Lawrence Tibbett (1896 - 1960)

Lawrence Tibbett was born Lawrence Mervil Tibbet (with a single final “t”) on November 16, 1896 in Bakersfield, California. His father was a part-time deputy sheriff, killed in a shootout with desperado Jim McKinney in 1903. Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles, earning money by singing in church choirs and at funerals. He graduated from […]

Zina Bethune (1945 - 2012)

Zina Bethune was born in New York City, the daughter of Ivy (née Vigder), an actress (born June 1, 1918, Sevastopol, Russia) and William Charles Bethune, a sculptor and painter who died in 1950 when Zina was five years old. Zina began her formal ballet training aged six at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. […]

Erland Josephson (1923 - 2012)

Erland Josephson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈæːɭand ˈʝuːsɛfsɔn]; 15 June 1923 – 25 February 2012) was a Swedish actor and author. Erland Josephson was best known by international audiences for his work in films directed by Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and Theodoros Angelopoulos. Erland Josephson was born on the island of Kungsholmen, in Stockholm, Sweden, as the son […]

Yvette Wilson (1964 - 2012)

Before she started her career in the entertainment business, Yvette Wilson attended San Jose State University and majored in communications. Wilson first entered comedy when she lost a bet and had to perform as a stand-up comedian at a friend’s club. She decided to make a living off comedy and never turned back. Her big break […]

Victor Spinetti (1929 - 2012)

Vittorio Giorgio Andrea Spinetti (2 September 1929 – 18 June 2012) was a Welsh comedy actor, author, poet and raconteur. Victor Spinetti appeared in dozens of films and stage plays throughout his 50-year career and is best remembered today for appearing in the three Beatles films in the 1960s, A Hard Day’s Night, Help! and […]

Jerry Nelson (1934 - 2012)

On Sesame Street, Nelson’s longest-running character was Count von Count, the counting vampire who took delight in counting anything he could. Nelson did the voice and puppetry for the Count from 1972 until 2012, and continued to provide the Count’s voice until his death. His other Muppet roles on that program were The Amazing Mumford, […]

Janet Carroll (1940 - 2012)

Janet Carroll was born Janet Thiese in Chicago, the daughter of Hilda Catherine (Patton) and George Nicholas Thiese. She received formal theatrical training and began acting professionally in the late 1960s, appearing in numerous productions in local theaters. She then became a regular at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, where she acted during five […]

Jonathan Hardy (1940 - 2012)

Jonathan Hardy (20 September 1940 – 30 July 2012) was a New Zealand-born Australian actor, writer and director. Jonathan Hardy trained as an actor in Britain, and worked for the Royal National Theatre among other British theatre companies. He returned to his home of New Zealand in a touring production of The Comedy of Errors […]

Warren Stevens (1919 - 2012)

Born in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, Stevens began his acting career after serving in the United States Army Air Corps as a pilot during World War II. A founding member of The Actor’s Studio in New York, Warren Stevens received notice on Broadway in the late 1940s, and thereafter was offered a Hollywood contract at 20th […]

Richard Brooker (1954 - 2013)

Richard Brooker, a former trapeze artist, started his career in acting in a casting magazine, “Dramalogue”. He began his career in the third Friday the 13th film, and later appeared in small film roles in Deathstalker, Deep Sea Conspiracy, and the television series Trapper John, M.D.. Brooker later became a director, for such notable series […]

Briony McRoberts (1957 - 2013)

On television, Briony McRoberts played “Tessa Kilpin” in Episode 057 (05.11) ‘No Stone’ of The Professionals, and appeared in television programmes including The Bill, EastEnders, Taggart, The Crezz and Diamonds. She had a regular role as Lady Laird Sam Hagan in the Scottish soap Take the High Road for STV from 1990 to 1999. In […]

Paul Shane (1940 - 2013)

Paul Shane was born George Frederick Speight in Thrybergh, West Riding of Yorkshire, near Rotherham. He was a miner at Silverwood Colliery but slipped on soap in the pit-head baths in 1967, resulting in double herniated discs. He was pensioned from the pit at 27. Two years later, he became a professional entertainer since he […]

Elliott Reid (1920 - 2013)

Elliott Reid was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of artist Christine Challenger Reid and banker Blair Reid. In 1935, Reid debuted on the radio program The March of Time, which led to him working regularly on radio dramas during the Golden Age of radio. Early on he took “Elliott” as his stage name. His […]

Elspet Gray (1929 - 2013)

Elspet Gray appeared in many television programmes, her first appearance being in Love in Waiting in 1948. She had several roles in the 1970s including parts in Fawlty Towers, as the wife of a psychiatrist baffled by Basil’s behaviour, The Crezz, Catweazle, and in the 1980s with Doctor Who story Arc of Infinity and the […]

Nigel Davenport (1928 - 2013)

