Ward Kimball (1914 - 2002)

While Ward Kimball was a brilliant draftsman, he preferred to work on comical characters rather than realistic human designs. Animating came easily to him and he was constantly looking to do things differently. Because of this, Walt Disney called Ward a genius in the book The Story of Walt Disney. While there were many talented […]

Wolfgang Reitherman (1909 - 1985)

Wolfgang Reitherman began working for Disney in 1934, along with future Disney legends Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl. The three worked together on a number of classic Disney shorts, including The Band Concert, Music Land, and Elmer Elephant and in all, Reitherman worked on various Disney feature films produced from 1937 to 1981, including Snow […]

Ralph Wright (1908 - 1983)

Ralph Wright (May 17, 1908 – December 31, 1983) was a Disney animator and story/storyboard writer who provided the gloomy, sullen voice of Eeyore from the popular Winnie-the-Pooh franchise. Ralph Wright came to the studio in the 1940s, and became well known throughout the ensuing decades for his endearingly gloomy and sullen personality traits as well […]

Marvin Miller (1913 - 1985)

Marvin Miller was born Marvin Mueller in St. Louis, Miller graduated from Washington University before commencing his career in radio. When a singer named Marvin Miller debuted on another St. Louis radio station, he began using his middle initial to distinguish himself from the newcomer. For the Mutual Broadcasting System, he narrated a daily 15-minute […]

Roy Huggins (1914 - 2002)

Roy Huggins was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1935-41. After graduation, he worked as a special representative of the U.S. Civil Service, 1941-43, and later as an industrial engineer, 1943-46. Huggins’ novels include The Double Take (1946), Too Late for Tears (1947), and Lovely Lady, Pity Me (1949). When Columbia Pictures purchased the rights […]

Quinn Martin (1922 - 1987)

Quinn Martin was born on May 22, 1922 in New York City as Irwin Martin Cohn, the second of two children. His father Martin Goodman Cohn was a film editor and producer at MGM; his mother was Anna Messing Cohn. From age four he was raised in Los Angeles. He graduated from Fairfax High School. […]

Richard Hatch (1945 - 2017)

Richard Hatch was born on May 21, 1945 in Santa Monica, California. While in high school, he’d been aspiring to become an athlete in pole vaulting, and only had a passing interest in acting, as he considered himself too shy and insecure. The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, while Hatch had just started college, […]

Candy Johnson (1944 - 2012)

Candy Johnson (February 8, 1944 – October 21, 2012) was an American singer and dancer who appeared in several films in the 1960s. She was born Victoria Jean Hulstead in Los Angeles, California, and graduated from San Gabriel High School. Her most notable films are the American International Pictures Beach Party films, in which she played […]

Harvey Lembeck (1923 - 1982)

Two weeks after graduation, Harvey Lembeck won the key role of Sam Insigna in Mister Roberts, which he played on Broadway for nearly three years, winning runner-up honors to James Whitmore as New York’s best new actor of 1948. Lembeck made three movies for 20th Century Fox, You’re in the Navy Now, Fourteen Hours, and The […]

James Nicholson (1916 - 1972)

As a child, James Nicholson developed a love of movies, especially fantasy and science fiction films. While in high school, he joined a science fiction fan club, where he met Forrest J Ackerman. The two produced a fantasy fanzine together. Years later, Ackerman’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland would heavily promote AIP’s movies. Nicholson’s first work […]

John Kerr (1931 - 2013)

John Kerr’s first television acting role was in 1954 on NBC’s Justice as a basketball player who believes that gamblers have ruined his success on the court. His mother appeared with him on the series, which focuses on the cases of attorneys with the Legal Aid Society of New York. John Kerr made The Cobweb for […]

Gower Champion (1919 - 1980)

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Gower Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion met Marjorie Belcher, who became his new partner, and the two were married in 1947. In the early 1950s, Marge and Gower Champion made seven film […]

Joshua Logan (1908 - 1988)

Joshua Logan began his Broadway career as an actor in Carry Nation in 1932. He then spent time in London, where he “stag[ed] two productions … and direct[ed] a touring revival of Camille”. He also worked as an assistant stage manager. After a short time in Hollywood, Logan directed On Borrowed Time on Broadway. The […]

Max Showalter (1917 - 2000)

Max Showalter was born in Caldwell, Kansas, the son of Elma Roxanna (Dodson) Showalter (1889-1953), a music teacher, and Ira Edward Showalter (1887-1953), who worked in the oil industry and was also a banker and farmer. He developed a desire for acting as a toddler while accompanying his mother to local theatres where she played […]

Richard Quine (1920 - 1989)

Born in Detroit,  Richard Quine’s father was an actor. Quine’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was six years old. As a child, he began working as a radio actor and became a minor radio star. He then appeared in vaudeville before moving on to stage roles. He made his film debut in the […]

