Lily Cahill (1889 - 1955)

Broadway and Movie Actress. She was a star on the stage in New York and London. She also appeared in movies, first in silent films and then in talkies. Ms. Cahill appeared on Broadway in “The Road to Arcady” (1912), “A Man’s Friends” (1913), “Under Cover” (1914), “The Melody of Youth” (1916), “In for the […]

Frances Rafferty (1922 - 2004)

Actress, Dancer, World War II pinup girl. She was best known for her role as ‘Ruth Henshaw,’ the daughter of Spring Byington in the 1950s TV series “December Bride.” She appeared in numerous B-movies in the 1940s including “Girl Crazy” with Mickey Rooney, “Abbott and Costello In Hollywood,” and “Curly.”

Yankel Kalich (1891 - 1975)

Actor. A native of Rymanów, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Poland), he had a long career in Yiddish Theatre, and also made a number of appearances on early television programs.

Joan Hackett (1934 - 1983)

Joan Hackett Joan Hackett was never one of your conventional leading ladies. Directors sometimes found her difficult to work with. Yet, this strong-minded perfectionist had an unquenchable individuality that came through in her performances and she never hesitated being unglamorous whenever the role demanded. Born of an Italian mother and an Irish-American father in East […]

Thomas Jackson (1885 - 1967)

Thomas E. Jackson, also known as Tom Jackson or Tommy Jackson, was an American stage and screen actor. His 67-year career spanned eight decades and two centuries, during which time he appeared in over a dozen Broadway plays, produced two others, acted in over a 130 films, as well as numerous television shows.  Jackson would […]

Gordon Cameron Jackson (1923 - 1990)

Gordon Jackson was born in Glasgow in 1923, the youngest of five children. He attended Hillhead High School, and in his youth he took part in BBC radio shows including Children’s Hour. He left school aged 15 and became a draughtsman for Rolls-Royce. His film career began in 1942, when producers from Ealing Studios were […]

Jeanne Cagney (1919 - 1984)

She was born in New York City, the younger sister of film actor James Cagney and actor/producer William Cagney. She married Jack Morrison on June 6, 1953; they had two children. Cagney died in Newport Beach, California from lung cancer, aged 65.  She appeared in 19 films between 1939 and 1965, including four films with […]

Jill Ireland (1936 - 1990)

Jill Ireland Born in London, Ireland was the daughter of a wine importer. She began acting in the mid-1950s with bit parts in films including Simon and Laura (1955) and Three Men in a Boat (1956).  In 1957, Ireland married actor David McCallum. after the couple met while working on the film Hell Drivers (1957). […]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909 - 2000)

Douglas Fairbanks Jr Actor. Movie star of the 1930s and 1940s. He was the son of silent film star Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and the first husband of actress Joan Crawford. He began his career during the silent era in bit parts until 1923 when he starred in the film Stephen Steps Out which quickly went […]

Helen Mack (1913 - 1986)

Helen Mack, born Helen McDougall was the daughter of William George McDougall, a barber, and Regina (née Lenzer) McDougall, who had a repressed desire to become an actress. She obtained her education (1921–29) as a youth at the Professional Children’s School of New York City. Vera Gordon was a friend who helped her along as […]

Valli Valli (1882 - 1927)

Valli was educated in London and Paris. As a twelve-year-old, she made her first stage appearance in Gentle Ivy (1894) at Terry’s Theatre in London. She demonstrated her theatrical skill in Berlin in 1895 with a successful run in the musical comedy Morocco Bound. She returned to London’s Drury Lane Theatre, performing the role of […]

Alida Valli (1921 - 2006)

Valli was born in Pola, Istria, Italy (today Pula, Croatia; until 1918 it had formed part of Austria-Hungary). Her paternal grandfather was the Baron Luigi Altenburger (also: Altempurger), an Austrian-Italian from Trento, a descendant of the Counts d’Arco; her paternal grandmother was Elisa Tomasi from Trento, a cousin of the Roman senator Ettore Tolomei. Valli’s […]

Clara Kimball Young (1890 - 1960)

Clarisa Kimball was born in Chicago to Edward M. and Pauline (née Maddern) Kimball, travelling stock actors. She made her stage debut at the age of three, and throughout her early childhood travelled with her parents and acted with their theater company. She attended St. Francis Xavier Academy, Chicago. Afterwards she was hired into a […]

Audrey Young (1922 - 2012)

Actress, Singer. A Big Band performer and veteran of about two dozen movies from the late 1940s, she is better remembered via her long marriage to legendary filmmaker Billy Wilder. Raised in Southern California, she was a part time model when she joined Paramount as a contract player and made her silver screen bow in […]

Anita Page (1910 - 2008)

She was born Anita Evelyn Pomares to Marino, Sr. and Maude (née Mullane) Pomares. She had one brother, Marino Jr., who later worked for her as a gym instructor while her mother worked as her secretary and her father as her chauffeur. Of Salvadoran ancestry, Page’s grandfather was a consul from El Salvador.  Page entered […]

