Olive Thomas Pickford (1894 - 1920)

Actress. Born Olivia Duffy in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 1898. Began posing for famous artists such as Harrison Fisher and Howard Chandler Christy. She was then introduced to Florenz Ziegfield which led to wide acclaim on Broadway, where she then changed her name to Olive Thomas, Thomas being the last name of the man […]

Oliver (1958 - 2012)

Oliver was acquired as a young animal (around 2 years old) in 1960 by trainers Frank and Janet Berger. Supposedly, the chimpanzee had been caught in the Congo. Some physical and behavioral evidence led the Bergers to believe Oliver was a creature other than a chimpanzee, perhaps a human-chimp hybrid: Oliver possessed a flatter face […]

Oliver Clarence (1870 - 1955)

Actor. Popular British stage and screen figure, he was more commonly known as “O.B. Clarence”. He appeared in many film productions from the early part of the 20th century through to the 1940s. Amongst his movies are “A Shot in the Dark” (1933), “Pygmalion”(1938), “Jamaica Inn”(1935), “Old Mother Riley in Business”(1941) and “Great Expectations” (1946). […]

Oliver Crawford (1917 - 2008)

Television Screenwriter, Author. He revived his career after being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the early 1950s. He wrote for some of the most popular series from the 1950s into the 1970s, among them “Rawhide”, “Ben Casey’, “The Fugitive”, “Bonanza” and “Star Trek”. Born in Chicago, he was educated at the School […]

Oliver Ellsworth (1745 - 1807)

Ellsworth was born in Windsor, Connecticut, to Capt. David and Jemima (née Leavitt) Ellsworth. He entered Yale in 1762, but transferred to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) at the end of his second year. He continued to study theology and, while attending, helped found the American Whig–Cliosophic Society along with Aaron Burr and […]

Oliver Fisher Winchester (1810 - 1880)

Businessman. He is best remembered for the manufacturing and marketing the Winchester repeating rifle, which gained the reputation as “the gun that won the West.” He began his business career as a clothing manufacturer in New York City, New York and New Haven, Connecticut. During this period he discovered that a division of Smith & […]

Oliver Hardy (1892 - 1957)

Oliver Hardy Although his parents were never in show business, as a young boy Oliver Hardy was a gifted singer and, by age eight, was performing with minstrel shows. In 1910 he ran a movie theatre, which he preferred to studying law. In 1913 he became a comedy actor with the Lubin Company in Florida […]

Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858 - 1908)

Businessman, US Congressman. The son of financier August Belmont Sr., he was born into a family of wealth and privilege. He attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduating in 1880. He served a year as a Midshipman before resigning his commission in 1881. When his father died in 1890, he inherited much […]

Oliver Sacks (1933 - 2015)

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, FRCP (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist and author who spent his professional life in the United States. Oliver Sacks felt that the brain was the “most incredible thing in the universe” and therefore important to study. He became widely known for writing best-selling case […]

Oliver Smithies (1925 - 2017)

Oliver Smithies was awarded a Commonwealth Fund fellowship to take up a post-doctoral position in the United States, in the laboratory of J. W. Williams at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Chemistry. A problem with acquiring a U.S. visa, due to a condition of the Commonwealth Fund fellowship, then forced him to leave the […]

Oliver Wallace (1887 - 1963)

Oliver Wallace was born on August 6, 1887, in London. After completing his musical training, he went to the United States in 1904, becoming a US citizen ten years later. He initially worked primarily on the West Coast as a conductor of theater orchestras and as an organist accompanying silent films. At the same time, […]

Olivia De Havilland (1916 - 2020)

Olivia De Havilland Olivia de Havilland signed with Warner Brothers in 1935 and in 1939 appeared as Melanie in Gone with the Wind. The role gained her recognition and she went on to win Academy Awards for the films To Each His Own and The Heiress. Born on July 1, 1916, in Tokyo, Japan, de Havilland spent much of her youth in […]

Olle Adolphson (1934 - 2004)

Composer. He was one of Sweden´s most celebrated composers and singer, and was known for renewing of the old Swedish song-tradition “visa”. He studied guitar in Spain, and subsequently made his debut, with the collection of songs “Aubade” (1956). Some of his most beloved songs were made in collaboration with lyricist Beppe Wolgers, for instance […]

Ollie C. Vanek (1908 - 2000)

Baseball Figure. He was a former major league baseball player (he played outfield for the 1936 Union City Greyhounds and Dodgers), who discovered the St. Louis Cardinal’s Stan Musial. He was a member of the St. Louis Baseball Hall of Fame, the National Baseball Scouting Hall of Fame and the Professional Baseball Scouting Association. (bio […]

Olympe Bradna (1920 - 2012)

