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- Dark-haired, Ivy League-looking Bradford Dillman, whose white-collar career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charm and confident good looks that were slightly tainted by a bent smile, darting glance and edgy countenance that often provoked suspicion. Sure enough, the camera picked up on it and he played shady, highly suspect characters throughout most of his career.
The actor was born in San Francisco on April 14, 1930, to Dean and Josephine Dillman. Yale-educated, he graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. Following this he served with the US Marines in Korea (1951-1953) before focusing on acting as a profession. Studying at the Actors Studio, he spent several seasons apprenticing with the Sharon (CT) Playhouse before making his professional acting debut in "The Scarecrow" in 1953.
Dillman took his initial Broadway bow in Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in 1956, originating the author's alter ego character Edmund Tyrone and winning a Theatre World Award in the process. This success put him squarely on the map and 20th Century-Fox took immediate advantage by placing the darkly handsome up-and-comer under contract. Cast in the melodrama A Certain Smile (1958), he earned a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Newcomer" playing a Parisian student who loses his girl (Christine Carère) to the worldly Italian roué Rossano Brazzi. He followed this with a strong ensemble appearance in In Love and War (1958), which featured a cast of young rising stars including Hope Lange and Robert Wagner. More acting honors followed after completing the film Compulsion (1959), which told the true story of the infamous 1920s kidnapping/murder case of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. He went on to share a "Best Actor" award at the Cannes Film Festival with fellow co-stars Dean Stockwell, who played the other youthful murderer, and veteran Orson Welles.
Though he was a magnetic player poised for stardom, Dillman's subsequent films failed to serve him well and were generally unworthy of his talent. Though properly serious and stoic as the title character in Francis of Assisi (1961), the film itself was stilted and weakly scripted. Circle of Deception (1960) was a misguided tale of espionage and intrigue, but it did introduce him to his second wife, supermodel-cum-actress Suzy Parker. While A Rage to Live (1965) with Suzanne Pleshette was trashy soap material, The Plainsman (1966) was rather a silly, juvenile version of the Gary Cooper western classic. As a result of these missteps--and others--he began to top-line lesser quality projects or play supporting roles in "A" pictures. His nothing role as Robert Redford's college pal-turned Hollywood producer in The Way We Were (1973) and his major roles in the ludicrous The Swarm (1978) and Lords of the Deep (1989) became proof in the pudding. His last good film role was in O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1973), although he did play an interesting John Wilkes Booth in the speculative re-enactment drama The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) and had a fun leading role in the Jaws (1975)-like spoof Piranha (1978).
Dillman bore up very well on TV over the years, subsisting on a plethora of mini-movies and guest spots on popular series, playing everything from turncoats to frauds and from adulterers to psychotics. He earned a Daytime Emmy for his appearance in Last Bride of Salem (1974) and starred in two series--Court Martial (1965), as a military lawyer, and King's Crossing (1982), as an alcoholic parent and teacher attempting to straighten out. He also spent a season on the established nighttime soap Falcon Crest (1981) in 1982.
A narrator, director and teacher of acting in later years. Bradford launched a late-in-the career sideline as an author. The football fan inside him compelled him to write "Inside the New York Giants" (1995), a book that rated players drafted by the team since 1967. Two years later he published his memoirs, the curiously-titled "Are You Somebody?: An Actor's Life." He retired from the screen after a few guest star shots on "Murder, She Wrote" in the mid-90s.
