Notable autographs I have
A very fun hobby. Most of them were found in 2nd hand shops or were responses from people I've written to. Incomplete. Also, very random.
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Daughter of Christian missionaries, Pearl Buck was reared and educated in China. She received her university education in America but returned to China in the mid-1910s. She became a university instructor and writer, eventually authoring novels about China, some of which were turned into Hollywood films, including The Good Earth (1937) and Dragon Seed (1944). She also wrote novels using the pen-name 'John Sedges', and she won the 'Nobel Prize' for Literature in 1938.- Actress
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Olga Chekhova (also Olga Tschechova in German), one of the most popular stars of the silent film era, remained a mysterious person throughout her life and was accused of being a Russian agent in Nazi Germany.
She was born Olga Konstantinovna von Knipper on April 26, 1897, in Aleksandropol, Transcaucasia, Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). She was the second of 3 children in a bilingual Russian-German family. Her father, Konstantin Leonardovich Knipper, a Lutheran of German descent. He made a military career in Russia as a railroad engineer. Young Olga studied art and literature at an art school in St. Petersburg. Later as an immigrant in Germany she claimed friendship with the family of Tsar Nicholas II--who also was of German origin--and that she had encountered the notorious Russian mystic and monk, Grigory Rasputin. In reality, she was sent from St. Petersburg to Moscow to her aunt, actress Olga Knipper-Chekhova, to study acting at Moscow Art Theatre. In 1914, at age 17, she eloped with Russian-Jewish actor Michael Chekhov, nephew of Anton Chekhov.
Olga adored her husband, Michael Chekhov, a rising star of stage and film. But he met another beauty, Xenia Zimmer, and became involved in extramarital affair while Olga was pregnant with their child. Their daughter, Ada Tschechowa, was born in 1916. Olga separated from Michael Chekhov during the tragic time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. That same year she made her film debut in a Russian silent film, Anya Kraeva (1918).
Olga claimed that she fled Russia disguised as a peasant woman and posed as a mute while carrying a diamond ring in her mouth. In reality she married an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, Friedrich Jaroshi, and took a train from the Moscow Belorussky station to Vienna, Austria, having travel documents from the Russian Commissar of Culture (and she was also helped by the Russian intelligence agency in exchange for her cooperation). She was later invited to the Soviet Embassy in Berlin for meetings with Soviet officials. In Germany she was introduced to film producer Erich Pommer and renowned director F.W. Murnau, who gave her a leading role in his film, The Haunted Castle (1921). She quickly became a huge star in Europe and played in more than 40 silent films during the decade. Olga was joined by ex-husband Michael Chekhov in several films, including Der Narr seiner Liebe (1929) (aka "The Fool of Love"), which she also directed.
Future Nazi leader Adolf Hitler reportedly fell for Olga upon seeing her cold and beautiful face in several films in the 1920s. She was famous for her movie image as a baroness and was courted in the 1930s by Luftwaffe boss Hermann Göring and by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Some wives of high-ranking Nazi officials were jealous of and hated the beautiful Olga. Goebbels was known to have visited her home on several occasions when he wanted to be away from his Nazi "activities". He invited Olga to several Nazi receptions and introduced her to Adolf Hitler in April 1933. Olga became a personal friend of Hitler and was photographed sitting next to "Der Fuhrer" at official events of the Nazi Party. She also received valuable Christmas gifts from Hitler, and regular birthday presents and other tokens of his attention.
In 1936 Olga was honored with the title of "State Actress" of the Third Reich and was made a German citizen. She married a wealthy Belgian businessman, Marcel Robyns. One day prior to the wedding she had a private reception with Hitler, who gave her permission to retain her German citizenship. Two years later she divorced Robyns and returned to her high-society life in Berlin. Her famous 1939 photo-op with Hitler was thoroughly analyzed in Moscow.
She was invited by Soviet officials to join Hermann Göring and Joachim von Ribbentrop at the meeting with Vyacheslav Molotov and Gen. V. N. Merkulov at the Soviet Embassy in Berlin in 1940. At that time Olga was associated with her agent-brother Lev Knipper, who was sent from Moscow to Germany on a secret mission to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The plan was to use one of Olga's visits with Hitler for a suicide attack on the Fuhrer. Olga was kept oblivious of the plan, which was aborted by an order from Joseph Stalin, who became paranoid about the possibility of Germany's alliance with Britain if Hitler was killed. Interestingly, Stalin and Hitler were both amateur film directors in the 1920s, but as dictators they now directed the course of history.
Olga was invited by Josef Goebbels to the official reception in Berlin in July of 1941, only a month after the Nazis invaded Russia and Luftwaffe bombings caused massive devastation to Russian cities. Goebbels announced the planned occupation of Moscow.
She was being investigated by the SS on orders from SS leader Heinrich Himmler. She was constantly under surveillance by both Nazi and Soviet agents in her Berlin home. As the war progressed and conditions got progressively worse for the Nazi regime, party bosses became increasingly paranoid. Himmler was planning to arrest her in January of 1945. One early morning she was informed of Himmler's move. She immediately called him directly with a request for a favor--to let her finish her morning cup of coffee comfortably. When SS commandos surrounded her home Himmler opened her door and was met by an angry Adolf Hitler, who in no uncertain terms informed Himmler that he had made a mistake.
Olga was a beautiful pawn in a dangerous game between the two most destructive powers in the Second World War. She survived through acting, cheating, lying and disguise. She protected her daughter Ada from Nazi anti-Semitism by hiding the fact that her ex-husband, Michael Chekhov, was Jewish. Her brother Lev Knipper was held in a Nazi concentration camp and managed to survive because of his perfect German (and probably with her help). During the savage battle for Berlin just before the war's end, Olga hid in a bomb shelter and was eventually taken prisoner by the Red Army. She was flown to Moscow in April of 1945, for debriefing at the offices of Soviet secret police officials Viktor Abakumov and Lavrenti Beria. She discreetly attended the Moscow Art Theatre performance of "The Cherry Orchard" starring her aunt Olga Knipper-Chekhova in May of 1945. They were not allowed to talk and her aunt Olga fainted backstage.
After two months of interrogations in Moscow, on June 26, 1945, Olga was flown back to Berlin, where she was assisted by the Soviet Army. She was given money and moved in to a Soviet-supervised house on Spree Strasse in the Soviet sector of East Berlin. Several articles in the French and British presses stated that she was a clandestine agent and secretly decorated by the Soviet government. She praised the Russian victory over the Nazis in a private letter to her aunt Olga Knipper-Chekhova. Meanwhile, the film she made in Hollywood turned out to be a flop in the US market, mainly because of her heavy Russian accent.
She continued a film career in Europe and ran her own film production company, Venus-Film Olga Tschechowa. In 1950 she moved to Munich and starred in several films. In 1955 she used her star power to launch a successful cosmetics company, "Olga Tscheschowa Kosmetik Geselschaft." Her remarkable acting career, spanning almost 60 years, ended in 1978, with a small film role as a grandmother.
Her personal file was temporarily available for viewing at the KGB archives in Moscow. One report on her was prepared and signed by the notoriously brutal KGB chief Viktor S. Abakumov. On that report a handwritten question was left by a reader in Kremlin: "What do you suggest to be done with Ms. Chekhova?", the handwriting was by Joseph Stalin. Stalin was quoted as having said, "The actress Olga Chekhova will be very useful in the post-war years", and she probably was. One of her films was titled Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte (1950), or "The Man Who Wanted to Live Two Lives"--and that was exactly what she did.
In 1955, Olga was saddened by the death of Michael Chekhov. In 1966, Olga suffered from another tragedy: her only daughter Ada died in an airplane crash. Devastated by the painful loss, Olga suffered from bouts of depression and turned to alcohol, but she survived thanks to her strong will and lust for life. She lived for another fifteen years, played a few more roles in the movies, and saw her great-grandchildren grow. Moments before she died, sensing the end was near, she ordered a glass of champagne from her granddaughter Vera Tschechowa. That was March 9, 1980, in Munich, Germany.
Her last words were, "Life is beautiful!"- Actress
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Carla Laemmle was born on 20 October 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Adventures of Frank Merriwell (1936), King of Jazz (1930) and The Gate Crasher (1928). She died on 12 June 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American former politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and as a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967. Since leaving office, Carter has remained engaged in political and social projects, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his humanitarian work.- Walter Mondale is an American politician, diplomat and lawyer who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A United States senator from Minnesota (1964-1976), he was the Democratic Party's nominee in the United States presidential election of 1984, but lost to Ronald Reagan in an Electoral College landslide. Reagan won 49 states while Mondale carried his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. He became the oldest-living former U.S. vice president after the death of George Bush in 2018.
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Veteran character actor Robert Englund was born in Glendale, California, to Janis (MacDonald) and John Kent Englund, an aeronautics engineer. Since 1973, Robert has appeared in over 75 feature films and starred in four TV series. He has starred alongside Oscar-winners Henry Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Jeff Bridges. Since 1984 he's achieved international fame as the iconic boogeyman Freddy Krueger in the hit franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street and its seven sequels. Englund has guest starred in hundreds of hours of TV most recently Bones, Criminal Minds and Hawaii 5-0. He will soon be seen starring in the horror film Fear Clinic, and the English thriller The Last Showing, he can be heard as the voice of the Evil Beaver in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon show.- Stunts
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Starting out as a rodeo cowboy and then becoming a stuntman in silent westerns, Yakima Canutt later doubled for such stars as Clark Gable and John Wayne, among others, in such dangerous activities as jumping off the top of a cliff on horseback, leaping from a stagecoach onto its runaway team, being "shot" off a horse at full gallop and other such potentially life-threatening activities. He became expert at staging massive events involving livestock, such as cattle stampedes and covered-wagon races, as well as Indians-vs.-cavalry battles on a grand scale. Canutt's most noteworthy achievement as a second-unit director came in his staging and direction of the chariot-race sequence in William Wyler 's Ben-Hur (1959)--which, from initial planning to final execution, took two years.- Actor
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Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. His parents were Anna (Boselli), who had emigrated from Carpi (MO), Italy, and Camillo Borgnino, who had emigrated from Ottiglio (AL), Italy. As an only child, Ernest enjoyed most sports, especially boxing, but took no real interest in acting. At age 18, after graduating from high school in New Haven, and undecided about his future career, he joined the United States Navy, where he stayed for ten years until leaving in 1945. After a few factory jobs, his mother suggested that his forceful personality could make him suitable for a career in acting, and Borgnine promptly enrolled at the Randall School of Drama in Hartford. After completing the course, he joined Robert Porterfield's famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, staying there for four years, undertaking odd jobs and playing every type of role imaginable. His big break came in 1949, when he made his acting debut on Broadway playing a male nurse in "Harvey".
In 1951, Borgnine moved to Los Angeles to pursue a movie career, and made his film debut as Bill Street in The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951). His career took off in 1953 when he was cast in the role of Sergeant "Fatso" Judson in From Here to Eternity (1953). This memorable performance led to numerous supporting roles as "heavies" in a steady string of dramas and westerns. He played against type in 1955 by securing the lead role of Marty Piletti, a shy and sensitive butcher, in Marty (1955). He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, despite strong competition from Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, James Dean and James Cagney. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Borgnine performed memorably in such films as The Catered Affair (1956), Ice Station Zebra (1968) and Emperor of the North (1973). Between 1962 and 1966, he played Lt. Commander Quinton McHale in the popular television series McHale's Navy (1962). In early 1984, he returned to television as Dominic Santini in the action series Airwolf (1984) co-starring Jan-Michael Vincent, and in 1995, he was cast in the comedy series The Single Guy (1995) as doorman Manny Cordoba. He also appeared in several made-for-TV movies.
Ernest Borgnine has often stated that acting was his greatest passion. His amazing 61-year career (1951 - 2012) included appearances in well over 100 feature films and as a regular in three television series, as well as voice-overs in animated films such as All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996), Small Soldiers (1998), and a continued role in the series SpongeBob SquarePants (1999). Between 1973 until his death, Ernest was married to Tova Traesnaes, who heads her own cosmetics company. They lived in Beverly Hills, California, where Ernest assisted his wife between film projects. When not acting, Ernest actively supported numerous charities and spoke tirelessly at benefits throughout the country. He has been awarded several honorary doctorates from colleges across the United States as well as numerous Lifetime Achievement Awards. In 1996, Ernest purchased a bus and traveled across the United States to see the country and meet his many fans. On December 17, 1999, he presented the University of North Alabama with a collection of scripts from his film and television career, due to his long friendship with North Alabama alumnus and actor George Lindsey (died May 6, 2012), who was an artist in residence at North Alabama.
Ernest Borgnine passed away aged 95 on July 8, 2012, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, of renal failure. He is survived by his wife Tova, their children and his younger sister Evelyn (1926-2013)- Actor
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American character actor and teacher. Born Jewel Guy in Powderly, Kentucky, on July 26, 1926, he was orphaned at three and adopted by Armen and Essa Knowland Best, who renamed him James Knowland Best and raised him in Corydon, Indiana. Following high school he worked briefly as a metalworker before joining the Army during World War II in July 1944. The majority of his service was as an MP in Wiesbaden, Germany just after the end of the war. While still in Germany, Best was transferred to Special Services and began his acting career. According to Best, he first acted in a European tour of "My Sister Eileen" directed by Arthur Penn. Upon his return to the U.S., he toured in road and stock companies in plays and musicals, and was finally spotted by a scout from Universal Pictures, who put him under contract. A handsome young man, his rural inflections perhaps kept him from frequent leading man roles. During the 1950s and '60s, he was a familiar face in movies and television in a wide range of roles, from Western bad guys to craven cowards and country bumpkins. Physical ailments curtailed his work for a long period late in his career, and he established a well-respected acting workshop in Los Angeles. He also served as artist-in-residence at the University of Mississippi, teaching and directing. He worked in both acting and producing capacities for Burt Reynolds on several of the latter's films in the late 1970s, before taking on his greatest commercial success. Although the The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) TV series was far beneath his talents, his role as Sheriff Rosco Coltrane was the part that gave him his greatest fame. He continued teaching, both in Hollywood and later in Florida (at the University of Central Florida). Semi-retired, he makes personal appearances and exhibits his paintings. James Best starred in the 2007 feature film, Moondance Alexander (2007), along with Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin, Kay Panabaker, Sasha Cohen and Whitney Sloan.- Actor
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Gary Alan Sinise was born in Blue Island, Illinois, to Mylles S. (Alsip) and Robert L. Sinise, A.C.E., a film editor. He is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), English, Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Swedish ancestry. His family moved to Highland Park, where he attended high school. He was something of a rebel, playing in bands but paying little attention to school.
Gary and some friends tried out for "West Side Story" as a lark, but Gary was hooked on acting for life by closing night. Gary credits his love for theatre to his drama teacher, Barbara Patterson. In 1974, Gary, Terry Kinney, and Jeff Perry founded the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. Initially performing in a church basement, the company grew and gained stature in the Chicago area. In addition to acting in many plays, Gary also directed some of Steppenwolf's most notable productions, including Sam Shepard's "True West". The company made its off-Broadway debut with that production, starring Gary and John Malkovich, and its Broadway debut with "The Grapes of Wrath" at the Cort Theatre in 1990. Gary's Hollywood career also started in the director's chair with two episodes of the stylish TV series Crime Story (1986), followed in 1988 by the feature Miles from Home (1988) starring Richard Gere. Gary's first feature film as an actor was the World War II fable A Midnight Clear (1992) in 1992. That year also found Gary combining his acting and directing talents with the critically acclaimed Of Mice and Men (1992). His first real notice by the public came in 1994, however. He starred in the blockbuster miniseries The Stand (1994), rapidly followed by his bravura performance as "Lt. Dan" in Forrest Gump (1994). His portrayal of the disabled, emotionally tortured veteran earned Gary numerous awards and an Oscar nomination. Busy 1994 was followed by busy 1995, first reuniting with Tom Hanks in Apollo 13 (1995) and then starring in the HBO film Truman (1995) which earned him the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards and an Emmy nomination.
Gary is married to Moira Sinise, an actress and original member of the Steppenwolf company. They have three children, Sophie Sinise, McCanna Anthony Sinise and Ella Sinise.- Actor
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In 1979 with his Detroit friends, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, Bruce Campbell raised $350,000 for a low-budget film, The Evil Dead (1981), in which he starred and co-executive produced. Completed piecemeal over four years, the film first gained notoriety in England where it became the best-selling video of 1983, beating out The Shining (1980). After its appearance at Cannes, where Stephen King dubbed it "the most ferociously original horror film of the year", New Line Cinema stepped forward to release "Evil Dead" in the U.S.
