Preston Foster (1900 - 1970)

Preston Foster (August 24, 1900 – July 14, 1970), sometimes credited as Preston S. Foster, was an American stage and film actor. He also had a career as a vocalist. Preston Foster entered films in 1929 after acting on Broadway. He was still appearing on Broadway as late as November 1931, in the cast of the […]

William Castle (1914 - 1977)

William Castle was born William Schloss, Jr. in New York City, the son of Saidie (Snellenberg) and William Schloss. His family was Jewish. (“Schloss” is German for “castle”, and Castle later translated his surname into English as his pseudonym.) His mother died when he was nine. When his father followed a year later, he was […]

Richard Dix (1893 - 1949)

Richard Dix was born Ernst Carlton Brimmer on July 18, 1893, in St. Paul, Minnesota. There he was educated, and at the desire of his father, studied to be a surgeon. His obvious acting talent in his school dramatic club led him to leading roles in most of the school plays. At 6′ and 180 […]

George Kaufman (1889 - 1961)

Born to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from high school in 1907 and “tried law school for three months” but grew disenchanted and took on a series of odd jobs, including “selling hatbands”. George Kaufman then began his career as a journalist and drama critic; he was the drama editor for The […]

Edna Ferber (1885 - 1968)

Edna Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. After living in Chicago, Illinois, and Ottumwa, Iowa, at the age of 12 Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly […]

Alan Jay Lerner (1918 - 1986)

Born in New York City, he was the son of Edith Adelson Lerner and Joseph Jay Lerner, whose brother, Samuel Alexander Lerner, was founder and owner of the Lerner Stores, a chain of dress shops. One of Lerner’s cousins was the radio comedian/television game show panelist Henry Morgan. Lerner was educated at Bedales School in […]

Kitty Carlisle (1910 - 2007)

Kitty Carlisle was born as Catherine Conn (Kitty is a nickname for Catherine; the surname was pronounced Cohen) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her family was of German Jewish heritage. Her grandfather, Ben Holtzman, was the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. A Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, Holtzman had been a gunner on the CSS […]

Boris Vian (1920 - 1959)

Boris Vian was born in 1920 into an upper middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville d’Avray (Hauts-de-Seine). His parents were Paul Vian, a young rentier, and Yvonne Ramenez, amateur pianist and harpist. From his father Vian inherited a distrust of the church and the military, as well as a love of the […]

Harold Arlen (1905 - 1986)

Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck, in Buffalo, New York, United States, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned the piano as a youth and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer and moved to New York […]

Moss Hart (1904 - 1961)

Moss Hart was born in New York City and grew up in relative poverty with his English-born Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx and in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. Early on he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, with whom he later lost contact due to a falling out between her and his parents, and […]

Lorenz Hart (1895 - 1943)

Lorenz Hart was born in Harlem, the elder of two sons, to Jewish immigrant parents, Max M. and Frieda (Isenberg) Hart, of German background. His father, a business promoter, sent Hart and his brother to private schools. (His brother, Teddy Hart, also went into theatre and became a musical comedy star. Teddy Hart’s wife, Dorothy […]

George Abbott (1887 - 1995)

George Abbott was born in Forestville, New York to George Burwell Abbott (May 1858 Erie County, New York – February 4, 1942 Hamburg, New York) and Hannah May McLaury (1869 – June 20, 1940 Hamburg, New York). He later moved to the town of Salamanca, which twice elected his father mayor. In 1898, his family […]

Carl Laemmle (1908 - 1979)

Carl Laemmle, Jr., was born on April 28, 1908. He was the son of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures. He had a sister Rosabelle. His mother was Recha Laemmle (née Stern), who died in 1919 when Carl, Jr. was eleven years old. She was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery, in the Glendale section […]

Joseph Mankiewicz (1909 - 1993)

Joseph Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Franz Mankiewicz (died 1941) and Johanna Blumenau, Jewish immigrants from Germany. He had a sister, Erna Mankiewicz (1901–1979), and a brother, Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953), who became a screenwriter. Herman also won an Oscar for co-writing Citizen Kane (1941). At age four, Joseph Mankiewicz moved with his family […]

Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996)

Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Irma and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon after. As a teen, Lew and his mother moved with his step-father and half brother and sister to San Diego, California. Leaving high school before graduating, he started a […]

James Hilton (1900 - 1954)

James Hilton was born in Leigh, Lancashire, England, James Hilton was the son of John Hilton, the headmaster of Chapel End School in Walthamstow. He was educated at The Leys School, Cambridge and then at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first novel, and was also awarded an honours degree in English literature. He wrote […]