From 1956 to 1962, Dillman was married to Frieda Harding, and had two children, Jeffrey and Pamela. Following their divorce, he met well-known model-turned-actress Suzy Parker during the production of Circle of Deception (1960) and the couple married on April 20, 1963. They had three children, Dinah, Charles, and Christopher. Daughter Pamela Dillman has worked as an actress. Dillman was made a widower when Parker died on May 3, 2003. He lived for many years in Montecito, California, and helped raise money for medical research. He died in Santa Barbara, California on January 16, 2018, aged 87, from complications of pneumonia. - He had an unsettled childhood, his family never staying in one place for very long. The youngest of three brothers, Joel Anthony Fabiani was born to an Italian-Austrian father (Ernest Fabiani, 1902-1988) and an Irish and Native American mother (Bessie Fabiani, née Holcomb, 1903-1992). He attended seventeen different schools, eventually joining the army and then majoring in English at Santa Rosa Junior College. There, Joel was bitten by the acting bug and this led to a two year-long stint at the Actor's Workshop in San Francisco where he learned stagecraft. From there, he moved to New York and began his professional career in summer stock and off-Broadway. One of his first roles was as a court's clerk in the play One Way Pendulum at the now defunct East 74th Street Theatre. During this performance he met his second wife, the actress Audree Rae (his first marriage to fellow work shop alumnus Katharine Ross had ended in divorce after two and a half years in 1962). Joel made his debut Broadway appearance in a revival of Beyond the Fringe '65.
On screen from 1964, he featured in the pilot episode for Ironside (1967) and had a small recurring part in the medical soap The Doctors (1963). He also made a series of cigarette commercials as a debonair tuxedo-wearing James Bond-type character. This seemed to fit the bill for ITC producer Monty Berman who was scouting in the U.S. for an American actor to star in a projected espionage/crime series filmed in Britain. Before long, Joel and his wife relocated to the U.K. where the actor went on to make his name in a career defining role. As Stewart Sullivan, he was cast as the leader of a three-member team comprising the fictional Interpol sub-branch Department S (1969), solving the most enigmatic and perplexing cases, alongside Peter Wyngarde (as flamboyant crime writer Jason King) and Rosemary Nicols (as down-to-earth computer expert Annabelle Hurst). Joel's character, an ex-FBI agent, was most adept at handling himself in a fight and also the only member of the trio to interact directly and receive the team's assignments from the head of the department, a cultured diplomat with far-reaching contacts (played by Dennis Alaba Peters). Department S was a polished entertainment with global syndication and has long since attained cult status. Curiously, its brief run consisted of just one season and 28 episodes. A sequel, Jason King (1971), proved rather less successful.
Upon his return to the U.S., Joel (in his own words) "wanted to go out and conquer Hollywood, which is what I immediately set out to do - and didn't - but I had an awful lot of fun trying". Largely maintaining his suave Stewart Sullivan image, he went on to guest-star in numerous prime time shows (often for Quinn Martin Productions). In these, he played anything from murder victims to priests, from military brass to ill-fated spies, from attorneys and politicians to murderers and from private eyes to psychiatrists. Joel had recurring roles in the soaps Dallas (1978) (publisher Alex Ward), and Dynasty (1981) (the scheming King Galen of Moldavia), plus a decade-long tenure on All My Children (1970) (lawyer Barry Shire). Though occasionally seen in mainstream cinematic productions (Reuben, Reuben (1983), Tune in Tomorrow... (1990), Snake Eyes (1998)), he had higher profile roles in made-for-TV films (the best of these being, arguably, the suspense thriller One of My Wives Is Missing (1976) and the Emmy Award-winning prison drama Attica (1980), co-starring Henry Darrow and Morgan Freeman).
For much of the 1970s, Joel continued to act on the New York stage. He also made TV and radio commercials for Sony. From the mid-80s, he diversified into the field of narration for audio books ("A River Runs Through It", "The Light in the Forest", "Aces and Eights") and worked as announcer on Barbara Walters specials until 2003. He retired from acting a decade later and resides in New York with his current wife Charna Greenburg. - Actor
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A ruggedly handsome action man of the 1960s and '70s, Steve Forrest was born William Forrest Andrews in Huntsville, Texas, the youngest of thirteen children of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister. His brother was actor Dana Andrews. Forrest began his screen career as a small part contract player with MGM. In 1942, Steve enlisted in the U.S. Army, rose to the rank of sergeant and saw action at the Battle of the Bulge. Following his demobilization, he visited his brother in Hollywood and came to the conclusion that acting wasn't a bad way to make a living (having already done some work as a movie extra). He went on to study in college at UCLA, eventually graduating in 1950 with a B.A. Honours Degree in theatre arts. He then served a brief apprenticeship as a carpenter, prop boy and set builder at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, where he was discovered by resident actor Gregory Peck and given a small part as a bellboy in the cast of the summer stock production of "Goddbye Again". A subsequent screen test led to a contract with MGM and resulting employment as second leads, brothers of the titular star, toughs and outlaws. His first proper recognition was being awarded 'New Star of the Year' by Golden Globe for his role in So Big (1953), a drama based on a Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Edna Ferber.
