Booth Colman (1923 - 2014)

Booth Colman (March 8, 1923 – December 15, 2014) was an American film, television and stage actor. In his later years he played older authority figures such as doctors and lawyers. Colman appeared in films since 1952, when he appeared uncredited in The Big Sky directed by Howard Hawks. Booth Colman was born in Portland, Oregon. […]

Frank Marth (1922 - 2014)

Frank Marth (July 29, 1922 – January 12, 2014) was an American film and television actor. He may be best known as a cast-member of Cavalcade of Stars (1949; 1950–1957), especially segments of The Honeymooners, which later became a television series (1955–56). Tall and fair-haired, Marth, often in tandem with the short, dark-haired George O. Petrie, […]

Mary Grace Canfield (1924 - 2014)

Mary Grace Canfield was born in Rochester, New York, the second child of Hubert and Hildegard (née Jacobson) Canfield. She grew up in Pittsford, New York. She had an elder sister, Constance, who was two years older. Acting mostly in small theatre companies and regional theatre, between 1952 and 1964 she appeared in several Broadway plays, […]

Vanna Bonta (1958 - 2014)

Vanna Bonta was born in the United States to Maria Luisa Bonta (née Ugolini), an artist from Florence, Italy, and James Cecil Bonta, a military officer from Kentucky. Her mother’s elder sister was Italian children’s author Lydia Ugolini. In 1995, Bonta’s first novel, Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel was published. Flight has been characterized as “inter-genre” […]

Anthony Mason (1966 - 2015)

Anthony Mason attended Tennessee State University and was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in the third round of the 1988 NBA Draft (53rd pick), but was cut shortly afterwards. He then played for the Efes Pilsen basketball club in Turkey. Mason played for Marinos de Oriente in Venezuela and other teams in the CBA and the […]

David McAlister (1951 - 2015)

David McAlister was born on 2 April 1951 in Worthing, Sussex and died on 26 June 2015 of cancer. He was married with two children (a girl and a boy) living with his family in Surrey. David McAlister was best known for his portrayal of Daddy Warbucks in the stage production of the American musical Annie. […]

Aarthi Agarwal (1984 - 2015)

Aarthi Agarwal (March 5, 1984 – June 6, 2015) was an Indian-American actress who primarily worked in Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood. Aarthi Agarwal was born on March 5, 1984, to a Gujarati family. Her father, Shashank, is in the hotel business and her mother, Veema, is a homemaker. She has two siblings. At around […]

Claire Gordon (1941 - 2015)

Claire Gordon was born in Cambridge, in England. Her father was a doctor and her mother a make-up artist who worked for Max Factor. After being photographed by chance at the Queens Ice Rink, Bayswater, for the cover of the magazine Lilliput, Claire Gordon was signed to a five-year contract with film agent Bill Watts […]

Moira Orfei (1931 - 2015)

Moira Orfei (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmɔira orˈfɛi]; born Miranda Orfei; 21 December 1931 – 15 November 2015) was a popular Italian actress and television personality. Moira was considered the queen of the Italian circus. Raised in a family who owned the circus company Circus Orfei, Moira became the symbol of circus in Italy and attained international fame. […]

Betsy von Furstenberg (1931 - 2015)

Betsy von Furstenberg was born Elizabeth Caroline Maria Agatha Felicitas Therese, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Herdringen in Arnsberg. Her parents were Franz-Egon, Graf (Count) von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (1896–1975) and his first wife, Elizabeth Foster Johnson (1899–1961), a native of Memphis, Tennessee. Her stepmothers were Gloria Rubio, Clara Ghyczy, and Joan Siegel. She has two half siblings from her father’s […]

Barbara Meek (1934 - 2015)

Barbara Meek was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Juanita (née Coleman) and Harold Talmadge Meek, and is the maternal granddaughter of the Reverend Horatius “H.H.” Coleman, pastor of the Greater Macedonia Baptist Church. She was a graduate of Northwestern High School, and as an undergraduate was asked to join Wayne State University’s graduate theater program. […]

Paul Almond (1931 - 2015)

Paul Almond attended Bishop’s College School, McGill University and Balliol College, Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics, Economics, edited the University magazine Isis played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club and was president of the university Poetry Society. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he worked primarily as a director and producer, and also wrote […]

Jacques Sernas (1925 - 2015)

Jacques Sernas, was a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career. He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, the son of Jokūbas Šernas, a signatory of the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania, who died when Sernas was one year old. His mother took him to Paris, France, where Sernas received his formal education. During […]

Paul Engle (1908 - 1991)

Paul Engle is often mistakenly credited with having founded the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (an honor that more appropriately belongs to his predecessor, Wilbur Schramm). Nonetheless, perhaps no one helped to better establish the reputation of the venerable writing program than Engle. During his tenure as director (1941–1965), he was responsible for luring some of the […]

María Elena Velasco (1940 - 2015)

María Elena Velasco was born in Puebla, to Tomás Velasco, a railway mechanic, and María Elena Fragoso. She had three siblings, Gloria, Tomás and Susana. After the death of Tomás Velasco, the family moved to Mexico City, where she worked as a dancer at the Teatro Tívoli. Later, she became one of the showgirls of the […]

