Sybil Jason (1927 - 2011)

Child Actress. Sometimes known as “Britain’s answer to Shirley Temple”. Born Sybil Jacobson, the daughter of a shoe salesman and the niece of orchestra leader Harry Jacobson, she moved with her family to London at an early age. At five years old, she was performing in London-area clubs, entertaining patrons with her Maurice Chevalier impersonations […]

Sybil Seely (1902 - 1984)

Actress.  Although her Hollywood career was brief,  she is fondly remembered for playing Buster Keaton’s romantic interest in his early starring comedies.  Unlike the helpless women who tended to populate The Great Stoneface’s later films,  Seely was feisty,  playful and sexy,  not to mention spirited enough to take part in the messier (and more dangerous) […]

Sybil Thorndike (1882 - 1976)

Sybil Thorndike was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, to Arthur Thorndike and Agnes Macdonald. Her father was a Canon of Rochester Cathedral. She was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls, and first trained as a classical pianist, making weekly visits to London for music lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her childhood home […]

Sybille Schmitz (1909 - 1955)

Actress.  Born in Duren,  Germany,  she got her first engagement at Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater Berlin in 1927. A year later she made her film debut with “Freie Fahrt”, which won her immediate attention from the critics. Schmitz’s other movies include “Tagebuch einer Verlorenen” (1929), “Vampire” (1932), and  “F.P. 1 antwortet nicht” (1932). Her career […]

Syd Field (1935 - 2013)

Sydney Alvin Field (December 19, 1935 − November 17, 2013) was an American screenwriting guru who wrote several books on the subject of screenwriting. He also conducted workshops and seminars on the subject of producing salable screenplays. Hollywood film producers have increasingly used his ideas on structure as a guideline to a proposed screenplay’s potential. […]

Syd Thrift (1929 - 2006)

  Major League Baseball Executive. In 1949, he began his baseball career as a minor-league pitcher for the New York Yankees. When a injury ended his playing in 1953, he remained in the Yankee system as a scout. From 1957 to 1967, he was scouting supervisor and training instructor for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was […]

Sydney Anderson (1881 - 1948)

Sydney Anderson (September 18, 1881 – October 8, 1948) was a Representative from Minnesota; born in Zumbrota, Minnesota, Goodhue County, Minnesota; attended the common schools; was graduated from high school in 1899; attended Highland Park College, Des Moines, Iowa, and the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1903 […]

Sydney Barton Booth (1873 - 1937)

Actor. He was the son of actor Junius Brutus Booth Jr. and actress Agnes (Rookes) Booth, and the nephew of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. He enjoyed a successful stage career before acting in early silent movies, including “The Three Musketeers” (1911) in which he played D’Artagnon, and “Battle of Trafalgar” (1911). (bio by: Bob […]

Sydney Chaplin (1885 - 1965)

As Charlie was negotiating his Keystone contract, he suggested Sydney Chaplin be asked to join the company, and Syd and his wife Minnie Chaplin arrived in California in October 1914. Syd made a few comedies there, including the “Gussle” comedies, and the feature-length A Submarine Pirate in 1915, which, second to Tillie’s Punctured Romance, was […]

Sydney Greenstreet (1879 - 1954)

Actor. He is probably best remembered for his role in the classic films “The Maltese Falcon” (1941) and “Casablanca” (1942) that also starred Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. Born Sidney Hughes Greenstreet in Sandwich, Kent, England, he was one of eight children whose father was a leather merchant. At the age of 18, he left […]

Sydney Lee (1866 - 1949)

Lee was a painter, a printmaker & an engraver. He was best known for his paintings & prints of mountains, landscaped, town scenes & architectural subjects. He studied art at the Manchester School of Art & later worked in Paris. He was a founding member of the Society of Wood Engravers in 1920. Many of […]

Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865 - 1940)

Artist. Famous for painting and photographing the Alaskan wilderness. Struggling and needing money, he decided in 1904, at the age of 38, to try the hard life of a pioneer prospector and joined the crowd seeking gold and riches in Valdez, Alaska. He painted little in his first years in the territory, instead prospected for […]

Sydney Pollack (1934 - 2008)

Sydney Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 21 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 films or shows, and produced over 44 films. Some of his best known works include Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Way We Were (1973), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Absence […]

Sydney Schanberg (1934 - 2016)

Sydney Schanberg was born in Clinton, Massachusetts, the son of Freda (Feinberg) and Louis Schanberg, a grocery store owner. He studied at Clinton High School in 1951 before receiving a B.A. in Government at Harvard University in 1955. After initially starting Harvard Law, he requested to be moved up the draft list and undertook basic […]

Sydney Tafler (1916 - 1979)

Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor best remembered for numerous appearances in films and on British television from the 1940s to the 1970s. His father was an antiques dealer. After two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he first appeared on stage in London’s West End in […]

Syl Apps (1915 - 1998)

Syl Apps was a strong athlete, six feet tall, weighing 185 pounds, and won the gold medal at the 1934 British Empire Games in the pole vault competition. Two years later he represented Canada at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he placed sixth in the pole vault event. After watching him play football […]

