Harold Hitz Burton (1888 - 1964)

Harold was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, the second son of Alfred E. Burton and Anna Gertrude Hitz. His younger brother was named Felix Arnold Burton.  Harold’s father was an engineer and the first Dean of Student Affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1902-1921), reporting to the president. He taught at MIT before being […]

Warren Earl Burger (1907 - 1995)

Burger was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1907, and one of seven children. His parents, Katharine (née Schnittger) and Charles Joseph Burger, a traveling salesman and railroad cargo inspector, were of Swiss German descent. His grandfather, Joseph Burger, had emigrated from Switzerland and joined the Union Army when he was 14. Joseph Burger fought […]

Henry Billings Brown (1836 - 1913)

Brown was born in South Lee, Massachusetts, and grew up in Massachusetts and Connecticut. His was a New England merchant family. Brown entered Yale College at 16, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1856. Among his undergraduate classmates were Chauncey Depew, later […]

David Josiah Brewer (1837 - 1910)

Brewer was born to Emilia Field Brewer and Rev. Josiah Brewer, who at the time of his birth were running a school for Greeks in Izmir, Turkey; Mrs. Brewer’s brother Stephen Johnson Field, a future Supreme Court colleague of Brewer’s, was living with the couple at the time. His parents returned to the United States […]

Joseph P. Bradley (1813 - 1892)

The son of Philo Bradley and Mercy Gardner Bradley, Bradley was born to humble beginnings in Berne, New York, and he was the oldest of 12 children.[4] He attended local schools and began teaching at the age of 16. In 1833, the Dutch Reformed Church of Berne advanced young Joseph Bradley $250 to study for […]

Samuel Blatchford (1820 - 1893)

Blatchford was born in Auburn, New York, where his father was a well known attorney and friend of Daniel Webster. He was educated at Columbia College, graduating when he was 17 years old. In 1840, he served as the private secretary to Governor William H. Seward.  Blatchford read law while working for the governor and […]

John Blair Jr. (1731 - 1800)

Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, Blair was a member of a prominent Virginia family. His father served on the Virginia Council and was for a time acting Royal governor. His granduncle, James Blair, was founder and first president of the College of William & Mary. Blair attended William & Mary, receiving an A.B. in 1754. In […]

Harry Blackmun (1908 - 1999)

Harry Blackmun was born in Nashville, Illinois, and grew up in Dayton’s Bluff, a working-class neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He attended the same grade school as future Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, with whom he eventually served on the Supreme Court for some sixteen years. He attended Harvard College on scholarship, earning an A.B. […]

Hugo Lafayette Black (1886 - 1971)

Hugo LaFayette Black was the youngest of the eight children of William Lafayette Black and Martha Toland Black. He was born on February 27, 1886, in a small wooden farmhouse in Ashland, Alabama, a poor, isolated rural Clay County town in the Appalachian foothills.  Because his brother Orlando had become a medical doctor, Hugo decided […]

Philip Pendleton Barbour (1783 - 1841)

Barbour was born near Gordonsville, Orange County, Virginia. He was named for his ancestor Philip Pendleton through whom he was related to politician and judge, Edmund Pendleton. He attended common and private schools and graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1799. A year later he was admitted to the bar, […]

Henry Baldwin (1780 - 1844)

Descended from an aristocratic British family dating back to the seventeenth century, Baldwin was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Michael Baldwin and Theodora Walcott. He is the half-brother of Abraham Baldwin. He attended Hopkins School, and received a B.A at age 17 from Yale College in 1797, he attended Litchfield Law School […]

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)

He was born Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second child of English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and actor David Poe, Jr. He had an elder brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, and a younger sister, Rosalie Poe. Their grandfather, David Poe, Sr., had emigrated from Cavan, Ireland, to America around […]

May Allison (1890 - 1989)

Allison was born in Rising Fawn, Georgia, the youngest of five children born to Dr. John Simon (Sam) Allison and Nannie Virginia (Wise) Allison.  Violet eyed, Allison made her Broadway stage debut in the 1914 production of Apartment 12-K before settling in Hollywood, California in the early days of motion pictures. Allison’s screen debut was […]

Sara Allgood (1879 - 1950)

Allgood was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her sister was actress Maire O’Neill.  Allgood began her acting career at the Abbey Theatre and was in the opening of the Irish National Theatre Society, appearing in many of their plays all over Britain. She was frequently featured in early Hitchcock films, such as Blackmail (1929), Juno and […]

Sheila Allen (1932 - 2011)

