Lyda Roberti (1906 - 1938)

Born in Warsaw, then part of Imperial Russia, Lyda Roberti was the daughter of a German father and a Polish mother. Her father was a professional clown. As a child she performed in the circus as a trapeze artist, and was a vaudeville singer. As her family toured Europe and Asia, Roberti’s mother left her […]

Lyda Roberti Ernst (1912 - 1938)

Actress. Born in Warsaw, Poland, she was the daughter of Roberti, the renowned Continental circus clown. In the early 1920s, she made her debut in San Francisco as a vaudeville chorus girl and as a stage dancer and a singer in Los Angeles. By the 1930s, she was a popular performer on Broadway, was signed […]

Lyda Southard (1892 - 1958)

Lyda Southard was born on October 16, 1892 in Keytesville, Missouri, sixty miles northeast of Kansas City and in the central flatlands of Missouri. Lyda Southard married Robert Dooley on March 17, 1912. The couple settled with his brother Ed Dooley on a ranch in Twin Falls, Idaho and had a daughter, Lorraine, in 1914. In […]

Lydia Bruce (1931 - 2008)

American Actress and Dancer. Born Lydia Slubowski, she began studying dance in her preteens and by her mid-teens, was invited by George Balanchine to join his junior dance company. As a young adult, she moved to Chicago to study acting at Loyola and at the Goodman Theater. After appearing in several stage productions, she moved […]

Lydia Estes Pinkham (1819 - 1883)

Manufacturer of Home Remedy Medicine. Her motives were somewhat self-serving, but she is admired by many modern-day feminists for distributing information on women’s reproductive issues and is considered to be a crusader for women’s health issues in a time when women were ill-served by the medical profession. She was born Lydia Estes in Lynn, Massachusetts, […]

Lydia Maria Francis Child (1802 - 1880)

Author. A native of Medford, Massachusetts, she wrote over fifty books, edited periodicals and wrote many poems during her lifetime. Her most popular book was “The Frugal Housewife” which had thirty-three editions and her most famous poem was the Thanksgiving classic “Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandfather’s House We Go”. In addition […]

Lyle B. Chapman (1890 - 1966)

Law Enforcement Figure. He was one of the original members of Elliot Ness’ “The Untouchables.” A 1910 Colgate College football player and a World War I United States Army officer,  and being known to be a gifted investigator and physically strong, he was one of the first nine agents that Ness selected for his team, […]

Lyle Barton (1889 - 1971)

Actress. Appeared in motion pictures from the 1920s to the 1940s. Also known as Lyle Tayo, she appeared in several “Our Gang” comedies in the early 1930s, usually playing a mother or aunt to one of the kids. She worked with comedy legends Laurel and Hardy in some of their films, as well. Her grave […]

Lyle Bettger (1915 - 2003)

Born in Philadelphia, the son of Frank Bettger, an infielder for the St Louis Cardinals. He left school in his late teens with the ambition of becoming an actor. Bettger graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. His theatrical debut was in Brother Rat at the Biltmore Theatre in New York […]

Lyle Martin Alzado (1949 - 1992)

Professional Football Player. He played for the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Raiders. A true defensive standout for the Broncos, he was the first Yankton (South Dakota) College player ever drafted by the NFL and was a two-time All-Conference pick. From those humble beginnings, his combination of quickness and strength provided him with […]

Lyle S. Bettger (1915 - 2003)

Actor. Bettger is best remembered for his roles in the television shows, “The Court Of Last Resort” as ‘Sam Larsen’ from 1957 to 1958, and “The Grand Jury” in 1959 as ‘Henry Driscoll.’ He also appeared in over 31 films from 1950 to 1980 including, “No Man Of Her Own” (1950), “Hurricane Smith” (1952), “Destry” […]

Lyle Wheeler (1905 - 1990)

Lyle Reynolds Wheeler (February 2, 1905 – January 10, 1990) was an American motion picture art director. He received five Academy Awards — for Gone with the Wind (1939), Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The Robe (1953), The King and I (1956) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). Lyle Wheeler studied at the […]

Lyman Bostock (1950 - 1978)

Lyman Bostock’s minor league stops were in Charlotte in 1972, Orlando in 1973, and Tacoma in 1974. His batting averages for those years were .294, .313, and .333, respectively. He was promoted to the major leagues in April 1975, and batted .282 in 98 games for Minnesota (and .391 in 22 games for the AAA […]

Lyman Cornelius Smith (1850 - 1910)

