Bella Darvi (1928 - 1971)

Bella Darvi was born Bajla Węgier to Jewish parents Chajm Węgier, a baker, and his wife, Chaja (née Zygelbaum). She had three brothers, Robert, Jacques, and Jean-Isidore, and a sister, Sura. Robert died in a concentration camp. Jailed by the Nazis during World War II, she was released in 1943. She married a businessman, Alban Cavalcade, […]

Denise Darcel (1924 - 2011)

Born as Denise Billecard in Paris, she was one of five daughters of a French baker, and she was college educated, studying at the University of Dijon. According to a friend, whom she met in Paris during World War II, she was a passenger in an L-5 Stinson light observation aircraft on VJ Day to […]

Patricia Dane (1919 - 1995)

Patricia Dane (August 4, 1919 – June 5, 1995) was an American film actress of the 1940s. Born Thelma Pearl Pippins and sometimes known as Thelma Byrnes after her stepfather in Jacksonville, Florida, Patricia Dane began her career designing clothes for a New York City dress firm. She was signed to an MGM contract in 1941 […]

June Collyer (1906 - 1968)

Born Dorothea Heermance in New York City, June Collyer chose to use her mother’s maiden name when she decided to pursue acting. A society girl chosen by Allan Dwan, she had her first starring role in 1927 when she starred in East Side, West Side. She did a total of eleven films during the silent […]

Constance Collier (1878 - 1955)

Born Laura Constance Hardie, in Windsor, Berkshire to Cheetham Agaste Hardie and Eliza Collier, Constance Collier made her stage debut at the age of 3, when she played Fairy Peasblossom in A Midsummer’s Night Dream. In 1893, at the age of 15, she joined the Gaiety Girls, the famous dance troupe based at the Gaiety […]

Nancy Coleman (1912 - 2000)

Nancy Coleman (December 30, 1912 – January 18, 2000) was an American film, television and radio actress. After working on radio and appearing on the Broadway stage, Nancy Coleman was brought to Hollywood to work for Warner Bros. studios. She attended the University of Washington where she was a member of the Alpha Lambda chapter […]

Ruth Clifford (1900 - 1998)

Ruth Clifford (February 17, 1900 – November 30, 1998) was an American actress of leading roles in silent films, whose career lasted from silent days into the television era. A native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Narragansett, Rhode Island, then, following her mother’s death in 1911, came to Los Angeles as […]

Betty Ross Clarke (1892 - 1970)

Betty Ross Clarke was born May Clarke on May 1, 1892, in Langdon, North Dakota, the daughter of Charles Willard Clarke and Cora Ross. Her maternal grandfather was Leonard F. Ross, a brigadier general in the American Civil War, and her maternal great-grandfather was Ossian M. Ross, a prominent pioneer settler in Illinois who founded […]

Ina Claire (1893 - 1985)

Born Ina Fagan in 1893 in Washington, D.C., Ina Claire began her career appearing in vaudeville. In 1909, she appeared in a vaudeville act entitled “Dainty Mimic,” which include an imitation of actor Harry Lauder. A booking agent described this act as “one of the best single Acts” he had seen that season and remarked […]

Gregory La Cava (1892 - 1952)

Gregory La Cava was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students’ League. Towards the end of 1915, William Randolph Hearst decided to create an animation studio to promote the comic strips printed in his newspapers. He called the new company International Film Service, and he hired La […]

Preston Foster (1900 - 1970)

Preston Foster (August 24, 1900 – July 14, 1970), sometimes credited as Preston S. Foster, was an American stage and film actor. He also had a career as a vocalist. Preston Foster entered films in 1929 after acting on Broadway. He was still appearing on Broadway as late as November 1931, in the cast of the […]

William Castle (1914 - 1977)

William Castle was born William Schloss, Jr. in New York City, the son of Saidie (Snellenberg) and William Schloss. His family was Jewish. (“Schloss” is German for “castle”, and Castle later translated his surname into English as his pseudonym.) His mother died when he was nine. When his father followed a year later, he was […]

Richard Dix (1893 - 1949)

Richard Dix was born Ernst Carlton Brimmer on July 18, 1893, in St. Paul, Minnesota. There he was educated, and at the desire of his father, studied to be a surgeon. His obvious acting talent in his school dramatic club led him to leading roles in most of the school plays. At 6′ and 180 […]

George Kaufman (1889 - 1961)

