Meredith MacRae (1944 - 2000)

Actress, Television Personality and Producer. Born in Houston, Texas on an Army base where her father, Gordon MacRae, was stationed. Her father was a singer and movie idol of the ’50s and her mother, Sheila MacRae, an actress and author. Her siblings were, Heather MacRae, GarMacRae, Bruce MacRae, and a half-sister, Amanda MacRae. She started […]

Meri Welles (1937 - 1973)

Actress. Born in Dallas, Texas, she was a character performer best remembered for role as Lorraine, in “The Little Shop of Horrors” (1960). She also appeared in “The Ladies Man” (1961), “The Pink Panther”(1963), “Cleopatra” (1963) and “A House is Not a Home” (1964). For television her credits include, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “The Deputy”, “The […]

Merle Haggard (1937 - 2016)

Merle Haggard Merle Haggard’s parents, Flossie Mae (Harp) and James Francis Haggard, moved to California from their home in Checotah, Oklahoma, during the Great Depression, after their barn burned in 1934. They settled with their children, Lowell and Lillian, in an apartment in Bakersfield, while James started working for the Santa Fe Railroad. A woman […]

Merle Kilgore (1934 - 2005)

Merle Kilgore The multi-talented Kilgore had a varied career, ranging from huge successes as a songwriter to his most recent role as personal manager for Hank Williams Jr. He was also an artist in his own right, as well as an actor.As a songwriter, he is best known for co-writing Johnny Cash’s 1963 No. 1 […]

Merle Norman (1887 - 1972)

Cosmetics Magnate, Philantropist. Norman, who established her business out of her home in the late 1920s, was a contemporary of cosmetics legends Helena Rubenstein and Max Factor. She encouraged women to found their own franchise businesses where customers could enjoy free makeovers, an idea which she pioneered, and try products liberally before buying them. In […]

Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979)

Estelle Merle Thompson was born in Bombay, British India on 19 February 1911. According to some sources, her birth name was Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson. Merle was given “Queenie” as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911.  Over the years, Oberon obscured her parentage. Some […]

Merle Travis (1917 - 1983)

Merle Travis Grammy Award-winning country music artist. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1977. He wrote the hit single, “Sixteen Tons,” in addition to several other hit records. He was well known for his legendary guitar work, and made an art form of his unique style of finger-picking. He was […]

Merlin Santana (1976 - 2002)

Born in Brookyln, New York to parents from the Dominican Republic, Santana’s career in show business began with a push from his parents, who wanted to keep him off the tough streets of New York. He began his career at the age of three as an advertising model for a fast food chain. His first […]

Merna Kennedy (1908 - 1944)

Merna Kennedy (September 7, 1908 – December 20, 1944) was an American actress of the late silent era and the transitional period into talkies. Kennedy (born as Maude Kahler) was best known during her brief career for her role opposite Charlie Chaplin in the silent film The Circus (1928).  She began performing in vaudeville at age […]

Merrill L. Connally (1921 - 2001)

Actor. A native of Floresville, Texas, he appeared as the Team Leader in director Stephen Spielberg’s 1977 film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”  His other work included appearing in the 1971 television documentary series “V.I.P.-Schaukel” and the films “The Sugarland Express” (1974), “The Girls In The Office” (1979), “Alamo: The Price Of Freedom” (1988, […]

Merritt Butrick (1959 - 1989)

Merritt Butrick was born in Gainesville, Florida and was an only child. He graduated in 1977 from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. He attended the California Institute of the Arts for acting, but was dismissed from the school. His first screen role was as a rapist in two 1981 episodes of the police drama […]

Merritt Franklin Bohn (1905 - 1978)

Actor. Born in Illinois, he made his film debut in “Ada” (1961), followed by “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), “Looking for Love” (1964), “Wild Seed” (1965) and “Nevada Smith” (1966). On television, he appeared in “Colt .45”, “Maverick”, “Sugarfoot”, “The Twilight Zone” and “Batman”. He died of pneumonia in Torrance, California, at age 73. (bio by: […]

Merv Griffin (1925 - 2007)

Merv Griffin He is best remembered as the host of his CBS television talk show, “The Merv Griffin Show,” which ran from 1965 to 1986. Additionally, he created the game shows “Jeopardy!” (1964), “Wheel of Fortune” (1975), “Ruckus” (1991), “Click” (1997), and “Merv Griffin’s Crosswords” (2007) with his own television production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises […]

Merv Lincoln (1933 - 1970)

Merv Lincoln was born in Leongatha, Victoria and raised in Wodonga, where for many years in his honour there has been a Lincoln Causeway adjacent to the Hume Freeway. He qualified for the 1500 metres final at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, finishing 12th. He was tipped as a potential successor to the retiring John […]

Mervin Good Eagle (1977 - 1996)

Canadian actor. Good Eagle is best known for his role as ‘Joey Small Boat’ on the television series “North of 60” from 1992 to 1996. Cause of death: Suicide

