Peggy Wood (1892 - 1978)

Peggy Wood was born Mary Margaret Wood in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Eugene Wood, a journalist, and Mary Gardner, a telegraph operator. She was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. Wood spent nearly fifty years on the stage, beginning in the chorus and becoming known as a Broadway singer and star. She made […]

Ruth Etting (1897 - 1978)

Ruth Etting (November 23, 1897 – September 24, 1978) was an American singing star and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. She is known as “America’s sweetheart of song”. Her signature tunes were “Shine On, Harvest Moon”, “Ten Cents a Dance” and […]

Noble Johnson (1881 - 1978)

Standing 6’2″ at 215 pounds, his impressive physique and handsome features made Noble Johnson in demand as a character actor and bit player. In the silent era he assayed a wide variety of characters of different races in a plethora of films, primarily serials, westerns and adventure movies. While Johnson was cast as black in […]

Blossom Rock (1895 - 1978)

Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald (August 21, 1895 – January 14, 1978), also known or credited as Blossom Rock, Blossom MacDonald or Marie Blake, was an American actress of stage, film and television. Her younger sister was screen actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Daniel and Anne MacDonald in 1895. As […]

Michael Bates (1920 - 1978)

The son of Harry Stuart Bates, CSI (1893–1985, son of Albert Bates, of Congleton, Cheshire), an Anglo-Indian civil servant, by his wife Sarah Clarke (1896-1982, daughter of William Hammond Walker of Congleton, Cheshire), Bates was educated at Uppingham School and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. In 1954, he married Margaret M. J. Chisholm. They had three […]

James Daly (1918 - 1978)

James Daly was born in Wisconsin Rapids in Wood County in central Wisconsin, to a working-class family: his mother, Dorothy Ethelbert (Hogan) Mullen, later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and his father, Percifer Charles Daly, was a fuel merchant. During the 1930s, James Daly studied drama and acted in shows before he worked for […]

André Morell (1909 - 1978)

Morell was born Cecil André Mesritz in London, England, the son of André and Rosa Mesritz. Prior to taking up acting professionally he trained as a motor engineer, while also participating in amateur theatrical productions. He turned professional in 1934, initially acting under the name André Mesritz; he anglicised this to André Morell in 1936, […]

Barry Atwater (1918 - 1978)

The son of a renowned landscape painter of the same name, Barry Atwater was born in Denver, Colorado. He served as head of the UCLA Sound Department before he began his acting career. His work teaching audio techniques led to a role in the student film A Time Out of War, a Civil War allegory […]

Jack Oakie (1903 - 1978)

Jack Oakie was born as Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri at 522 w 7th Street. His father was a grain dealer and his mother a psychology teacher. When he was five years old the Offield family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the source of his “Oakie” nickname. His adopted first name, Jack, was the name […]

Zara Cully (1892 - 1978)

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 26, 1892, Zara Cully was one of ten siblings. She graduated from the Worcester School of Speech and Music, and was one of the oldest performers active in television at the time of her death. In 1940, after an appearance in New York City she became known as “one […]

Oskar Homolka (1898 - 1978)

After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Oscar Homolka attended the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna and began his career on the Austrian stage. Success there led to work in the much more prestigious German theatrical community in Munich where in 1924 he played Mortimer in the […]

Scott Newman (1950 - 1978)

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Paul Newman and his first wife, Jackie Witte, Scott Newman was a year old when the family moved to New York City. When Scott was still a young boy with two younger sisters, Susan and Stephanie, his father moved to California to further his career, leaving his family in New York. […]

Philip Ahn (1905 - 1978)

Philip Ahn was born Pil Lip Ahn (안필립) in Highland Park, California. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1902 . Ahn’s father, Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, was an educator and an activist for Korean independence during the colonial period. When he was in high school, Ahn visited the set of the film The Thief of […]

Queenie Smith (1898 - 1978)

Queenie Smith (September 8, 1898 – August 5, 1978) was an American stage, television, and film actress. Smith was born in New York City, New York. She got an early start, being trained in ballet and dance and spent her teen years performing as a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Company in operas such as Aida, […]

Jean Acker (1893 - 1978)

Jean Acker was born Harriet “Hattie” Ackers on October 23, 1893 in Trenton, New Jersey. Her father was Joseph Ackers, said to be of Cherokee descent. Her mother Margaret (unconfirmed) was Irish. In the 1900 census, Hattie is with Joseph and her grandparents, but no wife of Joseph is listed. In fact, he is reported […]

Barry Brown (1951 - 1978)

Born Donald Barry Brown in San Jose, California, he was the eldest child of Donald Bernard Brown and Vivian Brown (née Agrillo). His sister was the actress Marilyn Brown, who committed suicide in 1997 at the age of 44. His brother is the novelist James Brown (Final Performance, Hot Wire), who etched an intimate portrait […]

Dick Wesson (1922 - 1996)

