Willoughby Gray (1916 - 1993)

Willoughby was born in London, his mother Mary Henderson had married John Gray, who was killed in action in Iraq soon after his birth. (Though several sources suggest he was born in Aberdeen, Scotland). In 1918 Mary re married and Willoughby became the stepson of Lieutenant General Henry Pownall.  He achieved popularity in the mid-1950s […]

Eddie Constantine (1917 - 1993)

Edward Constantinowsky was born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents, a Russian father and Polish mother. In pursuit of a singing career, he went to Vienna for voice training, but when he returned to America his career didn’t take off and he started taking work as a film extra. Having failed to make a career […]

Moses Malone (1955 - 2015)

Moses Malone American professional basketball player, who was the dominating centre and premier offensive rebounder in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 1980s. He led the Philadelphia 76ers to a championship in 1983. Malone, who led Petersburg High School to 50 consecutive victories and two state championships, was one of the most sought-after college […]

Ruby Keeler (1910 - 1993)

Keeler was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, to an Irish Catholic family, one of six siblings. Two sisters, Helen and Gertrude, had brief performing careers. Her father was a truck driver, and when she was three years old, her family packed up and moved to New York City where he knew he could get […]

Charles Aidman (1925 - 1993)

Aidman was born in Frankfort in Clinton County, Indiana. After graduating from Frankfort High School he served in the United States Navy from 1946-1948 attending officer’s training at DePauw University. He attended Indiana University in Indianapolis.  Among his many television credits, Aidman guest starred on NBC’s The Virginian (in the episode “The Devil’s Children”), and […]

Jackie Collins (1937 - 2015)

Collins was born in 1937 in Hampstead, London, the younger daughter of Elsa (née Bessant) Collins (died 1962) and Joseph William Collins (died 1988), a theatrical agent whose clients later included Shirley Bassey, the Beatles and Tom Jones.  Collins’ South African-born father was Jewish and her British mother was Anglican. A middle child, Collins had […]

James Griffith (1916 - 1993)

James Griffith Born in Los Angeles, Griffith aspired to be a musician rather than an actor. Instead, he managed to find work in little theatres around Los Angeles, where the budding musician eased into a dual career of acting. He found success in the production They Can’t Get You Down in 1939, but put his […]

Leon Ames (1902 - 1993)

Leon Ames was born Harry Wycoff on January 20, 1902 in Portland, Indiana, son of Charles Elmer Wycoff and his wife Cora A. De Moss.. Some sources list his original last name as “Wykoff” or “Waycoff,” and in his early films he acted under the name Leon Waycoff.  Ames made his film debut in Quick […]

Sam Wanamaker (1919 - 1993)

Wanamaker was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Nikolayev, tailor Maurice Wattenmacker (Manus Watmakher) and Molly (Bobele). He was the younger of two brothers, the elder being William Wanamaker, long-term cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Wanamaker trained at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and began working with […]

Moses Gunn (1929 - 1993)

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Mary and George Gunn, he was the oldest of seven children. After his mother died, his family separated. Moses left home and rode the railroad at just 12 years old. He returned to St. Louis and attended school while living at the home of Jewel Richie, his […]

Bernard Bresslaw (1934 - 1993)

Bernard Bresslaw was born the youngest of three boys into a Jewish family in Stepney, London, on 25 February 1934. He attended the Coopers’ Company’s School in Tredegar Square, Bow, London E3. His father was a tailor’s cutter and he became interested in acting after visits to the Hackney Empire. London County Council awarded him […]

Alexis Smith (1921 - 1993)

Born in Penticton, British Columbia, to Gladys and Alexander Smith, her family relocated to Los Angeles when she was about a year old. Smith grew up in Southern California, attending Hollywood High School. When she was 13 she made her professional debut, performing ballet at the Hollywood Bowl. She was discovered in 1940 at Los […]

Howard Caine (1926 - 1993)

Howard Caine was born on January 2, 1926, in Nashville, Tennessee, into a Jewish family. At the age of 13, Cohen moved with his family to New York City, where he began studying acting. Learning to erase his Southern accent, he went on to became a master of 32 foreign and American dialects. Caine served […]

James Donald (1917 - 1993)

James Donald (18 May 1917 – 3 August 1993) was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he specialised in playing authority figures.  Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire’s Fylde coast. During World War II he had minor roles […]

James Hunt (1947 - 1993)

James Hunt James Simon Wallis Hunt (29 August 1947 – 15 June 1993) was a British racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in 1976. After retiring from racing in 1979, Hunt became a media commentator and businessman.  Beginning his racing career in touring car racing, Hunt progressed into Formula Three where he […]

Anne Shirley (1918 - 1993)