After co-producing Crimewave (1985), a cross-genre comedy written by Sam Raimi, Ethan and Joel Coen, Campbell moved to Los Angeles and quickly gained a foothold producing or starring in genre films such as the Maniac Cop (1988) series, Lunatics: A Love Story (1991), Moontrap (1988), and Mindwarp (1991), a post-apocalyptic "Jeremiah Johnson", during which he met his wife-to-be, filmmaker, Ida Gearon.
Campbell then rejoined his Detroit colleagues to star and co-produce the second and third films in the Evil Dead trilogy (Evil Dead II (1987) & Army of Darkness (1992)), completing 12 years of work on the cult favorite.
This rough-and-tumble background was a plus as Campbell made his foray into television, first starring in the highly touted Fox series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993), then as a recurring guest-star on the hit show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993).
With these under his belt, Campbell easily made the transition to director, helming numerous episodes and recurring as the King of Thieves in the #1 syndicated Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995), and its follow-up phenomenon, Xena: Warrior Princess (1995).
Bruce has since expanded his range on television, appearing in anything from Disney's update of The Love Bug (1997), to decidedly dramatic turns on the acclaimed series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) and The X-Files (1993). At the invitation of ABC, Campbell ventured into the world of sitcoms with a recurring role on ABC's Emmy-nominated Ellen (1994), participating in one of the three touted "out" episodes.
But Campbell didn't abandon his film roots. During that time, he had featured roles in the blockbuster Congo (1995), John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996), and the award-winning independent crime drama, Running Time (1997). He followed these up with roles in Paramount's romantic comedy, Serving Sara (2002), Jim Carrey's The Majestic (2001), and all three of Sam Raimi's blockbuster Spider-Man movies.
After a return to episodic television in the swashbuckling series, Jack of All Trades (2000), Campbell took the title role in MGM's cult sleeper Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). His directorial debut, Man with the Screaming Brain (2005) premiered on the Sci Fi Channel, and Dark Horse Comics published the comic adaptation.
Campbell then directed and starred as himself in My Name Is Bruce (2007), a spoof of his B-movie career, then re-teamed with Disney for their fun-filled hit, Sky High (2005).
Campbell has since made the leap into other forms of entertainment, and is enjoying his role as an author with back-to-back New York Times bestsellers: a memoir entitled "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor", and his first novel, "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way".
In the multi-media industry, Bruce has enjoyed voicing characters for Disney's animated TV series The Legend of Tarzan (2001) and the Warner Brothers feature The Ant Bully (2006). He also portrayed the character of "Mayor Shelbourne" in the animated hit film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009). Recently, Campbell voiced the role of "Rod Torque Redline" in Cars 2 (2011), the sequel to the smash Disney animated feature and for the immensely popular game, "Call of Duty".
In 2013, Bruce co-produced the hit remake of Evil Dead (2013), joined his filmmaking pal Sam Raimi on Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and completed an impressive seven-year run on the spy show, Burn Notice (2007) (2007-2013), USA's #1 show on cable.
More than two decades after the release of Army of Darkness (1992), Bruce returned to his most iconic role for Ash vs Evil Dead (2015), a highly-anticipated series premiering on the Starz network on Halloween 2015.- Actor
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Towering 7' 2" tall actor who cornered the market on playing giants, intimidating henchmen, bayou swamp monsters and steel toothed villains! Kiel worked in numerous jobs including as a night club bouncer and a cemetery plot salesman, before breaking into film & TV in several minor roles in the late 1950s / early 1960s. Noted among these was the alien "Kanamit" in the classic The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "To Serve Man", and terrorizing Arch Hall Jr. while clad in a loincloth in the prehistoric caveman meets virile teenage drama Eegah (1962).
Kiel turned up in two episodes of the classic horror TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974). On one occasion playing a Native American evil spirit with the ability to transform into various animals. On his second appearance, Kiel was unrecognizable as a Spanish moss covered, Louisiana swamp monster brought to life by a patient involved in deep sleep therapy.
However, his biggest break came in 1977 when he was cast as the unstoppable, steel toothed henchman "Jaws" in the finest Roger Moore film of the Bond series The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Such was Kiel's popularity with movie audiences, that his character was brought back for the next Bond outing Moonraker (1979). However, audiences were quite split on opinions when Kiel's "Jaws" character changes sides near the film's conclusion and assists 007, Roger Moore, in saving the Earth.
Over the next few years, Kiel appeared in relatively non-demanding comedy or fantasy type films taking advantage of his physical stature and presence. Kiel then decided to try his hand behind the camera and co-wrote and produced, plus took the lead role, in the well received family movie The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1990). Demand for Kiel's unique attributes dropped very sharply in the 1990's, leading to only a handful of roles including reprising his "Jaws" character in the Matthew Broderick film Inspector Gadget (1999). In 2002, Kiel penned his informative autobiography entitled "Making it BIG in the movies". He passed away in 2014.- Actor
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Born in the Bronx, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents (Isidor "Ira" and Rita Blucher Miller), Richard Miller served in the U.S. Navy for a few years and earned a prize title as a middleweight boxer. He settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, where he was noticed by producer/director Roger Corman, who cast him in most of his low-budget films, often as dislikeable sorts, such as a vacuum-cleaner salesman in Not of This Earth (1957). His most memorable role would have to be that of the mentally unstable, busboy/beatnik artist Walter Paisley, whose clay sculptures are suspiciously lifelike in A Bucket of Blood (1959) (a rare starring role for him), and he is also fondly remembered for his supporting role as the flower-eating Vurson Fouch in Corman's legendary The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
Miller spent the next 20 years working in Corman productions, and starting in the late 1970s was often cast in films by director Joe Dante, appearing in credited and uncredited walk-on bits as quirky chatterboxes, and stole every scene he appeared in. He has played many variations on his famous Walter Paisley role, such as a diner owner (Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)) or a janitor (Chopping Mall (1986)). One of his best bits is the funny occult-bookshop owner in The Howling (1981). Being short (so he never played a romantic lead or a threatening villain) with wavy hair, long sideburns, a pointed nose and a face as trustworthy as a used-car dealer's, he was, and is to this day, an immediately recognizable character actor whose one-scene appearances in countless movies and TV shows guarantee audience applause.- Actress
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The entertainment world has enjoyed a six-decade love affair with comedienne/singer Carol Burnett. A peerless sketch performer and delightful, self-effacing personality who rightfully succeeded Lucille Ball as the carrot-topped "Queen of Television Comedy," it was Burnett's traumatic childhood that set the stage for her comedy.
Carol's rags-to-riches story started out in San Antonio, Texas, on April 26, 1933, where she was born to Ina Louise (Creighton) and Joseph Thomas "Jodie" Burnett, both of whom suffered from acute alcoholism. As a child, she was left in the care of a beloved grandmother, who shuttled the two of them off to Hollywood, California, where they lived in a boarding house and shared a great passion for the Golden Age of movies. The plaintive, loose-limbed, highly sensitive Carol survived her wallflower insecurities by grabbing attention as a cut-up at Hollywood High School. A natural talent, she attended the University of California and switched majors from journalism to theater. Scouting out comedy parts on TV and in the theater, she first had them rolling in the aisles in the mid-1950s performing a lovelorn novelty song called "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" (then Secretary of State) in a nightclub act. This led to night-time variety show appearances with Jack Paar and Ed Sullivan and where the career ball really started rolling.
Carol's first big TV breaks came at age 22 and 23 as a foil to a ventriloquist's dummy on the already-established The Paul Winchell Show (1950) in 1955, and as Buddy Hackett's gawky girlfriend on the short-lived sitcom Stanley (1956). She also developed an affinity for game shows and appeared as a regular on one of TV earliest, Stump the Stars (1947) in 1958. While TV would bring Carol fans by the millions, it was Broadway that set her on the road to stardom. She began as the woebegone Princess Winnifred in the 1959 Broadway musical "Once Upon a Mattress" which earned her first Tony Award nomination. [She would later appear in three TV adaptations - Once Upon a Mattress (1964), Once Upon a Mattress (1972) and Once Upon a Mattress (2005).] This, in turn, led to the first of an armful of Emmy Awards as a repertoire player on the popular variety series The Garry Moore Show (1958) in 1959. Burnett invented a number of scene-stealing characters during this time, most notably her charwoman character. With the phenomenal household success of the Moore show, she moved up quickly from second banana to headliner and appeared in a 1962 Emmy-winning special Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962) co-starring close friend Julie Andrews. She earned the Outer Critics Circle Award for the short-lived musical "Fade Out, Fade In" (1964); and made her official film debut opposite Bewitched (1964) star Elizabeth Montgomery and Dean Martin in the lightweight comedy Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963).
Not surprisingly, fellow redhead Lucille Ball, who had been Carol's treasured idol growing up, subsequently became a friend and mentor to the rising funny girl. Hilarious as a guest star on The Lucy Show (1962), Carol appeared as a painfully shy (natch) wallflower type who suddenly blooms in jaw-dropping fashion. Ms. Ball was so convinced of Carol's talent that she offered Carol her own Desilu-produced sitcom, but Burnett had her heart set on fronting a variety show. With her own team of second bananas, including character crony Harvey Korman, handsome foil Lyle Waggoner, and lookalike "kid sister" type Vicki Lawrence, the The Carol Burnett Show (1967) became an instant sensation, and earned 22 Emmy Awards during its 11-year run. It allowed Carol to fire off her wide range of comedy and musical ammunition--whether running amok in broad sketch comedy, parodying movie icons such as Gloria Swanson, Shirley Temple, Vivien Leigh or Joan Crawford, or singing/gushing alongside favorite vocalists Jim Nabors, Steve Lawrence, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé. She managed to bring in huge stars not known at all for slapstick comedy, including Rock Hudson and even then-Governor Ronald Reagan while providing a platform for such up-and-coming talent as Bernadette Peters and The Pointer Sisters In between, Carol branched out with supporting turns in the films Pete 'n' Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974) and Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978).
Her program, whose last episode aired in March of 1978, was the last truly successful major network variety show to date. Carol took on new challenges to display her unseen dramatic mettle, and accomplished this amazingly in TV-movie showcases. She earned an Emmy nomination for her gripping portrayal of anti-Vietnam War activist Peg Mullen in Friendly Fire (1979), and convincingly played a woman coming to terms with her alcoholism in Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice (1982). Neither character bore any traces of the usual Burnett comedy shtick. Though she proved she could contain herself for films, Carol was never able to acquire crossover success into movies, despite trouper work in The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982) (as the hammy villainess Miss Hannigan), and Noises Off... (1992). The last two roles had been created onstage by Broadway's Dorothy Loudon.
Carol would return from time to time to the stage and concert forums with productions of "Plaza Suite", "I Do! I Do", "Follies", "Company" and "Putting It Together". A second Tony nomination came for her comedy work in "Moon Over Buffalo" in 1995. Carol has made frequent appearances on her own favorite TV shows too, such as Password (1961) (along with Elizabeth Montgomery, Carol was considered one of the show's best players) and the daytime soaper, All My Children (1970).
During the early 1990s, Carol attempted a TV comeback of sorts, with a couple of new variety formats in Carol & Company (1990) and The Carol Burnett Show (1991), but neither could recreate the magic of the original. She has appeared, sporadically, on various established shows such as "Magnum, P.I.," "Touched by an Angel," "Mad About You" (for which she won an Emmy), "Desperate Housewives," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Emmy nomination), "Hawaii Five-0," "Glee" and "Hot in Cleveland." Befitting such a classy clown, she has received a multitude of awards over time, including the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1985. Her personal life has been valiant--tears in between the laughs. Married three times, her second union with jazz-musician-turned-variety-show-producer Joe Hamilton produced three daughters. Eldest girl, Carrie Hamilton, an actress and former teen substance abuser, tragically died of lung and brain cancer at age 38. Shortly before Carrie's death, mother and daughter managed to write a play, together, entitled "Hollywood Arms", based on Carol's 1986 memoir, "One More Time". The show subsequently made it to Broadway.
Today, at age 80 plus, Carol has been seen less frequently but still continues to make appearances, especially on TV. Most recently she has guested on the shows "Glee," "Hot in Cleveland" and the revivals of "Hawaii Five-0" and "Mad About You." As always she signs off a live appearance with her signature ear tug (acknowledging her late grandmother), reminding us all, between the wisecracks and the songs, how glad and lucky we all are to still have some of "this time together".- Actor
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With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty years. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments (1956) , for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also starred in Touch of Evil (1958) with Orson Welles; Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor (1959); El Cid (1961); and Planet of the Apes (1968). He also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); Secret of the Incas (1954); The Big Country (1958); and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston's most famous role in politics came as the five-term president of the National Rifle Association, from 1998 to 2003.
Heston was born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1923, in No Man's Land, Illinois, to Lila (Charlton) and Russell Whitford Carter, who operated a sawmill. He had English and Scottish ancestry, with recent Canadianforebears.
Heston made his feature film debut as the lead character in a 16mm production of Peer Gynt (1941), based on the Henrik Ibsen play. In 1944, Heston enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served for two years as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the 77th Bombardment Squadron of the Eleventh Air Force. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. Heston married Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clarke, who was six months his senior. That same year he joined the military.
Heston played 'Marc Antony' in Julius Caesar (1950), and firmly stamped himself as genuine leading man material with his performance as circus manager 'Brad Braden' in the Cecil B. DeMille spectacular The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), also starring James Stewart and Cornel Wilde. The now very popular actor remained perpetually busy during the 1950s, both on TV and on the silver screen with audience pleasing performances in the steamy thriller The Naked Jungle (1954), as a treasure hunter in Secret of the Incas (1954) and another barn storming performance for Cecil B. DeMille as "Moses" in the blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956).
Heston delivered further dynamic performances in the oily film noir thriller Touch of Evil (1958), and then alongside Gregory Peck in the western The Big Country (1958) before scoring the role for which he is arguably best known, that of the wronged Jewish prince who seeks his freedom and revenge in the William Wyler directed Ben-Hur (1959). This mammoth Biblical epic running in excess of three and a half hours became the standard by which other large scale productions would be judged, and its superb cast also including Stephen Boyd as the villainous "Massala", English actor Jack Hawkins as the Roman officer "Quintus Arrius", and Australian actor Frank Thring as "Pontius Pilate", all contributed wonderful performances. Never one to rest on his laurels, steely Heston remained the preferred choice of directors to lead the cast in major historical productions and during the 1960s he starred as Spanish legend "Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar" in El Cid (1961), as a US soldier battling hostile Chinese boxers during 55 Days at Peking (1963),played the ill-fated "John the Baptist" in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the masterful painter "Michelangelo" battling Pope Julius II in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), and an English general in Khartoum (1966). In 1968, Heston filmed the unusual western Will Penny (1967) about an aging and lonely cowboy befriending a lost woman and her son, which Heston has often referred to as his favorite piece of work on screen. Interestingly, Heston was on the verge of acquiring an entirely new league of fans due to his appearance in four very topical science fiction films (all based on popular novels) painting bleak futures for mankind.
In 1968, Heston starred as time-traveling astronaut "George Taylor", in the terrific Planet of the Apes (1968) with its now legendary conclusion as Heston realizes the true horror of his destination. He returned to reprise the role, albeit primarily as a cameo, alongside fellow astronaut James Franciscus in the slightly inferior sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Next up, Heston again found himself facing the apocalypse in The Omega Man (1971) as the survivor of a germ plague that has wiped out humanity leaving only bands of psychotic lunatics roaming the cities who seek to kill the uninfected Heston. And fourthly, taking its inspiration from the Harry Harrison novel "Make Room!, Make Room!", Heston starred alongside screen legend Edward G. Robinson and Chuck Connors in Soylent Green (1973). During the remainder of the 1970s, Heston appeared in two very popular "disaster movies" contributing lead roles in the far-fetched Airport 1975 (1974), plus in the star-laden Earthquake (1974), filmed in "Sensoround" (low-bass speakers were installed in selected theaters to simulate the earthquake rumblings on screen to movie audiences). He played an evil Cardinal in the lively The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), a mythical US naval officer in the recreation of Midway (1976), also filmed in "Sensoround", an LA cop trying to stop a sniper in Two-Minute Warning (1976) and another US naval officer in the submarine thriller Gray Lady Down (1978). Heston appeared in numerous episodes of the high-rating TV series Dynasty (1981) and The Colbys (1985), before moving onto a mixed bag of projects including TV adaptations of Treasure Island (1990) and A Man for All Seasons (1988), hosting two episodes of the comedy show, Saturday Night Live (1975), starring as the "Good Actor" bringing love struck Mike Myers to tears in Wayne's World 2 (1993), and as the eye patch-wearing boss of intelligence agent Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies (1994). He also narrated numerous TV specials and lent his vocal talents to the animated movie Hercules (1997), the family comedy Cats & Dogs (2001) and an animated version of Ben Hur (2003). Heston made an uncredited appearance in the inferior remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), and his last film appearance to date was in the Holocaust-themed drama of My Father (2003).
