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1-50 of 130
- Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Kiev Province, now the Ukraine, to Polish parents Apollo Korzeniowski and Ewa Bobrowska. His father was a political activist and he and his family were exiled after he was suspected of involvement with revolutionary activities. Conrad had no friends as a child and rarely associated with boys or girls. His mother had always been a sickly person and died of tuberculosis in 1865. Conrad's father sent him to live with his uncle and pursue his education in France. Conrad's father died in 1869, also of tuberculosis. Conrad became an officer on British ships and spent two decades on various ships. Conrad was inspired to write "Heart of Darkness" after voyaging to Congo in 1890. In 1894, Conrad published his first novel and in 1896 he married Jessie George, an on-again off-again girlfriend. Conrad had few friends in adulthood, mainly fellow authors such as Stephen Crane and Henry James. Conrad died of a heart attack in 1924.
- Actor
- Director
- Art Department
Frank Currier was born in Norwich, Connecticut on 4 September 1857 and died on 22 April 1928 in Hollywood, California (blood poisoning).He was once anointed "the dean of cinema actors" by Photoplay magazine. He was an American actor and director of the silent era. He appeared in 133 films between 1912 and 1928. He also directed 19 films in 1916. A top character star for the pioneering Vitagraph company in the 1910s, Currier died from blood poisoning after having a finger smashed in a car door. He is memorable as the Roman Admiral who adopts Judah Ben-Hur (Ramon Novarro) as his son after Ben-Hur saves his life during battle at sea in the 1925 film Ben-Hur.- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Pioneering animator Emile Cohl was born Emile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet in Paris, France, in 1857. He began his career as a caricaturist, cartoonist and writer in his 20s, and in 1908 he was hired by the Gaumont film company as a writer. He soon also became a director, turning out comedies and fantasies, but animated films--which were just starting to come into their own--fascinated him and he began experimenting with them. He worked with line drawings, silhouettes and puppets, and in 1908 he turned out A Fantasy (1908), generally considered to be the first fully animated film (it consisted of 700 drawings of a character he created, "Fantoche", each separately photographed). He made more than 250 animated films between 1908 and 1923 for a variety of studios, including Eclair and Pathe.
Unfortunately, Cohl was financially ruined by the Great Depression of the early 1930s, and he died in poverty in France in 1938 after having caught pneumonia.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Edward Elgar was born on June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, near Worcester, where his father named William Elgar, was a music shop owner and a piano technician. Elgar was the fourth of six children. He was self-taught in all musical instruments, that were at his disposal in his father's shop, and he studied all the sheet music available in the shop.
Unrestricted by rules of "teaching", he remained highly original in developing his unique musical personality, that allowed him to surpass the other leading composers of his time. But having no teachers who would connect him into the entrenched musical establishment, it took all his genius, persistence and determination to advance through the rigid class structure of Victorian society. In 1889 Elgar married his student, Alice Roberts, daughter of the late General Sir Henry Roberts. She married beneath herself in opposition to her relatives. Alice played a vital role in Elgar's career by keeping a dogged faith in his genius.
Elgar was 42 when his "Enigma Variations" (1899) was premiered in London and brought him the first big success outside of his native Worcester. The performance of "The Dream of Gerontius" (1900) at the Rhine Festival in Dusseldorf earned him highest praise from Richard Strauss, who considered Elgar as the first English progressive musician.
The Coronation Ode "Land of Hope and Glory" came from his first "Pomp and Circumstance March" in D major (1901). Elgar prophesied: "I've got a tune that will knock'em-knock'em flat!... a tune like that comes once in a lifetime..." This piece became extremely popular and was later used in more than 30 films. In 1904 an all-Elgar festival was held at Covent Garden. In July of 1904, Elgar was knighted by King Edward VII.
Spending the winter of 1907-08 in Italy, Elgar composed the "Symphony No 1" in A flat. In just one year it had 100 performances all over Europe and in America, Australia and Russia, and was compared to the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven. The "Symphony No 2" in E flat was written during 1909-1911. It was dedicated to the memory of King Edward VII and was considered by many the greatest of Elgar's symphonic works.
Elgar's incidental music for a children's play "The Starlight Express" (1915) and his patriotic "The Spirit of England" (1917) on the war poems by Laurence Binyon preceded his last great masterpiece, the elegiac "Cello Concerto" in E minor (1919). It was used as a main theme in Hilary and Jackie (1998).
