Stanley Adams (1915 - 1977)

Stanley Adams (April 7, 1915 – April 27, 1977) was an American actor and screenwriter. Born in New York City, Adams had his first film role playing the bartender in the movie version of Death of a Salesman (1952). He played another barkeep in The Gene Krupa Story and a safecracker in Roger Corman’s High […]

Henry Hull (1890 - 1977)

Henry Hull was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of William Madison Hull and Elinor Bond Vaughn. Early in his career, Hull appeared frequently on Broadway; he created the role of Jeeter Lester in the long-running play Tobacco Road (1933), based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell. Hull appeared in 74 films between 1917 and 1966, often […]

Ricardo Cortez (1900 - 1977)

Born to a Jewish family in New York City (Vienna has been incorrectly cited as his birthplace), Ricardo Cortez was an amateur boxer and worked on Wall Street prior to entering the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name from Krantz to Cortez in order to capitalize on the popularity of the era’s “Latin lovers” […]

Ethel Waters (1896 - 1977)

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson (believed to have been 13 years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older), by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed-race middle-class […]

Charlotte Greenwood (1890 - 1977)

Charlotte Greenwood (June 25, 1890 – December 28, 1977) was an American actress and dancer. Born in Philadelphia, Greenwood started in vaudeville, and starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing around six feet tall, she was best known for her long legs and high kicks. She earned the unique praise of being, in her words, […]

Leila Hyams (1905 - 1977)

Leila Hyams was born in New York City to vaudeville comedy performers John Hyams, (1869-1940) and Leila (née McIntyre) Hyams (1882-1953). Both parents appeared in films and mother Leila Senior was also a noted stage performer, her parents can later be seen together in several Hollywood films such as in 1939’s The Housekeeper’s Daughter. Hyams […]

Joan Tetzel (1921 - 1977)

Joan Tetzel played in When a Girl Marries and Woman of Courage, both on CBS. Tetzel is noted for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), where she played “Judy Flaquer”, the daughter of the solicitor played by Charles Coburn in the film. In the movie, she is the confidante and best friend of […]

Margaret Hayes (1916 - 1977)

Hayes was born in Baltimore, Maryland (some sources say Pottsville, Pennsylvania). Her father was Jack Lewis Ottenheimer, a “musician, theatrical man and joke book writer.” (Some sources say that he was a real estate broker.) While a student at Forest Park High School, she joined the Emerson Cook Stock Company to gain more acting experience. […]

Marguerite Chapman (1918 - 1999)

Marguerite Chapman (March 9, 1918 – August 31, 1999) was an American actress. Born in Chatham, New York, she was working as a telephone switchboard operator in White Plains, New York when her good looks brought about the opportunity to pursue a career in modeling. Signed by the John Robert Powers Agency in New York City, […]

Nora Marlowe (1915 - 1977)

Nora Marlowe was cast in the 1959-1960 television season as Martha Commager, the owner of a boarding house, in seven episodes of the NBC western series, Law of the Plainsman. She appeared three times as Mrs. Moffatt on the CBS sicom My Living Doll, starring Robert Cummings and Julie Newmar. She appeared twice on Rod Cameron […]

John Boles (1895 - 1969)

Boles was born in Greenville, Texas to a middle-class family. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas in 1917. He returned to Greenville, where he was selected by an out-of-town producer to act in an opera at the King Opera House. This experience convinced John that he preferred music and the stage to […]

Florence Marly (1919 - 1978)

Florence Marly (2 June 1919 – 9 November 1978) was a Czech-born French film actress. During World War II, Marly moved to neutral Argentina with her Jewish husband the film director Pierre Chenal where she appeared in several films. She also acted in two of her husband’s films while they were in Chile. She played a […]

Leslie Fenton (1902 - 1978)

Leslie Fenton was born on 12 March 1902 in Liverpool, England. He moved to America with his mother, Elizabeth Carter, and his brothers when he was six years old. They sailed as steerage passengers on board the R.M.S. Celtic, which departed from Liverpool, 11 September 1909, and arrived at New York, where they were ferried […]

Wilfred Pickles (1904 - 1978)

Wilfred Pickles (13 October 1904 in Halifax – 27 March 1978 in Brighton) was an English actor and radio presenter. Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929 and worked with his father as a builder. He joined an amateur dramatic society and in a […]

Gloria Castillo (1933 - 1978)

Gloria Castillo (March 3, 1933 – October 24, 1978) was an American stage and motion picture actress of the 1950s. Castillo was born in Belen, New Mexico, and graduated from the University of New Mexico in June 1954. Gloria Castillo appeared in a production of the play Late Love in July 1954, at the Little Theater […]

Pat Paterson (1910 - 1978)

