Al Checco (1925 - 2015)

Actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was drawn to entertainment at an early age and formed a comedy act with fellow actor Don Knotts, while serving with the United States Army during World War II. Checco’s break in the industry came, when he co-starred opposite Carol Channing (playing multiple roles) in the Broadway musical “Lend […]

Al Christy (1918 - 1995)

Actor. He appeared in the films, “Mr. And Mrs. Bridge” (1990), “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), “Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story” (1986), “Stand Alone” (1985), and “In Cold Blood” (1967). Also made television guest appearances on, “Punky Brewster” “The Twilight Zone” and “Bonanza.” (bio by: K)

Al Downing (1940 - 2005)

Al Downing was an entertainer, singer, songwriter, and pianist. He received the Billboard’s New Artist of the Year and the Single of the Year Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was a frequent performer at the Grand Ole Opry. Downing was nominated as Best New Artist by the […]

Al Feldstein (1925 - 2014)

Arriving at EC in 1948, Al Feldstein began as an artist, but he soon combined art with writing, eventually editing most of the EC titles. Although he originally wrote and illustrated approximately one story per comic, in addition to doing many covers, Feldstein finally focused on editing and writing, reserving his artwork primarily for covers. […]

Al Ferguson (1888 - 1971)

Actor. Born in County Wexford, Ireland, he was a prolific performer appearing in nearly 300 films between 1912 and 1958. He began his career acting in a traveling theatre troupe and made his screen debut in the short reel film “The Whiskey Runners” (1912). Cast mostly in western and action features, his many credits include […]

Al Freeman (1883 - 1956)

Actor and writer.  Family links:  Spouse:  Amelia Brooks Freeman (1889 – 1932)  Children:  Harold M. Freeman (1916 – 1944)* *Calculated relationship

Al Gerald “Al Capp” Capp (1909 - 1979)

Cartoonist.  Al Capp created the cartoon strip Li’l Abner during the early stages of the Great Depression in 1934.  It would last for 43 years  well beyond the Vietnam War until 1977 when its creator retired taking the entire hillbillyYokum family from mythical Dogpatch USA with him…Abner, Daisy Mae, Manmy, Pappy Yokum, Marryin Sam, Sadie […]

Al Hibbler (1915 - 2001)

Al Hibbler was born in Tyro, Mississippi, United States, and was blind from birth. Some sources give his birth name as Andrew George Hibbler.[3] At the age of 12 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he attended Arkansas School for the Blind, joining the school choir. Later he began working as a blues singer […]

Al Hirschfeld (1903 - 2003)

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved with his family to New York City, where he received his art training at the Art Students League of New York.  In 1943, he married Dolly Haas (1910–1994); they had one child, a daughter, Nina (b. 1945).  In 1996, he married Louise Kerz, a theatre historian. In 1924, Hirschfeld traveled to Paris […]

Al Jarreau (1940 - 2017)

Al Jarreau Al Jarreau, the acrobatically skilful, warmly soulful American singer, who has died aged 76, always seemed too generous an individual to get much pleasure out of proving knowalls wrong. But by the third decade of a career in which the jazz cognoscenti had often been snooty about his commercial leanings, and pop tastemakers […]

Al Jolson (1886 - 1950)

Al Jolson Legendary singer, actor, entertainer. Al Jolson was one of the greatest entertainers of the first half of the 20th century, referred to as the World’s Greatest Entertainer in his time. A singer and dancer of boundless energy and expressive face, Jolson’s greatest claim to fame was starring in the first talking motion picture, […]

Al Neuharth (1924 - 2013)

Al Neuharth was born into a German-speaking family in rural South Dakota. Neuharth’s parents were Daniel J. and Christina, who married on January 11, 1922. Daniel died when Al was two. Al needed to help his family survive the Great Depression. He worked on his grandfather’s farm. As a youngster, he also delivered the Minneapolis […]

Al Plastino (1921 - 2013)

While working out of a studio in New York City with two other cartoonists in 1948, Al Plastino showed sample art of Superman to DC Comics, which offered him work at $35 a page. Plastino, who had heard that Superman artists were receiving $55 a page, negotiated a $50 rate. Now settled in the comic […]

Al Shean (1868 - 1949)

Al Shean (12 May 1868 – 12 August 1949) was the stage name for comedian Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg, although other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg. He is most remembered for being half of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean, and as the uncle of the […]

Alain (1868 - 1951)

Philosopher.

