Majel Barrett (1932 - 2008)

Majel began taking acting classes as a child. She attended Shaker Heights High School, graduating in 1950 before going on to the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, then had some stage roles and came to Hollywood. Her father, William Hudec, was a Cleveland police officer. He was killed in the line of duty […]

Harvy Korman (1927 - 2008)

Korman, who was of Russian Jewish descent, was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ellen (née Blecher) and Cyril Raymond Korman, a salesman. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. After being discharged, he studied at the Goodman School of Drama. He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer […]

Paul Benedict (1938 - 2008)

Benedict was born in Silver City, New Mexico, the son of Alma Marie (née Loring), a journalist, and Mitchell M. Benedict, a doctor. He grew up in Massachusetts. As a young man, he suffered from acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that affects the extremities and face, which accounted for his slightly oversized jaw and large nose. Benedict […]

Lois Nettleton (1927 - 2008)

Lois Nettleton was born on August 16, 1927 in Oak Park, Illinois to Virginia and Edward L. Nettleton. She was Miss Chicago of 1948 as well as a semifinalist at the Miss America 1948 Pageant. Her professional acting career began in 1949. She understudied Barbara Bel Geddes in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ […]

Richard Widmark (1914 - 2008)

Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, the son of Ethel Mae (née Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. Widmark grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and also lived in Henry, Illinois for a short time, moving frequently because of his father’s work […]

Cyd Charisse (1922 - 2008)

Charisse was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea, Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nickname “Sid” was taken from her younger brother, Thomas Jarrell Finklea (June 25, 1923), who tried to say “Sis”. (It was later given the more intriguing and exotic spelling […]

Beverly Garland (1926 - 2008)

Garland was born Beverly Lucy Fessenden in Santa Cruz, California, the daughter of Amelia Rose (née Scherer), a businesswoman, and James Atkins Fessenden, a singer and salesman. Garland grew up in Glendale, California. She was a drama student of Anita Arliss. In the 1950s, many of her roles were of secure, tough women who could handle […]

Mel Ferrer (1917 - 2008)

Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in the Elberon section of Long Branch, New Jersey, of Cuban and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer (1857–1920), was born in Cuba, of Spanish ancestry, and was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. His […]

John Phillip Law (1937 - 2008)

Law was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff John Law and actress Phyllis Sallee and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law (also known as Tom Law). He worked as a film extra as a child, and had a non-speaking role as a courtroom page in John Sturges’s The […]

Julius Carry (1952 - 2008)

Carry grew up in the Lake Meadows neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. He attended Hales Franciscan High School, where, at age 15, he joined the Spartan Players, an acting group. He discovered a love of acting with the group, performing in plays such as Hamlet and West Side Story. After touring the country with the Spartan […]

Sam Bottoms (1955 - 2008)

Samuel John “Sam” Bottoms (October 17, 1955 – December 16, 2008) was an American actor and producer. Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the third son of James “Bud” Bottoms (a sculptor and art teacher) and Betty (Chapman), both of whom survive him. He was the brother of actors Timothy Bottoms (born 1951), Joseph Bottoms […]

Ivan Dixon (1931 - 2008)

Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III, was born in Harlem, the son of a grocery store owner. When he was young, Dixon lived in the brownstone at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same block with Josh White, Ralph Ellison, and the Hines brothers, (Gregory and Maurice). He graduated from the Lincoln Academy in Gaston […]

Rob Knox (1989 - 2008)

Knox was born to Colin and Sally Knox in 1989. He was a pupil at Beths Grammar School, Bexley. He had been acting since the age of 11, and his first credited role was a small part in an episode of the ITV police drama The Bill and he also appeared in the Channel 4 […]

Paul Scofield (1922 - 2008)

Paul Scofield was born in Birmingham England, the son of Mary and Edward Harry Scofield. When Scofield was a few weeks old, his family moved to Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, where his father served as the headmaster at the Hurstpierpoint Church of England School. Scofield told his biographer, Garry O’Connor, that his upbringing was divided. His father […]

Hazel Court (1926 - 2008)

Court was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, lived in the Boldmere area and attended Boldmere School and Highclare College. Her father was G.W. Court, a cricketer who played for Durham CCC. At the age of fourteen, she studied drama at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre, also in Birmingham, England. At the age of […]

Nina Foch (1924 - 2008)

Nina Foch was born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock in Leiden, Netherlands to American actress and singer Consuelo Flowerton and Dutch classical music conductor Dirk Fock. After her mother and father divorced when Foch was a toddler, she went with her mother to the United States, settling in New York City. As Foch grew up in […]

