Jack Haley (1897 - 1979)

Jack Haley Full name: John Joseph Haley, was the actor who played the part of the Tin Woodman and Hickory in MGM‘s 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. An established song-and-dance man, Haley was loaned to the MGM studio by his contract-holder, 20th Century Fox, on 4 November 1938. Haley replaced Buddy Ebsen, the actor who […]

Jack Haley, Jr (1933 - 1970)

Hollywood producer, actor. Son of Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz.” Second husband of Liza Minnelli (his only marriage). 1967 Emmy Award as Director for “Movin’ With Nancy”, Peabody Award Winner for “Biography” & a National Geographic Special and a producer for several Academy Awards Shows.   Two days […]

Jack Hanlon (1916 - 2012)

Child Actor. Best remembered for having been one of the protagonists of the silent comedies “Our Gang” or The Little Rascals directed by Hal Roach. Jack has also starred in the films “The General” starring Buster Keaton, “The Glorious Fourth”, “Olympic Games”, “The Shakedown”, “Romance” starring Greta Garbo and in eight “talkies,” including “Big Money” […]

Jack Hawkins (1910 - 1973)

Actor. Born in Wood Green, England, four over four decades he was a popular leading man in theatre, films and television. He made his London theatrical debut at age 12 and he made his debut on Broadway by age 18. Although he had appeared in several films during the 1930s, it was after World War […]

Jack Ingram (1902 - 1969)

Actor. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and died in Canoga Park, California. He often appeared in westerns in more than 200 films. Among others “Valley of Terror” (1937), “Ghost Valley Raiders” (1940), “Nevada City” (1941), “Man from Cheyenne” (1942), “The Bandit Queen” (1950) and “Lost in Alaska” (1952).

Jack Johnson (1878 - 1946)

Jack Johnson Boxer. First African-American to hold the heavyweight boxing championship in the world. Until his fight with Burns, discrimination limited Johnson’s opportunities and purses. When he became champion, a hue and cry for a “Great White Hope” produced numerous opponents. At the height of his career Johnson was excoriated by the press for having […]

Jack Kelly (1927 - 1992)

Born John Augustus Kelly, Jr. in Astoria, Queens, New York, one of four children, to Ann Mary “Nan” (née Walsh) and John Augustus Kelly, Sr. “Jackie,” as he was called as a child, came from a prominent theatrical family. His mother, Nan Kelly, had been a popular stage actress and John Robert Powers model. Kelly’s […]

Jack King (1931 - 2015)

Jack King grew up in Boston, the son of a local sportswriter, and attended Boston College. Prior to joining NASA, King worked for the Associated Press. He opened the AP’s Cape Canaveral bureau in 1958, when he was 27 years old. Jack King joined NASA in 1960, and served as the Kennedy Space Center’s Chief […]

Jack Kinney (1909 - 1992)

According to Jeff Lenburg’s assessment of him, Jack Kinney was a veteran animator, who spend most of his career working at Walt Disney Productions (later known as the Walt Disney Animation Studios). He directed the first film in the Donald Duck series to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Two other films […]

Jack Kirby (1917 - 1994)

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, where he was raised. His parents, Rose and Benjamin Kurtzberg, were Austrian Jewish immigrants, and his father earned a living as a garment factory worker. In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood. He liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art. Essentially […]

Jack Kirby (1917 - 1994)

Artist. Legendary and influential comic book artist who co-created the Marvel Comic’s characters “Captain America,” the “Fantastic Four,” the “Hulk,” “Thor,” the “X-Men,” the “Black Panther,” and “Silver Surfer.” (bio by: David E. Brady)

Jack Klugman (1922 - 2012)

Jack Klugman Klugman was born in Philadelphia, the son of Rose, a hat maker, and Max Klugman, a house painter. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants, though the family name is German in origin. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, from which he graduated in 1948. While there his drama teacher […]

Jack Kramer (1921 - 2009)

Jack Kramer began his tennis career by taking lessons from teaching professional, Dick Skeen. Within a year, he was playing junior tournaments. He played on the Montebello High School tennis team with George Richards. Because of his obvious ability and his family’s lack of money, he came under the guidance of Perry T. Jones. at […]

Jack Kruschen (1922 - 2002)

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Kruschen began his radio career while still in high school, and during the 1940s, he became a staple of West Coast radio drama. He had several roles in programs made especially for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) broadcast for the benefit of members on active duty in the military in […]

Jack La Rue (1902 - 1984)

Jack La Rue (May 3, 1902, New York City, New York – January 11, 1984, Santa Monica, California) was an American film and stage actor.  Born Gaspere Biondolillo, he went from high school to his first acting job, in Otis Skinner’s road company production of Blood and Sand. He performed in Broadway plays from around […]

