Mildred Davis (1901 - 1969)

Mildred Davis Mildred Davis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and educated at the “Friends School” there. After several years spent studying, she traveled to Los Angeles in the hopes of securing a role in a film. After appearing in several small roles, she caught the attention of Hal Roach, who pointed her out to comedian […]

Tom Perry (1922 - 2015)

Tom Perry was born in Logan, Utah, to Leslie Thomas Perry and his wife, Elsie Nora Sonne. Perry, Utah is named for Perry’s ancestor, Gustavus Adolphus Perry and his family, who were among the first settlers in that area. From the time of Perry’s birth until he was eighteen, his father was bishop of their LDS […]

Boyd Packer (1924 - 2015)

Boyd Packer was born on September 10, 1924, in Brigham City, Utah, the tenth of eleven children born to Ira Wight Packer and Emma Jensen. As a young boy, he contracted polio. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in the spring of 1943. He graduated as a […]

Elisabeth Bing (1914 - 2015)

Elisabeth Bing was born on 8 July 1914, in a suburb of Berlin. Hers was a home birth, and she was delivered before the doctor could arrive. Her family were of Jewish descent, but converted to Protestantism years before her birth, and on sensing danger with the rise of Nazi Germany, they decided to leave […]

Arnold Klein (1945 - 2015)

Arnold Klein was born on February 27, 1945, in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, the son of a Jewish Orthodox rabbi. He was raised in Michigan and North Miami, Florida, graduating from North Miami High School in 1963. In 1967, Arnold Klein earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He attended the University of […]

Irwin Rose (1926 - 2015)

Irwin Rose was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a secular Jewish family, the son of Ella (Greenwald) and Harry Royze, who owned a flooring store. Irwin Rose attended Washington State University for one year prior to serving in the Navy during World War II. Upon returning from the war he received his Bachelor of […]

Jack King (1931 - 2015)

Jack King grew up in Boston, the son of a local sportswriter, and attended Boston College. Prior to joining NASA, King worked for the Associated Press. He opened the AP’s Cape Canaveral bureau in 1958, when he was 27 years old. Jack King joined NASA in 1960, and served as the Kennedy Space Center’s Chief […]

Claudia Alexander (1959 - 2015)

Claudia Alexander was born in Canada but raised in Santa Clara, California by her mother, Gaynelle, and father, Harold. She had two siblings: Suzanne and David. Claudia Alexander wanted to be a journalist but her parents—who were paying for her education—wanted her to become an engineer. After a summer job at the Ames Research Center, […]

Ian Keith (1899 - 1960)

Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new “talking pictures”; he played John Wilkes Booth in D. W. Griffith’s first talkie, […]

Hope Emerson (1897 - 1960)

Hope Emerson was born in Hawarden, Iowa. Following her graduation from West High School in Des Moines in 1916, she moved to New York City, where she performed in vaudeville. Hope Emerson made her Broadway début in Lysistrata in 1930, when theatrical producer Norman Bel Geddes cast her for the role of the amazonian Lamputo. She […]

Lawrence Tibbett (1896 - 1960)

Lawrence Tibbett was born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (with a single final “t”) on November 16, 1896 in Bakersfield, California. His father was a part-time deputy sheriff, killed in a shootout with desperado Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, earning money by singing in church choirs and at funerals. He graduated from […]

Zina Bethune (1945 - 2012)

Zina Bethune was born in New York City, the daughter of Ivy (née Vigder), an actress (born June 1, 1918, Sevastopol, Russia) and William Charles Bethune, a sculptor and painter who died in 1950 when Zina was five years old. Zina began her formal ballet training aged six at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. […]

Erland Josephson (1923 - 2012)

Erland Josephson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈæːɭand ˈʝuːsɛfsɔn]; 15 June 1923 – 25 February 2012) was a Swedish actor and author. Erland Josephson was best known by international audiences for his work in films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Theodoros Angelopoulos. Erland Josephson was born on the island of Kungsholmen, in Stockholm, Sweden, as the son […]

Yvette Wilson (1964 - 2012)

Before she started her career in the entertainment business, Yvette Wilson attended San Jose State University and majored in communications. Wilson first entered comedy when she lost a bet and had to perform as a stand-up comedian at a friend’s club. She decided to make a living off comedy and never turned back. Her big break […]

Victor Spinetti (1929 - 2012)

Vittorio Giorgio Andrea Spinetti (2 September 1929 – 18 June 2012) was a Welsh comedy actor, author, poet and raconteur. Victor Spinetti appeared in dozens of films and stage plays throughout his 50-year career and is best remembered today for appearing in the three Beatles films in the 1960s, A Hard Day’s Night, Help! and […]

Jerry Nelson (1934 - 2012)

