by the beginning of the next decade, her portrait of Mildred was weak in comparison with Davis's dynamic performance.
Parker received the first of her three Best Actress Oscar nominations for playing a prisoner in Caged (1950), and won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival. She was also nominated the next year for playing the cop's wife who shared a secret with the neighborhood abortionist in William Wyler's Detective Story (1951). Her third and last Oscar nod came for Interrupted Melody (1955), wherein she played an opera singer struck down by polio. She could easily have been nominated that same year for her portrayal of Frank Sinatra's faux crippled wife in Otto Preminger's brooding masterpiece The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), adapted from the novel by Nelson Algren.
Parker proved herself to be a supremely talented and very versatile lead actress. The versatility was likely one of the reasons she never quite became a major star. Audiences attending a movie starring Parker never knew quite what to expect of her; if they even remembered she was the same actress they had seen before in a different type of role in another picture. Her turns in Detective Story (1951) and The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) could not have been more different. Parker's stardom and subsequent fame (and remembrance) suffered from her focusing on being a serious actress and creating a character who fit the motion picture she was in, rather than playing a character over and over, as most actors do. She probably best remembered for the relatively tame part as the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965).
She received an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy nomination in 1963 for her appearance in The Eleventh Hour (1962) episode Why Am I Grown So Cold? Despite the success of The Sound of Music (1965) being completely attributed to #1 box office sensation Julie Andrews, it's probably Parker's best-remembered role.
Her appearances in such fare as The Oscar (1966) (the cast of which the Playboy Magazine reviewer derided as "has-beens and never-will-bes") and the movie adaptation of Norman Mailer's indescribable existential potboiler An American Dream (1966) with fellow Oscar-nominee Stuart Whitman signaled that Miss Parker was now inscribed on the list of the has-beens.
She had one last hurrah, winning a Golden Globe nomination in 1970 as best lead actress for her role in the TV series Bracken's World (1969), but unfortunately times had changed during the tumultuous 1960s. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (1991).
Eleanor Parker retired far too soon for those who were her fans, and those who appreciated a superb actress.- Actress
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One is certainly hard-pressed to think of another true "bad girl" representative so closely identifiable with film noir than hard-looking blonde actress Audrey Totter. While she remained a "B"-tier actress for most her career, she was an "A" quality actress and one of filmdom's most intriguing ladies. She always managed to set herself apart even in the most standard of programming.
Born to an Austrian father and Swedish mother on December 20, 1917, in Joliet, Illinois, she treaded lightly on stage ("The Copperhead," "My Sister Eileen") and initially earned notice on the Chicago and New York radio airwaves in the late 1930s before "going Hollywood." MGM developed an interest in her and put her on its payroll in 1944. Still appearing on radio (including the sitcom "Meet Millie"), she made her film bow as, of course, a "bad girl" in Main Street After Dark (1945). That same year the studio usurped her vocal talents to torment poor Phyllis Thaxter in Bewitched (1945). Her voice was prominent again as an unseen phone operator in Ziegfeld Follies (1945). Audrey played one of her rare pure-heart roles in The Cockeyed Miracle (1946). At this point she began to establish herself in the exciting "film noir" market.
Among the certified classics she participated in were The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) in which she had a small role as John Garfield's blonde floozie pick-up. Things brightened up considerably with Lady in the Lake (1946) co-starring Robert Montgomery as detective Philip Marlowe. The film was not well received and is now better remembered for its interesting subjective camera technique. Audrey's first hit as a femme fatale co-star came on loanout to Warner Bros. In The Unsuspected (1947), she cemented her dubious reputation in "B" noir as a trampy, gold-digging niece married to alcoholic Hurd Hatfield. She then went on a truly enviable roll with High Wall (1947), as a psychiatrist to patient Robert Taylor, The Saxon Charm (1948) with Montgomery (again) and Susan Hayward, Alias Nick Beal (1949) as a loosely-moraled "Girl Friday" to Ray Milland, the boxing film The Set-Up (1949) as the beleaguered wife of washed-up boxer Robert Ryan, Any Number Can Play (1949) with Clark Gable and as a two-timing spouse in Tension (1949) with Richard Basehart.
Although the studio groomed Audrey to become a top star, it was not to be. Perhaps because she was too good at being bad. The 1950s film scene softened considerably and MGM began focusing on family-styled comedy and drama. Audrey's tough-talking dames were no longer a commodity and MGM soon dropped her in 1951. She signed for a time with Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox as well but her era had come and gone. Film offers began to evaporate. At around this time she married Leo Fred, a doctor, and instead began focusing on marriage and family.
TV gave her career a slight boost in the 1960s and 1970s, including regular roles in Cimarron City (1958) and Our Man Higgins (1962) as a suburban mom opposite Stanley Holloway's British butler. After a period of semi-retirement, she came back to TV to replace Jayne Meadows in the popular television series Medical Center (1969) starring Chad Everett and James Daly. She played Nurse Wilcox, a recurring role, for four seasons (1972-1976). The 70-year-old Totter retired after a 1987 guest role on "Murder, She Wrote." Her husband died in 1996. On December 12, 2013, Audrey Totter died at age 95 in West Hills, California.- The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for prize money'. Like most children, Richard's "mother tongue" was the same as his parents. In his case, that was sign language. Like many kids in the 50s, his world did not include television. He had to explain sounds to his parents, for example music. Griffiths made a career out of language. For instance, he developed a talent for dialects which later allowed him to shine in a number of ethnic portrayals. He attended the Manchester Polytechnic School Of Drama and then began his career in radio drama and repertory theatre. He subsequently became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he often excelled playing Shakespeare's comic characters.
In a 2007 interview, Griffiths said "I like playing Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids. I hate the odious business of sucking up to the public." In fact, unlike those jovial characters he so often portrayed on screen, Griffiths did not tolerate fools gladly. On occasion, he would get stroppy with members of an audience, especially those failing to switch off their mobile phones during a performance (who could blame him?). He was also highly thought of as a raconteur and wit.
The ever-versatile, often bespectacled and bearded Griffiths did his best work for the small screen, excelling as the inquisitive and resourceful civil servant Henry Jay in Bird of Prey (1982) and as the lovable 'cooking policeman' Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994), a role specially created for him. As comic relief he made many a hilarious guest appearance, in, among other popular series, The Vicar of Dibley (1994) (as the Bishop of Mulberry) and as Dr. Bayham Badger in the superb BBC adaption of Bleak House (2005). He could also play evil and sinister, none more so than Swelter in Gormenghast (2000), a character Griffiths described being at once "laughably comic" and "a monster like Idi Amin". He was also much sought-after by Hollywood producers, appearing in a dual role in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), as the ill-fated Magistrate Philipse in Tim Burton 's Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as King George in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
The much-acclaimed actor won a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Griffiths was uncommonly skinny as a child and this required radiation treatment on his pituitary gland from the age of eight. It caused his metabolism to slow to such an extent that he eventually became obese, a condition which in all likelihood contributed to his death from complications during heart surgery on 28 March 2013 at the age of 65. - Actor
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Dennis Farina was one of Hollywood's busiest actors and a familiar face to moviegoers and television viewers alike. Recently, he appeared in the feature films, "The Grand," a comedy about a Vegas poker tournament with Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano; "Bottle Shock," also starring Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman and Bradley Whitford; and Fox's "What Happens in Vegas," in which Dennis starred as Cameron Diaz's boss. Farina also appeared on the NBC series "Law and Order" and in the HBO miniseries, "Empire Falls," for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Mini-Series.
Farina is well remembered for his role in memorable features such as Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight," in which he played the retired lawman father of Jennifer Lopez's character. This was Farina's second outing in an Elmore Leonard best seller, the previous one being "Get Shorty," directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and co-starring John Travolta, Rene Russo and Gene Hackman. Farina received an American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Male for his performance as "Ray 'Bones' Barboni."
In 1998's "Saving Private Ryan," directed by Steven Spielberg, Farina played "Col. Anderson," a pivotal role in the film. It is this character who convinces Tom Hanks character to lead a squad deep into Nazi territory to rescue "Pvt. Ryan." He also co-starred with Brad Pitt and Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro in the darkly comedic crime drama "Snatch," directed by Guy Ritchie.
