Terence Fisher (1904 - 1980)

Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film […]

Dirch Passer (1926 - 1980)

When he was young, Passer was very shy, and had a dream of becoming an actor, but consented to his father’s wishes by attending J. Lauritzen’s sea training school near Svendborg in 1944. But since he had ongoing problems with seasickness, he later started at De frederiksbergske teatres Elevskole.  During the 1950s he formed a […]

Charles Denner (1926 - 1995)

Denner was born in 1926 in the city of Tarnów in south-eastern Poland, before emigrating with his family to France at the age of four. During World War II, his family took refuge in Brive-la-Gaillarde, where they were helped by Rabbi David Feuerwerker. During WWII Charles Denner was a Free French partisan in the Vercors […]

Alfred Ryder (1916 - 1995)

Alfred Ryder (born Alfred Jacob Corn; January 5, 1916 – April 16, 1995) was an American film, radio and television actor. Ryder is known for appearing in over one hundred television shows, including the starring role as a British criminal who could not be killed in Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond episode “The Devil’s Laughter’” […]

Mary Beth Hughes (1919 - 1995)

Born Mary Elizabeth Hughes in Alton, Illinois, Hughes’ parents divorced in 1923. After the divorce, Hughes’s mother, Mary Frances Hughes (née Lucas), moved with her only child to Washington, D.C. As a child, Hughes began acting in stage productions. While acting in a school play in the early 1930s, her performance caught the attention of […]

Alexander Knox (1907 - 1995)

Knox was born in Strathroy, Ontario and graduated from the University of Western Ontario. He later moved to Boston, Massachusetts to perform on the stage with the Boston Repertory Theatre. After the company folded following the stock market crash of 1929, Knox returned to London, Ontario where for the next two years he worked as […]

Patric Knowles (1911 - 1995)

In his first American film, Give Me Your Heart (1936), released in Great Britain as Sweet Aloes, Knowles was cast as a titled Englishman of means.  While making The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) at Lone Pine, California, he befriended Errol Flynn, whom he closely resembled and whose acquaintance he had made in England […]

Christopher Stone (1942 - 1995)

Stone was born Thomas Edward Bourassa in Manchester, New Hampshire.  He appeared in films and on television from the early 1970s until his death in 1995. Stone and his wife, Dee Wallace both appeared together in a number of films including the classic horror films The Howling (1981) and Cujo (1983). They shared top billing […]

Michael Hordern (1911 - 1995)

Hordern was born in the Poplars, an 18th-century townhouse in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the son of Margaret Emily (Murray) and Capt. Edward Joseph Calverly Hordern. He was educated at Windlesham House School and Brighton College, as was his elder brother Peter, who played rugby for Gloucester in the 1930s and was capped four times by England. […]

Jimmy Jewel (1909 - 1995)

The son of a comedian and actor who also used the stage name Jimmy Jewel, the youngster made his stage debut in Robinson Crusoe in Barnsley, at the age of four, performed with his father from the age of 10 and subsequently became stage manager for the family show.  When young Jimmy started his own […]

Harriet Nelson (1909 - 1994)

She was born Peggy Louise Snyder in Des Moines, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Dell (née McNutt) and Roy Hilliard Snyder. She appeared on the vaudeville stage when she was three years old and made her debut on Broadway in her teens.  She frequented the Cotton Club, began smoking at age 13, was briefly married […]

Bert Freed (1919 - 1994)

Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, Freed began acting while attending Penn State University, and made his Broadway debut in 1942. Following World War II Army service in the European Theatre, he appeared in the Broadway musical The Day Before Spring in 1945 and dozens of television shows between 1947 and 1985. His […]

Henry Mancini (1924 - 1994)

Mancini was born in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, and was raised near Pittsburgh, in the steel town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. His parents emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Mancini’s father, Quinto (born March 13, 1893, Scanno, Italy) was a steelworker, who made his only child begin piccolo lessons at the age […]

Giulietta Masina (1921 - 1994)

Giulia Anna Masina was born in San Giorgio di Piano, Bologna. Her parents were Gaetano Masina, a violinist and a music teacher, and Anna Flavia Pasqualini, a schoolteacher. Nonetheless, she spent most of her childhood and adolescence in Rome at the home of a widowed aunt. Masina had three elder siblings: Eugenia, and twins Mario […]

Frank Thring (1926 - 1994)

Thring was born in Melbourne, the son of Frank Thring Snr. (known as F. W. Thring) and Olive (née Kreitmeyer), and was educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father was the head of the theatrical firm J. C. Williamson’s in the 1920s, and subsequently Efftee Studios in the 1930s, in Melbourne, Australia. He has […]