Cristie Schoen (1976 - 2015)

Cristie Schoen (also known as Cristie Schoen Codd or Cristie Codd; 1976—March 12, 2015) was a Spanish-born chef. She came to prominence as a contestant in the eighth season of the Food Network series Food Network Star. Schoen was born in Madrid, Spain. She grew up cooking primarily Cajun cuisine with her father. In 2012, it was […]

Elaine Riley (1917 - 2015)

Elaine Riley (January 15, 1917 – December 7, 2015) was an American film and television actress. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Riley, Riley was born in East Liverpool, Ohio, on January 15, 1917. She won the Miss East Liverpool beauty title and was runner-up for the Miss Ohio title in 1937. Riley also was […]

Monica Lewis (1922 - 2015)

Monica Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 22, 1922, the youngest of three children. Her father, Leon, was a pianist and composer while her mother, Jessica, was a singer with the Chicago Opera Company, with Lewis studying her voice with her mother. At the age of 11, Lewis’ family moved to New York […]

Carol Doda (1937 - 2015)

Carol Doda was born August 29, 1937, in Solano County, California, and grew up in San Francisco. Her parents divorced when she was 3. Although private about her personal life, she said she dropped out of school and became a cocktail waitress at age 14. Carol Doda attended the San Francisco Art Institute and worked […]

Candida Royalle (1950 - 2015)

Candida Royalle was born on October 15, 1950, in New York City as Candice Marion Vadala. Initially trained in music, dance, and art in New York, with studies at the High School of Art and Design, Parson’s School of Design and the City University of New York. In 1975 she began her career in porn as […]

Stewart Stern (1922 - 2015)

Stewart Henry Stern (March 22, 1922 – February 2, 2015) was a two-time Oscar-nominated and Emmy award winning American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the iconic film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), starring James Dean. In addition to Rebel Without a Cause, Stewart Stern’s most notable screenwriting credits include Sybil, which […]

R. J. Adams (1942 - 2015)

R. J. Adams was born in St. Catharines, Ontario where he spent his early childhood until his family headed across the border to Niagara Falls, New York. Known to his friends as Bob Adams, the aspiring actor/radio D.J. spent just a couple of years attending Bishop Duffy High school before dropping out and moving to […]

Sally Forrest (1928 - 2015)

Born in San Diego, Sally Forrest studied dance from a young age and shortly out of high school was signed to a contract by MGM. to Michael and Marguerite (née Ellicott) Feeney. Her father was a U.S. Navy career officer, who moved his family to various naval bases, finally settling in San Diego. He and […]

Lorena Rojas (1971 - 2015)

Lorena Rojas (born Seydi Lorena Rojas Gonzalez; 10 February 1971 – 16 February 2015) was a Mexican actress and singer, best known for her leading roles in popular telenovelas. Seydi Lorena Rojas Gonzalez was born in Mexico City, Mexico and began her artistic career in 1990 when she participated in the telenovela Alcanzar Una Estrella produced […]

June Fairchild (1946 - 2015)

June Fairchild was born June Edna Wilson on September 3, 1946, in Manhattan Beach, California. Her father was a musician who specialized in writing gospel songs and music. Fairchild was raised in Manhattan Beach and graduated from Aviation High School in Redondo Beach. She was hired as a member of the Gazzarri Dancers on the […]

Blaze Starr (1932 - 2015)

Starr was born on April 10, 1932 in rural Wayne County, West Virginia, along Twelvepole Creek, (also spelled Twelve Pole Creek) the second eldest of 11 siblings born to Lora (née Evans) and Goodlow Fleming). Reared in the Newground Hollow (also spelled New Ground Hollow) area of Wilsondale, West Virginia, she left home at either age […]

Marília Pêra (1943 - 2015)

Marília Soares Pêra (Marilia Pera da Graça Mello, after she married), was born on January 22, 1943 in the neighborhood of Rio Comprido, in Rio de Janeiro. From 14 to 21 years, works as a dancer in musicals and revue as Minha Querida Lady (1962), starring Bibi Ferreira, and O Teu Cabelo Não Nega (1963) biography […]

Gregg Palmer (1927 - 2015)

Brown-haired and brown-eyed Gregg Palmer was born in San Francisco, California, to Norwegian parents. His father was a carpenter. He entered the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force, and became a cryptographer during World War II. He was discharged in 1946 as a sergeant. Sometimes known as “Grizzly”, Palmer worked as […]

Don Harron (1924 - 2015)

Don Harron’s parents owned and operated Harron’s Cleaners and Dyers in Toronto. Beginning at the age of 10, he earned extra money for the family during the Great Depression, doing “chalk talks” telling humorous stories while drawing caricatures in coloured chalk at company or club banquets, making $10 or $15 a talk. As a result […]

Wally Cassell (1912 - 2015)

Wally Casell (March 3, 1912 – April 2, 2015), born as Oswaldo Silvestri Trippilini Rolando Vincenza Castellano, was an Italian-born American film-noir character actor and businessman. Castellano was born in Agrigento, Sicily, and moved with his family to the United States when he was two years of age. He began his film career in 1942, initially […]