Fran Jeffries (1937 - 2016)

Frances Makris “Fran” Jeffries (May 18, 1937 – December 15, 2016) was an American singer, dancer, actress, and model. Fran Jeffries appeared in the 1963 film The Pink Panther, in which she sang “Meglio Stasera (It Had Better Be Tonight)” while dancing provocatively around a fireplace. She sang the opening song “Shadows of Paris” in the […]

Irwin Corey (1914 - 2017)

In 1938 Irwin Corey returned to New York, where he got a job writing and performing in Pins and Needles, a musical comedy revue about a union organizer in the “garment district”. He claims he was fired from this job for his union organizing activities. Five years later he was working in New Faces of […]

Bob Clayton (1922 - 1979)

Bob Clayton (August 17, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia – November 1, 1979 in New York City) was an American television game show announcer and host of several shows. He spent his early television career hosting shows in Miami, Florida before moving to New York in the 1960s. After his first national hosting job on the game […]

Amedeo Nazzari (1907 - 1979)

Amedeo Nazzari was born as Amedeo Carlo Leone Buffa in Cagliari, Sardinia in 1907 and he later adopted as his professional name the name of his maternal grandfather, Amedeo Nazzari, a person who had been the President of the Court of Appeal of Vicenza in Venetia and later took the same position in Cagliari. Although […]

Silvana Pampanini (1925 - 2016)

Silvana Pampanini (25 September 1925 – 6 January 2016) was an Italian film actress and director. She took part in the Miss Italy contest in 1946 and the following year she started her movie career. Pampanini was wrongly reported as Miss Rome of 1947. A caption in a 1952 newspaper said, “She is considered Italy’s all-time […]

Renato Rascel (1912 - 1991)

Renato Rascel was born to Cesare and Paola Ranucci in Turin (he always regretted not to be born in Rome) where his parents, who were opera singers were performing a show. Renato could really say that he was born in the back stage of the theater and that’s where he spent all of his life. […]

Delia Scala (1929 - 2004)

Delia Scala (25 September 1929 – 15 January 2004) was an Italian ballerina and actress. Born Odette Bedogni in Bracciano, Lazio, Italy, as a young girl the family moved to Milan where she studied ballet at “La Scala” Ballet School for seven years. She performed in numerous ballets until World War II, after which she began […]

Eugenio Castellotti (1930 - 1957)

Eugenio Castellotti was born in Lodi, Italy. He acquired a Ferrari at the age of twenty, from a local benefactor, and began racing sports cars in 1952. That year he won the Portuguese Grand Prix, was third at Bari and second at Monaco which was run that year for sports cars. In 1953 he won […]

Richie Ginther (1930 - 1989)

Richie Ginther made his F1 debut at the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix driving for Ferrari who he stayed with through 1961. In the September 1960 Italian Grand Prix in Monza he placed second to Phil Hill. Ginther led from the start until the 25th lap when Hill passed him and led until the finish. Following the […]

Phil Hill (1927 - 2008)

Born in Miami, Florida, Phil Hill was raised in Santa Monica, California, where he lived until his death. He studied business administration at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1947, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Hill left early to pursue auto racing, working as a mechanic on other […]

Graham Hill (1929 - 1975)

Graham Hill did not pass his driving test until he was 24 years old, and he himself described his first car as “A wreck. A budding racing driver should own such a car, as it teaches delicacy, poise and anticipation, mostly the latter I think!”[citation needed] He had been interested in motorcycles but in 1954 […]

Carlos Pace (1944 - 1977)

Carlos Pace was a contemporary of the Fittipaldi brothers, Wilson and Emerson, and began racing in Brazil in the late 1960s. He travelled to Europe in 1970 and competed in British Formula 3, winning the Forward Trust championship in a Lotus car. In 1971 he moved up to Formula Two with Frank Williams, but did […]

Roger Williamson (1948 - 1973)

Roger Williamson was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. He won the 1971 and 1972 British Formula 3 Championship titles. In 1973, he was offered a drive in the March Engineering works Formula One team. This was after testing for the BRM team and being advised not to take the drive. After his Formula One debut at the […]

Tony Brise (1952 - 1975)

Tony Brise was born in Erith, Kent, the son of John Brise, a pig farmer and racing driver, who won the World Stock Car Championship on three occasions. Both Tony and his brother Tim showed an interest in go-karting at a young age, and John Brise gave up his hobby to support them fully. Tony Brise […]

Frank Pellegrino (1944 - 2017)

Frank Joseph Pellegrino (May 19, 1944 – January 31, 2017) was an American actor and restaurateur. Born in East Harlem, Frank Pellegrino has often acted in law and gangster-themed film and television productions. He was a member of an early 1960s singing group called the Holidaes. Notable acting roles include Johnny Dio in Goodfellas, assorted appearances […]