Nonna Viktorovna Mordyukova (1925 - 2008)

Actress. She was considered one of Russia’s top cinema stars, appearing in over 60 films spanning a 50 year screen career. She made her screen debut at age 23 in the 1948 motion picture “The Young Guard.” She was the recipient of several Soviet state awards, and was named as the people’s actress in 1974. […]

Frank Swift Chase (1886 - 1958)

Artist.  He is remembered as a Post-Impressionist landscape painter and a founder of the Woodstock Artists Association in Woodstock, New York, and the Sarasota School of Art.  He grew up in modest comfort in Bauxite, Arkansas, where he attended public schools and while possessing mathematical skills, he did not attend college but worked as an […]

Lynn Russell Chadwick (1914 - 2004)

Artist. He was awarded the C.B.E.(Commander of the British Empire) in 1964 for his services to the arts. He was a British sculptor whose expressionistic, figurative works in welded iron and bronze. He died at home in Lypiatt Park in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England at 88 years old. He studied at Merchant Taylors’ School. He worked […]

Leora Middleton (1888 - 1945)

Actress. Born Leora Spellmeyer in Bonne Terre, Missouri, she began her career in vaudeville where she met and married actor Charles Middleton. Using the stage name Laura Spellman, she performed in live theatre with her husband and they made their debut together in the silent film, “Wits vs. Wits” (1920). She continued working primarily on […]

Rose Michtom (1897 - 1986)

American Actress.  Michtom began her career as an actress late in life. Leonard B. Stern, the producer of ‘Get Smart’, was her nephew, and her first acting roles were as an extra in that series from 1965 through 1970. She specialized in the role of the ‘little old lady’ and appeared on television in such […]

Inge Meysel (1910 - 2004)

German Television and Screen Actress. She was one of the  most beloved television actresses in Germany. She was nicknamed “the mother of the nation”. She leaved Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, because his father was jewish. Among others, she appeared in TV series such as “Die Zeit und die Conways,” “Engel Schau Heinwärts,” “Gertrud […]

Eve Turner “Eve” Meyer (1928 - 1977)

Actress, Producer, Model. Wife of   Russ Meyer. She was Playboy Playmate of the Month for June 1955. She produced the films, “Blacksnake!” (1973), “The Seven Minutes” (1971), “Cherry, Harry & Raquel!” (1970), “Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls” (1970), “Vixen!” (1968), “Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers” (1968), “Good Morning…And Goodbye!” (1967), “Common Law Cabin” (1967), […]

Dorothy Meyer (1924 - 1987)

Actress, Model and an African American Rights Activist. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to a Presbyterian minister. Her stage began at a young age, preforming on the Bible Belt where she appeared singing and acting in several religious themed productions. While World War II was going on, she worked as a typist and secretary in a […]

Gertrude Messinger (1911 - 1995)

American Actress. Born in Spokane, Washington, Gertie began acting as a child, following cousin, actress Mary Kornman, playing roles in silent films. As an adult, she became a prolific actress in many B movies. Between 1934 and 1935, she starred in arguably her biggest movies, with parts in the film Anne of Green Gables with […]

Theresa Merritt (1922 - 1998)

Lynn Merrick (1919 - 2007)

Actress. A sultry blonde, blue-eyed glamour girl of the 1940s, she appeared in over 40 films during that era. Born Marilyn Llewelling, she was one of 13 women selected in 1940 by the Motion Picture Publicists Association as a “Baby Star”, a selection process which was meant to highlight the most promising new film stars. […]

Nina Mae McKinney (1912 - 1967)

Actress. Born Nannie Mayme McKinney to Hal and Georgia McKinney in Lancaster, South Carolina; her parents moved to New York in search of better opportunities leaving her to be raised by a great aunt, Carrie Sanders. As a child she appeared in plays at the Lancaster Industrial School. At twelve, her parents sent for her […]

Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942)

Actress.  Born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, one of three children, her parents separated and with her mother she moved to California.  Her career spanned from the silent era to “talkies.”  An auto accident almost ended her life as well as acting by inflicting serious scars on her face.  Undaunted, she was able […]

Viveca Lindfors (1920 - 1995)

Actress. Known for roles in “Backstreet Justice,” “Adventures of Don Juan,” “Stargate,” “A Question of Guilt,” and “Natural Enemies.” (bio by: Ron Moody)  Family links:  Spouse:  George Tabori (1914 – 2007)Cause of death: Complications of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Carrie Hamilton (1963 - 2002)

Actress. The daughter of celebrated comedienne, Carol Burnett and of producer Joe Hamilton, she studied music and acting at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and became an actress in 1985, with her role of ‘Kathy’ in the television movie “Love Lives On” (1985).  She would show up in such roles as ‘Reggie Higgins’ in the […]

Sally Anne Golden (1910 - 1982)

