Mike Pratt (1931 - 1976)

In his early career, Mike Pratt worked in advertising, while also taking some part-time acting roles, until in the mid-’50s he took a sabbatical quitting his office job. He drove around Europe in an old-style London taxi with three friends, including Lionel Bart. On returning to Britain, he earned a living as a jazz and skiffle […]

Van Heflin (1908 - 1971)

Van Heflin was born Emmett Evan Heflin, Jr. in Walters, Oklahoma, the son of Fanny Bleecker (née Shippey) and Dr. Emmett Evan Heflin, a dentist. He was of Irish and French ancestry. Heflin’s sister was Daytime Emmy-nominated actress Frances Heflin (who married composer Sol Kaplan). Heflin attended Classen High School in Oklahoma City (One source […]

Vince Barnett (1902 - 1977)

Vince Barnett was born July 4, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Luke Barnett, a well-known comedian who specialized in insulting and pulling practical jokes on his audiences. (Luke’s professional nickname was “Old Man Ribber” and “the King of Ribbing”.) Barnett graduated from Duquesne University Prep School and Carnegie Institute of Technology. An avid amateur […]

Danny Lockin (1943 - 1977)

Born in Hawaii, Danny Lockin was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He began dancing professionally at area fairs at the age of eight. His act co-starred Neal Reynolds, an African American boy with whom he would tap dance, tell jokes, pantomime, and do impressions of famous people. During his junior year in high school, Lockin’s family moved […]

Cyril Ritchard (1898 - 1977)

Cyril Ritchard was born Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard in Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, to Sydney-born parents, Herbert Trimnell-Ritchard, a Protestant grocer, and his wife Marguerite, a devout Roman Catholic who ensured her son was raised as a Roman Catholic. Educated by the Jesuits at St Aloysius’ College, Cyril was a lifelong devout Catholic who […]

Diana Hyland (1936 - 1977)

Diana Hyland was born Diana Gentner in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. (Some sources indicate Diane Gentner). She made her acting debut at age 19 (in 1955) in an episode of Robert Montgomery Presents. Over the next decade she played numerous guest and supporting roles in various television series, including Naked City, The Eleventh Hour, The Fugitive […]

Alan Reed (1907 - 1977)

Born Herbert Theodore Bergman in New York City, he majored in journalism at Columbia University, and then began his acting career in the city, eventually working on Broadway. He was Jewish. For a time, he continued to list himself either as Bergman or Alan Reed, depending on the role he was playing (Reed for more comedic […]

Robert Middleton (1911 - 1977)

Robert Middleton, (born Samuel G. Messer, May 13, 1911 – June 14, 1977), was an American film and television actor known for his large size and beetle-like brow. With a deep, booming voice, Middleton trained for a musical career at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He worked steadily as […]

Willis Bouchey (1907 - 1977)

Willis Ben Bouchey (May 24, 1907 – September 27, 1977) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 150 films and television shows. He was born in Vernon, Michigan, but reared by his mother and stepfather in Washington State. Bouchey may be best known for his movie appearances in The Horse Soldiers, The Long Gray […]

Allison Hayes (1930 - 1977)

Allison Hayes was born Mary Jane Hayes to William E. Hayes (1880–1959) and Charlotte Gibson Hayes (1893–1977) in Charleston, West Virginia. She was in the class of 1948 at Calvin Coolidge High School. Hayes won the title of Miss District of Columbia. She went on to represent D.C. in the 1949 Miss America pageant. Although […]

Stanley Adams (1915 - 1977)

Stanley Adams (April 7, 1915 – April 27, 1977) was an American actor and screenwriter. Born in New York City, Adams had his first film role playing the bartender in the movie version of Death of a Salesman (1952). He played another barkeep in The Gene Krupa Story and a safecracker in Roger Corman’s High […]

Henry Hull (1890 - 1977)

Henry Hull was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of William Madison Hull and Elinor Bond Vaughn. Early in his career, Hull appeared frequently on Broadway; he created the role of Jeeter Lester in the long-running play Tobacco Road (1933), based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell. Hull appeared in 74 films between 1917 and 1966, often […]

Ricardo Cortez (1900 - 1977)

Born to a Jewish family in New York City (Vienna has been incorrectly cited as his birthplace), Ricardo Cortez was an amateur boxer and worked on Wall Street prior to entering the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name from Krantz to Cortez in order to capitalize on the popularity of the era’s “Latin lovers” […]

Ethel Waters (1896 - 1977)

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson (believed to have been 13 years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older), by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed-race middle-class […]

Charlotte Greenwood (1890 - 1977)

Charlotte Greenwood (June 25, 1890 – December 28, 1977) was an American actress and dancer. Born in Philadelphia, Greenwood started in vaudeville, and starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing around six feet tall, she was best known for her long legs and high kicks. She earned the unique praise of being, in her words, […]

Leila Hyams (1905 - 1977)

