Wanda Osiris (1905 - 1994)

Wanda Osiris (3 June 1905 – 11 November 1994) was an Italian revue soubrette, actress and singer. Born Anna Menzio in Rome, the daughter of a groom, she studied violin at a young age. She debuted on stage in 1923, in the revue Osvaldo mio mi fai morire. She was the major diva of the Italian […]

Elaine Orbach (1940 - 2009)

In 1979 Elaine Orbach married actor Jerry Orbach, a star on stage and later of film and television (Law & Order). They met several years earlier while appearing together in the original Broadway theatre production of the Kander & Ebb musical, Chicago. They also co-starred in a touring production of Neil Simon’s play, Chapter Two. Following […]

Anny Ondra (1903 - 1987)

The daughter of a Czech, Austro-Hungarian officer, Anny Ondra spent her childhood in Tarnów, Pula and Prague. Her father’s name was Bohumír and mother’s name Anna. She had two brothers, Tomáš (Tomas) and Jindřich (Henry). At seventeen she played in the theater and was acting in her first film. The film was directed by her […]

Susan Oliver (1932 - 1990)

By September 1949 and using her new name, Susan Oliver returned to the East Coast to begin drama studies at Swarthmore College, followed by professional training at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. After working in summer stock, regional theater and in unbilled bits in daytime and primetime TV shows and commercials, she made […]

Vivien Oakland (1895 - 1958)

Vivien Oakland (born Vivian Andersen, May 20, 1895 – August 1, 1958), was an American actress best known for her work in comedies in Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably with the Hal Roach Studios. Oakland appeared in 142 films between 1915 and 1951.  Her siblings’ names were Edward, Herbert (née Hagbart), and […]

Lena Nyman (1944 - 2011)

Lena Nyman (23 May 1944 – 4 February 2011) was a Swedish film and stage actress. Out of a career that saw her in several dozen Swedish film features she shall probably be remembered for starring in 1967’s controversial “I Am Curious (Yellow)”. Starting in show business at an early age, Lena made her silver […]

Mary Nolan (1902 - 1948)

While working as a model, Mary Nolan was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld who hired her as a dancer in his Ziegfeld Follies. As a showgirl in New York, she performed under the name “Imogene “Bubbles” Wilson” (the first of four stage names she used during her career). She soon became one of the most popular […]

Greta Nissen (1906 - 1988)

Greta Nissen was born Grethe Rüzt-Nissen in Oslo, Norway, Nissen was originally a dancer. She debuted as a solo ballerina on the National Theatre in 1922. She toured in Norway and participated in several Danish films. Nissen made her Broadway debut as a ballerina in 1924. She had studied ballet with Mikhail Fokine. In early 1924, […]

Alla Nazimova (1879 - 1945)

Alla Nazimova’s theater career blossomed early; and by 1903 she was a major star in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. She toured Europe, including London and Berlin, with her boyfriend Pavel Orlenev, a flamboyant actor and producer. In 1905 they moved to New York City and founded a Russian-language theater on the Lower East Side. The […]

Nita Naldi (1894 - 1961)

Nita Naldi was asked to perform in a short film with Scottish comedian Johnny Dooley (no relation). She quit the film after realizing that Dooley had romantic intentions with another woman. She was then offered a role in A Divorce of Convenience with Owen Moore. After those two films, she had small roles in several […]

Leela Naidu (1940 - 2009)

Leela Naidu was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Her father, Dr Pattipati Ramaiah Naidu, a well known nuclear physicist , hailed from Madanapalle, Chittoor Dist., Andhra Pradesh, who had worked under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Marie Curie for his doctoral thesis in Paris, running one of her labs and was Scientific Advisor to […]

Anne Nagel (1915 - 1966)

Anne Nagel was born Anne Dolan in Boston, Massachusetts, Nagel was enrolled by her parents in a religious preparatory school with the expectation she would become a nun. But part-time work in her teens as a photographer’s model and membership in a Boston theater company turned her away from religious life.[citation needed] Meantime Nagel’s mother […]

Mae Murray (1885 - 1965)

Mae Murray first began acting on the Broadway stage in 1906 with dancer Vernon Castle. In 1908, she joined the chorus line of the Ziegfeld Follies, moving up to headliner by 1915. Murray became a star of the club circuit in both the United States and Europe, performing with Clifton Webb, Rudolph Valentino, and John […]

Rosemary Murphy (1925 - 2014)

Rosemary Murphy was born in Munich, Germany in 1925, the daughter of American parents Mildred (née Taylor) and Robert Daniel Murphy, a diplomat. The family left Germany in 1939 due to the onset of World War II. Murphy, whose résumé came to include French and German films, attended Manhattanville College and trained as an actress at […]

Ona Munson (1903 - 1955)

Ona Munson was born Owena Wolcott in Portland, Oregon. She first came to fame on Broadway as the singing and dancing ingenue in the original production of No, No, Nanette. From this, Munson had a very successful stage and radio career in the 1930s in New York. She introduced the song “You’re the Cream in […]