Farina's numerous other screen credits include John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games," "Paparazzi," Martin Brest's "Midnight Run," the Michael Mann film "Manhunter", among many other feature films. Farina is also recognized for his role in the critically acclaimed television series, NBC's "Crime Story". A veteran of the Chicago theater, Farina has appeared in Joseph Mantegna's "Bleacher Bums," and "A Prayer For My Daughter," directed by John Malkovich, and many others. He died on July 22, 2013 in Scottsdale, Arizona at age 69.- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Animation Department
When it comes to motion-picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic: Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion-picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since.
Born in Los Angeles, the signature event in Harryhausen's life was when he saw King Kong (1933). So awed was the 13-year-old Harryhausen that he began researching the film's effects work, ultimately learning all he could about Willis H. O'Brien and stop-motion photography--he even contacted O'Brien and showed an allosaur short he made, which caused O'Brien to quip to his wife, "You realize you're encouraging my competition, don't you?" Harryhausen tried to make a stop-motion epic titled "Evolution," but the time required to make it resulted in it being cut short. The footage he completed--of a lumbering apatosaurus attacked by a belligerent allosaurus--made excellent use as a demo reel, and as a result, Harryhausen's first film job came with George Pal, working on the Puppetoon shorts for Paramount. A stint in the army utilized Harryhausen's animation skills for training films.
After World War II, Harryhausen acquired over 1,000 feet of unused military film and made a series of Puppetoon-flavored fairy tale shorts, which helped him land a job with Willis H. O'Brien and Marcel Delgado on Mighty Joe Young (1949). Although O'Brien received credit for it, 85% of the actual animation was done by Harryhausen. His real breakthrough, however, came when he was hired to do the special effects for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The film's $200,000 budget meant that Harryhausen was forced to improvise to get the kinds of quality effects he wanted, and to that end, he learned a technique called split-screen (rear projection on overlapping miniature screens) to insert dinosaurs and other fantastic beasts into real-world backgrounds. The result was eventually picked up for release by Warner Bros. and was one of the most influential sci-fi films of the 1950s.
From there, Harryhausen went over to Columbia and teamed with producer Charles H. Schneer, which became synonymous among sci-fi and fantasy film aficionados with top-notch special-effects work during the remainder of their respective careers. After three sci-fi monster films and work with Willis O'Brien on an Irwin Allen documentary, Harryhausen did the effects work for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), his first split-screen film shot entirely in color, which was highlighted by Harryhausen's mythological monsters interacting with Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher's flavorful performance as the villain, and the rousing score of Bernard Herrmann.
Because Harryhausen worked alone on his stop-motion animation sequences, the filming of these could often take as long as two years, the most famous example of the kind of patience required being the exciting skeleton sword fight sequence in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (his most popular film), in which Harryhausen often shot no more than 13 frames of film (just over one-half second of elapsed time) per day.
The 1960s were Harryhausen's best years, among the highlights being his reunions with dinosaurs in Hammer Films' One Million Years B.C. (1966) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). His pace slowed in the 1970s, but he produced three of his masterworks during that period: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977); and Clash of the Titans (1981). It was not until 1992 that Harryhausen finally achieved film immortality with an honorary Oscar, a long-overdue tribute to the one name that personifies visual magic.- Writer
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Roger Joseph Ebert was the all-time best-known, most successful movie critic in cinema history, when one thinks of his establishing a rapport with both serious cineastes and the movie-going public and reaching more movie fans via television and print than any other critic. He became the first and only movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize (it would be 28 years before another film critic, Stephen Hunter, would win journalism's top tchotchke). His opinions likely were relied on by more movie-goers than any other critic in cinema history, making Roger Ebert the gold standard for film criticism.
Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois, to Annabel (Stumm), a bookkeeper, and Walter Harry Ebert, an electrician. He was married to Chaz Ebert. Roger Ebert died on April 4, 2013, in Chicago, Illinois.- Writer
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Tom Clancy became one of the best-selling writers of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, starting with the publication of his 1984 thriller, The Hunt for Red October (1990). Born in Baltimore to a U.S. Post Office employee and his wife on April 12, 1947, Clancy graduated from Loyola Blakefield, a Catholic private high school, in 1965 and then attended Loyola College. After graduating with his bachelor's degree in English literature, Clancy went into the insurance business as poor eyesight kept him out of the military. Despite being unable to serve during the Vietnam War, military and Cold War politics remained close to his heart.
While running his own insurance agency in Maryland, he wrote "The Hunt for Red October", which was published by the Naval Institute Press in 1984. Clancy received the princely sum of $5,000 from this most unusual venue for a work of fiction, but the book struck a nerve in the depths of the latter stages of the Cold War. The hardcover from the Naval Institute sold 45,000 copies, an amazing amount for a first novel from a publishing house peddling its first book of fiction, but the paperback (boosted by a strong recommendation from President Ronald Reagan) sold two million copies.
The book was very detailed and extremely savvy when it came to the machinations of the military and Cold War politicians. In fact, Clancy's editor at the Naval Institute Press had him eliminate details, which trimmed the novel by 100 pages. In all, he wrote 28 books, mostly fiction but also, military themed non-fiction books. Clancy placed 17 books on the New York Times Best Seller List, many of which hit #1. His oeuvre accounted for sales of 100 million copies, making him one of the all-time most popular writers in history.
Clancy became a media industry onto himself. He was successful lending his name and ideas to video games, and his video game company Red Storm Entertainment was bought out for $45 million in 2000. Clancy-branded video games racked up sales of 76 million units. Movies adapted from Clancy's works racked up $786.5 million at the box office.
Tom Clancy died of heart failure on October 1, 2013. He was 66 years old.- Actor
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Cliff Osmond was born on 26 February 1937 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Streets of San Francisco (1972), The Front Page (1974) and The Penitent (1988). He was married to Gretchen Lee Petty. He died on 22 December 2012 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Actor
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Bryan Forbes was born on July 22, 1926 in Stratford, London, England as John Theobald Clarke. He was an actor, writer, and director, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Whisperers (1967) and Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964). He was married to Nanette Newman and Constance Smith. He died on May 8, 2013 in Virginia Water, Surrey, England.- Actress
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Sara Montiel was born in the village of Campo de Criptana, province of Ciudad Real, in the region of Castille-La Mancha, Spain. Her parents were Isidoro Abad, a peasant, and Maria Vicenta Fernández, a door-to-door beautician. The future star was christened Maria Antonia Alejandra Abad Fernández. Barely in her teens, she won a beauty and talent contest held by Cifesa, the most influential Spanish film studio of that era. She was promptly signed to a movie contract and in 1944 made her debut playing a teenager in Te quiero para mí (1944), credited in the cast as "Maria Alejandra". By the end of 1944 she was given the starring role in Empezó en boda (1944), which introduced her with a more adult image and a new name: Sara Montiel.
In the next four years she appeared in 14 films, including her first international success Locura de amor (1948), which led to a long term-contract in Mexico. She quickly established herself as one of the most popular film actors of the decade. starring in over a dozen films between 1950 and 1954. Hollywood came calling and she was formally introduced to American moviegoers in Vera Cruz (1954), playing Gary Cooper's love interest. Later she worked at Warner Bros. in Serenade (1956) with Mario Lanza, directed by Anthony Mann, who became her first husband. After starring in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957) with Rod Steiger, Sarita shot El último cuplé (1957) ("The Last Song") in Spain, a musical production that turned out to be the biggest box-office success in Spain's film history. It played for over a year in the same theaters in which it opened. A similar reaction followed in Western Europe and Latin America. Sarita Montiel had become the most popular actress-singer of 1957 and a national treasure for Spain.
The unprecedented success of "El Último Cuplé" threw a wrench into her Hollywood career, as she was offered a multimillion-dollar contract to star in four films in Europe. Her next vehicle, La violetera (1958) ("The Violet Peddler"), confirmed Sara's popularity and broke the box-office records set by the previous movie. The theme song from "La Violetera" became Montiel's signature song. The soundtrack albums from both films reportedly outsold Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra in the world market. From then on, Sarita would combine the making of films with the recording of highly successful albums and live concerts in four continents. By 1962 she had become a legend to millions of fans worldwide, reaching markets that had previously been uncharted territory for Spanish cinema. Among her many blockbusters of the 1960s were Mi último tango (1960), Pecado de amor (1961), La bella Lola (1962), La reina del Chantecler (1962) and Esa mujer (1969).
