Audrey Long (1922 - 2014)

Audrey Long was born on April 14, 1922 in Orlando, Florida. She was educated at St. Margaret’s School for Girls in Tappahannock, Virginia, Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, California, and Disputana High School. Her father, C.S. Long, an Episcopal minister was a naturalized American citizen and served as a chaplain with the United […]

Alice Lon (1926 - 1981)

By age 6, Alice Lon was taking lessons in piano, singing, and dancing. When she was 10, she was featured as a singer, earning $20 per week on her own radio program in Henderson, Texas. In her teens, she traveled across Texas, performing in a variety of venues. She attended Kilgore College in Texas and […]

Ella Logan (1913 - 1969)

Ella Logan was born as Georgina Allan in Glasgow in 1910, where she was raised. She began performing under the name Ella Allan as a child. She went on to become a band singer in music halls. At the age of 17 in 1930, she made her debut in the West End of London in Darling! […]

Jeanette Loff (1906 - 1942)

Jeanette Loff (October 9, 1906 – August 4, 1942) was an American motion picture actress and singer. Born Janette Lov was born in Orofino, Idaho. She was the eldest of a family of five children born to Morris and Inga Loff. Her parents were of Norwegian and Danish heritage. Her father was a professional violinist who […]

Doris Lloyd (1896 - 1968)

Doris Lloyd (3 July 1896 – 21 May 1968) was an English stage and screen actress. She went to America to visit a sister already living there. What was supposed to be a visit she made permanent. She spent several years (1916–25) appearing in Broadway plays, notably a number of Ziegfeld Follies editions, and probably spent […]

Margaret Livingston (1895 - 1984)

Margaret Livingston (November 25, 1895 – December 13, 1984) was an American film actress, most notable for her work during the silent film era. She was sometimes credited as Marguerite Livingston or Margaret Livingstone. She remains best known today as “the Woman from the City” in F.W. Murnau’s 1927 masterpiece Sunrise: A Song of Two […]

Ann Little (1891 - 1984)

Ann Little was born Mary Brooks on a ranch near the town of Mount Shasta, California, she began appearing in a traveling stock theater group after graduating high school. After briefly relocating to San Francisco in the early 1910s, she made the transition to films; first appearing in one-reel Western shorts with actor and director […]

Moira Lister (1923 - 2007)

Born in Cape Town to Major James Lister and Margaret (née Hogan), Moira Lister was educated at the Parktown Convent of the Holy Family, Johannesburg. She began her acting career on stage in South Africa and then went on to act in the London theatre at the age of 18. Lister began working in films in […]

Audra Lindley (1918 - 1997)

Born in Los Angeles, California, Audra Lindley was the daughter of show business parents. Her father was Bert Lindley, an actor who played small roles from 1917 through 1937. She got her early start in Hollywood by being a stand-in, which eventually progressed to stunt work, and eventually became a contract player with Warner Brothers. […]

Beatrice Lillie (1894 - 1989)

Beatrice Lillie was born in Toronto to John Lillie and wife Lucie-Ann Shaw. Her father had been a British Army officer in India and later was a Canadian government official. Her mother was a concert singer. Beatrice performed in other Ontario towns as part of a family trio with her mother and older sister, Muriel. […]

Winnie Lightner (1899 - 1971)

Winnie Lightner was born in Greenport, New York, but was raised in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen by her aunt and uncle, Margaret and Andrew Hansen. She had a successful career in vaudeville and finally made it to Broadway, where she performed in George White’s Scandals of 1922, 1923, and 1924, in the musical revue Gay Paree […]

Shari Lewis (1933 - 1998)

In 1952, Shari Lewis and her puppetry won first prize on the CBS television series Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. Lewis then hosted several New York children’s series through the decade. On July 5, 1953 Lewis made her television hosting debut on Facts N’Fun on NBC-owned WRCA-TV. The program was a variety show where she engaged […]

Marcia Lewis (1938 - 2010)

Marcia Lewis was born in Melrose, Massachusetts and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a registered nurse at the The University of Cincinnati Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan) and received her RN from the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing in Cincinnati in 1959. Marcia Lewis made her Broadway debut in the original production of Hello, […]

Mariana Levy (1966 - 2005)

Mariana Levy was born in Mexico City. By the time she turned sixteen in 1982, she participated in her first Televisa soap opera, Vivir Enamorada (“Living in Love”), where she played “Verónica”. Levy took 1983 off, then returned to the small screen in 1984, in a major Televisa hit, Los Años Felices (“The Happy Years”). […]

Ana Lepe (1934 - 2013)

Ana Lepe made her film debut in La justicia del lobo (1952) her first of many films, she then entered and won the Miss Mexico contest.  An early participant in the Miss Universe Pageant, she is remembered as a longtime star of the Mexican big and small screens. In 1955, she filmed in Cuba Una gallega […]

Rosetta LeNoire (1911 - 2002)

