The 18th Annual Tony Awards 1964 premiere

Legendary Broadway writer/producer/director George Abbott was born in 1887 in Forestville, New York. His father was mayor of Salamanca, New York, for two terms. In 1898 his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Abbott attended Kearney Military Academy. The family returned to New York, where Abbott attended Hamburg High School, graduating in 1907, and the University of Rochester (BA degree in 1911). He wrote the play "Perfectly Harmless" for University Dramatic Club. He attended Harvard University from 1911-1912, studying play writing under George Pierce Baker, and wrote "The Head of the Family" for Harvard Dramatic Club. In 1912 he won $100 in a play contest sponsored by the Bijou Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, for "The Man in the Manhole", and worked at the Bijou for a year as assistant stage manager. He made his Broadway debut as an actor in 1913 in "The Misleading Lady" (as Babe Merrill, a drunken student), followed by "The Yeoman of the Guard" (1915), "The Queen's Enemies" (1916), "Daddies" (1918), "The Broken Wing" (1920), "Dulcy" (on tour) (1921), "Zander the Great" (1923), "White Desert" (1923), "Hell-Bent for Heaven" (1924), "Lazybones" (1924), "Processional" (1925) and "Cowboy Crazy" (1926). From that point he concentrated on writing and directing, with "The Fall Guy" (his Broadway's debut, 1925), "Three Men on a Horse" (1935), "Jumbo" (1935), "On Your Toes" (1936), "The Boys from Syracuse" (1938), "Too Many Girls" (1939), "Pal Joey" (1940), "Best Foot Forward" (1941), "On the Town" (1944), "High Buttom Shoes" (1947), "Where's Charley?" (1948), "Call Me Madam" (1950), "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1951), "Wonderful Town" (1953), "The Pajama Game" (1954), "Damn Yankees" (1955), "New Girl Town" (1957), "Fiorello!" (1959), "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum" (1962), "Flora, the Red Menace" (1965; Liza Minnelli's Broadway debut).

He won five Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize (for "Fiorello!"). He was nominated for an Oscar for writing All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). His daughter, Judith Abbott, is a stage actress/director and was married (1946-49) to Tom Ewell.

Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She was the daughter of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, and William Perske, who was born in New Jersey, to Polish Jewish parents. Her family was middle-class, with her father working as a salesman and her mother as a secretary. They divorced when she was five and she rarely saw her father after that.

As a school girl, she originally wanted to be a dancer, but later switched gears to head into acting. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, after attending She was educated at Highland Manor, a private boarding school in Tarrytown, New York (through the generosity of wealthy uncles), and then at Julia Richman High School, which enabled her to get her feet wet in some off-Broadway productions.

Out of school, she entered modeling and, because of her beauty, appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, one of the most popular magazines in the US. The wife of famed director Howard Hawks spotted the picture in the publication and arranged with her husband to have Lauren take a screen test. As a result, which was entirely positive, she was given the part of Marie Browning in To Have and Have Not (1944), a thriller opposite Humphrey Bogart, when she was just 19 years old. This not only set the tone for a fabulous career but also one of Hollywood's greatest love stories (she married Bogart in 1945). It was also the first of several Bogie-Bacall films.

After 1945's Confidential Agent (1945), Lauren received second billing in The Big Sleep (1946) with Bogart. The mystery, in the role of Vivian Sternwood Rutledge, was a resounding success. Although she was making one film a year, each production would be eagerly awaited by the public. In 1947, again with her husband, Lauren starred in the thriller Dark Passage (1947). The film kept movie patrons on the edge of their seats. The following year, she starred with Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore in Key Largo (1948). The crime drama was even more of a nail biter than her previous film.

In 1950, Lauren starred in Bright Leaf (1950), a drama set in 1894. It was a film of note because she appeared without her husband - her co-star was Gary Cooper. In 1953, Lauren appeared in her first comedy as Schatze Page in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). The film, with co-stars Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, was a smash hit all across the theaters of America.

After filming Designing Woman (1957), which was released in 1957, Humphrey Bogart died on January 14 from throat cancer. Devastated at being a widow, Lauren returned to the silver screen with The Gift of Love (1958) in 1958 opposite Robert Stack. The production turned out to be a big disappointment. Undaunted, Lauren moved back to New York City and appeared in several Broadway plays to huge critical acclaim. She was enjoying acting before live audiences and the audiences in turn enjoyed her fine performances.

Lauren was away from the big screen for five years, but she returned in 1964 to appear in Shock Treatment (1964) and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). The latter film was a comedy starring Henry Fonda and Tony Curtis. In 1966, Lauren starred in Harper (1966) with Paul Newman and Julie Harris, which was one of former's signature films.

Alternating her time between films and the stage, Lauren returned in 1974's Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film, based on Agatha Christie's best-selling book was a huge hit. It also garnered Ingrid Bergman her third Oscar. Actually, the huge star-studded cast helped to ensure its success. Two years later, in 1976, Lauren co-starred with John Wayne in The Shootist (1976). The film was Wayne's last - he died from cancer in 1979. In late 1979, Lauren appeared with her good friend, James Garner, in a double episode, Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs (1979), of his Rockford Files series.

For Lauren's next film role, she appeared in a large ensemble film, HealtH (1980), which again paired her with James Garner, and in 1981, she played an actress being stalked by a crazed admirer in The Fan (1981). The thriller was absolutely fascinating with Lauren in the lead role, again playing opposite her good friend James Garner, making three straight screen roles with Lauren opposite James Garner. After that production, Lauren was away from films again, this time for seven years. In the interim, she again appeared on the stages of Broadway. When she returned, it was for the filming of 1988's Appointment with Death (1988) and Mr. North (1988). After 1990's Misery (1990) and several made for television films, Lauren appeared in 1996's My Fellow Americans (1996), a comedy romp with Jack Lemmon and James Garner as two ex-presidents and their escapades. In 1997, Lauren appeared in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), in one of the best roles of her later career, opposite Barbra Streisand, where Lauren was nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role by both the Academy and the Golden Globes, winning the Golden Globe for the role.

Despite her age and failing health, she made a small-scale comeback in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (2004) ("Howl's Moving Castle," based on the young-adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones) as the Witch of the Waste, and several other roles through 2008, but thereafter acting endeavors for the beloved actress became increasingly rare. Lauren Bacall died on 12 August 2014, five weeks short of her 90th birthday.

Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared in a lot of undistinguished movies such as Gorilla at Large (1954), Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), New York Confidential (1955), Nightfall (1956) and The Girl in Black Stockings (1957). By 1957 she grew dissatisfied with the scripts she was getting, left the film business and spent the next five years doing plays on Broadway. She returned to screens in 1962 with her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker (1962), for which she won an Oscar. Bancroft went on to give acclaimed performances in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), The Slender Thread (1965), Young Winston (1972), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), The Elephant Man (1980), To Be or Not to Be (1983), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) and other movies, but her most famous role would be as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967). Her status as the "older woman" in the film is iconic, although in real life she was only eight years older than Katharine Ross and just six years older than Dustin Hoffman. Bancroft would later express her frustration over the fact that the film overshadowed her other work. Selective for much of her intermittent career, she appeared onscreen more frequently in the '90s and early '00s, playing a range of characters in such films as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), Point of No Return (1993), Home for the Holidays (1995), G.I. Jane (1997), Great Expectations (1998), Keeping the Faith (2000) and Up at the Villa (2000). She also started to make some TV films, including Deep in My Heart (1999) for which she won an Emmy. Sadly, on June 6, 2005, Bancroft passed away at the age of 73 from uterine cancer. Her death surprised many, as she had not disclosed her illness to the public. Among her survivors was her husband of 41 years, Mel Brooks, and their son Max Brooks, who was born in 1972. Her final film, the animated feature Delgo (2008), was released posthumously in 2008 and dedicated to her memory.

Harold George Belafonte was born on March 1, 1927 in New York City. He was educated at the New York Dramatic Workshop. He grew up in Jamaica, British West Indies, and did folk-singing in nightclubs and theaters, and on television and records. His debut was at the Village Vanguard in New York. Also, he appeared in the Broadway revues "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" and "Three for Tonight". He owns his own music publishing firm and film production company. He won a Tony Award in 1953, a Donaldson Award in 1953-1954, a Show Business Award in 1954, a Diners' Club Award in 1955-1956, and an Emmy Award for "Tonight with Belafonte". He has made many records. Joining the ASCAP in 1960, his popular-music compositions include "Turn Around", "Shake That Little Foot" and "Glory Manger".

Independent, outspoken Constance Bennett, the first of the Bennett sisters to enter films, appeared in New York-produced silents before a chance meeting with Samuel Goldwyn led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea (1924). She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to Philip Plant in 1925; after they divorced, she achieved stardom in talkies from 1929. The hit Common Clay (1930) launched her in a series of loose lady and unwed mother roles, but she really excelled in such sophisticated comedies as The Affairs of Cellini (1934), Ladies in Love (1936), Topper (1937) and Merrily We Live (1938). Her classy blonde looks, husky voice and unerring fashion sense gave her a distinctive style. In the 1940s she made fewer films, working in radio and theatre; shrewd in business, she invested wisely and started businesses marketing women's wear and cosmetics. Loving conflict, she feuded with the press and enjoyed lawsuits. Her last marriage, to a U.S. Air Force colonel, was happy and gave her a key role coordinating shows flown to Europe for occupying troops (1946-48) and the Berlin Airlift (1948-49), winning her military honors. Still young-looking, she died suddenly at age 60 shortly after completing the last of her 57 films.

Sidney Blackmer, the Tony-award winning actor who played Teddy Roosevelt in seven movies, is best remembered by today's movie audiences for his turn as the warlock/coven-leader Roman Castevet in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he made his debut on July 13, 1895, he had planned as a young man to study law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. However, playing football and engaging in amateur theatricals proved more important to him than his aspirations to be an attorney, and while in his teens, he went to New York City to try to make it as an actor. He appeared uncredited in movies turned out by various film studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which in the first half of the decade of the 1910s, was the Hollywood of America. He reportedly appeared in a bit part in the popular movie serial "The Perils of Pauline" (1914).

Blackmer made his Broadway debut on February 13, 1917, in "The Morris Dance," Harley Granville-Barker's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "The Wrong Box." He was not to appear again on the Broadway stage for almost exactly three years, due to the outbreak of his World War I, which saw Blackmer join the military as an officer. After the war, he returned to the theater, making his second Broadway appearance in "Trimmed in Scarlet" on February 2, 1920. He appeared in 15 other productions on the Great White Way from 1920 to 1928. His appearance in 'Clare Kummer''s comedy "The Mountain Man" in 1921 made him a star.

He was a pioneer in the new medium of radio, on which he sang during the 1920s. (Blackmer later participated in the first experimental dramas on Allen B. DuMont's television network.) But it was the movies that increasingly attracted Blackmer's professional attention, in which he typically was cast as a smooth villain from High Society, although he did also play sympathetic roles.

Although Blackmer is now credited with appearing (un-billed) in "The Perils of Pauline," he didn't make a credited appearance on the silver screen until the dawn of the sound era. With the coming of sound, Hollywood needed actors and actresses who could talk and talk well, so it raided the Broadway stage. Blackmer was one of the Broadway stars who headed West, appearing in his first talkie, "The Love Racket" (1929), in 1929. He starred in other early sound films, including "Kismet" (1930/I), which is considered a lost film. He was memorable as Big Boy in support of Edward G. Robinson in the gangster classic Little Caesar (1931)

Blackmer returned to Broadway in 1931 with the comedy "The Social Register" and appeared again in the comedy "Stop-Over" in 1938. In Hollywood, he had a supporting role in the Robert Donat version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1934). Also that year, he appeared in 'William A. Wellman''s "The President Vanishes" (1934), co-starring 'Edward Arnold' and 'Osgood Perkins', the father of 'Anthony Perkins'.

Sidney Blackmer has the distinction of starring in the only movie ever "written" by a president of the United States, "The President's Mystery" (1936), based on a story by "co-authored" by 'Franklin D. Roosevelt'. F.D.R. was an avid murder mystery reader, and at a meeting of whodunit authors at the White House during his first administration, he suggested an idea for a mystery novel to the writers: A millionaire disappears and starts a new life under a new identity, taking his wealth with him. Mystery writers, including S.S. Van Dine, cobbled together a patch-work book of uneven quality based on the premise, with F.D.R. listed as co-author. "The President's Mystery" became a best-seller due to F.D.R.'s enormous personal popularity. In the movie version, written by future Hollywood Ten member 'Lester Cole' and novelist 'Nathanel West', Blackmer played millionaire industrialist Sartos, who engineers his own disappearance while holding on to his fortune. Sartos blackmails a corrupt investment bank run by two con men, which he takes over. He then invests his money with the firm, and robs himself under cover of the crooked brokerage. Disappearing after "losing" his fortune, people believe Sartos has committed suicide. Just when it seems that he has accomplished his goal and has escaped into his new life with his loot, something goes awry.

