Reg Varney (1916 - 2008)

Varney was born in Canning Town, Essex, now part of Greater London. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. Varney was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, […]

Julie Ege (1943 - 2008)

Ege was born in Høyland, Sandnes as Julie Dzuli. At the age of 15 she began to work as a model. She was crowned Miss Norway at the age of 18, and subsequently participated in Miss Universe. She graduated from the University of Oslo where she studied History and English. In 1967 she moved to […]

David Groh (1939 - 2008)

Groh was born in Brooklyn, the son of Mildred and Benjamin Groh. He had a sister, Marilyn. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, then enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in English literature. He performed with the American Shakespeare Theatre, then went to Great Britain […]

Kathy Staff (1928 - 2008)

Born in Dukinfield, Cheshire, Staff was best known for her role as one of the main characters, Nora Batty, in the long-running BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine. She played Nora Batty from the pilot episode in 1973, (though in the pilot and first series, she was referred to as Mrs.Batty),  until 2008, the […]

Lilyan Chauvin (1925 - 2008)

Chauvin began her career working in broadcasting in France. Her mother was French and her father was Italian. While under contract to a French radio station she had her heart set on becoming a lawyer; however her earnings soon exceeded that of her parents and she gave serious consideration to making show business her way […]

Claire Kelly (1934 - 1998)

Claire Kelly (March 15, 1934 in San Francisco, California – July 1, 1998 in Palm Springs, California) was an American actress. Born Claire Ann Green, the daughter of a wealthy California rancher, she was trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. She started out as a model in Miami, and appeared several times on […]

Perry Lopez (1929 - 2008)

Perry Lopez (born Julios Caesar Lopez; July 22, 1929 – February 14, 2008) was an American film and television actor. His acting career lasted 40 years. Lopez was born in New York City of Puerto Rican descent. Lopez began his acting career on in theater, based in New York. He was signed to a contract at […]

Brian Wilde (1927 - 2008)

Though born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, he was brought up in Devon and Hertfordshire and attended Hertford Grammar School. He trained as an actor at RADA. He had a small part in the horror film Night of the Demon (1957). He had an earlier role as a small time crook in the 1954 film “Forbidden Cargo” (uncredited) […]

Brad Sullivan (1931 - 2008)

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Bradford E. Sullivan served in the Korean War and then attended the University of Maine. After touring with a stage company, he moved to New York City and studied at the American Theatre Wing. He made his Off-Broadway debut in Red Roses for Me in 1961, and went on to appear […]

Jules Dassin (1911 - 2008)

Dassin was born in Middletown, Connecticut, one of eight children of Berthe Vogel and Samuel Dassin, a barber. His family was Russian Jewish. Dassin grew up in Harlem and went to Morris High School in the Bronx. He joined the Communist Party USA in the 1930s and left it after the Hitler–Stalin Pact in 1939. […]

Majel Barrett (1932 - 2008)

Majel began taking acting classes as a child. She attended Shaker Heights High School, graduating in 1950 before going on to the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, then had some stage roles and came to Hollywood. Her father, William Hudec, was a Cleveland police officer. He was killed in the line of duty […]

Harvy Korman (1927 - 2008)

Korman, who was of Russian Jewish descent, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ellen (née Blecher) and Cyril Raymond Korman, a salesman. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. After being discharged, he studied at the Goodman School of Drama. He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer […]

Paul Benedict (1938 - 2008)

Benedict was born in Silver City, New Mexico, the son of Alma Marie (née Loring), a journalist, and Mitchell M. Benedict, a doctor. He grew up in Massachusetts. As a young man, he suffered from acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that affects the extremities and face, which accounted for his slightly oversized jaw and large nose. Benedict […]

Lois Nettleton (1927 - 2008)

Lois Nettleton was born on August 16, 1927 in Oak Park, Illinois to Virginia and Edward L. Nettleton. She was Miss Chicago of 1948 as well as a semifinalist at the Miss America 1948 Pageant. Her professional acting career began in 1949. She understudied Barbara Bel Geddes in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ […]

Richard Widmark (1914 - 2008)

Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, the son of Ethel Mae (née Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. Widmark grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and also lived in Henry, Illinois for a short time, moving frequently because of his father’s work […]

Cyd Charisse (1922 - 2008)

