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1-6 of 6
- Actor
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- Soundtrack
Richard Mann Allan was born in Jacksonville, Illinois on June 22, 1923 to a farmer father Robert and a dietitian mother Edna. He grew up with two brothers, Edward and Robert Jr. and a sister Catherine. He began taking dance classes when he was seven years old, and he also loved going to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. He partnered up with a little girl from his dancing class to do their own version of Fred and Ginger dances and became popular locally. He grew up to become a well-known dancer-singer-actor in Jacksonville. He then earned a scholarship to the University of Illinois, where he joined the Theatre Arts Department. However, he was soon drafted to the army unit in Italy where he was assigned the officers' laundry detail. Immediately upon his discharge from service, he went to New York City to audition professionally for the first time in the Broadway musical "The Red Mill" (1945). He landed a speaking part and stayed for its entire Broadway and national tour. Once that ended, he immediately landed another job, in the 1948 Los Angeles production of "Naughty Marietta" where he danced. He stayed behind in Los Angeles, determined to get into the movies. His tall, dark and handsome looks landed him a job as a double for Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun (1951), where Clift complimented him by saying that he should have been the star. However, Allan would spend his entire film career being overshadowed by his more famous leading ladies. He danced with Esther Williams in Neptune's Daughter (1949) and Duchess of Idaho (1950) and with Betty Grable in Wabash Avenue (1950), My Blue Heaven (1950), and Call Me Mister (1951), with Ava Gardner in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), with Academy Award winner Susan Hayward in With a Song in My Heart (1952), and with Mitzi Gaynor in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952). He had signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox (hereinafter Fox), and they cast him as Marilyn Monroe's passionate lover who tries to kill her husband for her in Niagara (1953). The film became a hit and he was on the movie's poster with Monroe, and he won a Photoplay citation as "One of America's Most Promising Newcomers" in 1953. "Niagara" remains his best known role. Nevertheless, he spent the next few years at Fox testing for many leads, but only securing small uncredited roles, such as when he was turned down for the lead role in The Egyptian (1954) which went to Edmund Purdom only to end up with a uncredited bit role. His career never went further at Fox, and he blamed "lousy, lousy management". The disappointing years at Fox took its toll on him. He was doing a hat dance with a star for a film, but the star found it too difficult to perform, so Fox had wanted to photograph Allan from a distance to accommodate the star. He refused, and the studio retaliated by dropping his contract. When it seemed like Tony Curtis might not be available to do The Defiant Ones (1958), the producers approached him wanting a Curtis lookalike, but Allan retorted "Tell them to call me when they want someone who looks like Richard Allan". (Curtis later did become available to take the role, for which he earned his sole Academy Award nomination.) Since Hollywood had nothing to offer him, Allan felt he had no choice but to take German star Caterina Valente's offer to come to Germany and act with her in several films. She had first seem him dance in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and thought he had potential. He remained there long enough to make a few more films with other actors. Eventually, he returned to Hollywood where he teamed with Diane Hartman in a popular nightclub act called "Hartman & Allan", where they performed at Ciro's nightclub in Los Angeles. However, when Ciro's closed its doors as a nitery for the last time in 1961, it also took down its prominent marquee that had "Hartman & Allan", thus ending Allan's career as an entertainer. In 1964, a middle-aged Allan began earning a living as a masseur, and Kim Novak had initially recommended his masseur services to people in the entertainment industry. Over time, he had developed a clientele that had no connections to show business. He also stopped having any contact with show business people, including former friends Jeffrey Hunter and his then-wife Barbara Rush, explaining that "When you aren't successful, people just aren't comfortable with having you around". In the late 1980s, he moved to Prospect, Kentucky to be closer to his brother Robert Jr. He remained there until his death of of lung cancer on September 6, 1999 at the age of 76. After his death, his body was sent over to be buried in his family plot in Gillham Cemetery in Illinois.- Jake Pizur was born on 14 July 1992 in Barrington, Illinois, USA. He died on 5 January 2023 in Prospect Heights, Illinois, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Robert Owen Atcher was born in Hardin County, Kentucky on May 11, 1914. His parents were George Christopher Atcher and Mary Agnes Ray Atcher. George Atcher was a champion fiddle player, and the Atchers had a family band that played Appalachian folk music and bluegrass. The family moved to North Dakota when Bob was 4 years old, after the Federal government acquired the family farm to become part of Fort Knox Reservation. In North Dakota, Bob learned cowboy songs from the ranch hands, and learned to play guitar and accompany his father. When the family returned to Kentucky they played shows in the region, and he later attended the University of Kentucky in pre-med, where he had a radio show as the Kentucky Mountain Minstrel. He was approached to move to WSB in Atlanta, and after a few years honing his skills at several radio stations owned by the Atlas brothers, he began recording for Columbia Records. His biggest records were, "You Are My Sunshine (1940)", "Cool Water (1940)", "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes (1941)" and "Pins and Needles in My Heart (1942)". Although known primarily as a radio and television entertainer, Bob Atcher appeared in two movies for Columbia Pictures, Panhandle Trail (1941) and Hail to the Rangers (1942). He performed with three partners who sung with him as Bonnie Blue Eyes: Loeta Applegate Atcher, his first wife; Mary Jane Johnson of the Johnson Sisters; and Marguerite Whitehill "Maggie" Atcher, his second wife, to whom he was married from November 29, 1947 until his death. Bob and Maggie Atcher appeared together on the National Barn Dance on WLS in Chicago, after Bob joined the show as a regular in 1949. They had three children, Robert Whitehill Atcher, Mary Christopher Atcher, and Cecily Ann Atcher. Bob Atcher also appeared on various television shows in Chicago, including Meadowgold Ranch, and the Barn Dance. In 1958, he was elected mayor of Schaumburg, Illinois, a village about 35 miles northwest of Chicago. He served for 16 years as mayor, during which time the town experienced unprecedented growth, but in an orderly, planned, way that was attributed largely to his vision and leadership. During his tenure, Woodfield Mall was built there, which was considered the largest shopping center in the world at that time. Schaumburg also became a sought-after location for corporations and industry. Atcher retired from politics in 1974, and returned to performing with his wife and children as the Bob Atcher Family Singers. His wife, Maggie, still lives in Prospect, Kentucky, a suburb of Louisville, where they moved in 1989. Bob Atcher died on October 30, 1993.- Martin Fisher was an actor, known for Only the Lonely (1991). He died on 13 January 1999 in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, USA.
- Bill Parker was born on 19 March 1942 in Utica, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Death of Daniel Whately (2004) and Detour (2002). He died on 1 November 2004 in Prospect, New York, USA.
- Phil Masi was born on 6 January 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He died on 29 March 1990 in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, USA.