Paul Gleason (1939 - 2006)

Actor. He is probably best remembered for his role as the no nonsense Principal Richard Vernon in the popular 1980’s  movie “The Breakfast Club.” After seeing the film “Splendour in the Grass,” he decided he wanted to become an actor. Gleason started out on television in the 1960’s appearing on such shows as “Mission Impossible,” […]

Paul Gruchow (1947 - 2004)

Paul Gruchow (May 23, 1947 – February 22, 2004) was an American author, editor, and conservationist from Montevideo, Minnesota. A student of poet John Berryman, he is well known for his strong support of rural communities, as expressed in his first book, “Journal of a Prairie Year” published by University of Minnesota Press. His essays […]

Paul Hartman (1904 - 1973)

Actor. Born in San Francisco, California, he was best remembered for the role of Emmett Clark on the “Andy Griffith Show” TV series. He began his career as a comic stage performer with his wife Grace as the dancing team The Hartmans, appearing in several in several Broadway hits during the 1930s and 1940s. The […]

Paul Harvey (1918 - 2009)

Harvey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The son of a policeman killed in 1921, Harvey made radio receivers as a young boy. He attended Tulsa Central High School where a teacher, Isabelle Ronan, was “impressed by his voice.” On her recommendation, he started working at KVOO in Tulsa in 1933, when he was 14. His […]

Paul Henreid (1908 - 1992)

Born in the city of Triest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Trieste, Italy), Henreid was the son of Maria-Luise (Lendecke) and Baron Carl Alphons, an aristocratic Viennese banker. He studied theatre in Vienna and debuted on the stage under the direction of Max Reinhardt. He began his film career acting in German films […]

Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963)

Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main, Paul Hindemith was taught the violin as a child. He entered Frankfurt’s Hoch’sche Konservatorium, where he studied violin with Adolf Rebner, as well as conducting and composition with Arnold Mendelssohn and Bernhard Sekles. At first he supported himself by playing in dance bands and musical-comedy groups. He became […]

Paul Howard Gilmore (1873 - 1962)

Actor. He was one of America’s most popular stage actors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He also helped pioneer the development of motion pictures in the United States, appearing in at least a dozen Edison shorts and ten silent features. His last film was “Isle of Destiny,” produced by him in 1920. […]

Paul Hubschmid (1917 - 2002)

Actor. Born in Schönenwerd, Switzerland, he had a successful international career in theatre, television,  and films.  His movie debut was in “Füsilier Wipd” (1938). During the 1950s he worked in Hollywood under the name Paul Christian in films such as “Palace Hotel” (1952), “No Time for Flowers” (1952) and “The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms” (1953). […]

Paul Huff (1918 - 1994)

Paul Huff joined the Army from his birth city of Cleveland, Tennessee in June 1941, and by February 8, 1944 was serving as a Corporal in the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. On that day, near Carano, Italy, Huff led a reconnaissance patrol while under heavy fire from German forces. For his actions during the patrol, […]

Paul Hyde Bonner (1893 - 1968)

Author. He awrote the books, “S.P.Q.R.” (1954), “Excelsior!” (1955) and “Hotel Talleyrand” (1959). He also wrote, “Ambassador Extrordinary” and six other stories of international intrigue. (bio by: K)

Paul Jennings Hill (1954 - 2003)

Paul Hill was born in Miami, Florida on February 6, 1954, to Oscar Jennings Hill, an airline pilot, and his wife Louise. He was raised in Coral Gables. He was charged with assault at the age of 17, by his father, when his father attempted to get treatment for Hill’s drug problem. Hill said he […]

Paul Julian (1914 - 1995)

Paul Hull Husted (June 25, 1914 – September 5, 1995), better known as Paul Julian, was an American artist and animator, most noted for his work with Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes short films. He worked primarily on director Friz Freleng’s Sylvester and Tweety Bird shorts. His warm and tightly-cropped urban scenes were also featured early […]

Paul Julius Baron de Reuter (1816 - 1899)

Journalist. Born in a family of rabbis, he was named Israel Beer Josaphat. He changed his name and became a founder of Reuters, one of the major financial news agencies of the world, which first established a telegraph link between Britain and the European continent through the English Channel. When this link was extended to […]

Paul Kantner (1941 - 2016)

Paul Kantner was born on March 17, 1941 in San Francisco, California, the son of Cora Lee (Fortier) and Paul Schell Kantner. Kantner had a half-brother and a half-sister by his father’s first marriage, both much older than he. His father was of German descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His […]

