William Nigh (1881 - 1955)

William Nigh (October 12, 1881 – November 27, 1955) was an American film director, writer, and actor. His film work sometimes lists him as either “Will Nigh” or “William Nye”. Nigh was born in Berlin, Wisconsin. He began his film career as an actor, appearing in 17 films in 1913 and 1914; he also directed […]

Warren William (1894 - 1948)

Warren William appeared in his first Broadway play in 1920, and had soon made a name for himself in New York. William appeared in 22 plays on Broadway between 1920 and 1931. During this period he also appeared in two silent films, The Town That Forgot God (1922) and Plunder (1923). William moved from New […]

Donald Woods (1906 - 1998)

Born Ralph Lewis Zink in Brandon, Manitoba, Donald Woods moved with his family to California and was raised in Burbank. A son of William and Margaret Zink (the family was of German descent; their religion was Presbyterian), his younger brother was actor Russell Conway, born Russell Clarence Zink, in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, on April 25, […]

James Cruze (1884 - 1942)

James Cruze (March 27, 1884 near Ogden, Utah – August 3, 1942 in Hollywood, California) was a silent film actor and film director. Cruze was born Jens Vera Cruz Bosen. The Vera Cruz middle name came from the battle of Vera Cruz. He was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but did […]

Frank O’Connor (1881 - 1959)

Born on April 11, 1881, in New York City, Frank O’Connor would begin his film career with a starring role in the 1915 silent film, The Voice in the Fog, which also starred Donald Brian and Adda Gleason. He starred or had featured roles in six more films between 1917 and 1920, before focusing on […]

Theodore Hardeen (1876 - 1945)

Theodore Hardeen was born as Ferenc Dezső Weisz (also spelled Ferencz Dezso Weisz) in Budapest, Hungary, and went by the name of Theodore Weiss when the family was living in Appleton, Wisconsin. He was known as “Deshi” and later “Dash” by his parents. In 1893, Hardeen performed with Houdini at Coney Island as “The Brothers Houdini”. […]

Bess Houdini (1876 - 1943)

Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner (January 23, 1876 – February 11, 1943), better known as Bess Houdini, was the stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini. Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner was born in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. in 1876 to German immigrants Gebhard Rahner (a cabinet maker) and Balbina Rahner (née Bugel). Bess Houdini was working at Coney Island in […]

Dai Vernon (1894 - 1992)

Dai Vernon was born in Ottawa as David Frederick Wingfield Verner. While performing, he often mentioned that he had learned his first trick from his father at age seven, adding that he had “wasted the first 6 years” of his life. His father was a government worker and an amateur magician. Vernon studied mechanical engineering […]

Douglas Henning (1947 - 2000)

Douglas James Henning (May 3, 1947 – February 7, 2000) was a Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist and politician. Shortly after university, Henning was awarded a Canada Council for the Arts grant. The terms of the grant required Henning to study magic. He did so, traveling to view first hand the talents of such magic greats […]

Robert Harbin (1908 - 1978)

Robert Harbin (born Ned Williams 14 February 1908 Balfour, South Africa – 12 January 1978 Westminster, London, UK) was a British magician and author. He is noted as the inventor of a number of classic illusions, including the Zig Zag Girl. He also became an authority on origami. The young Ned Williams first got interested in […]

Duke Ellington (1899 - 1974)

Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader of a jazz orchestra, which he led from 1923 until his death in a career spanning over fifty years. Born in Washington, D.C., Duke Ellington was based in New York City from the mid-1920s onward, and gained a […]

Ben Webster (1909 - 1973)

Ben Webster learned to play piano and violin at an early age before taking up the saxophone, although he did return to the piano from time to time, even recording on the instrument occasionally. Once Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster began to play that instrument in the Young Family Band […]

Stan Getz (1927 - 1991)

Stan Getz’s reputation was greatly enhanced by his featured status on Johnny Smith’s 1952 album Moonlight in Vermont, that year’s top jazz album. The single of the title tune became a hit that stayed on the charts for months. In the mid to late 1950s working from Scandinavia, Getz became popular playing cool jazz with Horace […]

Mack Gordon (1904 - 1959)

Mack Gordon (born Morris Gittler, June 21, 1904 – February 28, 1959) was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times in eleven years, including five consecutive years between 1940 and 1944, and won the award once, for “You’ll Never […]

Oliver Wallace (1887 - 1963)

Oliver Wallace was born on August 6, 1887, in London. After completing his musical training, he went to the United States in 1904, becoming a US citizen ten years later. He initially worked primarily on the West Coast as a conductor of theater orchestras and as an organist accompanying silent films. At the same time, […]

Sammy Cahn (1913 - 1993)

