Jessie Bonstelle (1970 - 1932)

After the death of her parents in 1890, Jessie Bonstelle went to New York City, and in 1891 she joined the company of Fanny Janauschek, with whom she toured for a season. In 1892 she worked as an understudy and chorus member in Augustin Daly’s company, but the season left her exhausted. However, in 1893 […]

Jessie Brown Kalmar (1892 - 1985)

Vaudeville dancer/entertainer. Married to famed songwriter/screenwriter Bert Kalmar, Sr. (bio by: A.J. Marik)  Family links:  Spouse:  Bert Kalmar (1884 – 1947)*  Children:  Bert Kalmar (1913 – 1997)* *Calculated relationship

Jessie Landis (1896 - 1972)

Jessie Landis (November 25, 1896 – February 2, 1972) was an American actress. Jesse Landis was born Jessie Medbury in Chicago, Illinois, to Paul, an orchestra musician, and Ella Medbury. As per Ancestry.com, “Royce” does not appear to have been her middle name by birth; her middle initial is cited as either “J.” or “T”. […]

Jessie Mae McIntyre Stovall McIntosh (1909 - 1974)

Founder of McIntosh Nursing Home, Inc. Largest Africian-American employer in Muskogee, Oklahoma. (1957 to 1991) Soprano vocalist of the “Song Birds” along with sister, Myrtle Easter Adeline McInyre-Josey, they were known all over the state of Oklahoma and Kansas City, Ks area for their Gospel/Blues singing. Myrtle is listed in Who’s Who’s Kansas City Blues […]

Jessie Mary Jacob (1970 - 1970)

Stained-glass artist.

Jessie Matthews (1907 - 1981)

Jessie Margaret Matthews was born in a flat behind a butcher’s shop at 94 Berwick Street, Soho, London, in relative poverty, the seventh of sixteen children (of whom eleven survived) of a fruit-and-vegetable seller. She took dancing lessons as a child in a room above the local public house at 22 Berwick Street. She went on […]

Jessie Ralph (1864 - 1944)

Jessie Ralph (November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944) was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many classic motion pictures. She was routinely cast as kindly grandmothers, sagacious maids, and stern but loving governesses. She was born Jessie Ralph Chambers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1864. She made her acting debut […]

Jessie Royce Landis (1896 - 1972)

Actress. Made her stage debut at the age of 20 in Chicago before moving to Broadway, and developing a career on the stage and the cinema. She is best known for playing Cary Grant’s mother in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959) although she was about ten months younger than Grant. Also she played the […]

Jester Joseph Hairston (1901 - 2000)

Jesús Blasco (1919 - 1995)

Illustrator. He was born in Barcelona, Catalunya. He is considered to be one of the masters of Spanish comics, making his debut in 1935, when his first illustrations were published in the Spanish version of the magazine “Mickey.” For “Boliche” magazine, he created “Cuto” one of his best-known characters. In the beginning of the 1950s, […]

Jethro (1920 - 1989)

Jethro Kenneth C. Burns (March 10, 1920 – February 4, 1989) was an American country musician, comedian, and mandolin player. He was better known by his stage name Jethro from his years with Henry D. Haynes as part of the comedic musical duo Homer and Jethro beginning in 1936. Burns was born in Conasauga, Tennessee […]

Jetta Goudal (1891 - 1985)

Jetta Goudal was born as Julie Henriette Goudeket in 1891, the daughter of Geertruida (née Warradijn; 1866–1920) and Wolf Mozes Goudeket (1860–1942), a wealthy diamond cutter, in Amsterdam. Her parents were both Jewish, and her father was Orthodox. Tall and regal in appearance, she began her acting career on stage, traveling across Europe with various […]

Jewel Carmen (1897 - 1984)

Born Florence Lavina Quick in Danville, Kentucky, Carmen made her film debut in the 1912 film The Will of Destiny. She went on to appear in Daphne and the Pirate (1916), opposite Lillian Gish and D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916).  In 1917, Carmen contracted with Fox Film Corporation, but finding the deal unsatisfactory opened a […]

Jewel Cobb (1924 - 2017)

Jewel Plummer was born in Chicago on January 17, 1924 as the only child of Frank V. Plummer, and Carriebel (Cole) Plummer. She was the great-granddaughter of a freed slave. Her grandfather was a pharmacist, her father Frank was a physician. Her mother Carriebel was a physical education teacher. Jewel Cobb enjoyed an upper-middle-class background […]

Jheri Redding (1907 - 1998)

Hair-care products guru who introduced the concept of pH balance to shampoo. (bio by: Damien)

Jheryl Busby (1949 - 2008)

Record Executive. He began his career in music as a promotion agent at Stax Records Memphis, Tennessee and in 1984, become the president of the black music division of MCA Records. In 1988, he was named the president and chief executive officer of Motown Records, Los Angeles, serving until 1995. As Motown’s CEO, he helped […]

