Renato Rascel (1912 - 1991)

Renato Rascel was born to Cesare and Paola Ranucci in Turin (he always regretted not to be born in Rome) where his parents, who were opera singers were performing a show. Renato could really say that he was born in the back stage of the theater and that’s where he spent all of his life. […]

Delia Scala (1929 - 2004)

Delia Scala (25 September 1929 – 15 January 2004) was an Italian ballerina and actress. Born Odette Bedogni in Bracciano, Lazio, Italy, as a young girl the family moved to Milan where she studied ballet at “La Scala” Ballet School for seven years. She performed in numerous ballets until World War II, after which she began […]

Eugenio Castellotti (1930 - 1957)

Eugenio Castellotti was born in Lodi, Italy. He acquired a Ferrari at the age of twenty, from a local benefactor, and began racing sports cars in 1952. That year he won the Portuguese Grand Prix, was third at Bari and second at Monaco which was run that year for sports cars. In 1953 he won […]

Richie Ginther (1930 - 1989)

Richie Ginther made his F1 debut at the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix driving for Ferrari who he stayed with through 1961. In the September 1960 Italian Grand Prix in Monza he placed second to Phil Hill. Ginther led from the start until the 25th lap when Hill passed him and led until the finish. Following the […]

Phil Hill (1927 - 2008)

Born in Miami, Florida, Phil Hill was raised in Santa Monica, California, where he lived until his death. He studied business administration at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1947, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Hill left early to pursue auto racing, working as a mechanic on other […]

Graham Hill (1929 - 1975)

Graham Hill did not pass his driving test until he was 24 years old, and he himself described his first car as “A wreck. A budding racing driver should own such a car, as it teaches delicacy, poise and anticipation, mostly the latter I think!”[citation needed] He had been interested in motorcycles but in 1954 […]

Carlos Pace (1944 - 1977)

Carlos Pace was a contemporary of the Fittipaldi brothers, Wilson and Emerson, and began racing in Brazil in the late 1960s. He travelled to Europe in 1970 and competed in British Formula 3, winning the Forward Trust championship in a Lotus car. In 1971 he moved up to Formula Two with Frank Williams, but did […]

Roger Williamson (1948 - 1973)

Roger Williamson was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. He won the 1971 and 1972 British Formula 3 Championship titles. In 1973, he was offered a drive in the March Engineering works Formula One team. This was after testing for the BRM team and being advised not to take the drive. After his Formula One debut at the […]

Tony Brise (1952 - 1975)

Tony Brise was born in Erith, Kent, the son of John Brise, a pig farmer and racing driver, who won the World Stock Car Championship on three occasions. Both Tony and his brother Tim showed an interest in go-karting at a young age, and John Brise gave up his hobby to support them fully. Tony Brise […]

Frank Pellegrino (1944 - 2017)

Frank Joseph Pellegrino (May 19, 1944 – January 31, 2017) was an American actor and restaurateur. Born in East Harlem, Frank Pellegrino has often acted in law and gangster-themed film and television productions. He was a member of an early 1960s singing group called the Holidaes. Notable acting roles include Johnny Dio in Goodfellas, assorted appearances […]

John Hilton (1942 - 2017)

John Hilton (March 12, 1942 – February 2, 2017) was a tight end in the National Football League who played from 1965 to 1973 for four teams, most notably the Pittsburgh Steelers (1965-1969). He played college football for the University of Richmond. He prepared for college by attending Fork Union Military Academy as a postgraduate in […]

Heinz Rühmann (1902 - 1994)

During the Nazi era, he acted in 37 films and directed four. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Rühmann did not speak openly about German politics, but instead kept himself as neutral as possible. He never stated a word against or towards the Nazis in the press, although he had been a supporter of […]

Hans Moser (1880 - 1964)

Hans Moser (6 August 1880 – 19 June 1964) was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film. Moser appeared in over 150 films. Born Johann Julier in Vienna, Moser very often portrayed […]

Theo Lingen (1903 - 1978)

Theo Lingen was born the son of a lawyer in the city of Hanover, and grew up there. He attended the Royal Goethe Gymnasium – the predecessor of the Goethe School – in Hanover, but left before taking the Abitur (final exams). His theatrical talent was discovered during rehearsals for a school performance at the […]

Kurt Maetzig (1911 - 2012)

Kurt Maetzig was the son of Robert Maetzig and Marie Maetzig (née Lyon). He grew up in the Charlottenburg borough of Berlin, where he gained an insight into the film industry from an early age as his father was the proprietor of a factory that produced film copies there. During the First World War, he […]

Paul Klinger (1907 - 1971)

