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. […]

Henry Travers (1874 - 1965)

Henry Travers was born Travers John Heagerty in Prudhoe, Northumberland, and was the son of Daniel Heagerty, a doctor. Travers grew up in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and many biographies wrongly report him as being born there. The Travers family lived in Prudhoe for a couple of years before moving from Woodburn, on the A68 road near Corsenside, Northumberland, […]

Donna Reed (1921 - 1986)

Donna Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane (née Shives; 1899–1975) and William Richard Mullenger (1893–1981). The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist. After graduating from Denison High School, Reed planned to become a teacher, but was unable to pay for […]

Leo McCarey (1898 - 1969)

Born in Los Angeles, California, Leo McCarey attended St. Joseph’s Catholic school and Los Angeles High School. His father was Thomas J. McCarey, whom the Los Angeles Times called “the greatest fight promoter in the world”. Leo McCarey would later make a boxing comedy with Harold Lloyd called The Milky Way (1936). Leo McCarey graduated from […]

Robert Taylor (1911 - 1969)

Born Spangler Arlington Brugh Taylor in Filley, Nebraska, he was the only child of Ruth Adaline (née Stanhope) and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, living in Muskogee, Oklahoma; Kirksville, Missouri; and Fremont, Nebraska. By September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, […]

Deborah Kerr (1921 - 2007)

Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer was born in a private nursing home (hospital) in Glasgow, the only daughter of Kathleen Rose (née Smale) and Capt. Arthur Charles Kerr-Trimmer, a World War I veteran who lost a leg at the Battle of the Somme and later became a naval architect and civil engineer. She spent the first three […]

Isobel Elsom (1893 - 1981)

Isobel Elsom was born Isabelle Reed in Chesterton, Cambridge, Elsom usually was cast as an aristocratic lady of the upper class. She attended Howard College, Bedford England. Over the course of three decades she appeared in 17 Broadway productions, beginning with The Ghost Train in 1926. Her best-known stage role was the wealthy murder victim […]

Victor Moore (1876 - 1962)

Victor Moore appeared in over 50 films and 21 Broadway shows. His first appearance was on Broadway in Rosemary (1896). He also appeared in George M. Cohan’s Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, which opened January 1, 1906, and its sequel, The Talk of New York (1907). He went on to star in shows such as Oh, […]

Frances Farmer (1913 - 1970)

Frances Farmer was born in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Lillian (née Van Ornum 1873-1955) and Ernest Melvin Farmer. In 1931, while attending West Seattle High School, she entered and won $100 from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a writing contest sponsored by Scholastic Magazine, with her controversial essay “God Dies”. It was a […]

Jean Hersholt (1886 - 1956)

Jean Hersholt was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Claire (née Petersen) and Henry Hersholt, actors who worked with the Danish Folk Theatre. Hersholt toured Europe performing with his family when he was young. He then graduated from the Copenhagen Art School. His first two films were made in Germany in 1906. He emigrated […]

Marcia Mae Jones (1924 - 2007)

Marcia Mae Jones (August 1, 1924 – September 2, 2007) was an American actress whose prolific career spanned 47 years. Marcia Mae Jones made her film debut at the age of two in the 1926 film Mannequin. She appeared in films such as King of Jazz (1930), Street Scene (1931), and Night Nurse (1931) before rising […]

Anita Louise (1915 - 1970)

Anita Louise (January 9, 1915 – April 25, 1970) was an American film actress best known for her performances in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), and Anthony Adverse (1936). Anita Louise Fremault was born on January 9, 1915 in New York City. She made her acting debut on Broadway at […]

Gypsy Rose Lee (1911 - 1970)

Gypsy Rose Lee Gypsy Rose Lee was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 8, 1911, as Rose Louise Hovick; she always gave January 9 as her date of birth. Louise’s sister, actress June Havoc, born Ellen June Hovick or Ellen Evangeline Hovick, was born on November 8, 1912. Their mother, Rose (née Rose Evangeline Thompson), […]

Inger Stevens (1934 - 1970)

Inger Stevens was born Ingrid Stensland in Stockholm, Sweden. As a child she was often ill. When she was nine, her mother abandoned the family and her father moved to the United States, leaving Inger and her sister in the custody first of the family maid and then an aunt in Lidingo, near Stockholm. In […]

Brian Epstein (1934 - 1967)

Brian Samuel Epstein (/ɛpstaɪn/; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was an English music entrepreneur, best known for managing the Beatles. Brian Epstein first discovered the Beatles in November 1961 during a lunchtime Cavern Club performance. He was instantly impressed and saw great potential in the group. Epstein was rejected by nearly all major recording […]

Cilla Black (1943 - 2015)

Priscilla Maria Veronica White OBE (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), known by her stage name Cilla Black, was an English singer, television presenter, actress, and author. Championed by her friends the Beatles, she began her career as a singer in 1963, and her singles “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “You’re My World” both […]

Telly Savalas (1922 - 1994)

Telly Savalas Telly Savalas was born as Aristotelis Savalas on January 21, 1922, in Garden City, New York, to Greek American parents Christina (née Kapsalis), a New York City artist who was a native of Sparta, and Nick Savalas, a Greek restaurant owner. Savalas and his brother Gus sold newspapers and shined shoes to help […]

Joe Strummer (1952 - 2002)

John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known by his stage name Joe Strummer, was a British musician, singer, actor and songwriter who was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of The Clash, a punk rock band that was formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British […]

Juano Hernandez (1896 - 1970)

Juano Hernández (birth name: Juan G. Hernández) was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican father and a Brazilian mother. With no formal education, he worked as a sailor and settled in Rio de Janeiro. He was hired by a circus and become an entertainer, making his first appearance as an acrobat […]

Glenn Frey (1948 - 2016)

Glenn Frey Glenn Frey was an all-American rock star determined to make it and certain he knew how. “He was the first guy to say, ‘If you don’t get the business right and the music right, you’re screwed,’” said Eagles manager Irving Azoff, clearly shaken by the death of his longtime friend on Monday. “Early […]

Spiro Agnew (1918 - 1996)

Spiro Agnew Spiro Agnew, Governor of Maryland, US Vice President. A member of the Republican Party, he served a Maryland’s 55th governor from January 1967 Until January 1969 and then as US Vice President under President Richard M. Nixon from January 1969 until October 1973. Spiro Agnew  is remembered as having to resign the vice […]

Jim O Toole (1937 - 1970)

Jim O Toole  Jim O’Toole was born on January 10, 1937 on the South Side of Chicago.  He was one of five children and his father, a Chicago police officer, taught him boxing.  But Jim O’Toole  preferred baseball, which he learned on neighborhood sandlots growing up.  He had a tryout with his hometown Chicago White Sox […]

Lemmy Kilmister (1945 - 2015)

Lemmy Kilmister Heavy Metal Musician. Born Ian Fraser Kilmister, he was a founding member and frontman of the heavy metal rock group “Motörhead”. Inspired to become a musician after seeing the Beatles perform in concert, he spent his early years playing in a variety of bands, as well as working on the road crew for […]