Louis Alterie (1886 - 1935)

Louis Alterie A prelude to establishing a national crime syndicate in America was the purging from the underworld of unorganizable pathological types. Of course, the Mafia still has its pathological members, and such traits are still highly valuable to the masters of organ-ized crime. But the brass could retain only those brutes who took orders […]

Vincent Alo (1904 - 2001)

Organized Crime Figure. Born in Harlem, New York, Alo started working on Wall Street at age 14. As a young man, Alo was convicted of armed robbery and sent to state prison (either at Sing Sing or Dannemora state prisons).  In 1926, Alo became a made man, or full member, of Giuseppe Masseria‘s powerful New York […]

Tony Alescio (1893 - 1920)

Tony Alescio Organized Crime Figure. Born in Alcamo, Sicily, he was orphaned as a young child and immigrated to Detroit, Michigan in the spring of 1911. Escaping an abusive uncle, mob boss Antonino “Tony” Giannola took him in and treated him as one of his own. He grew to be Giannola’s personal bodyguard, but during […]

Joseph Aiuppa (1907 - 1997)

Organized Crime Figure. He was a long time power in the Chicago, Illinois Mafia syndicate known as “The Outfit”. He began his criminal career as a muscleman and hired gun for Al Capone in 1935; by 1970 he had risen high in the Chicago mob. Though he controlled the mob’s operations in Cicero and the […]

Joe Adonis (1902 - 1971)

Joe Adonis Organized Crime Figure. Born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano, Italy, near Naples, to Michele and Maria Doto. In 1909, Joe and his family entered the United States at New York City. As a young man, Joe supported himself by stealing and picking pockets. While working on the streets, Joe […]

Anthony Accardo (1906 - 1992)

Anthony Accardo Organized Crime Figure. Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1906, he joined the city’s organized crime family, the “Outfit,” during the late 1920s. He served under three bosses (Alphonse Capone, Frank Nitti, and Paul Ricca), before becoming the boss himself. Accardo became prominent in the mob during Al Capone’s reign. He served for a […]

Frank Abbundando (1910 - 1942)

Frank Abbundando Organized Crime Figure. Known as “The Dasher”, he was a member of a murder-for-hire gang made up of Jewish and Italian street gangsters working out of Brooklyn, New York City, New York during the 1930s. This gang, who came to be known in the news media as “Murder Inc.”, carried out gangland murders […]

Frank Abbatemarco (1899 - 1959)

Frank Abbatemarco Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Frankie Shots”, he was a Captain in the Profaci Crime Family (today the Family is called the Colombo Family). He had one of the largest bookmaking and loan sharking operations in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. He was shot and killed in a bar in […]

Francisco Rabal (1926 - 2001)

Francisco Rabal (8 March 1926 – 29 August 2001), perhaps better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor born in Águilas, a small town in the province of Murcia, Spain.  In 1936, after the Spanish Civil War broke out, Rabal and his family left Murcia and moved to Madrid. Young Francisco had to work […]

John Quade (1938 - 2009)

Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Quade attended Perry Rural High School in Perry, Kansas before transferring to Highland Park High School in Topeka on September 7, 1954. While at Highland Park, he was a football tackle and also participated in basketball and track. He was a member of the Stamp, Radio, and Chess/Checkers clubs. He […]

Philip Ober (1902 - 1982)

Ober often appeared in roles as a straight man in farcical circumstances. He made his debut on stage, playing Tom Faulkner in Technique in 1931. He appeared in Lawrence Riley’s Broadway show Personal Appearance (1934) opposite Gladys George.  From 1954 to 1967, he frequently appeared in television series. He played a general determined to find […]

Conrad Nagel (1897 - 1970)

Born in Keokuk, Iowa, into an upper-middle-class family, he was the son of a musician father, Frank, and a mother, Frances (née Murphy), who was a locally praised singer. Nagel’s mother died early in his life, and he always attributed his artistic inclination to growing up in a family environment that encouraged self-expression. His father, […]

George Nader (1921 - 2002)

Nader was born in Pasadena, California, the son of Alice (née Scott), who was from Kansas, and George G. Nader, who was from Illinois. During World War II he served in the US Navy as a communications officer in the Pacific Theatre of Operations  He began his film career in 1950, after having earned his […]

Meinhardt Raabe (1915 - 2010)

Raabe was born in Watertown, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1937, with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He later went on to get his MBA at Drexel University.  Raabe did not hear the words “midget” or “dwarf” until young adulthood, and for a long time believed no one else might also […]

Henry Vahl (1897 - 1977)

Henry Vahl was a German theater and film actor . He was known primarily for television dramas, transferred from the Ohnsorg Theater in Hamburg, giving him the name of a popular actor earned.  Born in 1897 in Stralsund Henry Vahl suggested for decades as an actor by the second row. His numerous theater stations included, […]

