Dolores Michaels (1933 - 2001)

Michaels was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Raymond Roscoe Michaels and his wife Esther Marie Holcomb.). Her father had been a professional baseball player who was a catcher with the Chicago Cubs. He then became a food broker. Michaels had the same birthday as Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was born only five weeks before he […]

Jean-Pierre Aumont (1911 - 2001)

Aumont was born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons in Paris, the son of Suzanne (née Cahen; 1885–1940), an actress, and Alexandre Salomons, owner of La Maison du Blanc (a linen department store). His mother’s uncle was well-known stage actor George Berr (died 1942). His father was from a Dutch Jewish family; his mother’s family were French Jews. […]

Julie Bishop (1914 - 2001)

Bishop was born Jacqueline Wells and used her birth name professionally through 1941. She also appeared on stage (and in one film) as Diane Duval. She was a child actress, beginning her career in 1923. Early on, she appeared in several Laurel and Hardy films (Any Old Port! and The Bohemian Girl), and she settled […]

Scott Marlowe (1932 - 2001)

Marlowe debuted on televsion in 1951 on Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (1950–52) in the episode “Hostage” (June 8, 1951) His first feature film role was in the 1954 production of Attila. Two years later, he starred as John Goodwin in an episode “In Summer Promise” on General Electric Theater. He appeared as Jimmy Budd, along with […]

Kim Stanley (1925 - 2001)

Stanley was born Patricia Reid in Tularosa, New Mexico, the daughter of Ann (née Miller), an interior decorator, and J. T. Reid, a professor of philosophy and education at the University of New Mexico, located in Albuquerque. Her father was of Irish or Scottish descent, born and raised in Texas, where he met her mother […]

Joan Sims (1930 - 2001)

Sims was born in 1930, the daughter of John Henry Simms (1888-1964), station master of Laindon railway station in Laindon, Essex, and his wife Gladys Marie Sims, née Ladbrook (1896-1981). Sims’ early interest in being an actress came from living at the railway station. She would often put on performances for waiting passengers. She decided […]

Deborah Walley (1941 - 2001)

She was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers, Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen, she was playing summer-stock theatre. During her sophomore year, she attended Rosarian Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she was cast as Cinderella in the Academy’s annual musical […]

Michael Ritchie (1938 - 2001)

Ritchie was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the son of Patricia (née Graney) and Benbow Ferguson Ritchie. His family later moved to Berkeley, California, where his father was a professor of experimental psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and his mother was the art and music librarian for the city. He attended Berkeley High […]

Whitman Mayo (1930 - 2001)

Whitman Blount Mayo was born in New York City, New York, and grew up in Harlem and Queens. At the age of seventeen he moved with his family to Southern California and from there entered the United States Army, serving from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean War. Upon release, he studied at Chaffey College, […]

Jack Gwillim (1909 - 2001)

Born in Canterbury, Kent, England, he served in the Royal Navy for over twenty years, attaining the rank of Commander. During his time in the Navy, he became a champion boxer and rugby player, and when he was discharged he was one of the youngest men ever to obtain the rank of Commander in the […]

Eileen Heckart (1919 - 2001)

Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Esther Stark, who wed Leo Herbert (not the child’s father) at her own mother’s insistence so her child would not be born with the stigma of illegitimacy. The child was soon after legally adopted by her maternal grandmother’s wealthy second husband, J.W. Heckart, […]

Rosemary DeCamp (1910 - 2001)

DeCamp first came to fame in November 1937, when she took the role of Judy Price, the secretary/nurse of Dr. Christian in the long-running radio series of the same name. She also played in The Career of Alice Blair, a transcribed syndicated soap opera that ran in 1939-1940. She made her film debut in Cheers for […]

Edward Winter (1937 - 2001)

Winter was born in Ventura, California, and began his career on Broadway. Winter was twice nominated for Tony Awards as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical). The first was in 1967, as Herr Ludwig in Cabaret, then in 1969, as J.D. Sheldrake in Promises, Promises. He moved on to television, appearing on the daytime serials The […]

John Mitchum (1919 - 2001)

He initially appeared in only unbilled and extra roles before gradually receiving bigger character parts in middle age. Mitchum supported his more famous brother on several occasions, and was most famous in his own right as the friendly and food-loving Inspector Frank DiGiorgio in the first three Dirty Harry films. Mitchum was one of only […]

Beatrice Straight (1914 - 2001)

Born in Old Westbury, New York, Straight was the daughter of Dorothy Payne Whitney, of the Whitney family, and Willard Dickerman Straight, an investment banker, diplomat, and career U.S. Army officer. Her maternal grandfather was political leader and financier William Collins Whitney. She was four years old when her father died in France of influenza […]

Troy Donahue (1936 - 2001)

Born Merle Johnson, Jr. in New York City, Donahue was the son of a retired stage actress and the manager of the motion picture department of General Motors. One evening, producer William Asher and director James Sheldon spotted him in a diner at Malibu and arranged for a screen test with Columbia Pictures. It was unsuccessful, […]

