Emory Parnell (1892 - 1979)

Emory Parnell trained as a musician at Morningside College, a Methodist institution in Sioux City, Iowa, and spent his early years as a concert violinist. He performed on the Chautauqua and Lyceum circuits until 1930, when he relocated to Detroit, Michigan, to narrate and act in commercial and industrial films. Seeking better opportunities in Hollywood, […]

William Gargan (1905 - 1979)

William Gargan was born William Dennis Gargan on July 17, 1905, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the younger brother of actor Edward Gargan, whose birthday July 17 he shared. His father was a detective, and his mother was a teacher. He graduated from St. James School in Brooklyn. On leaving school, Gargan became a salesman […]

Mary Millington (1945 - 1979)

Mary Ruth Quilter  was born out of wedlock, and grew up without her father, John William G. Klein (1899-1973). She was bullied at school due to being born illegitimately, and suffered from low self-esteem throughout her childhood and teenage years. After marrying at a young age she took the surname Maxted, and lived in Dorking. […]

Catherine Hessling (1900 - 1979)

Catherine Hessling, born in Champagne-Ardennes, had sought refuge in Nice during World War I. Her paternal ancestors came from Alsace but moved to Champagne-Ardennes when Alsace transferred to Germany. In 1917, her beauty came to the attention of Henri Matisse, who sent her to fellow artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir as he thought she looked like a […]

Sally Rand (1904 - 1979)

Hattie Helen Gould Beck was born in the village of Elkton, Hickory County, Missouri. Her father, William Beck, was a West Point graduate and retired U.S. Army colonel, while her mother, Nettie (Grove) Beck, was a school teacher and part-time newspaper correspondent. The family moved to Jackson County, Missouri while she was still in grade […]

Lee Bowman (1914 - 1979)

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Lee Bowman dropped out of the University of Cincinnati Law School to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was spotted by a Paramount agent and went to Hollywood in 1934, but was not used at first. Instead he worked as a radio singer and appeared in stock plays […]

Ben Lyon (1901 - 1979)

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Lyon entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway opposite Jeanne Eagels. He attracted attention in the highly successful film Flaming Youth (1923), and steadily developed into a leading man. He was most successfully paired with some of the leading actresses of the silent era including Pola Negri, Gloria […]

Peter Dyneley (1921 - 1977)

Peter Dyneley (13 April 1921 – 19 August 1977) was an Anglo-Canadian actor. Although he appeared in many smaller roles in both film and television, he is best remembered for supplying the voice of Jeff Tracy for the 1960s “Supermarionation” TV series Thunderbirds and its two film sequels, Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 […]

Jane Hylton (1927 - 1979)

Talent-spotted in her teens, Jane Hylton was a product of the Rank Organisation’s Company of Youth (more commonly referred to as the Rank Charm School), which took promising young actors and groomed them for a career in film. The programme turned out some genuine stars such as Dirk Bogarde and Diana Dors, but most alumni […]

Claire Carleton (1913 - 1979)

Claire Carleton was born in New York City. She began acting on the stage, eventually making it to Broadway, where she made her debut as Lucy in the short-lived play, Blue Monday in June, 1932. Although she made her film debut in a small role in a 1933 film short, Seasoned Greetings, and continued to […]

Joy Shelton (1922 - 2000)

Joy Shelton (3 June 1922 – 28 January 2000) was an English actress who performed in films, radio and television. Joy Shelton was born in London on 3 June 1922. She appeared in a number of British films in the 1940s and ’50s, most notably in two by Sidney Gilliat, Millions Like Us, which traced the […]

Sydney Tafler (1916 - 1979)

Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor best remembered for numerous appearances in films and on British television from the 1940s to the 1970s. His father was an antiques dealer. After two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he first appeared on stage in London’s West End in […]

George Brent (1904 - 1979)

George Brent was born George Brendan Nolan in Ballinasloe, County Galway in 1904 to John J. and Mary (née McGuinness) Nolan. His mother was a native of Clonfad, County Westmeath. During the Irish War of Independence (1919–1922), Brent was part of the IRA. He fled Ireland with a bounty set on his head by the […]

Dolores Costello (1903 - 1979)

Dolores Costello Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello (née Mae Altschuk). She was of Irish and German descent. She and her younger sister, Helene, made their first film appearances in the years 1909–1915 as child actresses for the Vitagraph Film Company. They played supporting roles in […]

Laurie Bird (1953 - 1979)

Laurie Bird (September 26, 1952 – June 15, 1979) was an American actress and photographer. Laurie Bird’s mother died when she was three. Her father, an electrical engineer, was a former sailor in the United States Navy, and worked long hours. Although she had two brothers, she more or less raised herself. Described by Hollywood columnist Dick […]

