Edwina Booth (1904 - 1991)

Born Josephine Constance Woodruff, the daughter of a doctor, in Provo, Utah, Edwina Booth’s brief film career began in 1928 with the Dorothy Arzner-directed Manhattan Cocktail. She was on vacation following a 1927 stage appearance when film director E. Mason Hopper saw her and offered her a part in a Marie Prevost picture. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) […]

Sara Seegar (1914 - 1990)

Seegar was born in Greentown, Indiana, the youngest of five sisters. She was schooled in London and Paris but ultimately graduated from Hollywood High School. She received a degree in drama from Los Angeles City College. Following school, Seegar performed on stage in London, starting her career with Three Men on a Horse. She continued performing […]

Frank Tashlin (1913 - 1972)

Frank Tashlin drifted from job to job after dropping out of high school in New Jersey at age 13. In 1930, he started working for Paul Terry as a cartoonist on the Aesop’s Film Fables cartoon series, then worked briefly for Amadee J. Van Beuren, but he was just as much a drifter in his […]

Pert Kelton (1907 - 1968)

Pert Kelton was a young comedienne in A-list movies during the 1930s, often as the leading lady’s wisecracking friend. She had a memorable turn in 1933 as dance hall singer “Trixie” in The Bowery alongside Wallace Beery, George Raft, Jackie Cooper and Fay Wray. Directed by Raoul Walsh, the film depicts Steve Brodie, the first […]

Beatrice Reading (1933 - 1991)

Beatrice Reading was born in Chester, Pennsylvania. Her performing career started at the age of 3, when she was talent-spotted by Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. She appeared in the all-black revue The Jazz Train, in Paris in the spring of 1955 and at the Piccadilly Theatre in London. In this show she had notable success playing the […]

Larry Kert (1930 - 1991)

Born as Frederick Lawrence Kert in Los Angeles, California, Larry Kert graduated from Hollywood High School. From a Shubert Theater Playbill for 1963’s ‘I Can Get It For You Wholesale’, starring Kert: “He attended Los Angeles City College. As a teenager he worked at breaking wild horses to saddle– which led to a teen-age career […]

Walter Chiari (1924 - 1991)

Born in Verona, Walter Chiari achieved a certain degree of international success in films such as The Little Hut (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1966), and The Valachi Papers (1972). He appeared opposite Anna Magnani in Luchino Visconti’s film Bellissima (1951). In the late 1950s and ’60s he was one of the main protagonists […]

Thorley Walters (1913 - 1991)

Thorley Walters (12 May 1913 – 6 July 1991) was an English character actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedy film roles such as in Two-Way Stretch and Carlton-Browne of the FO. Walters was born in Teigngrace, Devon, the son of Prebendary T. C. Walters of Silverton, Devon, and great uncle of Michael […]

Berry Kroeger (1912 - 1991)

Berry Kroeger (October 16, 1912 – January 4, 1991) was an American film, television, and stage actor. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Kroeger got his acting start on radio as an announcer on Suspense and as an actor, playing for a time The Falcon in the radio series Kroeger was a regular as Sam Williams on […]

Bernard Miles (1907 - 1991)

Bernard Miles, Baron Miles of Blackfriars, CBE (27 September 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century. Miles was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex and attended Bishopshalt School in […]

Jean Rogers (1916 - 1991)

Rogers was born Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren in Belmont, Massachusetts. Her father was an immigrant from Malmö, Sweden. She had hoped to study art. In 1933, though, she won a beauty contest sponsored by Paramount Pictures, which led to her career in Hollywood. Rogers starred in several serials for Universal between 1935 and 1938, including Ace […]

Joan Caulfield (1922 - 1991)

Born Beatrice Joan Caulfield while her family resided in East Orange, New Jersey, she moved to West Orange during childhood but continued attending Miss Beard’s School in Orange, New Jersey. During her teenage years, the family moved to New York City where Joan eventually attended Columbia University. Caulfield was the niece of Genevieve Caulfield, who received […]

Gloria Holden (1903 - 1991)

Born in England, Gloria Holden emigrated to the U.S. as a child. Her mother Eska (née Bergmann) was German. She attended school in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and later studied at New York’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Holden’s early stage work included small parts in plays such as The Royal Family, in which she spoke four lines […]

Maxine Audley (1923 - 1992)

Maxine Audley was born in London, England on 29 April 1923. Her parents were Henry Julius Hecht and Katherine Arkandy, the coloratura soprano. Audley attended the Westonbirt School in Gloucestershire. She trained for the stage at the Tamara Daykharhanova School in New York and the London Mask Theatre School. Maxine Audley was married four times: […]

Larry Riley (1953 - 1992)

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Larry Riley began acting in high school before studying drama at Memphis State University. He made his professional stage debut in 1971, and went on to appear in various stage productions on and off-Broadway including A Broadway Musical, Shakespeare’s Cabaret, I Love My Wife, and Big River, a musical based on […]

