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July 14th (Births)

by Creator15429220 • Created 1 year ago • Modified 1 year ago
The Day I Was Born
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  • Vladimir Kulich

    1. Vladimir Kulich

    • Actor
    The Equalizer (2014)
    Vladimir Kulich is known for his work in The Equalizer, Vikings, 13th Warrior, Smoking' Aces, Ironclad,The X Files, and as the voice of Ulfric Stormcloak in one of the most successful video games of all time, Skyrim-The Elder Scrolls. He has given memorable performances opposite academy award winners and nominees including Denzel Washington, Christopher Plummer, Max Von Sydow, Paul Giamatti, John Savage and Antonio Banderas. Vladimir was born in Prague and began his training at the State Theatre of Czechoslovakia. Today he lives in a little cabin, surrounded by 'Silicon Beach' mansions, in Venice, California.
  • Vincent Pastore

    2. Vincent Pastore

    • Actor
    • Producer
    The Sopranos (1999–2007)
    Pastore was born to an Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York City, and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. Following his graduation from high school, he enlisted as a sailor in the United States Navy and then attended Pace University for three years, before eventually going into the acting industry after befriending Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon. On June 3, 2015, during an appearance on Good Day New York, Pastore said he was in the club business for close to 30 years, and got into acting in his forties.
  • Sid Haig

    3. Sid Haig

    • Actor
    • Producer
    • Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
    House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
    Tall, bald and nearly always bearded, Sid Haig provided hulking menace to many a low-budget exploitation film and high-priced action film.

    Sid Haig was born Sidney Eddie Mosesian on July 14, 1939 in Fresno, California, a screaming ball of hair. His parents, Roxy (Mooradian) and Haig Mosesian, an electrician, were of Armenian descent. Sid's career was somewhat of an accident. He was growing so fast that he had absolutely no coordination. It was decided that he would take dancing lessons, and that's when it all began. At the age of seven, he was dancing for pay in a children's Christmas Show, then a revival of a vaudeville show... and on it went.

    Sid also showed a musical inclination, particularly for the drums. So when his parents got tired of him denting all the pots and pans in the house, they bought him a drum set. The music was in him and he took to it immediately, a born natural. First it was swing, then country, then jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll. Sid always found it easy to make money with his music, and did very well. One year out of high school and signing a recording contract is not too bad. Sid went on to record the single "Full House" with the T-Birds in 1958. However, back while he was in high school, Sid got bitten by the "acting bug". Alice Merrill was the head of the drama department at that time and gave him all the encouragement in the world to pursue an acting career. The clincher came in his senior year. The way that the senior play was cast was that she would double cast the show, then have one of her friends from Hollywood come up and pick the final cast.

    You see, Merrill was quite famous as an actress on Broadway and kept up her contacts in the business. When the appointed day came, the "friend" that showed up was Dennis Morgan, a big musical comedy star from the 1940s. The rest is history -- he picked Sid for the role, then two weeks later came back to see the show and told Sid that he should continue his education down south and consider acting as a career path. Two years later, Sid enrolled in the world famous Pasadena Playhouse, the school that trained such actors as Robert Preston, Robert Young, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and so on. After two years of "actor's hell" (non-stop 7:00 am to 11:00 pm with homework thrown in just for the fun of it), it was time to move on to the big "H", Hollywood! Sid did so with longtime friend and roommate Stuart Margolin (Angel on The Rockford Files (1974)).

    Sid's first acting job was in Jack Hill's student film at UCLA. It was called The Host (1960), which was released in 2004 on DVD as a companion to Switchblade Sisters (1975), another Hill film. That role launched a 40-year acting career during which Haig appeared in over 50 films and 350 television series. He has proven himself quite valuable to such filmmakers as producer Roger Corman. He also became a staple in the pictures of Jack Hill, appearing in Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told (1967), Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Haig's other memorable credits include George Lucas' THX 1138 (1971), and the James Bond opus Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (he is one of the Slumber Brothers, and got to toss a topless Lana Wood from the window of a high-rise Vegas hotel).

    Among his most significant television credits are appearances on such landmark series as The A-Team (1983), T.J. Hooker (1982), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Quincy, M.E. (1976), Hart to Hart (1979), Fantasy Island (1977), Charlie's Angels (1976), Police Woman (1974), The Rockford Files (1974), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), Mannix (1967), Mission: Impossible (1966), Gunsmoke (1955), Get Smart (1965), Here's Lucy (1968), The Flying Nun (1967), Daniel Boone (1964), Star Trek (1966), Batman (1966) and The Untouchables (1959).

