María Luisa Robledo (1912 - 2005)

Stage and cinema actress. Born in Madrid, Spain, her career lasted almost 80 years. She appeared in 20 films and is best remembered for her role in “La Historia Oficial.” (bio by: 380W)

Maria Mandl (1912 - 1948)

Maria Mandl was born in Münzkirchen, Upper Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, the daughter of a shoemaker. After the Anschluss by Nazi Germany, Mandl moved to Munich, and on 15 October 1938 joined the camp staff as an Aufseherin at Lichtenburg, an early Nazi concentration camp in the Province of Saxony where she worked with fifty […]

Maria Montez (1912 - 1951)

Montez was born María Antonia García Vidal de Santo Silas (some sources cite María África Gracia Vidal or María África Antonia García Vidal de Santo Silas as her birth name) in Barahona, Dominican Republic. She was one of ten children born to Ysidoro García, who worked as the Spanish consul in Dominican Republic, and his […]

Maria Ouspenskaya (1876 - 1949)

Actress. Born in Tula, Russia, she began his career singing at the Warsaw Conservatory and acting at Adasheff’s School of the Drama in Moscow. In 1922, she relocated to New York and was a regular on Broadway for the next decade. Her first Hollywood film role was in “Dodsworth” (1936), which brought her a Academy […]

Maria Palmer (1917 - 1981)

Palmer was born and raised in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Vienna, Austria) on 5 September 1917. She first appeared on stage as a child actor, in various Max Reinhardt productions. She trained as a dancer, and was a member of the Bodenwieser Ensemble. She later studied drama and voice at the Vienna Conservatory. At the outbreak of […]

Maria Perschy (1938 - 2004)

Movie Actress. She began her career in 1958 with the film “Nasser Asphalt”. She is best remembered in USA for her play in Howard Hawks film “Man’s Favorite Sport?” (1964). She also played in “Freud” (1962), “The Desperate Ones” (1968), “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1971) and in TV series “General Hospital”. Cause of death: […]

Maria Romero (1929 - 2015)

Actress. The Spanish voice of numerous major stars, she was later seen in front of the camera on several occasions. Born Banet Angela Maria Romero, she broke into show business as an announcer on Radio Madrid, made her silver screen bow with the 1955 Italian comedy “Demoiselles from 09”, and during the 1960s began providing […]

María Rosa Gallo (1922 - 2004)

Actress. She acted for the first time in a play (1943) being only a teenager.  That performance won the Critic´s Award as the best young actress.  Among her most remarkable works on stage are “Fascinación,” “Todos los Hijos de Dios Tienen Alas,” “El Mercader de Venecia” and “Prontuario.”  In 1950 she traveled to Italy where […]

María Salazar (1976 - 2012)

María Salazar was born in 1976 in Tiquicheo, a small town in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. She attended the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia and earned a PhD in medicine. She began her political career by joining the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and from 2008 to 2011, she served as the […]

Maria Sanford (1836 - 1920)

Maria Sanford was born in Saybrook, Connecticut. Her love for education began early; at the age of 16 she was already teaching in county day schools. She graduated with honors from Connecticut Normal School (now Central Connecticut State University), using her dowry funds for tuition. She rose in the ranks of local and national educators, […]

Maria Schell (1926 - 2005)

Schell was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Margarethe (née Noe von Nordberg), an actress who ran an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright, and owner of a pharmacy. Her parents were Roman Catholics. She was the older sister of actor Maximilian Schell and lesser-known actors Carl Schell and […]

Maria Schneider (1952 - 2011)

Actress. She was best known for her graphic, sexually-oriented role opposite Marlon Brando in the highly controversial 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris”. Born in Paris, she was the daughter of actor Daniel Gelin, whom she did not meet until she was 16. Her mother was a bookstore owner of Rumanian descent. Schneider made her […]

Mariam Fakhr Al Din (1933 - 2014)

Actress. Called “the most beautiful woman in Egypt”, she is remembered for her hundreds of cinematic roles. Born to an Egyptian father and a Hungarian mother, she was educated in Germany and early-on attracted attention for her good looks. After posing for the French magazine “Images”, she made her 1951 silver screen bow in “A […]

Marian Irene “Molly McGee” Driscoll Jordan (1898 - 1961)

Actress and Radio personality. She is best remembered in the comic role of Molly McGee of “Fibber McGee and Molly” (1935-1959) fame.  She and her real life husband, Jim Jordan, would pair together for the rest of their lives as comic actors.  She was born Marian Driscoll in Peoria, Illinois, the daughter of coal miner […]

Marian Marsh (1913 - 2006)

Violet Ethelred Krauth was born on October 17, 1913 in Trinidad, British West Indies (now Trinidad and Tobago), the youngest of four children of a German chocolate manufacturer and his French-English wife. Due to World War I, Violet’s father moved his family to Boston, Massachusetts. By the time Violet was ten, the family had relocated to […]

Marian McCargo (1932 - 2004)