Barbara La Marr (1896 - 1926)

La Marr was born in 1896 as Reatha Dale Watson to William Wallace and Rosana “Rose” Watson in Yakima, Washington (La Marr later claimed she was born in Richmond, Virginia). Her father was an editor for a newspaper, and her mother had a son, Henry, born in 1878, and a daughter, Violet, born in February […]

Florence La Badie (1888 - 1917)

While her film career is well documented, her early life is somewhat clouded in mystery, from who her real parents were to what her birth name actually was. She was adopted daughter of the La Badie family. Joseph E. La Badie, believed to have been born in Canada Montreal, Quebec, and said to have been […]

Vola Vale (1897 - 1970)

She was born Vola Smith in Buffalo, New York. Vale was educated in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She began her career in amateur theatricals in Rochester, New York. Then she played in stock companies for a while.  Her first movie experience was with Biograph, under the tutelage of the great film director D.W. Griffith. After a […]

Carmen Zapata (1927 - 2014)

Carmen Margarita Zapata (July 15, 1927 – January 5, 2014) was an American actress. Zapata was born in New York City to a Mexican father and an Argentine mother.  Zapata made her Broadway debut in the chorus of Oklahoma! in 1946. She appeared in over one hundred movies and shows, including Batman: The Animated Series, […]

Sebastian Cabot (1918 - 1977)

Cabot was born in London, England. At the age of 14, he left school to work in an automotive garage, where he served as chauffeur and valet for British actor Frank Pettingell. Cabot became interested in theater, and after becoming acquainted with other actors and having worked for Pettingell, he joined a repertory company. Cabot […]

Jack La Rue (1902 - 1984)

Jack La Rue (May 3, 1902, New York City, New York – January 11, 1984, Santa Monica, California) was an American film and stage actor.  Born Gaspere Biondolillo, he went from high school to his first acting job, in Otis Skinner’s road company production of Blood and Sand. He performed in Broadway plays from around […]

Pepe Iglesias (1915 - 1991)

Son of Spanish immigrants, he developed his career in his native land of Argentina, before settling in Spain in May 1952. Soon after, he made his debut with the Spanish public through a local radio station in Barcelona. The following year, he appeared Ramon Torrado’s film Que Loco!, alongside Pepe Isbert and Emma Penella. He […]

Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (1883 - 1939)

Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman (spelled “Ulman” by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in his memoirs) in Denver, Colorado, the son of H. Charles Ullman (born September 15, 1833) and Ella Adelaide (née Marsh; born 1847). He had a half-brother, John Fairbanks, Jr. (born 1873), and a full brother, Robert Payne Ullman (March 13, 1882 […]

Clark Gable (1901 - 1960)

Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as “The King of Hollywood” or just simply as “The King”. Gable began his career as a stage actor and appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1926, and progressed to supporting roles with a […]

Bruce Cabot (1904 - 1972)

Cabot was born Étienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad, New Mexico, to a prominent local lawyer, Colonel Etienne de Bujac, and Julia Armandine Graves, who died shortly after giving birth to him. Leaving the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee without graduating, Cabot worked at many jobs, including as a sailor, an insurance […]

Dan Dailey (1915 - 1978)

Born in New York City on December 14, 1915, to James J. and Helen Dailey, both born in New York City. He appeared in a minstrel show in 1921, and later appeared in vaudeville before his Broadway debut in 1937 in Babes in Arms. In 1940, he was signed by MGM to make films and, […]

Giorgio Gaber (1939 - 2003)

He was born in Milan into a lower-middle-class family. His father, Guido Gaberscik, was born in Trieste, when the city was still part of Austria-Hungary. The surname Gaberscik is in of Slovene origin (Gaberščik). His mother was from the Veneto region. The two met and married in Veneto and later moved to Milan, where Giorgio […]

Robert Quarry (1925 - 2009)

Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable (née Shoemaker) and Paul Quarry, a doctor. His grandmother was an actress. He left school at the age of 14 to pursue a career in radio.  During World War II in November 1943, Quarry joined the United States Army, where he formed a theatrical […]

Henny Backus (1911 - 2004)

Henrietta Kaye was born in Brooklyn March 21, 1911. She studied sculpture at Cooper Union, but she preferred working in the theatre and appeared in Broadway musicals during the 1930s. Working as Henriette Kaye, she was a member of the Federal Theatre Project. Described by The New York Times as “a leggy redhead with a […]

Merle Oberon (1911 - 1979)

Estelle Merle Thompson was born in Bombay, British India on 19 February 1911. According to some sources, her birth name was Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson. Merle was given “Queenie” as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911.  Over the years, Oberon obscured her parentage. Some […]