The death of Alice Elgar in 1920 took away much of Elgar's inspiration and will to write music. He made a series of studio recordings of his works for HMV. In 1928 he was created Knight Commander of the Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.). In 1933 he recorded his "Violin Concerto" in B minor with then young Yehudi Menuhin and a few weeks later both flew to Paris for performances of this concerto. Elgar died on February 23, 1934 and was laid to rest beside his wife.- William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909-1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921-1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection in 1912 by Woodrow Wilson after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death.
- George Backus was born on 15 June 1857 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Third Degree (1919), The Gamblers (1919) and National Red Cross Pageant (1917). He was married to Louise Salather. He died on 22 May 1939 in Merrick, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Generally considered to be the most brilliant legal mind in the history of American jurisprudence, Clarence Seward Darrow was born in Kinsma, OH, in 1857, the son of a failed minister who became a furniture-store owner and an intellectual but religiously puritanical mother. In 1873 he attended Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, but the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1873 swept the US that year, and Darrow was forced to leave school and find work--first in a factory, then in a store, and finally he spent three cold winters teaching in a country school.
At age 19 he entered the University of Michigan to study law, and was admitted to the bar at age 21. He began his first law practice in Andover, OH, then went to Ashtabula. After several successful years there he moved to Chicago in 1888. It was there he read and was greatly influenced by John P. Altgeld's "Our Penal Code and Its Victims", which reinforced many ideas he already had about the law and crime--that poverty is a cause of crime, not a result of it, and, most importantly to him, that the death penalty was what he blasted as "organized, legal murder". He put his energies into his causes and took on some of the most controversial cases of the day--defending and winning an acquittal for socialist and labor organizer Eugene V. Debs following the American Railway Union strike; getting acquittals on trumped-up murder charges for three Western Federation of Miners officials, including "Big Bill" Haywood, a firebrand labor organizer. His most famous case, though, involved the "Scopes Monkey Trial", in which he defended a teacher in Tennessee who--in violation of state law--dared to teach that the theory of evolution was valid. The trial attracted worldwide attention, and Darrow found himself up against the famous lawyer and politician William Jennings Bryan, a conservative ideologue with a reputation to equal his. Darrow lost that case, but it resulted in the overturning of that particular law, and the ensuing ridicule heaped upon it resulted in similar legislation in other states being overturned.
In addition to his activities as a lawyer, Darrow was also a writer, and in 1899 he edited a collection of his essays, called "The Persian Pearl". In 1906 he wrote "Farmington", an account of his childhood. He also wrote several sociological treatises, including "Resist Not Evil" in 1903 and "An Eye for an Eye" in 1904, and in 1922 wrote what is considered his best-known work: "Crime: Its Cause and Treatment". He didn't wrote solely on legal topics, however; he came out with "Infidels and Heretics: An Agnostic's Anthology" in 1929. His full autobiography, "The Story of My Life", which he called "a plain unvarnished account of how things really have happened, as nearly as I can possibly hold to the truth", was published in 1932.
Clarence Darrow was married twice--to Jesse Ohl, with whom he had a son, Paul, and whom he divorced in 1897, and later to Ruby Hammerstrom, who survived him. He died in 1938 in Chicago, IL.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Robert Baden-Powell was born on 22 February 1857 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Boy Scouts to the Rescue (1917), Boardwalk Empire (2010) and Boys of the Otter Patrol (1918). He was married to Olave Baden-Powell. He died on 8 January 1941 in Nyeri, Kenya.- Princess Henry of Battenberg was born on 14 April 1857 in Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London, England, UK. She was married to Prince Henry of Battenberg. She died on 26 October 1944 in Balcombe, West Sussex, England, UK.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Ruggero Leoncavallo was born on 23 April 1857 in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now Naples, Campania, Italy]. He was a writer and composer, known for Moonraker (1979), The Untouchables (1987) and To Rome with Love (2012). He was married to Berthe Rambaud. He died on 9 August 1919 in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Italy.- Kate Lester was born on 12 June 1857 in Souldham Trope, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Gay Lord Quex (1919) and His Royal Highness (1918). She died on 12 October 1924 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- John Glendinning was born on 30 November 1857 in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Lights Out (1946), Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951) and NBC Presents (1949). He was married to Jessie Millward (actress) and Clara Braithwaite (actress). He died on 16 July 1916 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK.