    Sid was never one to give-up on anything but after nearly 40 years of carrying a gun (except for the occasional Jack Hill or Roger Corman film), his dreams of being recognized as a more than competent actor were fading. Then in 1992, frustrated with being typecast, Sid retired from acting and quoted, "I'll never play another stupid heavy again, and I don't care if that means that I never work, ever." This just proves that if you take a stand people will listen, for Quentin Tarantino wrote for Sid the role of the judge in Jackie Brown (1997). Then things got better, much better. During the mid and late 1990s, Sid managed a community theatre company, as well as dabbled occasionally in theater in Los Angeles.

    Then in 2000, Sid came out of his self-imposed retirement at the request of Rob Zombie for a role in Zombie's debut film House of 1000 Corpses (2003). He starred as the fun-loving, but murderous, Captain Spaulding. This role breathed new life into Sid's acting career and earned him an award for Best Supporting Actor in the 13th Annual Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, as well as an induction into the Horror Hall of Fame. Sid's character Captain Spaulding became an icon for the new horror genre. Sid has recently enjoyed success as Captain Spaulding once again in Rob Zombie's follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses (2003), entitled, The Devil's Rejects (2005). For this film, Sid received the award for best Actor in the 15th Annual Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, as well as sharing the award for "Most Vile Villain" at the First Annual Spike TV Scream Awards with Leslie Easterbrook, Sheri Moon Zombie and Bill Moseley as The Firefly Family.

    In the 2000s and 2010s, Sid continued to enjoy his renewed success as an actor. In September 2019, he was hospitalized after falling in his home in Los Angeles, California. While recovering, he suffered from a lung infection after vomiting in his sleep. He died on September 21, 2019, from complications of the infection at age 80.
  • Stan Shaw in Harlem Nights (1989)

    4. Stan Shaw

    • Actor
    • Producer
    Daylight (1996)
    Stan Shaw was born on 14 July 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Daylight (1996), Cutthroat Island (1995) and The Monster Squad (1987). He has been married to Dr. Zoe Shaw since 30 June 1994. They have four children.
  • Sean Flynn

    5. Sean Flynn

    • Actor
    • Additional Crew
    Zoey 101 (2005–2008)
    Born and raised in Los Angeles, Sean Flynn has been a working actor since the age of seven. Grandson of the legendary actor Errol Flynn, acting is in his roots. Beginning his career by appearing in a couple commercials, he quickly moved on to working in film. At age 14, he secured the male lead in a television series on Nickelodeon: Zoey 101. Sean is now 30 years old, and continuing to study the craft.
  • Scott Porter

    6. Scott Porter

    • Actor
    • Soundtrack
    Speed Racer (2008)
    Matthew Scott Porter is an American actor and occasional singer known for his role as Jason Street in the NBC television drama Friday Night Lights. His character was injured during a football game in the pilot episode and became disabled. The character was inspired by high school football player David Edwards.

    Porter was paired with Alyson Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens in the 2009 film Bandslam. He performed the song "Pretend", which is featured on the Bandslam soundtrack. In 2010, he played the role of law firm investigator Blake Calamar in CBS' legal drama The Good Wife.

    He starred as George Tucker in The CW comedy-drama series Hart of Dixie.
  • Robert Stephens

    7. Robert Stephens

    • Actor
    • Producer
    • Director
    Romeo and Juliet (1968)
    Sir Robert's career fell into two distinct parts. In the '60s, he was widely regarded as the heir of Laurence Olivier. But, after his departure from Britain's National Theatre in 1970 and the breakup of his marriage with Maggie Smith three years later, he suffered a slump made worse by heavy drinking. In the '90s, the Royal Shakespeare Company invited him to play first Falstaff in "Henry IV" and then Lear in "King Lear", and this re-established Stephens's career. He was knighted early in 1995.
  • Nick Benedict

    8. Nick Benedict

    • Actor
    All My Children (1974–1988)
    Nick Benedict was born on 14 July 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for All My Children (1970), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend (1991). He was married to Michelle Marie Dow and Ginger. He died on 14 July 2023 in Tehachapi, California, USA.
  • Matthew Fox

