Gloria Grahame (1923 - 1981)

Grahame was born Gloria Grahame Hallward in Los Angeles, California. She was raised a Methodist. Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward, her father, was an architect and author and her mother, Jeanne McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a British stage actress and acting teacher. McDougall taught her younger daughter acting during her childhood […]

Gene Nelson (1920 - 1996)

Born Leander Eugene Berg in Astoria, Oregon, he moved to Seattle when he was one year old. He was inspired to become a dancer by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films when he was a child. After serving in the Army during World War II during which he also performed in the musical This […]

Glenda Farrell (1904 - 1971)

Glenda Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. She began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played the role of Little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She paused at times to continue her education but appeared with a number of theatrical companies and in several […]

June Storey (1918 - 1991)

Mary June Storey was born on April 20, 1918 in Toronto, Canada. Her father was a forest ranger. Her family moved to Tyler Lake, Connecticut in the United States when she was five years old. In 1930, her family moved to Southern California, where she attended Laguna Beach High School. Pretty in her youth, she […]

Jane Adams (1921 - 2014)

Jane Adams was born in San Antonio, Texas and received a full scholarship to Juilliard, which she turned down to spend years studying at the Pasadena Playhouse. From there she got her start on Lux Radio Theatre and then with the Harry Conover Modeling Agency, where she was given her nickname “Poni”. (This was supposedly […]

China Zorrilla (1922 - 1922)

Born in Montevideo into an aristocratic Uruguayan family, “China” was the second of the five daughters of Guma Muñoz del Campo and sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891–1975), a disciple of Antoine Bourdelle, responsible for monuments in Uruguay and Argentina. Revered as Uruguay’s national poet, her paternal grandfather was Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, […]

Bill Kerr (1922 - 2014)

Bill Kerr was born William Henry Kerr in Cape Town, South Africa, on 10 June 1922 to an Australian performing arts family, growing up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. His career in show business began when he was very young. Wilton, his son, recalled: “His mum used him instead of using a prop, […]

Leslie Carlson (1933 - 2014)

Leslie Merle Carlson (February 24, 1933 — May 3, 2014) was an American Canadian film and television character actor who acted on stage in Canada, the U.S. and England. His films include the horror films Deranged and Black Christmas, and his television credits include The Twilight Zone and The X-Files. His stage name was frequently […]

Rhodes Reason (1930 - 2014)

Rhodes Reason was born in Glendale, California, the son of Jean (Robinson) and Rex G. Reason. The younger brother of actor Rex Reason, Reason made his acting start at the age of eighteen in a production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Charles Laughton. Among his starring roles were parts in King Kong Escapes (1967) and […]

Mónica Spear (1984 - 2014)

During the Miss Venezuela 2004 pageant,Mónica Spear won the national crown and represented Venezuela at Miss Universe 2005. Spear made the top 15 after Ana Karina Áñez (Miss Venezuela 2003) failed to make the top 15 in Miss Universe 2004, which was the first time in 22 years that Venezuela failed to place. Spear went on […]

Booth Colman (1923 - 2014)

Booth Colman (March 8, 1923 – December 15, 2014) was an American film, television and stage actor. In his later years he played older authority figures such as doctors and lawyers. Colman appeared in films since 1952, when he appeared uncredited in The Big Sky directed by Howard Hawks. Booth Colman was born in Portland, Oregon. […]

Frank Marth (1922 - 2014)

Frank Marth (July 29, 1922 – January 12, 2014) was an American film and television actor. He may be best known as a cast-member of Cavalcade of Stars (1949; 1950–1957), especially segments of The Honeymooners, which later became a television series (1955–56). Tall and fair-haired, Marth, often in tandem with the short, dark-haired George O. Petrie, […]

Mary Grace Canfield (1924 - 2014)

Mary Grace Canfield was born in Rochester, New York, the second child of Hubert and Hildegard (née Jacobson) Canfield. She grew up in Pittsford, New York. She had an elder sister, Constance, who was two years older. Acting mostly in small theatre companies and regional theatre, between 1952 and 1964 she appeared in several Broadway plays, […]

Vanna Bonta (1958 - 2014)

Vanna Bonta was born in the United States to Maria Luisa Bonta (née Ugolini), an artist from Florence, Italy, and James Cecil Bonta, a military officer from Kentucky. Her mother’s elder sister was Italian children’s author Lydia Ugolini. In 1995, Bonta’s first novel, Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel was published. Flight has been characterized as “inter-genre” […]

Anthony Mason (1966 - 2015)

Anthony Mason attended Tennessee State University and was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in the third round of the 1988 NBA Draft (53rd pick), but was cut shortly afterwards. He then played for the Efes Pilsen basketball club in Turkey. Mason played for Marinos de Oriente in Venezuela and other teams in the CBA and the […]

David McAlister (1951 - 2015)

