Brenda Marshall (1915 - 1992)

Born in Negros, Philippines, Marshall made her first film appearance in the 1939 Espionage Agent. The following year, she played the leading lady to Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk. After divorcing actor Richard Gaines in 1940, she married the actor William Holden in 1941 and her own career quickly slowed. She starred opposite James […]

Angelique Pettyjohn (1943 - 1992)

Pettyjohn was born Dorothy Lee Perrins in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her first credited film appearances were in 1967 under the name Angelique. They include The Touch of Her Flesh and The Love Rebellion. Her big break came that same year in the Elvis Presley film, Clambake. Pettyjohn was […]

Robert Morley (1908 - 1992)

Morley was born in Semley, Wiltshire, England, the son of Gertrude Emily (née Fass) and Robert Wilton Morley, a Major in the British Army. His mother came from a German family that had emigrated to South Africa. Morley attended Wellington College, Berkshire, which he hated, followed by RADA. As he was a famous “Old Wellingtonian”, […]

Mae Clarke (1910 - 1910)

Clarke was born Violet Mary Klotz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was a theater organist. She studied dancing as a child and began on stage in vaudeville and also worked in night clubs.  Clarke started her professional career as a dancer in New York City, sharing a room with Barbara Stanwyck. She subsequently starred in […]

Ray Danton (1931 - 1992)

Danton was born Raymond Caplan in New York City, the son of Myrtle (née Menkin) and Jack Caplan. His family was Jewish, and he was a descendant of the Vilna Gaon.  Danton entered show business as a child radio actor on NBC radio’s Let’s Pretend show in 1943. Danton did many stage roles whilst attending […]

Diane Varsi (1938 - 1992)

Varsi was born in San Mateo, California, a suburb of San Francisco. There she unsuccessfully tried to become a model and a restaurant hostess. While in high school, she was called an “oddball” by her classmates. She often played truant from school to visit San Francisco and was therefore labeled a “rebel”. She dropped out […]

Jack Kelly (1927 - 1992)

Born John Augustus Kelly, Jr. in Astoria, Queens, New York, one of four children, to Ann Mary “Nan” (née Walsh) and John Augustus Kelly, Sr. “Jackie,” as he was called as a child, came from a prominent theatrical family. His mother, Nan Kelly, had been a popular stage actress and John Robert Powers model. Kelly’s […]

John Dehner (1915 - 1992)

Dehner was born in Staten Island, New York. He had an extensive career as a radio actor, appearing as a lead or supporting player in such series as Gunsmoke and Philip Marlowe. He starred as Paladin in the radio version of Have Gun – Will Travel, one of the few times a show began on […]

Hank Worden (1901 - 1992)

Worden was raised on a cattle ranch near Glendive, Montana and was educated at Stanford University and the University of Nevada as an engineer. He enlisted in the U.S. Army hoping to become an Army pilot, but washed out of flight school. An expert horseman, he toured the country in rodeos as a saddle bronc […]

Paul Henreid (1908 - 1992)

Born in the city of Triest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Trieste, Italy), Henreid was the son of Maria-Luise (Lendecke) and Baron Carl Alphons, an aristocratic Viennese banker. He studied theatre in Vienna and debuted on the stage under the direction of Max Reinhardt. He began his film career acting in German films […]

Sandy Dennis (1937 - 1992)

Dennis was born in Hastings, Nebraska, the daughter of Yvonne (née Hudson), a secretary, and Jack Dennis, a postal clerk. She had a brother, Frank. Dennis grew up in Kenesaw, Nebraska and Lincoln, Nebraska, graduating from Lincoln High School (Lincoln, Nebraska) in 1955. She attended Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska, appearing in […]

Dana Andrews (1909 - 1992)

He was born Carver Dana Andrews on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi, the third of thirteen children of Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister, and his wife Annis (née Speed). The family subsequently moved to Huntsville, Texas, where his younger siblings (including the late actor Steve Forrest) were born.  He attended college at […]

Denholm Elliott (1922 - 1992)

Elliott was born in London, the son of Nina (née Mitchell) and Myles Laymen Farr Elliott, a barrister. He attended Malvern College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He was asked to leave RADA after one term. As Elliott later recalled: “They wrote to my mother and said, ‘Much as […]

Cleavon Little (1939 - 1992)

Little was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He was the brother of singer DeEtta Little, best known for her performance of “Gonna Fly Now”, the main theme to Rocky. He was raised in California, graduating in 1957 from Kearny High School and initially attended San Diego City College, and then at San Diego State University, where […]

Chuck Connors (1921 - 1992)

Connors was born Kevin Joseph Connors in Brooklyn, New York to Allan, a longshoreman, and Marcella Connors, immigrants from the Dominion of Newfoundland (now part of Canada). Connors was raised Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn. Connors had one sibling, a sister, […]

