Virginia Grey (1917 - 2004)

Virginia Grey (March 22, 1917 – July 31, 2004) was an American actress and singer. She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1927) as Little […]

Spalding Gray (1941 - 2004)

Gray was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Rockwell Gray, Sr., the treasurer of Brown & Sharpe, and Margaret Elizabeth “Betty” Horton, a homemaker. He was the middle-born of three sons: Rockwell, Jr., Spalding, and Channing. He was raised in the Christian Scientist faith and grew up in Barrington, Rhode Island, spending summers at his […]

Eugene Roche (1928 - 2004)

Roche was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Mary M. (née Finnegan) and Robert F. Roche, who was at the time serving in the U.S. Navy. He served in the United States Army after graduating high school. He married Marjory Perkins in 1953; the couple had nine children, including actors Eamonn, Liam Chad, […]

Alan King (1927 - 2004)

The youngest of several children, King was born in New York City, New York, the son of Polish-Russian-Jewish immigrants Minnie (née Solomon) and Bernard Kinberg, a handbag cutter. He spent his first years on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Later, King’s family moved to Brooklyn. King used humor to survive in the tough neighborhoods. […]

Richard Marner (1921 - 2004)

Born in Petrograd, Soviet Union, Molchanoff (nicknamed “Sacha” by his family) was the eldest son of Colonel Paul Molchanoff, of the Semyonovsky Regiment, one of two that were set up for children of children who had played with Peter the Great of Russia. In 1924, his entire family left Russia and went to Finland and […]

Doris Dowling (1923 - 2004)

Doris Dowling (May 15, 1923 – June 18, 2004) was an American actress of film, stage and television. After her time as a chorus-girl on Broadway, Detroit-born Doris Dowling followed her elder sister Constance to Hollywood. Her first credited film role was that of Gloria, barfly and drinking companion to fellow alcoholic Ray Milland in the […]

Elmer Bernstein (1922 - 2004)

Bernstein was born in New York City, the son of Selma (née Feinstein, 1901-1991), from Ukraine, and Edward Bernstein (1896-1968), from Austria-Hungary. He was not related to the celebrated composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein; but the two men were friends, and even shared a certain physical similarity. Within the world of professional music, they were […]

William Boyett (1927 - 2004)

Boyett was born in Akron, Ohio, and lived there until the 1940s, when he moved with his family to Los Angeles, California. He won a Shakespeare competition in high school which led to acting jobs in radio. He served in the Navy during World War II and afterward performed on the stage in both New […]

Eric Douglas (1958 - 2004)

Born in Los Angeles, California, Douglas was the youngest son of actor Kirk Douglas and German American mother Anne Buydens. He was the younger brother of Peter Douglas, and his older half-brothers were Michael and Joel Douglas. Douglas studied at Pitzer College, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and the London Academy of Dramatic Arts. Douglas made […]

Alberto Sordi (1920 - 2003)

Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician, Sordi enrolled in Milan’s dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent. In the meantime he studied to be an opera singer, a bass. It was his accent and voice that would later prove to be his trademark. In a career that […]

Andrea King (1919 - 2003)

Andrea King was born Georgette André Barry in Paris, France in 1919 to American Lovinia Belle Hart. At two months of age, she moved with her mother to the United States. She lived with her grandmother in Cleveland, Ohio, and Palm Beach, Florida, for the first four years of her life while her mother attended […]

Rand Brooks (1918 - 2003)

After leaving school, he managed to get a screen test at MGM and was given a bit part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). His big fame came with his part as Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939). After Gone With the Wind, he had relatively small parts in other movies including Babes […]

Frederick Coffin (1943 - 2003)

Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin and writer Dean Coffin, and was one of five children. He was educated at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where he was both a student and athlete. He began to study theater at WRA and graduated in 1961, with a B.A. […]

Norman Burton (1923 - 2003)

Born in New York City, Burton was a student of The Actor’s Studio. After early work on stage, he broke into films with a minor role in Fright (1956). His career in film and television was long and relatively successful, but he never achieved major recognition. He played the Hunt Leader, a gorilla, in the science […]

Penny Singleton (1908 - 2003)

Singleton began her show business career when she was a child, singing at a silent movie theater, and toured in vaudeville as part of an act called “The Kiddie Kabaret”. She sang and danced with Milton Berle, whom she had known since childhood, and actor Gene Raymond, and appeared on Broadway in Jack Benny’s The […]

Les Tremayne (1913 - 2003)

In 1974, Tremayne commented, “I’ve been in more than 30 motion pictures, but it’s from radio … that most people remember me.” His radio career began in 1931, and during the 1930s and 1940s, Tremayne was heard in as many as 45 shows a week. Replacing Don Ameche, he starred in The First Nighter Program from […]

