Benjamin Spock (1903 - 1998)

Benjamin McLane Spock was born May 2, 1903, in New Haven, Connecticut; his parents were Benjamin Ives Spock, a Yale graduate and long-time general counsel of the New Haven Railroad, and Mildred Louise (Stoughton) Spock. His name came from Dutch ancestry; they originally spelled the name Spaak before migrating to the former colony of New […]

Roberto Rossellini (1906 - 1977)

In 1937, Roberto Rossellini made his first documentary, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. After this essay, he was called to assist Goffredo Alessandrini in making Luciano Serra pilota, one of the most successful Italian films of the first half of the 20th century. In 1940 he was called to assist Francesco De Robertis on Uomini […]

Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976)

Luchino Visconti began his filmmaking career as an assistant director on Jean Renoir’s Toni (1935) and Partie de campagne (1936), thanks to the intercession of their common friend, Coco Chanel. After a short tour of the United States, where he visited Hollywood, he returned to Italy to be Renoir’s assistant again, this time for La […]

Jacques Tourneur (1904 - 1977)

Born in Paris, France, Jacques Tourneur was the son of film director Maurice Tourneur. At age 10, Jacques moved to the United States with his father. He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk in various silent films. Both Maurice and Jacques returned […]

James Cain (1892 - 1977)

Upon returning to the United States, James Cain continued working as a journalist, writing editorials for the New York World and a play, a short story, and satirical pieces for American Mercury.[1] He briefly served as the managing editor of The New Yorker and later worked mainly on screenplays and novels. His first novel, The Postman […]

Georges Delerue (1925 - 1992)

Georges Delerue was born 12 March 1925 in Roubaix, France to Georges Delerue and Marie Lhoest. He was raised in a musical household; his grandfather led an amateur chorale group and his mother sang and played piano at family gatherings. By the age of fourteen he was playing clarinet at the local music conservatory. In […]

John Farrow (1904 - 1963)

Farrow was born in Sydney, Australia, the son of Lucy Villiers (née Savage; 1881-1907), a dressmaker, and Joseph Farrow (1880-1925), a tailor’s trimmer. His mother died when he was three years old. His parents were both of English descent. Farrow was educated at Newtown Public School and Fort Street Boys’ High School and then started […]

Kenneth Fearing (1902 - 1961)

Kenneth Fearing was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Harry Lester Fearing, a successful Chicago attorney, and Olive Flexner Fearing. His parents divorced when he was a year old, and he was raised mainly by his aunt, Eva Fearing Scholl. He went to school at Oak Park and River Forest High School, and […]

Steve Fisher (1912 - 1980)

Steve Fisher was born 29 August 1912, in Marine City, Michigan. He was raised in Los Angeles, California, where he attended Oneonta Military Academy until running away to join the Navy at the age of sixteen. Fisher spent four years in the Navy submarine service, during which time he wrote prolifically, selling stories to U.S. […]

Paul Wendkos (1925 - 2009)

Paul Wendkos (born September 20, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died November 12, 2009 in Malibu, California) was an American television and film director. Following World War II service in the United States Navy and his education at Columbia University on the G.I. Bill, Wendkos made his first feature, a documentary on a school for the blind […]

Horace McCoy (1897 - 1955)

Horace McCoy was born in Pegram, Tennessee. During World War I McCoy served in the United States Army Air Corps. He flew several missions behind enemy lines as a bombardier and reconnaissance photographer. He was wounded and received the Croix de Guerre for heroism from the government of France. From 1919 to 1930, he worked as […]

Charles Willeford (1919 - 1988)

Charles Willeford was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1919. Following the death of his father from tuberculosis in 1922, Willeford and his mother moved to the Los Angeles area. After his mother’s death in 1927, also from TB, he lived with his grandmother Mattie Lowey on Figueroa Street near Exposition Park until 1932. At […]

Cornell Woolrich (1903 - 1968)

Cornell Woolrich was born in New York City; his parents separated when he was young. He lived for a time in Mexico with his father before returning to New York to live with his mother, Claire Attalie Woolrich. He attended Columbia University but left in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, Cover Charge, was published. […]

Jim Thompson (1906 - 1977)

James Myers Thompson (September 27, 1906 – April 7, 1977) was an American author and screenwriter, known for his hardboiled crime fiction. Jim Thompson wrote more than thirty novels, the majority of which were original paperback publications by houses, from the late-1940s through mid-1950s. Despite some positive critical notice—notably by Anthony Boucher in The New York […]

Richard Ballinger (1858 - 1922)

After serving as the mayor of Seattle, Richard Ballinger joined the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and served as commissioner of the General Land Office from 1907 until 1908. In 1909, Ballinger helped organize the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, a World’s Fair to highlight development in the Northwest. In 1909 despite previous promises to retain ex-President Roosevelt’s cabinet […]

Gaylord Nelson (1916 - 2005)

