Michael Denison (1915 - 1998)

After graduating, Michael Denison attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where he met Dulcie Gray, a fellow student, who later became his wife in 1939 and his acting partner. They appeared in more than 100 West End productions, together in some 28 plays in London and countless tours of Britain and elsewhere. They […]

William Demarest (1892 - 1983)

William Demarest started in show business working in vaudeville, appearing with his wife as “Demarest and Colette”, then moved on to Broadway. Demarest worked regularly with director Preston Sturges, becoming part of a “stock” troupe of actors that Sturges repeatedly cast in his films. He appeared in ten films written by Sturges, eight of which […]

Afeni Shakur (1947 - 2016)

Afeni Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams; January 10, 1947 – May 3, 2016) was an American music businesswoman, philanthropist, political activist and Black Panther. She was the mother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. She acted as her own criminal defense attorney after being accused of taking part in numerous bombings as a member of […]

Kenny Delmar (1910 - 1984)

Kenny Delmar was born September 5, 1910, in Boston, but moved to New York City in infancy after the separation of his parents. His mother, Evelyn Delmar, was a vaudevillian who toured the country with her sister. Kenny Delmar was on the stage from age seven. His first screen appearance was in the D. W. […]

Albert Dekker (1905 - 1968)

Albert Dekker was born Thomas Albert Ecke Van Dekker in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Thomas and Grace Ecke Van Dekker. He attended Richmond Hill High School where he appeared in stage productions. He then attended Bowdoin College where he majored in pre-med with plans to become a doctor. On the advice of […]

Richard Deacon (1921 - 1984)

This tall, bald and usually bespectacled character actor often portrayed pompous, prissy, and/or imperious figures. Richard Deacon made appearances on The Jack Benny Program as a salesman and a barber, and on NBC’s Happy as a hotel manager. He had a brief role in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds (1963) as Mitch’s (Rod Taylor) neighbor […]

Dennis Day (1916 - 1988)

Dennis Day appeared for the first time on Jack Benny’s radio show on October 8, 1939, taking the place of another famed tenor, Kenny Baker. He remained associated with Benny’s radio and television programs until Benny’s death in 1974. He was introduced (with actress Verna Felton playing his mother) as a young (nineteen-year-old), naive boy […]

Thayer David (1927 - 1978)

Thayer David was born March 4, 1927, in Medford, Massachusetts. His father, Thayer Frye Hersey, was an executive in the paper pulp industry. David attended Harvard University in the 1940s but did not graduate, concentrating instead upon a career on the stage. With financial support from his father, he co-founded the Brattle Theater Company (1948–1952) […]

Bobby Darin (1936 - 1973)

Bobby Darin’s career took off with a songwriting partnership, formed in 1955 with Don Kirshner, who he met at a candy store in Washington Heights. They wrote jingles and songs, beginning with “Bubblegum Pop.”  In 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca had very little success. A member of […]

Severn Darden (1929 - 1995)

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Severn Darden attended the University of Chicago. Darden’s offbeat and intellectual sense of humor, appropriate for someone who attended the University of Chicago and in fact a major element in the style of The Second City at that time, is evident throughout his work. One example of his offbeat humor is […]

Helmut Dantine (1918 - 1982)

Helmut Dantine enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and began his U.S. acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse. He was spotted by a talent scout and signed to a Warner Bros. contract. Dantine spent the early 1940s there, appearing in Casablanca (1942), Edge of Darkness (1943; his first lead role), Northern Pursuit […]

Henry Daniell (1894 - 1963)

In April 1921, Henry Daniell appeared at the Empire Theatre in New York City, as Prince Charles of Vaucluse in Clair de Lune, and subsequently toured for the next three years, reappearing in London at the Garrick Theatre in August 1925 as Jack Race in Cobra. He again went to New York for the first […]

Marcel Dalio (1899 - 1983)

Marcel Dalio was born Israel Moshe Blauschild in Paris to Romanian-Jewish immigrant parents. He performed in cabarets, revues and stage plays in the 1920s and acted in French films in the 1930s. After divorcing his first wife, Jany Holt, he married the young actress Madeleine Lebeau in 1939. In June 1940, Lebeau and Dalio left Paris […]

Keene Curtis (1923 - 2002)

Keene Curtis (February 15, 1923 – October 13, 2002) was an American character actor. Curtis was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Polley Francella (née Holbrook), a teacher, and Ira Charles Curtis, a railway and civil service employee. Curtis made his film debut in the 1948 Orson Welles adaptation of Macbeth. Additional film credits included American […]

Billy Curtis (1909 - 1988)

Billy Curtis, born Luigi Curto, (June 27, 1909 – November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor with dwarfism who had a 50-year career in the entertainment industry. The bulk of his work was in the western and science fiction genres. One of his early roles was uncredited as a Munchkin city father in […]

