Mady Christians (1892 - 1951)

Mady Christians was born on January 19, 1892 to Rudolph Christians, a well-known German actor, and his wife, Bertha. Her family moved to Berlin when she was one year old, and to New York in 1912, where her father became the Irving Place Theatre’s general manager. Five years later she returned to Europe to study […]

Alvin Childress (1907 - 1986)

Alvin Childress was born in Meridian, Mississippi. He was educated at Rust College, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. When he initially entered college, Childress intended to become a doctor, enrolling in typical pre-med courses. He had no thoughts of becoming involved in acting, but became involved in theater outside […]

Peter Cheyney (1896 - 1951)

Peter Cheyney wrote his first novel, the Lemmy Caution thriller This Man Is Dangerous in 1936 and followed it with the first Slim Callaghan novel, The Urgent Hangman in 1938. The immediate success of these two novels assured a flourishing new career, and Cheyney abandoned his work as a freelance investigator. Sales were brisk; in […]

Albert Chevalier (1861 - 1923)

Albert Chevalier born Albert Onésime Britannicus Gwathveoyd Louis Chevalier; (21 March 1861 – 10 July 1923), was an English music hall comedian, singer and musical theatre actor. He specialised in cockney related humour based on life as a costermonger in London during the Victorian era. Owing to this and his ability to write songs, he […]

Don Chastain (1935 - 2002)

  Don Chastain (September 2, 1935 – August 9, 2002) was an American actor, singer and screenwriter. He was married to Jill Diamond and had one son, Colin Chastain. He worked in television in Los Angeles and New York and toured the United States and Canada with major productions. Leading ladies included Katharine Hepburn; Lauren Bacall; […]

Lonny Chapman (1920 - 2007)

Lonny Chapman was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but lived thereafter in Joplin, Missouri. He graduated from Joplin High School and, in 1940, from Joplin Junior College, the predecessor institution of Missouri Southern. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps served in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war, Chapman graduated from […]

Ben Chapman (1925 - 2008)

Born in Oakland, California, Ben Chapman spent much of his childhood in Tahiti and moved to San Francisco at age 12 or 13. A Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War, he was believed to have earned a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts for battle injuries. However, after his death, the Marine […]

Sydney Chaplin (1885 - 1965)

As Charlie was negotiating his Keystone contract, he suggested Sydney Chaplin be asked to join the company, and Syd and his wife Minnie Chaplin arrived in California in October 1914. Syd made a few comedies there, including the “Gussle” comedies, and the feature-length A Submarine Pirate in 1915, which, second to Tillie’s Punctured Romance, was […]

George Chandler (1898 - 1985)

George Chandler (June 30, 1898 – June 10, 1985) was an American actor best known for playing the character of “Uncle Petrie Martin” on the CBS television series, Lassie. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois on June 30, 1898. Chandler served in the United States Army during World War I. George Chandler appeared six times in Bill […]

Adolfo Celi (1922 - 1986)

Adolfo Celi became a film actor in post-war Italy. He left the Italian film industry when he emigrated to Brazil where he co-founded the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia along with the Brazilian stage greats Paulo Autran and Tônia Carrero in São Paulo He was successful as a stage actor in Argentina and Brazil. He directed […]

Joseph Cawthorn (1868 - 1949)

Joseph Cawthorn (March 29, 1868, New York City, New York – January 21, 1949, Beverly Hills, California) was an American stage and film comic actor. Cawthorn started out in show business as a child, debuting at Robinson’s Music Hall in his hometown of New York in 1872. He appeared in minstrel shows and vaudeville as a […]

Hobart Cavanaugh (1886 - 1950)

Hobart Cavanaugh (September 22, 1886 – April 26, 1950) was an American character actor in films and on stage. He was born in Virginia City, Nevada on September 22, 1886. Cavanaugh attended the University of California. He worked in vaudeville, teaming with Walter Catlett at some point. He appeared in numerous Broadway productions, including the original 1919 […]

Walter Catlett (1889 - 1960)

Walter Catlett was born in San Francisco, California. He started out in vaudeville, teaming up with Hobart Cavanaugh at some point, with a detour for a while in opera, before breaking into acting. He started on stage in 1906 and made his Broadway debut in either The Prince of Pilsen (1911) or So Long Letty (1916). […]

Zachary Scott (1914 - 1965)

Born in Austin, Texas, Zachary Scott was a distant cousin of George Washington, and his grandfather had been a very successful cattle rancher. He was also of direct Greek descent, his full surname being Skotidis. Scott intended to be a doctor like his father, Zachary Scott Sr. (1880–1964), but after attending the University of Texas at […]

Jack Carson (1910 - 1963)

Jack Carson was born in Carman, Manitoba to Elmer and Elsa Carson. In 1914, the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he always thought of as his home town. He attended high school at Hartford School, Milwaukee and St. John’s Military Academy, Delafield, but it was at Carleton College that he acquired a taste for […]