Born to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from high school in 1907 and “tried law school for three months” but grew disenchanted and took on a series of odd jobs, including “selling hatbands”. George Kaufman then began his career as a journalist and drama critic; he was the drama editor for The […]

Edna Ferber (1885 - 1968)

Edna Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. After living in Chicago, Illinois, and Ottumwa, Iowa, at the age of 12 Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly […]

Alan Jay Lerner (1918 - 1986)

Born in New York City, he was the son of Edith Adelson Lerner and Joseph Jay Lerner, whose brother, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores, a chain of dress shops. One of Lerner’s cousins was the radio comedian/television game show panelist Henry Morgan. Lerner was educated at Bedales School in […]

Kitty Carlisle (1910 - 2007)

Kitty Carlisle was born as Catherine Conn (Kitty is a nickname for Catherine; the surname was pronounced Cohen) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her family was of German Jewish heritage. Her grandfather, Ben Holtzman, was the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. A Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, Holtzman had been a gunner on the CSS […]

Boris Vian (1920 - 1959)

Boris Vian was born in 1920 into an upper middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville d’Avray (Hauts-de-Seine). His parents were Paul Vian, a young rentier, and Yvonne Ramenez, amateur pianist and harpist. From his father Vian inherited a distrust of the church and the military, as well as a love of the […]

Harold Arlen (1905 - 1986)

Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck, in Buffalo, New York, United States, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned the piano as a youth and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer and moved to New York […]

Moss Hart (1904 - 1961)

Moss Hart was born in New York City and grew up in relative poverty with his English-born Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx and in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. Early on he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, with whom he later lost contact due to a falling out between her and his parents, and […]

Lorenz Hart (1895 - 1943)

Lorenz Hart was born in Harlem, the elder of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart, of German background. His father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. (His brother, Teddy Hart, also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. Teddy Hart’s wife, Dorothy […]

George Abbott (1887 - 1995)

George Abbott was born in Forestville, New York to George Burwell Abbott (May 1858 Erie County, New York – February 4, 1942 Hamburg, New York) and Hannah May McLaury (1869 – June 20, 1940 Hamburg, New York). He later moved to the town of Salamanca, which twice elected his father mayor. In 1898, his family […]

Carl Laemmle (1908 - 1979)

Carl Laemmle, Jr., was born on April 28, 1908. He was the son of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures. He had a sister Rosabelle. His mother was Recha Laemmle (née Stern), who died in 1919 when Carl, Jr. was eleven years old. She was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery, in the Glendale section […]

Joseph Mankiewicz (1909 - 1993)

Joseph Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Franz Mankiewicz (died 1941) and Johanna Blumenau, Jewish immigrants from Germany. He had a sister, Erna Mankiewicz (1901–1979), and a brother, Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953), who became a screenwriter. Herman also won an Oscar for co-writing Citizen Kane (1941). At age four, Joseph Mankiewicz moved with his family […]

Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996)

Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Irma and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon after. As a teen, Lew and his mother moved with his step-father and half brother and sister to San Diego, California. Leaving high school before graduating, he started a […]

James Hilton (1900 - 1954)

James Hilton was born in Leigh, Lancashire, England, James Hilton was the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow. He was educated at The Leys School, Cambridge and then at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first novel, and was also awarded an honours degree in English literature. He wrote […]

Greer Garson (1904 - 1996)

Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904 in Manor Park, East Ham, Essex, the only child of Nina (née Nancy Sophia Greer; died 1958) and George Garson (1865–1906), a commercial clerk in a London importing business. Her father was born in London, to Scottish parents, and her mother was from Drumaloor, Casar, County Down, […]

Walter Pidgeon (1897 - 1984)

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, Walter Pidgeon was the son of Hannah (née Sanborn), a housewife, and Caleb Burpee Pidgeon, a haberdasher. His brother, Larry, was an editorial writer for the Santa Barbara News-Press. Walter Pidgeon attended local schools and the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His university education […]

Robert Montgomery (1904 - 1981)

Robert Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Fishkill Landing, New York (now Beacon, New York), to Henry Montgomery, Sr. and his wife, Mary Weed Montgomery (née Barney). His early childhood was one of privilege as his father was president of the New York Rubber Company. His father committed suicide in 1922 by jumping off […]

Thomas Mitchell (1892 - 1962)

Thomas Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters, and his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of Labor. The younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter after graduating from St. […]