On Sesame Street, Nelson’s longest-running character was Count von Count, the counting vampire who took delight in counting anything he could. Nelson did the voice and puppetry for the Count from 1972 until 2012, and continued to provide the Count’s voice until his death. His other Muppet roles on that program were The Amazing Mumford, […]

Janet Carroll (1940 - 2012)

Janet Carroll was born Janet Thiese in Chicago, the daughter of Hilda Catherine (Patton) and George Nicholas Thiese. She received formal theatrical training and began acting professionally in the late 1960s, appearing in numerous productions in local theaters. She then became a regular at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, where she acted during five […]

Jonathan Hardy (1940 - 2012)

Jonathan Hardy (20 September 1940 – 30 July 2012) was a New Zealand-born Australian actor, writer and director. Jonathan Hardy trained as an actor in Britain, and worked for the Royal National Theatre among other British theatre companies. He returned to his home of New Zealand in a touring production of The Comedy of Errors […]

Warren Stevens (1919 - 2012)

Born in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, Stevens began his acting career after serving in the United States Army Air Corps as a pilot during World War II. A founding member of The Actor’s Studio in New York, Warren Stevens received notice on Broadway in the late 1940s, and thereafter was offered a Hollywood contract at 20th […]

Richard Brooker (1954 - 2013)

Richard Brooker, a former trapeze artist, started his career in acting in a casting magazine, “Dramalogue”. He began his career in the third Friday the 13th film, and later appeared in small film roles in Deathstalker, Deep Sea Conspiracy, and the television series Trapper John, M.D.. Brooker later became a director, for such notable series […]

Briony McRoberts (1957 - 2013)

On television, Briony McRoberts played “Tessa Kilpin” in Episode 057 (05.11) ‘No Stone’ of The Professionals, and appeared in television programmes including The Bill, EastEnders, Taggart, The Crezz and Diamonds. She had a regular role as Lady Laird Sam Hagan in the Scottish soap Take the High Road for STV from 1990 to 1999. In […]

Paul Shane (1940 - 2013)

Paul Shane was born George Frederick Speight in Thrybergh, West Riding of Yorkshire, near Rotherham. He was a miner at Silverwood Colliery but slipped on soap in the pit-head baths in 1967, resulting in double herniated discs. He was pensioned from the pit at 27. Two years later, he became a professional entertainer since he […]

Elliott Reid (1920 - 2013)

Elliott Reid was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of artist Christine Challenger Reid and banker Blair Reid. In 1935, Reid debuted on the radio program The March of Time, which led to him working regularly on radio dramas during the Golden Age of radio. Early on he took “Elliott” as his stage name. His […]

Elspet Gray (1929 - 2013)

Elspet Gray appeared in many television programmes, her first appearance being in Love in Waiting in 1948. She had several roles in the 1970s including parts in Fawlty Towers, as the wife of a psychiatrist baffled by Basil’s behaviour, The Crezz, Catweazle, and in the 1980s with Doctor Who story Arc of Infinity and the […]

Nigel Davenport (1928 - 2013)

Nigel Davenport was born in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, to Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn) and Arthur Henry Davenport. His father was a bursar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter’s School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford. Originally he chose to study Philosophy, Politics […]

Lewis Collins (1946 - 2013)

The son of Bill Collins, a shipwright and amateur musician who played the piano in local clubs with the Savoy Swingers band, Lewis was born in Bidston, Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula (then part of Cheshire). Aged two, he won the Most Beautiful Baby in Liverpool contest. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange […]

Frank Thornton (1921 - 2013)

Frank Thornton Ball was born in Dulwich, London, the son of Rosina Mary (née Thornton) and William Ernest Ball. His father was organist at St Stephen’s Church, Dulwich, and his son learned to play for a short while. Music proved too difficult for him, however, and he wanted to act from an early age. His […]

Edmond O’Brien (1915 - 1915)

Edmond O’Brien was born in Brooklyn, New York, of English and Irish stock. After attending Columbia University for one year, he went to Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre on a scholarship. Edmond O’Brien made his first Broadway appearance at age 21 in Daughters of Atreus. Edmond O’Brien made his film debut in 1938, and […]

Ruth Roman (1922 - 1999)

Ruth Roman was born to Lithuanian-Jewish parents, Mary Pauline (née Gold) and Abraham Roman. Her mother was a dancer and her father a barker in a carnival that they owned at Revere, Massachusetts. She had two sisters, Ann and Eve. Her father died when Ruth was eight, and her mother sold the carnival. As a girl, […]

Dorothy Collins (1926 - 1994)

As a youngster, Dorothy Collins sang on radio stations in Windsor and Detroit. In 1940, at age 14, she and her family were introduced to bandleader/composer Raymond Scott in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, she became Scott’s protégée. In early 1942, at age 15, she became a featured vocalist with Scott’s orchestra, performing on radio and on […]