However, by the 1970s her interest in films diminished, due largely to the almost pornographic turn of Spanish films in the late-Francisco Franco era when censorship was abolished and she retired from films in 1974. Her activities turned mainly to recording and stage work, and she achieved uncontested successes with her stage shows "Sara en Persona" (1970-73), "Saritísima" (1974-75), "Increible Sara" (1977-78), "Super Sara Show"(1979-80), "Doña Sara de La Mancha" (1981-82), "Taxi Vamos Al Victoria" (1983-84), "Nostalgia" (1985-86), "Sara, Siempre Sara" (1987-88) and others.
In the 1990s Sara surprised everyone by branching out into television: Sara y punto (1990), a mini-series of seven one-hour episodes, included a serialized biography of the star, many popular guests (including Luciano Pavarotti and Charles Aznavour, among others) and Miss Montiel singing her greatest hits in addition to new songs written especially for her. Next came Ven al Paralelo (1992), taped in a Barcelona theater where Montiel hosted,sang and acted in comedy sketches in front of a live audience.
It is quite impossible to cover here all the awards Sara Montiel has won in her long successful career but we must mention the "Premio del Sindicato" (at that time Spain's equivalent of the Oscar) for best actress, won two years in a row for her performances in "El Último Cuplé" and "La Violetera". In 1972 she was proclaimed an honorary citizen of Los Angeles by Mayor Sam Yorty and was given the gold key to the city. Similarly she has been awarded the gold keys of New York, Miami and Chicago. In 1981 she received Israel's most prestigious honor, the Ben Guiron Award and in 1983 she was awarded France's Legion of Honor medal, after a retrospective of her career ran at the Autumn Film Festival in Paris. In 1986 "Nosotros", a Hollywood-based Hispanic actors advocacy organization founded by Ricardo Montalban, gave her its Golden Eagle Award for life achievement. The trophy was presented to Sarita by her "Vera Cruz" costar-producer Burt Lancaster in an emotional reunion that triggered a standing ovation from all their Hollywood peers witnessing the event. In 1997 she was awarded the "Gold Medal", also a life achievement recognition, given--rarely0--by Spain's Academy of Arts and Sciences. The two-hour ceremony was beamed live by national television. In 2008 Sara returned to her hometown to unveil a sculpture with her image at the new Sara Montiel Park. A nearby avenue was also named after her and there was at the same time a dedication ceremony of her newly renovated museum, located inside a 16th-century windmill. In addition, the government placed a commemorative plaque on the house where she was born.
Sara Montiel's private life has also been a large part of her legend. After divorcing Anthony Mann in 1963, she married three more times (Vicente Ramirez Olalla 1964-1978; Jose Tous 1979-1992; Antonio Hernandez 2002-2004). Before, during and after these marriages she had countless affairs, among them Nobel prize-winning scientist Severo Ochoa and Italian actor Giancarlo Del Duca. Unable to have children, she adopted two during her marriage to Jose Tous: Thais (born in 1979) and Zeus (born 1983). In 2000 she published her autobiography, which became a best seller. Undaunted by the passage of time and ignoring critics who accused her of mishandling her legendary image, Sara Montiel continued living and working at a hectic pace. She kept touring with her one woman show and making guests appearances on television. In 2009 she won a new generation of fans when she recorded "Absolutamente," an outrageous duet with Fangoria's vocalist Alaska. Both the record and the promotional video reached the top of the popularity charts and remained there for weeks.
Next Sara recorded some love duets with baritone José Antonio Román Marcos and traveled to the United States for a short tour sponsored by New York's Cervantes Institute and the universities of Chicago and Cincinnati. In every city she charmed the audiences with her charismatic presence and sense of humor. Back in Spain she continued her activities which now included supporting the singing career of her son Zeus. She appeared in his 2011 "Sex Dance" video and caused quite a stir.
In February 2013 Sara Montiel became the subject of a made-for-TV documentary titled "Sara's Dream" which aired in Spain to high ratings and great reviews. It was a fitting celebration of her fantastic life and career which came at the right time. A couple of months later, the star who had seemed eternal, passed away suddenly and quietly in her Madrid penthouse. By her family's request, funeral services were private but the funeral procession, organized by the city of Madrid, was a very moving event attended by thousands who showed up at Plaza Callao to bid farewell to their beloved Sara. She was buried in the San Justo cemetery family plot.- Actor
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Elliott Reid was born on 16 January 1920 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Inherit the Wind (1960) and Vicki (1953). He died on 21 June 2013 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Dale Robertson, the actor who made his name in television Westerns in the 1950s and '60s, was born on July 14, 1923, in Harrah, Oklahoma. After serving in a tank crew and in the combat engineers in North Africa and Europe during World War II, the twice-wounded Robertson started his acting career while still on active duty in the U.S. Army. While stationed at San Luis Obispo, California, had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the six foot tall, 180-lb. Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood. Will Rogers Jr., whose father is the most famous son of Oklahoma, told him to avoid formal training and keep his own persona. Robertson took his advice and avoided acting classes.
Robertson was typecast in Western movies and TV shows when the genre was still America's favorite. He headlined two TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), in which he played the roving trouble-shooter Jim Hardie, and Iron Horse (1966), in which he won a railway in a poker game. He also served as one of the hosts, along with Ronald Reagan, of the syndicated series Death Valley Days (1952) during the 1960s. Robertson later appeared in the inaugural season of Dynasty (1981).
Robertson is a recipient of the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is retired on a ranch near Oklahoma City, not far from his birthplace of Harrah.- Actress
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Patti Page was born Clara Ann Fowler in Oklahoma in 1927. She began her professional singing career at KTUL, a Tulsa radio station. Since the program was sponsored by Page Milk, she adopted the moniker Patti Page, and it stuck. Patti toured the US in the late 1940s with Jimmy Joy, and notably sang with the Benny Goodman band in Chicago. In 1950 she recorded "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming", her first platinum-selling record. In 1951 her rendition of "The Tennessee Waltz" became the biggest hit of her career. It was #1 on the Billboard charts and stayed there for 30 weeks; over the years it would sell 10 million copies. Patti was the best-selling female vocalist of the 1950s, and was wildly popular all through the 1960s. She got national exposure on TV shows, appearing on such top-rated television programs as The Dean Martin Show (1965). In 1968 she recorded what some consider her signature song, "Have a Little Faith and Love Will Come to You." Patti continued to thrill fans for decades. In 1999 she received a Grammy for her "Live at Carnegie Hall" album, a compilation from her 50th-anniversary concert. Patti has millions of fans, and we can live by the words of her famous song: "Beyond the clouds the sky is always blue / Have a little faith and love will come to you."- Actor
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With his funky Afro hairstyle, super cool attitude and superb karate skills, Jim Kelly was instantly identifiable, and one of the top martial arts film stars of the early 1970s. After appearing in a minor film role, Kelly's second screen effort was as one of the invited guests to the deadly Han's Island in Enter the Dragon (1973). Kelly quickly cropped up in several more martial arts influenced "blaxploitation" films including Three the Hard Way (1974), Golden Needles (1974) and Black Belt Jones (1974), with its interesting fight finale in a soap filled car wash! He then appeared in several other action films of the late seventies, however since 1980, Kelly has only cropped up in two minor roles. A talented athlete, winning ranked titles both in tennis and karate, Jim Kelly was an integral part of the African-American & martial arts cinematic explosion of the 1970s.- A native of Oakland, California, Robert Nichols got his start as an entertainer in the Army during World War II. After his discharge, he attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art while working as a song-and-dance man at the Players Theater (Victorian music hall). Hollywood director Howard Hawks, visiting London, cast Nichols in a small part in his 1949 comedy I Was a Male War Bride (1949); Nichols' scene was shot in Germany. Relocating to Hollywood, he appeared in dozens of additional features before tiring of the succession of "elderly juvenile" roles and moving back to England, where he worked on the stage and in films. A subsequent move to New York yielded yet more stage-work while his wife, Jennifer Nichols, became one of the movies' top wardrobe supervisors there. In more recent years, Nichols has been "on the road" with productions of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", "Anything Goes" and "Ragtime".