Heston narrated for highly classified military and Department of Energy instructional films, particularly relating to nuclear weapons, and "for six years Heston [held] the nation's highest security clearance" or Q clearance. The Q clearance is similar to a DoD or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) clearance of Top Secret.
Heston was married to Lydia Marie Clark Heston since March 1944, and they have two children. His highly entertaining autobiography was released in 1995, titled appropriately enough "Into The Arena". Although often criticized for his strong conservative beliefs and involvement with the NRA, Heston was a strong advocate for civil right many years before it became fashionable, and was a recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, plus the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and did appear in a film or TV production after 2003. He died in April 2008, a memorable figure in the history of US cinema.- Actress
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Marlee Beth Matlin was born on August 24, 1965 in Morton Grove, Illinois, to Libby (Hammer) and Donald Matlin, an automobile dealer. She has two older brothers. Her family is of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent.
Marlee lost much of her hearing at the age of eighteen months. That did not stop her from acting in a children's theater company at age seven; she was Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz". Her deafness never held her back. As an adult, she said it so eloquently: "I have always resisted putting limitations on myself, both professionally and personally." Marlee studied criminal justice at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois, and maintained her passion for acting after graduating. While performing on stage through Chicago and the Midwest, Marlee attracted notice for her performance in a production of the Tony Award-winning play "Children of a Lesser God" and was cast in the movie version Children of a Lesser God (1986). Although this was her movie debut, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. While shooting her next movie Walker (1987), in Nicaragua, large-hearted Marlee took time to visit both hearing and hearing-impaired children. She continued this tradition of visiting local children through her travels to Germany, England, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Canada, etc.
Her interest in the criminal justice field played a role in her on screen career; she portrayed an assistant D.A. on the television series Reasonable Doubts (1991), while off screen she married police officer Kevin Grandalski on August 29, 1993. The couple has four children: Sarah (born 1996), Brandon (born 2000), Tyler (born 2002), and Isabelle (born 2003). In 1994, Marlee was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance as Laurie Bey on the television series Picket Fences (1992). Marlee is also a spokeswoman for the National Captioning Institute. In 1995, she testified at a congressional hearing and helped get a law passed that requires all television sets 13 inches or larger to be manufactured with built-in chips to provide closed captioning on their screens; this was a godsend for deaf viewers.
Marlee serves as the national spokeswoman for the largest provider of television closed captioning, and has spoken on behalf of CC in countries such as Australia, England, France and Italy. She also serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including Very Special Arts, the Starlight Foundation, and other charities that primarily benefit children. As someone who loves children so much, it is only fitting that she has four of her own. Professionally, Marlee has even tried producing, being the executive producer for Where the Truth Lies (1999).- Congressman and three time Presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the constitution. Dr. Paul is the author of several books, including "The Revolution: A Manifesto", "End the Fed", "Liberty Defined", "Challenge to Liberty", "The Case for Gold", and "A Republic, If You Can Keep It".
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Ted Nugent was born on 13 December 1948 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Superbad (2007), The Heat (2013) and Pain & Gain (2013). He has been married to Shemane Nugent since 21 January 1989. They have one child. He was previously married to Sandra Ann Jezowski.- Actor
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Actor Todd Bridges has seen and done it all. Todd has lived and worked amongst some of the most famous and influential individuals in the world. For over twenty-five years, he has victoriously survived a rapidly changing business. He experienced his second rise to fame, as "Juice" on The Young and the Restless (1973). Todd's career began and rocketed when he was only six years of age, forcing his family to relocate from a quiet, friendly neighborhood in San Francisco to the fast-paced stardom of Los Angeles, California in the early 70s. His mother, actress Betty A. Bridges, and father, the late James Bridges, Sr., came to Hollywood in search of the American dream. Betty went on to work quite a bit as an actress while James Sr. became one of the first prominent black Hollywood agents. Betty later became one of Hollywood's greatest managers and acting coaches, whose list of clients (soon to become stars) included her oldest child, Jimmy Bridges, her daughter Verda Bridges, Todd (of course), Nia Long (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), Love Jones (1997)), Regina King (Jerry Maguire (1996)), Lamont Bentley (Moesha (1996)), and Aaron Meeks (Soul Food (2000)).
It all began one day while watching Redd Foxx display his comic genius on Sanford and Son (1972). Todd, then six, realized his dream of becoming an actor. He exclaimed excitedly to his mother, "I want to do that", pointing to the television set. He had asked on his own to enter a business which, during that time, was very limited for black artists. Nevertheless, Todd went on to make some remarkable strides in the industry, pioneering the way for other young, black actors. His first job was a Jell-O commercial, which starred the entire Bridges family. He later accomplished over 60 national commercials. Todd was the first black child actor to become a recurring regular on the hit series, The Waltons (1972), and Little House on the Prairie (1974) with the late great Michael Landon. He went on to guest star on Barney Miller (1975), which eventually gained a spin-off show, starring Abe Vigoda. The spin-off was titled Fish (1977) and Todd became a series regular for four years. Norman Lear, who spearheaded the success of Tandem Productions, with such shows under his belt as The Jeffersons (1975), Good Times (1974), All in the Family (1971) and The Facts of Life (1979), sought to create a new type of show that would cross the racial boundaries set in Hollywood in the early years of television. He began with the new kid in town, Gary Coleman, and a TV veteran, Conrad Bain, from the hit show, Maude (1972). The wheels were spinning and Diff'rent Strokes (1978) was born. The show originated with a wealthy white businessman who adopted his housekeeper's black child after she passed away. There was only one problem. Who would the creators find to match wits with the sassy Gary Coleman? Conrad Bain then suggested the creation of an older brother character to keep up with "Arnold's" wisecracks, a strong young actor capable of bouncing the ball back in his court. No one portrayed such qualities as Todd Bridges.
Diff'rent Strokes (1978) was introduced to American audience in the fall of 1978. With the new concept of a racially-mixed cast, the producers and creators were unsure how the viewers would react. To their surprise, the show was a complete success and ran strong for eight years. Todd Bridges became an international celebrity and household name by the age of 15. During his success with "Diff'rent Strokes", Todd guest starred on such shows as The Love Boat (1977), The Facts of Life (1979), Hello, Larry (1979), Battle of the Network Stars VI (1979), Circus of the Stars #6 (1981), and many, many more. An even bigger opportunity came when he was chosen to portray the role of Chicken George's grandson in the historical television miniseries, Roots (1977), where his performance is still applauded to this day.
After "Diff'rent Strokes" ended its long run in 1986, things became difficult for Todd. All of a sudden, no one would hire him due to his being typecast as "Willis Drummond". He began to experience turbulent times, which would later lead to drug addiction and trouble with the authorities. There would be a pause in his career and his life for nearly ten years.
Todd Bridges has been clean and sober for twenty-six years. He is a working actor, director, and producer and is well on his way to the rebirth of a promising television and motion picture career. Together, Todd and his brother, James Jr., have partnered to establish their own production company, "Little Bridge Productions".
His recent film credits (as an actor) include _1210 Camille Street_ with Faizon Love (Friday (1995), The Replacements (2000)), Frat (), _Hollywood Horror (2000)_ with Tia Mowry and 'Tamara Mowry' (_"Sister Sister" (1994)_) and A Testimony. He also recently completed a feature film in Utah called The Climb (2002) for Billy Graham's production company. He directed, produced and starred in the short film about his life, Building Bridges (2000), for TBN. He also directed, along with his brother, a full-length feature film titled Black Ball (2003) (aka Full Circle), starring Lisa Sweat (wife of R&B singer Keith Sweat), Stoney Jackson, De'aundre Bonds, his wife Dori Bridges, and a host of other great names. His directorial credits also include the feature film, Flossin (2001), the life story of his pastor and childhood friend, Pastor Ernest Johnson. On a more personal note, Todd is a proud husband and father. He has been married, since 1998, to his wife, Dori Bridges, and they have one son, Spencir Bridges. Todd has traveled the nation speaking to over 6,000 kids per day in high schools, middle schools, and churches warning about the dangers of drug use, negative peer pressure, and proclaiming Christ Jesus!- Actor
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Armstrong was raised alone by his mother. Even as a child and teenager, he invested a lot of time in cycling. At the age of 13, Armstrong achieved his first victories in cycling races and other sports. In 1984 he won the youth triathlon championship. Three years later he practiced triathlon as a professional athlete. This was followed by qualification for training with the Olympic team. In 1992, Armstrong made his debut as a professional cyclist at the race in San Sebastian, Spain. Armstrong drove in the "Motorola" team from 1992 to 1996 and in the "Cofidis" team in 1997. With toughness, ambition and endurance, Lance Armstrong cycled his way to the top of the world in the 1990s. In 1996 he was considered number one on the world cycling rankings. In October 1996, Armstrong's doctors diagnosed him with testicular cancer. In addition, metastases were found in the lungs and brain. Now not only was the exceptional athlete's promising career at stake, but also his survival. It is probably thanks to Armstrong's iron will that he was able to successfully fight cancer. In order to survive and be cured, he endured the most aggressive chemotherapy.
This was successfully carried out on him. The athlete began cycling again after just five months, in May 1998. Armstrong not only emerged from this serious phase of illness healed, but also stronger. He prepared for his comeback in major professional cycling racing by taking part in smaller races. His greatest success after recovering from cancer was his first victory in the "Tour de France" on July 25, 1999. Since then, he has distinguished himself as the most successful performer and boss in the "US Postal" team. Armstrong's rounded light-footedness and his stretched position out of the saddle were characteristic of his riding style. Coming to terms with the illness was not only reflected in Armstrong's changed awareness of life and sport, but also in the founding of the "Lance Armstrong Foundation". The foundation is dedicated to supporting children with cancer. The athlete also launched the "Ride for the Roses" sponsored race. In 2000 he won bronze in the Olympic individual road time trial. In the following years, Lance Armstrong became the most successful professional cyclist of all time with another six victories in the overall ranking of the "Tour de France" in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.
In 2003 he was named World Athlete of the Year. In 2004 he won the "Tour de Georgia". In 2004 he designed the Livestrong bracelet. The bracelet was part of the "Wear Yellow and live strong" campaign, which aims to support cancer patients and cancer survivors. In collaboration with Nike, approximately $70 million was raised for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). In 2009 he came third in the Tour de France. In 2010, Lance Armstrong finished the 97th Tour de France in 23rd place overall. In May 2010 he was awarded the "Laureus World Sports Award" for the second time, after 2000. In October 2012, Lance Armstrong was retroactively stripped of all his titles since August 1, 1998 and given a lifelong ban by the UCI (World Cycling Federation). He was accused of long-term, systematic doping abuse, which he confessed to in January 2013. With his first wife, Kristin Richard, he had a son and two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce in 2004. Another daughter and another son were born from his relationship with Anna Hansen in 2009 and 2010.- Producer
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Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory in New York. Aspiring to work as a classical repertory player, he gradually shed his Brooklyn accent and became a busy stage actor in the 1930s; he next joined the original company of the Orson Welles-John Houseman Mercury Theatre. Lloyd was brought to Hollywood to play a supporting part (albeit the title role) in Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942). Hitchcock, who later used the actor in Spellbound (1945) and other films, made him an associate producer and a director on TV's long-running Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) (then in its third year). In the course of his eight years on the series, Lloyd became a co-producer (with Joan Harrison) and then executive producer. He has since directed for other series (including the prestigious Omnibus (1952)) and for the stage, produced TV's Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and Journey to the Unknown (1968), and played Dr. Auschlander in TV's acclaimed St. Elsewhere (1982).- Actor
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Mike is one of four children. His father, Joe, who died in 1956, was a carpenter at Hollywood studios. Mike attended grammar school with Natalie Wood and Ricky Nelson. He entered the Marines in the 1950s for two years. Later, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles and studied acting at the Jeff Corey Workshop. He started getting big parts in movies, which led to a regular role on Days of Our Lives (1965) and, ultimately, to M*A*S*H (1972). When M*A*S*H (1972) went off the air, he resisted series TV for many years until he was offered Providence (1999). In the meantime, he formed his own production company, which made the Robin Williams vehicle, Patch Adams (1998), based on Mike's own acquaintance with the doctor. Mike is very politically involved. He lobbied against the firing of gay teachers. He was outspoken about the US involvement in El Salvador in the 80s. He served as a member of California's Commission on Judicial Performance from February 2, 1998 to February 28, 2001.- Actress
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Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won her the title of "Miss Kansas" in 1948, leading soon to small roles in Hollywood films and television series. Fame came to the forthright, spirited Miles when she attracted the attention of two master directors, Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford. Ford cast her in the classic western The Searchers (1956) and Hitchcock, who put her under personal contract and hailed her as his "new Grace Kelly", paired her with the great Henry Fonda in The Wrong Man (1956). Hitchcock cast Miles in the potentially star-making role of Judy Barton in Vertigo (1958), but Miles withdrew from the film when she became pregnant. Hitchcock gave Miles a supporting role in another masterpiece Psycho (1960), as did Ford when he cast her opposite John Wayne and James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), She also starred in such films as Beau James (1957) opposite Bob Hope, The FBI Story (1959) opposite Stewart, Back Street (1961) opposite Susan Hayward and John Gavin and Sergeant Ryker (1968) opposite Lee Marvin, as well as showing her consistently remarkable and versatile talent on dozens of popular television movies and series including The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Outer Limits (1963), The Fugitive (1963), My Three Sons (1960), Bonanza (1959), Columbo (1971) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). In 1983, she reprised her role as "Lila Crane" in the film sequel Psycho II (1983), starring Anthony Perkins. Although, too often, the stunningly beautiful Miles' gifts were underutilized, before her retirement in 1995, hers was a most intriguing and enduring Hollywood career.- Actor
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Veteran Broadway, TV and film actor James Karen was encouraged as a young man to take up an acting career by U.S. Congressman Daniel J. Flood, who was an amateur actor himself. In 1947 Karen made his Broadway debut in "A Streetcar Named Desire", which led to appearances in over 20 Broadway productions. His television work began in 1948 with the telecast of "A Christmas Carol", directed by pioneer television producer / director Fred Coe. Since then he has acted in over 100 television shows, including a stint as as Chief Justice Michael Bancroft on First Monday (2002) for CBS. In 1965 he began his film work in the low-budget sci-fi "epic" Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster (1965) and now has an impressive resume of over 80 movies to his credit. He has also filmed a record-breaking 5,000+ television commercials, most while a spokesperson for the Pathmark Supermarket chain in the northeast US. He has been honored with the "Saturn Award" for Lifetime Achievement given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. He has also been presented "The Buster Award", by The International Buster Keaton Society. This award is given to the person who has demonstrated professional excellence in the tradition of Buster Keaton.- Angela Stevens was born on 8 May 1925 in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), Outlaw Women (1952) and Blunder Boys (1955). She was married to George F. Zika. She died on 17 March 2016 in Canyon Lake, Riverside County, California, USA.
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Scott Carpenter was born on 1 May 1925 in Boulder, Colorado, USA. He was an actor, known for Never Say Never Again (1983), The Fall Guy (1981) and Out of This World (1987). He was married to Patricia Kay Barrette, Barbara Curtin, Maria Roach and Rene Louise Price. He died on 10 October 2013 in Denver, Colorado, USA.- Actor
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George Takei was born Hosato Takei in Los Angeles, California. His mother was born in Sacramento to Japanese parents & his father was born in Japan. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he & his family were relocated from Los Angeles to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas. Later, they were moved to a camp at Tule Lake in Northern California. His first-hand knowledge of the unjust internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II, poignantly chronicled in his autobiography, created a lifelong interest in politics & community affairs.
After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1956, he studied architecture at UC Berkeley. An ad in a Japanese community paper led to a summer job on the MGM lot where he dubbed 8 characters from Japanese into English for Rodan (1956). Bitten by the acting bug, he transferred to UCLA as a theater arts major. Contacting an agent he had met at MGM led to his appearance as an embittered soldier in postwar Japan in the Playhouse 90 (1956) production. Being spotted in a UCLA theater production by a Warner Bros. casting director led to his feature film debut in Ice Palace (1960), various roles in Hawaiian Eye (1959) &other feature work. In June 1960, he completed his degree at UCLA and studied at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-Upon-Avon in England that summer.
After starting a master's degree program at UCLA, he was cast in the socially relevant stage musical production Fly Blackbird! but was replaced when the show moved to New York. He took odd jobs until returning to his role at the end of the run. Getting little work in Manhattan, he returned to Los Angeles to continue his studies, once again appearing in TV & films. He earned his master's in 1964. Wanting a multi-racial crew, Gene Roddenberry cast him in Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second Star Trek (1966) pilot. Mr. Sulu remained a regular character when the series went into production. In the hiatus after the end of shooting the first season, he worked on The Green Berets (1968), playing a South Vietnamese Special Forces officer.