Greer Garson (1904 - 1996)

Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904 in Manor Park, East Ham, Essex, the only child of Nina (née Nancy Sophia Greer; died 1958) and George Garson (1865–1906), a commercial clerk in a London importing business. Her father was born in London, to Scottish parents, and her mother was from Drumaloor, Casar, County Down, […]

Walter Pidgeon (1897 - 1984)

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, Walter Pidgeon was the son of Hannah (née Sanborn), a housewife, and Caleb Burpee Pidgeon, a haberdasher. His brother, Larry, was an editorial writer for the Santa Barbara News-Press. Walter Pidgeon attended local schools and the University of New Brunswick, where he studied law and drama. His university education […]

Robert Montgomery (1904 - 1981)

Robert Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Fishkill Landing, New York (now Beacon, New York), to Henry Montgomery, Sr. and his wife, Mary Weed Montgomery (née Barney). His early childhood was one of privilege as his father was president of the New York Rubber Company. His father committed suicide in 1922 by jumping off […]

Thomas Mitchell (1892 - 1962)

Thomas Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders. Both his father and brother were newspaper reporters, and his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of Labor. The younger Mitchell also became a newspaper reporter after graduating from St. […]

Henry Travers (1874 - 1965)

Henry Travers was born Travers John Heagerty in Prudhoe, Northumberland, and was the son of Daniel Heagerty, a doctor. Travers grew up in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and many biographies wrongly report him as being born there. The Travers family lived in Prudhoe for a couple of years before moving from Woodburn, on the A68 road near Corsenside, Northumberland, […]

Donna Reed (1921 - 1986)

Donna Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane (née Shives; 1899–1975) and William Richard Mullenger (1893–1981). The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist. After graduating from Denison High School, Reed planned to become a teacher, but was unable to pay for […]

Leo McCarey (1898 - 1969)

Born in Los Angeles, California, Leo McCarey attended St. Joseph’s Catholic school and Los Angeles High School. His father was Thomas J. McCarey, whom the Los Angeles Times called “the greatest fight promoter in the world”. Leo McCarey would later make a boxing comedy with Harold Lloyd called The Milky Way (1936). Leo McCarey graduated from […]

Robert Taylor (1911 - 1969)

Born Spangler Arlington Brugh Taylor in Filley, Nebraska, he was the only child of Ruth Adaline (née Stanhope) and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, living in Muskogee, Oklahoma; Kirksville, Missouri; and Fremont, Nebraska. By September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, […]

Deborah Kerr (1921 - 2007)

Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer was born in a private nursing home (hospital) in Glasgow, the only daughter of Kathleen Rose (née Smale) and Capt. Arthur Charles Kerr-Trimmer, a World War I veteran who lost a leg at the Battle of the Somme and later became a naval architect and civil engineer. She spent the first three […]

Isobel Elsom (1893 - 1981)

Isobel Elsom was born Isabelle Reed in Chesterton, Cambridge, Elsom usually was cast as an aristocratic lady of the upper class. She attended Howard College, Bedford England. Over the course of three decades she appeared in 17 Broadway productions, beginning with The Ghost Train in 1926. Her best-known stage role was the wealthy murder victim […]

Victor Moore (1876 - 1962)

Victor Moore appeared in over 50 films and 21 Broadway shows. His first appearance was on Broadway in Rosemary (1896). He also appeared in George M. Cohan’s Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, which opened January 1, 1906, and its sequel, The Talk of New York (1907). He went on to star in shows such as Oh, […]

Frances Farmer (1913 - 1970)

Frances Farmer was born in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Lillian (née Van Ornum 1873-1955) and Ernest Melvin Farmer. In 1931, while attending West Seattle High School, she entered and won $100 from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a writing contest sponsored by Scholastic Magazine, with her controversial essay “God Dies”. It was a […]

Jean Hersholt (1886 - 1956)

Jean Hersholt was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Claire (née Petersen) and Henry Hersholt, actors who worked with the Danish Folk Theatre. Hersholt toured Europe performing with his family when he was young. He then graduated from the Copenhagen Art School. His first two films were made in Germany in 1906. He emigrated […]

Marcia Mae Jones (1924 - 2007)

Marcia Mae Jones (August 1, 1924 – September 2, 2007) was an American actress whose prolific career spanned 47 years. Marcia Mae Jones made her film debut at the age of two in the 1926 film Mannequin. She appeared in films such as King of Jazz (1930), Street Scene (1931), and Night Nurse (1931) before rising […]