    9. Matthew Fox

    • Actor
    • Producer
    • Director
    Bone Tomahawk (2015)
    Matthew Chandler Fox was born in Abington, Pennsylvania. His mother, Loretta B. (Eagono), was a schoolteacher, and his father, Francis G. Fox, was a consultant for an oil company, who raised longhorn cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors beer. He has Italian (from his maternal grandfather), English, and Irish ancestry. Matthew entered the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts for a post-grad year after high school, and then matriculated at Columbia University where he played football and majored in Economics with the intent to end up on Wall Street. However, his girlfriend's mother was a modeling agent who convinced him to try some modeling which led to a couple of TV commercials. Soon after he was sold on acting.

    He made his debut on an episode of _"Wings"(1990)_ in 1992. From 1994 to 2000 he played the role of Charlie Salinger in Party of Five (1994) alongside Neve Campbell and Scott Wolf. From 2004 to 2010 he starred on the popular TV-Show Lost (2004). During this time he appeared in movies such as We Are Marshall (2006), Vantage Point (2008) and Speed Racer (2008).

    He has been married to his wife Margherita since 1992 and they 2 children together, a daughter and a son.
  • Dale Robertson

    10. Dale Robertson

    • Actor
    • Additional Crew
    • Soundtrack
    The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1952)
    Dale Robertson, the actor who made his name in television Westerns in the 1950s and '60s, was born on July 14, 1923, in Harrah, Oklahoma. After serving in a tank crew and in the combat engineers in North Africa and Europe during World War II, the twice-wounded Robertson started his acting career while still on active duty in the U.S. Army. While stationed at San Luis Obispo, California, had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the six foot tall, 180-lb. Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood. Will Rogers Jr., whose father is the most famous son of Oklahoma, told him to avoid formal training and keep his own persona. Robertson took his advice and avoided acting classes.

    Robertson was typecast in Western movies and TV shows when the genre was still America's favorite. He headlined two TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), in which he played the roving trouble-shooter Jim Hardie, and Iron Horse (1966), in which he won a railway in a poker game. He also served as one of the hosts, along with Ronald Reagan, of the syndicated series Death Valley Days (1952) during the 1960s. Robertson later appeared in the inaugural season of Dynasty (1981).

    Robertson is a recipient of the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is retired on a ranch near Oklahoma City, not far from his birthplace of Harrah.
  • Harry Dean Stanton at an event for Two for the Money (2005)

    11. Harry Dean Stanton

    • Actor
    • Soundtrack
    Lucky (2017)
    Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was on board an LST during the Battle of Okinawa. He then returned to the University of Kentucky to appear in a production of "Pygmalion", before heading out to California and honing his craft at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. Stanton then toured around the United States with a male choir, worked in children's theater, and then headed back to California.

    His first role on screen was in the tepid movie Tomahawk Trail (1957), but he was quickly noticed and appeared regularly in minor roles as cowboys and soldiers through the late 1950s and early 1960s. His star continued to rise and he received better roles in which he could showcase his laid-back style, such as in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), and in Alien (1979). It was around this time that Stanton came to the attention of director Wim Wenders, who cast him in his finest role yet as Travis in the moving Paris, Texas (1984). Next indie director Alex Cox gave Stanton a role that brought him to the forefront, in the quirky cult film Repo Man (1984).

    Stanton was now heavily in demand, and his unique look got him cast as everything from a suburban father in the mainstream Pretty in Pink (1986) to a soft-hearted, but ill-fated, private investigator in Wild at Heart (1990) and a crazy yet cunning scientist in Escape from New York (1981). Apart from his film performances, he was also an accomplished musician, and "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" and their unique spin on mariachi music played together for well over a decade. They toured internationally. He became a cult figure of cinema and music and when Debbie Harry sang the lyric, "I want to dance with Harry Dean..." in her 1990s hit "I Want That Man", she was talking about him. Stanton remained consistently active on screen, lastly appearing in films including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999) and The Man Who Cried (2000).
  • Jackie Earle Haley

    12. Jackie Earle Haley

    • Actor
    • Director
    • Writer
    Watchmen (2009)
    Jackie Earle Haley is an American actor who started his career with The Bad News Bears. He had more adult roles in Little Children, the cult classic Zack Snyder film Watchmen, Alita: Battle Angel, and Freddy Krueger from a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. He has been married three times and has two children.
  • Kyle Gass and Tenacious D at an event for Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006)