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Born on November 1, 1942, the eldest of three born to an Iowa general storeowner, Marcia Wallace endured a troubled childhood (alcoholism, physical abuse). Performing in high school plays as a teenager, she studied at Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa, where she majored in English and theatre.
Marcia initially induced laughs because of a weight problem, playing plump, self-deprecating characters in such musicals as "The Music Man". She also supplemented her very modest income at the time, substitute teaching in the Bronx. Managing to drop much of her excess weight over time, she found, to her delight, that she could still make people laugh. Finding an invaluable training ground with the improvisational comedy group, "The Fourth Wall", in 1968, she appeared with the company off-Broadway for a spell. In between times, she studied with acting guru Uta Hagen.
Marcia began to flesh out her on-camera resume at first with bit roles on such shows as "The Invaders" (as a courtroom spectator), "Bewitched" (as Darrin's secretary), "The Brady Bunch" (as a saleswoman), she earned her first on-camera break with recurring appearances on The Merv Griffin Show (1962). As a direct result, she won the best role of her career as "Carol Kester", the chatty receptionist on The Bob Newhart Show (1972) after only a year or so in Hollywood. For seven years, Marcia won tons of fans as the slightly ditsy co-worker and confidante who was always looking for that "special guy" to walk through the door.
During that time and after, she guested and added fun to many popular lightweight 70's and 80's shows of the day, including "Love, American Style," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "CHiPS," "Magnium, P.I.," "Gimme a Break," "Finder of Lost Loves," "Murder, She Wrote," "Alf," "Night Court,' "Small Wonder" and "Charles in Charge." She also decorated and perked up a few TV movies -- The Castaways on Gilligan's Island (1979), Gridlock (1980), Pray TV (1980) -- and the full length features a few films Teen Witch (1989), My Mom's a Werewolf (1989) and Ghoulies Go to College (1990). She went on the enjoy regular work in commercials for over three decades (Kraft a la Carte, Crest, Taster's Choice).
Following her TV success on the "The Newhart Show," Marcia kept visible as a recurring game show panelist on such shows as "The Match Game," "Password," "The $10,000 Pyramid" and "Hollywood Squares." On the summer stock and dinner theater circuits, Marcia found engaging work in such comedies as "Plaza Suite," "Born Yesterday," "The Prisoner of Second Avenue," "The Sunshine Boys," and "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," as well as the musicals "Gypsy" and "Promises, Promises."
In 1985, Marcia was diagnosed with breast cancer. She eventually became an activist and lecturer on breast cancer awareness, educating the public about early detection. She was also the prime caretaker for her husband, hotelier Denny Hawley, when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He passed away in 1992. They adopted one child, Michael.
Marcia's career would gain a second career wind in voiceovers. Today's generations will recognize her Emmy-winning voice-work as Bart's teacher, "Mrs. Edna Krabappel" on the long-running animated series The Simpsons (1989). Her voice was also utilized on such animated projects as "Darkwing Duck," "Raw Toonage," "Camp Candy," "Batman: The Animated Series," "Aladdin," "Cow and Chicken," "The Angry Beavers" and Rugrats" as well as providing several voices for the animated film Monsters University (2013).
She has guest-hosted televised comedy clubs and talk shows, and was the actual co-host of a diet show on cable. Marcia remained on the lecture circuit and published her own 2004 memoir (Don't Look Back, We're Not Going That Way!) which gently and admirably laces her myriad of struggles with wit, humor and a positive outlook.
Into the millennium, she was seen as Maggie the housekeeper on the short-lived, irreverent TV series spoof That's My Bush! (2001) starring Timothy Bottoms. In 2009, she was seen as Annie Wilkes on the daytime soaper The Young and the Restless (1973). A few scattered films appeared on the horizon, including the comedies Forever for Now (2004), Big Stan (2007) and Tru Loved (2008).
Marcia's lengthy battle with illness ended on October 25, 2013, when the 70-year-old actress died of breast cancer complications (pneumonia and sepsis).- Actor
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James Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, to Santa (Penna), a high school lunchlady, and James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., a bricklayer and head school janitor. His parents were both of Italian origin. Gandolfini began acting in the New York theater. His Broadway debut was in the 1992 revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. James' breakthrough role was his portrayal of Virgil the hitman in Tony Scott's True Romance (1993), but the role that brought him worldwide fame and accolades was as complex Mafia boss Tony Soprano in HBO's smash hit series The Sopranos (1999). He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2013 while vacationing in Italy.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A ruggedly handsome action man of the 1960s and '70s, Steve Forrest was born William Forrest Andrews in Huntsville, Texas, the youngest of thirteen children of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister. His brother was actor Dana Andrews. Forrest began his screen career as a small part contract player with MGM. In 1942, Steve enlisted in the U.S. Army, rose to the rank of sergeant and saw action at the Battle of the Bulge. Following his demobilization, he visited his brother in Hollywood and came to the conclusion that acting wasn't a bad way to make a living (having already done some work as a movie extra). He went on to study in college at UCLA, eventually graduating in 1950 with a B.A. Honours Degree in theatre arts. He then served a brief apprenticeship as a carpenter, prop boy and set builder at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, where he was discovered by resident actor Gregory Peck and given a small part as a bellboy in the cast of the summer stock production of "Goddbye Again". A subsequent screen test led to a contract with MGM and resulting employment as second leads, brothers of the titular star, toughs and outlaws. His first proper recognition was being awarded 'New Star of the Year' by Golden Globe for his role in So Big (1953), a drama based on a Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Edna Ferber.
From the mid-1950's, the rangy, 6-foot-3 actor became much in-demand on TV, beginning with classic early anthology and western series, interspersed with occasional appearances on the big screen (notably, in The Longest Day (1962) and as Joan Crawford's lover/attorney Greg Savitt in Mommie Dearest (1981)). In addition to numerous guest roles, he was regularly featured in series like Gunsmoke (1955), Dallas (1978) (as Wes Parmalee, who believes himself to be lost Ewing patriarch Jock) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). Already from the mid-60's, he decided to pick his assignments more carefully. In order to shed his image as the perpetual bad guy, he had relocated his family to England to star as antique-dealer-cum-undercover intelligence agent John Mannering in BBC's The Baron (1966). He followed this by another starring role as the stoic, tough Lieutenant Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson in the short-lived ABC police drama series S.W.A.T. (1975), possibly his best-remembered role. Steve later lampooned his screen personae in the satirical Amazon Women on the Moon (1987).
In private life, Steve Forrest was known as a skilled golfer, lover of football and (according to 1970's newspaper articles) as a dedicated amateur beekeeper.- Actor
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Mickey Knox was born on 24 December 1921 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for I Walk Alone (1947), The Godfather Part III (1990) and The 10th Victim (1965). He died on 15 November 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
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Graham Stark was born on 20 January 1922 in Wallasey, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), A Shot in the Dark (1964) and Superman III (1983). He was married to Audrey Nicholson. He died on 29 October 2013 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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Born in a small village in Syria, Michael Ansara came to the United States with his American parents at the age of two, living in New England, until the family's relocation to California ten years later. He entered Los Angeles City College with the intention of becoming a doctor, but got sidetracked into the dramatics department. A stint at the Pasadena Playhouse (where fellow students included Charles Bronson, Carolyn Jones and Aaron Spelling) led to roles on stage and in films; the starring role (as Cochise) on the popular television series Broken Arrow (1956) elevated Ansara to stardom.
During the series' run, he met actress Barbara Eden on a date arranged by the 20th Century-Fox publicity department; the two later married. He played the Klingon commander Kang on three Star Trek television series: Star Trek (1966), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995). He also played Buck Rogers' evil adversary Kane on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), and provided the voice of Mr. Freeze on Batman: The Animated Series (1992) and its spin-offs. Michael Ansara died at age 91 from complications of Alzheimer's disease in his home in Calabasas, California on July 31, 2013.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nigel Davenport was born on 23 May 1928 in Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). He was married to Maria Aitken and Helena Margaret White. He died on 25 October 2013 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Haji was a Cando-American actress renowned for starring in Russ Meyer's sexploitation classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), in which she made her theatrical film debut. Barbarella Catton was born in Quebec City, Quebec on January 24, 1946, and at the age of 14, began dancing topless. The renamed Haji caught the eye of cinema's "King Leer" while performing as an exotic dancer.