Leila Hyams was born in New York City to vaudeville comedy performers John Hyams, (1869-1940) and Leila (née McIntyre) Hyams (1882-1953). Both parents appeared in films and mother Leila Senior was also a noted stage performer, her parents can later be seen together in several Hollywood films such as in 1939’s The Housekeeper’s Daughter. Hyams […]

Joan Tetzel (1921 - 1977)

Joan Tetzel played in When a Girl Marries and Woman of Courage, both on CBS. Tetzel is noted for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), where she played “Judy Flaquer”, the daughter of the solicitor played by Charles Coburn in the film. In the movie, she is the confidante and best friend of […]

Margaret Hayes (1916 - 1977)

Hayes was born in Baltimore, Maryland (some sources say Pottsville, Pennsylvania). Her father was Jack Lewis Ottenheimer, a “musician, theatrical man and joke book writer.” (Some sources say that he was a real estate broker.) While a student at Forest Park High School, she joined the Emerson Cook Stock Company to gain more acting experience. […]

Marguerite Chapman (1918 - 1999)

Marguerite Chapman (March 9, 1918 – August 31, 1999) was an American actress. Born in Chatham, New York, she was working as a telephone switchboard operator in White Plains, New York when her good looks brought about the opportunity to pursue a career in modeling. Signed by the John Robert Powers Agency in New York City, […]

Nora Marlowe (1915 - 1977)

Nora Marlowe was cast in the 1959-1960 television season as Martha Commager, the owner of a boarding house, in seven episodes of the NBC western series, Law of the Plainsman. She appeared three times as Mrs. Moffatt on the CBS sicom My Living Doll, starring Robert Cummings and Julie Newmar. She appeared twice on Rod Cameron […]

John Boles (1895 - 1969)

Boles was born in Greenville, Texas to a middle-class family. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas in 1917. He returned to Greenville, where he was selected by an out-of-town producer to act in an opera at the King Opera House. This experience convinced John that he preferred music and the stage to […]

Florence Marly (1919 - 1978)

Florence Marly (2 June 1919 – 9 November 1978) was a Czech-born French film actress. During World War II, Marly moved to neutral Argentina with her Jewish husband the film director Pierre Chenal where she appeared in several films. She also acted in two of her husband’s films while they were in Chile. She played a […]

Leslie Fenton (1902 - 1978)

Leslie Fenton was born on 12 March 1902 in Liverpool, England. He moved to America with his mother, Elizabeth Carter, and his brothers when he was six years old. They sailed as steerage passengers on board the R.M.S. Celtic, which departed from Liverpool, 11 September 1909, and arrived at New York, where they were ferried […]

Wilfred Pickles (1904 - 1978)

Wilfred Pickles (13 October 1904 in Halifax – 27 March 1978 in Brighton) was an English actor and radio presenter. Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929 and worked with his father as a builder. He joined an amateur dramatic society and in a […]

Gloria Castillo (1933 - 1978)

Gloria Castillo (March 3, 1933 – October 24, 1978) was an American stage and motion picture actress of the 1950s. Castillo was born in Belen, New Mexico, and graduated from the University of New Mexico in June 1954. Gloria Castillo appeared in a production of the play Late Love in July 1954, at the Little Theater […]

Pat Paterson (1910 - 1978)

She was born Eliza Paterson on 10 April 1910 at No.74 Fitzgerald Street, Horton, a suburb of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. Her mother, Hannah Holroyd (b. 4 February 1888, Bradford) was English, her father, John Robb Paterson, (b. 1888, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland) was a Scot. Eliza was the second of three children. From infancy, Eliza […]

Josette Day (1914 - 1978)

Josette Day (Paris, July 31, 1914 – Paris, June 27, 1978) was a French film actress. Born Josette Noëlle Andrée Claire Dagory, she began her career as an actress in 1919 at the age of five. Day was married in 1941 to famous French writer and director Marcel Pagnol, whom she met in January 1939. In 1946, […]

Dorothy Shay (1921 - 1978)

Shay was born Dorothy Sims in Jacksonville, Florida. When she began her career as a ‘straight’ singer, she took vocal lessons to lose her Southern accent. She sang for the USO during World War II. Dorothy changed her name to “Shay” in order to not be confused with Ginny Simms, another performer of the day, […]

Leo Genn (1905 - 1978)

Genn was born at 144 Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, the son of Woolfe (William) Genn, a jewellery salesman, and Rachel Genn née Asserson. His parents were both Jewish. Genn attended the City of London School and studied law at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, qualifying as a barrister in 1928. He ceased practising as a […]

Carl Betz (1921 - 1978)

Growing up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, Carl Betz began his acting career unofficially in grammar school when he formed a theatrical company with friends, performing plays in his grandmother’s basement. After graduating from Mount Lebanon High School in 1939, he won scholarship to Duquesne University. During the summer, Betz performed in a […]