Lev Landau (1908 - 1968)

Lev Landau was the head of the Theoretical Division at the Institute for Physical Problems from 1937 until 1962. Landau was arrested on 27 April 1938, because he had compared the Stalinist dictatorship with that of Hitler, and was held in the NKVD’s Lubyanka prison until his release on 29 April 1939, after the head […]

Lev Vygotsky (1896 - 1934)

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Вы́готский or Выго́тский, born Лев Симхович Выгодский [Lev Simkhovich Vygodskiy], November 17 [O.S. November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Soviet psychologist, the founder of an unfinished theory of human cultural and bio-social development commonly referred to as cultural-historical psychology, the prominent advocate for the new theory […]

Levi Strauss (1829 - 1902)

Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, Germany, on February 26, 1829, in the Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He was the son of Hirsch Strauss and his second wife Rebecca Strauss. At the age of 18, Strauss, his mother and two sisters traveled to the United States to join his […]

Lew Anderson (1922 - 2006)

Anderson was born in Kirkman, Iowa, the son of a railroad telegrapher. He began playing his sister’s clarinet when she tired of it, and by high school had formed his own dance band. After a year in junior college in Fort Dodge, Iowa, he received a music scholarship to Drake University in Des Moines. He […]

Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996)

Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Irma and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon after. As a teen, Lew and his mother moved with his step-father and half brother and sister to San Diego, California. Leaving high school before graduating, he started a […]

Lew Cody (1884 - 1934)

Lew Cody (February 22, 1884 – May 31, 1934) was an American stage and film actor whose career spanned the silent film and early sound film age. He gained notoriety in the late 1910s for playing “male vamps” in films such as Don’t Change Your Husband. Lew Cody was born Louis Joseph Côté to Joseph Côté […]

Lew Gallo (1928 - 2000)

American Character Actor and Producer. He was best known for his role as Maj. Joseph Cobb on the 1960s ABC World War II series Twelve O’Clock High. He also made appearances on other series including Rawhide, Dr. Kildare, The F.B.I., Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason and Get Smart. He also appeared in the films […]

Lewis A. “Idaho Lewis” Croft (1970 - 1970)

Actor. When Lewis was 20 he starred as a munchkin soldier in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”. He worked in sideshows and circuses and became an acomplished singer. He passed away on April 29, 2008, 3 days before his 89th birthday. (bio by: Jared Walker)  Family links:  Parents:  Samuel E Crofts (1891 – […]

Lewis Albanese (1946 - 1966)

Louie Albanese (in Italian Luigi) was born in Cornedo Vicentino – Vicenza, Italy, graduated from Franklin High School in Seattle, Washington. He briefly worked for Boeing before joining the Army on 26 October 1965. He received basic training with B Co 1st Bn 11th Inf at Fort Carson, Colorado and was sent to Vietnam in […]

Lewis Allen (1905 - 2000)

Lewis Allen was born in the small Shropshire town of Oakengates and on leaving school joined the Merchant Navy for four years. After leaving the service he became, briefly, an actor, before moving into London theatrical management, first for Raymond Massey and later for Gilbert Miller. In 1935 he began working on Broadway. His credits include […]

Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898)

Author. Carroll was the third child born to a family of eleven children. From a very early age he entertained himself and his family by performing magic tricks and marionette shows, and by writing poetry for his homemade newspapers. In 1846 he entered Rugby School, and in 1854 he graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford. […]

Lewis Collins (1946 - 2013)

The son of Bill Collins, a shipwright and amateur musician who played the piano in local clubs with the Savoy Swingers band, Lewis was born in Bidston, Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula (then part of Cheshire). Aged two, he won the Most Beautiful Baby in Liverpool contest. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange […]

Lewis Katz (1942 - 2014)

Businessman, Sports Team Owner. At the time of his death, he was co-proprietor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. He was the former principal owner of the New Jersey Devils and New Jersey Nets. Born into a Jewish family, his father died while Lewis was a child. He attained his bachelor’s degree in Business […]

Lewis Maitland Allen (1922 - 2003)

Motion Pictures Producer. Best known for producing the original stage production of “Annie,” for which he won a Tony. He also produced movies, including “Lord of the Flies” and “Fahrenheit 451.” (bio by: Jennifer M.)  Family links:  Parents:  Lewis M Allen (1874 – 1949)  Dorothy Gilpin Allen (1891 – 1970)  Spouse:  Jay Presson Allen (1922 […]

Lewis Milestone (1895 - 1980)

Milestone was born in Kishinev, in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Chişinău, Moldova), to a family of Jewish heritage. He came to the United States in 1912, just prior to World War I. Milestone held a number of odd jobs before enlisting in the U.S. Signal Corps, where he worked as an […]