He also cast her as one of three go-go dancers who turn into avenging furies in "Pussycat" Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) after her theatrical film debut in Motorpsycho! (1965) technically released before Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965). She also appeared in Meyer's potboiler Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967), his big budget Hollywood sextravaganza Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), and his cartoonish amalgamation of sex and violence, Supervixens (1975).
Haji died on August 10, 2013 at the age of 67.- Edward Matthew Lauter II was born on October 30, 1938 in Long Beach, New York. In a film career that extended for over four decades, Lauter starred in a plethora of film and television productions since making his big screen debut in the western Dirty Little Billy (1972). He portrayed an eclectic array of characters over the years, including (but not limited to), authority/military figures, edgy villains, and good-hearted heavies. Many will remember him for his appearance as the stern Captain Wilhelm Knauer in The Longest Yard (1974) (Lauter also made a cameo in the 2005 remake). Lauter also worked with Alfred Hitchcock, Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Jim Carrey and Liam Neeson. With a face that seemed to appear without warning everywhere, Lauter remained in demand for roles on both films and television. Ed Lauter died of mesothelioma in his home in Los Angeles, California on October 16, 2013, less than two weeks before his 75th birthday.
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- Music Department
Matt Mattox was born on 18 August 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), The United States Steel Hour (1953) and Hot Blood (1956). He was married to Martine Limeul and Jean Marie Caples. He died on 18 February 2013 in Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was born in Mound, Minnesota on 16 February 1918, the daughter of Peter Andreos (changed to 'Andrews' upon arriving in the US) and Olga Sollie. Her real name was Patricia Marie (Patty nickname). Her father was a Greek Catholic immigrant and her mother a Lutheran from Norway who ran the pure food café, a Greek café in Minneapolis which was located adjacent to the Orpheum Theater. Her sisters were Lavern Sophie born July 6, 1911, died 1967 (cancer); Maxene Angelyn born Jan. 3, 1916, died October 1995 of a heart attack while on vacation at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Peter Andrews did not think it honorable to have his daughters in show business and decided they should go back to school and become secretaries. Maxine was only four when she first appeared on her first radio broadcast in Minneapolis. By the time she was six she was entertaining at veterans hospitals, for the Mayor of Minneapolis and at Daughters of American Revolution luncheons. Laverne started the trio of sisters and they appeared in kiddie revues on local radio stations and at the Orpheum in their hometown of Minneapolis. It was there they were discovered by Larry Rich, who offered them a job with his traveling revue. Patty was only ten at the time. They began their career in New York city with Jack Belasco's orchestra and later with Ted Mack making the Vaudeville circuit. In 1937 they were heard by recording executive, Dave Kapp and they began a long association with a string of hits. In 1953, the group broke up with Laverne going to New York to study dramatics. Laverne became a career housewife and Patti stayed in show business as a single after their hopes and ambitions clashed with one another. In 1956 they regrouped and sang in Las Vegas at the Flamingo Hotel along with a host of TV offers and a new Capitol recording contract. Their first major hit was "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon", was very well liked by Nazi Germany, until the discovery that the songwriters were a Jewish race. Other top hits included "Don't Fence Me In", "Apple Blossom Time", "Rum and Coca Cola", and "I Can Dream, Can't I?", in 1937.- Actress
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Mindy McCready was born on 30 November 1975 in Fort Meyers, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Switchback (1997) and Mindy McCready: Ten Thousand Angels (1996). She died on 17 February 2013 in Heber Springs, Arkansas, USA.- Actress
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Bonnie Franklin, of the freckled, fair-skinned, hazel-eyed, rosy-cheeked, carrot-haired variety, could light up a room with her buoyant, folksy personality, but she could be quite serious in a take-charge manner when it came to purposeful acting work. It took Norman Lear and a highly popular TV sitcom to finally make the 31-year-old performer a household star in the mid-1970s.
She was born Bonnie Gail Franklin in Santa Monica, California on January 6, 1944, the daughter of Samuel Benjamin, an investment banker, and Claire (née Hersch) Franklin, both of Jewish descent. She was thrust onto the stage at a very young age as a child tap dancer and became the protégé of consummate tapper Donald O'Connor. At age 9, she performed with O'Connor on NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950). A year later, she performed as one of the Cratchit daughters in the Shower of Stars (1954) TV version of "A Christmas Carol", starring Fredric March and Basil Rathbone as "Scrooge" and "Marley", respectively. The young girl then appeared, unbilled on film, playing sweet young things in the rural comedy, The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956), Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) and the Sandra Dee/Troy Donahue's box office tearjerker, A Summer Place (1959).
At age 13, the family moved from Santa Monica to upper-scale Beverly Hills. Graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1961, Bonnie studied at Smith College for a time where the freshman co-ed acted in an Amherst College production of "Good News". She then transferred to UCLA and majored in English. Following her studies, she returned to TV and appeared in lightweight comedies that welcomed her perky, pixie-like presence. These included mid-to-late 1960s episodes of Mr. Novak (1963), Gidget (1965), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965) and The Munsters (1964). In 1967, she married Ronald Sossi, a playwright best-known for his writing/producing chores on the TV series, The Rat Patrol (1966). The marriage, however, was short-lived and ended in 1970.
It was on the musical stage that Bonnie found breakthrough success. Following diligent work in "Drat the Cat!" (1965), "Your Own Thing" (1968), "George M.!" (1969) and "Dames at Sea" (1969), she took her first Broadway curtain call in "Applause", the well-received 1970 musical version of All About Eve (1950), starring Lauren Bacall. Bonnie played a theater "gypsy", named "Bonnie", who sings and dances to the title song backed by her "band of gypsies". Bonnie won the Outer Critics and Theatre World awards and a 1970 Tony nomination for her effort here. She continued on the stage with prime roles in "A Thousand Clowns" (1971), the title role in "Peter Pan" (1973), and the revue "Oh, Coward!" (1975).
It wasn't until Bonnie was handed the prime role of "Ann Romano", a divorced mom raising two daughters (Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) on One Day at a Time (1975), did she become a viable star. Although her contagious cheerfulness and beaming smile was part of her value on the comedy show, Franklin desired to focus on taboo TV subjects such as divorce, birth control, sexual harassment and suicide, as well as getting laughs. While the program didn't match the ground-breaking importance or success of an All in the Family (1971), the show did command consistent and respectable ratings ("Top 20" for seven of its nine years) and lasted on CBS until 1984. Bonnie received one Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe nominations during the sitcom's run, and managed to find time to squeeze in a few other TV-movie projects as well -- A Guide for the Married Woman (1978), Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979), the title role in Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980) and Your Place... or Mine (1983). Bonnie also directed episodes of One Day at a Time (1975), Karen's Song (1987) Charles in Charge (1984) and The Munsters Today (1987).
Following the show's demise, Bonnie seemed to keep a lower profile on camera, focusing instead on theatre roles and in several humanitarian efforts. Sporadic guest roles on Burke's Law (1994) (revived), Almost Perfect (1995) and Touched by an Angel (1994) was highlighted by a 2005 TV reunion with her One Day at a Time (1975) TV family, The One Day at a Time Reunion (2005). Her return to the theatre, after a break of 14 years, included roles in a variety of plays: "Happy Birthday and Other Humiliations" (1987), "Annie Get Your Gun" (1988) (as "Annie Oakley"), "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" (1988), "Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life" (1990), "Grace & Glorie" (1996), "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" (1997), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1999), "Same Time, Next Year" (2000), "Dancing at Lughnasa" (2003), "A Touch of the Poet" (2005), "A Delicate Balance" (2007) and as crotchety "Ouisar" in "Steel Magnolias" (2011). In addition, she put together and toured in her own cabaret act and appeared in nearly a dozen staged readings with Los Angeles' Classic and Contemporary American Playwrights.
