Red Nichols (1905 - 1965)

Red Nichols was born on May 8, 1905 in Ogden, Utah, United States. His father was a college music professor, and Nichols was a child prodigy, because by twelve he was already playing difficult set pieces for his father’s brass band. Young Nichols heard the early recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and later […]

Steve Brodie (1919 - 1992)

Steve Brodie appeared in more than two hundred films, mostly from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s. He worked at various studios, including MGM, RKO and Republic Pictures, appearing mostly in westerns and B-movies. He played supporting roles in the majority of his films, including the 1947 film noir classic Out of the Past and […]

David Street (1917 - 1971)

David Street was born Patrick Devlin in Los Angeles, California. While in high school, he formed a trio that sang in local theaters. Street was a singer on the network programs Meet Me at Parky’s[2]:222-223 and The Sealtest Village Store. In the 1940s, Street had two programs that were distributed via electrical transcription. The David Street Song […]

Lisa Gaye (1935 - 2016)

Lisa Gaye was born Leslie Gaye Griffin in Denver, Colorado to Frank Henry Griffin, a painter, and Margaret Griffin, an actress. The Griffin family moved from Denver to Los Angeles, California, in the 1930s to be close to the developing film industry. Her mother, actress Margaret Griffin, was determined that Gaye and her siblings make their […]

Joe Santos (1931 - 2016)

Joe Santos  Joe Santos, best known for playing Lt. Dennis Becker, the frustrated L.A. policeman pal of James Garner’s private detective on The Rockford Files, died Friday, his agent, Alicia Beekman, confirmed. He was 84. Santos’ son son Perry told TMZ that his father suffered a heart attack at his Los Angeles home Wednesday and was put […]

Daryl Coley (1955 - 2016)

Daryl Coley Gospel singer Daryl Coley died this week at age 60, his son Te’Ceion Coley confirmed on Instagram. “I’m broken-hearted but full of joy that God Allowed me to be fathered by such an awesome man, father and friend,” Te’Ceion wrote Wednesday (March 16) on Instagram. Coley charted 14 entries on the Top Gospel […]

Frank Sinatra Jr (1944 - 2016)

Frank Sinatra Jr Some sons run from their fathers. Others ride their fathers’ coattails. Frank Sinatra Jr., who died Wednesday of a heart attack at 72, charted an even rockier middle course. “I was never a success,” he told The Washington Post’s Wil Haygood in 2006. “Never had a hit movie or hit TV show or hit […]

Gogi Grant (1924 - 2016)

Gogi Grant Gogi Grant, one of the premier vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s, is known for her crystal clear voice, perfect pitch, and strong vocal range. She was born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg on September 20, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Alexander and Rose Jacobsen Arinsberg, first generation Americans whose parents had come from England […]

Gil Hill (1931 - 2016)

Gil Hill  Former Detroit City Council president and Detroit police official Gil Hill has died today. Gil Hill passed away at 4:51 p.m. at Sinai Grace Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Bree Glenn. He was 84. The cause of death was respiratory illness — he had been battling respiratory issues for the last two years, and was admitted to […]

Lennie Baker (1946 - 2016)

Lennie Baker Leonard Baker, a member of the band Sha Na Na, died Wednesday in Weymouth, Mass., his nephew David Baker confirmed Friday in an obituary on the website of a local funeral home. He was 69. Lennie Baker was a people person. He had many friends and truly enjoyed time spent with all of them. His […]

Trevor Howard (1913 - 1988)

Trevor Howard was born in Cliftonville, Kent, England, the son of Mabel Grey (Wallace) and Arthur John Howard. He was educated at Clifton College (to which he left in his will a substantial legacy for a drama scholarship) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), acting on the London stage for several years […]

John Clements (1910 - 1988)

Sir John Selby Clements, CBE (25 April 1910 – 6 April 1988) was an English actor and producer who worked in theatre, television and film. John Clements attended St Paul’s School and St John’s College, Cambridge then worked with Nigel Playfair and afterwards spent a few years in Ben Greet’s Shakespearean Company. He made his first […]

Basil Dearden (1911 - 1971)

Basil Dearden was born at 5, Woodfield Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex to Charles James Dear, a steel manufacturer, and his wife, Florence née Tripp. Dearden graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean. He later changed his own name to Dearden to avoid confusion with his mentor. He first began working as a […]

Ralph Richardson (1902 - 1983)

Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career, and played more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical […]

Andrew Marton (1904 - 1992)

Andrew Marton, nicknamed “Bandy” (pronounced “Bundy”), (born Endre Marton; 26 January 1904 – 7 January 1992) was a Hungarian-American film director, producer and editor. In his career he directed 39 films and television programs, and worked on 16 as a second unit director, including the chariot race in Ben Hur. Andrew Marton was born in Budapest, […]

