Jimmy Jewel (1909 - 1995)

The son of a comedian and actor who also used the stage name Jimmy Jewel, the youngster made his stage debut in Robinson Crusoe in Barnsley, at the age of four, performed with his father from the age of 10 and subsequently became stage manager for the family show.  When young Jimmy started his own […]

Harriet Nelson (1909 - 1994)

She was born Peggy Louise Snyder in Des Moines, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Dell (née McNutt) and Roy Hilliard Snyder. She appeared on the vaudeville stage when she was three years old and made her debut on Broadway in her teens.  She frequented the Cotton Club, began smoking at age 13, was briefly married […]

Bert Freed (1919 - 1994)

Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, Freed began acting while attending Penn State University, and made his Broadway debut in 1942. Following World War II Army service in the European Theatre, he appeared in the Broadway musical The Day Before Spring in 1945 and dozens of television shows between 1947 and 1985. His […]

Henry Mancini (1924 - 1994)

Mancini was born in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, and was raised near Pittsburgh, in the steel town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. His parents emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Mancini’s father, Quinto (born March 13, 1893, Scanno, Italy) was a steelworker, who made his only child begin piccolo lessons at the age […]

Giulietta Masina (1921 - 1994)

Giulia Anna Masina was born in San Giorgio di Piano, Bologna. Her parents were Gaetano Masina, a violinist and a music teacher, and Anna Flavia Pasqualini, a schoolteacher. Nonetheless, she spent most of her childhood and adolescence in Rome at the home of a widowed aunt. Masina had three elder siblings: Eugenia, and twins Mario […]

Frank Thring (1926 - 1994)

Thring was born in Melbourne, the son of Frank Thring Snr. (known as F. W. Thring) and Olive (née Kreitmeyer), and was educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father was the head of the theatrical firm J. C. Williamson’s in the 1920s, and subsequently Efftee Studios in the 1930s, in Melbourne, Australia. He has […]

Lilia Skala (1896 - 1994)

Skala was born Lilia Sofer in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Katharina Skala, was Catholic, and her father, Julius Sofer, was Jewish and worked as a manufacturers representative for the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company. Skala was one of the first women to graduate in architecture and engineering from the University of Dresden, before practicing architecture professionally in […]

Tom Ewell (1909 - 1994)

Ewell was born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky. His family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers but Ewell decided to pursue acting instead. Ewell began acting in summer stock in 1928 with Don Ameche, before moving to New York City in 1931. He enrolled in the […]

Lynne Frederick (1954 - 1994)

Frederick was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex to Andrew Frederick (1914-1983) and Iris C. (née Sullivan) Frederick (1928-2006). Her mother became a casting director for Thames Television. Lynne’s parents separated when she was two years old, and she was brought up by her mother, Iris, and her grandmother, Cecilia, at Market Harborough, Leicestershire.  Having originally aspired […]

Fernando Rey (1917 - 1994)

Rey was born in A Coruña, Spain, the son of Captain Casado Veiga. He studied architecture, but the Spanish Civil War interrupted his university studies which led him to his success.  In 1936, Rey began his career in movies as an extra, sometimes even getting credited. It was then that he chose his stage name, […]

Gilbert Roland (1905 - 1994)

He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was picked at random for a role as an extra. He chose his screen name by […]

Dub Taylor (1907 - 1994)

Taylor was born in Richmond, Virginia. The name Walter was shortened to “W” (double-u) by his friends and then “Dub.” His family moved to Augusta, Georgia, when he was five years old and lived in that city until he was thirteen. During that time he befriended Ty Cobb’s son and namesake, Ty Cobb, Jr. He […]

Hal Smith (1916 - 1994)

Smith was born in Petoskey in Emmet County in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, but he spent a significant part of his early years living in Massena, New York. He graduated from the Massena High School in 1936. His mother was a seamstress, and his father worked at the local Aluminum […]

Royal Dano (1922 - 1994)

Dano was born in New York City to Mary Josephine (née O’Connor), an Irish immigrant, and Caleb Edward Dano, a printer for newspapers. He reportedly left home at the age of twelve and at various intervals, lived in Florida, Texas, and California. After reaching an agreement with his father, he agreed to continue his education, […]

Noah Beery Jr. (1913 - 1994)

Beery was born in New York City, New York, where his father was working as a stage actor. He was given his nickname “Pidge” by George M. Cohan’s sister Josie. The family moved to California in 1915 when his father began acting in motion pictures. After attending school in Los Angeles, they moved to a […]

Sorrell Booke (1930 - 1994)