Born as Dawn Evelyeen Paris, in New York City, she began acting under the name of Dawn O’Day. She began acting at the age of five, and had a highly successful child star career in Pre-Code movies, appearing in such films as the 1930 version of Liliom, Tom Mix’s Riders of the Purple Sage, So […]

Janet Margolin (1943 - 1993)

Margolin was born in New York City, the daughter of Benjamin Margolin, an accountant who was born in Russia and was the founder and president of the Nephrosis Foundation, now the Kidney Foundation of New York. Her mother was Annette Margolin (née Lief, the daughter of Abraham and Nina Lief).  She attended the High School […]

Cyril Cusack (1910 - 1993)

Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa. His mother, Alice Violet (née Cole), was an English Cockney actress and chorus girl, and his father, James Walter Cusack, was an Irish mounted policeman in Natal Province, South Africa. His parents separated when he was young and his mother took him to England, and then to […]

Helen Hayes (1900 - 1993)

Helen Hayes was born in Washington D.C. on October 10, 1900. Her mother, Catherine Estelle (née Hayes), or Essie, was an aspiring actress who worked in touring companies. Her father, Francis van Arnum Brown, worked at a number of jobs, including as a clerk at the Washington Patent Office and as a manager and salesman […]

Kate Reid (1930 - 1993)

Daphne Kate Reid was born in London, England, the daughter of Canadian parents, Helen Isabel (née Moore) and Walter Clarke Reid, who was a former Bengal Lancer in the Indian army and a retired colonel. Reid attended Havergal College locally and university in London, and then studied acting at a performance art school in Canada. She […]

Glenn Corbett (1933 - 1993)

An American lead actor and supporting actor, Glenn Corbett was born Glenn Edwin Rothenburg on August 17, 1933, the son of a garage mechanic. After serving time in the United States Navy as a Seabee, he met his wife Judy at Occidental College, and with her encouragement, he began acting in campus theater plays. He […]

Raymond Burr (1917 - 1993)

Raymond William Stacey Burr was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, to William Johnston Burr (1889–1985), a hardware salesman, and his wife, Minerva Annette (née Smith, 1892–1974), a concert pianist and music teacher. His mother was born in Chicago, Illinois; Burr’s ancestry included Irish, English, Scottish, and German. After his parents divorced, Burr, then […]

River Phoenix (1970 - 1993)

Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom on August 23, 1970, in Madras, Oregon, the first child of Arlyn Sharon Dunetz (born 1944) and John Lee Bottom (born 1947). Phoenix’s parents named him after the river of life from the Hermann Hesse novel Siddhartha, and he received his middle name from the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude”. […]

Robert Shayne (1900 - 1992)

Robert Shayne Shayne originally worked as a journalist before becoming an actor, and his first stage appearances were with repertory companies in Alabama. By 1931, he had established the first of many Broadway credits in The Rap.  His other Broadway shows include Yellow Jack (1934), The Cat and the Canary (1935), Whiteoaks (1938), with Ethel […]

Allan Jones (1907 - 1992)

Jones, of Welsh ancestry, was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Pennsylvania. His father and grandfather were coal miners, and he worked in coal mines early in his adult life. He left that occupation to study voice at New York University.  In an interview in 1973, Jones recalled that his father and grandfather […]

John Lund (1911 - 1992)

John Lund’s father was a Norwegian immigrant and glassblower in Rochester, New York. Lund did not finish high school, and he tried several businesses before settling on advertising in the 1930s. His jobs included being “a soda-jerk, carpenter and timekeeper.”  While working for an advertising agency, he was asked by a friend to appear in […]

Robert Beatty (1909 - 1992)

Robert Beatty Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Beatty began his acting career in Britain in 1939.  Beatty’s film credits include: San Demetrio London (1943), Another Shore (1948), Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), The Square Ring (1953), The Amorous Prawn (1962), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), Superman […]

Molly Picon (1898 - 1992)

Picon was born as Małka Opiekun in New York City, the daughter of Polish Jewish emigrants: Clara (née Ostrow), a wardrobe mistress, and Louis Opiekun, a shirtmaker. Opiekun is a Polish language name meaning “guardian” or “caretaker”. Her surname was later changed to Picon. Her career began at the age of six years in the […]

Arletty (1898 - 1992)

Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie (near Paris), to a working-class family. After her father’s death, she left home and pursued a modeling career. She took the stage name “Arlette” based on the heroine of a story by Guy de Maupassant. She was not interested in acting until she met Paul Guillaume, […]

Michael Gothard (1939 - 1992)

Michael Gothard was born in London in 1939. As a small child, he lived in both Wales and London. After leaving Haverstock School, he travelled in France for several months before returning home. He went through various jobs, including being a building labourer and a trainee reporter. He even had a brief spell as a […]