Nigel Davenport was born in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, to Katherine Lucy (née Meiklejohn) and Arthur Henry Davenport. His father was a bursar at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He grew up in an academic family and was educated at St Peter’s School, Seaford, Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Oxford. Originally he chose to study Philosophy, Politics […]

Lewis Collins (1946 - 2013)

The son of Bill Collins, a shipwright and amateur musician who played the piano in local clubs with the Savoy Swingers band, Lewis was born in Bidston, Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula (then part of Cheshire). Aged two, he won the Most Beautiful Baby in Liverpool contest. He was educated at Bidston Primary and Grange […]

Frank Thornton (1921 - 2013)

Frank Thornton Ball was born in Dulwich, London, the son of Rosina Mary (née Thornton) and William Ernest Ball. His father was organist at St Stephen’s Church, Dulwich, and his son learned to play for a short while. Music proved too difficult for him, however, and he wanted to act from an early age. His […]

Edmond O’Brien (1915 - 1915)

Edmond O’Brien was born in Brooklyn, New York, of English and Irish stock. After attending Columbia University for one year, he went to Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre on a scholarship. Edmond O’Brien made his first Broadway appearance at age 21 in Daughters of Atreus. Edmond O’Brien made his film debut in 1938, and […]

Ruth Roman (1922 - 1999)

Ruth Roman was born to Lithuanian-Jewish parents, Mary Pauline (née Gold) and Abraham Roman. Her mother was a dancer and her father a barker in a carnival that they owned at Revere, Massachusetts. She had two sisters, Ann and Eve. Her father died when Ruth was eight, and her mother sold the carnival. As a girl, […]

Dorothy Collins (1926 - 1994)

As a youngster, Dorothy Collins sang on radio stations in Windsor and Detroit. In 1940, at age 14, she and her family were introduced to bandleader/composer Raymond Scott in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, she became Scott’s protégée. In early 1942, at age 15, she became a featured vocalist with Scott’s orchestra, performing on radio and on […]

Gloria Grahame (1923 - 1981)

Grahame was born Gloria Grahame Hallward in Los Angeles, California. She was raised a Methodist. Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward, her father, was an architect and author and her mother, Jeanne McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a British stage actress and acting teacher. McDougall taught her younger daughter acting during her childhood […]

Gene Nelson (1920 - 1996)

Born Leander Eugene Berg in Astoria, Oregon, he moved to Seattle when he was one year old. He was inspired to become a dancer by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films when he was a child. After serving in the Army during World War II during which he also performed in the musical This […]

Glenda Farrell (1904 - 1971)

Glenda Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. She began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played the role of Little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She paused at times to continue her education but appeared with a number of theatrical companies and in several […]

June Storey (1918 - 1991)

Mary June Storey was born on April 20, 1918 in Toronto, Canada. Her father was a forest ranger. Her family moved to Tyler Lake, Connecticut in the United States when she was five years old. In 1930, her family moved to Southern California, where she attended Laguna Beach High School. Pretty in her youth, she […]

Jane Adams (1921 - 2014)

Jane Adams was born in San Antonio, Texas and received a full scholarship to Juilliard, which she turned down to spend years studying at the Pasadena Playhouse. From there she got her start on Lux Radio Theatre and then with the Harry Conover Modeling Agency, where she was given her nickname “Poni”. (This was supposedly […]

China Zorrilla (1922 - 1922)

Born in Montevideo into an aristocratic Uruguayan family, “China” was the second of the five daughters of Guma Muñoz del Campo and sculptor José Luis Zorrilla de San Martín (1891–1975), a disciple of Antoine Bourdelle, responsible for monuments in Uruguay and Argentina. Revered as Uruguay’s national poet, her paternal grandfather was Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, […]

Bill Kerr (1922 - 2014)

Bill Kerr was born William Henry Kerr in Cape Town, South Africa, on 10 June 1922 to an Australian performing arts family, growing up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. His career in show business began when he was very young. Wilton, his son, recalled: “His mum used him instead of using a prop, […]

Leslie Carlson (1933 - 2014)

Leslie Merle Carlson (February 24, 1933 — May 3, 2014) was an American Canadian film and television character actor who acted on stage in Canada, the U.S. and England. His films include the horror films Deranged and Black Christmas, and his television credits include The Twilight Zone and The X-Files. His stage name was frequently […]

Rhodes Reason (1930 - 2014)

Rhodes Reason was born in Glendale, California, the son of Jean (Robinson) and Rex G. Reason. The younger brother of actor Rex Reason, Reason made his acting start at the age of eighteen in a production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Charles Laughton. Among his starring roles were parts in King Kong Escapes (1967) and […]

Mónica Spear (1984 - 2014)

During the Miss Venezuela 2004 pageant,Mónica Spear won the national crown and represented Venezuela at Miss Universe 2005. Spear made the top 15 after Ana Karina Áñez (Miss Venezuela 2003) failed to make the top 15 in Miss Universe 2004, which was the first time in 22 years that Venezuela failed to place. Spear went on […]