    13. Kyle Gass

    • Actor
    • Writer
    • Composer
    Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006)
    Kyle Gass was born on 14 July 1960 in Walnut Creek, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006), Tenacious D (1997) and Elf (2003).
  • Damon Dayoub

    14. Damon Dayoub

    • Actor
    • Producer
    Stitchers (2015–2017)
    Damon Joseph Dayoub was born on 14 July 1980, the son of Andrea Evers and Richard Dayoub. Damon grew up in El Paso and attended Coronado High School. Upon graduating in 1998, he moved to Austin, Texas, where he attended the University of Texas at Austin, and continued to live until moving to Los Angeles in January 2007. Damon landed his first TV guest star role on the show The Whole Truth (2010) and has also appeared on shows such as, Brothers & Sisters (2011), Single Ladies (2012), Dallas (2013), NCIS (2013), The Last Ship (2015), and Stitchers (2015). On 2 May 2015, Damon married actress Emily Montague. They currently reside in Los Angeles.
  • Alisha Wainwright

    15. Alisha Wainwright

    • Actress
    • Director
    • Writer
    Raising Dion (2019–2022)
    Alisha Ena Wainwright is an American actress. She is known for Raising Dion (2019) and Shadowhunters. She was born in Orlando, Florida. Wainwright was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. Her mother is from Jamaica and her father is from Haiti. After appearing in a web comedy sketch on the YouTube channel Smosh in 2012, Wainwright guest-starred in several film and television productions including Criminal Minds and Lethal Weapon. In September 2016, her casting as the werewolf Maia Roberts on Freeform's fantasy series Shadowhunters, based on The Mortal Instruments book series by Cassandra Clare was announced.
  • Christina Jackson

    16. Christina Jackson

    • Actress
    • Producer
    • Stunts
    The Night House (2020)
    Christina Jackson was born on 14 July 1987 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Night House (2020), Devotion (2022) and Deception (2013).
  • Darby Camp

    17. Darby Camp

    • Actress
    • Soundtrack
    Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)
    Darby Camp began acting as a toddler alongside her mother and older sister. Together they were seen in local commercials and print ads in their hometown of Charlotte, NC. By the time Darby was eight years old it was evident her gift for acting was best served in film and television. She spent two seasons as the sassy Chloe McKenzie in the Emmy-winning HBO series, Big Little Lies (2017). You can watch her now on Netflix alongside Kurt Russell in The Christmas Chronicles (2018) and The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020). Her latest project is Paramount's Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021) where she stars as Emily Elizabeth. When Darby isn't acting, she's most likely enjoying the slow pace of southern living with her family, friends and beloved pets.
  • Elise Gatien

    18. Elise Gatien

    • Actress
    Virgin River (2023–2024)
    Born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, Elise spent her early years studying ballet, tap and contemporary. She is known for her major roles in Virgin River (Netflix), Ghost Wars (Netflix/Syfy), Colony (USA), Supernatural (CW), and Smallville (CW). Her first series lead was playing "CJ" in the live-action series Tower Prep on the Cartoon Network.
  • Jane Lynch

    19. Jane Lynch

    • Actress
    • Producer
    • Soundtrack
    Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
    Jane Marie Lynch is an American actress, comedian and author. She is known for starring as Sue Sylvester in the musical comedy series Glee (2009-2015), which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award. Lynch also gained recognition for her roles in Christopher Guest's mockumentary films, such as Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006).
  • Maxine Peake in Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 (2009)

    20. Maxine Peake

    • Actress
    • Director
    • Writer
    The Theory of Everything (2014)
    Maxine Peake is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything.

    Peake has appeared in a number of television and stage productions including Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies, Channel 4's Shameless, in the lead role of barrister Martha Costello in the BBC's legal drama Silk and alongside John Simm in the BBC drama The Village, depicting life in a Derbyshire village during the First World War. Following career advice from Victoria Wood, between the two series of Dinnerladies, Peake lost so much weight that an explanation had to be written into the script for her character, Twinkle.

    Peake portrayed the Moors murderer Myra Hindley in See No Evil: The Moors Murders. Broadcast in May 2006, it was met with mixed reactions; soon after this Peake announced that she was leaving Shameless. January 2009 saw Peake appear in her first major feature film role, as Angela, in the film Clubbed.
  • Teri Reeves

    21. Teri Reeves

    • Actress
    The Punisher (2019– )
    Teri is a Northern California native, has lived in Houston, Texas, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and now resides in Los Angeles, California. She is a certified personal trainer and sucker for black coffee and early morning weight lifting. Teri is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Professor Romulo Barral.