She was born Eliza Paterson on 10 April 1910 at No.74 Fitzgerald Street, Horton, a suburb of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. Her mother, Hannah Holroyd (b. 4 February 1888, Bradford) was English, her father, John Robb Paterson, (b. 1888, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland) was a Scot. Eliza was the second of three children. From infancy, Eliza […]

Josette Day (1914 - 1978)

Josette Day (Paris, July 31, 1914 – Paris, June 27, 1978) was a French film actress. Born Josette Noëlle Andrée Claire Dagory, she began her career as an actress in 1919 at the age of five. Day was married in 1941 to famous French writer and director Marcel Pagnol, whom she met in January 1939. In 1946, […]

Dorothy Shay (1921 - 1978)

Shay was born Dorothy Sims in Jacksonville, Florida. When she began her career as a ‘straight’ singer, she took vocal lessons to lose her Southern accent. She sang for the USO during World War II. Dorothy changed her name to “Shay” in order to not be confused with Ginny Simms, another performer of the day, […]

Leo Genn (1905 - 1978)

Genn was born at 144 Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, the son of Woolfe (William) Genn, a jewellery salesman, and Rachel Genn née Asserson. His parents were both Jewish. Genn attended the City of London School and studied law at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, qualifying as a barrister in 1928. He ceased practising as a […]

Carl Betz (1921 - 1978)

Growing up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt. Lebanon, Carl Betz began his acting career unofficially in grammar school when he formed a theatrical company with friends, performing plays in his grandmother’s basement. After graduating from Mount Lebanon High School in 1939, he won scholarship to Duquesne University. During the summer, Betz performed in a […]

Peggy Wood (1892 - 1978)

Peggy Wood was born Mary Margaret Wood in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Eugene Wood, a journalist, and Mary Gardner, a telegraph operator. She was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. Wood spent nearly fifty years on the stage, beginning in the chorus and becoming known as a Broadway singer and star. She made […]

Ruth Etting (1897 - 1978)

Ruth Etting (November 23, 1897 – September 24, 1978) was an American singing star and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. She is known as “America’s sweetheart of song”. Her signature tunes were “Shine On, Harvest Moon”, “Ten Cents a Dance” and […]

Noble Johnson (1881 - 1978)

Standing 6’2″ at 215 pounds, his impressive physique and handsome features made Noble Johnson in demand as a character actor and bit player. In the silent era he assayed a wide variety of characters of different races in a plethora of films, primarily serials, westerns and adventure movies. While Johnson was cast as black in […]

Blossom Rock (1895 - 1978)

Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald (August 21, 1895 – January 14, 1978), also known or credited as Blossom Rock, Blossom MacDonald or Marie Blake, was an American actress of stage, film and television. Her younger sister was screen actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Daniel and Anne MacDonald in 1895. As […]

Michael Bates (1920 - 1978)

The son of Harry Stuart Bates, CSI (1893–1985, son of Albert Bates, of Congleton, Cheshire), an Anglo-Indian civil servant, by his wife Sarah Clarke (1896-1982, daughter of William Hammond Walker of Congleton, Cheshire), Bates was educated at Uppingham School and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. In 1954, he married Margaret M. J. Chisholm. They had three […]

James Daly (1918 - 1978)

James Daly was born in Wisconsin Rapids in Wood County in central Wisconsin, to a working-class family: his mother, Dorothy Ethelbert (Hogan) Mullen, later worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, and his father, Percifer Charles Daly, was a fuel merchant. During the 1930s, James Daly studied drama and acted in shows before he worked for […]

André Morell (1909 - 1978)

Morell was born Cecil André Mesritz in London, England, the son of André and Rosa Mesritz. Prior to taking up acting professionally he trained as a motor engineer, while also participating in amateur theatrical productions. He turned professional in 1934, initially acting under the name André Mesritz; he anglicised this to André Morell in 1936, […]

Barry Atwater (1918 - 1978)

The son of a renowned landscape painter of the same name, Barry Atwater was born in Denver, Colorado. He served as head of the UCLA Sound Department before he began his acting career. His work teaching audio techniques led to a role in the student film A Time Out of War, a Civil War allegory […]

Jack Oakie (1903 - 1978)

Jack Oakie was born as Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri at 522 w 7th Street. His father was a grain dealer and his mother a psychology teacher. When he was five years old the Offield family moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, the source of his “Oakie” nickname. His adopted first name, Jack, was the name […]

Zara Cully (1892 - 1978)

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 26, 1892, Zara Cully was one of ten siblings. She graduated from the Worcester School of Speech and Music, and was one of the oldest performers active in television at the time of her death. In 1940, after an appearance in New York City she became known as “one […]