From the mid-1950's, the rangy, 6-foot-3 actor became much in-demand on TV, beginning with classic early anthology and western series, interspersed with occasional appearances on the big screen (notably, in The Longest Day (1962) and as Joan Crawford's lover/attorney Greg Savitt in Mommie Dearest (1981)). In addition to numerous guest roles, he was regularly featured in series like Gunsmoke (1955), Dallas (1978) (as Wes Parmalee, who believes himself to be lost Ewing patriarch Jock) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). Already from the mid-60's, he decided to pick his assignments more carefully. In order to shed his image as the perpetual bad guy, he had relocated his family to England to star as antique-dealer-cum-undercover intelligence agent John Mannering in BBC's The Baron (1966). He followed this by another starring role as the stoic, tough Lieutenant Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson in the short-lived ABC police drama series S.W.A.T. (1975), possibly his best-remembered role. Steve later lampooned his screen personae in the satirical Amazon Women on the Moon (1987).
In private life, Steve Forrest was known as a skilled golfer, lover of football and (according to 1970's newspaper articles) as a dedicated amateur beekeeper.- Actor
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Stephen Caffrey has been a stage actor in New York, Los Angeles and across the country for over 30 years. On Film and Television he starred in and directed the series "Tour of Duty" for over 3 seasons on CBS. He received an Emmy nomination for his year on "All my Children" and has had leading roles in many TV movies and mini-series, including Sundance Film Festival winner "Longtime Companion". He also has numerous guest star appearances including the famous "Yada Yada" episode of "Seinfeld". More recently he was seen in "Cinema Verite" on HBO, as well as a recurring role on NBC's "American Odyssey".
His stage work includes shows at New York Theatre Workshop, Classic Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Seattle Rep., Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, A.C.T., Berkeley Rep., The Old Globe, and many others.- Actress
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Molly Hagan was born the seventh child of Jack and Betty Hagan in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the age of 4 the entire family moved to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She grew up among cornfields and limestone quarries. Molly always wanted to be an actor. She toiled with her sister, Lucy Hagan, to create the best living room theatre a family could watch. But had her first real break as Glinda the good witch in "The Wizard of Oz" at St. Therese's Elementary School. After crushing it, doing the best Billie Burke she could, Molly went on to be kicked out of High School drama. She then attended Northwestern University.- Actor
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Richard Libertini was born in E. Cambridge, Massachusetts, to parents who had come to America from southern Italy. Having grown up in a household where both Italian and English were spoken, he developed an ear for foreign accents. A facility he would later use to advantage on stage and in films.
He graduated from Emerson College in Boston, and for a while earned a living as a trumpet player in the Boston area. Later, he moved to New York, where he teamed up with two former college classmates, MacIntyre Dixon and Lynda Segal, to create an off-Broadway revue called "Stewed Prunes." (This was during the coffee house revolution in the 1960s. Bob Dylan was playing around the corner.) The show was quite successful and after running a year in New York they took it on the road. While playing Chicago, he was asked to join the renowned Second City Improvisational Theatre Group, an association which continues to the present.
After a number of years doing stage work in New York (Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water (1969) and Paul Sills' Story Theatre (1971) among many others) he eventually moved to L.A. where he began doing films. Three of his most memorable characters are the Spanish-American dictator in The In-Laws (1979) with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, the Tibetan Mystic in All of Me (1984) with Steve Martin, and Lily Tomlin and the justice of the peace in Best Friends (1982) with Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds. Other films include Fletch (1985) with Chevy Chase and Popeye (1980) with Robin Williams.- Actor
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A man of all mediums, this veteran, Manhattan-born character actor was named after his great-grandfather, Lincolnesque Congressman William Windom. Born in 1923, the son of Paul Windom, an architect, and the former Isobel Wells Peckham, Bill attended Williams College and the University of Kentucky, among others, before serving in the Army during WWII. After the war, he studied at both Fordham and Columbia universities in New York City before settling on an acting career. Trained at the American Repertory Theatre (1946-1961), he made his minor Broadway debut with the company in November of 1946 with revolving productions of "Henry VIII", "What Every Woman Knows", "John Gabriel Borkman" and "Androcles and the Lion". The following year, he continued building up his Broadway resume with roles in "Yellow Jack" and as the "White Rabbit" in a production of "Alice in Wonderland".