After Star Trek (1966) was canceled, he did guest stints in several TV shows, voiced Sulu for the animated Star Trek series & regularly appeared at Star Trek conventions. He also produced & hosted a public affairs show Expression East/West, which aired in Los Angeles from 1971-1973. That year, he ran for the L.A. City Council. Although he lost by a small margin, Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, where he served until 1984 & contributed to plans for the subway. During this period, he co-wrote a sci-fi novel Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe. He campaigned to get more respect for his character in the Star Trek features, resulting in Sulu finally obtaining the rank of captain in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), a role reprised in the Star Trek: Voyager (1995) episode Flashback.
He has run several marathons and was in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Torch Relay. He received a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame in 1986. He also left his signature & hand print in cement at the Chinese Theater in 1991. His 1994 autobiography, To the Stars, was well-received. He remains active as a stage, TV & film actor as well as as an advocate for the interests of Japanese Americans.- Candace Hilligoss was involved in acting from the early days of elementary school plays. After three years at the University of Iowa, she came to New York to study acting at the American Theatre Wing, and made her professional debut doing summer stock in Pennsylvania. She acted at the Cape Cod Playhouse, toured with Nina Foch in "Idiot's Delight", turned up in New York TV shows and, as one of the world-famous Copa Girls, danced at the Copacabana night spot. In 1961, she was spirited off to Lawrence, Kansas, to star in Carnival of Souls (1962), the spooky cult classic; she later reinforced her horror rep playing the ingenue in the Connecticut-made The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964).
- As a youngster his cute round face and red hair made him popular in his neighbourhood. A Paramount film executive suggested he could have a film career so his family moved to Hollywood where in 1929 he became the youngest actor ever put under contract, at the age of 4, to Paramount. Soon after he was given the stage name of Jerry Tucker and immediately became famous at the studio for his ability to recite his lines from memory. He appeared in Our Gang films until 1937 when his final appearance was in Glove Taps. In 1934 he was one of the Our Gang kids to appear with Laurel and Hardy in 'Babes in Toyland'. Outside of the Gang films he worked with Buster Keaton in 'Sidewalks of New York', Clark Gable in 'San Francisco' and Shirley Temple in 'Captain January'. In 1939 he and his mother moved to New York where he auditioned for a number of radio programmes. In 1942 he joined the navy and was wounded when a Japanese kamikaze plane hit the destroyer U.S.S, Sigsbee which he was on. In 1944 he married Myra Heino and had two daughters, Karen Beth and Renee Eve. After the war he studied electrical engineering at college and was employed as an engineer for RCA Global Communications retiring in 1981 and living on Long Island, New York.
- Dark-haired, Ivy League-looking Bradford Dillman, whose white-collar career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charm and confident good looks that were slightly tainted by a bent smile, darting glance and edgy countenance that often provoked suspicion. Sure enough, the camera picked up on it and he played shady, highly suspect characters throughout most of his career.
The actor was born in San Francisco on April 14, 1930, to Dean and Josephine Dillman. Yale-educated, he graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. Following this he served with the US Marines in Korea (1951-1953) before focusing on acting as a profession. Studying at the Actors Studio, he spent several seasons apprenticing with the Sharon (CT) Playhouse before making his professional acting debut in "The Scarecrow" in 1953.
Dillman took his initial Broadway bow in Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in 1956, originating the author's alter ego character Edmund Tyrone and winning a Theatre World Award in the process. This success put him squarely on the map and 20th Century-Fox took immediate advantage by placing the darkly handsome up-and-comer under contract. Cast in the melodrama A Certain Smile (1958), he earned a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Newcomer" playing a Parisian student who loses his girl (Christine Carère) to the worldly Italian roué Rossano Brazzi. He followed this with a strong ensemble appearance in In Love and War (1958), which featured a cast of young rising stars including Hope Lange and Robert Wagner. More acting honors followed after completing the film Compulsion (1959), which told the true story of the infamous 1920s kidnapping/murder case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. He went on to share a "Best Actor" award at the Cannes Film Festival with fellow co-stars Dean Stockwell, who played the other youthful murderer, and veteran Orson Welles.
Though he was a magnetic player poised for stardom, Dillman's subsequent films failed to serve him well and were generally unworthy of his talent. Though properly serious and stoic as the title character in Francis of Assisi (1961), the film itself was stilted and weakly scripted. Circle of Deception (1960) was a misguided tale of espionage and intrigue, but it did introduce him to his second wife, supermodel-cum-actress Suzy Parker. While A Rage to Live (1965) with Suzanne Pleshette was trashy soap material, The Plainsman (1966) was rather a silly, juvenile version of the Gary Cooper western classic. As a result of these missteps--and others--he began to top-line lesser quality projects or play supporting roles in "A" pictures. His nothing role as Robert Redford's college pal-turned Hollywood producer in The Way We Were (1973) and his major roles in the ludicrous The Swarm (1978) and Lords of the Deep (1989) became proof in the pudding. His last good film role was in O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1973), although he did play an interesting John Wilkes Booth in the speculative re-enactment drama The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) and had a fun leading role in the Jaws (1975)-like spoof Piranha (1978).
Dillman bore up very well on TV over the years, subsisting on a plethora of mini-movies and guest spots on popular series, playing everything from turncoats to frauds and from adulterers to psychotics. He earned a Daytime Emmy for his appearance in Last Bride of Salem (1974) and starred in two series--Court Martial (1965), as a military lawyer, and King's Crossing (1982), as an alcoholic parent and teacher attempting to straighten out. He also spent a season on the established nighttime soap Falcon Crest (1981) in 1982.
A narrator, director and teacher of acting in later years. Bradford launched a late-in-the career sideline as an author. The football fan inside him compelled him to write "Inside the New York Giants" (1995), a book that rated players drafted by the team since 1967. Two years later he published his memoirs, the curiously-titled "Are You Somebody?: An Actor's Life." He retired from the screen after a few guest star shots on "Murder, She Wrote" in the mid-90s.
From 1956 to 1962, Dillman was married to Frieda Harding, and had two children, Jeffrey and Pamela. Following their divorce, he met well-known model-turned-actress Suzy Parker during the production of Circle of Deception (1960) and the couple married on April 20, 1963. They had three children, Dinah, Charles, and Christopher. Daughter Pamela Dillman has worked as an actress. Dillman was made a widower when Parker died on May 3, 2003. He lived for many years in Montecito, California, and helped raise money for medical research. He died in Santa Barbara, California on January 16, 2018, aged 87, from complications of pneumonia. - Actress
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Pauline Wagner was born on 18 August 1910 in Shattuck, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for Up Pops the Duke (1931). She was married to Mike Lally and Alfred J. McCourtney. She died on 2 May 2014 in Montrose, California, USA.- Actor
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Born George Shephard Houghton on June 4, 1914, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Shep is the youngest of two sons born to George Henry Houghton and Mabell Viola Shephard. Far from being born into show business, his father was an insurance company representative who moved his family to Hollywood for business reasons in 1927. As luck would have it, they rented a house on Bronson Avenue just two blocks from Paramount Studio's iron front gate, and not far from the Edwin Carreau studio. Picked off the street by an assistant producer, Shep's first work in the movie industry was in 1927 as a Mexican youngster in Carreau's production of Ramona, released in 1928. As a thirteen-year old he also worked in Emil Janning's The Last Command, and continued to work for director Josef von Sternberg in several subsequent pictures. He found movie work to his liking, and out of high school he worked through Central Casting for Mascot Productions, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Fox Film Corporation, and Warner Brother's, where he became a favorite in the Busby Berkeley musicals as a dancer and chorus singer. In 1935 he married Jane Rosily Kellog, his high school sweetheart. Together they had one child, Terrie Lynn, born on September 22, 1939. They were divorced in October, 1945. In 1946 he married Geraldine Farnum, daughter of featured actor Franklin Farnum. They had also one child, Peter William, born August 19, 1947. He and Gerry were divorced in 1948.
Shep was a talent in television from its earliest days. He acted in many recurring roles, beginning with the Jack Benny Program in 1950. That show, and Shep's work in it, lasted until 1965. He worked on many programs through their entire runs, with the notable exception of the original Star Trek of 1966, in which he appeared in only the first three episodes. In addition to these productions, he worked on the I Love Lucy show from 1951 to 1957, and Wagon Train, Perry Mason, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Mr. Lucky, The Untouchables, and The Twilight Zone, all in the 1950s.
The 1960s brought him steady work in My Three Sons, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Loretta Young Show, both The Lucille Ball Show and the renewed Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Hogan's Heroes, Mannix, and Marcus Welby. In the 1970s he worked on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Shep was a charter member of both SAG and SEG, and continued to work in both movies and television until his retirement in 1976. He and Mel Carter Houghton were married in 1975, and continue to live happily ever after. She lets him play golf very nearly every day.- Director
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Richard L. Bare was born on 12 August 1913 in Turlock, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Islanders (1960), 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew (1969). He was married to Gloria Jean Bailey, Jeanne Evans, Julie Van Zandt, Phyllis Coates, Virginia May Carpenter and Barbara Joyce. He died on 28 March 2015 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Writer
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Anne Rice began life in New Orleans as Howard Allen O'Brien, named after her father, as the second of four daughters of Howard and Katherine Allen O'Brien. She decided to call herself "Anne" when she enrolled in first grade at the Redemptorist Catholic School. Her mother (who had long suffered from alcoholism) died when Anne was nearly fifteen. Her father remarried and soon relocated the family to Richardson (suburb of Dallas), Texas. She graduated in 1959 and entered Texas Woman's University where she completed two years of school in one. In 1960, Anne moved to San Francisco, where she took a furnished apartment in the Haight-Ashbury district. In 1961, Anne married Stan Rice (whom she had met in High School and who had proposed by telegram from Texas) and, in 1962, they were both living in Haight-Ashbury. They graduated from San Francisco State in 1964, she in political science, he in creative writing. Their daughter, Michele, was born on September 21, 1966. In 1969, they moved to Berkeley. There, she wrote a short story, "Interview With the Vampire". In 1970, Michele was diagnosed with leukemia. In 1972, Anne received her M.A. in creative writing; Michele died August 5. The next year, Anne turned "Interview" into a novel, and, over a year later, Knopf offered her a $12,000 advance for it. Christopher Rice was born on March 11, 1978. In 1980, they moved to San Francisco's Castro District. "The Vampire Lestat" brought a $100,000 advance from Knopf. In 1988, they moved to New Orleans and bought a mansion in the Garden District. Stan (who had chaired the creative writing program at S.F. State) turned to painting. "The Witching Hour" brought a $5 million advance. In 1994, "Interview" was very successfully released as a movie (amid much controversy -- some over content, mostly over casting) and Anne entered into a $17 million contract for three more Vampire Chronicles.- Duane 'Dog' Chapman was born on 2 February 1953 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens (2016), Hawaii Five-0 (2010) and Dog the Bounty Hunter (2003). He has been married to Francie Frane since 2 September 2021. He was previously married to Beth Chapman, Tawny Marie Gillespie, Lyssa Rae Worthington, Anne M. Tegnell and LaFonda Sue Honeycutt.
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Margaret Truman was born on 17 February 1924 in Independence, Missouri, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Margaret Truman's Capital Crimes, Matinee Theatre (1955) and Modern Romances (1954). She was married to Clifton Daniel. She died on 29 January 2008 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Actor
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Magic Johnson was born on 14 August 1959 in Lansing, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Obsessed (2009), Dead Tone (2007) and Hair Show (2004). He has been married to Cookie Johnson since 14 September 1991. They have two children.- Allen Danziger was born in the Bronx, New York. He graduated from City College of New York with a Bachelor of Science in Social Psychology and Social Work in 1964, and in 1970, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Masters Degree in Social Psychology and Masters Degree in Social Work. In 1969, he made his movie debut in Eggshells.[1] Five years later, he played Jerry in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, his second and final role.
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Susan Backlinie was born on 1 September 1946 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Jaws (1975), 1941 (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981). She was married to Harvey Swindall, William Henry Backlinie, William Seale and Monty Cox. She died on 11 May 2024 in Ventura, California, USA.- Set Decorator
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William Vail was born on 30 November 1950 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He is a set decorator and actor, known for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Poltergeist (1982) and Nothing Sacred (1997).- A native of Flint, Michigan, Nancy Kovack was a student at the University of Michigan at 15, a radio deejay at 16, a college graduate at 19 and the holder of eight beauty titles by 20. Her professional acting career began on television in New York, first as one of Jackie Gleason's "Glea Girls" and then, more prominently, on The Dave Garroway Show (1953), Today (1952) and Beat the Clock (1950). A stage role opened Hollywood doors for Kovack, who signed with Columbia. She later racked up an impressive list of episodic television credits, and was Emmy-nominated for a 1969 guest shot on Mannix (1967). The wife of world-renowned maestro Zubin Mehta of New York Philharmonic fame, Kovack publicly alleges that she was recently bamboozled (to the tune of $150,000) by Susan McDougal, a central figure in the Whitewater scandal.
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Ed McMahon's first appearance before a microphone was as a 15-year-old "caller" at a bingo game in Maine. After that, he spent the next three years touring the state fair and carnival circuit. A Marine fighter pilot during World War II, McMahon sold vegetable slicers on Atlantic City's boardwalk to put himself through Catholic University in Washington, DC. In the 1950s, he hosted a late-night interview show in Philadelphia before working as a clown on the show Big Top (1950). His next assignment was as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. After that, he resumed his career in television. In 1959, he was hired as Johnny Carson's straight man on the daytime quiz show Who Do You Trust? (1956). When Carson succeeded Jack Paar on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957), which became The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), he took McMahon with him. This job lasted for 30 years and made McMahon wealthy and famous. On the big screen, he played straight roles in the dramatic The Incident (1967) -- for which he got very good reviews -- and in the comic Fun with Dick and Jane (1977). He also appeared in made-for-TV movies and hosted daytime game shows in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, McMahon teamed with Dick Clark on Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes (1984) and hosted his own long-running talent show, Star Search (1983). He also made commercial appearances for a multitude of products. In 1994, he was cast as himself in Love Affair (1994) with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.- Actor
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Ben Jones was born on 30 August 1941 in Tarboro, North Carolina, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Primary Colors (1998) and CBS Summer Playhouse (1987). He has been married to Alma Viator since 10 October 1992. They have two children.- Additional Crew
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After graduating from college, Vince Flynn went to work for Kraft General Foods, where he was an account and sales marketing specialist. Although he enjoyed his job, something was missing. Flynn wanted a challenge, and in 1990 he left Kraft to accept an aviation candidate slot with the United States Marine Corps. One week before leaving for Officers Candidate School, he was medically disqualified from the Marine Aviation Program. The news was not well received, and Flynn struggled for almost two years to obtain a medical waiver. Finally, in the face of severe military cutbacks, Flynn gave up on the Marine Corps and went back to the nine-to-five routine he left several years earlier.
During this two-year struggle with the Marine Corps that Flynn discovered his true passion. Growing up a dyslexic child in a large family, he had long been terrified of the written word. Determined to overcome his problem, Flynn forced himself into a daily writing and reading regimen. Flynn soon had an idea for a book, which would become his first best-seller, "Term Limits". Pocket Books seized the opportunity to work with this truly talented storyteller. Pocket Books published "Term Limits" in hardcover 1998. Reviewers instantly hailed Flynn's non-stop action and storytelling as outpacing genre leaders David Baldacci and Tom Clancy. Readers agreed, and when the mass market paperback of "Term Limits" was released in 1999, it spent several weeks on the New York Times' Bestseller List. Pocket Books followed this initial success with Flynn's 1999 hardcover, "Transfer of Power", which also garnered wonderful reviews, and when it was released a few months later in mass market paperback, it too spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. In the fall of 2000, "The Third Option" was published and instantly landed on The New York Times bestseller list as well, solidifying Flynn's reputation as a master of the political thriller.
In 2001, Flynn saw his fourth novel published, "Separation of Power", which also landed on the bestsellers lists, reaching as high as #7 on the New York Times list. His fifth novel, Executive Power, was also a New York Times bestseller. "Memorial Day", published by Atria Books in May 2004, was his sixth novel and was put under security review by the Department of Energy due to classified material, which dealt with nuclear security and was mentioned in internal memos by the FBI and Secret Service. "Consent To Kill", reached #3 on the New York Times list, an all time-high for Flynn. He spent some time in Hollywood consulting on scripts and plot lines for 24 (2001).