Actress. A pretty brunette, she is remembered for starring in several late 1930s Hollywood films. Born Antoinette Olympe Bradna to a circus family that pushed her into show business, she was named for Paris’ Olympia Theatre, was seen in her parents’ act from the time she was a toddler, made her formal debut at eight […]

Omar Mateen (1986 - 2016)

Omar Mateen was born as Omar Mir Seddique in New York City to Afghan parents, with his father being a supporter of the Mujahideen. He attended Martin County High School for one year and also St. Lucie West Centennial High School, where a schoolmate said he was bullied. He reportedly held two degrees in science […]

Omar Sharif (1932 - 2015)

Omar Sharif, whose surname means “noble” or “nobleman” in Arabic, was born on 10 April 1932, as Michel Demitri Chalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Melkite Greek Catholic family of Lebanese descent. His father, Joseph Chalhoub, a precious woods merchant originally from Zahle, moved to Egypt in the early 20th century, particularly Alexandria, where Omar […]

Omar Suleiman (1936 - 2012)

Suleiman was born in Qena in Upper Egypt. In 1954 at the age of 18, he moved to Cairo to enroll in Egypt’s prestigious Military Academy. He received additional military training in the Soviet Union at Moscow’s Frunze Military Academy. He participated in both the Six-Day and October wars. In the mid-1980s, Suleiman earned additional […]

Ona Munson (1903 - 1955)

Ona Munson was born Owena Wolcott in Portland, Oregon. She first came to fame on Broadway as the singing and dancing ingenue in the original production of No, No, Nanette. From this, Munson had a very successful stage and radio career in the 1930s in New York. She introduced the song “You’re the Cream in […]

Oni Faida Lampley (1959 - 2008)

Playwright Actress. She was born Vera Lampley in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her plays were produced in New York and regionally. Her first play, Mixed Babies (1990), won a Helen Hayes award for Outstanding New Play for its Washington Stage Guild production in Washington D.C. It was produced in New York City by Manhattan Class Company. […]

Ora Carew (1893 - 1955)

Actress. Appeared in films of the silent screen era. Sister of Hollywood film editor Grant Whytock. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Oral Roberts (1918 - 2009)

Roberts was born in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, the fifth and youngest child of the Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudius Priscilla Roberts (née Irwin) (d. 1974). According to an interview on Larry King Live, Irwin was of Cherokee descent. Roberts was a card-carrying member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.  Roberts began life in poverty […]

Oran Pape (1904 - 1936)

Oran Pape was appointed to the newly formed Iowa Highway Patrol (later Iowa State Patrol) in August 1935, one of the first men to become an officer in the Patrol. On April 28, 1936, Pape was patrolling U.S. Highway 61 near Muscatine, Iowa. He noticed a car that had been reported stolen. After pulling the […]

Orane Demazis (1894 - 1991)

Actress. In a theater and motion picture career that lasted over fifty years, she appeared in twenty four films. Born to an Alsatian family that had emigrated to Algeria, she took her stage name from the city of her birth, and from Mazis, a neighboring town. She entered the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris, […]

Orane Demazis (1894 - 1991)

Actress. In a theater and motion picture career that lasted over fifty years, she appeared in twenty four films. Born to an Alsatian family that had emigrated to Algeria, she took her stage name from the city of her birth, and from Mazis, a neighboring town. She entered the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris, […]

Orata Hamao (1970 - 1970)

Educator. Served and president of Tokyo’s Teikoku University. (bio by: Warrick L. Barrett)

Orator Francis Woodward (1856 - 1906)

Businessman. He founded and owned the Genesee Pure Food Company, and his marketing of “jell-o” made it a household dessert in the United States.  Family links:  Parents:  Abner Tarbell Woodward (1821 – 1865)  Phebe J Lyman Woodward (1820 – 1902)  Siblings:  Lyman Jones Woodward (1847 – 1918)*  Luther Woodward (1849 – 1904)*  Josephine Woodward (1851 […]

Oren Harris (1903 - 1997)

Born in Belton in Hempstead County near Hope, Arkansas, Oren Harris attended public schools in Prescott in Nevada County. In 1929, he graduated from Henderson State College in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Thereafter in 1930, he completed law school at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar in 1930 and commenced practice in […]

Orestes Caviglia (1893 - 1971)

Famed stage and cinema actor and director. He participated in 34 movies. (bio by: 380W)

Orison Blunt (1815 - 1879)

Inventor, Businessman. He went to sea at 14, made several voyages, and settled in New York City, New York. Within a few years he and a fellow gunsmith’s apprentice started their own business as firearms dealers, which made Blunt one of New York’s wealthiest men, enabling him to expand his interests to real estate, insurance […]