Meg Mundy (1915 - 2016)

Meg Mundy was born in Marylebone, London. Her mother, Australian opera singer Clytie Hine (1887–1983), studied at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide, South Australia. Her father was English cellist John Mundy. The couple emigrated to the United States in 1921 with their two children. Their father became orchestra manager of the Metropolitan Opera. […]

Cookie Mueller (1949 - 1989)

Cookie Mueller grew up with her parents Frank Lennert Mueller (d. 1984) and Anne (Sawyer) Mueller (d. 1995, aged 82) in the Baltimore suburbs in a house near the woods, a mental hospital and railroad tracks. Mueller had many pets as a child, including many turtles (one named Fidel), a dog named Jip, snakes, and tadpoles. […]

Dorothy Morris (1922 - 2011)

Dorothy Morris was born Dorothy Ruth Morris and raised in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of a Methodist minister. She was the younger sister of Caren Marsh Doll, who later became a dancer and stand-in for Judy Garland. Morris studied acting under famed drama teacher Maria Ouspenskaya. She did a screen test for the female […]

Karen Morley (1909 - 2003)

Karen Morley born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa, Morley lived there until she was thirteen years old. When she moved to Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School and later graduated from UCLA. After working at the Pasadena Playhouse, she came to the attention of the director Clarence Brown, at a time when he had been looking […]

Toshia Mori (1912 - 1995)

Toshia Mori began her film career in the late 1920s in silent films as a teenager. In Mr. Wu (1927) she was credited as Toshia Ichioka. In Streets of Shanghai (1927), she was credited as Toshiye Ichioka. In The Man Without a Face she was also credited as Toshiye Ichioka. (The film is presumed lost.) […]

Zully Moreno (1920 - 1999)

Zully Moreno was born on 17 October 1920 in the town of Villa Ballester, part of the General San Martín Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. She dreamed of becoming an actress, but went to work as a seamstress at a young age due to financial hardship, after her father’s death when she was ten years […]

Denise Morelle (1926 - 1984)

Denise Morelle was born in Montreal on 3 December 1926, into a working-class family with seven children. She first appeared on television in 1955 on the television series Beau temps, mauvais temps. Among her most famous roles from her 30-year career was that of Dame Plume from the show La Ribouldingue. On 17 July 1984, Denise […]

Polly Moran (1883 - 1952)

Polly Moran (June 28, 1883 – January 25, 1952) was an American actress and comedian. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Moran started out in vaudeville, and widely toured North America, as well as various other locations that included Europe and South Africa. An attractive Irish beauty, she left vaudeville in 1914 after signing for Mack Sennett at […]

Peggy Moran (1918 - 2002)

Peggy Moran (October 23, 1918 – October 24, 2002) was an American film actress who appeared in films between 1938 and 1943. Born Mary Jeanette Moran in Clinton, Iowa, Moran starred in a number of B movies like The Mummy’s Hand (1940), Slightly Tempted (1940), Treat ‘Em Rough (1942) with Eddie Albert and William Frawley, and […]

Dolores Moran (1924 - 1982)

Dolores Moran’s brief career as a film actress began in 1942 with some uncredited roles in such films as Yankee Doodle Dandy (as “the Pippirino”, with whom George blows off a date to go with Mary). By 1943, she had become a popular pin-up girl and appeared on the cover of such magazines as Yank. […]

Constance Moore (1920 - 2005)

Constance Moore was born in Sioux City, Iowa, but her family moved away when she was aged six months and she spent most of her formative years in Dallas, Texas. All she wanted was to sing, and in the 1930s she got a job with CBS radio. While working on one of their musical series […]

Cleo Moore (1924 - 1973)

Cleo Moore made her film debut in 1948, playing a small role in Embraceable You. She also played the leading lady in the film serial Congo Bill and worked for Warner Brothers briefly in 1950. She worked for RKO Radio Pictures from 1950–52, making such films as Hunt the Man Down and Gambling House. She signed […]

Mary Ann Mobley (1937 - 2014)

Mary Ann Mobley was born in 1937 in Brandon, Mississippi. After serving her reign as Miss America 1959, Mobley embarked on a career in both film and television. She signed a five-year contract with MGM. She made her first five television appearances on Burke’s Law from 1963-1965, and went on to make multiple appearances on […]

Isa Miranda (1909 - 1982)

Isa Miranda (5 July 1909 – 8 July 1982) was an Italian actress with an international film career. A native of Bergamo, Ines Isabella Sampietro worked as a typist whilst attending the drama academy in Milan and training as a stage actress. She went on to play bit parts in Italian films in Rome. She […]

Mary Minter (1902 - 1984)

Mary Minter At the age of five, Mary Minter accompanied her sister, Margaret, on an audition because no babysitter was available. She was noticed by the director and given her first part. She began her stage career and was frequently employed afterward, widely noted for both her talent and visual appeal. To avoid child labor […]