Allen was born in Chard, Somerset, to Dorothy Essex (née Potter) and William Allen.  From the 1950s, Allen appeared in plays by Shakespeare, including for the RSC in both Stratford and London. Her first leading role was that of Katherine (“the shrew”) in The Taming of the Shrew for the Arena Company in Birmingham (1954–56). […]

Shelley Winters (1920 - 2006)

Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Rose (née Winter), a singer with The Muny, and Jonas Schrift, a designer of men’s clothing. Her parents were Jewish; her father emigrated from Austria, and her mother had been born in St. Louis to Austrian immigrants. Her parents were third cousins. Her […]

Robert Shaw (1927 - 1978)

Robert Shaw was born in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, in 1927. His mother, Doreen (née Avery), was a former nurse born in Piggs Peak, Swaziland, and his father, Thomas Shaw, was a doctor. He had three sisters, Elizabeth, Joanna, and Wendy, and one brother, Alexander (Sandy).When he was seven, the family moved to Stromness, Orkney, Scotland. […]

Viola Allen (1867 - 1948)

Allen was born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1867 (some sources say 1869 see discussion), the daughter of actors C. Leslie Allen and Sarah Lyon. She moved to Boston at three years of age and later moved with her family to Toronto. She was educated at the Bishop Strachan School, her brothers being educated at Trinity […]

Rex Harrison (1908 - 1990)

Harrison was born at Derry House in Huyton, Merseyside, the son of Edith Mary (née Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He was educated at Liverpool College. After a bout of childhood measles, Harrison lost most of the sight in his left eye, which on one occasion caused some on-stage difficulty. He first […]

Steve Allen (1921 - 2000)

Steve Allen Steve Allen is best known as the first host of The Tonight Show, but he was also an accomplished musician, composer, author and actor, with many books, musical compositions and films to his credit. After the death of his father, Allen and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. In 1947, he began hosting […]

Ronald Allen (1930 - 1991)

Ronald John Allen (16 December 1930 – 18 June 1991) was an English character actor who achieved the status of a soap opera star.  Allen was born in Reading, Berkshire. He studied at Leighton Park School in Reading and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, worked in repertory theatre, had […]

Harvey 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 […]

Maila “Vampira” Nurmi (1922 - 2008)

Born as Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi, she claimed to be the niece of the Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, who began setting long-distance running world records in 1921, the year before her birth. She moved to the United States with her family when she was two years old and grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio, home to the […]

Anthony Perkins (1932 - 1992)

Perkins made his film debut in The Actress (1953). He received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his second film, Friendly Persuasion (1956). The tall (6’2″, 188 cm) Perkins also portrayed the troubled former Boston Red Sox baseball player Jimmy Piersall in the […]

Ben Alexander (1911 - 1969)

Ben Alexander was born in Goldfield, Nevada and raised in California, Alexander made his screen debut at age of five in Every Pearl a Tear. He went on to portray Lillian Gish’s young brother in D.W. Griffith’s Hearts of the World. After a number of silent films, he retired from screen work but came back […]

Frank Aletter (1926 - 2009)

Frank Aletter (January 14, 1926 – May 13, 2009) was an American stage, film, and television actor.  During the 1950s, Aletter appeared on Broadway in Bells Are Ringing, Time Limit, and Wish You Were Here.  He soon moved on to a prolific television career, appearing as a guest on numerous shows between 1956 and 1988. […]

John Candy (1950 - 1994)

Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario, in 1950. The son of Sidney James Candy and his wife Evangeline (Aker) Candy, he was raised in a working-class Roman Catholic family. His maternal grandparents, Jozefa (Stefaniuk) and Frank Michael Aker, were immigrants from Eastern Europe, of Polish and Ukrainian ancestry. Candy studied at Centennial College in Toronto and […]

Mary Alden (1883 - 1946)

Born in New York City, Alden began her career on the Broadway stage. She spent five years on Broadway before moving to Hollywood where she worked for the Biograph Company and Pathé Exchange in the first portion of her career. Her most popular role in movies came in Birth of a Nation directed by D.W. […]

Marlon Brando (1924 - 2004)

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando was born in 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and his wife, Dorothy Julia (née Pennebaker). Brando had two older sisters, Jocelyn (1919–2005) and Frances (1922–1994). Brando’s ancestry included German, Dutch, English and Irish. His patrilineal immigrant ancestor, Johann Wilhelm Brandau, arrived in […]

Robert Alda (1914 - 1986)

Alda, an American of Italian descent, was born Alphonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo in New York, New York, the son of Frances (née Tumillo) and Antonio D’Abruzzo, a barber born in Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Benevento, Campania, Italy. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York in 1930. He began as a singer and dancer […]