Leo Carrillo (1880 - 1961)

lthough he played many different ethnicities in his acting career, Leo Carrillo was Castillian Spanish and traced his ancestry in Spain to the year 1260. His great-great grandfather José Raimundo Carrillo (1749–1809), was a soldier in the Spanish Portolá expedition colonization of Las Californias, arriving in San Diego on July 1, 1769. Franciscan Friar Junípero […]

Jean Carmet (1920 - 1994)

Jean Carmet (25 April 1920 – 20 April 1994) was a French actor. Jean Carmet began working on stage and then in film in the early 1940s becoming a very popular comedic actor in his native country. He is best known internationally for his role as a French colonist in the 1976 film, La Victoire en […]

Roger Carmel (1932 - 1986)

Roger Carmel starred as milksop Roger Buell in the 1967 NBC sitcom The Mothers-in-Law, but was replaced by Richard Deacon after season 1. Officially, Carmel had a salary dispute with producer Desi Arnaz, although, according to rumors, he was fired because his drug use interfered with production. Carmel’s other guest roles included the accountant Doug Wesley […]

Ron Carey (1935 - 2007)

Ron Carey (December 11, 1935 – January 16, 2007) was an American film and television actor. The 5-foot 4-inch actor was best known for playing ambitious NYPD Police Officer Carl Levitt on TV’s Barney Miller, in which he was almost always surrounded by male actors (and sometimes female guest stars) who stood at least four […]

Harry Carey (1878 - 1947)

When a boating accident led to pneumonia, Harry Carey wrote a play, Montana, while recuperating and toured the country performing in it for three years. His play was very successful, but Carey lost it all when his next play was a failure. In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, […]

Candy Candido (1913 - 1999)

Candy Candido’s distinctive, four-octave speaking voice became familiar to radio listeners and moviegoers. Speaking his lines in his normal tenor, he would suddenly adopt a high, squeaky soprano and just as suddenly plunge into a gruff bass. His weekly repetition of “I’m feeling mighty low” on Jimmy Durante’s radio show made it a national catchphrase. […]

David Canary (1938 - 2015)

After a semi-regular role as Russ Gehring in the prime time serial Peyton Place, David Canary came to international prominence in 1967 on the Western series Bonanza. In 1967, he appeared in the now-classic western movie Hombre, in which he was featured with Paul Newman, Richard Boone, and Cameron Mitchell. Canary guest starred in a […]

Godfrey Cambridge (1933 - 1976)

While pursuing an acting career, Godfrey Cambridge supported himself with a variety of jobs, including “cab driver, bead-sorter, ambulance driver, gardener, judo instructor, and clerk for the New York City Housing Authority,” as well as cleaning airplanes and making popcorn bunnies. His first role was as a bartender in the off-Broadway play Take a Giant Step. […]

Henry Calvin (1918 - 1975)

Henry Calvin hosted a 1950 NBC radio show and appeared on Broadway (most notably in Kismet as the Wazir of Police). In 1952, he portrayed Big Ben on the children’s TV series Howdy Doody. and made his film debut in Crime Against Joe as Red Waller four years later. His character in Zorro, Sergeant Demetrio Lopez […]

Joseph Calleia (1897 - 1975)

Joseph Calleia was born in Notabile in the Crown Colony of Malta on August 4, 1897. His father was an architect. Calleia studied at St. Julian’s and St. Aloysius Colleges. At age 12 he used the English pound given to him for Christmas to buy two dozen harmonicas, and organized a local band whose performances were […]

Charlie Callas (1924 - 2011)

Charlie Callas was born in Brooklyn, New York, as Charles Callias and served in the United States Army during World War II. He began his career as a drummer playing in groups with Bernie Cummins, Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Buddy Rich. He dropped a vowel from his legal name, Callias, when he took to […]

Rory Calhoun (1922 - 1999)

Rory Calhoun worked at a number of odd jobs. In 1943, while riding horseback in the Hollywood Hills, he met actor Alan Ladd, whose wife, Sue Carol was an agent. She landed Calhoun a one-line role in a Laurel and Hardy comedy, The Bullfighters, credited under the name Frank McCown. Shortly afterwards, the Ladds hosted […]

Louis Calhern (1895 - 1956)

Louis Calhern was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a tobacco dealer. His family left New York while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he grew up. While Calhern was playing high school football, a stage manager from a touring theatrical stock company spotted him, and hired […]

Adolph Caesar (1933 - 1986)

Adolph Caesar (December 5, 1933 – March 6, 1986) was an American actor. Adolph Caesar was born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, as the youngest of three sons born to a Dominican mother. Caesar appeared in Norman Jewison’s film A Soldier’s Story, for which he received a nomination for “Best Actor in a Supporting […]

Ralph Byrd (1909 - 1952)

Ralph Byrd married actress and model Virginia Carroll in 1936. The couple remained together until Byrd’s death in 1952. Byrd was a good, all-purpose actor with a gift for delivering dialogue in a natural, ingratiating way. His screen characters could be breezy and affable, or tough and authoritative as the role required. Once established in Republic […]