Andrea King (1919 - 2003)

Andrea King was born Georgette André Barry in Paris, France in 1919 to American Lovinia Belle Hart. At two months of age, she moved with her mother to the United States. She lived with her grandmother in Cleveland, Ohio, and Palm Beach, Florida, for the first four years of her life while her mother attended […]

Rand Brooks (1918 - 2003)

After leaving school, he managed to get a screen test at MGM and was given a bit part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938). His big fame came with his part as Charles Hamilton in Gone with the Wind (1939). After Gone With the Wind, he had relatively small parts in other movies including Babes […]

Frederick Coffin (1943 - 2003)

Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin and writer Dean Coffin, and was one of five children. He was educated at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, where he was both a student and athlete. He began to study theater at WRA and graduated in 1961, with a B.A. […]

Norman Burton (1923 - 2003)

Born in New York City, Burton was a student of The Actor’s Studio. After early work on stage, he broke into films with a minor role in Fright (1956). His career in film and television was long and relatively successful, but he never achieved major recognition. He played the Hunt Leader, a gorilla, in the science […]

Penny Singleton (1908 - 2003)

Singleton began her show business career when she was a child, singing at a silent movie theater, and toured in vaudeville as part of an act called “The Kiddie Kabaret”. She sang and danced with Milton Berle, whom she had known since childhood, and actor Gene Raymond, and appeared on Broadway in Jack Benny’s The […]

Les Tremayne (1913 - 2003)

In 1974, Tremayne commented, “I’ve been in more than 30 motion pictures, but it’s from radio … that most people remember me.” His radio career began in 1931, and during the 1930s and 1940s, Tremayne was heard in as many as 45 shows a week. Replacing Don Ameche, he starred in The First Nighter Program from […]

Anthony Eisley (1925 - 2003)

Born Frederick Glendinning Eisley in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose father was a general sales manager for a large corporation. He was the father of Amanda Eisley, Jonathan Erickson Eisley, Nan R. Eisley, David Glen Eisley and grandfather of actress India Eisley. Following service in the United States Navy, he took drama classes at the University of Miami […]

Nedra Volz (1908 - 2003)

Nedra Volz Born in Montrose, Iowa, she began her career in the family tent show, and appeared in vaudeville as a toddler (called “Baby Nedra”). In the early 1930s, Volz was featured vocalist with Cato’s Vagabonds, a Des Moines, Iowa, big band that briefly enjoyed national popularity. Cato never made records, but Nedra managed to […]

Dick Cusack (1925 - 2003)

Cusack was born in New York City, the son of Margaret (née McFeeley) and Dennis Joseph Cusack. His family was of Irish Catholic background. He served with the U.S. Army in the Philippines in World War II. After the war Cusack attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he played basketball with […]

Lyle Bettger (1915 - 2003)

Born in Philadelphia, the son of Frank Bettger, an infielder for the St Louis Cardinals. He left school in his late teens with the ambition of becoming an actor. Bettger graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. His theatrical debut was in Brother Rat at the Biltmore Theatre in New York […]

Helen Kleeb (1907 - 2003)

Helen Kleeb (January 6, 1907 – December 28, 2003) was an American film and television actress. In a career covering nearly fifty years, she may be best known for her role from 1972 to 1981 as “Miss Mamie Baldwin” on CBS’s family drama, The Waltons. In 1956–1957, Kleeb guest-starred on CBS’s Hey, Jeannie!, starring Jeannie Carson. […]

Thora Hird (1911 - 2003)

Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing. She worked at the local Co-op before joining the Morecambe Repertory Theatre. Her family background was largely theatrical: her mother, Marie Mayor, had been an actress, while […]

William Marshall (1924 - 2003)

Marshall was born in Gary, Indiana, the son of Thelma (née Edwards) and Vereen Marshall, who was a dentist. He attended New York University as an art student, but then trained for a theatre career at the Actors Studio, at the American Theatre Wing, and with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his Broadway […]

Martha Scott (1912 - 2003)

Scott was born in Jamesport, Missouri, the daughter of Letha (née McKinley) and Walter Alva Scott, an engineer and garage owner. Her mother was a second-cousin of U.S. President William McKinley. The Scott family remained in Jamesport until Martha was thirteen years old when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri and eventually to Detroit Michigan. […]

Kathie Browne (1930 - 2003)

Born in San Luis Obispo, California, she appeared in many films and television series. Among them were four roles on CBS’s Perry Mason: title character and defendant Donna Loring Ross in the 1960 episode, “The Case of the Provocative Protégé,” defendant Susan Fisher in the 1962 episode, “The Case of the Mystified Miner,” murderer Carla […]