- Henrik Pontoppidan was born on 24 July 1857 in Fredericia, Denmark. He was a writer, known for Thora van Deken (1920), A Fortunate Man (2018) and A Fortunate Man (2018). He was married to Antoinette Kofoed and Mette Marie Hansen. He died on 21 August 1943 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- John C. Rice was born on 7 April 1857 in Beaverkill, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kiss (1896) and The Kleptomaniacs (1900). He was married to Sally Cohen. He died on 5 June 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Charles Lamy was born on 28 August 1857 in Lyon, Rhône, France. He was an actor, known for Les mystères de Paris (1922), Mon oncle Benjamin (1924) and Le blanc et le noir (1931). He died on 15 June 1940 in Orléans, Loiret, France.
- James Bradbury Sr. was born on 12 October 1857 in Old Town, Maine, USA. He was an actor, known for The Garden of Allah (1916), Abraham Lincoln (1930) and Hot Heels (1927). He was married to Florence May Saunders (actress) and Ruth Torbett. He died on 12 October 1940 in Clifton, New York, USA.
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Soundtrack
Composer, songwriter ("My Gal Sal", "On the Banks of the Wabash" [the official Indiana state song]), author, actor, singer, publisher and producer, educated at St. Meinrad's in Switz City, Indiana during training for the priesthood. He joined a medicine show at 16, then toured in vaudeville as a singer and monologist. In 1885, he was the 'end man' with the Billy Rice Minstrels. He joined the publishing firm of Howley, Haviland & Dresser, and then he formed his own firm. His other popular-song compositions include "Wide Wings", "The Letter That Never Came", "The Blue and the Gray", "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me", "Once Ev'ry Year", "The Curse of the Dreamer", "The Pardon Came Too Late"Don't Tell Her That You Love Her", "Your Mother Wants You Home, Boy", "Bethlehem", "The Outcast Unknown", "Mr. Volunteer", and "I Was Looking for My Boy, She Said".- Ermete Zacconi was born on 14 September 1857 in Montecchio Emilia, Italy. He was an actor, known for Don Buonaparte (1941), Processo e morte di Socrate (1939) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1943). He was married to Ines Zacconi. He died on 14 October 1948 in Viareggio, Italy.
- Frank Clark was born on 22 December 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Light of Western Stars (1918), The Lone Star Ranger (1923) and The Spoilers (1914). He died on 10 April 1945 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lawrence Marston was born on 8 June 1857 in the Czech Republic. He was a director and writer, known for The Millionaire Baby (1915), The Woman in Black (1914) and Love's Pilgrimage to America (1916). He was married to Mrs. Lawrence Marston. He died on 1 February 1939 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Armand Numès was born on 7 July 1857 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for Le père Goriot (1910), The Open Secret (1913) and La rente viagère de Monsieur Trompe-la-Mort (1909). He died on 2 May 1933 in Asnières-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- Actor
- Director
Frederick Vroom was born on 11 November 1857 in Clement, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was an actor and director, known for The General (1926), The Navigator (1924) and The Great Lover (1920). He was married to Florence. He died on 24 June 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Frederick Opper was born on 2 January 1857 in Madison, Ohio, USA. He was a writer, known for Happy Hooligan April-Fooled (1901), Happy Hooligan Surprised (1901) and Happy Hooligan Has Troubles with the Cook (1901). He died on 28 August 1937 in New Rochelle, New York, USA.
- Al W. Filson was born on 27 January 1857 in Blufton, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Monte Cristo (1922), Treasure Island (1920) and The Garden of Allah (1916). He was married to Lea Errol. He died on 14 November 1925 in Elsinore, California, USA.
- Herman Bang was born on 20 April 1857 in Adserballe, Alsen, Denmark. He was a writer, known for Michael (1924), 4 Devils (1928) and The Four Devils (1911). He died on 29 January 1912 in Ogden, Utah, USA.
- Camillo Antona Traversi was born on 27 November 1857 in Milan, Lombardy-Venetia, Austrian Empire [now Lombardy, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Il segreto del dottore (1931), The White Woman (1931) and Perché no? (1930). He died on 30 August 1934 in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, Ille-et-Vilaine, France.
- Milton Hershey was born on 13 September 1857 in Derry Church, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Catherine Sweeney. He died on 13 October 1945 in Hershey, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA.
- German playwright and novelist Hermann Sudermann was born into a poor family in Matziken, East Prussia, in 1857. His father was a brewer and descended from a line of very strict fundamentalist Mennonite Christians; one of his ancestors, Daniel Sudermann, was a Protestant clergyman who played a major role in fomenting the religious wars that wracked Europe in the 18th century.
