Sue Randall (1935 - 1984)

Philadelphia-born Sue Randall’s debut on the small screen came in the 1955 episode “Golden Victory” of the series Star Tonight. She later appeared as one of the employees in the Reference Department in the 1957 film Desk Set with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. She was cast in the ABC western series The Rebel as […]

Rebel Randall (1922 - 2010)

Rebel Randall (born Alaine Charlotte Dorothy Brandes (January 22, 1922 – July 22, 2010), was an American film actress and radio personality. She appeared in approximately 50 films between 1940 and 1956. She was a popular G.I. pin-up girl during the 1940s and did several layouts, including one for Esquire magazine. She did a stint as […]

Franca Rame (1929 - 2013)

Franca Rame was born in Parabiago, Lombardy, in 1929, into a family with a long theatre tradition. She made her theatrical debut in 1951. Shortly thereafter, she met Dario Fo, whom she married in 1954. Their son, Jacopo was born on 31 March 1955. In 1958, she co-founded the Dario Fo–Franca Rame Theatre Company in […]

Marjorie Rambeau (1889 - 1970)

Marjorie Rambeau was born in San Francisco to Marcel and Lilian Garlinda (née Kindelberger) Rambeau. Her parents separated when she was a child. She and her mother went to Nome, Alaska where young Marjorie dressed as a boy, sang and played the banjo in saloons and music halls. Her mother insisted she dress as a […]

Vera Ralston (1919 - 2003)

Vera Ralston was born Věra Helena Hrubá to a wealthy jeweler in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her age was uncertain; Ralston at various times gave 1919, 1920, 1921, and 1923 as her year of birth. Her brother was Rudy Ralston, who later became a film producer in the United States. As a figure skater, she represented Czechoslovakia in […]

Marcia Ralston (1906 - 1988)

Marcia Ralston (19 September 1906 – 23 November 1988) was an Australian born actress who appeared in Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. She was married to Phil Harris between 1927 and 1940. Born Marie Mascotte Ralston, her father was well known Australian singer and actor John Ralston. She attended Bethlehem College, Ashfield and won […]

Jobyna Ralston (1899 - 1967)

Jobyna Ralston was born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland. Ralston’s mother, a portrait photographer, carefully groomed her daughter for a show business career. At the age of nine she gave her first stage performance as Cinderella during the grand […]

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 […]

Ella Raines (1920 - 1988)

Ella Raines born Ella Wallace Raubes near Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, Ella Raines studied drama at the University of Washington and was appearing in a play there when she was seen by Howard Hawks. She became the first actor signed to the new production company he had formed with the actor Charles Boyer, “B-H Productions”, and […]

Mady Rahl (1915 - 2009)

Mady Rahl (January 3, 1915 – August 29, 2009) was a German stage and film actress.  In a career stretching over 70 years she appeared in around 120 German movies but was for a time tainted by her association with the Nazi High Command. Born Edith Gertrud Meta Raschke in Neukölln, now part of Berlin, Rahl […]

Deborah Raffin (1953 - 2012)

Deborah Raffin appeared in several 1970s Hollywood films. She co-starred with Joseph Bottoms in the Gregory Peck-produced film The Dove (1974). Her 1976 television movie Nightmare in Badham County became a theatrical hit in mainland China, making Raffin a star there and leading to her later becoming the first Western actress ever to undertake a […]

Mae Questel (1908 - 1998)

Mae Questel was born as Mae Kwestel in the Bronx New York City to Simon and Freida Kwestel, she attended Morris High School and studied acting at the American Theatre Wing and with the Theatre Guild. Although she wanted to be an entertainer, her parents, who were Orthodox Jews, actively discouraged her from doing so, […]

Edna Purviance (1895 - 1958)

Edna Purviance was born in Paradise Valley, Nevada, to Louis and Madison Gates Purviance. When she was three, the family moved to Lovelock, Nevada, where they assumed ownership of a hotel. Her parents divorced in 1902, and her mother later married Robert Nurnberger, a German plumber. Growing up, Purviance was a talented pianist. She left Lovelock […]

Irene Purcell (1896 - 1972)

Irene Purcell appeared opposite William Haines in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s romantic comedy film Just a Gigolo (1931), directed by Jack Conway and adapted from the 1930 play Dancing Partner, by David Belasco. The same year, she played the lead role in Sam Wood’s romantic comedy The Man in Possession, adapted from H. M. Harwood’s play of the […]

Dorothy Provine (1935 - 2010)

Dorothy Provine was born in Deadwood in southwestern South Dakota, to William and Irene Provine. She attended the University of Washington at Seattle, Washington, where she majored in drama. In Washington, she handed out prizes for a quiz program on a local television station until she was hired by Warner Bros. at $500 per week. […]

Yvonne Printemps (1894 - 1977)

Yvonne Printemps was born in Ermont, a northern suburb of Paris, as Yvonne Wigniolle (some sources give Wignolle or Wigniole). Despite the misgivings of what she later described as “my highly bourgeois family”, she made her debut as a performer at the age of 12 in a revue at La Cigale in Paris. The music […]