As a young girl, Rosetta LeNoire suffered from rickets, which her godfather, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, helped her overcome by teaching her to dance. LeNoire made her acting debut in a 1939 production of The Hot Mikado, starring Robinson, in which she played “Little Maid From School” Peep-Bo. She also appeared onstage, mostly as a singer […]

Andrea Leeds (1914 - 1984)

Andrea Leeds was born Antoinette Lees in Butte, Montana, the daughter of Chas and Lina Lees. Her father was an immigrant from England. She began her film career in 1934 playing bit parts and using her given name. As Andrea Leeds she played her first substantial role in the film Come and Get It (1936) and […]

Jacqueline Logan (1904 - 1983)

Jacqueline Logan traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado for her health. While there she took a course in journalism from Ford Frick, who later became commissioner of Major League Baseball. Setting out to Chicago, Logan found employment dancing in a stage production of a theater. Her family believed she intended to visit an uncle in the […]

Lila Lee (1901 - 1973)

Lila Lee was born Augusta Wilhelmena Fredericka Appel in Union Hill, New Jersey (now part of Union City) into a middle-class family of German immigrants who relocated to New York City when Lila was quite young. Searching for a hobby for their gregarious young daughter, the Appels enrolled Lila in Gus Edwards’ kiddie review shows […]

Dorothy Lee (1911 - 1999)

Dorothy Lee (May 23, 1911 – June 24, 1999) was an American actress and comedian during the 1930s, usually appearing alongside the popular Wheeler & Woolsey comedy team. Born Marjorie Elizabeth Millsap in Los Angeles, she started seeking film roles in 1929, after graduating from high school, but ended up in New York working on the […]

Belinda Lee (1935 - 1961)

Born in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, Belinda Lee was signed to a film contract in 1954 by the Rank Studios after being seen performing as a student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Often cast in demure roles in her early career, she was able to demonstrate her dramatic abilities, however she found more constant […]

Dorothy Layton (1912 - 2009)

Dorothy Layton (August 13, 1912 – June 4, 2009) was an American film actress of the early 1930s. Born as Dorothy Ann Wannenwetsch in Cincinnati, Ohio, Layton was selected as one of the “WAMPAS Baby Stars” for 1932.  In 1929 she went to California for a short visit and ended up staying; soon dating well-connected Hollywood […]

Dilys Laye (1934 - 2009)

From 1950, Dilys Laye appeared in numerous West End revues, including And So to Bed, Intimacy at 8.30, For Amusement Only and High Spirits. In 1954, she played the first Dulcie in The Boy Friend on Broadway alongside Julie Andrews, with whom she shared a Manhattan flat during the run. At this time she dated […]

Priscilla Lawson (1914 - 1958)

Priscilla Lawson (March 8, 1914 – August 27, 1958), born Priscilla Shortridge, was an American actress best known for her role as Princess Aura in the original Flash Gordon serial (1936). Lawson was a professional model by her early twenties and was named Miss Miami Beach in 1935. This gained her a contract with Universal Studios, […]

Rosina Lawrence (1912 - 1997)

Rosina Lawrence (December 30, 1912 – June 23, 1997) was a Canadian-born American actress, singer, and dancer. She was a native of Ottawa, Ontario. Rosina Lawrence had a short-lived but memorable career in the 1930s before she married in 1939 and retired from entertainment. She is best known for portraying Mary Roberts in Laurel and Hardy’s […]

Frances Langford (1913 - 2005)

Frances Langford grew up in the Mulberry, Florida area, a tiny community near Lakeland. She attended Lakeland High School. Langford originally trained as an opera singer. While a young girl she required a tonsillectomy that changed her soprano range to a contralto. As a result, she was forced to change her vocal style to a […]

Hope Lange (1933 - 2003)

Hope Lange began working in television in the 1950s with appearances on Kraft Television Theatre, which caught the eye of a Hollywood producer. Lange came to prominence in her first film role in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, whom she married on April 14, 1956. Murray later said that Monroe grew jealous […]

June Lang (1917 - 2005)

June Lang born Winifred June Vlasek in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Edith and Clarence Vlasek, she originally trained as a dancer in “kiddie revues” and went to Hollywood at the urging of her mother. She made her film debut in 1931 and caught the eye of Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century Fox, gradually securing […]

Jessie Landis (1896 - 1972)

Jessie Landis (November 25, 1896 – February 2, 1972) was an American actress. Jesse Landis was born Jessie Medbury in Chicago, Illinois, to Paul, an orchestra musician, and Ella Medbury. As per Ancestry.com, “Royce” does not appear to have been her middle name by birth; her middle initial is cited as either “J.” or “T”. […]

Elissa Landi (1904 - 1948)

Elissa Landi (December 6, 1904 – October 21, 1948) was an Italian-born actress who was popular in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s. Rumoured to be a descendant of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, she was noted for her aristocratic bearing. Born Elisabeth Marie Christine Kühnelt in Venice, Landi was raised in Austria and educated […]