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1-50 of 67
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz, the eldest of three children of Helen (Klein) and Emanuel Schwartz, Jewish immigrants from Hungary. Curtis himself admits that while he had almost no formal education, he was a student of the "school of hard knocks" and learned from a young age that the only person who ever had his back was himself, so he learned how to take care of both himself and younger brother, Julius. Curtis grew up in poverty, as his father, Emanuel, who worked as a tailor, had the sole responsibility of providing for his entire family on his meager income. This led to constant bickering between Curtis's parents over money, and Curtis began to go to movies as a way of briefly escaping the constant worries of poverty and other family problems. The financial strain of raising two children on a meager income became so tough that in 1935, Curtis's parents decided that their children would have a better life under the care of the state and briefly had Tony and his brother admitted to an orphanage. During this lonely time, the only companion Curtis had was his brother, Julius, and the two became inseparable as they struggled to get used to this new way of life. Weeks later, Curtis's parents came back to reclaim custody of Tony and his brother, but by then Curtis had learned one of life's toughest lessons: the only person you can count on is yourself.
In 1938, shortly before Tony's Bar Mitzvah, tragedy struck when Tony lost the person most important to him when his brother, Julius, was hit by a truck and killed. After that tragedy, Curtis's parents became convinced that a formal education was the best way Tony could avoid the same never-knowing-where-your-next-meal-is-coming-from life that they had known. However, Tony rejected this because he felt that learning about literary classics and algebra wasn't going to advance him in life as much as some real hands-on life experience would. He was to find that real-life experience a few years later, when he enlisted in the navy in 1942. Tony spent over two years getting that life experience doing everything from working as a crewman on a submarine tender, the USS Proteus (AS-19), to honing his future craft as an actor performing as a sailor in a stage play at the Navy Signalman School in Illinois.
In 1945, Curtis was honorably discharged from the navy, and when he realized that the GI Bill would allow him to go to acting school without paying for it, he now saw that his lifelong pipe dream of being an actor might actually be achievable. Curtis auditioned for the New York Dramatic Workshop, and after being accepted on the strength of his audition piece (a scene from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in pantomime), Curtis enrolled in early 1947. He then began to pay his dues by appearing in a slew of stage productions, including "Twelfth Night" and "Golden Boy". He then connected with a small theatrical agent named Joyce Selznick, who was the niece of film producer David O. Selznick. After seeing his potential, Selznick arranged an interview for Curtis to see David O. Selznick at Universal Studios, where Curtis was offered a seven-year contract. After changing his name to what he saw as an elegant, mysterious moniker--"Tony Curtis" (named after the novel Anthony Adverse (1936) by Hervey Allen and a cousin of his named Janush Kertiz)--Curtis began making a name for himself by appearing in small, offbeat roles in small-budget productions. His first notable performance was a two-minute role in Criss Cross (1949), with Burt Lancaster, in which he makes Lancaster jealous by dancing with Yvonne De Carlo. This offbeat role resulted in Curtis's being typecast as a heavy for the next few years, such as playing a gang member in City Across the River (1949).
Curtis continued to build up a show reel by accepting any paying job, acting in a number of bit-part roles for the next few years. It wasn't until late 1949 that he finally got the chance to demonstrate his acting flair, when he was cast in an important role in an action western, Sierra (1950). On the strength of his performance in that movie, Curtis was finally cast in a big-budget movie, Winchester '73 (1950). While he appears in that movie only very briefly, it was a chance for him to act alongside a Hollywood legend, James Stewart.
As his career developed, Curtis wanted to act in movies that had social relevance, ones that would challenge audiences, so he began to appear in such movies as Spartacus (1960) and The Defiant Ones (1958). He was advised against appearing as the subordinate sidekick in Spartacus (1960), playing second fiddle to the equally famous Kirk Douglas. However, Curtis saw no problem with this because the two had recently acted together in dual leading roles in The Vikings (1958).- Phyllis Davis was one of the loveliest faces in Hollywood during the late 60s-early 80s. She grew up in Nederland, Texas. The family lived on the second floor of her parents' mortuary business. Phyllis and her two younger brothers learnt how to be quiet during services, as the floors would creak. Phyllis attended Lamar College briefly, then went to Los Angeles in the mid-'60s to pursue a career in film and TV. She attended acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. Phyllis' first break began with small parts in Elvis Presley movies. Love, American Style (1969) were holding auditions for the show. 200 actresses had already been tested and rejected. Phyllis put on a bathing suit and was hired on the spot. After a five season run with Love, American Style (1969), Phyllis started to get some small movie roles. Phyllis was hired - and actually signed a contract, for the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever (1971), only to be told shortly afterwards the producers had dropped her, and hired Lana Wood to replace her. Still, Phyllis received residual checks for the film, as she had a signed contract. She had a chance encounter with Candy Spelling, wife ofAaron Spelling, who was then casting for a new TV series called, Vega$ (1978). Phyllis got the role of Beatrice, or Bea, for the series' run. After working on a regular series, Phyllis appeared in a few Aaron Spelling made-for-TV movies. Sadly, Phyllis kept her battle with cancer extremely private,, and after her passing away in 2013, there was some confusion as to which 'Phyllis Davis'had died.