As a young boy Hermann was apprenticed to a pharmacist but he detested the smell of the medicines and formulas in the pharmacy and ran away. He attended Konigsburg University, where he studied history and philology. However, he chafed at the restrictions and conventions of academic life at the time, and one day just stood up in the middle of a class and left, never to return.
He next showed up in Berlin, attempting to break into legitimate theatre as a writer, but met with such little success that he was forced to take a job as a private tutor in order to survive. He managed to get a job as an editor on a small political weekly, but eventually turned out a few novels that met with some success, "Frau Sorge" and "Geschwister", and in 1889 his play "Die Ehre" was produced in Berlin. In 1890 his novel "Katzensteg" (aka "Regina") attracted attention for its sympathetic portrayals of the poor and downtrodden.
His 1891 novel "Sodoms Ende" was declared "immoral" and temporarily banned by court order. His next work, however, is undoubtedly his most famous: the play "Heimat" (aka "Magda"), a major hit on stage (and a favorite of such stage luminaries as Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanora Duse ad Mrs. Patrick Campbell).
Apart from the occasional novel, Sudermann concentrated on writing plays for the next several years, but not entirely successfully. He actually achieved more success as a novelist than as a playwright, although the modern perception of him is generally exactly the opposite.
He died in Berlin, Germany, in 1928. - Paul Doumer was born on 22 March 1857 in Aurillac, Cantal, France. He was married to Blanche Richel. He died on 7 May 1932 in Paris, France.
- Joseph Tabrar was born on 5 November 1857. Joseph died on 22 August 1931.
- Richard Foster Baker was born on 25 January 1857 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Little Girl Next Door (1916), A Bunch of Keys (1915) and Kidder and Ko (1918). He died on 21 February 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- C.B. Hoadley was born on 7 June 1857 in Elyria, Ohio, USA. C.B. was a writer, known for Unto Those Who Sin (1916), Wildfire (1915) and A Shocking Night (1921). C.B. died on 18 February 1922 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Australian-born Lydia Yeamans came into the world aboard a ship going from Sydney to Melbourne. Both her parents were performers. Her mother, Annie Griffiths, appeared on the stage in Australia when she was ten years old. Annie joined the circus, and married a circus clown from New York named Edward Yeamans. The pair had three daughters: Lydia, Jennie, and Emily, all of whom became performers.
In her prime, Lydia performed in England. During a show for King Edward VII, she sang "Sally in Our Alley." The King was so impressed he presented her with a gold bar pin in which the first notes of the tune were shown in diamonds.
One of Lydia's famous acts was dressing as a baby, with a cap, bows of blue ribbons on her shoulders, and bare arms. She was one of the first vaudeville artists to have her own piano accompanist - he happened to be Fred Titus, her husband.
After her stage career, Lydia entered films and amassed quite a few credits. Late in life, she donated $5000 to the Motion Picture Actors' Relief Association. Ironically, her generosity would come in handy. In November of 1929, while strolling along Hollywood Boulevard, she suffered a stroke which left her paralyzed. She was cared for at a hospital run by the Association. She died on December 29, 1929. In accordance with her wishes, her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
William V. Ranous was born on 12 March 1857 in New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Treasure Island (1913), Othello (1908) and Julius Caesar (1908). He was married to Doris Thompson. He died on 1 April 1915 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Gertrude Atherton, a famed author during the early 1900s, was always more a novelist than a screenwriter, but, amid her fame as a novelist, she was given major opportunities during the silent era when studios began turning to literary properties to adapt for the screen. A 1932 Los Angeles Times article says that after her husband died in 1887 and was shipped back to Chile in a barrel of rum, the writer left the Atherton estate and, dismissing her dead husband as 'the second rate offspring of the Athertons,' moved to San Francisco. Eventually, she relocated to New York with a completed novel that shocked publishers and was derided by critics, but immediately made Atherton famous.
