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 […]

Harry Horner (1910 - 1994)

Harry Horner was born in the town of Holitz (presently called Holice), which now belongs to Czech republic, to German-speaking Jewish parents[citation needed] in Bohemia. He began his career working with Max Reinhardt in Vienna. When Reinhardt moved to the United States in the early 1930s, Horner travelled with Max Reinhardt’s production group acting as his […]

Douglas Fowley (1911 - 1998)

Douglas Fowley was born Daniel Vincent Fowley in The Bronx in New York City. He appeared in more than 240 films and later in dozens of television programs. He began acting while attending St. Francis Xavier Military Academy. Fowley began as a singing waiter and then worked as a copy boy for The New York Times, […]

Anthony Brooklier (1913 - 2016)

Anthony Brooklier Anthony Brooklier, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who went from defending his father, a powerful mob boss, to representing celebrities, corrupt businessmen, drug kingpins and the Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss, died Tuesday. He was 70. Anthony Brooklier died of suicide at his Century City residence, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. His death stunned […]

Joe Esposito (1938 - 2016)

Joe Esposito Joe Esposito (born January 22, 1938-November 23,2016) was a veteran author and publisher, who along with his long-time business partner Daniel Lombardy, have several best selling books to their credit. Joe Esposito is best known for his association with Elvis Presley. He first met Presley while serving in the military in 1958. They […]

Fidel Castro (1926 - 2016)

Fidel Castro Fidel Castro, the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, died on Friday. He was […]

Regis Toomey (1898 - 1991)

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Regis Toomey was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High School. He initially pondered a law career, but acting won out and he established himself as a musical stage performer. Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother […]

Dick Purcell (1908 - 1944)

Dick Purcell was born Richard Gerald Purcell, Jr. in Greenwich, Connecticut. An only child, he attended Catholic grade school and high school, before enrolling as a student at Fordham University in The Bronx in New York City. While in New York City, Dick Purcell began his acting career in theatre, appearing in at least three […]

Minta Dufree (1889 - 1975)

Minta Dufree met Roscoe Arbuckle when he was attempting to get started in theater, and the two married in August 1908. Durfee entered show business in local companies as a chorus girl at the age of seventeen. She was the first leading lady of Charlie Chaplin. Durfee and Arbuckle separated in 1921, just prior to […]

Roscoe Arbuckle (1887 - 1933)

Roscoe Conkling “Fatty” Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. Starting at the Selig Polyscope Company he eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked with Mabel Normand and Harold Lloyd. He mentored Charlie Chaplin and discovered Buster Keaton and Bob Hope. Arbuckle was […]

Ford Sterling (1883 - 1939)

Ford Sterling (November 3, 1883 – October 13, 1939) was an American comedian and actor best known for his work with Keystone Studios. One of the ‘Big 4’ he was the original chief of the Keystone Cops. Born George Franklin Stich in La Crosse, Wisconsin, he began his career in silent films in 1911 with […]

Edgar Kennedy (1890 - 1948)

Edgar Kennedy was born on April 26, 1890 in Monterey County, California to Canadian-born Neil Kennedy and Annie Quinn. He attended San Rafael High School before taking up boxing. He was a light-heavyweight and once went 14 rounds with Jack Dempsey. After boxing, he worked as a singer in vaudeville, musical comedy and light opera. Making […]

James Finlayson (1887 - 1953)

Born in Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland to Alexander and Isabella (nêe Henderson) Finlayson, James Finlayson worked as a tinsmith before pursuing an acting career. After the death of both his parents, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1911 at the age of 24 with his brother Robert. He married Emily Cora Gilbert, an American citizen from Iowa, […]

James Parrott (1897 - 1939)

James Gibbons Parrott was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charles and Blanche Thompson Parrott. In 1903, his father died from a heart attack, leaving the family in bad financial shape, which forced them to move in with a relative. Charley Jr. quit school, so he could go to work, in order to support his mother […]

Leroy Shield (1893 - 1962)

Leroy Shield (October 2, 1893 – January 9, 1962) was an American film score and radio composer. A native of Waseca, Minnesota, Shield was an employee of RCA Victor’s National Broadcasting Company, for which he composed and conducted on-air musical pieces. Starting approximately 1922 (seven years before the Victor Talking Machine was bought by RCA and […]

Sam Wood (1884 - 1949)

Samuel Grosvenor “Sam” Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer, who was best known for directing such Hollywood hits as A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and The Pride of the Yankees. He was also involved in a few acting […]

Karl Freund (1890 - 1969)

Karl Freund was born to Jewish parents in Dvůr Králové (Königinhof), Bohemia. His career began in 1905 when, at age 15, he was hired as an assistant projectionist for a film company in Berlin, where his family had moved in 1901. Freund worked as a cinematographer on over 100 films, including the German Expressionist films The […]

Fred Niblo (1874 - 1948)

Fred Niblo was born Frederick Liedtke (several sources give “Frederico Nobile”, apparently erroneously) in York, Nebraska, to a French mother and a father who had served as a captain in the American Civil War and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. Using the stage name, Fred Niblo, Liedtke began his show business career performing […]

Edward Bowes (1874 - 1946)

Edward Bowes’ father died when he was six years old, and young Bowes worked as he could to augment the family income. After leaving grammar school he worked as an office boy and then went into the real estate business, until the cataclysmic 1906 San Francisco earthquake wiped out his fortune. He then went to […]

Clayton Moore (1914 - 1999)

Clayton Moore Clayton Moore grew up in Chicago, Illinois and although his father wanted him to become a doctor, he had visions of something a little more glamorous. Naturally athletic, he practiced gymnastics during family summer vacations in Canada, eventually joining the trapeze act The Flying Behrs at 19. During the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair, […]