Charisse was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nickname “Sid” was taken from her younger brother, Thomas Jarrell Finklea (June 25, 1923), who tried to say “Sis”. (It was later given the more intriguing and exotic spelling […]

Beverly Garland (1926 - 2008)

Garland was born Beverly Lucy Fessenden in Santa Cruz, California, the daughter of Amelia Rose (née Scherer), a businesswoman, and James Atkins Fessenden, a singer and salesman. Garland grew up in Glendale, California. She was a drama student of Anita Arliss. In the 1950s, many of her roles were of secure, tough women who could handle […]

Mel Ferrer (1917 - 2008)

Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in the Elberon section of Long Branch, New Jersey, of Cuban and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer (1857–1920), was born in Cuba, of Spanish ancestry, and was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. His […]

John Phillip Law (1937 - 2008)

Law was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff John Law and actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law (also known as Tom Law). He worked as a film extra as a child, and had a non-speaking role as a courtroom page in John Sturges’s The […]

Julius Carry (1952 - 2008)

Carry grew up in the Lake Meadows neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. He attended Hales Franciscan High School, where, at age 15, he joined the Spartan Players, an acting group. He discovered a love of acting with the group, performing in plays such as Hamlet and West Side Story. After touring the country with the Spartan […]

Sam Bottoms (1955 - 2008)

Samuel John “Sam” Bottoms (October 17, 1955 – December 16, 2008) was an American actor and producer. Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James “Bud” Bottoms (a sculptor and art teacher) and Betty (Chapman), both of whom survive him. He was the brother of actors Timothy Bottoms (born 1951), Joseph Bottoms […]

Ivan Dixon (1931 - 2008)

Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III, was born in Harlem, the son of a grocery store owner. When he was young, Dixon lived in the brownstone at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same block with Josh White, Ralph Ellison, and the Hines brothers, (Gregory and Maurice). He graduated from the Lincoln Academy in Gaston […]

Rob Knox (1989 - 2008)

Knox was born to Colin and Sally Knox in 1989. He was a pupil at Beths Grammar School, Bexley. He had been acting since the age of 11, and his first credited role was a small part in an episode of the ITV police drama The Bill and he also appeared in the Channel 4 […]

Paul Scofield (1922 - 2008)

Paul Scofield was born in Birmingham England, the son of Mary and Edward Harry Scofield. When Scofield was a few weeks old, his family moved to Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, where his father served as the headmaster at the Hurstpierpoint Church of England School. Scofield told his biographer, Garry O’Connor, that his upbringing was divided. His father […]

Hazel Court (1926 - 2008)

Court was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, lived in the Boldmere area and attended Boldmere School and Highclare College. Her father was G.W. Court, a cricketer who played for Durham CCC. At the age of fourteen, she studied drama at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre, also in Birmingham, England. At the age of […]

Nina Foch (1924 - 2008)

Nina Foch was born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock in Leiden, Netherlands to American actress and singer Consuelo Flowerton and Dutch classical music conductor Dirk Fock. After her mother and father divorced when Foch was a toddler, she went with her mother to the United States, settling in New York City. As Foch grew up in […]

Allan Melvin (1923 - 2008)

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Richard and Marie Melvin and raised in New York City by his paternal grandparents, Frank and Helen (née Campbell) Melvin. He attended Columbia University. After graduation he served in the United States Navy during World War II and married his wife, Amalia Faustina Sestero, in March 1944 in New […]

Michael Pate (1920 - 2008)

Initially interested in becoming a medical missionary, but unable to afford the university fees due to the Depression, he worked in Sydney before 1938, when he became a writer and broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, collaborating with George Ivan Smith on Youth Speaks. For the remainder of the 1930s, he worked primarily in radio […]

Stanley Kamel (1943 - 2008)

Kamel was born to a Jewish family and raised in South River, New Jersey, and attended Rutgers Preparatory School. He started his acting career off-Broadway and broke into television with a role in Days of Our Lives as Eric Peters. Kamel had a recurring role on Melrose Place in 1994 as Bruce Teller, the Chief Executive […]

Barry Morse (1918 - 2008)

Born to a Cockney family, Morse was a 15-year-old school dropout and errand boy when he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He performed the role of the Lion in Androcles and the Lion and as a result came to know George Bernard Shaw, a patron of the academy. His first […]