Paul Klee (1879 - 1940)

Artist. His father Hans was a music teacher, and young Paul originally wanted to follow in his footsteps and to become a musician too. However, when he was a teenager he decided he wanted to pursue a career in the visual arts instead of the musical arts. He received his training at the Academy of […]

Paul Klinger (1907 - 1971)

In Breslau, under the direction of his cousin, Karl-Heinz Uhlendahl, Paul Klinger passed some television screen tests and began his film career in 1933 with Du sollst nicht begehren (Thou Shalt not Covet), which landed him simultaneous contracts with the then biggest German studios Ufa, Terra Film and Tobis. His second film was Männer vor […]

Paul Kurtz (1925 - 2012)

Kurtz was born in Newark, New Jersey, into a Jewish family, the son of Sara Lasser and Martin Kurtz. Kurtz received his bachelor’s degree from New York University, and the Master’s degree and Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University. Kurtz was left-wing in his youth, but has said that serving in the United States […]

Paul L. Pink (1908 - 1996)

Businessman. He was the founder and proprietor of Pink’s Hot Dogs. He opened his business in 1939 with a cart on wheels on a corner lot. The business was later moved to a building that was erected on the spot. To this day they sell an estimated 1500 hot dogs a day and it is […]

Paul Masson (1859 - 1940)

Vintner (wine maker).

Paul Masson (1859 - 1940)

Vintner (wine maker).

Paul Melchers (1813 - 1895)

Paul Melchers was born in Münster. He studied law at Bonn (1830–33), and a few years practice at Münster, took up theology at Munich under Heinrich Klee, Joseph Görres, Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann and Ignaz von Döllinger. Ordained in 1841, Paul Melchers was assigned to duty in the village of Haltern. In 1844 he became […]

Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841 - 1880)

Chemist, Industrialist. Co-founder of the German chemical company AGFA. The second son of composer Felix Mendelssohn, he was born in Leipzig, Germany. After his father’s death in 1847 he was raised in Berlin by an uncle, the banker Paul Mendelssohn. He earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (1863) and did pioneering […]

Paul Meurisse (1912 - 1979)

Paul Meurisse was born in Dunkirk, on the north-east coast of France, but grew up on the island of Corsica, to where his bank manager father had been transferred when Paul Meurisse was a small child. After leaving school he moved to Aix-en-Provence, where he became a solicitor’s clerk. His passion was for the stage, […]

Paul Newman (1925 - 2008)

Newman was born in Shaker Heights (a suburb of Cleveland). He was the son of Theresa (née Fetzer or Fetsko; Slovak: Terézia Fecková) and Arthur Sigmund Newman, who ran a profitable sporting goods store. His father was Jewish (Paul’s paternal grandparents, Simon Newman and Hannah Cohn, were immigrants from Hungary and Poland). His mother, who […]

Paul Philippe Cret (1876 - 1945)

Architect. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania Design, he designed the Pan American Union Building in Washington D.C., the Tower at the University of Texas (plus numerous other buildings on the campus), the Benjamin Franklin Bridge that spans from New Jersey to Philadelphia, and numerous American War memorials in Europe. He designed the gates […]

Paul Picerni (1922 - 2011)

Born in New York City, Picerni was an Eagle Scout. He joined the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and served as a B-24 Liberator bombardier in the China-Burma-India Theater. He flew twenty-five combat missions with the 493rd Bomb Squadron of the 7th Bomb Group and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He […]

Paul R. Braniff (1897 - 1954)

Businessman. Along with brother Thomas Braniff, he co-founded Braniff International  Airlines, serving as itsGeneral Manager until his death. (bio by: Russ Dodge)  Family links:  Children:  John Paul Braniff (1927 – 2013)* *Calculated relationship

Paul Reichmann (1930 - 2013)

Reichmann was born in Vienna in 1930 to Samuel Reichmann, a wealthy egg merchant and his wife Renée. His parents were Orthodox Jews from a small town in Hungary, but his father had risen to prominence in Vienna as a successful merchant. Paul was the fifth of six children. The family escaped the Nazi occupation […]

Paul Reid (1957 - 2013)

At Captain D’s on Lebanon Road in Donelson, Tennessee, on the morning of February 16, 1997, Paul Reid entered the store before opening, under the guise of applying for a job. Once inside, he forced employee Sarah Jackson, 16, and the manager, Steve Hampton, 25, into the restaurant’s cooler. Reid forced the two to lie […]

Paul Ricca (1897 - 1973)

Chicago Gangster – ‘The Waiter.’