Actress. Born in Sally Annazecsky Goldenni in Dresden, Germany, she immigrated as a child with her family to America, settling in Wisconsin. She made appearances in three films “Communion” (1976), “The Wanderers” (1979) and was the oldest cast member in the “Friday the 13th” (1980). She also appeared on the television series “Ryan’s Hope” before […]

Sarah Goldberg (1974 - 2014)

American Actress. Goldberg, who attended Amherst College and graduated in 1996 with a BS in microbiology, decided to pursue her dreams of acting instead. She got her start after appearing as an extra in the 1997 film ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’. Shortly thereafter, she moved to California and appeared in several commercials and television shows, […]

Madeline Lee Lederman Gilford (1923 - 2008)

Actress, Author. A working actress from the age of three, she married the legendary character actor Jack Gilford in 1949 and they remained a vital force in the New York theatre scene until his death in 1990. Like many actors of post-World War II era, both were heavily involved in left-wing politics. She and her […]

Moyra Fraser (1923 - 2009)

Actress. Though best known in her later years as Penny of the BBC hit “As Time Goes By”, her forte was the stage, where she made herself a comedic staple of the West End over a long career. After arriving in England at age one, she took her bow as a singer and dancer with […]

Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)

Artist. The founder of Hudson River School of Art, he was born at Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, England. He was a noted landscape artist who inspired other artists to paint the unspoiled beauty of the natural landscapes about them especially in the Hudson River Valley. He is credited with being the founder of a distinctly American art […]

Joseph Foxcroft Cole (1837 - 1892)

Acclaimed Artist. Apprentice with artist Winslow Homer. Best known for his works of ‘Coast of Normandy’, and ‘The Aberjond’, both can be seen in the Winchesster Library in Massachusetts. (bio by: Laurie)

Nudie Cohn (1902 - 1984)

Famed Western Clothes Designer. Born in Kiev, Russia, as Nuta Kotlyarenko, at age 11, amid pogroms against Jews, he was sent to America with his brother; there he and his wife, Bobbie Nudie Cohn, popularized sequins when the two of them designed and provided glittery sequined and rhinestone-studded suits and costumes to the entertainment industry […]

Émile Cohl (1857 - 1938)

Animation Pioneer.  He was the world’s first filmaker to devote himself exclusively to animation.  In 1908 he amazed Paris movie audiences with his first film,  “Fantasmogorie,”  in which white stick figures cavorted against a black background.  He went on to create some 100 brief cartoons,  drawing and photographing each frame himself.  Cohl introduced the first […]

Matchett Herring Coe (1907 - 1999)

Sculptor.  A US Navy combat veteran of WW II, he attended public schools and college in Louisiana and at South Park College (now Lamar University), TX, majoring in electrical engineering. During 1939-40 he studied sculpture under Carl Mines at Cranbrook Art Academy in Michigan, and has come to be recognized as one of the foremost […]

Jean Cocteau (1889 - 1963)

Poet, painter, writer, and director. Jean Cocteau was born on July 5, 1889, in Maisons-Laffitte, France, a village 12 miles outside Paris, to Georges and Eugénie (née) Lecomte Cocteau. He and his two older siblings were brought up in comfortable household in Paris, where they were introduced to the arts by their parents. Their father, […]

Roland Eli Coate (1890 - 1958)

American Architect.  Coate, who is credited with designing the first Monterey Colonial home in Southern California, first attended Earlham College for two years, then transferred to Cornell University where he earned his degree in architecture in 1914.  After serving in World War I as a 1st Lieutenant with the American Expeditionary Forces, he moved to […]

Frances Faye (1911 - 1991)

Singer, Songwriter, Actress. Born Francis Cohen in Brooklyn, New York, she was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye whom began her career as a cabaret show tune singer and pianist. In the 1930s to 1960s, she recorded dozens of albums to include “Frances Faye”, “Frances Faye Sings Folk Songs”, “Frances Faye Sings the Blues” […]

Anne Bradshaw Clopton (1878 - 1956)

Artist. Anne Bradshaw was born during the summer of 1878 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. She was the first of six children. Her parents were both teachers, and young Anne had a strong desire to learn. When Anne was eleven years old she read in a magazine about a German artist who painted on the webs of […]

Henry Clews, Jr (1876 - 1937)

Noted Artist, Sculptor. Between the years 1903 and 1914, seven exhibitions of Clews paintings and sculptures were held in New York City. In 1918 he bought a medieval fortress located on a promontory overlooking the Cote D’Azur, just west of Cannes, in Southern France and devoted the next 18 years to restoring the castle and […]

Michele Fawdon (1947 - 2011)

Actress. She shall be remembered for her long career on Australian television. Raised in the London suburbs she had stage ambitions from an early age and at 12 entered the Bush Davies Theatrical School in Sussex. Moving to Australia she made her silver screen bow in 1971’s “Stockade” and received her first major notice as […]