Gloria Talbott (1931 - 2000)

She grew up in Glendale in Los Angeles County, California, a city co-founded by one of her grandfathers. Her sister, Lori Talbott, also became an actress.  Talbott began her career as a child actor in such films as Maytime (1937) , Sweet and Low-down (1944) and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945).  After leaving school, […]

Helen Wagner (1918 - 2010)

Wagner played the soap opera’s matriarch, Nancy Hughes, from its debut on April 2, 1956, until her death. She is acknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records for having the longest run in a single role on television. In fact, Wagner spoke the show’s very first line, “good morning, dear,” and would go on to […]

Wende Wagner (1941 - 1997)

Born to a career U.S. Navy officer and swimming and diving coach father (John H. Wagner) and a mother (Rudy Arnold Wagner) who was a champion skier, Wagner lived in nearly all the Continental United States with her family’s various naval postings. While living in Coronado, California, with her family, Billy Wilder then filming Some […]

Susannah York (1939 - 2011)

York was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher in Chelsea, London, in 1939, the younger daughter of Simon William Peel Vickers Fletcher (1910–2002), a merchant banker and steel magnate, and his first wife, the former Joan Nita Mary Bowring – they married in 1935 and divorced prior to 1943. Her maternal grandfather was Walter Andrew Bowring, CBE, […]

Cheryl Walker (1918 - 1971)

Born in South Pasadena, California to Everett Dale and Pauline S. Walker, Cheryl Walker won the 1938 Tournament of Roses pageant leading to a brief career as a model and the beginning of a brief film career. She appeared in small, uncredited roles in several films from 1938 until her first substantial role in Chasing […]

Charlotte Walker (1876 - 1958)

Walker made her stage debut as a teen. At nineteen she performed in London, England in a comedy called The Mummy. She performed with Richard Mansfield. Later returned to her native Texas.  Walker appeared as June in Trail of the Lonesome Pine, in 1911. She would later reprise the role in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 […]

Jean Hagen (1923 - 1977)

Hagen was born as Jean Shirley Verhagen in Chicago, to Christian Verhagen (born August 10, 1890 – died April 1983), a Dutch immigrant, and his Chicago-born wife, Marie. The family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, when she was 12, and she subsequently graduated from Elkhart High School. She studied drama at Northwestern University and worked as […]

Kevin Hagen (1928 - 2005)

Born in Chicago, Illinois, to professional ballroom dancers, Haakon Olaf Hagen and the former Marvel Lucile Wadsworth. When Haakon Hagen deserted his family, young Hagen was reared by his mother, grandmother, and aunts. As a 15-year-old, he relocated to Portland, Oregon, where one of his aunts had taken a teaching job. His family returned to […]

Jimmy MacDonald (1906 - 1991)

He was born in the family home at 268 West Street Crewe, Cheshire on May 19, 1906. His parents were Richard William MacDonald and Minnie Hall. The family emigrated to America when MacDonald was six months old. They travelled via the SS Haverford from Liverpool, England, arriving in Pennsylvania 15 days later.  As a young […]

Kenneth MacDonald (1901 - 1972)

MacDonald began his career as a stage actor, and came to Hollywood in the early 1930’s. He found a few bit parts at first, finally finding steady work in westerns and serials at Columbia Pictures. MacDonald perfected a cool, debonair demeanor, which usually masked an evil side as a con man, outlaw, or thief. His […]

John Abbott (1905 - 1996)

John Kefford (5 June 1905 – 24 May 1996) was an English character actor professionally known as John Abbott. His memorable roles include the invalid Frederick Fairlie in the 1948 film The Woman in White and the pacifist Ayelborne in the Star Trek episode “Errand of Mercy”. He also played Sesmar on an episode of […]

Richard Abbott (1899 - 1986)

Richard Abbott Actor. He was in the original casts of the plays “The Power of Darkness”, “Polly”, and “The Last Mile”. He had many uncredited film roles from the 1930s to 1970s, such as “Love Laughs at Andy Hardy”(1947) and “Green Dolphin Street”(1947) His last role was as ‘Billings’ in “The Last Escape” (1970).

Philip Abbott (1924 - 1998)

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Abbott was a secondary lead in several films of the 1950s and 1960s, including Miracle of the White Stallions (1963). He made more than one hundred guest appearances on various television series from 1952–1995, including NBC’s Justice about the Legal Aid Society of New York and The Eleventh Hour, a […]

Gordon Oliver (1910 - 1995)

Actor. Entering films in 1936, Oliver played lead and supporting roles in a number of Warner Bros., and Columbia films before turning to character roles in films for RKO. Later in life he turned to producing. Oliver appeared in 45 films. He was executive producer of both the Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky TV series for […]

Bill Quinn (1912 - 1994)

Bill Quinn (May 6, 1912 – April 29, 1994) was an American actor.  Quinn appeared in more than 150 acting roles over seven decades, starting in the 1920s in silent films and ending in 1989 in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He is best remembered as Archie’s blind friend, Mr. Van Ranseleer, in All […]