Allan Melvin (1923 - 2008)

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Richard and Marie Melvin and raised in New York City by his paternal grandparents, Frank and Helen (née Campbell) Melvin. He attended Columbia University. After graduation he served in the United States Navy during World War II and married his wife, Amalia Faustina Sestero, in March 1944 in New […]

Michael Pate (1920 - 2008)

Initially interested in becoming a medical missionary, but unable to afford the university fees due to the Depression, he worked in Sydney before 1938, when he became a writer and broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, collaborating with George Ivan Smith on Youth Speaks. For the remainder of the 1930s, he worked primarily in radio […]

Stanley Kamel (1943 - 2008)

Kamel was born to a Jewish family and raised in South River, New Jersey, and attended Rutgers Preparatory School. He started his acting career off-Broadway and broke into television with a role in Days of Our Lives as Eric Peters. Kamel had a recurring role on Melrose Place in 1994 as Bruce Teller, the Chief Executive […]

Barry Morse (1918 - 2008)

Born to a Cockney family, Morse was a 15-year-old school dropout and errand boy when he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He performed the role of the Lion in Androcles and the Lion and as a result came to know George Bernard Shaw, a patron of the academy. His first […]

Darlene Conley (1934 - 2007)

Conley, an Irish American, was born south of Chicago in Chicago Heights, Illinois, the daughter of Melba (née Manthey) and Raymond Conley. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Conley was employed with the traveling theater group the Chicago Uptown Circuit Players and Playwrights Company. She earned a bit part in the movie The Birds, […]

Anton Rodgers (1933 - 2007)

Rodgers was born in London, the son of Leonore (née Wood) and William Robert Rodgers. His early education was at Westminster School. Later he was educated at the Italia Conti Academy and LAMDA. He appeared on stage from the age of 14. He was well known for his television performances, specifically his long-running roles in […]

Nicholas Worth (1937 - 2007)

Nicholas Worth (September 4, 1937 – May 7, 2007) was an American character actor who portrayed General Marzaq and Premier Romanov in Westwood Studios’ Command & Conquer series of games, Emperor: Battle for Dune, and also voice-acted as Colonel Bulba/Mr. Jones in Freedom Fighters. He also took up several smaller roles in sci-fi programs like […]

Tom Poston (1921 - 2007)

Poston was born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of George and Margaret Poston; his father was a liquor salesman and dairy chemist. After completing high school, Tom Poston attended Bethany College in West Virginia, but did not graduate. While there, he joined Sigma Nu Fraternity. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1941. Accepted […]

Dabbs Greer (1917 - 2007)

Greer was born in Fairview in Newton County in southwestern Missouri, the son of Bernice Irene (née Dabbs), a speech teacher, and Randall Alexander Greer, a druggist. Greer moved to Anderson as an infant with his family. At the age of eight, he began acting in children’s theater productions. He attended Drury University in Springfield, […]

Charles Lane (1905 - 2007)

Lane spent a short time as an insurance salesman before taking to the stage at the Pasadena Playhouse. Actor/director Irving Pichel first suggested that Lane go into acting in 1929, and four years later Lane was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He became a favorite of director Frank Capra, who used him […]

Alice Ghostley (1923 - 2007)

Ghostley was born in Eve, Vernon County, Missouri in 1923, to Edna Muriel (née Rooney) and Harry Francis Ghostley, who worked as a telegraph operator. She grew up in Henryetta, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, she attended the University of Oklahoma but dropped out to pursue a career in theatre. Ghostley first came to Broadway […]

Barry Nelson (1918 - 2007)

Nelson was born Haakon Robert Nielsen in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Norwegian immigrants, Betsy (née Christophersen) and Trygve Nielsen but moved to America when he was 8 years old on July 1 1926 (His year of birth has been reported variously, but his 1943 Army enlistment record and his 1993 voter registration records […]

Marcheline Bertrand (1950 - 2007)

Born at St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island, Illinois, Bertrand was brought up in the nearby small town of Riverdale. Her parents were Lois June (née Gouwens; 1928–1973) and Rolland F. Bertrand (1923–1985). She had two younger siblings: a sister, Debbie, and a brother, Raleigh. In 1965, Bertrand’s family moved from the Chicago area to […]

Roscoe Lee Browne (1922 - 2007)

Browne was the fourth son of a Baptist minister, Sylvanus S. Browne, and his wife Lovie (née Lovie Lee Usher). Born in Woodbury, New Jersey, Browne first attended historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he became a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1946. During World War II, […]