- Actor
- Writer
"Every actor should have a Great Escape", wrote actor Lawrence Montaigne in his autobiography, "A Vulcan Odyssey". He was referring to The Great Escape (1963), in which he played a small role, as a Canadian prisoner (Haynes) who gets killed at the end of the film. Nonetheless, this was his self-declared favorite and career defining part. For most of us, Montaigne will be regarded as one of the most prolific science fiction actors of the era. We remember him as the robotic Mr. Glee in two seminal episodes of Batman (1966) versus "The Joker"; as Yellow Elk, a native American who finds himself in the base of The Time Tunnel (1966); as a Thrush agent on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), who manages to infiltrate U.N.C.L.E. headquarters; as a sinister alien assassin in The Invaders (1967); and on Star Trek (1966) as Spock's Vulcan "pon farr" rival, Stonn, and also as Decius, the first Romulan ever glimpsed on two episodes of the same series.
A native New Yorker raised in Italy, Montaigne began his career in summer stock at the Belgrade Playhouse in Maine. He was multilingual, had trained as a classical dancer and first came to California as a member of the Hollywood Bowl Ballet Company. His introduction to the screen came both via dancing and stunt work in swashbucklers, the latter aided by his being an accomplished fencer. After his military service in the Marine Corps, he completed his training at the Dramatic Workshop in New York. His role in The Great Escape (1963) opened the doors to regular engagements in television in such series as Perry Mason (1957), The Fugitive (1963), The Rogues (1964), Hogan's Heroes (1965), and, of course, Star Trek (1966). He retired in the late 1980s. Based in Las Vegas, he continued to be much involved in the convention scene and while working as a translator of medical texts.
Montaigne wrote a screenplay for Disney in 1978 and subsequently penned two novels: "The Guardian List" and "The Barrel of Death". He held a Masters Degree from North Texas State University where he lectured on film. Montaigne died on St. Patrick's Day 2017 in Henderson, Nevada, aged 86.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Joan Katherine Eunson was the daughter of playwright/screenwriter Dale Eunson and movie press agent, journalist and writer Katherine Albert. They were friends with Joan Crawford who became her godmother. With such connections in show business, it was always on the cards that teenaged Joan would divide her time "between the Broadway theatrical world and the swimming pools of Hollywood".
Brought up in an adult world, she attended the Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan, but dropped out before her sophomore year when she was signed at 14 years of age by Samuel Goldwyn. At that time, she had no formal dramatic training and only limited stage experience. However, a New York theatre critic had seen her perform as a child in the play Guest in the House and recommended her to Goldwyn who had been casting for a teenage lead in his next film.
Thus, Joan (now billed as 'Joan Evans') made her film debut opposite Farley Granger in the title role of Roseanna McCoy (1949). The wafer-thin romance was set against the background of the infamous hillbilly feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families which began in 1863 and lasted 28 years. Since the age of consent was 16, her parents lied about their daughter's date of birth prior to the picture's release, adding two years to her age. She appeared with Granger in two more RKO productions (Our Very Own (1950) and Edge of Doom (1950)) before headlining as a teenager driven to the brink of suicide by uncaring and irresponsible parents (played by Melvyn Douglas and Lynn Bari) in On the Loose (1951). The melodramatic screenplay was written by Evans' parents.
Next, she was loaned to MGM to appear in the Esther Williams musical Skirts Ahoy! (1952) (for the musical numbers her voice was dubbed by another Joan: vocalist Joan Elms), then to Universal to play Irene Dunne's daughter in It Grows on Trees (1952). Ironically, Skirts Ahoy was produced by Joe Pasternak, whose screen test Evans had failed years earlier. On that occasion, Pasternak had expressed the opinion that she would never make it in pictures.