The Los Angeles Times reported that in May 1919, Rex Beach, president of the Authors League, and Samuel Goldwyn announced the formation of the Eminent Authors Pictures Corporation, an organisation that owned exclusive picture rights to works by famed authors, one of whom was Gertrude Atherton. Each signed author was given supervision over the motion pictures that were being made from their source material, although they rarely wrote the screenplays for their projects. Atherton was no exception to this rule, although she did work closely with studios during the production of films based on her novels. In a 1921 Los Angeles Times article, she called her life on the studio lot 'intensive, unique, exciting, almost unreal' and referred to herself as being 'as temperamental as a prima donna'. Although she mainly supervised the adaptations of her work, in November 1920 the Los Angeles Times reported that Atherton was working on her first original screen story titled Noblesse Oblige . In April 1921, the same paper reported that the film opened under the title Don't Neglect Your Wife. Although it is possible these are different films, they are both referred to as Atherton's first original screen story, so it is more likely that the title changed over the course of the production.
In 1933, Gertrude Atherton became part of Woman Accused, a large-scale serial project initiated by Paramount Pictures. The sound film written by ten popular authors received a mixed reaction. Critics noted that Atherton's classic touches were less recognisable than others included in the project. Providing further evidence that Atherton continued working with studios during the sound era, is a 1933 Los Angeles Times article. While original stories were never her focus in production, Atherton blurred the line between novelist and screenwriter during the silent era when she worked in two worlds of writing-inside and outside of the major studios. - Nat C. Goodwin was born on 25 July 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Marriage Bond (1916), Business Is Business (1915) and Oliver Twist (1912). He was married to Marjorie or Margaret Moreland, Edna Goodrich, Maxine Elliott, Nellie Baker Pease and Eliza Weatherby. He died on 31 January 1919 in New York City, New York, USA.
- George Gissing was born on 22 November 1857 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, UK. George was a writer, known for Why Men Forget (1921) and Your Favorite Story (1953). George was married to Edith Underwood, Marianne Helen 'Nell' Harrison and Nell Harrison. George died on 28 December 1903 in Ispoure, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.
- Ben Greet was born on 25 September 1857 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Victory and Peace (1918). He died on 17 May 1936 in London, England, UK.
- Alice Chapin was born on 28 August 1857 in Keene, New Hampshire, USA. She was an actress, known for Icebound (1924), Pearl of Love (1925) and Manhattan (1924). She was married to Harry Clarke. She died on 6 July 1934 in Keene, New Hampshire, USA.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Luigi Illica was born on 9 May 1857 in Castell'Arquato, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer, known for Deep Impact (1998), Quantum of Solace (2008) and 22 Bullets (2010). He died on 16 December 1919 in Castell'Arquato, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.- Richard Wirth was born on 19 December 1857 in Germany. He was an actor, known for Falsche Scham - Vier Episoden aus dem Leben eines Arztes (1926), Im Schützengraben (1914) and Goldene Herzen in eiserner Zeit (1914). He died on 13 December 1938 in Berlin, Germany.
- Harry L. Rattenberry was born on 14 December 1857 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Oliver Twist (1916), With Father's Help (1915) and All in the Same Boat (1915). He died on 9 December 1925 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Maurice Desvallières was born on 3 October 1857 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for La casta Susana (1944), Die keusche Susanne (1926) and La casta Susana (1963). He died on 23 March 1926 in Paris, France.
- Producer
- Production Manager
Jamshedji Framji Madan was born on 27 April 1857 in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India. He was a producer and production manager, known for Bilwa Mangal (1919), Dhrubo (1934) and Vasant Prabha (1924). He died on 28 June 1923 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India.- Herbert Waring was born on 17 November 1857 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Sleeping Partners (1930). He was married to Mabel Redhead and Florence Victorine Rouse. He died on 31 January 1932 in London, England, UK.
- Olive West was born on 18 August 1857 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Madame Butterfly (1915), Lonely Heart (1921) and A Flock of Skeletons (1916). She died on 29 May 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Charles Sheldon was born on 26 February 1857 in Wellsville, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Martyrdom of Philip Strong (1916), In His Steps (1936) and In His Steps (1964). He died on 24 February 1946 in Topeka, Kansas, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Oscar Byström was born on 31 December 1857 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. He was an actor, known for The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924), Janssons frestelse (1928) and Spökbaronen (1927). He was married to Constance Byström. He died on 4 June 1938 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.- Iisakki Lattu was born on 21 August 1857 in Kolpino, St. Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire [now St. Petersburg, Russia]. He was an actor, known for Kihlaus (1922) and Kihlauskylpylä (1924). He was married to Josefina Pitkänen. He died on 7 May 1932.
- S. Clarke-Hook was born on 16 July 1857 in Pancras, London, England, UK. S. was a writer, known for Jack, Sam and Pete (1919). S. died on 14 August 1923 in Bournemouth, England, UK.