Bonnie was a tireless activist for a variety of charities and civic-oriented issues, among them AIDS care and research and the Stroke Association of Southern California. More recently, Bonnie reunited with "One Day at a Time" daughter Valerie Bertinelli in a 2011 episode of Bertinelli's sitcom, Hot in Cleveland (2010), and, a year later, played a recurring nun in the daytime The Young and the Restless (1973).
In September of 2012, Bonnie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died several months later on March 1, 2013. Her second husband of 29 years, TV/film producer Marvin Minoff, who produced Bonnie's TV movie, Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980), as well as the film, Patch Adams (1998), died in 2009.- Music Department
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- Sound Department
Phil Ramone was born on 5 January 1934 in South Africa. He was a producer, known for Flashdance (1983), Ghostbusters (1984) and Walkabout (1971). He was married to Karen Ichiuji-Ramone and Karen. He died on 30 March 2013 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Music Artist
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- Soundtrack
George Jones was born on 12 September 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, USA. He was a music artist and actor, known for Ad Astra (2019), Only the Brave (2017) and Crazy Heart (2009). He was married to Nancy Sepulveda, Tammy Wynette, Shirley Ann Corley and Dorothy Bonvillion. He died on 26 April 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Director
- Composer
- Actor
Ray Manzarek was born on 12 February 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director and composer, known for Army of the Dead (2021), Strange Days (1995) and The X Files (1998). He was married to Dorothy Manzarek. He died on 20 May 2013 in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany.- Slim Whitman was born on 20 January 1923 in Tampa, Florida, USA. He was married to Geraldine "Jerry" Christ. He died on 19 June 2013 in Orange Park, Florida, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Bobby Bland was born on 27 January 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee, USA. He is known for The Fugitive (1993), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) and Fighting (2009). He was married to Willie Mae Bland. He died on 23 June 2013 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Writer
John Weldon Cale was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he graduated in 1956 from Tulsa Central High School. In the early 1960s he moved to Los Angeles, along with a number of other Tulsa musicians (known for their "Tulsa Sound"), where he worked as a studio engineer. His nickname "JJ" was given to him by Elmer Valentine, co-owner of Whisky A Go Go, the Sunset Strip nightclub, so as not to be confused with the Velvet Underground's John Cale.
JJ Cale released his first single in 1958 "Shock Hop/Sneaky" under the name Johnny Cale. He followed that single with "Troubles, Troubles/Purple Onion" which was released under the name Johnny Cale Quintet in 1960, along with his 1961 single "Ain't That Lovin You Baby/She's My Desire." From 1965 on forward all of his recordings were released under the moniker "JJ Cale" starting with 1965's "It's A Go Go Place/Dick Tracy" followed by 1966's "In Our Time/Outside Looking In", 1966's "After Midnight/Slow Motion", 1971's "Crazy Mama" (his biggest hit) and 1979's "Katy Kool/Juarez Blues."
JJ Cale's albums include "Naturally" (1972), "Really" (1973), "Okie" (1974), "Troubadour" (1976), "5" (1979), "Shades" (1981), "Grasshopper" (1982), "#8" (1983), "Travel Log" (1990), "Number 10" (1992), "Closer To You" (1994), "Guitar Man" (1996), "To Tulsa & Back" (2004), and "Roll On" (2009). A live album "Live" was released in 2001.
JJ Cale is best known for the songs he wrote which became successes for a variety of artists including Eric Clapton ("After Midnight", "Cocaine", "Travelin' Light", "I'll Make Love To You Anytime", "Angel"), and Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Breeeze").- Music Department
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George Duke is an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer.
He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio. He was known primarily for thirty-odd solo albums, of which A Brazilian Love Affair from 1979 was his most popular, as well as for his collaborations with other musicians, particularly Frank Zappa.- Music Department
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Eydie Gorme was born in New York on August 16, 1928 to Sephardic Jewish parents. Her father, Nessim Gormezano, was a Turkish-born tailor who changed his last name when he arrived in the United States. She began singing straight out of high school, with various big bands. But her big break came after she auditioned for, and joined, "The The Tonight Show (1953) Show" in 1953. There, for $90 a week, she sang solos and sang duets with the up-and-coming Steve Lawrence. The two performed on the show for five years, and married in 1957. After their "Tonight Show" stint, the pair had a short-lived TV show of their own, The Steve Lawrence-Eydie Gorme Show (1958). Then, Lawrence entered the Army leaving Gorme, a new mother, to frequent the night club circuit on her own. Two years later, when Lawrence was discharged, the couple came to a decision to enter show business more professionally. Their career took off, with audiences drawn to their penchant for the classics in favor of rock 'n' roll, as well as their spontaneous banter.- Marian McPartland was born on 20 March 1918 in Slough, Berkshire, England, UK. She was married to Jimmy McPartland. She died on 20 August 2013 in Port Washington, New York, USA.
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- Actor
Sid Bernstein was born on 12 August 1918 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Good to Go (1986), Hullabaloo (1965) and Sid Bernstein Presents... (2010). He was married to Geraldine Bernstein. He died on 21 August 2013 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
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Ramblin' "Doc" Tommy Scott's Last Real Old Time Medicine Show In 1936, Scott joined "Doc" Chamberlain's Medicine Show, founded in 1890, when it rolled through Toccoa, Ga. When Chamberlain retired, he gave Scott the medicine and the show. As one of country music's first generation of stars, he began recording for RCA in the 1930's. He performed as a regular on some of the South's biggest radio shows from WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia to WSM's Grand Old Opry in the early 1940's joining stars like Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb and Pee Wee King. Scott said, "We played live on many stations and by tran-scriptions on the powerful Mexican stations like XERF Del Rio, XEG Mon-terey, Old Mexico." Like many of the stars of his era, success came from a combination of factors: the new medium of radio beamed their live performances all over the country; the popularity of new hillbilly records which started in Atlanta in 1923 with Fiddlin' John Carson and film "Soundies" which showed fans what their favorite singers from radio looked like on the silver screen. He benefited from all of these mediums, but his most lucrative medium was touring with his stage show. Scott said, "We kept the show on the road almost 350 days a year." Scott's stage show has taken many names in it's long history. The Georgia Peanut Band and The Hollywood Hillbillies are a couple of them. He has even run several shows at one time featuring different stars. It is this dedica-tion to the public that has put his show in more different towns than any other entertainer. He has walked on stage for more than 29,000 performances in front of more than 25,000,000 paid admissions. In the days when westerns were king of the silver screen, fans could have not only seen him on screen in musical films like "Southern Hayride," "Hillbilly Jamboree," and "Hobos and Indians," but for their 25 cents admission children catching a Saturday matinee at the Wink Theater in Dalton or the Tivoli in Chattanooga could have seen him live and in person with his whole show. "We played so many of those theaters, three to five shows a day. Some-times more than 200 in one year," he said. The documentary "Still Ramblin'" on WTCI gives a unique look at the life of America's Last Medicine Showman. It follows his career from the foothills of Georgia to his days at the Grand Ole Opry and in Hollywood. Through interviews, still photos and never before seen film footage, writer/director Randall Franks includes greats like Roy Acuff, Stringbean Akeman, Sunset Carson, Carolina Cotton, Col. Tim McCoy Charlie and Bill Monroe, Lash LaRue, Minnie Pearl, Al "Fuzzy" St. John, Curly Seckler and many more. "I just got the video back. Watching it brought back so many great memories of good times and old friends," Scott said. "Still Ramblin'" also features the digitally-restored anniversary edition of the western drama "Trail of the Hawk" featuring the music and comedy of Tommy and his Hollywood Hillbillies, Frankie Scott, Sandra Scott, Gaines Blevins, Eddy Williams and Luke McLuke. "Trail of the Hawk" was the directorial debut of Academy Award nominee Edward Dymtryk. The film, which was based on a James Oliver Curwood story, also featured western stars Yancey Lane, Betty Jordan, Dickie Jones, Lafe McKee among others.