In the early 1950s, a new avenue opened up to Bill: television. For the duration of the decade, he shifted between stage, which included Broadway roles in "A Girl Can Tell" (1953), "Mademoiselle Colombe" (1954), "Fallen Angels" (1956), "The Greatest Man Alive" (1957) and "Viva Madison Avenue!" (1960), and TV drama, with stalwart work in such programs as Robert Montgomery Presents (1950) and Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951).
Major attention came Windom's way on TV moving into the following decade. In addition to hundreds of guest appearances on the most popular shows of the day (Combat! (1962), The Fugitive (1963), All in the Family (1971), Dallas (1978), Highway to Heaven (1984)), his standout work included a co-starring role opposite the luminous Inger Stevens in the popular light comedy series The Farmer's Daughter (1963). On the show, Windom portrayed widower "Glen Morley", a decent congressman who eventually falls in love with his pert and pretty Swedish governess "Katy Holstrum" (played by Stevens). Prior to this success, both he and Ms. Stevens had been singularly recognized for their sterling performances on various episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959). Following this success, Windom enjoyed critical notice as the cartoonist/protagonist whose vivid imagination causes problems on the homefront on the Thurberesque weekly series My World and Welcome to It (1969). Despite the show's critical merit and Windom's "Best Actor" Emmy win, the show, years ahead of its time, lasted only one season. Decades later, Windom would play James Thurber on stage in one-man shows.
The native New Yorker went on to essay a number of loungy Southerners and down-home types with incredible ease--both heroes and villains. He offered strong support in his film debut as Gregory Peck's opposing counsel in the Alabama-based To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and went on to play prelate Norman Vincent Peale's father in One Man's Way (1964) starring Don Murray. Windom demonstrated the maturity to carry off the character even though he was only 5 years older than Murray. He also delivered a variety of pungent roles in such films as The Detective (1968) (as a closeted gay married man), Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970) (as a political blowhard facing a series of murders) and The Man (1972) (as a racist politician).
Growing slier and stockier over the years, Windom provided TV audiences with a colorful gallery of characters, ranging from avuncular and ingratiating, to cantankerous and unscrupulous. He became a regular for over a decade on the Angela Lansbury whodunit series Murder, She Wrote (1984), joining the show in its second season as "Dr. Seth Hazlitt". He briefly left "Murder" to work on another series, Parenthood (1990), which was based on the highly popular 1989 movie starring Steve Martin. Here, Ed Begley Jr. took over the Martin part and Windom assumed Jason Robards's patriarchal role as Begley's father. The show was off the air within a few months, however, and Windom was invited back to the mystery series -- a semi-regular until the show folded in 1997.
In addition, Windom reprised a Star Trek (1966) portrayal as "Commodore Matt Decker," appeared in scores of mini-movies, has given voice to various book readings, presented a second one-man show (this time that of combat reporter Ernie Pyle), and continued to film at age 80+, his latest being Yesterday's Dreams (2005).
The five-times-married Windom was wed (for 36 years) to writer Patricia Veronica Tunder at the time of his death of congestive heart failure at age 88. A chess, tennis and sailing enthusiast, he is survived by four children: Rachel, Heather Juliet, Hope and Rebel Russell.Two step-daughters, Debora and Maggie as well as four grandchildren. He died at his home in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2012.- Actor
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With effortless class and elegant charm Gene Barry took '50s and '60s TV by storm, after a rather lackluster start on the musical stage and in films. Born Eugene Klass in New York City on June 14, 1919, to Martin (an amateur violinist), and Eva (an amateur singer), he showed a gift at an early age as a violin virtuoso, obviously inherited from his father. After attending various public schools, he graduated Valedictorian from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, New York.