Jane Greer (1924 - 2001)

The five-foot five Greer began life as Bettejane Greer in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Charles Durell McClellan Greer, Jr., and his wife, Bettie. In 1940, at age 15, Greer suffered from a facial palsy, which paralyzed the left side of her face. She recovered, but it has been speculated that the condition contributed to […]

Gloria Foster (1933 - 2001)

Gloria Foster was born on November 15, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois. As a young child she was put into custody of her mother’s grandparents. Gloria Foster never knew who her father was and she moved to Janesville, Wisconsin after her mother was hospitalized for a mental illness. Her grandmother, Eleanor Sudds, and her grandfather, Clyde […]

Billy Joe Royal (1942 - 2015)

Billy Joe Royal Billy Joe Royal, who scored the 1965 Top Ten single “Down in the Boondocks” and also made frequent appearances on the country chart in the Eighties, died suddenly Tuesday morning at his Marietta, North Carolina home, according to the Tennessean. He was 73 years old. Born April 3, 1942, in Valdosta, Georgia, Royal […]

Imogene Coca (1908 - 2001)

Born Emogeane Coca in Philadelphia, Coca was the daughter of Joseph Fernandez Coca, a violinist and vaudeville orchestra conductor, and Sadie Brady, a dancer and magician’s assistant. Coca’s father was of Spanish descent (the family surname was originally Fernández y Coca), the son of Joseph F. Coca, Sr., and his wife, Laura. Coca took lessons in […]

Jason Miller (1939 - 2001)

Miller was born John Anthony Miller in Queens, New York to Mary Claire (née Collins), a teacher, and John A. Miller, an electrician. His ancestry included Irish Catholic “with some admixture of German.” His family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1941, where Miller was educated at St. Patrick’s High School and the Jesuit-run University of Scranton. […]

Anne Haney (1934 - 2001)

Haney appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Survivors” as Rishon Uxbridge, and later appeared as a Bajoran arbitrator in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Dax”. She was a regular guest-star during the syndicated run of Mama’s Family, playing Alberta Meechum, the nemesis of Thelma Harper. On Our House she […]

David Graf (1950 - 2001)

Graf was born in Zanesville, Ohio, and later moved to Lancaster, Ohio and graduated from Lancaster High School. He studied theatre at Otterbein College in Westerville, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio where he graduated in 1972. He attended graduate school at Ohio State University until 1975, when he dropped out to pursue his acting career. Graf […]

Peter Jones (1920 - 2000)

Peter Jones was born in Wem, Shropshire and he was educated at Wem Grammar School and Ellesmere College. He made his first appearance as an actor in Wolverhampton at the age of 16 and then appeared in repertory theatre in East Anglia. In 1942 he acted on the West End stage in The Doctor’s Dilemma […]

Gary Olsen (1957 - 2000)

Olsen was born Gary Kenneth Grant in London and lived with an aunt and uncle after losing both his parents, Patricia and Kenny, at an early age. He attended the Archbishop Tenison’s Church of England School in Kennington. After school he joined various junior stage groups and toured with fringe theatrical companies, such as Incubus […]

Lila Kedrova (2024 - 2000)

Kedrova claimed to have been born in 1918, in Petrograd, Russia, although the year is impossible to ascertain. Her parents were Russian opera singers. Her father, Nikolay, was a singer and composer, a creator of the first Russian male quartet to perform liturgical chants. Her mother, Sofia Gladkaya (ru: Софья Николаевна Гладкая) (1875–1965), was a […]

Victor Borge (1909 - 2000)

Rosenbaum was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, into a Jewish family. His parents, Bernhard and Frederikke (Lichtinger) Rosenbaum, were both musicians—his father a violist in the Royal Danish Orchestra and his mother a pianist. Like his mother, Borge began piano lessons at the age of two, and it was soon apparent that he was a prodigy. […]

Isaac Hayes (1942 - 2008)

Isaac Hayes The soul singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes, known for his gravelly voice, shaven head and copious jewellery, died on Sunday at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 65. Hayes was found by family members, who discovered him lying next to a treadmill in a basement room at his home. Sheriff’s deputies performed CPR until […]

Marie Windsor (1919 - 2000)

Windsor, unofficially appointed “Miss Utah of 1939″ by the Chamber of Commerce of Marysvale, Utah, trained for the stage under Maria Ouspenskaya.[a] After working for several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, she began playing feature and lead parts in 1947. The 5’9” actress’s […]

Nancy Marchand (1928 - 2000)

Marchand was born in Buffalo, New York, to Raymond L. Marchand, a physician, and his wife, Marjorie Freeman, a pianist. She was raised Methodist. She graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1949. A member of the Actors Studio, Marchand made her Broadway debut in The Taming of the Shrew in […]