Evans made a few more films, including a couple of westerns opposite Audie Murphy (Column South (1953) and No Name on the Bullet (1959)), the circus drama The Flying Fontaines (1959) and the noirish crime thriller The Walking Target (1960). She had several TV guest roles before retiring from acting in 1961, her last outing being an episode of Laramie (1959) .
In 1952, she married a car dealer named Gerald Kirby Weatherly (over the objections of her parents who thought her too young for wedlock) who asked her godmother, Joan Crawford, to try to talk her out of it. Instead, a secret wedding ceremony was performed in Crawford's home and Evans' parents were not informed. This ended the friendship between Evans' parents and Crawford but the marriage, against all odds, was a success and lasted until Evans' death in 2023. The Weatherlys had two children.
Post-retirement, Joan Weatherly devoted herself to family life. She worked for some time as an editor for the Hollywood Studio Magazine before becoming director of the Carden Academy in Van Nuys during the 1970s, teaching the largely classical-based "Carden Method".- Ken Norton was born on 9 August 1943 in Jacksonville, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Dirty Work (1998), Mandingo (1975) and Drum (1976). He was married to Rose Conant, Jacqueline Halton and Jeannette Brinson. He died on 18 September 2013 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Tommy DeVito was born on 19 June 1928 in Belleville, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for The Good Shepherd (2006), Casino (1995) and 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997). He died on 21 September 2020 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Michael Tylo was born on 16 October 1948 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for Intrepid (2000), Longshot (2001) and Stealing Las Vegas (2012). He was married to Rachelle Tylo, Hunter Tylo and Deborah Eckols. He died on 28 September 2021 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Billy Hinsche was born on 29 June 1951 in Manila, Philippines. He is known for Hell Ride (2008), Murderers' Row (1966) and Automan (1983). He was married to Martha Faith Nessel and Juliette Colden. He died on 20 November 2021 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Moyer Bupp was born in New York City, New York. Al Jolson was the hottest item on stage and Moyer's father nicknamed him "Sonny" after one of Jolson's songs. It was the height of the Great Depression and on the chance of a better job Sonny's parents loaded the children (all five of them) into the car and headed west. His very pretty 18-year-old sister June was offered an audition and was the first of the Bupp kids to become an actor in the movies. Ann was next in 1932, Tommy in 1933 and Sonny started in 1934.
At first he did mostly "extra" work and "bit parts", but eventually got better roles in movies such as Renegade Trail (1939), with William Boyd. He finally thought he made it with a starring role as Tommy Foster in the Warner Brothers film No Place to Go (1939), but due to the war in Europe the movie was shelved and his big chance faded away. He did get to play in some good movies and one of the best, Citizen Kane (1941). He still remembers Orson Welles with great respect and feels proud to be associated in a small way with the most famous motion picture of all time.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Danny's childhood dream was to play third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers. After high school, he was drafted by the Kansas City Royals. The Chicago White Sox drafted Danny after college, where he was an All-American at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. His professional baseball player until an injury ended his career. Many years later, he played a third baseman in the film Bull Durham (1988).
Danny was blessed with a great singing voice and the ability to make people laugh and a rare presence that would manifest itself in his new career. He spent 15 years traveling throughout the United States, working in the industry and perfected his repertoire of impressions. At the same time, he became one of the most sought-after performers in the corporate world, often playing to stadium-sized crowds for major international companies like IBM and McDonald's. Danny was the favorite of the Fortune 500 list. In 1995, he moved to Broadway to perform a well-received one-man show, but later decided to move to Las Vegas to reduce time away from his family, who lived in Los Angeles. He started performing at the Las Vegas Stratosphere Hotel in 1996, then the Rio Hotel and, eventually, The Mirage in 2000 where he became a permanent performer at The Mirage, where the Danny Gans Theatre was built for him. In early 2009, Danny changed venues again, and performed at Encore, which is the sister property to Wynn Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Strip marquee now bearing Danny Gans' image is the largest freestanding marquee in the world. His inaugural album, produced by contemporary Christian music legend Michael Omartian, was cross-marketed in both the pop and Christian music genres, and sold in both mainstream and Christian music outlets, in much the same manner as Amy Grant.