Richard Lewis “Dick” Wesson (November 19, 1922 – April 25, 1996) was a prolific character actor, comedian, comedy writer, and producer. The dark haired man with a flat top haircut was frequently confused with announcer Dick Wesson. Wesson was born Richard Lewis Wesson on November 19, 1922 in Boston, Massachusetts. A comedian, impressionist and singer, Wesson […]

Shirley Mason (1900 - 1979)

Born to Emil and Mary (née Dubois) Flugrath, she and her two sisters Edna and Virginia became actresses at the insistence of their mother. Mason, and her sister Virginia (Viola Dana), made their film debuts at the ages of 10 and 13, respectively, in the film A Christmas Carol (1910). Shirley Mason’s next film was […]

Robertson Hare (1891 - 1979)

Hare was born in Islington, London, the younger child and only son of Frank Homer Hare, an accountant, and his wife, Louisa Mary, née Robertson. He was educated at Margate College in Kent and then studied drama with the actor and librettist Lewis Cairns James. In 1911 Hare made his professional stage debut, playing the Duke […]

Cornelia Otis Skinner (1899 - 1979)

Cornelia Otis Skinner (May 30, 1899 – July 9, 1979) was an American author and actress. Skinner was the daughter of the actor Otis Skinner and his wife, Maud Durbin. After attending the all-girls’ Baldwin School and Bryn Mawr College (1918–1919) and studying theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris, she began her career on the stage […]

Doris Kenyon (1897 - 1979)

Doris Kenyon grew up in Syracuse, New York, where her family had a home at 1805 Harrison Street. Her father, Dr. James B. Kenyon, was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister at University Church. Kenyon studied at Packer College Institute and later at Columbia University. She sang in the choirs of Grace Presbyterian and Bushwick Methodist […]

Paul Dubov (1918 - 1979)

Paul Dubov ( Illinois , 10 October 1918 – Encino , 20 September 1979 ) was an actor and screenwriter US . He starred in almost 70 films from 1938 to 1977 and appeared in over 70 TV productions from 1952 to 1971. He was also credited as Paul Dubor.  Paul Dubov was born in Illinois, […]

Frederick Piper (1902 - 1979)

Born in London in 1902, Frederick Piper worked as a tea merchant before starting his acting career on the stage in the 1920s, playing in London productions and also touring as far afield as Canada. His first film appearance came in the 1933 production The Good Companions. An unassuming man with no trappings of ambition or […]

Virginia Brissac (1883 - 1979)

Virginia Brissac was born in San Jose, California and later raised in San Francisco. She was the daughter of B. F. Brissac, a well-to-do Bay Area insurance executive, and was said to be a niece of the actress Mary Shaw. As a young girl she began a collection of autographs that would grow to include […]

Corinne Griffith (1894 - 1979)

Corinne Griffith was born in Texarkana, Texas to John Lewis Griffin and Ambolina (Ambolyn) Ghio. She attended Sacred Heart Convent school in New Orleans and worked as a dancer before she began her acting career. Griffith began her screen career at the Vitagraph Studios in 1916. She later moved to First National, where she became one […]

Paul Meurisse (1912 - 1979)

Paul Meurisse was born in Dunkirk, on the north-east coast of France, but grew up on the island of Corsica, to where his bank manager father had been transferred when Paul Meurisse was a small child. After leaving school he moved to Aix-en-Provence, where he became a solicitor’s clerk. His passion was for the stage, […]

Barbara Mullen (1914 - 1979)

Barbara Mullen (9 June 1914, Boston, Massachusetts – 9 March 1979, London, England) was an American actress well known in the UK for playing the part of Janet, the housekeeper, in Dr Finlay’s Casebook. Although the role of Janet brought her fame in later years, she had already made her mark in the theatre. Mullen’s parents, […]

Catherine Lacey (1904 - 1979)

Catherine Lacey made her stage debut, playing opposite Mrs Patrick Campbell, in The Thirteenth Chair at the West Pier Brighton on 13 April 1925. Her first West End appearance followed in July 1926, in Cock o’ the Roost at the Garrick Theatre. Among her other West End credits were The Beetle (Strand Theatre 1928), The Venetian […]

Heinz Erhardt (1909 - 1979)

Heinz Erhardt was born in Riga, the son of Baltic German Kapellmeister Gustl Erhardt. He lived most of his childhood at his grandparents in Riga, where his grandfather, Paul Nelder, owned a music house. His grandfather also taught him how to play the piano. After World War I, his father emigrated to Germany. Erhardt lived with […]

Richard Hearne (1908 - 1979)

Richard Hearne was born in Norwich, Norfolk, in 1908, the son of Richard and Lily May Hearne. Richard senior came from a theatrical family – his mother had been on the stage and he himself was a performing acrobat. Hearne worked on and off for the BBC for thirty years; he became the first performer […]