Frank Orth (1880 - 1962)

By 1897, Frank Orth was performing in vaudeville with his wife, Ann Codee, in an act called “Codee and Orth”. In 1909, he expanded into song writing, with songs such as “The Phone Bell Rang” and “Meet Me on the Boardwalk, Dearie”. His first contact with motion pictures was in 1928, when he was part […]

Will Hudson (1908 - 1981)

Will Hudson (né Arthur Murray Hainer; 8 March 1908 Grimsby, Ontario – 16 July 1981 Isle of Palms, South Carolina) was a Canadian-born American composer, arranger, and big band leader who flourished from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. He co-wrote his two biggest hits “Moonglow” and “Organ Grinder’s Swing” in 1934 and 1936, respectively. Hudson’s […]

Matty Malneck (1903 - 1981)

Matty Malneck (December 9, 1903 – February 25, 1981) was an American jazz bandleader, violinist, violist and songwriter. Malneck’s first professional gigs as a violinist began when he was age 16. He worked with Paul Whiteman from 1926 to 1937, and also recorded in the same period with Frank Signorelli, Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, and […]

Mitchell Parish (1900 - 1993)

Mitchell Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City. […]

Margie Hines (1909 - 2011)

Margret “Margie” Hines was an American voice actress. She was known for her work as a voice artist at Fleischer Studios, where she voiced Olive Oyl in the Popeye the Sailor cartoons from 1939 to 1944. Margie Hines was the first voice actress for Fleischer’s cartoon character Betty Boop, who debuted in the cartoon short […]

Dave Fleischer (1894 - 1979)

Dave Fleischer was the youngest of five brothers and grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a poor Jewish ghetto. By the time Dave was born, his father has lost his means of livelihood due to The Industrial Revolution and the mass production of garments. Dave worked as an Usher at the famous Palace Theater on Broadway, […]

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 […]

Carolyn Leigh (1926 - 1983)

Carolyn Leigh (August 21, 1926 – November 19, 1983) was an American lyricist for Broadway, film, and popular songs. She is best known as the writer with partner Cy Coleman of the pop standards “Witchcraft” and “The Best Is Yet to Come.” With Johnny Richards she wrote the million-seller “Young at Heart” for the film […]

Herman Hupfeld (1894 - 1951)

Herman Hupfeld was born in Montclair, New Jersey, the son of Fredericka (Rader), a church organist, and Charles Ludwig Hupfeld. He was sent to study violin in Germany at age 9. Returning to the United States he served in the military during World War I, and he entertained camps and hospitals during World War II. […]

Max Steiner (1888 - 1971)

Maximilian Raoul “Max” Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian-born American music composer for theatre and films. Max Steiner was a child prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, either composing, arranging, or conducting, when he was fifteen. He worked in England, then […]

Peter Lorre (1904 - 1964)

Peter Lorre (born László Löwenstein; 26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austro-Hungarian-American actor. In Austria, he began his stage career in Vienna before moving to Germany where he had his breakthrough, first on the stage, then in film in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lorre caused an international sensation […]

Dooley Wilson (1886 - 1953)

Dooley Wilson was born in Tyler, Texas, and broke into show business at the age of 12, playing in a vaudeville minstrel show. He sang and played the drums in black clubs in the Tyler area before he moved to Chicago. He received the nickname “Dooley” while working in the Pekin Theatre in Chicago, circa […]

Leonid Kinskey (1903 - 1998)

Leonid Kinskey (18 April 1903 – 8 September 1998) was a Russian-born film and television actor who enjoyed a long career. Kinskey is best known for his role as Sascha in the film Casablanca (1942). Leonid Kinskey was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He fled the Russian Revolution and acted on stage in Europe and […]

Russell Simpson (1880 - 1959)

Russell Simpson was born on June 17, 1880 in Danville, California. He attended grammar school in the Danville District in Contra Costa County, California; he graduated on July 2, 1892. At age 18, Simpson prospected for gold in Alaska. He began taking acting classes in Seattle, Washington. He was married to Gertrude Alter from New […]

Rex Ingram (1895 - 1969)

Rex Ingram was born near Cairo, Illinois, on the Mississippi River; his father was a steamer fireman on the riverboat Robert E. Lee. Ingram graduated from the Northwestern University medical school in 1919 and was the first African-American man to receive a Phi Beta Kappa key from Northwestern University. He went to Hollywood as a […]

John Justin (1917 - 2002)

John Justin (24 November 1917 – 29 November 2002) was a British stage and film actor. John Justinian de Ledesma was born in London, England, the son of a well-off Argentine rancher. Though he grew up on his father’s ranch, he was educated at Bryanston School in Bryanston, Dorset. He developed an interest in flying […]