Danny's love of entertaining was only surpassed by the love of his family. Danny died in his sleep in the morning hours of May 1st, 2009. He is survived by his wife, Julie, and three children, Amy, Andrew and Emily.- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Mary Wilson, co-founder of The Supremes, helped garner an unequaled record of number 1 hits by a female group. Recording for Motown, Mary guided The Supremes into rock 'n roll history, turning her group into one of the three icons of the 1960's, alongside Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Mary never stopped developing new projects and toured the world entertaining her fans. She excelled in theatrical endeavors, such as the year-long Canadian tour of "Beehive", a play centered on a female musical group. Other theatrical experiences included her off-Broadway debut in "Grandma Sylvia's Funeral" in New York City, and "Mother Hubbard". Mary did a great deal of charity work, raising millions for AIDS through the People with AIDS Coalition of Tucson (PACT). She also raised funds for homeless people, cancer research and victims of child abuse, and was a Cultural Ambassador for the United States. Mary performed continually with orchestras, symphonies, and her own touring band. She wrote three books: "Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme" (1986), "Supreme Faith: Someday We'll be Together" (1990) and "Supreme Glamour" (2019). "Dreamgirl" remains the best-selling rock and roll autobiography ever published. She released several albums and in 2021 Motown released a compilation of her work as a solo performer.- Animation Department
Marty Schwartz was born on 3 March 1953 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. Marty is known for Hercules (1997), Aladdin (1992) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). Marty died on 18 February 2024 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Ransom M. Sherman was born on 15 October 1898 in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Winter Meeting (1948), Are You with It? (1948) and Father of the Bride (1961). He died on 26 November 1985 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Val Castelo was born on 18 October 1932 in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, Philippines. He was an actor, known for Conde de amor (1957), Hiwaga ng pag-ibig (1958) and Tiririt ng Ibon (1957). He died on 20 January 2022 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Sound Department
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
'Fast' Eddie Mahler was born on 20 December 1941 in California, USA. He was an actor, known for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The A-Team (1983) and The Greatest American Hero (1981). He died on 29 March 2021 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Sammy Shack was born on 31 March 1906 in New York, New York, USA. He was an actor. He died on 5 July 1985 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Gavin Mooney was born on 11 December 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for 9 to 5 (1980), Mannix (1967) and Police Story (1973). He died on 30 January 2003 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Steeve Arlen was born on 6 April 1934 in Neath, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for NewsRadio (1995), Another World (1964) and Frasier (1993). He died on 6 January 2016 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
Leon Spinks was born on 11 July 1953 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Untitled Leon Spinks Project, Risen (2010) and Facing Ali (2009). He was married to Brenda Glur, Betty Wilson and Nova Bush. He died on 5 February 2021 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Harry Reid was born on 2 December 1939 in Searchlight, Nevada, USA. He was an actor, known for Traffic (2000), Flying Objects: A State Secret (2020) and Houston We Have a Problem (2009). He was married to Landra Jay Gould. He died on 28 December 2021 in Henderson, Nev.ada, USA.
- Edmund Stoiber was born on 30 May 1925 in New York, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Hot to Trot (1988), Seems Like Old Times (1980) and The Next Step Beyond (1978). He died on 25 May 2013 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Michael Tata was born on 23 May 1971 in the USA. He died on 6 July 2004 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Vincent Graeff was born on 14 September 1931 in San Diego, California, USA. He was an actor, known for 1-2-3-Go! (1941), The Pigskin Palooka (1937) and Benjamin Franklin, Jr. (1943). He died on 8 February 2011 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Visual Effects
George Jenson was born on 24 June 1930 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is known for 2010 (1984), Logan's Run (1976) and Dune (1984). He was married to Susie Jenson. He died on 25 May 2018 in Henderson, Nevada, USA.- Julia Ruth Stevens, the adopted daughter of Babe Ruth, born in Athens, Georgia, on July 7, 1916, to Claire Hodgson. Stevens ultimately became the spokeswoman for the Ruth family. She was at Yankee Stadium in May 1998 for the unveiling of a postage stamp portraying Ruth admiring one of his home run drives. That August, she threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game in Fenway Park at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of Ruth's death. When the Yankees played their last game at the old Stadium, the House That Ruth Built, in September 2008, she threw out the first pitch. And she threw out the first ball at a Red Sox game at Fenway Park on July 10, 2016, to mark her 100th birthday three days earlier.