Inventor, Businessman. Smith made his first fortune in the livestock commission business, capitalizing on the westward movement. In 1887 he began manufacturing breech-loading firearms. Rights to the L.C. Smith shotgun were sold to Hunter Arms Company in 1889 which continued to manufacture it until 1945 when the business was sold to Martin Firearms Company. On […]

Lyman S. Ayres (1824 - 1896)

Businessman. Founded L.S. Ayres.  Family links:  Spouse:  Maria Helen Murray Ayres (1837 – 1911)*  Children:  Frederic Murray Ayres (1872 – 1940)*  Katherine Ayres Smitheram (1880 – 1949)* *Calculated relationship

Lynda Lyon Block (1948 - 2002)

Lynda Cheryle Lyon was born February 8, 1948, in Orlando, Florida, to Francis (Frank) Stephen Lyon and Berylene Elisabeth Owen. Lynda, and her sister Denyce (born 1952), lost their father when she was 10, when he died of heart failure. Lynda and her mother were never close, and Block claimed that her mother was both […]

Lyndon Brook (1926 - 2004)

Actor. The son of actor Clive Brook, he appeared in films such as “The Purple Rain” (1954), “Reach for the Sky” (1956), “Song Without End” (1960) and “The Hireling” (1973). He also is remembered for television series as “Churchill and the Generals” (1979) and “I, Claudius” (1976) as Silanus. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Lynn Anderson (1947 - 2015)

Lynn Anderson Anderson was born September 26th, 1947, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to songwriters Casey and Liz Anderson, the latter of whom was a recording artist and writer, penning Merle Haggard’s “I Am a Lonesome Fugitive” and “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers.” Raised in Fair Oaks, California, Anderson frequently entered horse shows as […]

Lynn Baggett (1924 - 1960)

Actress. Stage and screen figure and writer. Married to movie producer Sam Spiegel. (bio by: A.J. Marik)  Family links:  Spouse:  Samuel P Spiegel (1901 – 1985)* *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Overdose of sleeping pills

Lynn Bari (1913 - 1989)

Actress. She is remembered for her portray of sultry, statuesque man-killers in over 100 20th Century Fox films from the early 1930s through the 1940s. During World War II, she was a favorite American soldier’s pin-up girl with names like “The Woo Woo Girl” and “The Girl with the Million Dollar Figure.” Her film and […]

Lynn Bogue Hunt (1877 - 1960)

Artist. He specialized in 20th Century national wildlife painting published in periodicals. His paintings and illustrations of ducks, hunters, charging elephants, fish, and other wildlife appeared on the covers of ‘Field and Stream” magazine, beginning in August, 1904 and lasting through the 1940s. His work also appeared on the covers of such publications as the […]

Lynn Borden (1937 - 2015)

Born Lynn Freyse in Detroit, Michigan to Bill (1898–1969) and Evelyn S. Freyse (1908–2003), her family moved to Cleveland, Ohio and later Tucson, Arizona, in hopes of coping with her mother’s health needs, which required a warm, dry climate. She had a brother, Steve. Lynn’s father, a Detroit native, was a cartoonist who drew the […]

Lynn Cartwright (1927 - 2004)

Actress. Born in McAlester, Oklahoma, she was a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Art, best known for her role as the older Dottie in the film “A League of Their Own” (1992). Her other film credits included “Black Patch” (1957), “The Wasp Woman” (1959), “All the Loving Couples” (1969), “The Seniors” (1978), “Love […]

Lynn Castile (1897 - 1977)

Actress. Appeared in Vaudeville, on stage, and in occasional B-movies . (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Lynn Fontanne (1887 - 1983)

Actress. She was born Lillie Louise Fontanne to Jules Pierre Antoine Fontanne and Frances Ellen Fontanne. She was once described as “one of the two most gifted comic actors” and the other was her husband Alfred Lunt. While attending a play in her hometown at the age of 10, she decided that she was going […]

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. […]

Lynn Redgrave (1943 - 2010)

Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, to actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson. Her sister is actress Vanessa Redgrave; her brother was actor and political activist Corin Redgrave. She was the aunt of writer/director Carlo Gabriel Nero and actresses Joely Richardson, Jemma Redgrave and Natasha Richardson and the sister in law of the director […]

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 […]

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 […]

Lynn Taitt (1934 - 2010)

Born Nerlynn Taitt, in San Fernando, Trinidad, he got his start as a musician playing in local steel drum bands, before taking up the guitar aged 14. He formed his own band, which was booked by Byron Lee to perform at the 1962 independence celebrations in Jamaica. Lynn Taitt decided to stay in Jamaica, living […]