Nineteen-thirty seven was a busy year for Blackmer, who appeared in 12 films, including "Heidi" (1937), his second flick with superstar moppet Shirley Temple (the had earlier co-starred in "The Little Colonel" (1935)). He played General Phillip Sheridan in the epic pot-boiler "In Old Chicago" (1937), starring 'Tyrone Power, Jr.'. The movie featured an Oscar-winning performance by 'Alice Brady' as Molly O'Brady, she of the cow with the combustible personality whose bovine hissy fit causes a conflagration that wipes out the City of Broad Shoulders. Then, it was time to indulge in the dubious enterprise of supporting two Caucasian actors in Oriental drag, the Swede 'Warner Oland' in "Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo" (1937) and the German 'Peter Lorre' in "Thank You, Mr. Moto." (1937). He also appeared again with Edward G. Robinson in "The Last Gangster" (1937).

In the late '30s, Blackmer began making a side-line out of portraying F.D.R.'s cousin 'Theodore Roosevelt', appearing as the wild 'n' woolly bully Bull Moose himself in "This Is My Affair" (1937), "The Monroe Doctrine" (1939), and the Academy Award-winning two-reel short "Teddy the Rough Rider" (1940). He followed these up, reprising T.R., in the patriotic short "March On, America!" (1942), in the John Wayne western "In Old Oklahoma" (1943), in Bill Wellman's "Buffalo Bill" (1944), and in the nostalgic "My Girl Tisa" (1948). Blackmer appeared in three Broadway productions in the mid-1940s, but it wasn't until the dawn of the new decade of the '50s that he scored his greatest success on Broadway, playing the dipsomaniac Doc in 'William Inge''s "Come Back, Little Sheba" opposite Shirley Booth, who scored a Best Actress (Dramatic) Tony Award in 1950 as his wife. Though Blackmer won the Best Actor (Dramatic) Tony Award for "Sheba," he was not able to repeat his triumph on film and possibly join Booth into the Oscar-winner's circle as 'Burt Lancaster' coveted the role. Blackmer also lost out on another plum film assignment when it came time to cast the film version of Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). 'Ed Begley, Sr.' won an Oscar for his portrayal of Boss Finley in 'Richard Brooks''s film of the 'Tennessee Williams' play, a role that Blackmer had originated on Broadway under the stalwart direction of infamous Hollywood Un-American Activities Committee snitch 'Elia Kazan'. Blackmer last appeared on Broadway in "A Case of Libel" in the 1963-64 season.

In his private life, Blackmer served as the national vice president of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He was honored with a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1625 Vine Street, and was the recipient of the North Carolina Award, the state of North Carolina's highest civilian award, in 1972.

Blackmer was married to Lenore Ulric from 1928 until 1939, when they were divorced. He married his second wife Suzanne Kaaren in 1943. They had two sons, Jonathan and Brewster Blackmer.

Sidney Blackmer died of cancer on October 6, 1973 at the age of 78 in New York City. He was interred in Chestnut Hill Cemetery in his home town of Salisbury, NC.

She was only 18 years old and working as a photographer's assistant in Stockholm when two Italians showed up. Producer Carlo Ponti and director Mario Soldati were there to see pictures of beautiful models, searching for a blonde girl for a movie. They picked her instead and soon she found herself in Rome. She quickly made a number of movies, almost all of them forgotten, where all she had to do was look beautiful. She was offered a contract with 20th Century Fox and came to Hollywood, where her part in The Blue Angel (1959) got pretty good reviews.

But she got tired of always playing the femme fatale and after marrying Sammy Davis Jr. she left the movies to take care of her children instead.

She was was born in London's East End, the daughter of a Russian immigrant family who settled in Britain at the turn of the century. During WWII she was evacuated to South Wales where Welsh choirs fascinated her and she remembers the miners harmonising which made her want to sing professionally. Her first engagement at 17 was at London's Stork Club where she sang Blues numbers. She got steady work in cabaret and on the variety circuit. Tiring of all the touring in 1956 she auditioned for and got a part in the production of 'The Threepenny Opera at the Royal Court which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in the West End and then to New York. When that closed she got the offer of singing in a Hollywood night club but that was a disaster. She returned to New York broke and destitute then she got a message that London Television wanted to do a programme about her.She was then asked to record some songs for a new show called 'The Lily White Boys'which she stared in with Albert Finney at the Royal Court. After that she was cast as Nancy in 'Oliver' which she played in London and New York for 4 years earning the London Critics Award and a New York Tony Award nomination. She was, needless to say, disappointed at not getting the role in the film version. She returned to London for Lionel Bart's 'Maggie May' then made her film debut in 'The Fixer'

David Burns was born on 22 June 1901 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Saint in London (1939), Let's Make Love (1960) and She Couldn't Say No (1940). He was married to Mildred Todd. He died on 12 March 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.

Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in Pontrhydyfen to Edith Maude (Thomas) and Richard Walter Jenkins, a coal miner. The twelfth of thirteen children, his mother died while he was a toddler and his father later abandoned the family, leaving him to be raised by an elder sister, Cecilia. An avid fan of Shakespeare, poetry and reading, he once said "home is where the books are". He received a scholarship to Oxford University to study acting and made his first stage appearance in 1944.

His first film appearances were in routine British movies such as Woman of Dolwyn (1949), Waterfront Women (1950) and Green Grow the Rushes (1951). Then he started to appear in Hollywood movies such as My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Robe (1953) and Alexander the Great (1956), added to this he was also spending considerable time in stage productions, both in the UK and USA, often to splendid reviews. The late 1950s was an exciting and inventive time in UK cinema, often referred to as the "British New Wave", and Burton was right in the thick of things, and showcased a sensational performance in Look Back in Anger (1959). He also appeared with a cavalcade of international stars in the World War II magnum opus The Longest Day (1962), and then onto arguably his most "notorious" role as that of Marc Antony opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the hugely expensive Cleopatra (1963). This was, of course, the film that kick-started their fiery and passionate romance (plus two marriages), and the two of them appeared in several productions over the next few years including The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), the dynamic Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Taming of The Shrew (1967), as well as box office flops like The Comedians (1967). Burton did better when he was off on his own giving higher caliber performances, such as those in Becket (1964), the film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana (1964), the brilliant espionage thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and alongside Clint Eastwood in the World War II action adventure film Where Eagles Dare (1968).

