Lawrence Dobkin (1919 - 2002)

A former child actor, Dobkin began working in radio to pay for his studies at the Yale University School of Drama. He understudied on Broadway before serving with a radio propaganda unit of the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. When he returned to network radio he was one of five actors […]

Harold Russell (1914 - 2002)

Harold Russell was born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada and moved to Massachusetts with his family in 1921, after his father’s death in 1920. In 1941, he was so profoundly affected by the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor that he enlisted in the Army on the following day. While an Army instructor, and training with […]

Michael Elphick (1946 - 2002)

Elphick grew up in Chichester, Sussex, where his family had a butcher’s shop. He was educated at Lancastrian Secondary Modern Boys School in Chichester, where he took part in several school productions including Noah and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He initially considered joining the Merchant Navy and helped out in his local boatyard during school […]

Cliff Gorman (1936 - 2002)

Cliff Gorman (October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor. He won an Obie award in 1968 for the stage presentation of The Boys in the Band, and went on to reprise his role in the 1970 film version. Gorman was born in New York City, New York, the son […]

Raf Vallone (1916 - 2002)

Raffaele “Raf” Vallone (17 February 1916 – 31 October 2002) was an Italian footballer, actor and an international film star. Born in Tropea, Calabria, the son of a lawyer, Vallone attended Liceo classico Cavour in Turin, and studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Turin and entered his father’s law firm. He played professional Football […]

Dolores Gray (1923 - 2002)

Born as Sylvia Dolores Finkelstein (but known by Sylvia Dolores Vernon growing up) to Barbara Marguerite Gray (born Marguerite Gray) and Harry Vernon Finkelstein (Stage Name Harry Vernon) in Los Angeles, California. Both her mother and father were Vaudeville actors – which is how they met. Gray’s parents divorced when she was a young child. […]

Katrin Cartlidge (1961 - 2002)

Cartlidge was born in London to an English father and a German Jewish refugee mother. She was educated at the Parliament Hill School for Girls in Camden. Her work on Manchevski’s Before the Rain, and on No Man’s Land made her well known in the Balkans and Bosnia-Herzogovina. Sophie, in Mike Leigh’s Naked, was her first […]

John Agar (1921 - 2002)

Agar was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lillian (née Rogers) and John Agar, Sr., a meat packer. He was educated at the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago and Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois. He graduated from Trinity-Pawling Preparatory School in Pawling, New York, but did not attend college. He and […]

Jeff Corey (1914 - 2002)

Jeff Corey was born Arthur Zwerling[citation needed] in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mary (née Peskin) and Nathan Zwerling. He attended the Feagin School of Dramatic Art and took part in the New York Federal Theatre Project. He worked with Jules Dassin, Elia Kazan, John Randolph and other politically liberal theatrical personalities. Although he […]

Nobu McCarthy (1934 - 2002)

McCarthy was born Nobu Atsumi in Ottawa, Ontario, the daughter of Yuki (née Kano) and Masaji Atsumi, a Japanese fashion designer and diplomatic attache stationed in Canada at the time. She was raised in Japan, where she studied ballet. A modeling career eventually led to a beauty pageant where she won the title of “Miss […]

Dennis Fimple (1940 - 2002)

Dennis Clarke Fimple (November 11, 1940 – August 23, 2002) was an American character actor. He appeared in a variety of TV shows including Here Come the Brides, Petticoat Junction, M*A*S*H, Centennial, Simon & Simon, Sledge Hammer!, Knight Rider, Quantum Leap and ER. He also had roles in films such as Truck Stop Women (1974), […]

Dennis Patrick (1918 - 2002)

Patrick is known for his work in television shows. He made four guest appearances on Perry Mason, three of them as the murder victim: Martin Selkirk in the 1959 episode, “The Case of the Deadly Toy,” Martin Somers in the 1962 episode, “The Case of the Tarnished Trademark,” and golf pro Chick Farley — an […]

Jack Kruschen (1922 - 2002)

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Kruschen began his radio career while still in high school, and during the 1940s, he became a staple of West Coast radio drama. He had several roles in programs made especially for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) broadcast for the benefit of members on active duty in the military in […]

Merlin Santana (1976 - 2002)

Born in Brookyln, New York to parents from the Dominican Republic, Santana’s career in show business began with a push from his parents, who wanted to keep him off the tough streets of New York. He began his career at the age of three as an advertising model for a fast food chain. His first […]

Ted Ross (1934 - 2002)

Theodore “Ted” Ross Roberts (June 30, 1934 – September 3, 2002) was an American actor who was probably best known for his role as the Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz. He won a Tony Award for the original 1975 Broadway production, and went on to recreate the […]