Jiah Khan (1988 - 2013)

Jiah Khan Nafisa Rizvi Khan (also known as Jiah Khan, 20 February 1988 – 3 June 2013) was a British American actress, model and singer who appeared in Hindi films. She made her film debut in the 2007 Ram Gopal Verma film Nishabd for which she was nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. […]

Jiang Qing (1914 - 1991)

Jiang Qing (Chinese: 江青; Wade–Giles: Chiang Ch’ing, March 19, 1914 – May 14, 1991) was a Chinese actress and a major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She used the stage name Lan Ping (蓝苹) […]

Jill Balcon (1925 - 2009)

Jill Angela Henriette Balcon (3 January 1925 – 18 July 2009) was an English film and radio actress. Jill Balcon made her film debut in Nicholas Nickleby (1947), though she was best known for her stage, television, and radio work. Balcon was born in Westminster, London, the daughter of Aileen Freda Leatherman (1904–1988) and Michael Balcon. […]

Jill Banner (1946 - 1982)

Actress. She is best known for her role as Virginia in the 1964 cult film “Spider Baby”. Born Mary Kathyrn Molumby in Bremerton,  Washington,  she graduated from the Hollywood Professional School in 1964. Her other films include “C’mon Let’s Live a Little”,  “The President’s Analyst”,  “Candy”,  “The Stranger Returns”,  “Shadow Over Elvron”, and “Hunters are […]

Jill Bennett (1931 - 1990)

Actress. Born Nora Noel Jill Bennett in Penang to British parents, she relocated to England and trained at Amersham Repertory in Guilford, and at prestigious drama school RADA; making her stage debut in 1949 at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford upon Avon. Her feature film debut was alongside Rex Harrison in the 1951 movie ‘The […]

Jill Clayburgh (1944 - 2010)

Jill Clayburgh Clayburgh was born in New York City, the daughter of Julia Louise (née Dorr 1910-1975), an actress and theatrical production secretary for producer David Merrick, and Albert Henry “Bill” Clayburgh, a manufacturing executive. Her paternal grandmother was concert and opera singer Alma Lachenbruch Clayburgh.  Clayburgh’s mother was Protestant and her father came from […]

Jill Dando (1961 - 1999)

Jill Dando was born at Ashcombe House Maternity Home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. She was the daughter of Jack Dando (February 1918 – February 2009), who died in Weston-super-Mare on his 91st birthday, and Winifred Mary Jean Dando (August 1928 – January 1986), who died of leukaemia aged 58. Her only sibling, brother Nigel (born 1952), […]

Jill Esmond (1908 - 1990)

Esmond was born Jill Esmond Moore in London, the daughter of stage actors Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore. While her parents toured with theatre companies, Jill Esmond spent her childhood in boarding schools until she decided at the age of 14 to become an actress. She made her stage debut playing Wendy to Gladys […]

Jill Haworth (1945 - 2011)

Haworth was born in Hove, Sussex, to a textile magnate father and a mother who trained as a ballet dancer. She was named Valerie Jill in honour of the day she was born, Victory over Japan Day or V.J. Day. She took ballet lessons at the prestigious Sadler’s Wells Ballet School to escape from an […]

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). […]

Jill Meagher (1983 - 2012)

Gillian “Jill” Meagher was born as Gillian McKeon on 30 October 1982 in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. She spent her early childhood in Termonfeckin village to the north of Drogheda. Jill Meagher first moved to Australia when she was aged 9 when her father, George McKeon, worked in Perth. She spent several years in Perth, in […]

Jillian Kesner (1949 - 2007)

Actress.  Curvy blonde character performer of television and B films.  She is best remembered for her role as Fonzie’s girlfriend Lorraine on the TV sitcom “Happy Days” during its 1976 season. An expert in the field of martial arts, she made her screen debut in the 1976 motion picture “The Student Body.” Her other screen […]

Jilly Rizzo (1917 - 1992)

Ermenigildo “Jilly” Rizzo (May 6, 1917 – May 6, 1992) was an American restaurateur and entertainer. As a young man, Jilly Rizzo worked with his father delivering Italian ice to cafes. Rizzo opened Jilly’s Saloon, a lounge on West 49th Street, then moved to 256 West 52nd Street at the intersection with Eighth Avenue in […]

Jim Backus (1913 - 1970)

Jim Backus James Gilmore Backus was born February 25, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Bratenahl, Ohio, a wealthy village surrounded by greater Cleveland. He was the son of Russell Gould Backus, a mechanical engineer, of Lithuanian origin, and Daisy Gilmore (née Taylor) Backus. Backus attended Shaw High School in East Cleveland, Ohio. Backus […]