Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)

Humphrey Bogart Bogart was born on Christmas Day, 1899 in New York City, the eldest child of Dr. Belmont DeForest Bogart (July 1867, Watkins Glen, New York – September 8, 1934, Tudor City apartments, New York City) and Maud Humphrey (1868–1940). Belmont and Maud married in June 1898. The name “Bogart” comes from the Dutch […]

James Stewart (1908 - 1997)

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. Stewart had Scottish and Irish ancestry, and was raised as a Presbyterian. He was descended from veterans of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the […]

Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977)

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889. He was the only child of singers Charles Chaplin, Sr. and Hannah Hill. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London. His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time […]

Stanley Kubrick (1928 - 1999)

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928, in the Bronx, New York, the first of two children of Jacques (Jacob) Leonard Kubrick (1901–85) and his wife Sadie Gertrude (née Perveler; 1903–85), both of whom were Jewish. His sister, Barbara Mary Kubrick, was born in 1934. Jacques Kubrick, whose parents and paternal grandparents were of […]

Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003)

Katharine Hepburn Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 12, 1907, the second of six children. Her parents were Thomas Norval Hepburn (1879–1962), a urologist at Hartford Hospital, and Katharine Martha Houghton (1878–1951), a feminist campaigner. Both fought for social change in America: Thomas Hepburn helped establish the New England Social Hygiene Association, which […]

Gene Kelly (1912 - 1996)

Gene Kelly Kelly was born in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He was the third son of Harriet Catherine (née Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, to a family of Irish descent. His maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Derry, Ireland, and his […]

Cary Grant (1904 - 1986)

Cary Grant Archibald Alexander Leach was born at 15 Hughenden Road, Horfield, Bristol, England, the only surviving child of Elsie Maria (née Kingdon) Leach (1877–1973) and Elias James Leach (1873–1935). Young Archie Leach, whose mother had suffered clinical depression since the death of a previous child, had an unhappy upbringing, attending Bishop Road Primary School […]

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980)

Born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, (then part of Essex, now part of London), England, Hitchcock was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock (1862–1914), a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock (née Whelan; 1863–1942). Named Alfred after his father’s brother, Hitchcock was brought up as a Roman […]

Joan Crawford (1904 - 1977)

Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Thomas E. LeSueur (January 21, 1868 – January 1, 1938), a laundry laborer of English and French Huguenot ancestry and Anna Bell Johnson (November 29, 1884 – August 15, 1958), Texas-born, of Swedish and Irish descent. Her elder siblings were Daisy […]

Judy Garland (1922 - 1969)

Judy Garland Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Garland was the youngest child of Ethel Marion (née Milne; November 17, 1893 – January 5, 1953) and Francis Avent “Frank” Gumm (March 20, 1886 – November 17, 1935). Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theatre that featured […]

Amy Winehouse (1983 - 2011)

Amy Winehouse was born in Chase Farm Hospital in north London, to Jewish parents. Her father, Mitchell “Mitch” Winehouse, was a window panel installer then a taxi driver; her mother, Janis Winehouse (née Seaton), a pharmacist. Amy had an older brother, Alex (born 1979), and the family lived in London’s Southgate area.  Part of her […]

Alvy Moore (1921 - 1997)

Alvy Moore was born in Vincennes, Indiana, the son of Indiana natives Roy and Elice Moore. When Alvy was young, the family moved with his parents to Terre Haute, where Roy was a grocery store manager. He was the president of the senior class at Wiley High School in 1940-1941. He then attended Indiana State […]

Allan Sherman (1924 - 1973)

Sherman was born in Chicago to Jewish American parents Percy Copelon and Rose Sherman. Percy was an auto mechanic and race car driver who, like his son, suffered from obesity (he weighed over 350 pounds), and died while attempting a 100-day diet. Sherman’s parents divorced when he was in grade school, and Allan adopted his […]

Abigail Folger (1943 - 1969)

Folger was born in San Francisco. Her parents were Peter Folger, Chairman and President of the Folger Coffee Company, and Ines “Pui” Mejia (1907–2007), the youngest child of Gertrude and Encarnacion Mejia, a consul general of El Salvador. She had a younger brother, Peter, Jr. (born 1945). Her Roman Catholic parents divorced in 1952 when […]

Aaron Spelling (1923 - 2006)

Aaron Spelling Spelling was born in Dallas, Texas. He was the son of Pearl (née Wald) and David Spelling, who were Jewish emigrants from Poland. His father worked as a tailor and changed his surname from Spurling to Spelling after emigrating to the United States. Spelling had three brothers: Sam, Max, and Daniel, and a […]

Jenni Rivera (1969 - 2012)

Entertainer.  American-born Dolores Janney Rivera Saavedra, better known as Jenni Rivera and ‘The Diva of Banda’, released her first studio album in 2003 with ‘Homejane A Las Grandes’ and went on to sell over 15 million albums worldwide in the banda and nortena genre.  In 2008, the Latin Grammy-nominated artists tenth studio album became her […]

Jeremy Elliot Applegate (1965 - 2000)

Actor. Appeared in the role of ‘Peter Dawson,’ the straight laced friend to Veronica (played by Wynona Ryder), in the hit movie “Heathers” in 1989. Through the 1980s, he had many guest star and recurring roles on shows like “My Two Dads,” “Our House,” and “21 Jump Street.”

