Joy Shelton (1922 - 2000)

Joy Shelton (3 June 1922 – 28 January 2000) was an English actress who performed in films, radio and television. Joy Shelton was born in London on 3 June 1922. She appeared in a number of British films in the 1940s and ’50s, most notably in two by Sidney Gilliat, Millions Like Us, which traced the […]

Sydney Tafler (1916 - 1979)

Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor best remembered for numerous appearances in films and on British television from the 1940s to the 1970s. His father was an antiques dealer. After two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he first appeared on stage in London’s West End in […]

George Brent (1904 - 1979)

George Brent was born George Brendan Nolan in Ballinasloe, County Galway in 1904 to John J. and Mary (née McGuinness) Nolan. His mother was a native of Clonfad, County Westmeath. During the Irish War of Independence (1919–1922), Brent was part of the IRA. He fled Ireland with a bounty set on his head by the […]

Dolores Costello (1903 - 1979)

Dolores Costello Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello (née Mae Altschuk). She was of Irish and German descent. She and her younger sister, Helene, made their first film appearances in the years 1909–1915 as child actresses for the Vitagraph Film Company. They played supporting roles in […]

Laurie Bird (1953 - 1979)

Laurie Bird (September 26, 1952 – June 15, 1979) was an American actress and photographer. Laurie Bird’s mother died when she was three. Her father, an electrical engineer, was a former sailor in the United States Navy, and worked long hours. Although she had two brothers, she more or less raised herself. Described by Hollywood columnist Dick […]

Ann Dvorak (1911 - 1979)

Anna McKim was born in New York City in 1911 to silent film actress Anna Lehr and actor/director Edwin McKim. While in New York, she attended St. Catherine’s Convent. After moving to California, she attended Page School for Girls in Hollywood. She made her film debut when she was 5 years old in the silent film […]

Clarence Muse (1889 - 1979)

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Alexander and Mary Muse, he studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and received an international law degree in 1911. Clarence Muse was acting in New York by the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance with two Harlem theatres, Lincoln Players and Lafayette Players. Muse moved to Chicago for a while, […]

Celia Lovsky (1897 - 1979)

Celia Lovsky married journalist Heinrich Vinzenz Nowak in 1919. By 1925, they were apparently estranged and she was romantically involved with playwright Arthur Schnitzler. She later moved to Berlin, where she acted in the surrealist plays Dream Theater and Dream Play by Karl Kraus. There, in 1929, she met Peter Lorre, who had seen her […]

Eric Pohlmann (1913 - 1979)

Born Erich Pollak in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Eric Pohlmann was a classically trained actor who studied under the renowned director Max Reinhardt. He appeared at the Raimund Theater, and supplemented his income by working as an entertainer in a bar. In 1939, he followed his fiancée and later wife, Jewish actress Lieselotte Goettinger (best known in the […]

John Carroll (1906 - 1979)

Carroll performed in several small roles in films under his original name until 1935, when he first used the name John Carroll in Hi, Gaucho! He appeared in several Western films in the 1930s, including the role of Zorro in Zorro Rides Again in 1937. He was the male lead in the Marx Brothers’ Western […]

Kurt Kasznar (1913 - 1979)

Kurt Kasznar was born Kurt Servischer on August 12, 1913, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (today: Austria). His father left the family when Kurt was very young. After his mother married Hungarian restaurateur Ferdinand Kasznar, Kurt assumed his surname. While working as an apprentice waiter at his stepfather’s restaurant, Kasznar met director Max Reinhardt and enrolled in […]

Doris Packer (1904 - 1979)

Doris Packer was born Doris Edwards in Menominee in Menominee County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her family moved to southern California when she was quite young. She became interested in acting while in high school. After attending the University of California at Los Angeles, she moved to New York City to study under […]

Joyce Grenfell (1910 - 1979)

Born in Montpelier Square in Knightsbridge, London, Joyce Grenfell was the daughter of architect Paul Phipps (1880–1953), the grandson of Charles Paul Phipps and a second cousin of Ruth Draper. Her mother was an American socialite, Nora Langhorne (1889–1955), one of five daughters of Chiswell Langhorne, an American railway millionaire. Nancy Astor, née Nancy Langhorne, […]

Billy Bletcher (1894 - 1979)

Billy Bletcher appeared on-screen in films and later television from the 1910s to the 1970s, including appearances in several Our Gang and The Three Stooges comedies. He was most famous as a voice actor. His voice was a deep and strong-sounding baritone. Bletcher provided the voices of various characters for Walt Disney Pictures (Black Pete, Short Ghost […]

Derek Royle (1928 - 1990)

Derek Royle (7 September 1928 – 23 January 1990) was a British actor born in London, England. His face was probably better known than his name to British viewers, but he acted in films and TV from the mid-1960s until his death. He had a supporting role in the Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour in […]

Vincent Sherman (1906 - 2006)

