Walter Abel (1898 - 1987)

Walter Abel (June 6, 1898 – March 26, 1987) was an American stage and film character actor. Known as a prolific and very dependable character actor, Abel appeared in over 200 films, beginning in the silent film era. Often portraying characters of “responsibility,” (the minister keeping morale up in a war zone in “So Proudly […]

Walter Ackerman (1881 - 1938)

Actor. Born in New York City, he began his career in the theatre and made his debut in the silent film era appearing in “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” (1909). Among his other film credits are “Rugged Waters” (1926), “Man Of The Forest” (1926), “A Flame In The Sky” (1927), “Back To God’s Country” (1927) and […]

Walter Annenberg (1908 - 2002)

Walter Annenberg was born to a Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 13, 1908. He was the only son of Sadie Cecelia née Freedman (1879–1965) and Moses “Moe” Louis Annenberg, who published the Daily Racing Form and purchased The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. Annenberg was a stutterer since childhood.  He had seven sisters, whose […]

Walter Auble (1862 - 1908)

Walter Auble (November 26, 1862 – September 9, 1908) was the police chief in Los Angeles, California, on a one-year appointment from November 1905 to 1906. He was born in 1862 in Illinois and was killed in a shooting on September 9, 1908. He was only the third Los Angeles Police Department officer killed in […]

Walter Augustus Huxman (1887 - 1972)

Governor of Kansas; 1937-1939; federal judge 1939; Federal Judge of Kansas State Supreme Court 1928. (bio by: Tom Denardo)

Walter Benjamin (1892 - 1940)

Walter Benjamin (German: [ˈvaltɐ ˈbɛnjamiːn]; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher and cultural critic. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mysticism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School, […]

Walter Benjamin Ralphs (1854 - 1954)

Supermarket chain executive. Walter B. Ralphs went into business with his older brother, George A. Ralphs, forming Ralphs Brothers Grocers in downtown Los Angeles in 1875. Prior to entering the grocery business, Walter Ralphs operated a ranch in San Bernardino County, California. After George A. Ralphs died in 1914, Walter Ralphs, his two sons, and […]

Walter Benona Sharp (1870 - 1912)

Business Magnate. Born in Tennessee, his mother died when he was eight and his father moved his family to Texas. He and business partner Howard Hughes Sr. Devoloped the Hughes Drill Bit and co-founded The Sharp-Hughes Tool Company. After his death his wife became dusgruntled with the way Howard Hughes Sr. was running the company […]

Walter Berry (1929 - 2000)

Walter Berry (8 April 1929 – 27 October 2000) was an Austrian lyric bass-baritone who enjoyed a prominent career in opera. Walter Berry was born in Vienna. He studied voice at the Vienna Music Academy and made his stage debut with the Vienna State Opera in 1947. He became a permanent member of the company in […]

Walter Besant (1836 - 1901)

Influential social reformer and  also a novelist, sometimes in collaboration with James Rice. Besant also finished Wilkie Collin’s last novel, Blind Love, after the author died. He was knighted in 1895. (bio by: Mark McManus)

Walter Blair (1830 - 1888)

Western Entrepreneur. Born in Vermont, he was a dairy farmer who came to California, during the gold rush in 1850. Un-successful with his gold endeavors, he bought over six hundred acres in the Piedmont hills area. There he built a hotel, amusement park, dairy farm and a rock quarry near the town. He also created […]

Walter Bond (1937 - 1967)

Walter Bond (October 19, 1937 – September 14, 1967) was an American professional baseball player who appeared in six Major League Baseball seasons between 1960 and 1967 for the Cleveland Indians, Houston Colt .45s/Astros and Minnesota Twins. An outfielder and first baseman, he played the last five seasons of his 11-year professional career after being […]

Walter Bonn (1888 - 1953)

Actor. Born in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany as Walter Bohnhoff. He began acting on Broadway in 1932 with the short-running We Are No Longer Children and other plays. The German born actor became busy in Hollywood films of the 1940s, almost always playing Nazis. Known for International Crime in 1938, Cipher Bureau  also in 1938 and […]

Walter Brennan (1894 - 1974)

Walter Brennan In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school plays. He worked some […]

Walter Burke (1908 - 1984)

Actor. Born Walter Lawrence Burke in Brooklyn, New York, he was a prolific performer of stage, film and television. He began his career in the 1920s, performing on Broadway in musicals and dramas. In 1948, he made his film debut in “The Naked City”, followed by “All the Kings Men” (1949). He went on to […]

Walter Burley Griffin (1876 - 1937)