Madlyn Rhue (1935 - 2003)

Rhue was born in Washington, D.C. Rhue graduated from Los Angeles High School and studied drama at Los Angeles City College. From the 1950s to the 1990s, Rhue (née Madeleine Roche) appeared in some twenty films, including Operation Petticoat (1959), A Majority of One (1961), Escape from Zahrain (1962), Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, […]

Lana Clarkson (1962 - 2003)

Clarkson was born in Long Beach, California to Donna and James M. Clarkson, and was raised in the hills of Sonoma County, California. She has a brother, Jessee J. Clarkson, and a sister Fawn. While living in Northern California, she attended Cloverdale High School and also Pacific Union College Preparatory School. During the Christmas season […]

Bing Russell (1926 - 2003)

Russell was born Neil Oliver Russell in Brattleboro, Vermont, the son of Ruth Stewart (née Vogel) and Warren Oliver Russell. He always wanted to become an actor and studied drama at Brattleboro High School. As a boy, he was dubbed an unofficial mascot of the New York Yankees, becoming good friends with the likes of […]

Donald O’Connor (1925 - 2003)

Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his home town, O’Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago. His parents, Effie Irene (née Crane) and John Edward “Chuck” O’Connor, were vaudeville entertainers. His father’s family was from County Cork, Ireland. When O’Connor was only a few years old, he and his sister Arlene were […]

IKE TURNER (1931 - 2007)

IKE TURNER Music legend Ike Turner, whose abusive marriage to singer Tina Turner made his name a virtual byword for domestic violence, has died at the age of 76. Turner died at his house near San Diego yesterday after a rollercoaster musical career spanning more than five decades. Last night his ex-wife, soul legend Tina […]

David Hemmings (1941 - 2003)

David Hemmings was born in Guildford, Surrey, to a cookie salesman father. His education at Alleyn’s School, Glyn Grammar School in Ewell, and the Arts Educational School, led him to start his career performing as a boy soprano in several works by the composer Benjamin Britten, who formed a close friendship with him at this […]

Lynne Thigpen (1948 - 2003)

Born in Joliet, Illinois, Thigpen obtained a degree in teaching. She taught English in high school briefly while studying theatre and dance at the University of Illinois. Thigpen moved to New York City in 1971 to begin her career as a stage actress. She had a long and prolific theater career, and appeared in numerous […]

Alan Bates (1934 - 2003)

Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home, Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist, who lived in Allestree, Derby, at the time. The family briefly moved to […]

Gregory Hines (1946 - 2003)

Hines was born in New York City, the son of Alma Iola (Lawless) and Maurice Robert Hines, a dancer, musician, and actor. Hines began tapping when he was two years old, and began dancing semi-professionally at the age of five. Since then, he and his older brother Maurice performed together, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. […]

Jack Elam (1920 - 2003)

Elam was born in Miami in Gila County in south central Arizona, to Millard Elam and Alice Amelia Kirby. His mother died in 1922 when Jack was two years old. By 1930, he was living with his father, older sister Mildred, and their stepmother, Flossie Varney Elam. He grew up picking cotton and lost the sight […]

Horst Buchholz (1933 - 2003)

Horst Buchholz was born in Berlin, the son of Maria Hasenkamp. He never knew his biological father, but took the surname of his stepfather Hugo Buchholz, a shoemaker, whom his mother married in 1938. His half-sister Heidi, born in 1941, gave him the nickname “Hotte”, which he kept for the rest of his life. During […]

Richard Crenna (1926 - 2003)

Crenna was born in Los Angeles, the only child of Edith J. (née Pollette), who was a hotel manager in LA, and Domenick Anthony Crenna, a pharmacist. His parents were both of Italian descent. Crenna attended Virgil Junior High School, followed by Belmont High School in Los Angeles. Following high school, Crenna served in the […]

Elia Kazan (1909 - 2003)

Elia Kazan (born Elias Kazantzoglou, September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American director, producer, writer and actor, described by The New York Times as “one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history”. He was born in Istanbul, to Cappadocian Greek parents. After studying acting at Yale, he acted […]

Earl Hindman (1942 - 2003)

Earl John Hindman (October 20, 1942 – December 29, 2003) was an American film and television actor, best known for his role as the kindly neighbor (whose lower face was always hidden from television viewers) Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. on the television sitcom Home Improvement (1991–1999). Long before this role, however, he played villains in two […]

Jonathan Brandis (1976 - 2003)

Brandis was born in Danbury, Connecticut. He was the only child of Mary, a teacher and personal manager, and Gregory Brandis, a food distributor and firefighter. He began his career as a child model at the age of 4, and began acting in television commercials.  At the age of six, Brandis won the role of […]