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1-7 of 7
- Actress
- Writer
Britisher Yvonne Mitchell was born on July 7, 1915, in London and was first and foremost a stage actress who, after being educated at St Paul's Girls School in London and The London Theatre Studio, began her theatrical career in the late 1930s. By the time of her death, she had performed under the theatre lights for over four decades. Her output in films and TV paled in comparison, but the work she put out in those mediums were of unusually high quality with mature themes.
The dark-haired actress made her starring film debut in The Queen of Spades (1949) and proceeded to become a moving, thoughtful, often anguished presence throughout the 1950s, winning the British Film Award for her touching, sterling performance as the biological mother of a foster child in The Divided Heart (1954). Her slovenly, cuckolded wife in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) won her the Berlin International Film Festival Award.
Other important films included Escapade (1955), Sapphire (1959), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) and Johnny Nobody (1961).
On the sly, Yvonne was a novelist of both children and adult books and an award-winning playwright. She also penned an enormously successful biography entitled "Colette--A Taste for Life" based on the famed French writer. The wife of film and stage critic Derek Monsey, she wrote her biography in 1957.
She died of cancer on March 24, 1979, in London.- John Meston was one of radio and television's most important storytellers, and yet oddly enough his contributions are often overlooked today. He is the writer credited with creating "Gunsmoke," along with producer Norman MacDonnell, essentially starting the adult western on radio and television and setting the tone and style which would make both the radio and television versions of the series so memorable. Meston began in the program practices department at CBS in the 1940s before becoming a writer and editor. Overall, he wrote 183 of the "Gunsmoke" radio episodes (413 were produced in all between 1952 and 1961), and 196 of the 635 episodes produced for television between 1955 and 1975. While he never won any major award for his work, Meston was a master writer, serving up memorable characters in authentic western settings.
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kurt Früh (1915-1979) was most probably Switzerland's most popular film director ever. Früh was born in 1915 in St. Gallen (Switzerland). When he was a child, his family moved to Zurich, where Früh studied linguistics and music at the university. Already from 1933, he was head, author and director at the Zurich Volksbühne which stood under Brecht's influence. In 1936, Früh inaugurated a few political cabarets for which Switzerland got famous during World War II and which stood in the service of "mental defense of the state". Many of the performers such as Zarli Carigiet, Ruedi Walter or Margrit Rainer acted also in his films. Also in 1936, Früh started his career as a director for Central Film in Zurich, he put plays on stage and also directed musical works. Between 1949 and 1953, he was assistant director of Leopold Lindtberg, who also made a few of the most famous classical Swiss movies. In 1955, Früh saw his break-trough with "Polizischt Wäckerli", in the main role was Schaggi Streuli, one of Switzerland's most beloved actors. In his 1957 film "Bäckerei Zürrer" which plays in the Zurich Langstrasse neighborhood, Früh portrayed bums, boozers, small criminals and whores for which he showed also in his other movies much sympathy. Up to the eighties, the Swiss TV broadcast approximately each month Früh's most popular movies, such as "Oberstadtgass" (1956), "Hinter den sieben Gleisen" (1959), Cafe Odeon (1959), "Der Teufel hat gut lachen/Il diavolo ride" (1960), and the wonderfully said movie "Dällebach Kari" (1970), one of Früh's last works with the unforgettable score by Mani Matter (1936-1972). From 1964-1967, Früh was head of the ressort theatre at the Swiss TV and professor for film at the Museum of Art in Zurich, where he helped develop the New Swiss Film, the Swiss adaptation of Nouvelle Vague. Kurt Früh died nearly forgotten in 1979 in Boswil (Canton of Berne, Switzerland).- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Rupert Caplan was born on 3 October 1896 in Montreal, Canada. He was a director and actor, known for Folio (1955), First Performance (1955) and Forbidden Journey (1950). He was married to Liebe Caplan. He died on 24 March 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.- Ole Lund Kirkegaard is arguably the most successful Danish children's book author ever. Between 1967 and 1975, he wrote no fewer than 6 classics:
"Lille Virgil" (Little Virgil), 1967; "Albert", 1968; "Orla Frøsnapper" (Orla Frog-eater), 1969; "Hodja fra Pjort" (Hodja from Pjort), 1970; "Otto er et næsehorn" (Otto is a rhinoceros), 1972 and perhaps his biggest success: "Gummi-Tarzan" (Rubber Tarzan) from 1975, portraying the miserable life of a small, skinny, weak and untalented boy named Ivan Olsen.
All of these six books have since been adapted, either by the film industry or by the theater.
Ole grew up with good and liberal parents, who allowed the playful boy to explore his fantasies. His father Niels, a dentist, and his mother Ellen let him set up a circus in their garden and to cut out totem poles to play cowboys and indians.
Ole went to high school at Aarhus Katedralskole. This is also where he met his wife Anne Lise with whom he had two daughters: Maya og Nana. After graduating, Ole went sailing but quickly discovered that he got sea sick easily. He quit that job after a year and started studying to be teacher. Meanwhile, he married Anne Lise. After he graduated, while Anne Lise finished her studies (also teacher), Ole served as a soldier at Garderhusarerne in Næstved (mounted troops), and he actually attained the rank of Lieutenant. After Anne Lise graduated, they both got jobs at a little school in the small town of Oue, near Hobro.
Ole loved writing children's literature and sometimes read his stories to his pupils. From 1973 onwards, he decided to become a full time author. He also spent time traveling the country giving lectures.
Unfortunately, he also became an alcoholic as time went by, a fact verified by his wife, who divorced him (under peaceful conditions) some three months before his unfortunate and untimely death. Rumours of suicide had circulated but were dismissed by his wife, who could tell the real story as verified by the coroner.
On the evening of March 24, 1979, he spent some time at a local inn after giving a lecture. He got rather drunk and on his way back home, he took sick and passed out in the snow. He died from the ensuing hypothermia.
The works of Ole Lund Kirkegaard has long since become compulsory in any child's bookshelf, and his timeless stories will probably continue to be loved all over Denmark. His premature death was a great loss for Danish literature, but his books live on as a testament to a truly brilliant author of children's books. - Michael Moore was born on 17 May 1909 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Othello (1956), Six Days of Justice (1972) and It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974). He died on 24 March 1979 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Producer
Eric Lugg was born on 1 November 1890 in Deptford, London, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for The Captain's Table (1936), Theatre Parade (1936) and False Evidence (1922). He died on 24 March 1979 in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, UK.