Stanley Andrews (1891 - 1969)

Actor. Born Stanley Andrzejewski in Chicago, Illinois, he was best remembered for his role as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program “Little Orphan Annie” (1931-36). A popular character performer, he appeared in more than 250 movies to include “Beau Geste” (1939), “North to the Klondike” (1942), “Trail of Vengeance” (1945), “Road to […]

Maclyn Arbuckle (1866 - 1931)

Actor. Arbuckle was a cousin of actor/comedian Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, and brother of actor Andrew Arbuckle. He appeared in the films, “The Gilded Highway” (1926), “Lure Of The Track” (1925), “The Old Gang Of Mine” (1925), “The Thoroughbred” (1925), “Janice Meredith” (1924), “Yolanda” (1924), “Broadway Broke” (1924), “Squire Phin” (1922), “Mr. Bingle” (1922), “The Young […]

R. G. Armstrong (1917 - 2012)

R. G. Armstrong R. G. Armstrong Jr., a rough-hewed character actor known for playing sheriffs, outlaws and other macho roles, died on Friday at his home in Studio City, Calif. He was 95. His death was confirmed by his daughter Robbie Armstrong-Dunham. Mr. Armstrong’s five-decade career took off with guest spots on virtually all the […]

Edward Arnold (1890 - 1956)

Actor. A veteran actor of over 150 movies in his career, Edward Arnold achieved the kind of stardom seldom achieved by character actors. A burly man with a commanding presence, a round face and piercing eyes, Arnold began acting in his teens in New York. He worked in several Broadway shows and made several dozen […]

Herbert Anderson (1917 - 1994)

Actor. He was best remembered for his role as Henry Mitchell, Dennis’ father on the TV series “Dennis the Menace”. After signing with Warner Bros. Studios, he made his film debut in “Navy Blues” (1941), followed by a great performance as Private Hanson in the World War II movie, “Battleground” (1949). His many television credits […]

Eddie Lincoln Anderson (1905 - 1977)

Actor. He is best remembered for his role of ‘Rochester Van Jones’, on the “Jack Benny Show”. The son of a minstrel, Big Ed Anderson, and a circus tightrope walker, Ella May Anderson, Eddie was born into a show business family, where he joined his brother, Cornelius, in a vaudeville troop. For a while, he […]

John Anderson (1922 - 1992)

Actor. Born in Clayton, Illinois, he was a brilliant character performer best remembered for his role as a snooping used-car salesman in Alfred Hitchcock’s film, “Psycho”(1960). He began his acting career on the Mississippi River showboat Goldenrod and made his debut in the Broadway show “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in the 1940s. His […]

Gilbert Anderson (1882 - 1971)

Actor. He began his career at age 18, as a stage perform in vaudeville and is best known as the first star of the Western film genre. As the character “Bronco Billy”, he was the first silent screen cowboy star appearing in “The Great Train Robbery” (1903). As “Bronco Billy”, he played the first real […]

Cachirulo Alonso (1923 - 2004)

Actor, Playwright. He was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. Born Enrique Fernández Tallaeche, he made his debut on stage in 1948 with the play “La Temporada del Recuerdo.” But he is fondly remembered for his character “Cachirulo” that he played for the childrens’ program for television “Teatro Fantástico” of which he also was producer and […]

Ernesto Alonso (1917 - 2007)

Ernesto began his career as an uncredited extra in La Zandunga (1938), a movie starring Lupe Vélez. He then appeared in 1939’s “Papacito Lindo”. His popularity grew as he starred in many films of the 1940s, including “La Gallina Culeca”, “Historia de una gran Amor”, “El Padre Morelas”, “El Jorobado”, “La Corte del Faraon”, “Marina”, […]

Anne Burr (1920 - 2003)

Actress. She was also known as Anne Burr McDermott. She was an actress who appeared on Broadway in New York City and appeared as Gloria LaRue Harper on “Guiding Light” as an original cast member from 1952 to 1954 on radio and television. She later appeared as another original cast member, Clare English Lowell Cassen […]

Dorothy Burgess (1907 - 1961)

Actress. After learning her art on the stage, she appeared in several dozen Hollywood features during the 1930s. Raised initially in Los Angeles where her father was in the transportation business, she studied painting and sculpture in New York, then got her theatrical start as a bit-player and dancer in productions that featured her maternal […]

Jean Byron (1925 - 2006)

Actress. Best remembered as ‘Natalie Lane,’ mother of Patty Duke on the 1960s series, “The Patty Duke Show.” Before acting, she worked briefly as a singer and entertainer on a local area radio show. She made a handful of films, but her career mainly consisted of numerous guest-starring roles on television. In 1963 she began […]