His audience appeal began to decline somewhat by the end of the 1960s as fans turned to younger, more virile male stars, however Burton was superb in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) as King Henry VIII, he put on a reasonable show in the boring Raid on Rommel (1971), was over the top in the awful Villain (1971), gave sleepwalking performances in Hammersmith Is Out (1972) and Bluebeard (1972), and was wildly miscast in the ludicrous The Assassination of Trotsky (1972).

By the early 1970s, quality male lead roles were definitely going to other stars, and Burton found himself appearing in some movies of dubious quality, just to pay the bills and support family, including Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973) (his last on-screen appearance with Taylor), The Klansman (1974), Brief Encounter (1974), Jackpot (1974) (which was never completed) and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). However, he won another Oscar nomination for his excellent performance as a concerned psychiatrist in Equus (1977). He appeared with fellow acting icons Richard Harris and Roger Moore in The Wild Geese (1978) about mercenaries in South Africa. While the film had a modest initial run, over the past thirty-five years it has picked up quite a cult following. His final performances were as the wily inquisitor "O'Brien" in the most recent film version of George Orwell's dystopian 1984 (1984), in which he won good reviews, and in the TV mini series Ellis Island (1984). He passed away on August 5, 1984 in Celigny, Switzerland from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Mindy Carson was born on 16 July 1927 in Bronx, New York. She is an actress, known for Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950), The United States Steel Hour (1953) and Ford Star Revue (1950).

Actor. Jack Cassidy, by his own design, defied mere definition from the day he was born in Richmond Hills, New York in 1927 until his tragic death in 1976. An actor, singer, writer, designer - the consummate showman and irrefutable creative entity - his life never followed a simple path nor did it ever lead quite where expected. Yet, in the end, his impact on the entertainment community has been unmistakable - and unforgettable. The youngest of five children born to immigrant parents, Jack Cassidy's story is one of success and inspiration. By the time he was sixteen, he'd worked fifteen jobs ranging from busboy to dishwasher to ice truck driver. His uncle, a renowned circus contortionist, showed him the show business ropes and at the tender age of sixteen, Jack stepped into the chorus of "Something for the Boys". After that point, Jack's acting talent and rich baritone voice took him from show to show. He graced the stage in several productions before landing his first lead role in "Wish You Were Here" in 1953. The reviews were outstanding and his career started to flourish including the role of Johnny O'Sullivan in "Sandhog." The role of an Irish immigrant would hit close to home and would be one of his favorites. His life had also been enriched with his marriage to dancer-choreographer Evelyn Ward in 1948 and the birth of their son David in 1950. Evelyn and Jack had met while working on a show together and their wedding was attended by a who's-who of The Great White Way. Jack started to pepper his career with appearances not only on stage but on various television shows, sharing his talent with a broader audience. He made several appearances on "Toast of the Town" and "Lux Video Theatre" and also surfaced on episodes of "The United Steel Hour," "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" and "Gunsmoke." He would even have his own television show in Great Britain. His television presence would only grow over the next 20 years reflecting not only his career but his notoriety and prominence in the industry. In 1955, Jack was cast in a State Department European tour of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" with a young actress named Shirley Jones. Legally separated from Evelyn, Jack pursued Shirley and after their first date in Paris, he declared his intent to marry her - which he did between performances of "The Beggar's Opera" in 1956. Their marriage would be blessed with the births of three sons: Shaun, Patrick and Ryan. All four of his sons would carry on Jack's legacy in their own way - each with critically acclaimed careers in theater, film and television. Jack and Shirley would collaborate in other ways, appearing together on Broadway in "Maggie Flynn" in 1968 (Jack would receive a Tony nomination for his portrayal of "Phineas"), recording a number of albums including "Love From Hollywood" and "Brigadoon" and touring with the nightclub act "The Marriage Band" which was created by Jack and inspired by their relationship. As the country transformed through the 1960s, Jack Cassidy's career blossomed in all respects. In the theater, he took home the Tony for Best Featured Actor in 1963 for "She Loves Me" and followed that with Tony nominations for his work in "Fade Out, Fade In," "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" and "Maggie Flynn" and is one of the most nominated actors in Tony history. The West Coast beckoned to him and Jack started to truly establish himself in television. Whether it was a brilliant dramatic performance on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents,", "77 Sunset Strip," "Coronet Blue," "Lock Up," "Maverick" or "Wagon Train," a dazzling musical performance on "The Bell Telephone Hour" or "The Garry Moore Show" or a delightful comedic performance on "Bewitched" or "That Girl" - Jack was finally allowed to showcase his versatility and range to audiences unable to see him set foot on a stage. He even started his movie career in films such as "Look in Any Window", "The Chapman Report", "FBI Code 98" and the animated "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" in 1962. Often considered "larger than life" himself - even by co-stars Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin - Jack brought life to the character of Oscar North in the 1968 series "He & She" to the delight of both audiences and critics. His delivery of the classic "trapped in an elevator" routine has never been matched and his superior flair and uproarious comic timing would garner an Emmy nomination in 1969. His television presence would swell in the 1970s as he became a staple of both dramatic programs and game shows. Indeed it was nearly impossible to turn on the television and not see Jack's brilliant smile or hear his infectious laughter. He frequented "Columbo" and remains one of the more popular guest stars in the show's history. Other memorable performances include appearances in "Barnaby Jones," "Matt Helm," "McCloud," "Hawaii Five-O," "Alias Smith and Jones" and "Bonanza" as well as comedic interludes in "Love, American Style", "The Carol Burnett Show", "Laugh-In" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." His career expanded into the television movie genre with "Your Money or Your Wife," "George M!," "June Moon," and "The Phantom of Hollywood." Yet it was his depiction of attorney Otis Baker in "The Andersonville Trial" that again brought him an Emmy nomination and critical acclaim. Jack Cassidy's film career in the 1970s was filled with wonderful, quirky roles in films such as "Bunny O'Hare" with Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine, the Clint Eastwood action-thriller "The Eiger Sanction", "The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County" with Mickey Rooney and his brilliant portrayal of the legendary John Barrymore in "W.C. Fields and Me". However, he craved the solid, dramatic roles where he could truly prove his abilities on a larger scale. Tragically, he had just started receiving these offers right before his death in 1976. Like the character he'd created on "He & She," Jack Cassidy was undeniably larger than life. His notorious sense of humor made him the life of the party from private gatherings to public charity galas. It is no surprise that his friends and fans read like a roster of Hollywood's top talent. Among them, Dick Van Dyke, Jack Lemmon and Dick Van Patten have counted themselves as admirers of his talent. Jack was the superlative example of the classic leading man with his charisma, dashing grin and sparkling eyes who conducted his life with nothing less than panache and style. His golden baritone voice will forever set him apart. His talent will never be matched. His wit and humor warm the memories of the friends and family he left behind. He was a creative powerhouse who was denied the time necessary to fully express the full spectrum of his talents - some of which are only now revealed through the talent and success of his sons in many facets of the industry. Despite the brilliance of his career, he had only started to tap into the expanse of his potential. It was a life cut short and a life that deserves to be celebrated

