Linda Christian (1923 - 2011)

Christian was born as Blanca Rosa Welter in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, a daughter of Dutch engineer and Royal Dutch Shell executive, Gerardus Jacob Welter (1904–1981), and his Mexican-born wife, the former Blanca Rosa Vorhauer (1901-1992), who was of Spanish, German and French descent. The Welter family moved a great deal during Christian’s youth, living everywhere […]

Len Lesser (1922 - 2011)

Lesser was born in The Bronx in 1922. His father, a grocer, was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. Lesser received his bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York in 1942 at the age of 19. Lesser enlisted in the United States Army the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and served in […]

Googie Withers (1917 - 2011)

Withers was born in Karachi, Pakistan then part of British India, to Edgar Withers, a captain in the Royal Navy, and a Dutch-German mother, Zitette. She acquired the name “Googie” (Little Pigeon) at a young age from her ayah (nanny). As a child, she learned Urdu. Her father left the Royal Navy to manage a […]

Robert Easton (1930 - 2011)

Beginning in 1945, he was heard on radio’s Quiz Kids. He portrayed Magnus Proudfoot on radio’s Gunsmoke and also appeared in other radio programs, including Fibber McGee and Molly, The Fred Allen Show, The Halls of Ivy, Our Miss Brooks, Suspense, William Shakespeare—A Portrait in Sound and The Zero Hour. On film, one of his earliest […]

Tura Satana (1938 - 2011)

Satana was born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in Hokkaidō, Japan. Her father was a silent movie actor of Japanese and Filipino descent, and her mother was a circus performer of American Indian (Cheyenne) and Scots-Irish background. After the end of World War II and a stint in the Manzanar internment camp in Lone Pine, California, […]

John Neville (1925 - 2011)

Neville was born in Willesden, London, the son of Mabel Lillian (née Fry) and Reginald Daniel Neville, a lorry driver. He was educated at Willesden and Chiswick County Schools for Boys, and after World War II service in the Royal Navy trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, before starting his […]

Paul Picerni (1922 - 2011)

Born in New York City, Picerni was an Eagle Scout. He joined the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and served as a B-24 Liberator bombardier in the China-Burma-India Theater. He flew twenty-five combat missions with the 493rd Bomb Squadron of the 7th Bomb Group and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He […]

Michael Sarrazin (1940 - 2011)

He was born Jacques Michel André Sarrazin in Quebec City, Quebec, and moved to Montreal, Quebec, as a child. After acting in school plays he landed his first professional role at age 17. Sarrazin worked on television productions in Toronto, Ontario, and then gained a contract with Universal Studios. His early appearances include The Virginian (1965), […]

Bill McKinney (1931 - 2011)

William Denison McKinney was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had an unsettled life as a child, moving 12 times. Once, when his family moved from Tennessee to Georgia, he was beaten by a gang and thrown into a creek. At the age of 19, he joined the Navy during the Korean War. He served two […]

Anna Massey (1937 - 2011)

Massey was born in Thakeham, Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey. Her brother, Daniel Massey, was also an actor. She was the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada, and her godfather was film director John Ford. Although she had no formal training at either […]

Nicol Williamson (1936 - 2011)

Thomas Nicol Williamson was born in 1936 (he would later claim 1938 in Who’s Who) in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, the son of a factory owner. His family later moved south to England, and Williamson was educated at the Central Grammar School for Boys, Birmingham. He left school at 16 to begin work in his father’s […]

John Wood (1930 - 2011)

John Wood was born 5 July 1930 in Derbyshire, England, and was educated at Bedford School. He did his national service as a lieutenant with the Royal Artillery, where he was invalided out after being accidentally shot in the back and later almost killed in a jeep accident. He read law at Jesus College, Oxford. He […]

Wayne Robson (1946 - 2011)

Robson was born in Vancouver. He began his acting career on stage there, but moved with his family to Toronto, where he continued his stage acting career and appeared in Canadian television commercials in the 1970s. After receiving several small character roles in films such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Popeye (1980), Robson […]

Annie Girardot (1931 - 2011)

Over the course of a five-decade career, she starred in nearly 150 films. She is a three-time César Award winner (1977, 1996, 2002), a two-time Molière Award winner (2002), a David di Donatello Award winner (1977), a BAFTA nominee (1962), and a recipient of several international prizes including the Volpi Cup (Best actress) at the […]

Sid Melton (1917 - 2011)

Born in Brooklyn, New York as Sidney Meltzer, he was the son of Isidor Meltzer, a Yiddish theater comedian, and the brother of screenwriter Lewis Meltzer. He made his stage debut in a 1939 touring production of See My Lawyer and in 1941 was cast as Fingers in Shadow of the Thin Man. During World […]

Martin Benson (1918 - 2010)

He is remembered for his role as the Kralaholme in the original London production of The King and I, a role he recreated in the Oscar winning film version. Appearing in films for over six decades, Benson played mostly supporting characters or villains. His films include The Blind Goddess (1948), Wheel of Fate (1953), Interpol (1957), […]