Ann Dvorak (1911 - 1979)

Anna McKim was born in New York City in 1911 to silent film actress Anna Lehr and actor/director Edwin McKim. While in New York, she attended St. Catherine’s Convent. After moving to California, she attended Page School for Girls in Hollywood. She made her film debut when she was 5 years old in the silent film […]

Clarence Muse (1889 - 1979)

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse, he studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an international law degree in 1911. Clarence Muse was acting in New York by the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance with two Harlem theatres, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players. Muse moved to Chicago for a while, […]

Celia Lovsky (1897 - 1979)

Celia Lovsky married journalist Heinrich Vinzenz Nowak in 1919. By 1925, they were apparently estranged and she was romantically involved with playwright Arthur Schnitzler. She later moved to Berlin, where she acted in the surrealist plays Dream Theater and Dream Play by Karl Kraus. There, in 1929, she met Peter Lorre, who had seen her […]

Eric Pohlmann (1913 - 1979)

Born Erich Pollak in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Eric Pohlmann was a classically trained actor who studied under the renowned director Max Reinhardt. He appeared at the Raimund Theater, and supplemented his income by working as an entertainer in a bar. In 1939, he followed his fiancée and later wife, Jewish actress Lieselotte Goettinger (best known in the […]

John Carroll (1906 - 1979)

Carroll performed in several small roles in films under his original name until 1935, when he first used the name John Carroll in Hi, Gaucho! He appeared in several Western films in the 1930s, including the role of Zorro in Zorro Rides Again in 1937. He was the male lead in the Marx Brothers’ Western […]

Kurt Kasznar (1913 - 1979)

Kurt Kasznar was born Kurt Servischer on August 12, 1913, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (today: Austria). His father left the family when Kurt was very young. After his mother married Hungarian restaurateur Ferdinand Kasznar, Kurt assumed his surname. While working as an apprentice waiter at his stepfather’s restaurant, Kasznar met director Max Reinhardt and enrolled in […]

Doris Packer (1904 - 1979)

Doris Packer was born Doris Edwards in Menominee in Menominee County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her family moved to southern California when she was quite young. She became interested in acting while in high school. After attending the University of California at Los Angeles, she moved to New York City to study under […]

Joyce Grenfell (1910 - 1979)

Born in Montpelier Square in Knightsbridge, London, Joyce Grenfell was the daughter of architect Paul Phipps (1880–1953), the grandson of Charles Paul Phipps and a second cousin of Ruth Draper. Her mother was an American socialite, Nora Langhorne (1889–1955), one of five daughters of Chiswell Langhorne, an American railway millionaire. Nancy Astor, née Nancy Langhorne, […]

Billy Bletcher (1894 - 1979)

Billy Bletcher appeared on-screen in films and later television from the 1910s to the 1970s, including appearances in several Our Gang and The Three Stooges comedies. He was most famous as a voice actor. His voice was a deep and strong-sounding baritone. Bletcher provided the voices of various characters for Walt Disney Pictures (Black Pete, Short Ghost […]

Derek Royle (1928 - 1990)

Derek Royle (7 September 1928 – 23 January 1990) was a British actor born in London, England. His face was probably better known than his name to British viewers, but he acted in films and TV from the mid-1960s until his death. He had a supporting role in the Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour in […]

Vincent Sherman (1906 - 2006)

Vincent Sherman was born Abraham Orovitz, to Jewish parents. He was born and grew up in the small town of Vienna, Georgia, where his father was a dry-goods salesman. Not long after graduating from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, he became a professional actor. Vincent Sherman arrived in New York to sell a play and soon became […]

Robert Stevenson (1905 - 1986)

Robert Stevenson (31 March 1905 – 30 April 1986) was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society. After directing a number of British films, including King Solomon’s Mines (1937), he was given a contract by David […]

Michael Curtiz (1886 - 1962)

Michael Curtiz was born Manó Kaminer to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary (then Austria-Hungary). In 1905 he Hungaricised his name to Mihály Kertész. He claimed to have been born December 24, 1886. Both the date and the year are open to debate: he was fond of telling tall tales about his early life, including […]

Ross Elliott (1917 - 1999)

Ross Elliott (June 18, 1917 – August 12, 1999) was an American television and film character actor. He began his acting career in the Mercury Theatre, where he performed in Orson Welles’ famed radio program, The War of the Worlds. Throughout his career, Ross Elliott appeared in more than 100 television programs, including the recurring role […]

Ernest Lehman (1915 - 2005)

Ernest Lehman was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Gertrude (Thorn) and Paul E. Lehman. He was from a wealthy Jewish Long Island family whose fortunes were seriously affected by the Great Depression. Upon his graduation from College of the City of New York (The City College of New […]