Lewis Moran (1941 - 2004)

Lewis Moran (7 July 1941 – 31 March 2004) was an Australian organized crime figure and patriarch of the infamous Moran family of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Notable for his involvement in the Melbourne gangland killings, Moran was shot dead in a Melbourne hotel The Brunswick Club in 2004. His murder occurred one week after the […]

Lewis Nixon (1861 - 1940)

Naval Architect, Shipbuilding Executive, Businessman, and Political Activist. He is remembered for designing the US Navy’s first modern battleships, and supervising the construction of its first modern submarines. Born in Leesburg, Virginia he received an appointment to attend the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and graduated first in his class in 1882. He was […]

Lewis Parsons Hobart (1873 - 1954)

Architect. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Hobart studied briefly at the University of California Berkeley before travelling to Paris to study at l’École des Beaux Arts until 1903. Shortly after the devastating earthquake of 1906, he moved to San Francisco where he was prominent in the rebuilding of the city. Among his many projects […]

Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 - 1940)

American Photographer. Hine was trained to be an educator in Chicago and New York. A project photographing on Ellis Island with students from the Ethical Culture School in New York galvanized his recognition of the value of documentary photography in education. He became a sociological photographer, establishing a studio in upstate New York in 1912. […]

Lex Barker (1919 - 1973)

Lex Barker made it to Broadway once, in a small role in a short run of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1938. He also had a small role in Orson Welles’s disastrous Five Kings, which met with so many problems in Boston and Philadelphia that it never made it into New York. In February […]

Lexie Bigham (1968 - 1995)

Actor. Born Lexie Darnell Bigham Jr. in Illinois, he appeared in numerous independent films and television series. He had prominent roles in feature films such as “Boyz in the Hood” (1991), “South Central” (1992), “Airheads” (1994), “Se7en” (1995) and “Up Close & Personal” (1996). His TV credits include “China Beach”, “LA Law” and “Saved by […]

Leyla Gencer (1928 - 2008)

Leyla Gencer was born in Polonezköy (near Istanbul) to a Turkish father and a Polish mother. Her father, Hasanzade İbrahim Bey (who took the surname Çeyrekgil under the Surname Law of 1934), was a wealthy businessman, whose family was from the city of Safranbolu. Her mother, Lexanda Angela Minakovska, was from a Roman Catholic family […]

Liam Rector (1949 - 2007)

Liam Rector (November 21, 1949 – August 15, 2007) was an American poet, essayist and educator. He had administered literary programs at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. He was also the director, most recently, of the […]

Liane Haid (1895 - 2000)

Actress. She was born in Vienna (Austria) and died in Bern (Switzerland). She is considered the first Austrian movie star in film history. She began her career as dancer but in 1915, she entered in films, and in the 20s, she become a movie star. In 1942 she emigrated to Switzerland and got married with […]

Libby Holman (1904 - 1971)

Elizabeth Lloyd Holzman was born May 23, 1904, in Cincinnati, Ohio to a Jewish lawyer and stockbroker, Alfred Holzman (August 20, 1867 – June 14, 1947) and his wife, Rachel Florence Workum Holzman (October 17, 1873 – April 22, 1966). Their other children were daughter Marion H. Holzman (January 25, 1901 – December 13, 1963) […]

Liberace (1919 - 1987)

Liberace He was born Wladziu (Polish for Walter) Liberace in West Allis, Wisconsin to immigrant Italian and Polish parents one of four children. Both parents were musically talented. His Italian father played the french horn with the Milwaukee Philharmonic Orchestra and his Polish mother played the piano. When Polish pianist Paderwski visited the Liberaces, he […]

Libertad Lamarque (1908 - 2000)

Renowned Argentinian tango singer and actress. She is best remembered for her films “Madreselva” (1938), “En el Viejo Buenos Aires” (1941), “La Infame” (1953) and “La Cigüeña Dijo Sí” (1960). Later in her career, she appeared in the TV series “Carita de Angel” (2000). (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Lida Baarova (1914 - 2000)

Born Ludmila Babková, she studied acting at Prague Conservatory and got her first film role in a Czech film at the age of 17. Her mother appeared in several theatre plays and her younger sister, Zorka Janů, was also a film actress. After being discovered by talent scouts for the German film studios, Baarova left […]

Lida Babková Baarová (1914 - 2000)

Actress. Popular figure of Czech and European motion pictures. (bio by: Jirka Kostal)

Liesbeth Struppert (1938 - 1994)

Actress. She is most famous for her theatre role as Miep Gies in “The Diary of Anne Frank”, her voice for ‘Juffrouw Cassandra” in the “Maja de Bij” television series, and her role in the series “Hamelen”. She also played in a number of movies and had guest-roles in television shows. (bio by: Richsmi)