Ann Prentiss (1939 - 2010)

Ann Prentiss (November 27, 1939 – January 12, 2010) was an American actress. Prentiss was born Ann Elizabeth Ragusa in San Antonio, Texas, to Thomas and Paulene (née Gardner) Ragusa. Her father was of Sicilian descent. Her elder sister is the actress Paula Prentiss. Prentiss had many bit parts in films and television series in the […]

Sandy Kenyon (1922 - 2010)

Among the many television series in which he guest starred are the westerns: The Rifleman, Colt .45, Yancy Derringer, Have Gun-Will Travel, The Tall Man, Gunsmoke, and Bonanza. In 1960, Kenyon was cast as a pre-presidential Abraham Lincoln in the episode “No Bridge on the River” of the NBC western series, Riverboat. In the story line, […]

Richard Devon (1926 - 2010)

Richard Devon (December 11, 1926 – February 26, 2010) was an American character actor best known for his roles in television and film. Devon was born in Glendale, California. Beginning in the 1950s, he was employed as a character actor in many Four Star Television television series but not exclusively. For instance, he appeared also […]

James Aubrey (1947 - 2010)

James Aubrey Tregidgo was born in 1947 in Klagenfurt, Austria. His parents were Major Aubrey James Tregidgo and Edna May Tregidgo (née Boxall). He was educated at the Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Kingston, Jamaica, the Windsor Boys’ School (Germany) and St. John’s School (Singapore). He married Agnes Kristin Hallander, although the marriage ended in divorce. […]

Harvey Pekar (1939 - 2010)

Harvey Pekar and his younger brother Allen were born in Cleveland, Ohio to Saul and Dora Pekar, immigrants from Białystok, Poland. Saul Pekar was a Talmudic scholar who owned a grocery store on Kinsman Avenue, with the family living above the store. While Pekar said he wasn’t close to his parents due to their dissimilar […]

Lori Martin (1947 - 2010)

Lori Martin was born Dawn Catherine Menzer, in Glendale, California, at 10:02 a.m.; her fraternal twin sister, Doree, arrived four minutes later. As she weighed only 5 pounds and measured just 18 inches at birth, she spent the first few weeks of her life in an incubator, during which time her survival was somewhat doubtful. […]

Adele Mara (1923 - 2010)

Adele Mara (April 28, 1923 – May 7, 2010), born Adelaida Delgado, was an American actress, singer and dancer who appeared in films during the 1940s and 1950s. During the 1940s, the blond actress was also a popular pinup girl. Mara was born in Highland Park, Michigan, to Spanish parents. One of her early roles was as […]

Donal Donnelly (1931 - 2010)

He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, but brought up in Dublin, Ireland. His father James was a doctor from County Tyrone, and his mother Nora O’Connor was a teacher from Kerry. Donal Donnelly attended school at Synge Street Christian Brothers School in Dublin where he acted in school plays with Milo O’Shea, Eamonn Andrews, Jack […]

Janet MacLachlan (1933 - 2010)

MacLachlan was born Janet Angel MacLachlan in Harlem, New York; her mother, Iris South MacLachlan, and father, James MacLachlan, were both Jamaican-born and members of the Church of the Illumination. Attending P.S. 170 and Julia Ward Junior High School, MacLachlan graduated from Julia Richmond High School in 1950. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology […]

Graham Crowden (1922 - 2010)

Crowden was born in Edinburgh, the son of Anne Margaret (née Paterson) and Harry Graham Crowden. He was educated at Clifton Hall School and the Edinburgh Academy before serving briefly in the Royal Scots Youth Battalion of the army until he was injured in a bizarre accident. During arms drill he was shot by his […]

Justin Mentell (1982 - 2010)

Mentell was born in Austin, Texas. He made his stage debut at three years of age as an orphan in Miss Liberty, and went on to appear in local theater productions, among them the musical Peter Pan, in which he portrayed one of the Lost Boys. After the family moved to Waukegan, Illinois, Mentell joined […]

Robert Ellenstein (1923 - 2010)

Robert Ellenstein (June 18, 1923 – October 28, 2010) was an American actor. The son of Meyer Ellenstein, a Newark dentist, Robert Ellenstein grew up in that New Jersey city and saw his father go on to become its two-term mayor. He served in the Air Corps during World War II: earning a Purple Heart during […]

Michelle Nicastro (1960 - 2010)

Nicastro was born in Washington D.C., the daughter of Carole Rose (née Guarino) and Norman Joseph Nicastro, who was an ophthalmologist. She provided the speaking and singing voice of Princess Odette in The Swan Princess and its sequels, The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain, and The Swan Princess III: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure, […]

Jamie Gillis (1943 - 2010)

Gillis was born into a Jewish family and named Jamey Ira Gurman in New York City and graduated from Columbia University. His parents named him Jamie after the Tyrone Power character in the film The Black Swan (1942), and he took the name Gillis from the girlfriend he was living with when he made his […]