Sylva Koscina (1933 - 1994)

She was born “Silvija Košćina” (Σύλβα Κοσκινού in Greek) to a Greek father, who had a hotel in the “West Coast” section of Split, Croatia and a Polish mother. She may be best-remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul […]

Sylvanus “Syl” Apps (1915 - 1998)

Hall of Fame Professional Hockey Player. A native of Paris, Ontario, Apps played for teams in the National Hockey League (NHL). At 6’00”, and 185lbs, he played the position of Center for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1936 to 1943, and 1945 to 1948. He was the recipient of the Calder Memorial Trophy for 1936 […]

Sylvester H. Roper (1823 - 1896)

Sylvester H. Roper’s father, Merrick, was a cabinetmaker, born 1792 in Sterling, Massachusetts. Merrick came to Francestown, New Hampshire in 1807 and married Sylvester’s mother Susan Fairbanks in 1817. Sylvester had an older brother who was a housepainter, two younger sisters, and a younger brother who became a machinist at the Singer Sewing Machine Manufactory […]

Sylvester Weaver (1908 - 2002)

Weaver was born Sylvester Laflin Weaver, Jr. in Los Angeles, California, the son of Eleanor Isabel (née Dixon) and Sylvester Laflin Weaver. He was of Scottish descent (possibly Clan MacFarlane), as well as of Ulster Scots and early New England ancestry. He was a great-great-grandson of Charles Laflin, a gunpowder manufacturer, who came to America […]

Sylvia Ashley (1904 - 1977)

Sylvia Ashley was born Edith Louisa Sylvia Hawkes in Paddington, London, England, a daughter of Arthur Hawkes and Edith Florence Hyde. (Although she preferred giving her year of birth as 1906, the England and Wales Civil Registration Index, Vol. 1a, Page 26, shows it was recorded during the June quarter of 1904, District of Paddington.) […]

Sylvia Beach (1887 - 1962)

Literary Folk Figure. A noted book-seller, she is remembered as the hub of the ‘Lost Generation’ of Parisian expatriates during the 1920s and 1930s. Born Nancy Woodbridge Beach to a long line of Presbyterian ministers, she chose the name “Sylvia” for reasons of her own, was raised in Baltimore and in New Jersey, moved to […]

Sylvia Browne (1936 - 2013)

Sylvia Browne Browne grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Celeste (née Coil) and William Lee Shoemaker. Her father held several different jobs, working at times in mail delivery, in jewelry sales, and as a vice president of a major freight line. Browne was raised mostly as a Catholic, and was said to […]

Sylvia Celeste Browne (1936 - 2013)

Psychic, Spiritual Medium, Author. Sylvia Celese Browne appeared regularly on television and radio, and hosted an hour-long Internet radio show on Hay House Radio. She was the subject of frequent criticism for making psychic predictions that were later proven false. She was the author of dozens of books on paranormal and spiritual topics. She discussed […]

Sylvia Coleridge (1909 - 1986)

British Actress. She was born in Darjeeling, India and died in London, England. Film and television credits include “Bleak House,” “Tess,” “Rebecca,” “Henry VIII,” “Jude the Obscure,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV,” “Rumpole of the Bailey,” “Coronation Street,” “The Onedin Line,” “Dixon of Dock Green,” “Doctor […]

Sylvia Field (1901 - 1998)

Born Harriet Louisa Johnson in Allston, Massachusetts, she attended Arlington High School in Arlington, Massachusetts. Field began her acting career on the stage. She made her Broadway debut at age 17 in 1918 in The Betrothal (1918). After appearing in various stage productions, Field made her film debut in the 1928 drama The Home Girl. Sylvia […]

Sylvia Froos (1914 - 2004)

Actress, Singer. Originally known as “Baby Sylvia” she is best remembered as a child star who sang on radio broadcasts in the early 1920s. She was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York and was raised in the Bronx. When she was 7, her mother signed her up in a juvenile vaudeville troupe called […]

Sylvia Kristel (1952 - 2012)

Sylvia Kristel was born in Utrecht, Netherlands, the elder daughter of an innkeeper, Jean-Nicholas Kristel, and his wife Pietje Hendrika Lamme. In her 2006 autobiography, Nue, she stated that she was sexually abused by an elderly hotel guest when she was nine years old, an experience she otherwise refused to discuss. Her parents divorced when […]

Sylvia Lopez (1933 - 1959)

Actress. Born in Paris, France. Died from Leukemia. Appeared in “Figlio Del Corsaro Rosso Il” (Son of the Red Corsair) (1958) co-starring Lex Barker, “Erode il Grande (Herod the Great)” (1960), “Ercole e la regina di Lidia (Hercules and the Queen of Lydia)” (1959), and “Moralista(The Moralist)” (1959).

Sylvia Moy (1938 - 2017)

Born and brought up on the northeast side of Detroit, Sylvia Moy studied and performed jazz and classical music at Northern High School, before she was seen performing in a club in 1963 by Marvin Gaye and Mickey Stevenson. She was given recording and songwriting contracts by Motown, but was urged to prioritize her songwriting […]