Actress. Tennis champion-turned actress Marian McCargo-Bell, appeared in “Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round” (1966) with James Coburn and Aldo Ray. She played ‘Lauren Young’ in “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell” (1969)with Gina Lollobrigida, Shelley Winters, Peter Lawford, and Lee Grant. Appeared opposite John Wayne as ‘Ann Langdon’ in “The Undefeated” (1969). Played ‘Elaine McGill’ in “Doctor’s […]

Marian McPartland (1918 - 2013)

Margaret Marian Turner was born on 20 March 1918 to Frank and Janet (née Payne) Turner. She had one younger sibling, a sister, Joyce. She demonstrated early musical aptitude at the piano, and would later realize that she had perfect pitch. Margaret (Maggie to her family) studied violin from the age of nine, but never […]

Marian Mercer (1935 - 2011)

Actress. Born Marian Ethel Mercer, she took singing lessons at the age of eight and had a starring role in a high school production of “Annie Get Your Gun” before attending the University of Michigan. She gained experience in summer stock plays and following her moving to New York in 1957, she modeled (as well […]

Marian Nixon (1904 - 1983)

Born Marian Nissinen in Superior, Wisconsin, Nixon began her career as a teen working as a chorus dancer on the vaudeville circuit. She began appearing in bit part in films in 1922 and landed her first substantial role in the 1923 film Cupid’s Fireman, opposite Buck Jones. The following year, she was named a WAMPAS […]

Marian Seldes (1928 - 2014)

Seldes was born in Manhattan, the daughter of Alice Wadhams Hall, a socialite, and Gilbert Seldes, a journalist, author and editor. Her uncle was journalist George Seldes. Seldes’s paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and her mother was from a “prominent WASP family,” the “Episcopalian blue-blooded Halls.” She had a brother, Timothy, and grew up […]

Marian Sorenson Uhlman (1922 - 2003)

Actress. Known as “The Polka Dot Girl” of World War II pinups, using the name of Chili Williams, later appearing as a Goldwyn Girl. A graduate of the Marshall High School, she was discovered by a modelling agent in 1943 at Fire Island in New York. The modelling agent’s photographer took her picture while she […]

Marian Spelman (1921 - 2007)

Television actress and singer, she was an icon in her local city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she worked mostly on television station WLWT.   A regular on the “Fifty-Fifty Club” show and other live shows from 1952 to 1975, she was also known for her work with the Cincinnati Playhouse, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and […]

Mariana Levy (1966 - 2005)

Mariana Levy was born in Mexico City. By the time she turned sixteen in 1982, she participated in her first Televisa soap opera, Vivir Enamorada (“Living in Love”), where she played “Verónica”. Levy took 1983 off, then returned to the small screen in 1984, in a major Televisa hit, Los Años Felices (“The Happy Years”). […]

Mariangela Melato (1941 - 2013)

Italian Actress. Regarded by film critics as one of the best actresses and known for her many main character roles in successful films. From 1963 to 1965 she worked with Dario Fo in ” Settimo: ruba un pò meno e la colpa è sempre del diavolo” and in 1966 was committed to the Teatro Stabile […]

Marianne Gaba (1939 - 2016)

Actress, Model. Born Mary Ann Gaba, in Chicago, her father worked as a mail carrier, she began modeling during her teenage years and captured the title of ‘Miss Illinois’ in 1957. This experience resulted in her finishing as a finalist for the ‘Miss Universe Pageant’ and her adorning the cover of Playboy Magazine in September […]

Marianne Hoppe (1909 - 2002)

Born in Rostock, Marianne Hoppe became a leading lady of stage and films in Germany. She was born into a wealthy landowning family and was initially privately educated on her father’s private estate. Later she attended school in Berlin and in Weimar, where she began to attend theatre. Hoppe first performed at 17 as a member […]

Marianne Schönauer (1920 - 1997)

Actress. She had a long acting career in Austrian motion pictures and television. She made her first film “Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt” (The World Turns The Wrong Way) in 1947. Other films she appeared in include “Eroica,” “1 April 2000,” and “Maria Theresia.” She also performed on the stage and sang and recorded music. […]

Marianne Stone (1922 - 2009)

Actress. A specialist in cameos, she portrayed a succession of waitresses, clerks, secretaries, nurses, and barmaids in hundreds of British movies, and will probably be best remembered for her roles in a dozen of the “Carry On” series of films from the 1960s and 1970s. Raised by her grandparents, her talent became evident in her […]

Mariano Benlliure (1862 - 1947)

Spanish sculptor. He was born in a family of artists. He studied in Valencia, Madrid, Rome and Paris. Among his sculptures: “Accidente,” “Monument to Velázquez,” “Goya,” and religious figures such as “María Magdalena” and “Santísimo Cristo Yacente.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)  Family links:  Spouses:  Carmen Quevedo Pessanha*  Leopoldina Tuero O’Donnell (1867 – 1952)* […]

Mariano Fortuny (1838 - 1874)

Spanish Painter in the 19th century. Among his works are “Marroquíes,” “La Odalisca,” “La Batalla de Tetuán,” “Viejo Desnudo al Sol,” and “La Vicaría.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)