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1-9 of 9
- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a musical conductor, fair-haired, matronly Brenda de Banzie appeared in around 40 films. As the result of two outstanding performances she became an unexpected star when well into her middle age. Brenda first came to public notice as a sixteen year old chorus girl on the London stage in "Du Barry Was a Lady" in 1942. By that time, she had already been treading the boards in repertory for some seven years. The theatre was, first and foremost, her preferred medium. In the early 1950s, she had an excellent run of top-billed performances at the West End which included "Venus Observed" with Laurence Olivier, and "Murder Mistaken", in which she played a wealthy hotel owner whose husband is plotting to bump her off for her money. For this, she won the coveted Clarence Derwent Award as Best Supporting Actress.
Critical plaudits tempted her to try her luck on screen, so Brenda eventually made her celluloid debut in Anthony Bushell's murder mystery The Long Dark Hall (1951). Her performance -- as a rather vulgar and dowdy boarding house landlady -- drew good notices, including one from Bosley Crowther of The New York Times. In 1954, director David Lean cast Brenda in her defining role as Maggie Hobson, an ambitious spinster, opposite Charles Laughton and John Mills in Hobson's Choice (1954). As it turned out, she pretty much stole every scene from her illustrious co-stars. Rather surprisingly, a BAFTA eluded her. In 1958, Brenda landed the prize role of Phoebe Rice, the bitter, alcoholic wife of a second-rate music hall performer (played superbly by Olivier) in John Osborne's The Entertainer (1960). She recreated her performance for Broadway and for the film version in 1960 and received a Tony Award nomination. Sadly, despite such promise her stock did not improve thereafter and she was relegated for the remainder of her career to matronly character roles. Brenda passed away on the operating table during surgery for a non-malignant brain tumor in March 1981.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Paul Hörbiger was born on 29 April 1894 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. He was an actor and producer, known for The Third Man (1949), Three Girls Around Schubert (1936) and The Gypsy Baron (1954). He was married to Josefa Gettke. He died on 5 March 1981 in Vienna, Austria.- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
One of the great lyricists of American song, Edgar Yipsel Harburg (born Isidore Hochberg) grew up in the working-class Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side. In high school, he befriended Ira Gershwin, later his collaborator on student literary ventures at City College of New York; both also contributed to F.P. Adams' column in the daily New York World, the city's leading outlet for light verse. After graduation in 1917, during the wartime manpower shortage, Harburg landed a lucrative job in Uruguay with the Swift & Co. meat-packing firm. In 1920, he returned to New York, where he became a partner in an appliance business that thrived for most of the 1920s but failed around the time of the 1929 stock market crash. Harburg determined to make a living at lyric writing; Gershwin provided a $500 loan and an introduction to the composer Jay Gorney. They collaborated on songs for Broadway revues and a number that Helen Morgan sang in two early film musicals; in 1932, they wrote Harburg's breakthrough, the unemployment anthem "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" In that year, for Broadway shows opening a few days apart, Harburg wrote "April in Paris" (with Vernon Duke) and, with Harold Arlen, "It's Only a Paper Moon." For the next 12 years, for theater and movies, Arlen was Harburg's most important collaborator; the partnership peaked with The Wizard of Oz (1939). Although he contributed to a number of films in the 1940s, Harburg's best work in those years was for Broadway's "Bloomer Girl" (with Arlen) and, with Burton Lane, "Finian's Rainbow." Both shows featured Harburg's lyrical dexterity ("When I'm not facing the face that I fancy, I fancy the face I face") and social commentary (both shows satirized racism and capitalism). His liberalism led to Harburg's blacklisting by Hollywood in the 1950s, helping to ensure that "Finian" would not be filmed for decades. Harburg continued to write, with Jule Styne, Earl Robinson and others, into his eighties.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Totti Truman Taylor was born on 7 September 1915 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Worzel Gummidge Turns Detective (1953) and Heidi (1953). She died on 5 March 1981 in London, England, UK.- Jeannie Luxeuil was born on 13 November 1905 in Luxeuil-les-Bains, Haute-Saône, France. She was an actress, known for Cagliostro - Liebe und Leben eines großen Abenteurers (1929), Camp volant (1932) and Virages (1930). She died on 5 March 1981 in Saint-Remy, Haute-Saône, France.
- Barbara Prosniewska was born on 20 January 1930 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland. She was an actress, known for Dotkniecie nocy (1962). She died on 5 March 1981 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
- Karl Springenschmid was born on 19 March 1897 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary. He was a writer, known for Da lacht Tirol (1967), Rübezahl - Herr der Berge (1957) and Gold aus Gletschern (1956). He died on 5 March 1981 in Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
- József Gáli was born on 10 February 1930 in Gyula, Hungary. József was a writer, known for Súgó kellene (1971) and A tüz balladája (1972). József died on 5 March 1981 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Enrico Gras was born on 7 March 1919 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Lost Continent (1955), Empire in the Sun (1956) and Il paradiso perduto (1949). He died on 5 March 1981 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.