Possessing an impressive baritone voice, he concentrated on singing after breaking his arm playing football in school ended any thoughts of a symphonic career. At age 17 he earned a singing scholarship awarded by David Sarnoff (the head of RCA at the time), to the Chatham Square School of Music, and studied there for two years. In the meantime Gene found work in nightclubs, choirs, fairs and emceeing variety shows, and briefly appeared on the vaudeville stage and on radio, winning a prize on Arthur Godfrey's "Talent Scouts" program.
The young actor made it to Broadway in 1942 with the musical "New Moon", and went on to appear in the 1944 Mae West vehicle "Catherine Was Great", where he met and subsequently married chorus girl Betty Barry, whose stage name was Julie Carson at the time. For the rest of the decade, Gene appeared in a random selection of plays and musicals, which did little to elevate his Broadway standing. Hollywood finally beckoned in the 1950's, after gaining some notice on the program "Hollywood Screen Test", and Paramount signed him to a contract.
Gene had stoic co-starring roles in such dramatic "B" films as The Atomic City (1952) (his debut movie), Those Redheads from Seattle (1953), and Alaska Seas (1954), none of which capitalized on his singing ability. The one movie in which he did sing, Red Garters (1954), did not fare well with the public. His most recognizable role during this period was as Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist who finds himself in the midst of a Martian invasion in the cult science-fiction classic The War of the Worlds (1953).
Television became his preferred medium after being offered the title role in Bat Masterson (1958), and he quickly established a very successful niche as a suave, dapper gentleman in this and other TV productions. Despite the elegant, globe-trotting typecast that befell him, his other TV characters proved just as well-received: jet-setting detective Amos Burke in Burke's Law (1963), for which he won a Golden Globe, and the impeccably dressed publishing tycoon Glenn Howard in The Name of the Game (1968). Gene revisited the stage and cabaret venues in the 1970's when his on-camera career hit a lull, appearing frequently with his wife as his leading lady.
The singer/actor made a triumphant return to Broadway in 1983, starring as a wealthy gay socialite in the musical version of the popular French film La Cage aux Folles (1978), earning him a Tony nomination - but he lost the award to his more flamboyant co-star George Hearn. After a year on Broadway, he joined the road company in San Francisco, and played Los Angeles for a lengthy run. Other musicals included "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever", "Watergate: The Musical" (as Nixon), "Fiddler on the Roof" (with his wife) and "No, No, Nanette". Gene also appeared in his one-man cabaret show entitled "Gene Barry in One" from time to time.
In later years he made only occasional TV and stage appearances (bringing back his famous characters Bat Masterson and Amos Burke, much to the enjoyment of his fans), preferring to indulge in his favorite hobby - painting. He made a very brief return to feature films, sharing a cameo scene with one-time co-star Ann Robinson in Steven Spielberg's epic remake of The War of the Worlds (2005), with both of them playing the Tom Cruise character's mother and father in-law.
Gene was a political activist, a passion he shared with his wife Betty, who died in 2003 after an almost 60 year marriage. The couple had two sons of their own, and later in life they adopted a daughter. Gene passed away on December 9, 2009 at the age of 90.- Red-haired former farm girl Katherine Justice came to prominence as a prolific TV guest star of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. She first attracted attention as beauty contest winner 'Miss Ohio' in 1960. Being underage (17), she was disqualified from competing for the 'Miss Universe' title in Miami Beach. At 22, Katherine graduated from Carnegie Tech Drama School and then progressed to further acting studies at the Hubbard Playhouse. She took her first steps on the stage in 1964 at the Front Street Theater in Memphis, on the Arena Stage in Washington (including as Lola in Damn Yankees) and in summer stock the following year.
In early 1966, Katherine was noticed by the film producer and talent agent Harold Hecht during her maiden TV performance in an episode of The Big Valley (1965) and cast as one of a group of migrating settlers on the Oregon Trail in the feature film The Way West (1967). A year later, she won another pivotal role on the big screen in the western-murder mystery 5 Card Stud (1968), starring Dean Martin and with Robert Mitchum as a homicidal Baptist preacher.