Vincent Sherman was born Abraham Orovitz, to Jewish parents. He was born and grew up in the small town of Vienna, Georgia, where his father was a dry-goods salesman. Not long after graduating from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, he became a professional actor. Vincent Sherman arrived in New York to sell a play and soon became […]

Robert Stevenson (1905 - 1986)

Robert Stevenson (31 March 1905 – 30 April 1986) was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society. After directing a number of British films, including King Solomon’s Mines (1937), he was given a contract by David […]

Michael Curtiz (1886 - 1962)

Michael Curtiz was born Manó Kaminer to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary (then Austria-Hungary). In 1905 he Hungaricised his name to Mihály Kertész. He claimed to have been born December 24, 1886. Both the date and the year are open to debate: he was fond of telling tall tales about his early life, including […]

Ross Elliott (1917 - 1999)

Ross Elliott (June 18, 1917 – August 12, 1999) was an American television and film character actor. He began his acting career in the Mercury Theatre, where he performed in Orson Welles’ famed radio program, The War of the Worlds. Throughout his career, Ross Elliott appeared in more than 100 television programs, including the recurring role […]

Ernest Lehman (1915 - 2005)

Ernest Lehman was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Gertrude (Thorn) and Paul E. Lehman. He was from a wealthy Jewish Long Island family whose fortunes were seriously affected by the Great Depression. Upon his graduation from College of the City of New York (The City College of New […]

Max Wall (1908 - 1990)

Max Wall was born Maxwell George Lorimer, son of the successful music-hall entertainer Jack (Jock) Lorimer, a Scottish comedy actor from Forfar, known for his songs and dancing, and his wife Stella (born Maud Clara Mitchison). He was born near the Oval, at 37 Glenshaw Mansions, Brixton Road, London SW9. In 1916, during a World […]

Richard Murdoch (1907 - 1990)

Richard Murdoch was educated at Charterhouse School in Surrey, and Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Whilst at university he participated in the Footlights Dramatic Club’s performances. Richard Murdoch’s first appearance in cinema was as an un-credited dancing extra in 1932 film Looking on the Bright Side. In 1937 he was listed among the cast of the “Television […]

Lois Moran (1909 - 1990)

Lois Moran (March 1, 1909 – July 13, 1990) was an American film actress. She was born Lois Darlington Dowling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and died in Sedona, Arizona. Her career began in 1921, and Moran appeared in a couple of silent movies in the early 1920s. She is probably best known for her role, as Laurel Dallas, […]

Carlos Thompson (1923 - 1990)

Of German Swiss descent, Carlos Thompson played leading roles on stage and in films in Argentina. He went to Hollywood in the 1950s and was typically cast as a European womanizer. His Hollywood films include Flame and the Flesh (1954) with Lana Turner and Pier Angeli, Valley of the Kings (1954), with Robert Taylor and […]

Dolores Faith (1941 - 1990)

She was born Dolores Faith Hedges, July 15, 1941 in Cleveland, Ohio. She was of Hungarian-Italian descent. She lost her hearing at age 4 from an accident but it later returned by age 8. A natural blonde, she died her hair black to better match her olive skin. She graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in […]

Helene Stanley (1929 - 1929)

Dolores Diane Freymouth (July 17, 1929 – December 27, 1990), better known by the stage name of Helene Stanley, was an American actress and a live model for Cinderella and other Disney characters. Stanley was born in Gary, Indiana. Her parents were Michael Freymouth, who was an acrobat who worked in Europe, and Gerty Freymouth. Around 1953 […]

Freda Jackson (1907 - 1990)

Freda Jackson made her stage debut on 1 January 1934, appearing at the Northampton Repertory Theatre in Sweet Lavender. After two years with the resident company there she first appeared in London on 13 July 1936 in The Sacred Flame at the Q Theatre, afterwards touring with Emlyn Williams in Williams’ play Night Must Fall. […]

Sunset Carson (1920 - 1990)

Born on November 12, 1920 at Gracemont, Oklahoma to Maurice Greely Harrison and Azalee Belle McAdams. He moved to Plainview, Texas as a child (1930 US Census Hale County, Texas). Carson became an accomplished rodeo rider in his youth. For a time he worked in a western show owned by early cowboy actor Tom Mix. […]

Helene Whitney (1914 - 1990)

Helene Whitney (July 4, 1914 – March 28, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films in the late 1930s and 1940s. She was known as Helene Reynolds after her marriage. Whitney was born Kenyon Fortescue in 1914, but was known as Helene. Through her mother, Grace Fortescue (1883–1979), she was a grandniece (and cousin […]

Art Lund (1915 - 1990)

Arthur Lund was a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, and received his master’s degree from the United States Naval Academy in aerological engineering. Lund was a high school math teacher in Kentucky who worked as a musician on the side. He left teaching to tour with Jimmy Ray and his band. He originally billed himself as […]