Recalling that making the career change was very scary, he remembered deciding between following the path that was the most uncomfortable -- continuing with what looked to be a promising career as a commercial real estate leasing agent -- or taking a big risk and start a new career as a writer.- Writer
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Larry Cohen was born July 15, 1936, in New York, New York, and spent time in Kingston, a small town north of New York City. At a young age, his family moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and he eventually majored in film at the historic City College of New York, from which he graduated in 1963. An independent maverick who got his start in studio-based television, he is best known for inventive low-budget horror films that combine scathing social commentary with the requisite scares and occasional laughs. He was also a major player in the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Later in his career, he became a sought-after screenplay writer. Although not very prolific in his screen writing, these works still combine provocative social commentary--but with more conventional storytelling. Sadly, Cohen died of cancer on March 23, 2019.- Than Wyenn was an actor born on May 2, 1919 in New York City, New York, USA. He had a long career and was especially known for Being There (1979), Splash (1984), and Imitation of Life (1959). He died on January 29, 2015 in Woodland Hills, Los Angles, CA, USA at the age of 95.
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Joan Van Ark, just out of high school, was the second youngest student to attend the Yale School of Drama on a scholarship. The youngest was Julie Harris. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Years later, they would co-star on the CBS Television series, Knots Landing (1979). Van Ark began her professional career at the Minneapolis Guthrie Theater in Moliere's "The Miser", opposite Hume Cronyn and Zoe Caldwell. That was followed by "Death of a Salesman" at the Guthrie with both Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. After a season at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Joan was cast in the national touring company of "Barefoot in the Park", directed by Mike Nichols. She recreated the role in the critically acclaimed London Company and later on Broadway. She earned a Tony nomination for her performance in "The School for Wives" and she won the Theater World Award for "The Rules of the Game".
Van Ark also appeared off-Broadway opposite John Rubinstein in "Love Letters". More recently, she co-starred in the New York production of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize winning play "Three Tall Women". Her Los Angeles theater credits include "Cyrano de Bergerac", playing "Roxanne" opposite Richard Chamberlain's "Cyrano", "Ring Around the Moon" with Michael York and Glynis Johns, "Chemin de Fer", "Heartbreak House" and "As You Like It", for which she won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award. She also appeared as "Lady Macbeth" in the Grove Shakespeare Festival's production of "Macbeth". Van Ark has also starred in the Williamstown Theater Festival productions of "Night of the Iguana", "The Legend of Oedipus" and the festival's 40th anniversary production of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music".
She is perhaps best known for her role as "Valene Ewing" beginning on Dallas (1978) and then on the spin-off series, Knots Landing (1979). During the 13 seasons as "Val", she earned six nominations and two Soap Opera Digest Awards for Best Actress. Joan also starred in the TV comedies, The New Temperatures Rising Show (1972) and We've Got Each Other (1977). In May 1997, she reprieved her role of "Valene" in the CBS mini-series, Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac (1997). Most recently, she guest-starred in an episode of The Nanny (1993), which was specially written for her. Van Ark's television movie credits include When the Dark Man Calls (1995), Moment of Truth: Cult Rescue (1994), With Harmful Intent (1993) (actor/producer), Boys Will Be Boys (1999) (actor/director), Terror on Track 9 (1992), Tainted Blood (1993), Menu for Murder (1990), Always Remember I Love You (1990), My First Love (1988) and Shakedown on the Sunset Strip (1988).
She was also one of the voices for CBS-TV's Saturday morning cartoon series Santo Bugito (1995) and she provided the voice of Spider-Woman (1979), another Saturday morning series. In 1997, Joan directed a short documentary on homelessness and domestic violence for the Directors Guild of America, which was nominated for an Emmy.
She appeared in the feature film, Held for Ransom (2000), with Dennis Hopper and Debi Mazar. Joan is currently featured in the film, UP, Michigan! (2001), which was entered in the New York Independent Film Festival. According to Film Festival representatives, the screening of UP, Michigan! (2001) elicited more favorable audience response than any other film throughout the one-week event. Joan also starred as the "Vice President of the United States" in the FOX Family telefilm, Loyal Opposition (1998). Last summer, she played "Camille" in Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" at the Folger Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. She appeared in Twice in a Lifetime (1999), filmed in Toronto. She recently completed filming in Los Angeles of Son of the Beach (2000). Joan's career was featured on the biographical program, Joan Van Ark (2002), on the Lifetime Channel for Women. She also played two cameo roles in the independent feature films, Net Games (2003) and the soon-to-be-released Diamond Zero (2005) with Tippi Hedren. Joan was featured in "The Vagina Monologues" at the Canon Theater in Beverly Hills. She also opened the national tour of "The Vagina Monologues" in Denver's Center for the Performing Arts.
In May, 2003, she was a celebrity guest actor in the Los Angeles production of "Blackout" at the McCadden Theater in Hollywood. She also appeared in the off-Broadway production of "The Exonerated" at the Bleeker Street Theater in New York. Last spring, Joan appeared in "Five by Tenn" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with Kathleen Chalfant, Patricia Clarkson and Sally Field. It was a world premiere of newly-found Tennessee Williams one-act plays. In addition, she played a regular role for much of last year on CBS Television's The Young and the Restless (1973).
Joan will soon appear in the world premier of Mark O'Donnell's new adaptation of "Private Fittings" by Georges Feydeau at the La Jolla Playhouse near San Diego. The production, opening February 22nd, will be directed by Des McAnuff, winner of two Tony Awards. Joan is still married to her high school sweetheart, John Marshall, a former award-winning TV newsman, who now heads an on-line news service, eNewswires.com. Their daughter, Vanessa Marshall, is also an accomplished actress, director and comedian.- Writer
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Member of The Committee, an early improvisational comedy theater group in San Francisco, founded in the mid-1960s, which shared cast members including Gary Goodrow, Larry Hankin, Morgan Upton, Peter Bonerz, Del Close and John Brent, with similar groups such as the Compass Players (St. Louis) and the Second City (Chicago and New York).- Actor
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Allan Trautman was born in Brooklyn, NY and moved to Miami Beach with his family at the beginning of 9th grade. He began acting in Miami Beach Senior High under the direction of famed drama teacher Jay Jensen. He spent four years in St. Louis at Washington University, earning a BA in Physics and Drama. He then earned an MFA in Acting from the California Institute of the Arts, where he met his wife, Diane. While in St. Louis, he began his puppetry career working on The Letter People at public TV station KETC. He performed in all 60 15-minute episodes, each one shot on a Friday (he skipped classes).
Two years after graduating from CalArts, while working full-time at Leo's Stereo in the San Fernando Valley, a friend told him about an audition notice for a "puppet school" sponsored by Sid and Marty Krofft. Allan spent the summer of 1980 at what were a series of workshops under the direction of Tony Urbano. There he met other young puppeteers who all became lifelong friends-Bruce Lanoil, Kevin Carlson, Tim Blaney, and others.
Much of the 1980s were spent working on projects for the Kroffts and for Dave Pavelonis and his Peppercorn Productions, as well as pursuing his acting career. During this time he was sent on an audition for Return of the Living Dead, and was cast as the Tarman, who went on to become an iconic zombie film character-among the first to ask specifically for "Brains!"
In 1990, as part of the then-pending purchase of The Muppets by the Walt Disney Company, Jim Henson came to Los Angeles to direct Muppetvision 3-D, an attraction for Disney's theme parks. Again, a friend was able to get Allan into the audition, and this was the beginning of Allan's career with The Jim Henson Company and the Muppets.
In 1991 Allan joined the cast of the ABC-TV series Dinosaurs as the animatronic puppeteer for Fran Sinclair. That show remained in production for 65 episodes, until the end of 1993, introducing Allan to sophisticated animatronics. This experience continued with movies like Babe, Men in Black, Doctor Dolittle, Jack Frost, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Monkeybone, Cats and Dogs, Men in Black II, and The Country Bears.
After Dinosaurs, two producers on that show requested his presence on their next show, Unhappily Ever After, a sitcom on the brand-new WB Network. Allan puppeteered Mr. Floppy, the lead character's wise-cracking (imaginary) talking bunny, voiced in front of a live audience by Bobcat Goldthwaite.
In the meantime, Allan's work with The Muppets included videos such as It's Not Easy Being Green and Muppet Classic Theatre, the movie Muppets from Space, and, for TV, Muppets Tonight, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. In the summer of 2005, Allan became a founding member of Puppet Up!-Uncensored, Henson Alternative's puppet/improv show. He performed in the show off-Broadway, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, on tour throughout the U.S., and on the historic Chaplin Stage on The Jim Henson Company lot. He also acted as puppetry technique instructor. He was one of three on-set puppeteers during production of The Jungle Book (2016), and was a core puppeteer on The Happytime Murders. Allan continues to work in physical as well as digital puppetry, in shows such as Splash and Bubbles for PBS Kids, and has moved into directing for that show and others.- Actress
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Silent moppet star Jackie Coogan, immortalized as Charles Chaplin's The Kid (1921), had only one screen rival during the early 1920s, and that was none other than Baby Peggy. She was "discovered" while visiting the Century Studios lot on Sunset Boulevard with her mother when she was a mere 19 months old and went on to appear in nearly 150 shorts (between 1920 and 1923) and nine feature films during her silent heyday. Often considered a precursor to Shirley Temple, Baby Peggy's most popular film vehicle was the child classic Captain January (1924), which would be made a decade later as a vehicle for Temple.
She was born Peggy-Jean Montgomery in 1918 in San Diego, California, of acting stock. She was the daughter of Marian (Baxter), from Wisconsin, and Jack Montgomery, a Nebraska-born cowboy for years all over the western states. He ended up in the movies as a stuntman and extra, driving stagecoaches and buckboards. He supported himself as Tom Mix's double, but never achieved the rugged stardom he yearned for. In fact, his daughter was the one who became the celebrity and chief breadwinner for the family.
Many of Baby Peggy's popular comedies were parodies of movies that grown-up stars had made, and she delightfully imitated such legends as Rudolph Valentino, Pola Negri, Mary Pickford and Mae Murray. Her first feature-length film was Penrod (1922); her first film with Universal, The Darling of New York (1923), shot when she was 3-1/2 years old, was a solid hit. A few more, including Helen's Babies (1924), were also certifiable winners. However, by the age of 8, she was finished.
Her fortune reportedly was depleted by her father Jack's stepfather, a banker to whom she had entrusted all her money. Within a short time, she was forced to turn to the vaudeville circuit for survival. A comeback in early talkies with the new moniker Peggy Montgomery was very short-lived. Her credits, as a result, are often mixed up with another actress named Peggy Montgomery, who was a western ingénue for many years.
The former child star lived in dire straits and suffered from nervous breakdowns and near poverty for many years until she found a new and unexpectedly successful career as a book publisher and writer, using the pseudonym "Diana Serra Cary". As the author of "Hollywood Posse" (1975) and (later) "Hollywood's Children", she wrote about her youthful career, post-stardom years, child stars in general, and Hollywood history in all its fascinating glory. Her own autobiography, "Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy?", was released in 1996.
In 2016, Diana was inducted into the Classic Film Hall of Fame at the Rheem Theater in Moraga, CA. Diana was present, at age 98, to receive the honor and answer questions. She is considered to have been the last living star of the silent film era. Per Robert Garfinkle, a board member of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, CA, Diana now has the longest acting career of all time, from 1920 to 2015. Her last film was a silent film she made at the above-referenced museum. The film was actually made using one of their antique hand-cranked cameras!
Baby Peggy died on February 24, 2020 in Gustine, California. She was 101.- Actress
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Kathryn Trosper was born on 18 March 1915 in Lander, Wyoming, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Martin Popper. She died on 6 March 2016 in Manhattan, New York, USA.- Actor
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Lew Temple was born October 2, 1967 and is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as Axel on "The Walking Dead," the character of Ned Oldham in the action adventure thriller, "Unstoppable" which also starred Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson; directed by Tony Scott, and Cal the diner manager in the comedy-drama "Waitress."
Born and raised in the Bayou Country of Louisiana, Temple is an extraordinarily diverse actor who often is compared to a chameleon: he has the unique ability to take any character and make it his own.
Other film credits include the ranger, Hollis in the summer, 2013 Disney blockbuster "The Lone Ranger," alongside Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer; Locus Fender in the action film "Domino," starring Kiera Knightley and Mickey Rourke, directed by Tony Scott and Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects" with Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, William Forsythe, and Sherri Moon Zombie
Temple began his acting career on the stage of the prestigious Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, working alongside artists such as Vanessa Redgrave in "Julius Caesar" and "Anthony & Cleopatra", as well as acclaimed writer/directors Michael Wilson, Terrance McNally and Edward Albee. He next landed numerous television roles, as well as roles in independent and mainstream studio films, such as "On the Borderline," "The Newton Boys," and "Angels in the Outfield."
Prior to acting, Temple had a Minor League Baseball career with the Seattle Mariners" and "Houston Astros." He worked his way through the Astros system to become Assistant Director of Minor Leagues and Scouting.- Composer
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Film composer Harry Manfredini specializes in writing for horror films, but is also a song writer and jazz soloist. From his haunting dramatic scores for The Friday the 13th films, to his adventurous music for The Omega Code, Harry Manfredini has established himself as a motion picture music composer of the same style as Bernard Herrmann.
Manfredini's works in the film industry began when he joined Sean S. Cunningham for his low budget film Manny's Orphans (1978) in 1978, but it was his haunting score for Paramount's 1980 major motion picture Friday the 13th (1980) that really gave the film its ideal and realistic and suspenseful score. Friday the 13th was also directed by Sean Cunningham, and Manfredini continued creating the scores for all the Friday the 13th sequels except for Part 8 which was taken over by Fred Mollin.
Manfredini's scores for House (1985), DeepStar Six (1989) and Cameron's Closet (1988) also confirmed his appeal as a popular horror film composer, but he also composed for adventure, comedy and family films including Spring Break (1983), Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992) and Follow Your Heart (1999). In recent years, he composed the scores for major motion pictures, including Wes Craven's Wishmaster (1997), The Omega Code (1999) and recently Jason X (2001) for New Line Cinema.- Producer
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In every role she has ever held -- as an advocate for women and kids, as an attorney, as First Lady, as Senator, as Secretary of State, and as the first woman in U.S. history to earn a major party's presidential nomination - Hillary Clinton has defied convention and stood up for what she believes.
She knows more than most about setbacks - and comebacks. She has a fierce sense of gratitude for the women who have come before her, and those who inspire her today. She is a mom and a proud grandma who is determined to make the world fairer and more equal for everyone.- Actor
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David L. Lander was born on 22 June 1947 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Laverne & Shirley (1976), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Used Cars (1980). He was married to Kathy Fields and Thea (Pool) Markus. He died on 4 December 2020 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
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Political commentator Bill O'Reilly was born on September 10, 1949 in New York City, to Winifred Angela (Drake) and William James O'Reilly. He was born into a classic Irish Catholic family and attended private Catholic schools.
O'Reilly attended Marist College and studied history. Bill was also in the football club as a punter and wrote for the school newspaper. O'Reilly studied abroad at the University of London, and after coming home played semi professional baseball before graduating with a bachelors in history in 1971.
O'Reilly studied broadcast journalism at Boston University after some time as a teacher in Florida. O'Reilly interned with different newspapers and stations while earning his masters. In the mid 90's O'Reilly earned a degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. O'Reilly's early career included anchor jobs in Scranton, Denver, Portland, Hartford, and Boston. In this time he won a local Emmy and was praised for excellence in investigative reporting.
O'Reilly worked as a WEBS anchor and won a second local Emmy before earning the spot of correspondent for CBS network news. He later worked as a correspondent and assignment reporter for ABC.
O'Reilly became a news star when he was an anchor on "Inside Addition" where he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the murder of Joel Steinberg. After leaving the team, he earned his 3rd degree from the Kennedy School of government in 1995.
In 1996, O'Reilly launched "The O'Reilly Factor" the show he has anchored for 17 years. Since then he has used his show to report top political stories and it has become the #1 Cable News Show on TV.
In addition to reporting the news, O'Reilly often dissects it. He has made accusations against organizations and figures for corruption, and has broken barriers in news. He often goes head to head with organizations, politicians, and celebrities in the social media. He has called out judges for court rulings he found to be poor and he has even accused people of being unAmerican.
One of his most famous rivals is the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). In 1997, 10 year-old Jeffery Curley was kidnapped and murdered by two men. His body was molested and dumped off. The two men claimed they had gotten the inspiration from literature they had read in a library from the NAMBLA, a radical organization that condones male on boy rape and sexual contact. The ACLU then defended the NAMBLA and the men responsible. Outraged, O'Reilly used his media power to shed light on the issue.