Anthony Eisley (1925 - 2003)

Born Frederick Glendinning Eisley in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose father was a general sales manager for a large corporation. He was the father of Amanda Eisley, Jonathan Erickson Eisley, Nan R. Eisley, David Glen Eisley and grandfather of actress India Eisley. Following service in the United States Navy, he took drama classes at the University of Miami […]

Nedra Volz (1908 - 2003)

Nedra Volz Born in Montrose, Iowa, she began her career in the family tent show, and appeared in vaudeville as a toddler (called “Baby Nedra”). In the early 1930s, Volz was featured vocalist with Cato’s Vagabonds, a Des Moines, Iowa, big band that briefly enjoyed national popularity. Cato never made records, but Nedra managed to […]

Dick Cusack (1925 - 2003)

Cusack was born in New York City, the son of Margaret (née McFeeley) and Dennis Joseph Cusack. His family was of Irish Catholic background. He served with the U.S. Army in the Philippines in World War II. After the war Cusack attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he played basketball with […]

Lyle Bettger (1915 - 2003)

Born in Philadelphia, the son of Frank Bettger, an infielder for the St Louis Cardinals. He left school in his late teens with the ambition of becoming an actor. Bettger graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. His theatrical debut was in Brother Rat at the Biltmore Theatre in New York […]

Helen Kleeb (1907 - 2003)

Helen Kleeb (January 6, 1907 – December 28, 2003) was an American film and television actress. In a career covering nearly fifty years, she may be best known for her role from 1972 to 1981 as “Miss Mamie Baldwin” on CBS’s family drama, The Waltons. In 1956–1957, Kleeb guest-starred on CBS’s Hey, Jeannie!, starring Jeannie Carson. […]

Thora Hird (1911 - 2003)

Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing. She worked at the local Co-op before joining the Morecambe Repertory Theatre. Her family background was largely theatrical: her mother, Marie Mayor, had been an actress, while […]

William Marshall (1924 - 2003)

Marshall was born in Gary, Indiana, the son of Thelma (née Edwards) and Vereen Marshall, who was a dentist. He attended New York University as an art student, but then trained for a theatre career at the Actors Studio, at the American Theatre Wing, and with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his Broadway […]

Martha Scott (1912 - 2003)

Scott was born in Jamesport, Missouri, the daughter of Letha (née McKinley) and Walter Alva Scott, an engineer and garage owner. Her mother was a second-cousin of U.S. President William McKinley. The Scott family remained in Jamesport until Martha was thirteen years old when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri and eventually to Detroit Michigan. […]

Kathie Browne (1930 - 2003)

Born in San Luis Obispo, California, she appeared in many films and television series. Among them were four roles on CBS’s Perry Mason: title character and defendant Donna Loring Ross in the 1960 episode, “The Case of the Provocative Protégé,” defendant Susan Fisher in the 1962 episode, “The Case of the Mystified Miner,” murderer Carla […]

Madlyn Rhue (1935 - 2003)

Rhue was born in Washington, D.C. Rhue graduated from Los Angeles High School and studied drama at Los Angeles City College. From the 1950s to the 1990s, Rhue (née Madeleine Roche) appeared in some twenty films, including Operation Petticoat (1959), A Majority of One (1961), Escape from Zahrain (1962), Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, […]

Lana Clarkson (1962 - 2003)

Clarkson was born in Long Beach, California to Donna and James M. Clarkson, and was raised in the hills of Sonoma County, California. She has a brother, Jessee J. Clarkson, and a sister Fawn. While living in Northern California, she attended Cloverdale High School and also Pacific Union College Preparatory School. During the Christmas season […]

Bing Russell (1926 - 2003)

Russell was born Neil Oliver Russell in Brattleboro, Vermont, the son of Ruth Stewart (née Vogel) and Warren Oliver Russell. He always wanted to become an actor and studied drama at Brattleboro High School. As a boy, he was dubbed an unofficial mascot of the New York Yankees, becoming good friends with the likes of […]

Donald O’Connor (1925 - 2003)

Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his home town, O’Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago. His parents, Effie Irene (née Crane) and John Edward “Chuck” O’Connor, were vaudeville entertainers. His father’s family was from County Cork, Ireland. When O’Connor was only a few years old, he and his sister Arlene were […]

IKE TURNER (1931 - 2007)

IKE TURNER Music legend Ike Turner, whose abusive marriage to singer Tina Turner made his name a virtual byword for domestic violence, has died at the age of 76. Turner died at his house near San Diego yesterday after a rollercoaster musical career spanning more than five decades. Last night his ex-wife, soul legend Tina […]