Jack Lawrence (1912 - 2009)

Jack Lawrence was born Jacob Louis Schwartz in Brooklyn, New York to an Orthodox Jewish family of modest means as the third of four sons. His parents Barney (Beryl) Schwartz and Fanny (Fruma) Goldman Schwartz were first cousins who had run away from their home in Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva, Ukraine) to come to America […]

Jack Lemmon (1925 - 2001)

Jack Lemmon One of the most consistently acclaimed actors in motion picture and television history, Jack Lemmon became the first man to win Academy Awards as both Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Mister Roberts” (1955) and Best Actor for “Save the Tiger” (1973). In between and after, Lemmon amassed an envious résumé of […]

Jack Lord (1920 - 1998)

Jack Lord Jack Lord is worth millions. He and CBS own Hawaii Five-0, and it’s made both of them rich. Yet Jack Lord sacrificed much to become the star of the longest running series on the air. The man who plays Steve McGarrett is incredibly complex, and so, Modern People exclusively got the whole, strange, […]

Jack Martzell (1937 - 2007)

Attorney at Law. He was known for his trademark black cowboy hat and skill in representing high-profile clients. Among his notable clients are Muhammad Ali, U.S. Congressman Rick Tonry, fried-chicken magnate Al Copeland, Glenn Haydel, and Civil District Judge C. Hunter King. Martzell, who headed the New Orleans firm Martzell and Bickford, also won the […]

Jack McCloskey (1925 - 2017)

Jack McCloskey played one game for the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA during the 1953 season, scoring 6 points in that game. He served as head coach of the University of Pennsylvania from 1956 to 1966, and of Wake Forest from 1966 to 1972. Following that, he served as the head coach of the Portland […]

Jack McGurn (2024 - 1936)

He was a killer at the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, Illinois.

Jack Mitchell (1925 - 2013)

Mitchell was born in Key West, Florida in 1925; his family moved to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, in 1932. He started photography at eleven, as the darkroom assistant to his sister. He then moved on to taking his own photographs, and was soon contributing photographs to the Daytona News Journal and New Smyrna Beach News. […]

Jack Northman Anderson (1922 - 2005)

Pulitzer Prize-winning Newspaper Reporter. He is best remembered for his muck-racking column “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” which he took over from his mentor and column founder, Drew Pearson. He won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for his news reporting. Born Jackson Northman Anderson in Long Beach, California, he grew up in Murray, a suburb of Salt Lake City, […]

Jack O’Neill (1923 - 2017)

Jack O’Neill grew up in Oregon and southern California, where he began body surfing in the late 1930s. He was a Navy pilot during World War II. O’Neill later moved to San Francisco in 1949 and earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts at San Francisco State University. In 1952, he founded the O’Neill brand […]

Jack Oakie (1903 - 1978)

Jack Oakie was born as Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri at 522 w 7th Street. His father was a grain dealer and his mother a psychology teacher. When he was five years old the Offield family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the source of his “Oakie” nickname. His adopted first name, Jack, was the name […]

Jack Pardee (1936 - 2013)

As a teenager, Pardee moved to Christoval, Texas, where he excelled as a member of the six-man football team. He was an All-American linebacker at Texas A&M University and a two-time All-Pro with the Los Angeles Rams (1963) and the Washington Redskins (1971). He was one of the few six-man players to ever make it […]

Jack Ramsay (1925 - 2014)

Growing up in Milford, Connecticut, Jack Ramsay was encouraged to participate in sports in grade school by his parents, Anne and John. With his family moving to a Philadelphia suburb, Ramsay graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1942. Years after playing basketball, baseball and soccer in high school, he was inducted into the school’s Wall of Fame […]

Jack Richardson (1929 - 2011)

Jack Richardson was born in Toronto, Ontario, and had early musical training playing in various school bands. By 1949 he was playing professionally in “The Westernaires”  who had a regular radio program. In 1958 he was working as an account executive for McCann-Erickson, a firm that produced a regular television program and in the mid […]

Jack Stapp (1912 - 1980)

Jack Stapp Jack Smiley Stapp was born in Nashville in 1912, but in 1923 he moved with his family to Atlanta. There, while still in his teens, he broke into radio at the Winecoff Hotel, programming a station that was piped into the hotel’s rooms. While studying at Georgia Tech University, he became involved with […]

Jack Starrett (1936 - 1989)

Jack Starrett (November 2, 1936 – March 27, 1989) was an American actor and film director. He is credited as Claude Ennis Starrett, Jr. in some of his films. Starrett is perhaps best known for his role as Gabby Johnson, a parody of George “Gabby” Hayes, in the 1974 classic parody film Blazing Saddles and […]