Signed to a 5-year contract by Paramount, Katherine decided to focus her career on television. She appeared twice on The Invaders (1967): the first time, as one of the alien invaders posing as David Vincent's former lover, in the first season episode The Innocents, and the second time as the fiancée of a close friend in second season's The Possessed. In Prescription: Murder (1968), first in the Columbo series of 'Mystery Movies', she guest-starred as an actress who impersonates the dead wife of her lover (Gene Barry) in order to provide him with an alibi for her murder. She was an outlaw's moll, kidnapped by a bounty hunter, in an episode of The Virginian (1962) and featured multiple times as different characters in Gunsmoke (1955), The F.B.I. (1965), Mannix (1967), Cannon (1971) and Barnaby Jones (1973). Add to this a recurring role in the melodrama Falcon Crest (1981) (which reunited her with 'Invaders' co-star Roy Thinnes in the role of his on-screen wife) and a starring turn in the syndicated nightly soap Dangerous Women (1991), modelled on the Australian TV series Prisoner (1979), with Katherine cast as former 'top dog' inmate Rita Jones (the U.S. equivalent of Australia's 'Bea' Smith, as played by Val Lehman).
Married and divorced from one James Clarence Brown Jr., Katherine resides in Van Nuys, California, under the name Katherine Justice Brown. She retired from acting in 2015. - Actor
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Character actor Anthony James was born on July 22, 1942 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Unusually tall (6' 6½) and lanky, with a rough, pockmarked face, a lean, stringy build, and an extremely intense screen presence, James was often cast in Westerns as scary, sleazy villains. He was especially memorable as the racist diner counterman in the outstanding In the Heat of the Night (1967). Other noteworthy parts include a gay hitchhiker in the cult classic Vanishing Point (1971), a priest in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), an outlaw in High Plains Drifter (1973), a deranged psycho in The Teacher (1974), the chauffeur from hell in the chiller Burnt Offerings (1976), and the vicious leader of a gang of ferocious barbarians in the science fiction film Ravagers (1979).
James was hilarious in a rare change-of-pace good guy role as a heroic cannibal (!) in the post-nuke sci-fi romp World Gone Wild (1987), and also parodying his evil persona in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991). Among the many television shows in which he appeared in guest roles were Married... with Children (1987), Beauty and the Beast (1987), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Simon & Simon (1981), The A-Team (1983), Riptide (1984), The Fall Guy (1981), Hunter (1984), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), Quincy M.E. (1976), Charlie's Angels (1976), Vega$ (1978), Starsky and Hutch (1975), S.W.A.T. (1975), Ironside (1967), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Bonanza (1959), Gunsmoke (1955) and The Big Valley (1965).
James's last film appearance to date was as the owner of a seedy bordello in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992). After quitting acting in the early 1990s, he pursued a successful career as an artist. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in such major cities as New York, Boston and Miami.- Actress
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A leading lady of the 1940s, the tall and blonde Foch usually played cool, aloof and often foreign, women of sophistication. As film roles became harder to find, Foch proved to be versatile in many areas. She was a panelist on several TV quiz shows, worked as George Stevens' assistant director for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and directed plays. Since the 1960s, she has been an acting teacher for USC and the American Film Institute.- Actress
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Virginia Gregg was born on 6 March 1916 in Harrisburg, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Operation Petticoat (1959), Crime in the Streets (1956) and Police Story (1973). She was married to Jaime Del Valle. She died on 15 September 1986 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Andrea King was born Georgette André Barry in Paris, France, however she lived there only two months before her mother, Belle Hart, brought her back to the United States. Belle was an ambulance driver on the front lines during World War I, as well as a dancer with the renowned Isadora Duncan. Andrea was raised in Forest Hills, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, and adopted her stepfather's surname of McKee when she began acting professionally at the age of 14. Prior to signing with Warner Bros. in 1944, she appeared in three Broadway plays and two national companies, and managed to squeeze in her first screen appearance in The March of Time's first feature-length film entitled The Ramparts We Watch (1940). After signing with Warner Bros. and changing her professional name, Andrea's career took off very quickly, and she appeared in nine films in 18 months. The Warner Bros. studio photographers voted Andrea the most photogenic actress on the lot for the year 1945. Her first leading role came early on with Hotel Berlin (1945), and until she left the studio system in 1946, she continued on as a glamorous, often mysterious leading lady. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, she continued to work steadily in leading roles and "bad girl" second leads, and made many starring television appearances as well, most notably in the original 1953 live broadcast of Witness for the Prosecution (1953) for Lux Video Theatre (1950) opposite Edward G. Robinson. For her early work in television she received one of the first stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Andrea continued to make occasional TV and film appearances through the late 1990s, until shortly before her death in 2003. She also wrote children's stories and an autobiography. Her daughter Deb Callahan lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Tim. Andrea has three grandchildren: Kate, Drew and Chris.- Susanne Benton was born on 3 February 1948 in Canada. She is an actress, known for Catch-22 (1970), A Boy and His Dog (1975) and Jigsaw (1968).