Dorothy Tree (1906 - 1992)

She was born in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest of three daughters of Herman Triebitz (1877–1943) and Bertha Hert (1885–1967). Her sisters were Sylvia Triebitz (1911–1949) and Mildred “Mimi” Triebitz (1918–?) Her parents were born in Austria, and immigrated to the United States. Their native language was Yiddish. He was the proprietor of a shoe […]

Ben Lessy (1902 - 1992)

Ben Lessy (April 29, 1902 – October 30, 1992) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor. He was born in New York City, New York. Lessy was known for a nightclub act done with Patti Moore, the long-time wife of his best friend and agent, Sammy Lewis. They were regulars at Los Angeles nightclubs […]

Daniel Pollock (1968 - 1992)

Daniel John Pollock (24 August 1968 – 13 April 1992) was an Australian actor best known for his role as Davey in the 1992 Australian drama film Romper Stomper, which featured Russell Crowe. Pollock is the son of John and Lucy Pollock. Pollock attended Swinburne Senior Community School in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, Victoria in the […]

Eddie Fontaine (1927 - 1992)

Eddie Fontaine (March 6, 1927 – April 13, 1992) was an American actor and singer, best known for television roles in the 1960s and 1970s. Born Edward Reardon in Springfield, Massachusetts, Fontaine signed as a vocalist with RCA in 1954 after serving in the US Navy. In 1955 he appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in […]

Ruth Nelson (1905 - 1992)

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson was the daughter of vaudeville actress Eva Mudge. She attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles and went on to study at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City during the early 1920s. Nelson made her New York City stage debut as a member of the theatre collective […]

Sybil Christopher (1929 - 2013)

Sybil Williams was born on 27 March 1929, in Tylorstown, Mid Glamorgan. She attended the London Academy of Dramatic Arts (now LAMDA), meeting Richard Burton during the filming of The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949). After their marriage, she retired from acting, performing only a few times, and generally on stage rather than on film. […]

Jordan Christopher (1940 - 1996)

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, to Macedonian immigrants Eli and Dorothy Zankoff, he moved at an early age to Akron, where his father ran a downtown bar. Christopher became interested in singing with the rise of rock & roll, spending much of his time at the music clubs in Akron’s black section. He formed a doo-wop group […]

Paula Winslowe (1910 - 1996)

Paula Winslowe (March 23, 1910 – March 6, 1996), sometimes credited as Paula Winslow, was a radio and television actress and is known for her role as Bambi’s mother in the 1942 movie Bambi. Winslowe was born in Grafton, North Dakota in 1910. On radio, she was heard in many shows, including the role of Peg Riley […]

Liz Gebhardt (1945 - 1996)

Liz Gebhardt (12 April 1945 – 10 August 1996) was an English actress, best known for playing the part of form 5C pupil Maureen Bullock in the LWT sitcom Please Sir! and in the subsequent spin-off show, The Fenn Street Gang (1971–73). Following on from her role in the show and its spin-off, she continued working […]

Silk Smitha (1960 - 1996)

Vijayalakshmi (2 December 1960 – 23 September 1996), better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian film artiste who worked predominantly in the South Indian languages. She entered the industry as an extra actress and first got noticed for her role as “Silk” in the 1979 Tamil film Vandichakkaram. She became the […]

Denise Grey (1896 - 1996)

Denise Grey, real name Édouardine Verthuy, was a French actress. Édouardine Grey was born Châtillon, in the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, close to the French border. The city was almost totally French-speaking at the time. She was naturalized French on July 13, 1922. She started working in the film industry in 1915 in the silent […]

Alfred Marks (1921 - 1996)

Marks was born as Ruchel Kutchinsky in Holborn, London. He left Bell Lane School at 14 and started in entertainment at the Windmill Theatre. He then served in the RAF as a Flight Sergeant in the Middle East where he arranged concerts for servicemen. He also worked as an auctioneer and engineer. He started in variety […]

Patrick Cargill (1918 - 1996)

Cargill was born to middle-class parents living in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. After education at Haileybury College, he made his debut in the Bexhill Amateur Theatrical Society. However, he was aiming for a military career and was selected for training at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Cargill became a commissioned officer in the Indian Army. After the […]

Howard Vernon (1914 - 1996)

Howard Vernon (15 July 1914 — 25 July 1996) was a Swiss actor. Vernon was born Mario Lippert in Baden, Switzerland, to a Swiss father and an American mother, and was fluent in German, English, and French. Originally a stage and radio actor, he worked primarily in France and became a well-known supporting actor after 1945 […]

Camilla Horn (1903 - 1996)

Camilla Horn (25 April 1903, Frankfurt am Main – 14 August 1996) was a German dancer and a film star of the silent and sound era. She starred in several Hollywood films of the late 1920s and in a few British and Italian productions. The daughter of a civil servant, Horn was educated as a dressmaker […]