Lilia Skala (1896 - 1994)

Skala was born Lilia Sofer in Vienna, Austria. Her mother, Katharina Skala, was Catholic, and her father, Julius Sofer, was Jewish and worked as a manufacturers representative for the Waldes Koh-i-noor Company. Skala was one of the first women to graduate in architecture and engineering from the University of Dresden, before practicing architecture professionally in […]

Tom Ewell (1909 - 1994)

Ewell was born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky. His family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers but Ewell decided to pursue acting instead. Ewell began acting in summer stock in 1928 with Don Ameche, before moving to New York City in 1931. He enrolled in the […]

Lynne Frederick (1954 - 1994)

Frederick was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex to Andrew Frederick (1914-1983) and Iris C. (née Sullivan) Frederick (1928-2006). Her mother became a casting director for Thames Television. Lynne’s parents separated when she was two years old, and she was brought up by her mother, Iris, and her grandmother, Cecilia, at Market Harborough, Leicestershire.  Having originally aspired […]

Fernando Rey (1917 - 1994)

Rey was born in A Coruña, Spain, the son of Captain Casado Veiga. He studied architecture, but the Spanish Civil War interrupted his university studies which led him to his success.  In 1936, Rey began his career in movies as an extra, sometimes even getting credited. It was then that he chose his stage name, […]

Gilbert Roland (1905 - 1994)

He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was picked at random for a role as an extra. He chose his screen name by […]

Dub Taylor (1907 - 1994)

Taylor was born in Richmond, Virginia. The name Walter was shortened to “W” (double-u) by his friends and then “Dub.” His family moved to Augusta, Georgia, when he was five years old and lived in that city until he was thirteen. During that time he befriended Ty Cobb’s son and namesake, Ty Cobb, Jr. He […]

Hal Smith (1916 - 1994)

Smith was born in Petoskey in Emmet County in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, but he spent a significant part of his early years living in Massena, New York. He graduated from the Massena High School in 1936. His mother was a seamstress, and his father worked at the local Aluminum […]

Royal Dano (1922 - 1994)

Dano was born in New York City to Mary Josephine (née O’Connor), an Irish immigrant, and Caleb Edward Dano, a printer for newspapers. He reportedly left home at the age of twelve and at various intervals, lived in Florida, Texas, and California. After reaching an agreement with his father, he agreed to continue his education, […]

Noah Beery Jr. (1913 - 1994)

Beery was born in New York City, New York, where his father was working as a stage actor. He was given his nickname “Pidge” by George M. Cohan’s sister Josie. The family moved to California in 1915 when his father began acting in motion pictures. After attending school in Los Angeles, they moved to a […]

Sorrell Booke (1930 - 1994)

Booke was born in Buffalo, New York, a cousin of Max Yasgur of Woodstock fame. Fluent in five languages including Russian and Japanese, Booke earned degrees from both Columbia and Yale universities. He served in the Korean War as a counterintelligence officer. Booke was married to the former Miranda Knickerbocker (the daughter of Hubert Renfro […]

Rossano Brazzi (1916 - 1994)

Brazzi was born in Bologna to Adelmo and Maria (née Ghedini) Brazzi. He attended San Marco University[citation needed] in Florence, Italy, where he was raised from the age of four. He made his film debut in 1939.  He was propelled to international fame with his role in the English-language film Three Coins in the Fountain […]

Dennis Morgan (1908 - 1994)

Morgan was born Earl Stanley Morner in the village of Prentice in Price County in northern Wisconsin, the son of Grace J. (née Vandusen) and Frank Edward Morner. He was of Swedish descent on his father’s side.  He enrolled at Carroll College, now known as Carroll University, in Waukesha, Wisconsin as a member of the […]

Anita Morris (1943 - 1994)

Among many roles, Morris’s most prominent film role was as Carol Dodsworth, the mistress to Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People and for her sensual performance as Carla in the musical Nine opposite Raul Julia. While nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony Award as Carla, she lost to Liliane Montevecchi, also in Nine. 21 years […]

Robert Lansing (1928 - 1994)

Born in San Diego, California, as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan but was told he would first have to join the Actors’ Equity Association. Equity would not […]

John Doucette (1921 - 1994)

John Doucette (January 21, 1921 in Brockton, Massachusetts – August 16, 1994 in Banning, California) was a film character actor. He was a balding, husky man remembered for playing mob muscle and western bad guys in movies. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, between 1943 and 1987, Doucette appeared in some 260 movies and […]