In Breslau, under the direction of his cousin, Karl-Heinz Uhlendahl, Paul Klinger passed some television screen tests and began his film career in 1933 with Du sollst nicht begehren (Thou Shalt not Covet), which landed him simultaneous contracts with the then biggest German studios Ufa, Terra Film and Tobis. His second film was Männer vor […]

Heidi Brühl (1942 - 1991)

Heidi Brühl’s first screen appearance was in the 1954 film Der letzte Sommer with Liselotte Pulver, but it was in the role of Dalli, in what became known as the “Immenhof films”, that she became famous in Germany. Die Mädels vom Immenhof (de), adapted from a novel by children’s writer Ursula Bruns, appeared in 1955 […]

Eva Pflug (1929 - 2008)

Eva Pflug was born on June 12, 1929 in Leipzig. After her first film, The Council of the Gods (1950), she worked in Helmut Käutner’s Schinderhannes with Curd Jürgens. In the first Edgar-Wallace film Der Frosch mit der Maske (1959), she had a small part as a night club singer. Three years later, Pflug was […]

Michael Goodliffe (1914 - 1976)

Lawrence Michael Andrew Goodliffe (1 October 1914 – 20 March 1976) was an English actor known for playing suave roles such as doctors, lawyers and army officers. He was also sometimes cast in working class parts. Michael Goodliffe was born in Bebington, Cheshire, the son of a vicar, and educated at St Edmund’s School, Canterbury, and […]

Walter Grauman (1922 - 2015)

Walter Grauman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Jacob and Irene Grauman, both children of German immigrants who married after settling in the United States. His father, Jacob Grauman, was president of a film distributing company. In his early years, Grauman lived in Shorewood, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, and later moved to Arizona where he […]

Alfred Drake (1914 - 1992)

Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College. He is best known for his leading roles in the original Broadway productions of Oklahoma!; Kiss Me, Kate; Kismet; and for playing Marshall Blackstone in the original […]

Edward Knoblock (1874 - 1945)

Edward Knoblock (born Edward Gustav Knoblauch; April 7, 1874 – July 19, 1945) was an American-born British playwright and novelist most remembered for the often revived 1911 play, Kismet. Knoblock was born in New York City of German parents and was the grandson of the Berlin architect Eduard Knoblauch. He was graduated from Harvard College in […]

Percy Rodriguez (1918 - 2007)

Percy Rodriguez was the oldest of three siblings and was of African and Portuguese descent. His father was out of the picture as he left his family. Percy then began working in his early teens to help provide for his family. As Percy continued to grow up he began to enjoy boxing and acting. He […]

Mike Connors (1925 - 2017)

His film career started in the early 1950s. Mike Connors was cast in the critically acclaimed John Wayne film, Island in the Sky in which he was a crewman on one of the search-and-rescue planes. In 1956, still billed as Touch Connors, he played an Amalekite herder in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments starring […]

Robert Garcia (1933 - 2017)

Robert Garcia was born in Bronx, New York of parents born in Puerto Rico. His father was born in Coamo and had worked in the Central Aguirre sugar mill on the island’s south coast; his mother was born and raised in Ponce. They had migrated to New York City from the island in the 1920s; […]

Barbara Hale (1922 - 2017)

Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, a daughter of Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and Wilma Colvin. She had one sister, Juanita, whom Hale’s younger daughter was named for. The family was of Scots-Irish ancestry. In 1940, Hale graduated from Rockford High School in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine […]

Bob Holiday (1932 - 2017)

Bob Holiday (November 12, 1932 – January 27, 2017) was an American actor best known for playing Superman in the 1966 Broadway musical It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman! Historically, Holiday was the next “live-action” Superman after George Reeves. Holiday played Superman more than any other actor, having played the role in over […]

Gary Hart (1942 - 2008)

Gary Hart WWE is mourning the death of legendary wrestling manager Gary Hart, who guided the careers of several icons and was one of the creative forces behind World Class Championship Wrestling. Hart passed away over the weekend. Hart’s career, which spanned four decades, began in 1963, when Gary Hart made his debut as an in-ring […]

Rod Roddy (1937 - 2003)

Rod Roddy American Radio and Television Announcer. He is probably best remembered for his signature line, “Come on down!” from “The Price Is Right” morning television game show, although the phrase was originated and made popular by his predecessor Johnny Olson. Born Robert Ray Roddy in Fort Worth, Texas, he graduated from Texas Christian University […]

Emil Zátopek (1922 - 2000)

Emil Zátopek was the sixth child in a modest family. Aged 16, he began working in a Bata shoe factory in Zlín. Zátopek says that “One day, the factory sports coach, who was very strict, pointed at four boys, including me, and ordered us to run in a race. I protested that I was weak […]