Scott's status as a treasure is evidenced by many accolades, including his recent nominations for the National Heritage Award, his 1976 placement in the Country Music Foundation's Walkway of Stars and the 1996 unveiling of his Georgia Music Hall of Fame exhibit, the museum's largest, in Macon. Scott, who counts appearances on television with Johnny Carson, Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman and Walter Cronkite, was also a pioneer in that medium hosting two of television's first country music shows, "The Ramblin' Tommy Scott Show" and "The Smokey Mountain Jamboree." With over 500 recordings to his credit, his chart success with included three titles "Rosebuds and You," "Dance With Her, Henry," and "Mule Train." He wrote around 300 of his recordings including "Rosebuds and You," recorded by numerous artists, and the bluegrass standard "Rainbow of My Dreams" popularized by Lester Flatt. While Lester Flatt, of Flatt & Scruggs, is considered the author of "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms," Scott said, "Lester and I many times had a friendly discussion about who adapted the folk song first." In the seventies, when Suffolk marketing launched selling albums on television, Tommy Scott, Boxcar Willie and former Scott show alumnus, Slim Whitman reached an audience of millions in their homes. Scott's unique career has spanned eight decades.- Actress
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Kim Hamilton was born on 12 September 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Guiding Light (1952), Body and Soul (1981) and Checkmate (1960). She was married to Werner Klemperer and Robert Henry Hamilton. She died on 16 September 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Artist
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- Composer
He formed the group The Velvet Underground with Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, second guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker in New York in 1965. The group soon became a part of Andy Warhol's Factory scene, which housed a great number of the most freaked and experimental artists at the time. The German singer and actress Nico sang in the group for a short period-- but the original line-up began to split up. The group, at its best, made only four original albums: "The Velvet Underground & Nico" (1967), "White Light/White Heat" (1968), "The Velvet Underground" (1969), and "Loaded" (1970). They stand today as milestones in the history of rock.
In 1970, Lou Reed began his solo career. His second album, "Transformer" (1972), was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, long-time admirers of the Velvets. That year, he had his first--and still only--top 20 song, "Walk on the Wild Side." Through the 1970s, he made a prolific number of albums with "Berlin" (1973), "Rock 'n' Roll Animal" (1974), and "Street Hassle" (1978) as the artistic highlights of this period. On St. Valentine's Day 1980, Lou Reed married Sylvia Morales, and that was another turning point in his career. The following album, "The Blue Mask" (1982), stands as one of his best and most composed. In 1989, he made "New York"--a love letter to his city with its good and bad, and with a heavy criticism of American thought.
In the 1990s, he continued to be one of the most sharp-tongued rock 'n' roll poets of his time. In 1990, he once again collaborated with ex-Velvet-partner John Cale. Their album, "Songs for Drella," was a very personal tribute to friend and artist Andy Warhol, who had recently died. In 1993, The Velvet Underground was re-formed with its original line-up, and toured in Europe in 1993. In 1997, Lou Reed, along with former Velvet band mates John Cale, Maureen Tucker, and the late Sterling Morrison were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Lou Reed stood as one of the most important songwriters of our time and has served as inspiration to a multitude of artists such as David Bowie, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Nine Inch Nails, U2, David Byrne and Patti Smith.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Tom Laughlin was born on 10 August 1931 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Billy Jack (1971), The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and The Born Losers (1967). He was married to Delores Taylor. He died on 12 December 2013 in Thousand Oaks, California, USA.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Her father had a lucrative practice in Japan, but due to Joan and older sister Olivia de Havilland's recurring ailments the family moved to California in the hopes of improving their health. Mrs. de Havilland and the two girls settled in Saratoga while their father went back to his practice in Japan. Joan's parents did not get along well and divorced soon afterward. Mrs. de Havilland had a desire to be an actress but her dreams were curtailed when she married, but now she hoped to pass on her dream to Olivia and Joan. While Olivia pursued a stage career, Joan went back to Tokyo, where she attended the American School. In 1934 she came back to California, where her sister was already making a name for herself on the stage. Joan likewise joined a theater group in San Jose and then Los Angeles to try her luck there. After moving to L.A., Joan adopted the name of Joan Burfield because she didn't want to infringe upon Olivia, who was using the family surname.
She tested at MGM and gained a small role in No More Ladies (1935), but she was scarcely noticed and Joan was idle for a year and a half. During this time she roomed with Olivia, who was having much more success in films. In 1937, this time calling herself Joan Fontaine, she landed a better role as Trudy Olson in You Can't Beat Love (1937) and then an uncredited part in Quality Street (1937). Although the next two years saw her in better roles, she still yearned for something better. In 1940 she garnered her first Academy Award nomination for Rebecca (1940). Although she thought she should have won, (she lost out to Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940)), she was now an established member of the Hollywood set. She would again be Oscar-nominated for her role as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion (1941), and this time she won. Joan was making one film a year but choosing her roles well. In 1942 she starred in the well-received This Above All (1942).
The following year she appeared in The Constant Nymph (1943). Once again she was nominated for the Oscar, she lost out to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943). By now it was safe to say she was more famous than her older sister and more fine films followed. In 1948, she accepted second billing to Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948). Joan took the year of 1949 off before coming back in 1950 with September Affair (1950) and Born to Be Bad (1950). In 1951 she starred in Paramount's Darling, How Could You! (1951), which turned out badly for both her and the studio and more weak productions followed.
Absent from the big screen for a while, she took parts in television and dinner theaters. She also starred in many well-produced Broadway plays such as Forty Carats and The Lion in Winter. Her last appearance on the big screen was The Witches (1966) and her final appearance before the cameras was Good King Wenceslas (1994). She is, without a doubt, a lasting movie icon.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ray Price was born on 12 January 1926 in Perryville, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Guilt Trip (2012), Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) and A Man of No Importance (1994). He was married to Janie Mae and Betty Berthena Greb (Linda Powers). He died on 16 December 2013 in Mount Pleasant, Texas, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Usually sized up as an erudite gent, advice-spouting father or uptight, pompous neighbor, the acting talents of Conrad Bain were best utilized on stage and on TV. Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, on February 4, 1923, Conrad Stafford Bain was a twin son (the other was named Bonar) born to Stafford Harrison Bain, a wholesaler, and Jean Agnes (née Young). He enjoyed Canadian sports growing up (ice hockey, speed skating), but picked up an interest in acting while in high school.
Electing to train at Alberta's Banff School of Fine Arts after graduating, he met Monica Marjorie Sloan, an artist, while there. His acting pursuit was interrupted by WWII when he subsequently joined the Canadian army. Picking up here he left off following his discharge, he studied at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He also married Ms. Sloan in 1945 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the following year. The couple went on to have three children -- Jennifer, Mark and Kent.
Making his stage debut in a Connecticut production of "Dear Ruth" in 1947, Bain also appeared in "Jack and the Beanstalk" and a tour of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" before making his off-Broadway debut in a 1956 Circle-in-the-Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," a production that made a star out of Jason Robards. Following an inauspicious Broadway bow in "Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove", which closed after only one day, he joined the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival for their 1958 season, appearing in "A Winter's Tale," "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Henry IV, Part I."
Fair in complexion and exceedingly genial in demeanor, the wry and witty blond actor graduated into other Broadway work, particularly drama, with strong roles in "Candide," "Advise and Consent," "An Enemy of the People," "Twigs" and "Uncle Vanya." He also built up his regional and repertory credits during the early 1960s with parts in "King Lear," "The Firebugs," "Death of a Salesman" and "The Shadow of Heroes" at Seattle Rep. Later in the decade he began to focus more intently on TV, usually playing cerebral, white-collar types (district attorneys, stock brokers, doctors, politicos).
Bain eventually found an "in" with daytime drama, which included a recurring role on Dark Shadows (1966) (as an innkeeper), and a part on The Edge of Night (1956) in 1970. He broke completely away, however, from his trademark dramatics when the 49-year-old actor was "discovered" for prime-time TV by Norman Lear and offered a supporting role opposite Bea Arthur and Bill Macy in Norman Lear's landmark, liberally-sliced comedy series Maude (1972), a spin-off of Lear's equally landmark All in the Family (1971) sitcom. Conrad was cast as Rue McClanahan's stuffy, conservative doctor/husband, Arthur Harmon, who usually was at political odds with free-wheeling feminist Maude Finlay.