David McAlister was born on 2 April 1951 in Worthing, Sussex and died on 26 June 2015 of cancer. He was married with two children (a girl and a boy) living with his family in Surrey. David McAlister was best known for his portrayal of Daddy Warbucks in the stage production of the American musical Annie. […]

Aarthi Agarwal (1984 - 2015)

Aarthi Agarwal (March 5, 1984 – June 6, 2015) was an Indian-American actress who primarily worked in Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood. Aarthi Agarwal was born on March 5, 1984, to a Gujarati family. Her father, Shashank, is in the hotel business and her mother, Veema, is a homemaker. She has two siblings. At around […]

Claire Gordon (1941 - 2015)

Claire Gordon was born in Cambridge, in England. Her father was a doctor and her mother a make-up artist who worked for Max Factor. After being photographed by chance at the Queens Ice Rink, Bayswater, for the cover of the magazine Lilliput, Claire Gordon was signed to a five-year contract with film agent Bill Watts […]

Moira Orfei (1931 - 2015)

Moira Orfei (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmɔira orˈfɛi]; born Miranda Orfei; 21 December 1931 – 15 November 2015) was a popular Italian actress and television personality. Moira was considered the queen of the Italian circus. Raised in a family who owned the circus company Circus Orfei, Moira became the symbol of circus in Italy and attained international fame. […]

Betsy von Furstenberg (1931 - 2015)

Betsy von Furstenberg was born Elizabeth Caroline Maria Agatha Felicitas Therese, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Herdringen in Arnsberg. Her parents were Franz-Egon, Graf (Count) von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (1896–1975) and his first wife, Elizabeth Foster Johnson (1899–1961), a native of Memphis, Tennessee. Her stepmothers were Gloria Rubio, Clara Ghyczy, and Joan Siegel. She has two half siblings from her father’s […]

Barbara Meek (1934 - 2015)

Barbara Meek was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Juanita (née Coleman) and Harold Talmadge Meek, and is the maternal granddaughter of the Reverend Horatius “H.H.” Coleman, pastor of the Greater Macedonia Baptist Church. She was a graduate of Northwestern High School, and as an undergraduate was asked to join Wayne State University’s graduate theater program. […]

Paul Almond (1931 - 2015)

Paul Almond attended Bishop’s College School, McGill University and Balliol College, Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics, Economics, edited the University magazine Isis played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club and was president of the university Poetry Society. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he worked primarily as a director and producer, and also wrote […]

Jacques Sernas (1925 - 2015)

Jacques Sernas, was a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career. He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, the son of Jokūbas Šernas, a signatory of the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania, who died when Sernas was one year old. His mother took him to Paris, France, where Sernas received his formal education. During […]

Paul Engle (1908 - 1991)

Paul Engle is often mistakenly credited with having founded the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (an honor that more appropriately belongs to his predecessor, Wilbur Schramm). Nonetheless, perhaps no one helped to better establish the reputation of the venerable writing program than Engle. During his tenure as director (1941–1965), he was responsible for luring some of the […]

María Elena Velasco (1940 - 2015)

María Elena Velasco was born in Puebla, to Tomás Velasco, a railway mechanic, and María Elena Fragoso. She had three siblings, Gloria, Tomás and Susana. After the death of Tomás Velasco, the family moved to Mexico City, where she worked as a dancer at the Teatro Tívoli. Later, she became one of the showgirls of the […]

Cristie Schoen (1976 - 2015)

Cristie Schoen (also known as Cristie Schoen Codd or Cristie Codd; 1976—March 12, 2015) was a Spanish-born chef. She came to prominence as a contestant in the eighth season of the Food Network series Food Network Star. Schoen was born in Madrid, Spain. She grew up cooking primarily Cajun cuisine with her father. In 2012, it was […]

Elaine Riley (1917 - 2015)

Elaine Riley (January 15, 1917 – December 7, 2015) was an American film and television actress. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Riley, Riley was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, on January 15, 1917. She won the Miss East Liverpool beauty title and was runner-up for the Miss Ohio title in 1937. Riley also was […]

Monica Lewis (1922 - 2015)

Monica Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 22, 1922, the youngest of three children. Her father, Leon, was a pianist and composer while her mother, Jessica, was a singer with the Chicago Opera Company, with Lewis studying her voice with her mother. At the age of 11, Lewis’ family moved to New York […]

Carol Doda (1937 - 2015)

Carol Doda was born August 29, 1937, in Solano County, California, and grew up in San Francisco. Her parents divorced when she was 3. Although private about her personal life, she said she dropped out of school and became a cocktail waitress at age 14. Carol Doda attended the San Francisco Art Institute and worked […]

Candida Royalle (1950 - 2015)

Candida Royalle was born on October 15, 1950, in New York City as Candice Marion Vadala. Initially trained in music, dance, and art in New York, with studies at the High School of Art and Design, Parson’s School of Design and the City University of New York. In 1975 she began her career in porn as […]