Julien Duvivier (1896 - 1967)

In the 1930s Julien Duvivier was part of the production company, ‘Film d’Art’, founded by Marcel Vandal and Charles Delac and he worked as part of a team. He stayed with them for nine years. David Golder (1930), was his first success. It was also his first ‘talkie’, as it was of the actor Harry […]

Frank Finlay (1926 - 2016)

Frank Finlay Mark Gatiss, Sir Roger Moore and Alexander Armstrong are among those who have paid tribute to actor Frank Finlay, who has died aged 89. Frank Finlay, a star of the Three Musketeer films, earned an Oscar nomination for his role as Iago opposite Laurence Olivier in Othello in 1965. On TV, Frank Finlay […]

Monte Irvin (1919 - 2016)

Monte Irvin Monte Irvin was not the first African-American player in the modern major leagues, but of all the talented players who made the perilous trip from the Negro leagues to the big leagues in the late 1940s, Irvin may have been the best. “Monte Irvin was the choice of all Negro National and American […]

David Margulies (1937 - 2016)

David Margulies David Margulies, an actor whose range took him from Broadway to Ghostbusters!, has died, according to his agent, Mary Harden. David Margulies, who was 78, was perhaps best known for playing the Mayor of New York in Ghostbusters andGhostbusters II, but his career stretches back to the 1950s, when he launched a stage career off-Broadway. […]

Bob Foster (1938 - 2015)

Bob Foster Bob Foster, the former world light-heavyweight boxing champion, who has died aged 76, was perhaps the greatest 175lb fighter of all time. A supremely gifted performer who made no fewer than 14 successful defences of the title he captured by knocking out the feared Dick Tiger in four rounds, he proved unbeatable at […]

Kieron Moore (1924 - 2007)

Kieron Moore grew up in County Cork in an Irish-speaking household. His father, Peadar Ó hAnnracháin (born 1873) (also known as Peter/Peadar Hourihane and Peadar O’Hourihane) was a writer and poet, and a staunch supporter of the Irish language. Peadar, a son of Seaghan Ó hAnnracháin (born 1834) and Máire Ní Dhonabháin (also born 1834) […]

Dick Shawn (1923 - 1987)

Dick Shawn was born Richard Schulefand in Buffalo, New York and raised in adjacent Lackawanna. The best remembered roles of his career are the hot-headed Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), in Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and easygoing Lorenzo St. DuBois/Adolf Hitler in the musical Springtime for […]

Arthur Treacher (1894 - 1975)

Arthur Treacher was the son of a Sussex solicitor. He was educated at boarding school in Uppingham in Rutland. Treacher was a veteran of World War I, serving as an officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery; his father had served with the Sussex Volunteer Artillery before his son’s birth. After the war, he established a stage […]

Herbert Biberman (1900 - 1971)

Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 – June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He may be best known for having been one of the Hollywood Ten as well as directing Salt of the Earth, a 1954 film about a zinc miners’ strike in Grant County, New Mexico. His membership in the […]

Vicki Morgan (1952 - 1983)

Vicki Morgan Vicki Morgan had a disadvantaged childhood, a lack of education tied into having become an unwed mother as a teenager after a years long relationship, and, it could be argued, had only beauty as an asset, so what hope did she have to escape her past, especially because she spoke with a lisp? She’d […]

Michael Wilding (1912 - 1979)

Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, and educated at Christ’s Hospital, Michael Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London film studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career. He appeared in numerous British films, often opposite Anna Neagle, but had a less productive career in Hollywood. His […]

Joe Pasternak (1901 - 1991)

Born to a Jewish family in Szilágysomlyó, Austria-Hungary (now Șimleu Silvaniei, Sălaj County, Romania), Joe Pasternak was a successful film producer in Germany and Austria by the time he was 28 years old. He worked for Universal Pictures in Europe, where he made German-language musicals for the international market. He hit upon a successful formula, […]

Charles Walters (1911 - 1982)

Charles Walters (November 17, 1911 – August 13, 1982) was a Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies in from the 1940s to the 1960s. He was born in Pasadena California and educated at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Charles Walters is notable for directing many popular and […]

Frank Morgan (1890 - 1949)

Frank Morgan “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” exclaimed beloved character actor Frank Morgan during a key moment in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) and his beautifully conveyed expression of embarrassment and desperation perfectly exemplified the capacity he displayed in so much of his work. He first established himself on stage, making […]

Mike Douglas (1925 - 2006)

Mike Douglas Mike Douglas, who drew on his affable personality and singing talent during 21 years as host of a syndicated television talk show, died today (Aug. 11) on his 81st birthday, his wife said.He died at 5:30 a.m. at a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., hospital, Genevieve Douglas said. She wasn’t sure of the cause […]