Mervin Jeremiah Monnette (1847 - 1931)

The seventh of twelve children born to Abraham & Catherine Braucher Monnett on their Marion County Ohio Farmstead, Mervin Monnett followed in his father’s footsteps of farming, stock raising and banking, rising to the Presidency of the Second National Bank of Bucyrus (Ohio), Monnette lost his fortune by 1900 when he “quietly” left town and […]

Mervyn LeRoy (1900 - 1987)

Mervyn LeRoy worked in costumes, processing labs and as a camera assistant until he became a gag writer and actor in silent films, including The Ten Commandments in 1923. LeRoy credits Ten Commandments director, Cecil B. DeMille, for inspiring him to become a director: “As the top director of the era, DeMille had been the […]

Meshach Taylor (1947 - 2014)

Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Hertha Mae (née Ward) and Joseph T. Taylor, former dean of students at Dillard University in New Orleans, who was also the first dean of arts and sciences at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.  After the family moved from New Orleans to Indianapolis, Taylor graduated from Crispus […]

Meyer “Mike” Berger (1898 - 1959)

Journalist. Berger won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Journalism, for a 4,000 word story regarding the shooting of 13 people by an insane war veteran in Camden, NJ.

Meyer Blinder (1921 - 2004)

Businessman. The son of a Brooklyn candy store owner from Kiev, Russia, he was cofounder of Blinder Robinson and Company, a now defunct penny stock brokerage firm. After returning from military service during World War II where he earned a Purple Heart in Normandy, France, he started a photo-supply business and later joined his brother […]

Meyer Cohen (1913 - 1976)

Gangster. Born in a poverty-stricken part of New York in 1913. His Jewish mother was from Kiev in the Ukraine. After running away from home at fifteen, he picked up his swagger in the fight clubs of Cleveland, then the nation’s fifth largest city. Lifelong connections with major underworld players were forged there, and in […]

Meyer Lansky (1902 - 1983)

Meyer Lansky One of the most powerful and richest of U.S. crime syndicate chiefs and bankers, who had major interests in gambling, especially in Florida, pre-Castro Cuba, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas. A Polish Jew born in Russia’s Pale of Settlement, Lansky immigrated with his parents to New York’s Lower East Side in 1911. By […]

Mia Kovacs (1959 - 1982)

Daughter of legendary comic Ernie Kovacs and actress Edie Adams. She was just beginning a career as an actress when she was killed in an automobile accident on Mulhullond Drive in Los Angeles. Losing control over her car, she ran off the road and the car rolled, ejecting her through the sunroof and killing her […]

Mia May (1884 - 1980)

Married to director/producer/writer Joe May, Mia was one of Germany’s most prominent leading ladies in silent films at one point rivaling Asta Nielsen in popularity.  May began her career on the stage at 14 years of age, using the name Herma Angelot, which she changed to Mia May in 1902.  (At this time her husband […]

Micha Josef Bin-Gorion (1865 - 1921)

Author. Born Micah Josef Berdichevsky, the son of an Hasidic Rabbi, at Medzhaybizh, Ukraine. An early marriage was ended when his traditionally minded father-in-law found that he was studying the so called Haskala or Enlightenment, which was a movement advocating that Jews integrate into modern secular society. After study at Volozhin Yeshiva, in 1890, he […]

Michael A. Musmanno (1897 - 1968)

Nuremberg Judge. Born in Stowe Township, Pennsylvania, he was lawyer in Pittsburgh,  in the 1920s and was elected to the State Legislature as a Republican in 1928. During the 1930s, he was serving as an officer in the US Navy Reserves and as a judge in courts of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. When World War II […]

Michael Adams (1930 - 1967)

Born in Sacramento, California, Adams graduated from Sacramento Junior College. He enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1950 and earned his pilot wings and commission in 1952 at Webb Air Force Base, Texas. He served as a fighter-bomber pilot during the Korean War, followed by 30 months with the 813th Fighter-Bomber Squadron at […]

Michael Alldredge (1941 - 1997)

Actor. In a career spanning 3 decades, he appeared on such memorable television shows as ‘All in the Family’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Police Story’, ‘The Jeffersons’, ‘Kojak’, ‘Barnaby Jones’, ‘The Bob Newhart Show’, ‘The Greatest American Hero’, ‘Hart to Hart’, ‘Quincy M.E.’, ‘Taxi’, ‘Columbo’, ‘E.R.’, ‘Family Ties, ‘Three’s Company’, ‘Lou Grant’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘Hill Street Blues’, […]

Michael Anderson (1959 - 2003)

Michael Anderson graduated from the University of Washington in 1981 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. After completing a year of technical training at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, he was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. At Randolph he served as Chief of Communication Maintenance for the 2015th […]

Michael Ansara (1922 - 2013)

Michael Ansara Michael George Ansara was born in a small village in Syria, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was two years old. They resided in Lowell, Massachusetts, for a decade before moving to California. He originally wanted to be a physician, but developed a passion for becoming a performer after […]