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 […]

David Hemmings (1941 - 2003)

David Hemmings was born in Guildford, Surrey, to a cookie salesman father. His education at Alleyn’s School, Glyn Grammar School in Ewell, and the Arts Educational School, led him to start his career performing as a boy soprano in several works by the composer Benjamin Britten, who formed a close friendship with him at this […]

Lynne Thigpen (1948 - 2003)

Born in Joliet, Illinois, Thigpen obtained a degree in teaching. She taught English in high school briefly while studying theatre and dance at the University of Illinois. Thigpen moved to New York City in 1971 to begin her career as a stage actress. She had a long and prolific theater career, and appeared in numerous […]

Alan Bates (1934 - 2003)

Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home, Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist, who lived in Allestree, Derby, at the time. The family briefly moved to […]

Gregory Hines (1946 - 2003)

Hines was born in New York City, the son of Alma Iola (Lawless) and Maurice Robert Hines, a dancer, musician, and actor. Hines began tapping when he was two years old, and began dancing semi-professionally at the age of five. Since then, he and his older brother Maurice performed together, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. […]

Jack Elam (1920 - 2003)

Elam was born in Miami in Gila County in south central Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kirby. His mother died in 1922 when Jack was two years old. By 1930, he was living with his father, older sister Mildred, and their stepmother, Flossie Varney Elam. He grew up picking cotton and lost the sight […]

Horst Buchholz (1933 - 2003)

Horst Buchholz was born in Berlin, the son of Maria Hasenkamp. He never knew his biological father, but took the surname of his stepfather Hugo Buchholz, a shoemaker, whom his mother married in 1938. His half-sister Heidi, born in 1941, gave him the nickname “Hotte”, which he kept for the rest of his life. During […]

Richard Crenna (1926 - 2003)

Crenna was born in Los Angeles, the only child of Edith J. (née Pollette), who was a hotel manager in LA, and Domenick Anthony Crenna, a pharmacist. His parents were both of Italian descent. Crenna attended Virgil Junior High School, followed by Belmont High School in Los Angeles. Following high school, Crenna served in the […]

Elia Kazan (1909 - 2003)

Elia Kazan (born Elias Kazantzoglou, September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American director, producer, writer and actor, described by The New York Times as “one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history”. He was born in Istanbul, to Cappadocian Greek parents. After studying acting at Yale, he acted […]

Earl Hindman (1942 - 2003)

Earl John Hindman (October 20, 1942 – December 29, 2003) was an American film and television actor, best known for his role as the kindly neighbor (whose lower face was always hidden from television viewers) Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. on the television sitcom Home Improvement (1991–1999). Long before this role, however, he played villains in two […]

Jonathan Brandis (1976 - 2003)

Brandis was born in Danbury, Connecticut. He was the only child of Mary, a teacher and personal manager, and Gregory Brandis, a food distributor and firefighter. He began his career as a child model at the age of 4, and began acting in television commercials.  At the age of six, Brandis won the role of […]

Art Carney (1918 - 2003)

Carney, youngest of six sons (Jack, Ned, Robert, Fred, Phil, and Art) was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Helen (née Farrell) and Edward Michael Carney, who was a newspaper man and publicist. His family was Irish American and Catholic. He attended A. B. Davis High School. Carney was drafted into the […]

Paula Raymond (1924 - 2003)

Paula Ramona Wright was born in 1924, in San Francisco, California. Her first acting role was playing Bettina Bowman in Keep Smiling (1938), credited as Paula Rae Wright. In 1950, she was put under contract by MGM, where she played opposite such leading men as Cary Grant and Dick Powell. Earlier in her career, Raymond […]

Nell Carter (1948 - 2003)

Born Nell Ruth Hardy in Birmingham, Alabama, she was one of nine children born to Horace and Edna Mae Hardy. When she was two years old, her father was electrocuted after he stepped on a live power line. As a child, she began singing on a local gospel radio show and was also a member of […]

Larry Hovis (1936 - 2003)

Hovis was born in Wapato, Washington, and moved to Houston, Texas as a small child. As a youth, he was a singer, appearing on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. Hovis attended the University of Houston. During the mid-1950s, Hovis sang in nightclubs with groups including the Mascots, and the Bill Gannon Trio. He wrote songs and […]

Gordon Jump (1932 - 2003)

Born Alexander Gordon Jump, in Dayton, Ohio, Jump graduated from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, in 1955. In 1957, Jump graduated with a degree in journalism from Kansas State University, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity and worked for KSDB, the Kansas State Student Radio Station. He began his career working at […]

Kellie Waymire (1967 - 2003)

Suzanne Kellie Waymire was born in Columbus, Ohio, and was a descendant of Revolutionary War patriot John Rudolph Waymire. She attended Southern Methodist University (where she won the Greer Garson Award), graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater, and later earned a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of California, San […]

Anita Mui (1963 - 2003)

Mui experienced much hardship in her childhood. She was the youngest daughter in a family of four children. Her elder sister, Ann Mui, was also a singer. The children were raised in a single parent family. In some of her interviews, Mui mentioned that she had never met her father. This meant that she had […]

John Schlesinger (1926 - 2003)

Schlesinger was born in London, into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta (née Regensburg) and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician. After St Edmund’s School, Hindhead, Uppingham School and Balliol College, Oxford, he worked as an actor. Schlesinger’s acting career began in the 1950s and consisted of supporting roles in British films such as […]

Wendy Hiller (1912 - 2003)

Born in Bramhall, Cheshire, the daughter of Frank Watkin Hiller, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, and Marie Stone, Hiller began her professional career as an actress in repertory at Manchester in the early 1930s. She first found success as slum dweller Sally Hardcastle in the stage version of Love on the Dole in 1934. The play […]