However, his most famous head to head encounter was with organizations that raised money for 9/11 victims. Some faulty finances and numbers lead people to believe these organizations stole this money. O'Reilly publicly accused this organization and came head to head,with actor George Clooney, who claimed that O'Reilly was mistaken. Others that are often implicated as O'Reilly "rivals" are Michael Moore, George Soros, Alec Baldwin, and Susan Sarandon. He is also playfully rivaled on late night television with comics Jon Stewart, David Letterman, and Jay Leno.
O'Reilly has some core political beliefs that lean to the right, although he is a registered Independent. O'Reilly has written books and spoken about cultural traditions such as marriage, abortion, and patriotism. He has come to conflicts with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and George Soros on issues like these.
O'Reilly has also published books about history and politics. He lives in New York and is the father of two children. His wife Maureen and he divorced in 2011.- Producer
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Newt Gingrich is an American politician, author, and historian who served as the 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich was a candidate for the presidential nomination of his party.
A professor of history and geography at the University of West Georgia in the 1970s, Gingrich won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1978, the first Republican in the history of Georgia's 6th congressional district to do so. He served as House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995. A co-author and architect of the "Contract with America", Gingrich was a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional election. In 1995, Time named him "Man of the Year" for "his role in ending the four-decades-long Democratic majority in the House".
As House Speaker, Newt Gingrich oversaw passage by the House of welfare reform and a capital gains tax cut in 1997. Gingrich played a key role in several government shutdowns. He resigned altogether from the House on January 3, 1999.
Since leaving the House, Newt Gingrich has remained active in public policy debates and worked as a political consultant. He founded and chaired several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. He ran for the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential election, but ultimately endorsed front runner Mitt Romney, who won the nomination.- Actress
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Crystal Bernard was born on 30 September 1961 in Garland, Texas, USA. She is an actress, known for Wings (1990), Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) and It's a Living (1980).- Peggy Webber started her career at age two and a half, performing during intermissions in silent movie theaters. She started working in radio at age 11; by 18, she was writing, producing and directing early television shows; at 21, she won the award that was later known as the Emmy for her drama anthology series Treasures of Literature. Among her many thousands of radio credits, workhorse Webber appeared in over 100 Dragnet programs, playing Ma Friday and many other characters.
- Singer, dancer, and pianist Lennie Bluett was a native of Los Angeles; his mother worked as a cook for Humphrey Bogart while his father was a chauffeur for Buster Keaton. Lennie graduated from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, and tried to find work in the motion picture industry, getting work as an extra in 1938's "Gone With the Wind," and not much else. A gifted and versatile piano player, he auditioned for the role of "Sam" in the movie "Casablanca," but was turned down due to his youth (he was in his twenties). He performed in all-Black movies, and played piano on cruise ships and in clubs, and stays as active as he can, well into his nineties.
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Philip Rose was born on 4 July 1921 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for A Raisin in the Sun (1961), By the Sword (1991) and Gone Are the Days! (1963). He was married to Doris Belack. He died on 31 May 2011 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Joseph Turkel was an American character actor. He is known for his roles in Stanley Kubrick's films The Killing, Paths of Glory, and The Shining, and as Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner. He also had roles in three of Bert I. Gordon's films. Joseph Turkel was born in Brooklyn on July 15, 1927, to Benjamin Turkel, who was a tailor, and Gazella (née Goldfisher), a homemaker and occasional opera singer. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants. He had two brothers, Harold and David. Turkel joined the United States Army when he was seventeen and served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.
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John McCain was born on 29 August 1936 in Canal Zone, Panama. He was an actor and writer, known for Parks and Recreation (2009), John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls (2018) and Saturday Night Live (1975). He was married to Cindy McCain and Carol Shepp. He died on 25 August 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.- Producer
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Sarah Palin is an American politician and television personality. She was born on February 11, 1964 in Sandpoint, Idaho, as Sarah Louise Heath, the daughter of Chuck Heath and Sally Heath. She grew up in Alaska and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho.
Sarah Palin worked as a television sportscaster in Anchorage, Alaska, before entering politics in 1992 as a city council member in Wasilla, Alaska. In 1996, she was elected mayor of Wasilla and served two three-year terms in that position. She later was appointed to the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission.
In 2006, Palin was elected governor of Alaska, becoming the first woman to hold that position in the state. Republican presidential candidate John McCain selected her to run as his vice presidential running mate in the 2008 election. The McCain/Palin ticket was defeated by the Democratic candidates, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Palin resigned as governor effective on July 26, 2009. She has remained in the public eye by writing books, including her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life", and endorsing other candidates. She has also appeared on television as a political commentator on Fox News Channel, as well as hosting the reality television series Sarah Palin's Alaska (2010) on the TLC network and Amazing America with Sarah Palin (2014) on Sportsman Channel.
In 2022, Palin sought to return to elected office by running for Alaska's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after the death of Congressman Don Young, but lost both the special and general elections to Mary Peltola.
Palin was married to Todd Palin from 1988 to 2020; the couple have five children.- Actress
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Originally a dance instructor, she came to Broadway during the Depression to begin her career as a professional actress. A daughter of Texas, she originally began work as a dance instructor until a local evangelical-adherent burned down her studio citing her work as being too sinful for human nature. Coming to New York City, she appeared on Broadway introducing the song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". She later made a name for herself in several Hollywood musicals during the 1940s and later in her career enjoyed huge success as Peter Pan, which she cited as her favorite role.- Actor
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Dwayne Douglas Johnson, also known as The Rock, was born on May 2, 1972 in Hayward, California. He is the son of Ata Johnson (born Feagaimaleata Fitisemanu) and professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles). His father, from Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, is black (of Black Nova Scotian descent), and his mother is of Samoan background (her own father was Peter Fanene Maivia, also a professional wrestler). While growing up, Dwayne traveled around a lot with his parents and watched his father perform in the ring. During his high school years, Dwayne began playing football and he soon received a full scholarship from the University of Miami, where he had tremendous success as a football player. In 1995, Dwayne suffered a back injury which cost him a place in the NFL. He then signed a three-year deal with the Canadian League but left after a year to pursue a career in wrestling.
He made his wrestling debut in the USWA under the name Flex Kavanah where he won the tag team championship with Brett Sawyer. In 1996, Dwayne joined the WWE and became Rocky Maivia where he joined a group known as "The Nation of Domination" and turned heel. Rocky eventually took over leadership of the "Nation" and began taking the persona of The Rock. After the "Nation" split, The Rock joined another elite group of wrestlers known as the "Corporation" and began a memorable feud with Steve Austin. Soon the Rock was kicked out of the "Corporation". He turned face and became known as "The Peoples Champion". In 2000, the Rock took time off from WWE to film his appearance in The Mummy Returns (2001). He returned in 2001 during the WCW/ECW invasion where he joined a team of WWE wrestlers at The Scorpion King (2002), a prequel to The Mummy Returns (2001).
Dwayne has a daughter, Simone Alexandra Johnson, born in 2001, with his ex-wife Dany Garcia, and daughters, Jasmine, born in 2015, and Tiana Gia, born in 2018, with his wife, singer and songwriter Lauren Hashian.- Producer
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Mike Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the United States Republican presidential primaries in both 2008 and 2016.
He was the host of the talk show Huckabee (2008), which ran on the Fox News Channel from 2008-2017, and runs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, simulcast on Newsmax TV. He paused the show in January 2015 in order to explore a potential bid for the presidency. From April 2012 through December 2013, he hosted a daily radio program, The Mike Huckabee Show, on weekday afternoons for Cumulus Media Networks. Huckabee is the author of several best-selling books, an ordained Southern Baptist minister noted for his evangelical views, a musician, and a public speaker. He was also a political commentator on The Huckabee Report.
In the 2008 Republican presidential primaries, Huckabee won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and finished second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won, behind John McCain and Mitt Romney. Huckabee ran again for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election, but lost to businessman Donald Trump. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, served two years as President Trump's White House Press Secretary.- Additional Crew
Karl Rove was born on 25 December 1950 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He is known for Poodle Samizdat (2006), How's Your News?: Election 2012 (2012) and Atticus v. The Architect: The Political Assassination of Don Siegelman (2017). He has been married to Karen Alexandra Johnson since June 2012. He was previously married to Darby Hickson and Valerie Wainright.- Actor
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Lewis Black was born on 30 August 1948 in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Inside Out (2015), Man of the Year (2006) and Accepted (2006).- Actor
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Long before he was known as "The Professor" in the cult comedy classic Gilligan's Island (1964), Russell Johnson was a well-known character actor, starring in several Westerns and Sci-Fi classics as This Island Earth (1955) and It Came from Outer Space (1953). Johnson grew up in Pennsylvania and was sent to a boarding school in Philadelphia with his brothers when his father died.
Johnson said that, unlike his Professor character, he was not a bright student early on and was, in fact, held back a grade. However, he did redeem himself later on by making the National Honor Society in high school. He joined the Army Air Corps in World War II. Both his ankles were broken when his B-24 Liberator was shot down over the Philippines during a bombing raid in March of 1945 and he was awarded the Purple Heart as he recovered in the hospital. After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to enroll in acting school to pursue his new trade.
Johnson lived in the state of Washington and did several guest appearances on television shows. He passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday January 16, 2014 from kidney failure, with his wife, Constance Dane, and his two children by his side. Connie described her husband as a very brave man.- Actress
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A wholesome beauty with comedic appeal, Dawn Elberta Wells was born on October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. Wells' childhood was a happy and healthy one. She and her mother grew their own fruits and vegetables in their gardens and Dawn rode horses. In her high school years, she was the class treasurer, President of the debate team and an honor roll student. Dawn was on her way to becoming a ballerina, but bad knees prevented her from realizing the dream. She was Miss Nevada in 1959 and went on to the 1960 Miss America Pageant. Dawn had wanted to be a doctor, and enrolled in the elite Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri to study medicine, but then she discovered the Drama Club. She then transferred to the University of Washington, which was known for their Theatre Department, and she graduated with a Degree in Theatre.
Dawn moved to Hollywood and was cast as Mary Ann Summers on CBS's Gilligan's Island (1964). The rest is history. However, there was much more to Dawn than her simple Mary Ann character. Wells refused to be an unemployed actor after the show ended and was never out of work since the show decades ago. She performed in over 66 theatrical productions, including the National Touring Company of "They're Playing Our Song!" She did countless voice-overs, commercials and talk shows. She worked for the Australian news show "Midday" and interviewed such talents as Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks, to name a few. Dawn has also had great success as a producer and has a number of television movies to her credit. After years of touring and performing in dramas, comedies, and musical theatre, Dawn slowed down a little. In 1998, she founded the Dawn Wells' Film Actors Boot Camp in Driggs, Idaho. The camp is for the already trained actor looking to make the transition from the amateur to the professional actor.
Wells managed the camp for many years. She has been in a popular commercial for Western Union, capitalizing on her character Mary Ann Summers. In 2003, Dawn did tours of the plays "Love Letters" with Adam West and Eve Ensler's Award Winning "The Vagina Monologues." In early 2004, Dawn established and founded The Spud Film Institute in Idaho and Wyoming, and held the first ever Spud Drive in Film and Music Festival in the summer of 2004. She was also the artistic director of the festival. If that is not enough, Ms. Wells also had her own clothing line for the physically challenged called "Wishing Wells Collections" and she recently launched her own skin care line, Classic Beauty. Dawn Wells continued to contribute to the business she loved so much and constantly gave back to the acting community. She mentored young actors and traveled to colleges all across the United States to teach Master Classes. She served as Artist in Residence at several Universities. Dawn was in constant demand for personal appearances and speaking engagements, yet never forgot to give back to the Artistic community. She will surely be remembered for all her good work. Wells passed away on December 30, 2020 at age 82. You can get information about all of Dawn's organizations at her website, dawn-wells.com.- Actress
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As a testament to her passion and talent, former 1950s pig-tailed moppet star Patty McCormack has remained a consistent presence on film and TV for over five decades. While the lovely and talented blonde suffered her share of hard knocks and obvious stereotypes in adjusting to an adult career, she did not fade away into oblivion or self destruct as other vulnerable child stars before her did.
Born Patricia Ellen Russo in Brooklyn, New York, to Frank Russo, a firefighter, and the former Elizabeth McCormack, a roller skating pro, the young girl found herself modeling at age 4. Two years later, she had progressed to films with bits in Two Gals and a Guy (1951) and Here Comes the Groom (1951). Soon thereafter she made her Broadway debut (at age 6) in the short-lived play "Touchstone" starring Ossie Davis.
While simultaneously appearing in the live television series Mama (1949) [aka "I Remember Mama"], the by-now 8-year-old returned to Broadway a second time and created the role that would make her a cult sensation -- "Rhoda Penmark", the tiny, braided little demon with murderous intentions in "The Bad Seed". Starring Nancy Kelly as her put-upon, overly-trusting mother, the show became a certifiable hit. The two actors were invited to recreate their famous roles in the film version, The Bad Seed (1956), and achieved equally fine results. No child before her had ever been given such a deliberately evil, twisted role and Patty chewed up the scenery with courteous malevolence. Though the film today may come off as extremely stagy and overly mannered to some, its fascination cannot be denied. Audiences took readily to Patty and her wicked ways and the young actress earned both Oscar and Golden Globe "Best Supporting Actress" nominations.
The film would be a hard act to follow or forget. So strongly identified with the role, Patty found it difficult for audiences to see her any other way. She tried finding some variance as a pioneer girl in All Mine to Give (1957), a testy child star in Kathy O' (1958) and a tomboy in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960) but the memory of "Rhoda Penmark" would not be so easily wiped away. She suffered typical teen angst in the film The Explosive Generation (1961) with William Shatner and had to make do as a young adult in such low-level movies as The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968), Maryjane (1968) and The Young Animals (1968).
By the 1970s Patty, who had spent so much time as a child doing live television, found herself again relying on the medium for steadier work. Billed now as a more grown-up "Patricia McCormack", she also appeared in a variety of legit stage productions and, on occasion, found roles in independent films. Appearing in more than 250 episodes of some of the most successful programs around, audiences may remember her giving sensible, wifely support to Jeffrey Tambor on The Ropers (1979), the short-lived spin-off of the Three's Company (1976) sitcom, or from her recurring role as "Evelyn Michaelson" on Dallas (1978). More recently on film and TV, she played "Adrianna"'s mother, "Liz LaCerva", on HBO's hit The Sopranos (1999) and appeared in guest form on NYPD Blue (1993), Cold Case (2003), Grey's Anatomy (2005), Entourage (2004) and What About Brian (2006). She also played former "First Lady" "Pat Nixon" in the film Frost/Nixon (2008).
In 1995, Patty's devoted fans reveled when she felt comfortable enough to embrace again her "Bad Seed" behavior by starring in the low-budget horror feature Mommy (1995) and its sequel Mommy's Day (1997) [aka "Mommy 2"]. She came full circle as a most pernicious homemaker who created violent, Rhoda-worthy ends for those unlucky enough to cross her path.
Patti's millennium films, a variety of comedy, drama and, of course, horror films, would include The Medicine Show (2001), Choosing Matthias (2001), Shallow Ground (2004), Frost/Nixon (2008) (as First Lady Pat Nixon), Soda Springs (2012), Buttwhistle (2014), Chicanery (2017) and a lead in the lowbudget mystery House of Deadly Secrets (2018). As for TV, in addition to guest parts on such shows as "The D.A.," "N.Y.P.D. Blue," "Grey's Anatomy," "Entourage," "Criminal Minds," "Shark," "Private Practice," "Citizen Jane," "Desperate Housewives," "Prime Suspect," "Hawaii Five-0, she had recurring roles on The Sopranos (1999), Have You Met Miss Jones? (2012), Hart of Dixie (2011) and the daytime series General Hospital (1963) as Dr. Monica Quartermaine. She also played the small role of a doctor in a remake of her cult film The Bad Seed (2018).
A mother herself with two children, Robert and Danielle, Patty was once married to Bob Catania, a restaurateur. She was also an eight-year companion to screenwriter and playwright Ernest Thompson of On Golden Pond (1981) fame.- Actress
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From the day she was born Martha lived in a world of music. For sure her father was a banker but he was also an amateur pianist. As for her mother, she was a housewife but also a very talented opera singer who had given up her career for the joys of matrimony and motherhood. It does not come as a surprise, under such circumstances, that the little girl's singing capacities were soon discovered. At eight she was already on a scene singing an aria from "The Barber of Seville". A critic attended the show and was impressed by her performance. He introduced her to the director of the Magyar Theater, where she landed her first contract. As of the age of 10 she was hailed as Hungary's "national idol". And it was not long before her triumph became international. An operetta, "Pogasza", was written specially for the crystal-clear-voiced little singer. Among others, she played the role of the doll in "Tales of Hoffmann" and starred in "Das Veilchen vom Montmartre" by Kalman. With the advent of sound films, she found herself very much in demand in the 1930s, bringing her beautiful voice and looks to yet more delighted viewers. It is on the set of "Mein Herz ruft nach dir" that she met Jan Kiepura, another successful opera and operetta singer. Although it was not love at first sight, Jan and Martha gradually fell in love, married two years later, had two sons and were separated only by death with the demise of Jan in 1966. In 1938, the couple fled Austria after its annexation by Hitler and settled down in the South of France first then in the USA. Martha made fewer movies but kept on singing. For instance she co-starred in "The merry Widow" in Broadway for three years with Jan Kiepura. She became an American citizen in the fifties and currently lives in Rye, new York.- A Kentucky native, Schramm attended Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky and majored in English while also becoming intensely involved in theater. At the urging of his college acting teacher, he applied for and won a four-year graduate scholarship to Juilliard's newly formed drama school in New York.