Carol Channing was born January 31, 1921, at Seattle, Washington, the daughter of a prominent newspaper editor, who was very active in the Christian Science movement. She attended high school in San Francisco and later worked as a model in Los Angeles. She attended prestigious Bennington College in Vermont and majored in drama and dance and supplemented her work by taking parts in nearby Pocono Resort area. Carol initially made her mark on Broadway in "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" playing Lorelei Lee. In "Hello Dolly" she played Dolly Gallagher Levi, the witty, manipulative widow intent upon finding a wealthy husband. The musical won ten Tony awards in 1964, including Channing's for best actress in a comedy. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her two children made their first public appearance after President John F. Kennedy's death by seeing her perform in "Hello Dolly" and later visited her backstage. She appeared in the film Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Her son Channing Carson is a Pulitizer Prize-nominated finalist cartoonist and she continued to practice her Christian Science religion.

Mary Margaret Cass was born May 21, 1924, in Boston, Massachusetts. After three years in the Cambridge Latin School drama club without one speaking part, she moved to New York, where she worked as a secretary, telephone operator, advertising solicitor and model. She joined a USO troupe that took her to Australia for seven months, but she did not appear in any shows (the U.S. troops had moved on). As understudy, she took Jan Sterling's part in a national tour of "Born Yesterday," finally being cast in her own right in the 1949 Broadway musical "Touch and Go." The mid 1950s brought her the defining role of Agnes Gooch in Auntie Mame (1958), her stage and screen performances earning her a Tony and an Oscar nomination, respectively. From then on, she was best known for her regular television quiz show appearances: Keep Talking (1958), Match Game (1973), Password (1961), and To Tell the Truth (1956). She was very smart and very funny, but her signature was her unmistakably raspy voice. She died on March 8, 1999, at Manhattan's Sloane-Kettering Hospital of heart failure.

Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-1964). His father made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. His mother was born out of wedlock and spent much of her life and the family fortune finding her illustrious southern lineage and raising her children as aristocrats.

At age 13, Monty appeared on Broadway ("Fly Away Home"), and chose to remain in the New York theater for over ten years before finally succumbing to Hollywood. He gained excellent theatrical notices and soon piqued the interests of numerous lovelorn actresses; their advances met with awkward conflict. While working in New York in the early 1940s, he met wealthy former Broadway star Libby Holman. She developed an intense decade-plus obsession over the young actor, even financing an experimental play, "Mexican Mural" for him. It was ironic his relationship with the bisexual middle-aged Holman would be the principal (and likely the last) heterosexual relationship of his life and only cause him further anguish over his sexuality. She would wield considerable influence over the early part of his film career, advising him in decisions to decline lead roles in Sunset Boulevard (1950), (originally written specifically for him; the story perhaps hitting a little too close to home) and High Noon (1952).

His long apprenticeship on stage made him a thoroughly accomplished actor, notable for the intensity with which he researched and approached his roles. By the early 1950s he was exclusively homosexual, though he continued to hide his homosexuality and maintained a number of close friendships with theater women (heavily promoted by studio publicists).

His film debut was Red River (1948) with John Wayne quickly followed by his early personal success The Search (1948) (Oscar nominations for this, A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)). By 1950, he was troubled with allergies and colitis (the U.S. Army had rejected him for military service in World War II for chronic diarrhea) and, along with pill problems, he was alcoholic. He spent a great deal of time and money on psychiatry.

In 1956, during filming of Raintree County (1957), he ran his Chevrolet into a tree after leaving a party at Elizabeth Taylor's; it was she who saved him from choking by pulling out two teeth lodged in his throat. His smashed face was rebuilt, he reconciled with his estranged father, but he continued bedeviled by dependency on drugs and his unrelenting guilt over his homosexuality.

With his Hollywood career in an irreversible slide despite giving an occasional riveting performance, such as in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Monty returned to New York and tried to slowly develop a somewhat more sensible lifestyle in his brownstone row house on East 61st Street in Manhattan. He was set to play in Taylor's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), when he died in the early morning hours of July 23, 1966, at his home at age 45. His body was found by his live-in personal secretary/companion Lorenzo James, who found Clift lying nude on top of his bed, dead from what the autopsy called "occlusive coronary artery disease." Clift's last 10 years prior to his death from his 1956 car accident were called the "longest suicide in history" by famed acting teacher Robert Lewis.

Barbara Cook is best-loved and remembered for her work on the Broadway stage. An amazing singer and refreshingly impulsive actress, she made her debut at age 23 in the musical "Flahooley". Roles in "Plain and Fancy" and, the most famous flop of all time, "Candide" followed. In 1957, she created her most famous role as Marion Paroo opposite Robert Preston in "The Music Man". She won a Tony for her work. Other shows included "The Gay Life", "She Loves Me" and "Something More". After the short-lived "Grass Harp" during the early '70s, Cook retired from the musical theater. Not long after, she emerged as a dynamite cabaret singer. This second phase of her career is still going strong today.

Sammy Davis Jr. was often billed as the "greatest living entertainer in the world".

He was born in Harlem, Manhattan, the son of dancer Elvera Davis (née Sanchez) and vaudeville star Sammy Davis Sr.. His father was African-American and his mother was of Cuban and African-American ancestry. Davis Jr. was known as someone who could do it all, sing, dance, play instruments, act, do stand-up and he was known for his self-deprecating humor; he once heard someone complaining about discrimination, and he said, "You got it easy. I'm a short, ugly, one-eyed, black Jew. What do you think it's like for me?" (he had converted to Judaism).

A short stint in the army opened his eyes to the evils of racism. A slight man, he was often beaten up by bigger white soldiers and given the dirtiest and most dangerous assignments by white officers simply because he was black. He helped break down racial barriers in show business in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in Las Vegas, where he often performed; when he started there in the early 1950s, he was not allowed to stay in the hotels he played in, as they refused to take blacks as customers. He also stirred up a large amount of controversy in the 1960s by openly dating, and ultimately marrying, blonde, blue-eyed, Swedish-born actress May Britt.

He starred in the Broadway musical "Golden Boy" in the 1960s. Initially a success, internal tensions, production problems and bad reviews--many of them directed at Davis for playing a role originally written for a white man resulted in its closing fairly quickly. His film and nightclub career were in full swing, however, and he became even more famous as one of the "Rat Pack", a group of free-wheeling entertainers that included Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.