Alan Curtis (1909 - 1953)

Alan Curtis began his career as a model before becoming an actor, appearing in local newspaper ads. His looks did not go unnoticed in Hollywood. He began appearing in films in the late 1930s (including a Technicolor appearance in the Alice Faye-Don Ameche film Hollywood Cavalcade and a memorable role in High Sierra (1941). He […]

Finlay Currie (1878 - 1968)

Finlay Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television. Currie was born in Edinburgh, where he later attended George Watson’s College. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife, Maude Courtney, did a song-and-dance act in the USA in the late 1890s. He made […]

Joel Crothers (1941 - 1985)

During the 1950s and 1960s, Joel Crothers made guest appearances on numerous primetime shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Defenders, Have Gun – Will Travel, Death Valley Days, Rescue 8, The Investigators, Zane Grey Theater, Studio One, Playhouse 90, Kraft Television Theatre, and Goodyear Playhouse. His later daytime television credits included First Ladies Diaries: Martha […]

Gary Crosby (1933 - 1995)

Gary Crosby was born in Los Angeles and attended Stanford University but dropped out. He fell into the entertainment business, and performed in a harmony singing group, The Crosby Boys, with his three brothers, Philip, Lindsay, and Dennis, during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. As a teenager, he duetted with his father on two songs, […]

Hume Cronyn (1911 - 2003)

Subsequent to graduating from Ridley College, Hume Cronyn switched majors, from pre-law to drama, while attending McGill University, and continued his acting studies thereafter, under Max Reinhardt and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1934, the same year he joined The Lambs,[3] he made his Broadway debut as a janitor in Hipper’s Holiday […]

Richard Cromwell (1910 - 1960)

Richard Cromwell earned $75 per week for his work on Tol’able David. Noah Beery, Sr. and John Carradine co-starred in the film. Later, Cohn signed Cromwell to a multi-year contract based on the strength of his performance and success in his first venture at the box-office. Amidst the flurry of publicity during this period, Cromwell […]

Henry Hathaway (1898 - 1985)

Henry Hathaway made his directorial debut in 1932 with a Western film production, Heritage of the Desert. Based on a Zane Grey novel, Hathaway gave Randolph Scott his first starring role in film that led to a lengthy career for Scott as a cowboy star. Hathaway, too, was a fan of stories of the settling […]

Henry Koster (1905 - 1988)

Henry Koster, who was in the midst of directing a film, had already been the subject of antisemitism, and knew he had to leave. He lost his temper at an SA officer at his bank during lunch hour, and knocked the officer out. He went directly to the railroad station and left Germany for France, […]

Victor Mature (1913 - 1999)

Victor Mature went to study and act at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. For three years he lived in a tent and was spotted by an agent for Hal Roach while acting in To Quito and Back. This led to a contract with Roach, who cast him in a small role in The Housekeeper’s Daughter, then […]

Laird Cregar (1913 - 1944)

Laird Cregar was tested for the second lead in The Letter and made screen tests for MGM and Paramount. The producer and director of Oscar Wilde were reported as preparing an independent company to star Cregar in The Life of Mohammed. He was then tested by 20th Century Fox, who considered him as a replacement […]

Michael Craze (1942 - 1998)

Michael Craze was born in Newquay, Cornwall. He got into acting by chance as, at the age of twelve, he discovered through Boy Scout Gang Shows that he had a perfect boy soprano voice. This led him to win parts in The King and I and Plain and Fancy, both at Drury Lane, and Damn […]

Broderick Crawford (1911 - 1986)

Broderick Crawford returned to vaudeville and radio, which included a period with the Marx Brothers on the radio comedy show Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel. He played his first serious character as a footballer in She Loves Me Not at the Adelphi Theatre, London in 1932. Crawford was originally stereotyped as a fast-talking tough guy early […]

Fred Crane (1918 - 2008)

Fred Crane was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1918. Along with his brothers John and Harry, he grew up on General Pershing St. and went to the MacDonough #13 and Alsace Fortier schools. His father was a dentist, whose father and grandfather also were dentists. Fred was to break the trend, getting into acting […]

Buster Crabbe (1908 - 1983)

Raised in Hawaii, Buster Crabbe graduated from the Punahou School in Honolulu. He competed in two Olympic Games as a swimmer. In 1928 he won the bronze medal for the 1,500 meters freestyle, and in 1932 he won the gold medal for the 400 meters freestyle when he beat Jean Taris of France by a […]

Wally Cox (1924 - 1973)

In 1949, Wally Cox appeared on the CBS network-radio show Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, to the great amusement of host Godfrey. The first half of his act was a monologue in a slangy, almost-mumbled punk-kid characterization, telling listeners about his friend Dufo: “What a crazy guy.” The gullible oaf Dufo would take any dares and […]