During the summer of 1988, Schramm traveled to California to co-star with Rebecca De Mornay in "Born Yesterday" at the Pasadena Playhouse. This highly acclaimed and popular production brought Schramm to the attention of Hollywood, and he has worked steadily in television and film ever since.
Schramm has guest-starred on numerous television series, including Jake and the Fatman (1987), Wiseguy (1987), The Equalizer (1985), Miami Vice (1984) and Spenser: For Hire (1985). He also provided the voice for one of the characters in the Disney animated series Hercules (1998). In addition, he has had leading roles in The Time of Your Life (1976) and the musical Cradle Will Rock (1999), both for PBS. - Actor
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William Christopher was born on 20 October 1932 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for M*A*S*H (1972), The Fortune Cookie (1966) and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993). He was married to Barbara Christopher. He died on 31 December 2016 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Actor
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In the early days of 1950s science-fiction, one of the first people to become identified with the genre was actor William Phipps. Aside from furnishing the voice of Prince Charming in Disney's cartoon classic Cinderella (1950), Phipps also hid his boyish face beneath a beard as the star of Arch Oboler's end-of-the-world melodrama Five (1951); made a token appearance in Oboler's The Twonky (1953); encountered Martians in both Invaders from Mars (1953) and The War of the Worlds (1953); and took on the Abominable Snowman as one of the leads in The Snow Creature (1954). Most notoriously, he even grappled with Moon maidens set on world conquest in the almost indescribable Cat-Women of the Moon (1953). Phipps was born in Vincennes, Indiana, and grew up in St. Francisville, Illinois; he knew from boyhood that he was destined to be an actor and appeared in several plays in grade school and at Eastern Illinois University. Hitchhiking to Hollywood in 1941, he worked on the stage and later in films, beginning with RKO's Crossfire (1947). Over the next 60 years he amassed a long list of film and TV credits; he also did commercials and voiceover work, including the narration for the special 190-minute TV version of David Lynch's Dune (1984).- Actress
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Caren Marsh was born in Los Angeles. Her sister, actress Dorothy Morris, was born Feb. 23, 1922. Getting into show business in 1937, Caren changed her name to Marsh because "there were too many people named Morris at the time." Caren's parents wanted her to go to college but she wanted to be a dancer. Learning of an audition for dancers at MGM she tried out and was cast in Eleanor Powell's "Rosalie" in '37. This led to more and more pictures as a dancer. "Being tiny (Caren is 5 ft.), I was a 'pony'. The tall girls are called showgirls." While working with great choreographers such as Busby Berkerley, Nick Castle and Hermes Pan, she was spotted at Metro and cast as Judy Garland's stand-in in "The Wizard of Oz" ('39). Her first real acting part was in an Army Signal Corps Hygiene film, "Pickup Girl" in '44. After gaining a foothold in Hollywood, Caren went to New York in '49 to work with ventriloquist Paul Winchell at the Capitol Theatre. Flying home to visit her parents, the plane went too low and crashed into a mountain.The aircraft was in level flight on its initial approach to Burbank, with its landing gear extended, when it descended below the officially prescribed altitude of 5,000 feet while flying in patchy fog. As a result, the plane's right wingtip struck a mountain ridge near Box Canyon in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley, near Santa Susana Pass and the Los Angeles County-Ventura County border. The Curtiss C-46E-1-C airliner (N79978) spun 90 degrees, struck the ground, bounced back into the air and then crashed on a rugged hillside of the Simi Hills at an altitude of about 1,890 feet just north of the Chatsworth Reservoir. Both pilots, a flight attendant, and 32 passengers died in the crash, including two young children. The remaining flight attendant and 12 passengers escaped with moderate to serious injuries. Fortunately, Caren was one of those 12. In 1950 Caren married Bill Doll, producer Mike Todd's press agent, and traveled all over the world. Today, Caren lives in Palm Springs, has taught dancing and attends both western film festivals and "Wizard of Oz" reunions when she can.- Actress
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Legendary voice actress June Foray was born June Lucille Forer on September 18, 1917 in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Maurice Forer and Ida Edith Robinson, who wed in Hampden, Massachusetts. Her father, who was Jewish, emigrated from Novgorod, Imperial Russia, while her Massachusetts-born mother was of Lithuanian Jewish and French-Canadian descent. Her mother converted to Judaism to marry, and took the name Sarah.
At age 12, young June was already doing "old lady" voices. She had the good fortune of having a speech teacher who also had a radio program in the Springfield area. This teacher became her mentor, and added June to the cast of her show. Eventually her family moved to Los Angeles, where she continued in radio. By age fifteen, she was writing her own show for children, "Lady Makebelieve", in which she also provided voices. June dabbled in both on-camera acting and voice work, but was particularly talented in voice characterizations, dialects and accents. Just like Daws Butler, one of her later co-stars, she was a "voice magician" and worked steadily in radio from the 1930s into the 1950s.
June branched out from radio and began providing voices for cartoon characters. In the 1940s, she provided the voices for a live-action series of shorts, "Speaking of Animals", in which she dubbed in voices for real on-screen animals, a task she was to repeat many years later in an episode of The Magical World of Disney (1954). In the late 1940s June, Stan Freberg, Daws Butler, Pinto Colvig and many others recorded hundreds of children's and adult albums for Capitol Records. Her female characterizations on these records ran the entire gamut from little girls to middle-aged women, old ladies, dowagers and witches. No one seemed to be able to do these same voices with the warmth, energy and sparkle that June did.
In the 1950s June's star in animation not only began to rise but soared when Walt Disney sought her out and hired her to do the voice of Lucifer the cat in Cinderella (1950). The Disney organization continued to use June many times over, well into the 21st century. Warner Brothers also hired her to replace Bea Benaderet and do all of its "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" cartoons. June has done many incidental characters for Warners, but her most famous voice has been that of Granny (in the "Tweety and Sylvester" series). Unfortunately, since Mel Blanc's contract called for exclusive voice credit on these cartoons, June never received credit for all the voices she did. During this time she also appeared on [error].
In 1957, Jay Ward met with June to discuss her voicing the characters of "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" and "Natasha Fatale" in a cartoon series. On November 19, 1959, the show debuted as The Bullwinkle Show (1959), later changing its name to The Bullwinkle Show (1959). June provided many other voices for this show, especially its "side shows" such as "Fractured Fairy Tales" and "Aesop and Son". She did fewer voices for the "Peabody's Improbable History" segment, but she did appear in at least three of those episodes. After the show had been successful for a few years, Ward added one of its most popular segments, "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties". June was a regular in this side show as Dudley's girlfriend Nell Fenwick.
Since Ward used June exclusively for nearly all his female voices, he showcased her talents as no other producer had before. June missed out on doing voices for three of the show's "Fractured Fairy Tales" because she could not reschedule some bookings to do recording work with Stan Freberg, so Julie Bennett filled in for her on those occasions. Dorothy Scott--co-producer Bill Scott's wife--also filled in for June a few times for "Peabody's Improbable History". Her collaboration with Ward made her incredibly famous, and "Rocky the Flying Squirrel" became her signature voice. To this day June regularly wears a necklace with the figure of Rocky sculpted by her niece Lauren Marems.
Ward later produced two other cartoon series, Hoppity Hooper (1964) and George of the Jungle (1967). June's appearances on "Hoppity Hooper" were limited to the segments of "Fractured Fairy Tales", "Dudley Do-Right" and "Peabody" that aired during its run. On "Fractured Fairy Tales" June did a whole montage of voices similar to those from her Capitol Records days. Her witch voices were so incredibly funny and magnificently done that Disney and Warner Brothers tapped her to provide that same voice for the character of Witch Hazel. She was once again the lone female voice artist, this time on "George of the Jungle". Included on that show were the "Super Chicken" and "Tom Slick" side shows.
In the 1960s, June lost out to Bea Benaderet when she auditioned for the voice of "Betty Rubble" on The Flintstones (1960). June appeared numerous times during the decade in holiday specials such as Frosty the Snowman (1969) and The Little Drummer Boy (1968)). In the 1960s and 1970s, June dubbed in voices for full-length live-action feature films many times. Jay Ward and Bill Scott also had her dub in dialogue for silent movies in their non-animated series Fractured Flickers (1963).
In the early 1970s, June tried her hand at puppetry. She became the voice of an elephant, an aardvark and a giraffe on Curiosity Shop (1971). Around this time she also recorded various voices for the road shows of "Disney on Parade", which toured the US and Europe for several years.
She acted on-camera occasionally over the years, primarily on talk shows, game shows and documentaries; in the early years of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), she performed a 13-week stint as a little Mexican girl. However, June had said that she prefers to record behind the scenes because she jokingly said "She can earn more money in less time."
June Foray died on July 26, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. She was ninety nine years old.- Writer
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Dean R. Koontz was born on 9 July 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Odd Thomas (2013), Phantoms (1998) and Watchers (1988). He has been married to Gerda Ann Cerra since 15 October 1966.- Bobby Doerr was born on 7 April 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Made to Be Broken (2006), The Way It Was (1974) and Prime 9 (2009). He was married to Monica Doerr. He died on 13 November 2017 in Junction City, Oregon, USA.
- Pete Rose was born on 14 April 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is an actor, known for Babe Ruth (1991), WrestleMania XIV (1998) and Arli$$ (1996). He was previously married to Carol Woliung and Karolyn Rose.
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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.- Rosella Townsend is the second of three daughters of Frank and Viola Townsend, and lived in her birth town of Youngstown, Ohio until the late 1920s, when her family moved to Los Angeles. By the time she reached her teens she had blossomed into a beautiful young women and was asked by a friend to join in a dress show for a department store in her hometown (a dress show that would happen to have Mr. and Mrs. Jack Warner in its audience). Brought to Hollywood at age 19 she made her film debut in 1937 in a string of uncredited film roles but gained speaking parts in 1938. She starred alongside such names as Bette Davis, Ronald Reagan, George Brent, Lee Bowman, and Margaret Lindsay. With the coming of World War II she found herself getting less work in films and left films after marrying screenwriter Harry Kronman in 1942 in Los Angeles. They had two sons, Anthony and Michael.
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Yakov Smirnoff was born on 24 January 1951 in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is an actor and writer, known for Night Court (1984), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and The Money Pit (1986). He was previously married to Linda Dreeszen.- Actor
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Oliver Laurence North was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Philmont, New York. He enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy in 1962, but was not commissioned as a Marine Officer until 1968; he missed some time due to injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
After his commission, he served in the Vietnam War as a platoon leader; as commanding officer of the Marine Corps' Northern Training Area (now Camp Gonsalves) in Okinawa, Japan, as a jungle warfare tactics trainer/instructor; at Marine Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and as operations officer of 3rd Marine Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Div., Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
After graduating from the Command and Staff course at Newport, Rhode Island, he was assigned to the National Security Council (part of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet) in 1981.
North's most publicized assignment at NSC was to aid in negotiations for the Contras, a fighting force that was attempting to prevent a Communist regime, the Sandinistas, from taking power in Nicaragua. That led to his highly-publicized involvement in what came to be known as the Iran-Contra affair. North was the point man in a complicated trade-off that involved the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon, then diverting the funds from those sales to aid the Contras in their fight to overthrow the Sandinista government.
President Reagan fired North from his position in 1986 for allegedly acting without approval from his superiors. North testified under immunity in 1987 that his bosses, including President Reagan himself, knew everything that was going on with the negotiations and that he never once acted without prior approval from his superiors. His refusal to take the fall for the failed plan earned him a tremendous amount of nationwide support, along with many detractors who thought he acted on his own as an out-of-control maverick. For a time, the nation was swept with "Olliemania" during the trials.
North retired from the Marine Corps in 1989 and is still very much in the public eye. His books include "Under Fire" and "Mission Compromised". In 1994, he was defeated by Chuck Robb in a bid for the U.S. Senate, representing Virginia. He hosted "War Stories with Oliver North" on Fox News Channel from 2001 to 2016.
Oliver North is both lauded by some as a hero who stood up for his convictions and served his country and his government faithfully and ridiculed by others as a liar and lawbreaker.- Wurzelbacher became better known as "Joe the Plumber" after posing a question to then-candidate Obama, in the 2008 debate,regarding his tax policies and the potential negative impact on small businesses. He quickly became synonymous with the quintessential "everyman," which the Republican Party latched onto in their presidential campaign at the time.
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P.J. (Pamela Jayne) Soles was born on July 17, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her father came from Holland and her mother from New Jersey. Because her father was working for an international insurance company, the family moved all over the world. P.J. lived in Casablanca, Morocco, and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish, and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the International School of Brussels. When she was at Briarcliff College, she wanted to become the first woman ambassador to the Soviet Union. This career goal changed when she visited the Actors Studio in New York City. She moved to Manhattan and began acting in commercials and modeling for fashion magazines. She was married to J. Stephen Soles during her years in New York, but then made the move to Los Angeles to work in television and movies. At this time, she and Soles' got divorced, but she decided to keep her name as P.J. Soles. She was among the hundreds of actors auditioning for Brian De Palma and George Lucas in their joint casting session for Carrie (1976) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). After Carrie, she went to Georgia to film Our Winning Season (1978) and met actor Dennis Quaid. They were married in 1978 in Texas on a dude ranch.
P.J. starred in Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) with Ramones. Next she filmed Private Benjamin (1980) and then Stripes (1981). She and Quaid were divorced in 1983. P.J. continued doing numerous television and film roles, and then married Skip Holm, who was the stunt pilot on The Right Stuff (1983). They have two children and were divorced in 1998. Still active in television and film, P.J. manages not to let her fans down, but keeps them interested in her work, which keeps on getting better, making her one of the most versatile actresses of her time.- Actor
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Born in 1919 in Jerusalem, Nehemiah Persoff emigrated with his family to America in 1929.
Following schooling at the Hebrew Technical Institute of New York, he found a job as a subway electrician doing signal maintenance until an interest in the theater altered the direction of his life.
He joined amateur groups and subsequently won a scholarship to the Dramatic Workshop in New York. This led to what would have been his Broadway debut in a production of "Eve of St. Mark", but he was fired before the show opened. He made his official New York debut in a production of "The Emperor's New Clothes" in 1940.
WWII interrupted his young career in 1942, when he was inducted into the United Sates Army, returning to the stage after his hitch was over in 1945, three years later. He sought work in stock plays and became an intern of Stella Adler and, as a result, a strong exponent of the Actor's Studio. Discovered by Charles Laughton and cast in his production of "Galileo" in 1947, Persoff made his film debut a year later with an uncredited bit in The Naked City (1948).
Short, dark, chunky-framed and with a distinct talent for dialects, Persoff became known primarily for his ethnic villainy, usually playing authoritative Eastern Europeans.
In a formidable career which had him portraying everything from cab drivers to Joseph Stalin, standout film roles would include Leo in The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart, Gene Conforti in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), Albert in This Angry Age (1958) and gangster Johnny Torrio in Al Capone (1959). That same year he played another gangster, the small role of Little Bonaparte, in Some Like It Hot (1959).
He was a durable performer during TV's "Golden Age" (Gunsmoke (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959)) and well beyond (Chicago Hope (1994), Law & Order (1990)), playing hundreds of intense, volatile and dominating characters.
In later years, his characters grew a bit softer as Barbra Streisand's Jewish father in Yentl (1983) and the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the An American Tail (1986) will attest. Later stage work included well-received productions of "I'm Not Rappaport" and his biographical one-man show "Sholem Aleichem".
After declining health and high blood pressure forced him to slow down, Persoff took up painting in 1985, studying sketching in Los Angeles. Specializing in watercolor, he created more than 100 works of art, many of which have been exhibited up and down the coast of California. He celebrated his 100th birthday in 2019.- Actress
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The ever-lovely, poised and vivacious blonde Anne Jeffreys was born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael in 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Firmly managed by her mother, she trained in voice at a fairly early age and received her first break in the entertainment field after signing with the John Robert Powers agency in New York as a junior model. In the interim, she prepared herself for an operatic career and made her debut in a production of "La Boheme" in 1940. The following year, however, Anne won a role in the musical review, "Fun for the Money", that was to be staged in Hollywood. This, in turn, led to her first movie role in the tuneful Rodgers & Hart adaptation of I Married an Angel (1942), starring her singing idols, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, in their last cinematic pairing.