A chain smoker, Davis died from throat cancer at the age of 64. When he died, he was in debt. To pay for Davis' funeral, most of his memorabilia was sold off.

It would not be easy for anyone to out-do one of American theater's finest thespians, but somehow actress Sandy Dennis managed to even out-quirk the legendary Geraldine Page when it came to affecting nervous tics and offbeat mannerisms on stage and in film. She and Page had few peers when it came to the neurotic-dispensing department. The two Actor's Studio disciples developed fascinating characterizations that seemed to manifest themselves outwardly to such physical extremes and, like a bad car accident, their overt styling was capable of both drawing in, and repelling audiences. There was no gray area. Either way, both had a searing emotional range and were undeniably transfixing figures who held up Oscar trophies to prove there was a "Method" to their respective madness. Sandy's signature quirks--her stuttering, fluttering, throat gulps, eye twitches, nervous giggles, hysterical flailing--are all a part of what made her so distinctive and unforgettable. Her untimely death of cancer at age 54 robbed the entertainment industry of a remarkable talent.

The Nebraska-born-and-bred actress was born Sandra Dale Dennis in Hastings, on April 27, 1937, the daughter of postal clerk Jack Dennis and his secretary wife Yvonne (née Hudson), who divorced in 1966 after a 38-year marriage. Living in both Kenesaw (1942) and Lincoln (1946) while growing up, she and brother Frank went to Lincoln High School with TV host Dick Cavett. Her passion for acting grew and grew while still at home. A college student at both Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska, she eventually found her career direction after appearing with the Lincoln Community Theater Group.

The toothy actress left Nebraska and towards the Big Apple at age 19 just to try her luck. An intense student of acting guru Uta Hagen, Sandy made her New York stage debut in a Tempo Theatre production of "The Lady from the Sea" in 1956 and that same year won her first TV role as that of Alice Holden in the daytime series Guiding Light (1952). A year later she made it to Broadway as an understudy (and eventual replacement) for the roles of Flirt and Reenie in the William Inge drama "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," directed by Elia Kazan at the Music Box Theatre. She toured with that production and also found regional work in the plays "Bus Stop" and "Motel" while continuing to shine as a budding New York fixture in "Burning Bright," "Face of a Hero" and "Port Royal".

Along with fellow newcomers Gary Lockwood and Phyllis Diller, Sandy made her movie debut in playwright Inge's Splendor in the Grass (1961), a movie quite welcoming of Sandy's neurotic tendencies. In the minor but instrumental role of Kay, she is an unwitting instigator of friend Deanie's (played by an ambitiously unbalanced Natalie Wood) mental collapse. Despite this worthy little turn, Sandy would not make another film for five years.

Instead, the actress set her sights strongly on the stage and for this she was handsomely rewarded, most notably in comedy. After appearing in a two-month run of the Graham Greene drama "The Complaisant Lover" at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1961, stardom would be hers the very next year with her outstanding social worker role in the lighter-weight "A Thousand Clowns". Winning the Theatre World as well as the coveted Tony Award for her performance, she continue her run of prizes with a second consecutive Tony for her sexy turn in the comedy "Any Wednesday" (1964). Having made only one picture at this juncture, Sandy was not in a good position to transfer her award-winning characters to film and when they did, they went to Barbara Harris and Jane Fonda, respectively.

TV was also a viable medium for Sandy and she appeared sporadically on such programs as The Fugitive (1963), Naked City (1958) and Arrest and Trial (1963). In 1965, she appeared in London as Irina in a heralded Actor's Studio production of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" with fellow devotees Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley, Shelley Winters, Luther Adler and Kevin McCarthy. The play was subsequently videotaped and directed by Paul Bogart, and is valuable today for the studied "Method" performances of its cast. It, however, received mixed reviews upon its release.

Returning to film in 1966, Sandy seemed to embellish every physical and emotional peculiarity she could muster for the role of the mousy wife Honey in the four-character powerhouse play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) by Edward Albee. It is a mouth-dropping, emotionally shattering performance, and both she and a more even-keeled George Segal as the drop over guests of the skewering cutthroat couple George and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) more than held their own. While the distaff cast won Oscars for this (Taylor for "Best Actress" and Dennis for "Best Supporting Actress"), this ferocious landmark film blew open the "Production Code" doors once and for all and a wave of counterculture filming tackling formerly taboo subjects came to be.

Firmly established now with her Oscar win, Sandy found highly affecting lead showcases for herself. She starred as a young, naive English teacher challenged by a New York "Blackboard Jungle"-like school system in Up the Down Staircase (1967). She also stirred up some controversy along with Anne Heywood playing brittle lesbian lovers whose relationship is threatened by a sexy male visitor (Keir Dullea) in another ground-breaking film The Fox (1967). Sandy remained intriguingly off-kilter in the odd-couple romantic story Sweet November (1968) opposite Anthony Newley, the bizarre Robert Altman thriller That Cold Day in the Park (1969), and the gloomy British melodrama A Touch of Love (1969) [aka Thank You All Very Much].

Off-camera, Sandy lived for over a decade with jazz musician and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, which began in 1965 following his devoted relationship with actress Judy Holliday who had died of cancer earlier in the year. They eventually parted ways in 1976. Rumors that they had married at some point were eventually negated by Sandy herself. Sandy also went on to have a May-December relationship with the equally quirky actor Eric Roberts from 1980 to 1985. She had no children.

At the peak of her film popularity, Sandy began the 1970s in more mainstream fashion. She and Jack Lemmon were another odd-couple hit in Neil Simon's The Out of Towners (1970) as married George and Gwen Kellerman visiting an unmerciful Big Apple. Sandy is at her whiny, plain-Jane best ("Oh, my God...I think we're being kidnapped!") as disaster upon disaster befalls the miserable twosome. Both she and Lemmon were nominated for Golden Globes. Following this, however, Sandy again refocused on the stage with an avalanche of fine performances in "How the Other Half Loves," "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (as Blanche), "Born Yesterday" (as Billie Dawn), "Absurd Person Singular," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (as Maggie the Cat), "Same Time, Next Year," "The Little Foxes," "Eccentricities of a Nightingale," "The Supporting Cast" and even the title role in "Peter Pan".