Booke was born in Buffalo, New York, a cousin of Max Yasgur of Woodstock fame. Fluent in five languages including Russian and Japanese, Booke earned degrees from both Columbia and Yale universities. He served in the Korean War as a counterintelligence officer. Booke was married to the former Miranda Knickerbocker (the daughter of Hubert Renfro […]

Rossano Brazzi (1916 - 1994)

Brazzi was born in Bologna to Adelmo and Maria (née Ghedini) Brazzi. He attended San Marco University[citation needed] in Florence, Italy, where he was raised from the age of four. He made his film debut in 1939.  He was propelled to international fame with his role in the English-language film Three Coins in the Fountain […]

Dennis Morgan (1908 - 1994)

Morgan was born Earl Stanley Morner in the village of Prentice in Price County in northern Wisconsin, the son of Grace J. (née Vandusen) and Frank Edward Morner. He was of Swedish descent on his father’s side.  He enrolled at Carroll College, now known as Carroll University, in Waukesha, Wisconsin as a member of the […]

Anita Morris (1943 - 1994)

Among many roles, Morris’s most prominent film role was as Carol Dodsworth, the mistress to Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People and for her sensual performance as Carla in the musical Nine opposite Raul Julia. While nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony Award as Carla, she lost to Liliane Montevecchi, also in Nine. 21 years […]

Robert Lansing (1928 - 1994)

Born in San Diego, California, as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan but was told he would first have to join the Actors’ Equity Association. Equity would not […]

John Doucette (1921 - 1994)

John Doucette (January 21, 1921 in Brockton, Massachusetts – August 16, 1994 in Banning, California) was a film character actor. He was a balding, husky man remembered for playing mob muscle and western bad guys in movies. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, between 1943 and 1987, Doucette appeared in some 260 movies and […]

Dack Rambo (1941 - 1994)

Dack Rambo Born in Earlimart, California, Rambo had a twin brother, Orman Ray Rambeau, who would ultimately go professionally as Dirk Rambo. After moving to Los Angeles in the 1960s, the brothers were discovered by actress Loretta Young and cast in her CBS series, The New Loretta Young Show. On 5 February 1967, Dirk was […]

Jack Dodson (1931 - 1994)

Jack Dodson (May 16, 1931 – September 16, 1994) (born John S. Dodson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American television actor best remembered for the milquetoast character Howard Sprague in The Andy Griffith Show and its spin-off Mayberry R.F.D. From 1959 until his death in 1994, Dodson was married to television art director Mary Dodson. […]

Timothy Carey (1929 - 1994)

Timothy Agoglia Carey (March 11, 1929 – May 11, 1994) was an American film and television character actor. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. Carey was best known for portraying manic or violent characters who are driven to extremes.  One of his best remembered early roles was in the Stanley Kubrick film The Killing […]

Sylva Koscina (1933 - 1994)

She was born “Silvija Košćina” (Σύλβα Κοσκινού in Greek) to a Greek father, who had a hotel in the “West Coast” section of Split, Croatia and a Polish mother. She may be best-remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul […]

Bill Travers (1922 - 1994)

Travers was born in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, the son of Florence (née Wheatley) and William Halton Lindon-Travers. He and his sister Linden (1913–2001) both became actors. Linden’s daughter Susan Travers also became an actress.  William Ingle Linden-Travers enlisted as a Private in the British Army at the age of eighteen, a few months after […]

Barry Sullivan (1912 - 1994)

Born in New York City, Sullivan was a law student at New York University and Temple University. He fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football. During the later Depression years, Sullivan was told that because of his 6 ft 3 in (1.9 m) stature and rugged good looks he could “make money” simply […]

Melina Mercouri (1920 - 1994)

After her graduation, Mercouri joined the National Theatre of Greece and played the role of Electra in Eugene O’Neill’s play Mourning Becomes Electra in 1945. In 1949, she had her first major success in the theatre playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams and staged by Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre. […]

Cameron Mitchell (1918 - 1994)

Born Cameron McDowell Mitzell in Dallastown, Pennsylvania to Rev. Charles and Kathryn Mitzell, young Cameron moved to Chicora, Pennsylvania in 1921 when his father was accepted as pastor of the St. John’s Reformed Church of Donegal Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania.  Between the first and second world wars, during his years as a young actor in […]

Claude Akins (1926 - 1994)

Claude Akins was born in Nelson, Georgia, and grew up in Bedford, Indiana. He served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II in Burma and the Philippines. After the war, he was a 1949 graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied Theatre and became a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. […]