Put under contract respectively by Republic then RKO studios, Anne was utilized as a plucky heroine in a flux of 40s "B" westerns and crimers, opposite such stalwarts as Robert Mitchum and Randolph Scott. Also among her roles was the part of "Tess Trueheart" in the "Dick Tracy" series with Morgan Conway as the steel-jawed hero, and a co-star role opposite Frank Sinatra in the war-era musical, Step Lively (1944). None of these, however, were able to propel her into the "A" ranks and her film career quickly dissipated by the end of the 40s. In the meantime, Anne continued to prod her vocal skills with symphonic and stage appearances, including "Tosca" at the Brooklyn Opera House, Kurt Weill's "Street Scene" and the Broadway musical, "My Romance".
After her first marriage was annulled in 1949, Anne met handsome actor Robert Sterling during an extended run (887 performances) of "Kiss Me Kate" on Broadway. She and Sterling married in 1951 and had three sons. In an attempt to revive their flagging careers, the singing couple toured nighteries and hotels in the early 1950s with a highly successful club act. This led to them being cast as sly, engagingly cavalier spirits in the classic Topper (1953) sitcom. Anne played "Marion Kirby" ("the ghostess with the mostest"), alongside Sterling's dapper husband, George Kirby. Successfully, undertaking the ectoplasmic roles originated on film by Constance Bennett and Cary Grant, the two were an absolute hit as the party-hearty ghosts who reclaim their home, to the dismay of current owner Leo G. Carroll.
Anne and Robert weren't able to recreate that same kind of magic when they subsequently co-starred in the short-lived series, Love That Jill (1958). In the 1960s, Anne semi-retired to raise her family, but occasionally took on musical leads ("Camelot", "The King and I") both on Broadway and in regional productions. She later returned full-time to TV and became known for her chic, gregarious, sometimes double-dealing matrons on soap operas (Bright Promise (1969) and General Hospital (1972)). She was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her supporting work in The Delphi Bureau (1972) adventure series, and appeared, occasionally, as the mother of David Hasselhoff on Baywatch (1989). Unlike her husband, who retired decades ago (he died in 2006), Anne remained a tireless performer past age 80. She was recognized over the years for her civic and humanitarian efforts and remained a vibrant presence of "Golden Age" Hollywood society until her death at age 94 on September 27, 2017 in Los Angeles.- Actor
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Fred Willard radiated a unique charm that established him as one of the industry's most gifted comic actors, first coming to prominence as ambitious but dimwitted sidekick Jerry Hubbard to Martin Mull's smarmy talk-show host Barth Gimble in the devastating satirical series Fernwood Tonight (1977). A master of sketch comedy, he was most heralded for his quick wit and improvisational expertise. His 50 appearances in sketches on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) were indicative of his ability to transform any character into a unique comic portrayal. Fred starred in an oft sold-out one-man show, "Fred Willard: Alone At Last!" (actually with a cast of 12) that received two Los Angeles Artistic Director Awards, for Best Comedy and Best Production. He was also an alumnus of The Second City and headed a sketch comedy workshop, The MoHo Group.- Writer
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With twenty books published internationally and nineteen feature movies in worldwide distribution, John Russo has been called a "living legend." He began by co-authoring the screenplay for Night of the Living Dead, which has become recognized as a "horror classic."
His three books on the art and craft of movie making have become bibles of independent production, and one of them, Scare Tactics, won a national award for Superior Nonfiction. Quentin Tarantino and many other noted filmmakers have stated that Russo's books helped them launch their careers.
John Russo wants people to know he's "just a nice guy who likes to scare people" - and he's done it with novels and films such as Return of The Living Dead, Midnight, The Majorettes, The Awakening and Heartstopper. He has had a long, rewarding career, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Recently his screenplay for Escape of The Living Dead was made into a five-part comic book released by Avatar to great acclaim; it made the Top Ten of Horror Comics nationally and spawned two graphic novels and ten sequels.
Russo's recent novel, The Hungry Dead, was published by Kensington Books. He is also slated to direct two movies: a remake of his cult hit, Midnight, and a brand new take on the "zombie phenomenon" entitled Spawn of The Dead.
Russo's latest novel Dealey Plaza was published by Burning Bulb Publishing. His short story Channel 666 appears in The Big Book of Bizarro.
His popularity among genre fans remains at a high pitch. He appears at many movie conventions each year as a featured guest, and he considers his appearance at the Orion Festival, hosted by Kirk Hammett and Metallica, one of the highlights of his career.- Actress
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Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's The Locket (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in films such as Down Three Dark Streets (1954), Showdown at Abilene (1956) and Battle Hymn (1957). Perhaps the best role of her long career was as "Gwen French" in 1958's Some Came Running (1958) in which she starred opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. As a result of her stellar role, Martha received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, but she lost out to Wendy Hiller in Separate Tables (1958). Afterwards, Martha's stint on the US silver screen's trailed off some. She did make a handful of foreign films, returning to appear in the US from time to time, but nothing compared to the pace she had in the fifties. Her last film was in 1973 in the film The Day of the Wolves (1971). In 1966, she married producer Hal B. Wallis and remained with him until his death in 1986.- Actor
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When he was 11, he wanted to be a comedian like Sid Caesar. Then, when he was 15 and saw Lee J. Cobb in 'Death of a Salesman,' he decided he would be a comedy actor and found that Mel Brooks was a great influence on his screen writing. He combined both talents with directing in The World's Greatest Lover (1977), followed by The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975).- Ruggedly handsome, slack-jawed actor Earl Holliman was born on September 11, 1928, in northeastern Louisiana amid meager surroundings. His father, a farmer named William Frost, died several months before Earl's birth, forcing his poverty-stricken mother to give up seven of her ten children. He was adopted as a baby by an oil-field worker named Henry Earl Holliman and his waitress wife Velma, growing up in the Louisiana and Arkansas areas. Though Henry died when Earl was 13, the adoptive parents were a source of happiness and inspiration growing up.
Entertaining became an early passion after ushering at a local movie house and Earl at one point was a magician's assistant as a young teen. Hoping to discovered, Earl ran away from home hoping to be discovered in Hollywood. Following that aborted attempt, the teenager returned to Louisiana and immediately enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II by lying about his age (16). Assigned to a Navy communications school in Los Angeles, this re-stimulated his passion for acting, spending much of his free time at the Hollywood Canteen.
Discharged from the Navy a year after enlisting when his true age was discovered, he returned home to work in menial jobs and complete his high school education. Reenlisting in the Navy, he was cast as the lead in several Norfolk (Virginia) Navy Theatre productions. This led to a trek back to Hollywood after his (this time) honorable discharge[ where he attended USC and studied acting at UCLA Drama School and the Pasadena Playhouse, working as a Blue Cross file clerk and airplane builder at North American Aviation.
Earl started off apprenticing in uncredited film bits in several films --Destination Gobi (1953) and Scared Stiff (1953). He soon rose in rank and gained clout playing jaunty young rookies and tenderfeet and young stud types in rugged westerns, war drama and rollicking comedy. His swaggering characters in such films as Tennessee Champ (1954), Broken Lance (1954), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), The Big Combo (1955), I Died a Thousand Times (1955), Forbidden Planet (1956), The Burning Hills (1956) and Giant (1956) ranged from dim and good-natured to impulsive and threatening.
Holliman won a Golden Globe for his support performance as a girl-crazy brother in The Rainmaker (1956), holding his own against stars Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn. Without progressing to star roles, he continued to provide durable late 50's support to big name stars including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) starring Lancaster and Kirk Douglas; Trooper Hook (1957) starring Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck; Don't Go Near the Water (1957) starring Glenn Ford; Hot Spell (1958) starring Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn and Shirley MacLaine; The Trap (1959) starring Richard Widmark; and Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) again with Douglas and Quinn.
Although film offers began drying up in the 1960s, Earl was enjoyable boorish in his dealing with innocent alien Jerry Lewis in the wacky comedy Visit to a Small Planet (1960); had a touching final scene in a park with Geraldine Page in the somber Tennessee Williams period piece Summer and Smoke (1961); played one of John Wayne's younger punch-drunk brothers in the freewheeling western The Sons of Katie Elder (1965); portrayed a salesman on trial for murdering his wife in A Covenant with Death (1967); and was a platoon sergeant in command in Anzio (1968).
Holliman found a highly accepting medium in TV with a lead series role as reformed gunslinger "Sundance" (not The Sundance Kid) in the short-lived western series Hotel de Paree (1959), plus showed off a virile stance in episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "Bus Stop," "Checkmate," "Bonanza," "Dr. Kildare," "The Fugitive," "Marcus Welby, M.D.," "It Takes a Thief," "Alias Smith and Jones," "Gunsmoke," "Medical Center," "Ironside," "The Magical World of Disney" and "The F.B.I." He also appeared in a number of TV movies that became popular in the late 1960's. He played hard-ass, redneck types in the action adventure The Desperate Mission (1969) and in the military drama The Tribe (1970), but did a complete turnaround as a good guy psychologist trying to help get a kid hooker off the streets in Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977). This all culminated in his most popular series program, a four-year stint as the macho partner to sexy Angie Dickinson in Police Woman (1974), a role that helped make him a household name.
On the side, the never-married Holliman found a brief, yet successful, career in the late 1950's as a singer and copped a record deal with Capitol Records at one point, while scoring as Curly in a tour of the musical "Oklahoma" in 1963. Other non-musical roles included "Sunday in New York," "The Country Girl," "The Tender Trap," "Camino Real," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (as Mitch) and "A Chorus Line" (as Zach). He also owned the Fiesta Dinner Playhouse for a decade in the late 1970's and performed there, between film and TV assignments, in such shows as "Mister Roberts," "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "Same Time, Next Year."
An intermittent presence in later years, Earl was seen primarily on TV including the acclaimed miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983), as well as the TV programs "Empty Nest," "In the Heat of the Night," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Caroline in the City." regular roles on three drama series: the urban drama P.S.I. Luv U (1991); the comedy series Delta (1992) (Golden Globe nomination) which starred Delta Burke in a short-lived follow-up to her "Designing Women" exit; and the sci-fi action adventure NightMan (1997).
A conservative political activist and animal rescuer on the side, Earl retired from the screen into the millennium -- shortly after appearing in the movies Bad City Blues (1999) and The Perfect Tenant (2000). - Actor
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Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 - October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.- Director
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Only one film-maker can claim the title "Godfather of Gore." That peculiar but apt identification seems to be the exclusive property of Herschell Gordon Lewis. With an unusual background that included teaching English Literature to college students, producing and directing television commercials, and voicing radio and television commercials, Herschell literally - and single-handedly - established the "Splatter Film" category of motion pictures. He accomplished this by writing and directing (including the musical score) a mini-budget movie titled "Blood Feast," shot in Miami in 1963 and released theatrically the following year. As critics lambasted the primitive effects and inattention to script and sub-par acting, audiences flocked to theaters to see why friends who had reacted to the movie's fiery marketing campaign had said, "You gotta see this." Armed with boxoffice grosses, Herschell and his producer-partner David Friedman quickly decided to build onto their newly-discovered base. Herschell wrote and directed "Two Thousand Maniacs." The lead singer of the musical group hired to perform background music had a tenor voice. Herschell had written the title song, "The South Gonna Rise Ag'in." He wanted a baritone, and without hesitation he made the switch: the voice on the sound track is his. After their third splatter film, "Color Me Blood Red," David Friedman moved to California, engaging in a different type of motio0n picture. Herschell continued to grind out one success after another, with titles such as "The Gruesome Twosome," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore-Gore Girls." When major film companies began to invade his splatter-turf, Herschell took a hiatus, shifting full time to his "other career," writing advertising and mailings for marketers worldwide. He became one of a handful of experts to be inducted into the Direct Marketing Association's Hall of Fame. (Author of 32 books on marketing including the classic "On the Art of Writing Copy," Herschell is often called on to lecture on copywriting, just as he is invited to sing the theme from "Two Thousand Maniacs" at horror film festivals.) Over the years, an unusual reality came into place: Herschell's old films continued to play not just on TV screens but in theatres, years after conventional movies would have disappeared altogether. The result has been renewal of his life as a film director. Thus it is that a new Herschell Gordon Lewis movie is hoving into view: "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania," produced by James Saito in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and planned for 2015 release. Both the producer and the director encapsulate their opinion of "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania" in a single word: Enthusiastic.- Producer
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A.C. Lyles was born on 17 May 1918 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for The Hunt for Red October (1990), Here's Boomer (1980) and Rogue's Gallery (1968). He was married to Martha Troetscher Schaefer and Martha Vickers. He died on 27 September 2013 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Brunette, blue-eyed Joyce Meadows was one of three siblings, born of German ancestry as Joyce Johanna Burger in Alberta, Canada, to Joseph Henry Burger (1908-1989) and Johanna Louise Schelske (1913-1972). Being raised on a farm, she learned to ride from early childhood, a skill which later served her well during many appearances in television western series like Tombstone Territory (1957), The Texan (1958), Cheyenne (1955) and Tales of Wells Fargo (1957). After the family moved to California, Joyce went to school in Sacramento. There, she formed a song-and-dance act with a girlfriend, won Miss Sacramento and Miss Hollywood beauty pageants back- to-back and made her stage debut as Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Little Eaglet Theater. Joyce completed her musical training in San Francisco at the Geary Conservatory (since 2006, known as the American Conservatory Theater). She also taught herself to play the guitar.
Joyce subsequently pursued further acting studies under Jeff Corey in Hollywood and Stella Adler in New York. She acted on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse and later in Glendale, where she was spotted by an agent during a performance and signed under contract. Her first film appearance was opposite John Agar in the AIP low budget western Flesh and the Spur (1956). She later co-starred with Agar again in the independently-produced (cultish) sci-fi The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) and in the western Frontier Gun (1958). For the most part, Joyce was gainfully employed in television, where she enjoyed recurring or semi-regular roles as the assistant to George Nader's scientist in The Man and the Challenge (1959) and as a saloon owner in Two Faces West (1960). Between 1958 and 1965, she was a frequent guest actress in shows like Markham (1959), Sea Hunt (1958), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and Perry Mason (1957).
Said to have been 'disillusioned with Hollywood', Joyce took a lengthy hiatus from the screen in the mid-60s to go on tour in classic theatrical plays like King Lear, The Glass Menagerie, Richard III and The Rainmaker. Additionally, she did some instructional work at drama workshops in different states. A comeback to screen acting followed in the early 90s which included repeat appearances on the soaps Santa Barbara (1984) and Days of Our Lives (1965).- Wally Cassell was born on 3 March 1912 in Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. He was an actor, known for White Heat (1949), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He was married to Marcy McGuire. He died on 2 April 2015 in Palm Desert, California, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
Diane Franklin is an iconic 80s American film actress, known for her dark curly hair, and dialects. Beginning her acting career at the age of ten, Diane started with modeling, theater, commercials, and soap opera work. She then won the lead role of the dream girl, Karen, in cult classic THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN (1982) and soon after played the daughter, Patricia Montelli in AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION. Her break-out film role was the spirited French-exchange student, Monique Junot, from the off-beat comedy BETTER OFF DEAD. And her most notable commercial success was playing the medieval Princess-babe, Joanna, from 1980s iconic comedy, BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. Diane sang the NATIONAL ANTHEM at Dodger Stadium in 2004, and wrote two autobiographies about her career: Diane Franklin: The Excellent Adventures of the Last American, French Exchange Babe of the 80s (Amazon/Kindle), and Diane Franklin: The Excellent CURLS of the Last American, French Exchange Babe of the 80s (Amazon/Barnes&Noble) Her other acting credits include episodic television, such as Charles in Charge, Murder She Wrote, Matlock and Dallas : The Early Years. She also re-curred in televisions series, and movies made for television, such as SummerGirl and Deadly Lessons. Over the years Diane has also performed in her daughter/filmmaker, OLIVIA DELAURENTIS' award winning comedies: HUMANIZED (L.A. Film Festival,) MY BETTER HALF (Soho Film Festival,) and more recently a comedy web-series on YouTube titled SUGARBABIES (Barely Legal Comedy). Diane returns to acting, on the big screen, in 2018 with the following films: WALLY GOT WASTED, WAKING NIGHTMARE, THE FINAL INTERVIEW and THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS: THE HAUNTING ON LONG ISLAND.