    She studied to be an actress in the BFA theater program at UC Santa Barbara and the MFA theater program at UC San Diego.

    Teri recurs as Marlena in Ssn 2 of Netflix's The Punisher, as Dorothy in ABC's Once Upon a Time, was series regular Dr. Hallie Casey opposite Jesse Spencer in the NBC's Chicago Fire, and starred as KJ Jameson in Hulu's first original scripted show Battleground. She has numerous recurring and guest star credits and has also appeared in several independent films.

    Teri is a producing member of Ovation Award winning Chalk Repertory Theatre where she frequently appears in stage productions.
  • Sara Canning

    22. Sara Canning

    • Actress
    • Producer
    • Visual Effects
    A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017–2018)
    Sara Canning is a Canadian actress. She co-starred on The CW television series The Vampire Diaries as Jenna Sommers, and appeared in the 2009 feature film, Black Field. She starred as Dylan Weir in the Canadian television series, Primeval: New World, and as Dr. Melissa Conner on the Global medical drama Remedy. Canning appeared in the 2017 theatrical film War for the Planet of the Apes. She is also known for her role as Jacquelyn Scieszka in the Netflix TV series A Series of Unfortunate Events.
  • Phoebe Waller-Bridge

    23. Phoebe Waller-Bridge

    • Actress
    • Producer
    • Writer
    Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
    Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge is an English actress, producer, and writer. She created, wrote, and starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Crashing (2016) and the BBC comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016-2019). She was also the show-runner and executive producer for the first series of the BBC America thriller series Killing Eve (2018).

    For Fleabag, she received the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, as well as three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Comedy Series. Both Fleabag and Killing Eve have been named among the greatest television series of the 21st century by The Guardian.

    Waller-Bridge starred in the comedy series The Café (2011-2013) and the crime drama series Broadchurch (2015). She also appeared in films, including Albert Nobbs (2011), The Iron Lady (2011), and Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), and played the droid L3-37 in the Star Wars anthology prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). She co-wrote the screenplay for the 25th James Bond film, titled No Time to Die (2020).

    Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge was born to Theresa Mary (née Clerke) and Michael Cyprian Waller-Bridge. Her father founded the electronic trading platform Tradepoint, while her mother works for the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. The Waller-Bridge family were landed gentry of Cuckfield, Sussex. On her father's side, she is also a descendant of The Rev. Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet, Conservative MP for Mid Cheshire from 1873 to his death in 1876. Her maternal grandfather was Sir John Edward Longueville Clerke, 12th baronet, of Hitcham, Buckinghamshire. Waller-Bridge grew up in Ealing, London, and has a younger brother named Jasper, a music manager, and an older sister named Isobel Waller-Bridge, a composer who wrote the music for Fleabag. Her parents are divorced. She was educated at St Augustine's Priory, a Catholic independent school for girls, followed by the independent sixth form college DLD College London in Marylebone, London. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
  • Polly Bergen in Candles on Bay Street (2006)

    24. Polly Bergen

    • Actress
    • Additional Crew
    • Writer
    Cry-Baby (1990)
    In a six-decade-plus career (she started out as a radio performer at age 14), there are very few facets of entertainment that lovely singer/actress Polly Bergen has not conquered or, at the very least, touched upon. A nightclub and Columbia recording artist of the 50s and 60s, she is just as well known for her film and Emmy-winning dramatic performances as she is for her wry comedic gifts. In the leaner times, she has maintained quite well with her various businesses. Truly one for the ages, Polly has, at age 70+, nabbed a Tony nomination for her gutsy "I'm Still Here" entertainer Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies", and was still dishing out the barbs as she recently demonstrated as Felicity Huffman's earthy mom on Desperate Housewives (2004).