Alain (1868 - 1951)

Philosopher.

Alain (1868 - 1951)

Philosopher.

Alain Cuny (1908 - 1994)

Alain Cuny (12 July 1908 – 16 May 1994) was a French actor. He was born René Xavier Marie in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and studied medicine for a while before entering the film industry as a costume and set designer. Cuny started acting in the 1930s. Among his most notable films are Les Visiteurs du soir (1942), […]

Alain Resnais (1922 - 2014)

Alain Resnais (French: [alɛ̃ ʁɛnɛ]; 3 June 1922 – 1 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Night and Fog (1955), an influential documentary […]

Alaina Reed Hall (1946 - 2009)

Hall was born Bernice Ruth Reed in Springfield, Ohio on November 10, 1946. In the mid-1960s she attended Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, where she was active in many productions at KSU’s E. Turner Stump Theater. These included “The Streets of New York”, “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman!”, and “The Tragedy of Tragedies […]

Alan “Boomie” DeWitt (1921 - 1976)

Actor. American motion picture and television figure from the 1950s to the 1970s. Appeared in the 1955 romantic drama “All That Heaven Allows.” (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Alan “Fluff” Freeman (1927 - 2006)

Born and educated in New South Wales, Australia, Freeman worked as an assistant paymaster/accountant for one of Australia’s largest timber companies after leaving school.  Freeman originally wanted to be an opera singer, but decided his voice was not strong enough. In 1952 he was invited to audition as a radio announcer and commenced working for […]

Alan A. Armer (1922 - 2010)

Alan A. Armer (7 July 1922 – 5 December 2010) was an American television writer, producer, and director.  Born in Los Angeles, Armer received a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama from Stanford University, a master’s in theatre arts from UCLA and an honorary doctor’s degree from California State University, Northridge. After college, Armer started […]

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr (1923 - 1998)

American Astronaut.  The first American into space, he is currently the oldest man to have walked on the moon.  Born in Derry, New Hampshire, the son of Army Lieutenant Colonel Alan B. Shepard and Renza Emerson Shepard, Alan Jr graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy (military high school) in 1941, and received a BS degree […]

Alan Bates (1934 - 2003)

Bates was born at the Queen Mary Nursing Home, Darley Abbey, Derby, England, on 17 February 1934, the eldest of three sons of Florence Mary (née Wheatcroft), a housewife and a pianist, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker and a cellist, who lived in Allestree, Derby, at the time. The family briefly moved to […]

Alan Berg (1934 - 1984)

Alan Berg worked at a shoe store and later opened a clothing store in Denver where he met KGMC-AM talk show host Laurence Gross. Impressed with Berg, Gross made him a guest on several occasions. When Gross left KGMC to take a job in San Diego, California, he requested that Alan Berg be named his […]

Alan Brookman Beddoe (1893 - 1975)

Artist. He is best remembered as Canadian war artist, artist and consultant in heraldry, and founder and first president of the Heraldry Society of Canada in 1965. After completing high school, he studied at Ashbury College in Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa, Canada. During World War I, he volunteered for the Canadian Army and in 1915 he […]

Alan Bunce (1902 - 1965)

Actor. He is best known for his role as ‘Albert’ in the television series, “Ethel And Albert” (1952-1953). He appeared in the films, “Homicidal” (1961), “Sunrise At Campobello” (1960), “The Last Mile” (1959), and “She’s My Weakness” (1930). Also made appearances on television in, “The Defenders” “The Nurses” “Stoney Burke” “Kraft Television Theatre” “The Clock” […]

Alan Campbell (1904 - 1963)

Motion Picture Screenwriter, Actor. Twice married to writer-comic Dorothy Parker, he teamed with her to produce Hollywood motion pictures screenplays. Their most famous screenplay was a collaboration with screenwriter and author Robert Carson that became the 1937 film “A Star is Born”, which starred Hollywood icons Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. The three were nominated […]

Alan Colmes (1950 - 2017)

Alan Colmes began his career in stand-up comedy. He developed his radio career in the Northeast, eventually working at stations such as WABC, WNBC, WHN, WMCA, and WEVD in New York City; WNHC in New Haven, Connecticut; and WEZE and WZLX in Boston. His radio career took off when WABC hired him for the morning drive […]