A few TV and movie roles came Sandy's way in unspectacular fashion but it wasn't until the next decade that she again stole some thunder. After a moving support turn as a cast-off wife in the finely-tuned ensemble drama The Four Seasons (1981), Sandy proved terrific as a James Dean extremist in another ensemble film Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), which she played first to fine acclaim on Broadway. Reunited with director Robert Altman as well as her stage compatriots Cher, Karen Black, Kathy Bates, Sudie Bond and Marta Heflin, the film version was equally praised. Her last films included Another Woman (1988), 976-EVIL (1988) and Parents (1989).

Seen less and less in later years, she gave in to her eccentric tendencies as time went on. A notorious cat lover (at one point there was a count of 33 residing in her Westport, Connecticut home), close friends included actresses Brenda Vaccaro and Jessica Walter. Her father Jack died in 1990 and around that same time Sandy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy at the time she filmed the part of a beaten-down mother in Sean Penn's The Indian Runner (1991), the role proved to be her last.

Sandy died in Westport on March 2, 1992. Her ashes were placed at the Lincoln Memorial Park in Lincoln, Nebraska. A foundation in her home state was set up to "memorialize the accomplishments of Sandy Dennis, to perpetuate her commitment to education and the performing arts, to promote cultural activities, and to encourage theatrical education, performance, and professionals". A book, "Sandy Dennis: A Personal Memoir," was published posthumously in 1997.

If any man ever had a curmudgeon character face absolutely made for TV and film, it was Paul Ford. Small-eyed, balding, lugubrious, pot-bellied and with a memorable plum nose to rival that of the great Karl Malden, he made a very late entry into show business, finding major success as blowhard military brass, gruff executives, grouchy sheriffs and blustery judges.

Born Paul Ford Weaver on November 2, 1901, in Baltimore, Maryland, he dropped out of Dartmouth College before working as a salesman throughout the Great Depression. The married Ford was a rather wanderlust family man who decided to give acting a try in his early 40s. He excelled at puppetry and found work staging such shows at the World's Fair. Billing himself as Paul Ford, his middle name and mother's maiden name, he eventually found a fair amount of radio and theatre offers. Making his off-Broadway debut in 1939, he moved to Broadway playing a sergeant in the 1944 play "Decision" and continued on the New York stage with such popular 40's plays as "Kiss Them for Me," "Flamingo Road" and "Command Decision."

Paul moved inauspiciously into films with uncredited roles in the dramatic films The House on 92nd Street (1945), The Naked City (1948) and All the King's Men (1949), then walked up the credits ladder rung by rung with credited roles in Lust for Gold (1949), The Kid from Texas (1950) and Perfect Strangers (1950). Eventually he included the newer medium of TV, finding roles on various anthology series including "Armstrong Circle Theatre," "The Ford Theatre Hour," "The Philco Television Playhouse," "Suspense" and "Studio One in Hollywood."

Paul earned a huge hit on Broadway with his delightfully huffy portrayal of Colonel Wainright Purdy in the 1953 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning war comedy "Teahouse of the August Moon." He went on to transfer his role to film with The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956). From there, he was given the part of irascible Horace Vandergelder in the movie version of the Thornton Wilder play The Matchmaker (1958) also starring Shirley Booth as Dolly Levi, Shirley MacLaine as Irene Malloy, Anthony Perkins as Cornelius Hackl and Robert Morse as Barnaby Tucker.

Having already conquered radio, stage and film, it was on TV that 54-year-old Paul would achieve "overnight success" and become a household name when he was hired played a befuddled second banana to comedian Phil Silvers on TV. Butting heads week after week as the ever-flustered Colonel Hall with Silvers' classic portrayal of the sly, manipulative Sergeant Bilko in The Phil Silvers Show (1955), Paul amused audiences for four seasons and was Emmy-nominated three times. During this time he scored another Broadway success playing multiple roles in the light-hearted sketch revue "Thurber's Carnival" in 1960.

As a reward for his small screen success, Paul was awarded the opportunity to film another stage hit. Shining in the pompous supporting role of Mayor Shinn in the 1957 Tony-awarded musical hit "The Music Man" (he replaced Tony-winning David Burns, the actor, along with Robert Preston (as Harold Hill) and Pert Kelton (as Mrs. Paroo) transferred his character to the immortal feature film version of The Music Man (1962).

Ford went on playing playing old coot gents and took a third Broadway triumph to film as elderly father-to-be Harry Lambert in the family comedy Never Too Late (1965) co-starring his stage partner Maureen O'Sullivan as expectant wife Edith. Other twilight character film roles included his senator in Advise & Consent (1962), another colonel in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), a general in The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966), a military commander in The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966), a one-time third-party presidential candidate in The Comedians (1967) (for which he won a National Board of Review award for "Best Supporting Actor"), and his last film, as a doctor in the little seen comedy Richard (1972).

Ford eventually retired in 1972, and died four years later due to a massive heart attack in Mineola, New York, on April 12, 1976. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Falling somewhat below W.C. Fields and Walter Matthau in crabby popularity, this delightful curmudgeon nevertheless earned and deserved his brief, late-night success.

Robert Gerard Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a family of French-Canadian origin. He was the son of Jeanette (Gauthier) and Joseph Georges André Goulet. After hearing his son sing "Lead Kindly Light", in their church hall, his father told him, "I'm proud of you, son". A few weeks later, his father, lying on his death bed, called Robert to his side and told him the Lord had given him a beautiful voice and he must go and sing. His father died when Robert was 13 and he moved to Edmonton, Canada, a year later. Goulet won a singing scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of music in Toronto and, in 1951, made his concert debut at Edmonton in George Frideric Handel's "Messiah". Goulet was also a DJ on Canada's CKUA in Edmonton for two years. In 1960, he landed one of his biggest roles as "Lancelot" in Broadway's "Camelot", opposite Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. He received a Tony award in 1968 for his role in "Happy Time". He and his first wife, Louise Longmore, had one daughter, Nicolette Goulet (aka Nikki). His second wife, actress and singer Carol Lawrence, produced two sons, Christopher and Michael. In 1982, with Glenn Ford giving the bride away, he was married in Las Vegas to Vera Goulet (aka Vera Novak), a Yugoslavian-born writer, photographer and artist. When not living at their home in Las Vegas, they reside on their yacht, "Rogo", in Los Angeles. Goulet has performed at the White House for three presidents, as well as a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II.

On September 30, 2007, he was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, "a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition". On October 13, he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined that he "would not survive without an emergency lung transplant".

Goulet died on October 30, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, while awaiting a transplant.

He is survived by his wife, Vera Goulet, and three children, sons Christopher and Michael, and daughter Nicolette Goulet, who is the mother of his grandchildren, Jordan Gerard and Solange.