The role moved Bain into the prime TV comedy character ranks. Following the show's lengthy run (1972-1978), he was given the green light by Lear to move into his own comedy series with Diff'rent Strokes (1978) as the wealthy father of a girl and adoptive father of two African-American children. While young Gary Coleman, the compact, precocious, mouthy dynamo, may have stolen the show, the good-humored Bain remained a strong center and voice of reason until the show's demise in 1986. Three was not a charm when Bain went into a third new comedy series, Mr. President (1987), with Conrad as a loyal aide-de-camp to "President" George C. Scott. The show, created not by Lear but by Johnny Carson, lasted only 24 episodes.
During and after his lengthy 70s and 80s TV success, Conrad would continue to return to his first love, the stage, in such productions as "Uncle Vanya," "The Owl and the Pussycat," "On Golden Pond," "The Dining Room" and "On Borrowed Time", the last being a 1992 return to Broadway after nearly two decades. Films, on the other hand, were a non-issue at this point. Earlier minor turns included Clint Eastwood's Coogan's Bluff (1968), Gene Hackman's I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), Sean Connery's The Anderson Tapes (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Up the Sandbox (1972). His last stop in films was an engaging part as a befuddled grandpa opposite the perennially crusty Mary Wickes in Postcards from the Edge (1990) starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. One of Bain's last on-camera appearances was recreating his Phillip Drummond role from Diff'rent Strokes (1978) on a 1996 episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".
Other than a stage role in "Ancestral Voices" in 2000, Conrad turned for a time to screen-writing but later comfortably retired to the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Moving to a Livermore California retirement home in 2008, wife Monica died a year later. Bain passed away there quietly of natural causes on January 14, 2013, less than a month short of his 90th birthday. His twin brother Bonar died in 2005.- Actor
- Soundtrack
His father Geoffrey Kerr (b. 25 Jan 1895, London; d. 1971) and mother June Walker (b. 14 June 1904, New York City; d. 1966) were successful Broadway and, occasionally, film actors. He went into theatre as soon as he graduated from Harvard. He had an important role in the stage play "Bernadine" in 1952, and achieved real recognition for the sensitive lead part of Tom Robinson Lee in the 1953 stage production of "Tea and Sympathy", a role he recreated in the 1956 film version. Audiences found him touching in the tragic-hero role of Lieutenant Joe Cable in the 1958 musical South Pacific (1958). He became a practicing attorney but also made rare film/TV appearances.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Van Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr. on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. His mother, named Rildia Bee O'Bryan, had been taught piano by Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt. Cliburn began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, who was strict and demanded perfection. At the age of twelve Cliburn won a piano competition in Texas and made his debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. At the age of twenty he made his debut at Carnegie Hall.
In 1958 Cliburn won the First International Tshaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. There he played the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff in his triumphal competition finale performances. Cliburn's mastery of piano was so convincing that even Nikita Khrushchev agreed, when the Soviet judges asked him for permission to give the first prize to an American. Cliburn was on the cover of TIME as "The Texan Who Conquered Russia." He made a fine recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, which became the best-selling classical album, eventually going triple platinum. Cliburn also recorded the music of Edvard Grieg, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ludwig van Beethoven among other composers.
Since 1962 Van Cliburn has been the artistic advisor for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. Its international prestige now rivals that of the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Cliburn made appearances at such important political events, as the 1987 White House meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1991 Cliburn performed at the opening of the 100th Anniversary season of Carnegie Hall. In 2003 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2004 received the Russian Order of Friendship. He has played piano music for royalty, heads of states, and for every President of the United States since Harry S. Truman. Van Cliburn is living in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a Steinway artist. He owns a collection of Steinway pianos that are tuned-up to accommodate his individual touch and style.- Actor
- Soundtrack
He was the third child of William Ernest Ball, a bank manager and Rosina whose other children were Marjorie, who died in 1980 and John, Thornton was his mother's maiden name and his middle name, He played the cello in his school's orchestra and was a corporal in the Officer's Training Corps which he left in1937 and became a clerk with the Guardian Insurance Company in London leaving to follow a colleague who'd left to be an actor and Frank thought he'd do the same and enrolled in the London School of Dramatic Art evening classes. In 1939 the school evacuated to Whitney in Oxfordshire. He went with them and still a student acted in the local repertory company which contained Peter Jones, In '1941 he was in the West End with Donald Wolfit and after that a year in The Scarlet #Pimpernel at Manchester Opera House where he met actress Beryl Evans, September '43 he was in the RAF and sent to Nova Scotia to train as a navigator, became a pilot officer and stayed on after the war in the entertainment unit with 3 corporals- Peter Sellers, Dick Emery and Tony Hancock. He was demobbed in 1947 and the same year in the musical The Dancing Years. Mid November 1950 he was compare on television's The Centre Show , a variety show in which Hugh Lloyd made his debut. Frank married Beryl on the 5th January 1945 and had a daughter, Jane in 1946 and lived in West Wickham in Kent- Frank Bank was born on 12 April 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Leave It to Beaver (1957), The New Leave It to Beaver (1983) and Life with Archie (1962). He was married to Rebecca Fink, Jeri Lynn Handelman and Marlene Kay Blau. He died on 13 April 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was Richard LeParmentier's third film after moving to Britain from the United States in 1974. Richard has appeared in over fifty films and TV shows. He used to reside in Bath, UK, and worked as a screenwriter. He also developed a comedy-drama series for the BBC and wrote a feature film.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Allan Arbus was born on 15 February 1918 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for M*A*S*H (1972), Coffy (1973) and Damien: Omen II (1978). He was married to Mariclare Costello and Diane Arbus. He died on 19 April 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Composer
- Writer
Richie Havens was born on 21 January 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Green Lantern (2011), I'm Not There (2007) and Collateral (2004). He was married to Nancy. He died on 22 April 2013 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jeanne Cooper was born on 25 October 1928 in Taft, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), Ben Casey (1961) and Kansas City Bomber (1972). She was married to Harry Bernsen. She died on 8 May 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Joe Conley was born on 3 March 1928 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Cast Away (2000), The Waltons (1972) and Impure Thoughts (1986). He was married to Louise A. Teecher and Jacqueline Y. Stakes. He died on 7 July 2013 in Newbury Park, California, USA.- Margaret Pellegrini was born on 23 September 1923 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for The Yellow Brick Road and Beyond (2009), I Married a Munchkin (1994) and We're Off to See the Munchkins (1993). She was married to Willie Pellegrini. She died on 7 August 2013 in Glendale, Arizona, USA.
- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
David's father was the Rev. W.J. Parradine Frost who died in 1967, his mother Mona, born in 1903, lived in Beccles, Suffolk. He had a sister, Mrs Margaret Bill who lived in Whitby. He owned 'Sweet Briar Cottage in Eastbridge near Theberton, Norfolk, a Georgian town house in Knightsbridge, London and a hotel suite in New York. His marriage to actress Lynne Frederick in 1981 lasted 6 months.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Noel Harrison was born on 29 January 1934 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and The Citadel (1960). He was married to Margaret Benson, Sara Lee Eberts Tufnell and Lori Chapman. He died on 19 October 2013 in Devon, England, UK.- Born March 17, 1943 in Houston, Texas, USA, Don left home to go to college at UCLA-Fine Arts to become an actor. Producer Collier Young spotted him and cast him in the TV series,Ironside (1967) as Mark Sanger. He enjoys music and also likes to go deep sea fishing and horse back riding. Don did not do much after Ironside apart from a few guest appearances and a few movies.
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Although known as the uncle/patriarch and judge "Philip Banks" on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), James Avery was a classically trained actor and scholar. A native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, he joined the US Navy after graduating high school and served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. Upon leaving the military, he moved to San Diego, California and began writing TV scripts and poetry for PBS. He won an Emmy for production during his tenure there and deservedly won a scholarship to the University of California at San Diego, from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Drama and Literature. (Sidenote: His wife Barbara is the Dean of Student Life at California's Loyola Marymount University.) In addition to his sitcom popularity, he lent his voice to over a dozen animated television series and features. He was also the primary host of the popular PBS travel and adventure series Going Places (1997). Armed with a diverse resume of credits, James Avery remained a unique creative force as convincing a comedian as he was a Shakespearean character.- Actor
- Producer
Joseph Ruskin was born on 14 April 1924 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Smokin' Aces (2006), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and The Scorpion King (2002). He was married to Barbara Greene and Patricia Herd. He died on 28 December 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.