Robert Reed (1932 - 1992)

Robert Reed Robert Reed is best remembered as playing the role of ‘Kenneth Preston’ on the television drama “The Defenders,” that aired from 1961 to 1965 as well as the character ‘Mike Brady’ on the ABC television sitcom “The Brady Bunch,” which aired from 1969 to 1974. Born John Robert Rietz, Jr. in Highland Park, Illinois, […]

Shoeless Joe Jackson (1887 - 1951)

Shoeless Joe Jackson Shoeless Joe Jackson is best known today for being the most recognizable of the eight Chicago White Sox players who were banned forever from Major League baseball for his role in the 1919 “Black Sox” Scandal. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1902 he became a cotton textile worker with Brandon Mills, sweeping […]

Brandon Burlsworth (1976 - 1999)

Brandon Burlsworth Former Arkansas football player and Indianapolis Colts draft pick Brandon Burlsworth died Wednesday in a car crash while travelling to his home, state police said. State police Cpl. Philip Straub said the call came in at 4:17 p.m. that there was a crash involving a car and a tractor-trailer on U.S. 412 near […]

Zoltan Korda (1895 - 1961)

As a young man, Zoltan Korda went to work with his brother Alexander in their native Hungary and in the United Kingdom for his London Films production company. He functioned as a camera operator; for a time he worked in film editing and as a screenwriter. In 1918 and 1920 in Hungary, he directed two […]

Sam Newfield (1899 - 1964)

Sam Newfield, born Samuel Neufeld, (December 6, 1899 – November 10, 1964), also known as Sherman Scott or Peter Stewart, was an American B-movie director, one of the most prolific in American film history—he is credited with directing over 250 feature films in a career that began in the silent era and ended in 1958. […]

Sterling Hayden (1916 - 1986)

Sterling Hayden became a print model and later signed a contract with Paramount Pictures, who dubbed the 6′5″ (1.96 m) actor “The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies” and “The Beautiful Blond Viking God.” His first film, Virginia (1941), starred Madeleine Carroll, with whom he fell in love and married. After two film roles, he […]

Walter Sande (1906 - 1971)

Born in Denver, Colorado, Walter Sande was one of those stern, heavyset character actors in Hollywood no person could recognize by name. Sande showed an early interest in music as a youth and by his college years managed to start his own band. This led to a job as musical director for 20th Century-Fox’s theater […]

Joseph Naish (1896 - 1973)

Joseph Naish’s uncredited bit role in What Price Glory? (1926) launched his career in more than two hundred films. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first for his role as Giuseppe in the movie Sahara (1943) in which he delivers one of the most moving speeches in any […]

Sidney Salkow (1911 - 2000)

Sidney Salkow (June 16, 1911 – October 18, 2000) was an American film director (more than 50 motion pictures), screenwriter, and television director. Salkow was educated at the City College of New York, Columbia University and Harvard Law School. After school he returned to New York City and became an assistant director of theater and […]

Rod Daniel (1942 - 2016)

Rollin Augustus “Rod” Daniel III (August 4, 1942 – April 16, 2016) was an American television and film director, active from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. He is best known for his comedy films, including the 1985 Michael J. Fox comedy film Teen Wolf, which was a considerable box office success. Rod Daniel, […]

Bill Cardille (1928 - 2016)

Bill Cardille had a nightly record program on WDAD radio in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in 1951. He first worked in television at WICU in Erie, Pennsylvania, beginning January 19, 1952. He was for many years a fixture on Channel 11 (formerly call letters WIIC, now WPXI), the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh, and was the first […]

Keith Wayne (1945 - 1995)

Keith Wayne (January 16, 1945 — September 9, 1995), born Ronald Keith Hartman, was an American actor known for his (only) role as Tom in the George A. Romero film Night of the Living Dead (1968). Keith Wayne was born in Washington, Pennsylvania. His father was Vincent W. Hartman. His mother was Margaret Warga Hartman; […]

Duane Jones (1937 - 1988)

Duane Jones (February 2, 1937 – July 22, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his leading role as Ben in the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead. He was director of the Maguire Theater at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, and the artistic director of the Richard […]

Susan Tyrrell (1945 - 2012)

Susan Tyrrell made her Broadway debut in 1965 as a replacement performer in the comedy Cactus Flower. In 1968, as a member of the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, she was in the cast of King Lear and revivals of The Time of Your Life (1969) and Camino Real (1970). Off-Broadway, Tyrrell appeared in the […]