Alec Guinness was an English actor of stage and screen, his career spanning over sixty years. His best known screen works are his starring roles in several of the Ealing comedies between 1949 and 1957 (most notably as eight members of the same family in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), his Oscar-nominated turn as bank clerk turned bullion robber in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), an inventor who never gives up in The Man in the White Suit (1951), and as one of five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery in The Ladykillers (1955)); his six collaborations over 38 years with director David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Professor Godbole in A Passage to India (1984); his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); and his starring role as George Smiley in the television adaptations of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982).

His gallery of notable characters (both fictional and historical) also includes Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in The Mudlark (1950), an enterprising rogue in The Promoter (1952), a sleuthing priest in The Detective (1954), an eccentric London artist in The Horse's Mouth (1958) (for which he was Oscar-nominated as a screenwriter), a wayward Scottish army officer in Tunes of Glory (1960), the ghost of Jacob Marley in Scrooge (1970), King Charles I in Cromwell (1970), the title role in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), a blind butler in Murder by Death (1976), a survivor of the Titanic disaster in Raise the Titanic (1980), and a return to Dickens' territory (and a final Oscar nomination) as William Dorrit in Little Dorrit (1987).

In 1959, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. In 1980 he received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement.

Guinness died on 5 August 2000, from liver cancer, at Midhurst in West Sussex.

Canadian-born actor Arthur Hill was raised in the Saskatchewan town of Melfort. The son of a lawyer, he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII before receiving his college education at the University of British Columbia. Intending on following in his father's footsteps in the field of law, he supported himself in school with a job doing radio theatre with the Canadian Broadcasting Co.

Continuing to pursue his interest in acting for a time in Seattle, he married fellow actress Peggy Hassard and subsequently made a major move in 1948, at age 26, to England where he slowly built up a fine, steadfast theatre reputation for himself along with occasional radio, film and TV roles. Making his London stage debut with "Home of the Brave" in 1948, he achieved major attention playing Cornelius Hackl in the Thornton Wilder classic "The Matchmaker", a role he took successfully to Broadway. Other important work on stage included "Man and Superman" (1951) and "Look Homeward Angel (1957).

In 1962, he, Uta Hagen, George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon bowled over Broadway audiences as the vitriolic foursome in Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Hill won both the Tony and New York Drama Critics awards for his role as George, the browbeaten academician and husband of Hagen's emasculating Martha (played by theatre legend Uta Hagen, who also won a Tony Award for her performance), who manages to turn the tables on her in front of two young guests invited for an ill-fated nightcap .

This led to stable work in Hollywood films in the 1960s with stalwart support roles in The Ugly American (1963), Harper (1966), Rabbit, Run (1970) and The Andromeda Strain (1971). This, in turn, led to an abundance of television work in the 1970s where Hill found a comfortable white-collar niche as mild-mannered, gray-haired professionals and an occasional shady villain. He earned star status with his own series Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1971), and in such quality mini-movies as Death Be Not Proud (1975) and Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys (1976), among others.

He retired in the 1990s and later was suffered from Alzheimer's disease, which claimed his life at an assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, California. At the time of his death on October 23, 2006, he was survived by his second wife, Anne-Sophie Taraba, and his son, Douglas. (Hill's first wife, Peggy, had died in 1998, also of complications from Alzheimer's disease.)

Robert Horton was born on July 29, 1924 into a Mormon family in Los Angeles, California as Meade Howard Horton Jr. He began his contract career at MGM in 1952 and adopted the acting name of Robert Horton.

Following his final role (as a guest star on Murder, She Wrote (1984)), Horton retired from acting in 1989. He had appeared in films, musical theatre, and many television series in both starring and guest roles, including Apache War Smoke (1952), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Wagon Train (1957), The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1960), Matinee Theatre (1955), As the World Turns (1956), and The Green Slime (1968).

Horton was thrice married: to Mary Catherine Jobe, to Barbara Ruick, and to Marilynn Bradley, who survived him. He died on March 9, 2016, aged 91, in his native Los Angeles.

Named after child star Shirley Temple, Shirley Jones started singing at the age of six. She started formal training at the age of 12 and would dream of singing with her idol, Gordon MacRae. Upon graduating from high school, Shirley went to New York to audition for the casting director of Rodgers & Hammerstein. Taken by Shirley's beautifully trained voice, Shirley was signed as a nurse in the Broadway production of "South Pacific". Within a year, she would be in Hollywood to appear in her first film Oklahoma! (1955) as Laurey, the farm girl in love with cowboy Gordon MacRae. Oklahoma! (1955) would be filmed in CinemaScope and Todd-AO wide-screen and would take a year to shoot. After that, Shirley returned to Broadway for the stage production of "Oklahoma!" before returning to Hollywood for Carousel (1956). But by this time, musicals were a dying art and she would have a few lean years. She would work on television in programs like Playhouse 90 (1956). With a screen image comparable to peaches-n-cream, Shirley wanted a darker role to change her image. In 1960, she would be cast as the vengeful prostitute in the Richard Brooks dramatic film Elmer Gantry (1960). With a brilliant performance against an equally brilliant Burt Lancaster, Shirley would win the Oscar for Supporting Actress. But the public wanted the good Shirley so she was cast as "Marion", the librarian, in the successful musical The Music Man (1962). Robert Preston had played the role on Broadway and his performance along with Shirley was magic. Shirley would again work with little Ron Howard in The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). But the movies changed in the 60's and Shirley's image did not fit so she would see her movie career stop in 1965. There were always nightclubs, but Shirley would be remembered by another generation as "Shirley Partridge" in the television series The Partridge Family (1970). While the success of the show would do more for her stepson, teen idol David Cassidy, it would keep her name and face in the public view for the four years that the series ran. The show still plays in reruns. After the show ended, Shirley would spend the rest of the 70's in the land of television movies. The television movie The Lives of Jenny Dolan (1975) would be made as a pilot for a series that was not picked up. In 1979, Shirley appeared in a comedy show called Shirley (1979), but the show lasted only one season. Shirley would appear infrequently in the 80's and in video's extolling fitness and beauty at the end of the decade.

Shirley Knight was an American actress who appeared in more than 180 feature films, television movies, television series, and Broadway productions in her career playing leading and character roles.

She was a member of the Actors Studio. Knight was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).

In 1976, Knight won a Tony Award for her performance in Kennedy's Children, a play by Robert Patrick. In later years, she played supporting roles in many films, including Endless Love (1981), As Good as It Gets (1997), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), and Grandma's Boy (2006). For her performances on television, Knight was nominated eight times for a Primetime Emmy Award (winning three), and she received a Golden Globe Award.