Don Williams (1939 - 2017)

After the Pozo-Seco Singers disbanded, Don Williams briefly worked outside the music industry. Soon, however, Williams resumed his career in music. In December 1971, Williams signed on as a songwriter for Jack Clement with Jack Music Inc. In 1972, Williams inked a contract with JMI Records as a solo country artist. His 1974 song, “We […]

Blake Heron (1982 - 2017)

Blake Heron (January 11, 1982 – September 8, 2017) was an American screen actor. He is best known for his starring role as Marty Preston in the 1996 film Shiloh. Blake Heron was born in Sherman Oaks, California on January 11, 1982. After his parents divorced, he moved with his mother to Atlanta, then to […]

John Celardo (1918 - 2012)

After creating sports cartoons for Street & Smith magazines, John Celardo began drawing for comic books, including a job at the Eisner-Iger shop. During the 1940s, he was an assistant art director and a major contributor to the Fiction House line, notably for Wings Comics. Over decades, he did work for a variety of publishers, […]

Joe Orlando (1927 - 1998)

In 1966, Joe Orlando and writer E. Nelson Bridwell created the parody superhero team The Inferior Five in Showcase #62 (June 1966). This lighthearted feature would soon receive its own ongoing series. Orlando launched the Swing with Scooter series with writers Barbara Friedlander and Jack Miller in July 1966. After 16 years of freelancing, Orlando […]

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. […]

George Tuska (1916 - 2009)

George Tuska’s first work for the future Marvel Comics came in 1949, when Marvel’s predecessor company, Timely Comics, was transitioning to its 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics. His first confirmed credit is the seven-page story “Justice Has a Heart” in Casey – Crime Photographer # 1 (Aug. 1949). He quickly went on to draw in an […]

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 […]

Otto Binder (1911 - 1974)

Otto Binder entered comics in 1939 on the heels of his artist brother, Jack, who moved to New York to work at the studio of Harry “A” Chesler, one of that era’s “packagers” who provided outsourced content for publishers entering the new medium of comic books. The following year, magazine publisher Fawcett Publications began its […]

Gus Wickie (1885 - 1947)

Gus Wicke was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States with his father, also named August Wicke. He became a U.S. citizen when his father was naturalized before the younger Wicke reached the age of majority. He was living in West New York, New Jersey, when he registered for the World War I […]

Willard Bowsky (1907 - 1944)

Willard Bowsky was born in New Jersey in 1907 into an Italian-German Jewish immigrant family, the second son of Herman Bowsky and Emma L. Bowsky (née Cimiotti), both born in New York City. Herman Bowsky’s parents emigrated from Germany; while Emma’s father was born in Austria of Italian descent and emigrated from there as a […]

Seymour Kneitel (1908 - 1964)

In 1928, Seymour Kneitel returned to Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener, staying there for fourteen years (1928–1942), He was there only about six months when he became an animator, and a year later became a head animator. During his time there he provided animation for many films, including the Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor […]

Fletcher Henderson (1897 - 1952)

James Fletcher Henderson was born in Cuthbert, Georgia, in 1897. He grew up in a middle-class African-American family. His father, Fletcher H. Henderson Sr. (1857–1943), was the principal of the nearby Howard Normal Randolph School from 1880 until 1942. His home, now known as the Fletcher Henderson House, is a historic site. His mother, a […]

Tampa Red (1904 - 1981)

Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia. His parents died when he was a child, and he moved to Tampa, Florida, where he was raised by his aunt and grandmother and adopted their surname, Whittaker. He emulated his older brother, Eddie, who played the guitar, and he was especially inspired by an old […]

Ida Cox (1888 - 1967)

In 1929, Ida Cox and Crump formed their own tent show revue, aptly named Raisin’ Cain (after the biblical story of Cain and Abel and the resulting colloquialism). Cox performed as the title act, and Crump served as both accompanist and manager. Through the end of the 1920s and into the early 1930s, Raisin’ Cain […]

Ma Rainey (1886 - 1939)

Pridgett claimed to have been born on April 26, 1886 (beginning with the 1910 census, taken April 25, 1910), in Columbus, Georgia. However, the 1900 census indicates she was born in September 1882 in Alabama, and researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest that her birthplace was in Russell County, Alabama. She was the second […]

Mike Berniker (1935 - 2008)

Michael Berniker (June 30, 1935 – July 25, 2008) was an American record producer who was recognized with nine Grammy Awards over the course of his career for his work on albums with such performers as Perry Como, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, Johnny Mathis and Barbra Streisand, as well as Broadway theatre cast recordings, […]