Architect. Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect who was influenced by the Chicago-based Prairie School.  He achieved his greatest professional and public fame and recognition for his role in designing Australia’s capital city, Canberra.  In 1911, the Australian government announced an international competition to design the new capital city, and on […]

Walter Cassebeer (1884 - 1963)

Artist. He graduated Columbia University with a degree in architecture and attended L’ Ecole De Beaux Arts in Paris. He made his living as an architect but became famous as a painter and lithographer, winning the Lilian Fairchild Award in 1932. (bio by: Mount Hope NY)

Walter Catlett (1889 - 1960)

Walter Catlett was born in San Francisco, California. He started out in vaudeville, teaming up with Hobart Cavanaugh at some point, with a detour for a while in opera, before breaking into acting. He started on stage in 1906 and made his Broadway debut in either The Prince of Pilsen (1911) or So Long Letty (1916). […]

Walter Chiari (1924 - 1991)

Born in Verona, Walter Chiari achieved a certain degree of international success in films such as The Little Hut (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1966), and The Valachi Papers (1972). He appeared opposite Anna Magnani in Luchino Visconti’s film Bellissima (1951). In the late 1950s and ’60s he was one of the main protagonists […]

Walter Crane (1845 - 1915)

Artist. One of the most important British artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His first painting at the Royal Academy was “The Lady of Shalott” in 1862. He was most acclaimed for his illustrations and designs, and by 1870 he was established as an illustrator of children’s books and as a ceramic […]

Walter De Maria (1935 - 2013)

De Maria was born in 1935 in Albany, California. His parents were the proprietors of a local restaurant in Albany. Walter De Maria’s first academic interest was music—first piano, then percussion. He also took to sports and cars, of which he made drawings. By 1946 he had joined a musicians’ union.  De Maria studied history […]

Walter Disney (1901 - 1966)

Entertainment Magnate, Motion Pictures Pioneer. Most remembered for creating ‘Mickey Mouse’, ‘Donald Duck’, and a host of other cartoon characters, he was awarded a total of 32 Oscars, more than any other person, for his achievements in films. Born Walter Elias Disney in Chicago, Illinois, his father’s ancestors had come to America from Kilkenny, Ireland, […]

Walter E. Alston (1911 - 1984)

Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Manager. Managed the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers for over 20 seasons. He was a multi-position player during his 13-year minor league playing career, which lasted from 1935 to 1947. He played in the Mid-Atlantic League and International League among others, and, while still a player, managed Portsmouth (Mid-Atlantic […]

Walter E. Bystrom (1893 - 1969)

Actor played one of the Keystone Cops.  Inscription:CALIFORNIASFC US ARMYWORLD WAR

Walter Gilbert (1871 - 1946)

Sculptor. He was the designer of many war memorials. He studied at the Birmingham Municipal Art School and the Royal College of Art before completing his training in Europe. He spent the early years of his career teaching art at Rugby School and at Harrow. In 1898 he founded the Bromsgrove Guild, a highly regarded […]

Walter Gorney (1912 - 2004)

Actor. Gorney is best remembered for his role as ‘Crazy Ralph’ the drunk in the horror films, “Friday The 13TH” (1980), and “Friday The 13TH Part II” (1981). Gorney’s other films include, “Heavy Traffic” (1973), “Cops And Robbers” (1973), “King Kong” (1976), “Day Of The Animals” (1977), “Nunzio” (1978), “Endless Love” (1981), “Trading Places” (1983), […]

Walter Grauman (1922 - 2015)

Walter Grauman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Jacob and Irene Grauman, both children of German immigrants who married after settling in the United States. His father, Jacob Grauman, was president of a film distributing company. In his early years, Grauman lived in Shorewood, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, and later moved to Arizona where he […]

Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969)

Architect,  Educator.  Walter Adolph Gropius was born in Berlin in 1883. He worked and taught in the United States from 1937 until 1969, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1944. Gropius was an early exponent of the international style, defined by glass curtain walls, cubic blocks, and unsupported corners. This became a landmark of modern architecture. […]

Walter Hampden (1880 - 1955)

Walter Hampden died of a stroke and was cremated in 1955. He is best known for his performance as the stages’ Cyrano de Bergerac. He was president of the Players Club from 1928 until 1954.He starred in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and”All This and Heaven Too”. He was survived by his actress wife, Mable […]

Walter Herschel Beech (1891 - 1950)

Aviation Pioneer. He began his career in aviation by building a glider of his own design at age 14. By 1932 he co-founded Beech Aircraft Company with his wife, Olive Ann. His early Beechcrafts set many distance and speed records. During World War II, Beech turned the entire production of his company to defense, producing […]