- Ena Hartman was born on 1 April 1935 in Moscow, Arkansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Airport (1970), Terminal Island (1973) and Dan August (1970).
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Sherry Boucher was born on 25 July 1945 in Bossier City, Louisiana, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Five Days from Home (1978), Nursie (2004) and Sisters of Death (1977). She was previously married to George Peppard.- Actress
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Academy Award-winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City, to Witia (Haskell), a teacher and model, and Abraham Rosenthal, an educator and realtor. Her father was of Romanian Jewish descent, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Lee made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, playing the abducted princess in "L'Orocolo". After graduating from high school, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. When she was a teenager Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway talent when she won The Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of the shoplifter in "Detective Story". She reprised the role in the film version (Detective Story (1951), a performance that garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Citation for Best Actress as well as her first Academy Award Nomination. Immediately following her screen debut, however, Lee became a victim of the McCarthy-era blacklists in which actors, writers, directors, etc., were persecuted for supposedly "Communist" or "progressive" political beliefs, whether they had them or not. Except for an occasional role, she did not work in film or television for 12 years. In 1965 Lee re-started her acting career in the TV series Peyton Place (1964), for which she won an Emmy Award as Stella Chernak, and she later garnered her first Academy Award for Shampoo (1975), also receiving Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970) and Voyage of the Damned (1976). Since 1980 Lee has been concentrating on her directorial career, which began as part of the Women's Project at The Americal Film Institute (AFI); her adaptation of August Strindberg's, "Stronger, The" was consequently selected as one of the 10 best films ever produced for AFI. In 1987 she received an Academy Award for the HBO documentary, Down and Out in America (1985) and directed Nobody's Child (1986) for CBS, for which she received the Directors Guild Award. In 1983 she received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting and Independent Filmmaking. Subsequently, Women in Film paid tribute to her in 1989, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. Both the New York City Council and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have recognized Ms. Grant for the contribution her films have made to the fight against domestic violence.- Actor
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John Fink was born on 11 February 1940 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He is an actor, known for Batman & Robin (1997), Flatliners (1990) and The Client (1994). He was previously married to Charlotte "Sharkey" Flintermann.- Actor
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Harold Gould earned a Ph.D. in theater and taught speech and drama at Cornell University.
Pursuing off-Broadway work in the 1950s, he decided to practice what he preached and became a full-time professional actor in the 1960s.
He appeared in hundreds of TV programs during his distinguished performing career, usually playing a father, grandfather, or other varieties of authority figures.- Patricia Mattick was born on 31 July 1951 in Denver, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for The Beguiled (1971), Tales of the Unexpected (1977) and Ransom for a Dead Man (1971). She died on 6 December 2003 in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
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- Producer
- Soundtrack
Paul Carr was born on 1 February 1934 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Akira (1988), Star Trek (1966) and The Time Tunnel (1966). He was married to Merrily M Hirsch and Evan MacNeil. He died on 17 February 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Jed Allan was born on 1 March 1935 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for General Hospital (1963), Days of Our Lives (1965) and Port Charles (1997). He was married to Janice Toby Druger. He died on 9 March 2019 in Palm Desert, California, USA.