Sammy Cahn was born Samuel Cohen in the Lower East Side of New York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Abraham and Elka Reiss Cohen, who were Jewish immigrants from Galicia, then ruled by Austria-Hungary. His sisters, Sadye, Pearl, Florence, and Evelyn, all studied the piano. His mother did not approve of […]

Moose Charlap (1928 - 1974)

Mark “Moose” Charlap (December 19, 1928 – July 8, 1974) was a Jewish-American Broadway composer best known for Peter Pan (1954), for which Carolyn Leigh wrote the lyrics. The idea for the show came from Jerome Robbins, who planned to have a few songs by Charlap and Leigh. It evolved into a full musical, with […]

Adolph Green (1914 - 2002)

Adolph Green was born in the Bronx to Hungarian Jewish immigrants Helen (née Weiss) and Daniel Green. After high school, he worked as a runner on Wall Street while he tried to make it as an actor. He met Comden through mutual friends in 1938 while she was studying drama at New York University. They […]

Jule Styne (1905 - 1994)

Jule Styne attended Chicago Musical College, but before then he had already attracted attention of another teenager, Mike Todd, later a successful film producer, who commissioned him to write a song for a musical act that he was creating. It was the first of over 1,500 published songs Styne composed in his career. In 1929, […]

Patricia Neway (1919 - 2012)

Born on Ditmas Avenue in Kensington, Brooklyn to Irish-American parents, Patricia Neway grew up in Rosebank, Staten Island. Her father was a printing plant foreman who had briefly worked in vaudeville as the high tenor in a vocal quartet. She attended the Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island and then Notre Dame College, where she […]

Ezio Pinza (1892 - 1957)

Ezio Pinza, christened Fortunio Pinza, was born in modest circumstances in Rome in 1892 and grew up on Italy’s east coast, in the ancient city of Ravenna. He studied singing at Bologna’s Conservatorio Martini, making his operatic debut in 1914, as Oroveso in Norma at Cremona. As a young man, Pinza was a devotee of bicycle […]

Grant Withers (1904 - 1959)

Born Granville G. Withers in Pueblo, Colorado, Grant Withers worked as an oil company salesman and newspaper reporter before breaking into films near the end of the silent era. His more-than-30-year acting career took off in the late 1920s. While in his twenties, his hairy-chested rugged good looks made him the leading man over such […]

Wayde Preston (1929 - 1992)

Born William Erksine Strange in Denver, Colorado, Preston was reared in Laramie in southern Wyoming by his educator parents, John and Bernice Strange. Wayde Preston had two younger sisters, Joan and Mary. In 1947 he graduated from Laramie High School, where he was active in football, track, the school band and the Reserve Officer Training […]

Paul Dehn (1912 - 1976)

Paul Dehn (5 November 1912 – 30 September 1976) was an Oscar-winning British screenwriter, best known for Goldfinger, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Planet of the Apes sequels and Murder on the Orient Express. Dehn and his partner, James Bernard, won the Academy Award for best Motion Picture story for Seven Days […]

Ray Milland (1907 - 1986)

Ray Milland (3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend (1945), a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild […]

Lewis Allen (1905 - 2000)

Lewis Allen was born in the small Shropshire town of Oakengates and on leaving school joined the Merchant Navy for four years. After leaving the service he became, briefly, an actor, before moving into London theatrical management, first for Raymond Massey and later for Gilbert Miller. In 1935 he began working on Broadway. His credits include […]

David Hand (1900 - 1986)

David Dodd Hand (January 23, 1900 – October 11, 1986) was an animator and animation filmmaker, best known for his work at Walt Disney Productions. Hand worked on numerous Disney shorts during the 1930s, eventually becoming supervising director on the animated features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, David […]

Joe Grant (1908 - 2005)

Born in New York City, New York, Joe Grant worked for The Walt Disney Company as a character designer and story artist beginning in 1933 on the Mickey Mouse short, Mickey’s Gala Premier. He was a Disney legend. He created the Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He co-wrote Dumbo. He also led […]

Tommy Noonan (1921 - 1968)

Tommy Noonan (April 29, 1921 – April 24, 1968) was a comedy genre film performer, screenwriter and producer. He acted in a number of ‘A’ and ‘B’ pictures from the 1940s through the 1960s, and he is best known for his supporting performances as Gus Esmond, wealthy boyfriend of Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) in Gentlemen […]

Taylor Holmes (1878 - 1959)

Taylor Holmes was born on May 16, 1878, in Newark, New Jersey. Holmes began his stage career in vaudeville and made his first professional appearance at Keith’s Theatre in Boston in 1899. In 1900, Holmes appeared George Bernard Shaw’s Candida in Chicago, the first production in the United States. Noted British theater critic William Archer saw […]