Allen Ludden (1917 - 1981)

Allen Ludden, born Allen Packard Ellsworth, was the first child of Elmer Ellsworth, a Nebraska native living in Mineral Point, Wisconsin and working as an ice dealer; and his wife Leila M. Allen, a Wisconsin native and housewife. Elmer Ellsworth died the next winter at age 26, a victim of the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic, […]

Madge Evans (1909 - 1981)

Born in Manhattan as Margherita Evans, Madge Evans was featured in print ads as the ‘Fairy Soap girl’ as an infant. She made her professional debut at the age of six months, posing for artist’s models. As a youth, her playmates included Robert Warwick, Holbrook Blinn, and Henry Hull. When she was four years old, […]

Lotte Lenya (1898 - 1981)

In 1922 Lenya was seen by her future husband, German composer Kurt Weill, during an audition for his first stage score Zaubernacht but because of his position behind the piano, she did not see him. She was cast but owing to her loyalty to her voice coach she declined the role. She accepted the part […]

Patsy Kelly (1910 - 1981)

Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn to Irish immigrants parents John (died 1942) and Delia Kelly (1875-1930). She began her career in vaudeville as a dancer at the age of 12. While in vaudeville, she performed in Frank Fay’s act, first in a song-and-dance routine and later as Fay’s comic foil. In […]

Jessie Matthews (1907 - 1981)

Jessie Margaret Matthews was born in a flat behind a butcher’s shop at 94 Berwick Street, Soho, London, in relative poverty, the seventh of sixteen children (of whom eleven survived) of a fruit-and-vegetable seller. She took dancing lessons as a child in a room above the local public house at 22 Berwick Street. She went on […]

René Clair (1898 - 1981)

René Clair was born and grew up in Paris in the district of Les Halles, whose lively and picturesque character made a lasting impression on him. His father was a soap merchant; he had an elder brother, Henri Chomette (born 1896). He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In 1914 he was studying […]

Don Megowan (1922 - 1981)

Don Megowan was born in Inglewood, California to Robert and Leila (nee Dale) Megowan. Leila was a negative cutter for Pathé, possibly what interested him in acting. At 6’7″ he was very active in sports, playing baseball, football, and throwing discus. He went to the University of California on a football scholarship, before serving in […]

Maria Palmer (1917 - 1981)

Palmer was born and raised in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Vienna, Austria) on 5 September 1917. She first appeared on stage as a child actor, in various Max Reinhardt productions. She trained as a dancer, and was a member of the Bodenwieser Ensemble. She later studied drama and voice at the Vienna Conservatory. At the outbreak of […]

Jack Warner (1895 - 1981)

Warner was born in London, his real name being Horace John Waters. His sisters Elsie and Doris Waters were well-known comediennes who usually performed as “Gert and Daisy”. Warner attended the Coopers’ Company’s Grammar School for Boys in Mile End, while his sisters both attended the nearby sister school, Coborn School for Girls in Bow. […]

Marie Ney (1895 - 1981)

As a young child Ney went with her family to live in New Zealand. She began her acting career in that country and continued it in Australia. After several years of performing in those two countries she moved back to Britain, where she acted at the Old Vic with many famous actors of the day […]

Charlotte Henry (1914 - 1980)

Charlotte Virginia Henry was born in Brooklyn and began modelling at a very early age and was always fascinated by the theatre. Her family were astonished when, at only 14 years of age, she was cast in an important role in Courage, a hit Broadway play in 1928. The following year, Charlotte’s mother brought her […]

Peggy Knudsen (1923 - 1980)

Born Margaret Ann Knudsen in Duluth, Minnesota, she made her Broadway debut in My Sister Eileen. She began her film career in 1946 in A Stolen Life opposite Bette Davis. That same year, she appeared in bit parts in several films including The Big Sleep and Humoresque with Joan Crawford.  Despite appearing in big budget […]

Dore Schary (1905 - 1980)

Schary had his first success as a writer when a play he wrote, Too Many Heroes, ran on Broadway for 16 performances in the fall of 1937. He worked in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and in 1938 won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story as co-writer of the screenplay for Boys Town. From 1942 […]

Ian Curtis (1956 - 1980)

Curtis was born at the Memorial Hospital in Stretford, Lancashire. He grew up in Macclesfield in Cheshire, and from an early age he exhibited talent as a poet. He was awarded a scholarship at the age of 11 by the King’s School, Macclesfield. Despite this, he was not a dedicated pupil and did not further […]

Wilson Pickett (1941 - 2006)

Wilson Pickett Wilson Pickett, the soul music pioneer whose insistent wail turned songs like “In the Midnight Hour” into hits, died yesterday in Virginia. He was 64. The cause was a heart attack, Margo Lewis, his manager, said. She added that Mr. Pickett had spent the twilight of his career playing dozens of concert dates […]