In 1948, Gaylord Nelson was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate. He remained a member until 1958. That year, Nelson was elected governor of Wisconsin, and he served two two-year terms before successfully running for Senate in 1962. He served three consecutive terms as a senator from 1963 to 1981. In 1963 he convinced President […]

Charles Mott (1875 - 1973)

Charles Mott was born on June 2, 1875 in Newark, Essex County, N.J.[1] to John Coon Mott and Isabella Turnball Stewart. He graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1897 with an engineering degree. He began working for his father and his uncle, Fred Mott, who had purchased a bicycle wheel making business (Weston-Mott Co.).[citation needed] […]

He Zizhen (1910 - 1984)

He Zizhen was born in Yunshan (云山, now Yongxin County), Jiangxi, during Qing Dynasty China and joined the Communist Youth League in 1925. She graduated from the Yongxin Girls’ School and joined the Communist Party of China in 1926. He Zizhen was introduced to Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan by Yuan Wencai, a classmate of her elder […]

Chen Boda (1904 - 1989)

In 1951, Chen Boda wrote an article with the title Mao Zedong’s theory of the Chinese Revolution is the combination of Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese Revolution and a book entitled Mao Zedong on the Chinese Revolution. These works made him one of the most important interpreters of Mao Zedong’s thoughts, and in the 1950s he […]

Jiang Qing (1914 - 1991)

Jiang Qing (Chinese: 江青; Wade–Giles: Chiang Ch’ing, March 19, 1914 – May 14, 1991) was a Chinese actress and a major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She used the stage name Lan Ping (蓝苹) […]

Lin Biao (1907 - 1971)

Lin Biao (Chinese: 林彪; December 5, 1907 – September 13, 1971) was a Marshal of the People’s Republic of China who was pivotal in the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeast China. Lin was the general who commanded the decisive Liaoshen and Pingjin Campaigns, in which he co-led the Manchurian Field […]

Anna Hall Roosevelt (1863 - 1892)

Anna Hall Roosevelt was born on March 17, 1863. She was the eldest of seven children born to Valentine Gill Hall Jr. (1834–1880) and Mary Livingston Ludlow (1843–1919) of the Livingston family. Their marriage “…united a member of a prominent New York merchantile family with Hudson River gentry”. Anna was born in New York City. Her […]

Bamie Roosevelt (1855 - 1931)

Bamie Roosevelt was born in a brownstone home at 28 East 20th Street in New York City on January 18, 1855. She was the eldest child of businessman/philanthropist Theodore “Thee” Roosevelt (1831—1878) and socialite Martha Stewart “Mittie” Bulloch (1835—1884). In addition to brother Theodore Jr. (T.R.) (1858—1919), Bamie’s siblings were socialite Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860—1894) […]

Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860 - 1894)

Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt was the third of the four children of Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (1831–1878) and Martha Stewart “Mittie” Bulloch (1835–1884). In addition to elder brother Theodore Jr., he had a younger sister named Corinne (1861–1933) and an elder sister named Anna (1855–1931), who was known as “Bamie”. Mittie’s brothers Irvine (1842–1898) and James (1823–1901) […]

John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1916 - 1981)

After the war, John Aspinwall Roosevelt pursued a business career in California as the Regional Merchandising Manager for Grayson & Robertson Stores in Los Angeles. In 1953, he became a partner in a Beverly Hills financial company but left shortly thereafter to take up residence in the family compound in Hyde Park. Unlike his siblings, Roosevelt […]

Sara Roosevelt (1854 - 1941)

After many suitors, Sara married James Roosevelt I in 1880. Two years later, she gave birth to a son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt on January 30, 1882. After the birth of her son, doctors advised Sara not to have any more children, and thus the young Franklin became the focus of her attention. Sara Roosevelt was […]

Grace Tully (1900 - 1984)

Grace Tully (9 August 1900 – 15 June 1984) was private secretary to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). Grace Tully was born on 9 August 1900 in Bayonne, New Jersey. Her father was a businessman and a loyalist to the Democratic Party. He died when she was young, and Tully and her two sisters and […]

Winthrop Rutherfurd (1862 - 1944)

Winthrop Chanler Rutherfurd (February 4, 1862 – March 19, 1944) was an American socialite from New York, best known for his romance with Consuelo Vanderbilt and his marriage to Lucy Mercer, mistress to American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Winthrop Rutherfurd was a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland before it […]

Jean Gordon (1915 - 1946)

Jean Gordon’s mother, Louise Raynor Ayer, daughter of Boston industrialist Frederick Ayer, was a half-sister of Patton’s wife Beatrice. Her father Gordon, a well-known Boston lawyer, died of leukemia when she was eight years old. The same age as Patton’s younger daughter Ruth Ellen and her best friend, Jean spent many of her vacations with […]

Nan Britton (1896 - 1991)

Born in Marion, Ohio, Nan Britton developed an obsession with Harding, who was a friend of her father. As a young girl, her bedroom walls were covered with Harding’s pictures from local papers and magazines. While not even 16 years old, she would loiter near his Marion Daily Star building in Marion, hoping to see […]