Hildegard Knef (1925 - 2002)

Hildegard Knef was born in Ulm. Her parents were Hans Theodor and Friede Augustine Knef. Her father, who was a decorated First World War veteran, died of syphilis when she was only six months. Then her mother moved to Berlin and worked in a factory. Knef began studying acting at the age of 14, in […]

Kenneth Tobey (1917 - 2002)

Born in Oakland, California, Tobey was headed for a law career when he first dabbled in acting at the University of California Little Theater. That experience led to a year-and-a-half of study at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse, where his classmates included fellow University of California at Berkeley alumnus Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, and Tony Randall. […]

Leo McKern (1920 - 2002)

McKern was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of Vera (née Martin) and Norman Walton McKern. He attended Sydney Technical High School. After an accident at the age of 15, he lost his left eye. He first worked as an engineering apprentice, then as an artist, followed by service in the Australian Army […]

Eddie Bracken (1915 - 2002)

Bracken was born in Astoria, Queens, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940 film adaptation. He had performed in a short film series called The […]

Ted Demme (1963 - 2002)

Demme was born in New York City, the son of Gail (Kern) and Frederick Rogers Demme. He grew up in Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York and attended South Side Senior High School. He graduated from SUNY-Cortland in 1985. His media career likely began with a radio show at WSUC-FM (SUNY-Cortland) in Cortland, New […]

Brad Dexter (1917 - 2002)

Dexter was born Veljko Šošo (Serbian Cyrillic: Вељко Шошо), in Goldfield, Nevada, of Serbian descent. He spoke Serbian as his first language. Burly, dark and handsome, Brad Dexter was usually given supporting roles of a rugged character. Early in his acting career, he went by the name of Barry Mitchell. After a stint as an amateur […]

James Gregory (1911 - 2002)

James Gregory (December 23, 1911 – September 16, 2002) was an American character actor noted for his deep, gravelly voice and playing brash roles such as the McCarthy-like Senator John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the audacious General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and loudmouthed Inspector Frank Luger in Barney Miller […]

Rosemary Clooney (1928 - 2002)

Clooney was born in Maysville, Kentucky, the daughter of Marie Frances (née Guilfoyle) and Andrew Joseph Clooney. She was one of five children. Her father was of Irish and German descent and her mother was of Irish and English ancestry. She was raised Catholic. When Clooney was 15, her mother and brother Nick moved to […]

John Thaw (1942 - 2002)

Thaw was born in Longsight, Manchester, to working class parents Dorothy (née Ablott) and John, a long-distance lorry driver. Thaw had a difficult childhood as his mother left when he was seven years old and he did not see her again for 12 years. His younger brother, Raymond Stuart “Ray” emigrated to Australia in the […]

Kim Hunter (1922 - 2002)

Hunter was born Janet Cole in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Grace Lind, who was trained as a concert pianist, and Donald Cole, a refrigeration engineer. She attended Miami Beach High School. Hunter’s first film role was in the 1943 film noir, The Seventh Victim. In 1947, she performed in the original Broadway production of A […]

Rod Steiger (1925 - 2002)

Rodney Stephen “Rod” Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Cited as “one of Hollywood’s most charismatic and dynamic stars”, he is closely associated with the art of method acting, embodying the characters he played, which at times led […]

James Coburn (1928 - 2002)

Coburn was born on August 31, 1928 in Laurel, Nebraska, the son of James Coburn, Jr. and Milet Johanson; his father was of Scots-Irish ancestry and his mother was an immigrant from Sweden. The elder Coburn had a garage business that was destroyed by the Great Depression. Coburn himself was raised in Compton, California, where […]

Richard Harris (1930 - 2002)

Harris, the sixth of nine children, was born in Limerick, Ireland into a middle-class, staunchly Roman Catholic family. His parents were Ivan John Harris (b. 1896, son of Richard Harris (b. 1854), son of James Harris of St. Michael’s, Limerick) and Mildred Josephine (Harty) Harris (b. 1898, daughter of James Harty, St. John’s, Limerick, who […]

Robert Ludlum (1927 - 2001)

Ludlum was born in New York City, the son of Margaret (née Wadsworth) and George Hartford Ludlum. His maternal grandparents were English. He was educated at The Rectory School then Cheshire Academy and Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut were he earned a B.A. in Drama. While at Wesleyan, Ludlum joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. […]

Sandy Baron (1936 - 2001)

Sanford Beresofsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York; and while he was a student at Brooklyn College, to which he received a scholarship, changed his name to Sandy Baron—taking his inspiration from the nearby Barron’s Bookstore. He started […]