- Actor
- Sound Department
Hank Brandt was born on 4 June 1934 in East Orange, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Kingpin (1996), Dumb and Dumber (1994) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979). He was married to Dixie Dixon. He died on 4 December 2004 in North Hills, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A true sunny delight, actress Jean Byron will be fondly remembered for her three-season-long role as vivacious "Natalie Lane", the grounding mom of "identical cousin" Patty Duke on The Patty Duke Show (1963), the one who was always around to help teenage Patty regroup when "a hot dog made her lose control". Jean was born with the unlikely marquee name of Imogene Burkhart in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1925. Musically inclined, she was a teen singer on radio before even graduating from high school. Her family subsequently moved to California which only spurred on Jean's interest in show business. Apprenticing on the local stage and continuing to work on radio, she earned her first contract with Columbia Pictures and chose the more adaptable name of Jean Byron for billing purposes.
Her movie career began uneventfully in 1952, co-starring with Johnny Weissmuller, in Voodoo Tiger (1952), one of a series of "Jungle Jim" adventure programmers. Uninspired roles, opposite a radioactive creature in The Magnetic Monster (1953) and as a handmaiden to Rhonda Fleming's "Cleopatra" in Serpent of the Nile (1953), had her wisely leaning towards TV as a more viable medium. Not only did she appear on the top TV shows of the day, but seemed to have an affinity for westerns, finding a steady stream of work on such programs as Yancy Derringer (1958), Fury (1955), My Friend Flicka (1955), Cheyenne (1955) and Laramie (1959) to her credit. The wholesome-looking blonde with the lovely, peaches-and-cream complexion also became a mild household fixture as an on-camera spokeswoman for such products as Revlon and Lux soap. At one time, she was known as "The Lux Girl". She earned a couple of recurring roles on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959) comedy before solidifying her status on The Patty Duke Show (1963) from 1963 to 1966.
Following the series' demise, Jean was seen less and less, glimpsed here and there on late 60s and 70s TV. She also appeared on the dinner theater circuit and in musical stage shows, portraying "Mama Rose" in one production of "Gypsy". Retiring in the 1980s, she moved with her aged mother to Mobile, Alabama in the late 1980s to be closer to extended family. Her final appearance was a happy occasion with a nostalgic TV-movie reunion show that brought her back in touch with former cast members Patty Duke and TV husband William Schallert, among others, in 1999. The reunion took 33 years in the making, one for the TV record books. At one time, she was briefly married to handsome actor Michael Ansara, she had no children and never remarried. Jean died at age 80 after developing an infection following surgery for a hip replacement. She was buried in Mobile Memorial Gardens.- On Friday, August 5, the Lakers and Angels lost their biggest fan. Richard Roat, the most supportive friend a person in the entertainment industry could ever have, passed away suddenly. Richard had amassed over 135 acting roles on television, film, and on Broadway. He guest starred on "The Golden Girls" twice, the first as a Murder Mystery Host and later playing Betty White's boyfriend, only to be found dead in her bed the next morning. He appeared in "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Hill Street Blues," and just about every TV show going back to "Car 54 Where Are You?" Richard performed on Broadway, (Sunday in New York, Any Wednesday, The Wall,) at The Public Theatre in Central Park (Julius Caesar,) The Huntington Hartford Theatre in Los Angeles, (Boys in the Band) and the Pasadena Playhouse (Moon Over Buffalo.) In addition to his distinguished career as an actor, Richard had a successful practice as an entertainment tax preparer for over 50 years. As an individual, Richard was a true Renaissance Man. He loved music, playing the violin, the theatre, movies, literature, provocative conversation, and a good whiskey. Richard loved sports and would have been ecstatic that the Angels won on the Friday night he passed. He had a gorgeous smile, a naughty twinkle in his eyes, and loved to badinage with everyone. His greatest love was his family, with whom he shared his incredible sense of humor, intelligence, and unmatched zest for life. Richard was fortunate to marry the love of his life, his true soulmate, Kathy. They had recently celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary. Their life together was a magical journey of travel, fun, laughter, and love. It was truly "An Affair to Remember." Richard will be missed by family, friends, colleagues, and clients. He will be thought of often, with warm memories and a quiet chuckle for all the good times he brought to our lives.