Sterling Holloway (1905 - 1992)

Born in Cedartown, Georgia, Holloway was named after his father, Sterling Price Holloway, who himself was named after a prominent Confederate general, Sterling “Pap” Price. His mother was Rebecca DeHaven (some sources say her last name was Boothby). He had a younger brother named Boothby. The family owned a grocery store in Cedartown, where his […]

Don Beddoe (1903 - 1991)

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe made his Broadway acting debut in 1929, receiving top billing (over a young Spencer Tracy) in Nigger Rich.  After a decade of stage work and bit parts in films, Beddoe began more prominent film roles in the late 1930s. He was usually cast as fast-talking reporters and the like. His […]

Donald Houston (1923 - 1991)

Donald Daniel Houston (6 November 1923 – 13 October 1991) was a Welsh actor whose first two films – The Blue Lagoon (1949) with Jean Simmons, and A Run for Your Money (1949) with Sir Alec Guinness – were highly successful. Later in his career he was cast in military roles and in comedies such […]

David Arkin (1941 - 1991)

Arkin had an “introducing” credit in I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) and brief appearances in Valley of the Dolls (1967), All the President’s Men (1976), and Cannonball (1976).  His television credits include Hawaii Five-O, Whitney and the Robot, and a season-long appearance as the character Gabriel Kaye in the CBS television series Storefront […]

George Gobel (1919 - 1991)

He was born George Leslie Goebel in Chicago, Illinois, His father, Hermann Goebel, was a butcher and grocer who had emigrated to the United States with his parents in the 1890s from the Austrian Empire. His mother, Lillian (MacDonald) Goebel, was born in Illinois to immigrant parents from Scotland. He was an only child.  Gobel […]

Tom Tryon (1926 - 1991)

Thomas Tryon was born on January 14, 1926, in Hartford, Connecticut, as the son of Arthur Lane Tryon, a clothier and owner of Stackpole, Moore & Tryon. (He is often erroneously identified as the son of silent screen actor Glenn Tryon.)  He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific from 1943–1946 during and after […]

James Franciscus (1934 - 1991)

Franciscus was born in Clayton, Missouri, to Lorraine (née Grover) and John Allen Franciscus, who was killed in action during World War II. In 1957, Franciscus received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and theatre arts from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, from which he graduated magna cum laude. He was a classmate […]

Yves Montand (1921 - 1991)

Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, to Giuseppina (née Simoni) and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Giuseppina was a devout Catholic, while Giovanni held strong Communist beliefs. Montand’s family left for France in 1923 because of Italy’s Fascist regime. He grew up in Marseille, where, as a young man, he worked in his […]

Don Siegel (1912 - 1991)

Born in Chicago, with Jewish origins, he attended schools in New York and later graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge in England. For a short time he studied at Beaux Arts in Paris, France, but left at age 20 and later made his way to Los Angeles.  Siegel found work in the Warner Bros. film library […]

Dean Jagger (1903 - 1991)

Born in Columbus Grove or Lima, Ohio, he dropped out of school several times before finally attending Wabash College. While at Wabash, he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and played football. He dropped out in his sophomore year, realizing he was not suited for an academic life. For a few semesters, he […]

Aldo Ray (1926 - 1991)

Ray was born in Pen Argyl in Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother, Mario DaRe (1933-2010), lettered in football at USC in the years 1952 to 1954, and on May 12, 1955 appeared as a contestant on the NBC quiz show You Bet Your […]

Bert Convy (1933 - 1991)

Convy was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Monica (née Whalen) and Bernard Fleming Convy. Convy’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was seven years old. He later attended North Hollywood High School where he was an all-around athlete. He was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies when he was just 17, playing […]

Redd Foxx (1922 - 1991)

Foxx was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised on Chicago’s South Side. His father, Fred Sanford,[citation needed] an electrician and auto mechanic from Hickman, Kentucky, left his family when Foxx was four years old. He was raised by his half-Seminole Indian mother, Mary Hughes from Ellisville, Mississippi, his grandmother and his minister. He attended […]

Keye Luke (1904 - 1991)

Luke was born in Canton, China, to a father who owned an art shop, but grew up in Seattle. He was part of the Luke family, a relative of Wing Luke, for whom Seattle’s Wing Luke Asian Museum was named. He had four siblings who all emigrated from China to California during the Depression. His […]

Daron Norwood (1965 - 2015)

Daron Norwood The country music world was saddened by the death of 1990s performer Daron Norwood on Wednesday at the age of 49. The singer, who was found unresponsive in his Hereford, Texas, apartment, signed with Giant Records in the early 1990s amid the boom in the format led by artists such as Garth Brooks […]