Gale Robbins (1921 - 1980)

Gale Robbins (born Betty Gale Robbins, May 7, 1921 – February 18, 1980) was an American actress and singer.  Born in Chicago, Illinois, Robbins graduated from high school in June 1939 and began her career with the Phil Levant band in 1940. She married her high school sweetheart, Robert Olson, in November 1944 when he […]

Romain Gary (1914 - 1980)

Gary was born in Vilna, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania) under the name Roman Kacew (Yiddish: קצב‎, Russian: Рома́н Ка́цев). In his books and interviews, he presented many different versions of his parents’ origins, ancestry, occupation and his own childhood. His mother, Mina Owczyńska, was a Litvak actress from Švenčionys and his father was a […]

Teddy Pendergrass (1950 - 2010)

Teddy Pendergrass Teddy Pendergrass, the Philadelphia soul singer whose husky, potent baritone was one definition of R&B seduction in the 1970s but whose career was transformed in 1982 when he was severely paralyzed in an auto accident, died on Wednesday night in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He was 59. His death was confirmed by his publicist, […]

Lillian Randolph (1898 - 1980)

Born Castello Randolph in Knoxville, Tennessee, she was the younger sister of actress Amanda Randolph. Another member of this talented family is Steve Gibson, brother to Lillian and Amanda, with his Rhythm and Blues group, The Five Red Caps. However, new research shows that, although the preceding statement is widely quoted and believed, it isn’t […]

Barry White (1944 - 2003)

Barry White Say the name Barry White and you’d be hard pressed to follow it with the name of any other recording artist with such a huge, cross-sectional following. He was at home appearing on Soul Train, guesting with a full band on The Today Show, and appearing in cartoon form in various episodes of […]

Peter Collinson (1936 - 1980)

Peter Collinson was born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire in 1936. His parents, an actress and a musician, separated when he was two years old; he was raised by his grandparents. From ages eight to 14 he attended the Actor’s Orphanage in Chertsey, Surrey where he had the chance to write and act in many plays. Noël […]

Herbie Faye (1899 - 1980)

In 1956, he appeared as Max in The Harder They Fall, a boxing story starring Humphrey Bogart in his last role. In 1962, he portrayed Charlie the bartender, in another boxing film Requiem for a Heavyweight starring Anthony Quinn. That same year, he appeared as “Lefty” in the episode “Fall Guy” of ABC’s crime drama […]

John Bonham (1948 - 1980)

Bonham was born on 31 May 1948, in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, to Joan and Jack Bonham. He began learning to play at five, making a kit of containers and coffee tins, imitating his idols Max Roach, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. His mother gave him a snare drum at the age of ten. He received […]

Barbara Loden (1932 - 1980)

Barbara Loden made her New York theater debut in 1947 in Compulsion and also appeared on stage in The Highest Tree with Robert Redford as well as Night Circus with Ben Gazzara and in the stage version of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.  She made her television debut on […]

Sam Levene (1905 - 1980)

Sam Levene (August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was an American Broadway and film actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1927 with five lines in a play titled Wall Street, and over a span of nearly 50 years, appeared on Broadway in 37 Shows, of which 33 were the original Broadway Productions, many […]

Jane Froman (1907 - 1980)

Ellen Jane Froman was born in University City, Missouri, the daughter of Elmer Ellsworth Froman and Anna T. Barcafer. Her childhood and adolescence were spent in the small Missouri town of Clinton. Her father left her mother when Jane was about 5 years old. She developed a stutter around this time, which plagued her all […]

Victor Sen Yung (1915 - 1980)

Sen Yung made his first significant acting debut in the 1938 film Charlie Chan in Honolulu, as the Chinese detective’s “number two son,” Jimmy Chan. In this movie, Sidney Toler replaced the recently deceased Warner Oland as Charlie Chan and Sen Yung replaced Oland’s “number one son” Lee, who had been played by Keye Luke. […]

Barbara Britton (1919 - 1980)

Barbara Maurine Brantingham was born September 26, 1919, in Long Beach, California. Her involvement with stage productions began when she was 14. She attended Polytechnic High School and Long Beach City College, majoring in speech with the intention of working as a speech and drama teacher. While in school she began to show an interest […]

Tony Beckley (1929 - 1980)

Beckley was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England. He was a child out of wedlock and never met his father. His mother, Beatrice Mitchell, was a stewardess who worked on ocean liners such as the RMS Mauretania and the RMS Aquitania. Due to work commitments she was often away and Beckley was brought up mainly by […]

Raoul Walsh (1887 - 1980)

Walsh was born in New York as Albert Edward Walsh to Elizabeth T. Bruff, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants and Thomas W. Walsh, an Englishman. Like his younger brother, he was part of Omega Gamma Delta during his high school days. Growing up in New York, Walsh was also a friend of the Barrymore […]