Bill Finegan (1917 - 2008)

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Bill Finegan grew up in a household full of piano players. While growing up in Rumson, New Jersey, he taught orchestration to schoolmate Nelson Riddle, and he studied piano with Elizabeth Connelly, piano and musicianship with flautist/alto saxophonist Rudolph John Winthrop (1883–1959), himself a student of Engelbert Humperdinck. He spent time […]

Roland Hanna (1932 - 2002)

Roland Pembroke Hanna (February 10, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan – November 13, 2002 in Hackensack, New Jersey) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and teacher. Hanna studied classical piano from the age of 11, but was strongly interested in jazz, having been introduced to it by his friend, pianist Tommy Flanagan. This interest increased after his […]

Larry Elgart (1922 - 2017)

Larry Elgart was born in 1922 in New London, Connecticut, four years younger than his brother, Les. Their mother was a concert pianist; their father played piano as well, though not professionally. Both brothers began playing in jazz ensembles in their teens, and while young Larry played with jazz musicians such as Charlie Spivak, Woody […]

Shelley Berman (1925 - 2017)

Shelley Berman began as a straight actor, receiving his training at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, honing his acting skills in stock companies in and around Chicago and New York City. In the mid-1950s, he became a member of Chicago’s Compass Players, which later evolved into The Second City. While performing improvised sketches with Compass, Berman […]

Gerard Philipe (1922 - 1959)

Born Gérard Philip in Cannes, France, he was of one quarter Czech ancestry from his maternal grandmother and three quarters French ancestry. As a teenager Philipe took acting lessons before going to Paris to study at the Conservatoire of Dramatic Art. When he was 19 years old, he made his stage debut at a theater […]

Michele Morgan (1920 - 2016)

Michele Morgan left home at the age of 15 for Paris determined to become an actress. She took acting lessons from René Simon while serving as an extra in several films to pay for her drama classes. It was then that she took the stage name “Michèle Morgan”. She argued that she did not have […]

Francis Blanche (1921 - 1974)

In the 1940s and 1950s, Francis Blanche was part of Robert Dhéry’s theatrical company Les Branquignols, with whom he played in the film Ah! Les belles bacchantes, starring Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset (Dhéry’s then-wife), and Louis de Funès; directed by Jean Loubignac in 1954. Blanche teamed up with Pierre Dac to form a comic duo best […]

Colin Welland (1934 - 2015)

As an actor, Colin Welland appeared as PC David Graham in the BBC Television series Z-Cars from 1962 to 1978. He was a sympathetic schoolteacher in a BAFTA-winning performance in the film Kes (1969), and a detective in the Richard Burton film Villain (1971). He appeared as a villain in one 1975 episode of The […]

Louis Pergaud (1882 - 1915)

Louis Pergaud accepted his first teaching position in Durnes. After a year, he was called to complete a year of military service with the 35th infantry regiment stationed in Belfort. In the fall of 1903, Pergaud returned to his post in Durne. In 1905 Pergaud transferred with his wife to Landresse, a village that would eventually […]

Yves Robert (1920 - 2002)

Yves Robert (19 June 1920 – 10 May 2002) was a French actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. Robert was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire. In his teens, he went to Paris to pursue a career in acting, starting with unpaid parts on stage in the city’s various theatre workshops. From ages 12–20 he set type as a […]

Mireille Darc (1938 - 2017)

Mireille Darc (French: [miʁɛj daʁk]; 15 May 1938 – 28 August 2017) was a French model and actress. She was Alain Delon’s longtime co-star and companion. She appeared as a lead character in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film Week End. Darc is a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur and Commandeur of the Ordre national du Mérite. Born Mireille […]

Mike Hegan (1942 - 2013)

James Michael “Mike” Hegan (July 21, 1942 – December 25, 2013) was an American Major League Baseball first baseman/outfielder, and later broadcaster. He was the son of longtime Cleveland Indians catcher Jim Hegan. A graduate of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Hegan began his major league career with the New York Yankees in 1964, also […]

Jay Thomas (1948 - 2017)

Jay Thomas made his annual Christmastime appearance with David Letterman for the first time in December 1998. Letterman and one of his other guests that evening, then-New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde, took turns tossing footballs at the Christmas tree across the stage, atop which sat a large meatball. As the two tried to knock […]

Tobe Hooper (1943 - 2017)

William Tobe Hooper (January 25, 1943 – August 26, 2017) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work in the horror film genre; his most recognized films include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. Stuart Heritage of The Guardian described The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as “one of the most […]