    Born in Knoxville, Tennessee as Nellie Burgin on July 14, 1930, her family, which included father William, mother Lucy and sister Barbra, eventually moved to Los Angeles. By the time she was 14, Polly was singing professionally on radio and managed to scrape up singing gigs with smaller bands around and about the Southern California area. She attended Compton Junior College before Paramount mogul Hal B. Wallis caught sight of her and signed her up with his studio. Having made an isolated film debut (as Polly Burgin) a year earlier in the Monogram western Across the Rio Grande (1949), Wallis showcased her as a decorative love interest in the slapstick vehicles of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the (then) hottest comedy team in Hollywood. But At War with the Army (1950), That's My Boy (1951) and The Stooge (1951) did little for Polly although she presented herself well. MGM and Universal had the idea to cast her in a more serious vein with co-starring roles in their dramas Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), Arena (1953) and Cry of the Hunted (1953), but again she was overlooked. Disasppointed, she decided to abandon her lucrative film contract and seek work elsewhere.

    That "elsewhere" came in the form of 1950s TV. Focusing on her singing, she promoted her many albums for Columbia by guest-starring on all the top variety shows of the times. This culminated in her own variety program, The Polly Bergen Show (1957). The song "The Party's Over" became her traditional show-closer and signature tune. Polly also showed some marquee mettle on the cabaret and nightclub circuits, performing at many of the top hotels and showrooms throughout the country. She made her Broadway debut along with Harry Belafonte in "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" in 1953, and went on to appear in such stage shows as "Top Man" and "Champagne Complex". A delightfully engaging game show panelist to boot, she took a regular seat on the To Tell the Truth (1956) panel for five seasons.

    Polly tended to display a looser, down-to-earth personality to induce laughs but she was also was formidable dramatic player and fashion plate quite capable of radiating great charm, poise and elegance. For her role as alcoholic torch singer Helen Morgan in the special TV showcase The Helen Morgan Story (1957) , she took home the Emmy award. Unfortunately for Polly, Ann Blyth took on the role of the tragic singer in the film version (with Gogi Grant providing the vocals), in what could have been a significant return to films for her.

    Instead, Polly had to wait another five years for that to happen. As the wife of Gregory Peck and designated victim of revengeful psychopath Robert Mitchum in the taut movie thriller Cape Fear (1962), her film career reignited. Other opportunities came in the form of her distraught mental patient in The Caretakers (1963), which found her at odds with nurse Joan Crawford and doctor Robert Stack; the sparkling comedy Move Over, Darling (1963), which placed her in a comedy triangle with "other wife" Doris Day and husband James Garner; and as the first woman Chief Executive of the White House in the frothy comedy tidbit Kisses for My President (1964) opposite bemused "First Gentleman" Fred MacMurray. In what was to be a tinge of deja vu, Polly again saw her movie career dissipate after only a couple of vehicles. True to form, the indomitable Polly rebounded on TV.

    A mild string of TV-movies came her way as she matured into the 1970s and 1980s, most notably the acclaimed miniseries The Winds of War (1983), which reunited her with Robert Mitchum, this time as his unhappy, alcoholic wife. This, along with her participation in the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), earned Polly supporting Emmy nominations. In the years to come, she would find herself still in demand displaying her trademark comic grit in such shows as The Sopranos (1999), Commander in Chief (2005) and Desperate Housewives (2004).

    Polly returned to singing in 1999 after nearly a three-decade absence (due to health and vocal issues). Quite huskier in tone, she went on to delight the New York musical stage with stand-out performances in "Follies" (2001), "Cabaret" (2002) and "Camille Claudel" (2007). Polly still made nightly appearances and had even put together singing concert tours on occasion.

    Polly has authored three best-selling beauty books outside the acting arena and has demonstrated a marked level of acumen in the business world. Founding a mail-order cosmetics business in 1965, she sold it to Faberge eight years later. She also developed her own shoe and jewelry lines.

    Married (1950-1955) to MGM actor Jerome Courtland during her first movie career peak, she later wed topflight agent/producer Freddie Fields in 1957, a union that lasted 18 years and produced two adopted children, Pamela and Peter. A third marriage in the 1980s also ended in divorce. An assertive voice when it comes to women's rights and issues, her memoir "Polly's Principles" came out in 1974.

    Polly played a grandmother in her last film, the dramedy Struck by Lightning (2012), and died two years later on September 20, 2013, at the age of 84.
  • Missy Gold in Benson (1979)

    25. Missy Gold

    • Actress
    Benson (1979–1986)
    Missy Gold was born on 14 July 1970 in Great Falls, Montana, USA. She is an actress, known for Benson (1979), Captains and the Kings (1976) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). She has been married to Brian Herskowitz since 1996. They have two children.

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