Josephine Premice (1926 - 2001)

Josephine Premice was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Thelomaine and Lucas Premice. Her parents were part of the Haitian aristocracy who fled Haiti after her father, Lucas Premice, who allegedly had claim to the title Count de Brodequin, was part of a failed rebellion to try to overthrow the dictator of the […]

June Preisser (1920 - 1984)

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, June Preisser was one of six children, and was an underweight baby. Her parents sent her to an athletic club at an early age, in an attempt to build her strength. There she, and her sister Cherry, learned acrobatics. Their mother was keen to have them follow a career in […]

Evelyn Preer (1896 - 1932)

Evelyn Preer began her performance career in early vaudeville and minstrel shows. She changed her surname to Preer. Her first film role was in Oscar Micheaux’s 1919 debut film The Homesteader, when she was 23. Micheaux promoted Preer as his leading actress with a steady tour of personal appearances and a publicity campaign. Her most well-known […]

Hana Pravda (1916 - 2008)

Hana Pravda (born Hana Becková on 29 January 1916 Prague − 22 May 2008 Oxford) was a Czechoslovakian-born British actress. Pravda trained in Leningrad in 1936 under Alexei Dikii.  She made her screen debut as Hana Beck at age seventeen in “Mariika the Unfaithful” (1934), which was soon followed by leading roles in several Czechoslovakian movies. On […]

Phyllis Povah (1893 - 1975)

Phyllis Povah (July 21, 1893 – August 7, 1975) was an American stage and film actress. Povah made her Broadway theatre debut in Mr. Pim Passes By in 1921 and acted in minor roles in several productions over the next two decades. She achieved a notable success in a featured role in the stage production of […]

Nyree Porter (1936 - 2001)

Nyree Porter was born in Napier, New Zealand in 1936. Her first professional work was touring with the New Zealand Players Trust. She was acclaimed for such roles as Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and Juliet in Romanoff and Juliet. She also performed in revues and musicals. She moved to Britain in 1958 after […]

Daphne Pollard (1892 - 1978)

Daphne Pollard (19 October 1892 in Fitzroy, Melbourne – 22 February 1978 in Los Angeles) was an Australian actress in American films, mostly short comedies. She was also a vaudeville performer and dancer. Born Daphne Trott, she joined the Pollard Lilliputian Opera Company at the age of six, having been taken to rehearsals by her older […]

Suzanne Pleshette (1937 - 2008)

Reviewers described her appearance and demeanor as sardonic and her voice as sultry. Suzanne Pleshette began her career as a stage actress. She made her Broadway debut in Meyer Levin’s 1957 play Compulsion, adapted from his novel inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. The following year she performed in the debut of The Cold Wind […]

Alice Playten (1947 - 2011)

Alice Playten (August 28, 1947 – June 25, 2011) was an American actress and singer. Born Alice Plotkin in New York City, Playten began her career in the Broadway musical Gypsy (1959). Her other Broadway credits included Oliver!, Henry, Sweet Henry, Hello, Dolly!, Rumors, Seussical, and Caroline, or Change. Her many off-Broadway credits include Promenade, The Last […]

Louise Platt (1915 - 2003)

Louise Platt (August 3, 1915 – September 6, 2003) was an American theater, film, and TV actress. Platt is best remembered for her role as the officer’s pregnant wife in John Ford’s critically acclaimed Stagecoach (1939). After two years on Broadway, she came to Hollywood in 1938. She returned to the New York stage in 1942 […]

Nova Pilbeam (1919 - 2015)

Nova Pilbeam was born in Wimbledon, London. Her parents were Arnold Pilbeam, an actor and theatre manager, and Margery Stopher Pilbeam. Time magazine reported that the actress, whose first name was an homage to her maternal grandmother from Nova Scotia, opted to keep her birth name, which she considered far less ridiculous than “Myrna Loy” or […]

Lottie Pickford (1893 - 1936)

In 1907, Lottie Pickford adopted the stage name ‘Mary Pickford’. The rest of the family adopted the Pickford name by the time they began appearing in films. Mary signed with D.W. Griffith’s Biograph Company in 1909 and also secured work for her siblings. Between 1909 and 1910, Mary made eighty shorts, Jack made twenty-eight, and Lottie […]

Patricia Phoenix (1923 - 1986)

Patricia Phoenix’s big break came in 1948, when she played Sandy Powell’s wife in the Mancunian Film Studios film Cup-tie Honeymoon, followed by a summer season in Blackpool with Thora Hird in the show Happy Days. Exposure led to more serious work with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. She also […]

Dorothy Phillips (1889 - 1980)

Dorothy Phillips (October 30, 1889 – March 1, 1980) was an American stage and film actress. Born Dorothy Gwendolyn Strible in Baltimore, Phillips began her career as a stage actress. She made her film debut in 1911, and appeared in over 150 films during her career. For a while she was nicknamed “Kid Nazimova” for her […]