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. […]

Dick Sargent (1930 - 1994)

Born Richard Stanford Cox in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, on April 19, 1930 to mother, Ruth McNaughton, daughter of John McNaughton who founded Los Angeles famed Union Stockyards. She appeared under the ‘nom-de-arte’ (stage name) of Ruth Powell, and had important supporting bit roles in such screen classics as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Hearts […]

Peter Cushing (1913 - 1994)

Cushing was born in Kenley, London, the second son of George Edward Cushing and Nellie Maria (née King) Cushing. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Dulwich, South London. After the end of the First World War, they returned close to Kenley; this time to neighbouring Purley, Surrey, where in 1926 his quantity surveyor […]

Cesar Romero (1907 - 1994)

Romero was born Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. in New York City on February 15, 1907, the son of Cesar Julio Romero, Sr. and Maria Mantilla (daughter of Cuban national hero José Martí). His father was an Italian-born importer-exporter of sugar refining machinery, and his mother was a Cuban concert singer. He grew up in Bradley […]

Jessica Tandy (1909 - 1994)

The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London. Her mother, Jessie Helen (née Horspool), was the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and her father, Harry Tandy, was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer. Her father died when Tandy was 12, and her mother subsequently taught […]

Pat Buttram (1915 - 1994)

Buttram was born in Addison in Winston County, Alabama, to Wilson McDaniel Buttram, a Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Emmett Maxwell. He had an older brother, Augustus McDaniel Buttram, and five other elder siblings. When “Pat” Buttram was a year old, his father was transferred to Nauvoo, Alabama. Buttram graduated from Mortimer Jordan High […]

George Peppard (1928 - 1994)

George Peppard, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of building contractor George Peppard, Sr. and opera singer Vernelle Rohrer. He graduated from Dearborn High School in Dearborn, Michigan.  Peppard enlisted in the United States Marine Corps July 8, 1946, and rose to the rank of Corporal in the 10th Marines, leaving the Corps […]

Raúl Juliá (1940 - 1994)

Juliá was born in Floral Park, a subsector of San Juan, to Olga Arcelay and Raúl Juliá. He was the oldest of four brothers and sisters. His mother was a mezzo-soprano who sang at a church choir before marrying Juliá’s father, who was an electrical engineer graduated from Tri-State University. Some relatives were also musicians, […]

John Bindon (1943 - 1993)

John Bindon was born in Fulham, London, and was the son of Dennis Bindon, a merchant seaman and engineer, turned cab driver. The second eldest in a working-class family of three children, Bindon went to St Mark’s Church School in Fulham where he became a noted rugby union junior, but left at the age of […]

Evelyn Venable (1913 - 1993)

Evelyn Venable was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the only child of Emerson and Dolores Venable. She graduated from Walnut Hills High School (class of 1930), where her father and grandfather William Henry Venable taught English. She performed in several plays at Walnut Hills, as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the Dream Child in Dear Brutus […]

William Bakewell (1908 - 1993)

Bakewell, educated at Los Angeles Harvard Military School, began his film career as an extra in the silent movie Fighting Blood (1924), and went on to appear in some 170 films and television shows. He had supporting roles at the end of the silent era and reached the peak of his career around 1930. He […]

Mary Philbin (1902 - 1993)

Born in Chicago, Illinois into a middle-class Irish American Catholic family, she began her acting career after winning a beauty contest sponsored by Universal Pictures. Her father John Philbin was born in Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland.  Mary Philbin made her screen debut in 1921 and during the 1920s she became a highly successful film actress […]