Golden age of Hollywood living actors

Patricia Walthall was born on 16 March 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Empty Holsters (1937).

Caren Marsh was born in Los Angeles. Her sister, actress Dorothy Morris, was born Feb. 23, 1922. Getting into show business in 1937, Caren changed her name to Marsh because "there were too many people named Morris at the time." Caren's parents wanted her to go to college but she wanted to be a dancer. Learning of an audition for dancers at MGM she tried out and was cast in Eleanor Powell's "Rosalie" in '37. This led to more and more pictures as a dancer. "Being tiny (Caren is 5 ft.), I was a 'pony'. The tall girls are called showgirls." While working with great choreographers such as Busby Berkerley, Nick Castle and Hermes Pan, she was spotted at Metro and cast as Judy Garland's stand-in in "The Wizard of Oz" ('39). Her first real acting part was in an Army Signal Corps Hygiene film, "Pickup Girl" in '44. After gaining a foothold in Hollywood, Caren went to New York in '49 to work with ventriloquist Paul Winchell at the Capitol Theatre. Flying home to visit her parents, the plane went too low and crashed into a mountain.The aircraft was in level flight on its initial approach to Burbank, with its landing gear extended, when it descended below the officially prescribed altitude of 5,000 feet while flying in patchy fog. As a result, the plane's right wingtip struck a mountain ridge near Box Canyon in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley, near Santa Susana Pass and the Los Angeles County-Ventura County border. The Curtiss C-46E-1-C airliner (N79978) spun 90 degrees, struck the ground, bounced back into the air and then crashed on a rugged hillside of the Simi Hills at an altitude of about 1,890 feet just north of the Chatsworth Reservoir. Both pilots, a flight attendant, and 32 passengers died in the crash, including two young children. The remaining flight attendant and 12 passengers escaped with moderate to serious injuries. Fortunately, Caren was one of those 12. In 1950 Caren married Bill Doll, producer Mike Todd's press agent, and traveled all over the world. Today, Caren lives in Palm Springs, has taught dancing and attends both western film festivals and "Wizard of Oz" reunions when she can.

Patricia Wright was born on 15 July 1921 in Spokane, Washington, USA. She is an actress, known for Craig Kennedy, Criminologist (1952), Chained for Life (1952) and The New Adventures of China Smith (1954).

Ray Anthony (real name Raymond Antonini) was born in Bentleyville, PA, on Jan. 20, 1922. His family moved to Cleveland, where he spent most of his early life. There he studied trumpet with his father. From 1940-1941 he played in Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1942 and was discharged in 1946. He also played in the Jimmy Dorsey and Al Donahue bands before forming his own band in the Midwest. He was a summer replacement for Perry Como on both CBS and NBC. Anthony recorded for Capitol Records for 19 years and later ran another record company, Wood Records, for nine years. He was once married to actress Mamie Van Doren. His biggest hits were the themes from Dragnet (1951) and Peter Gunn (1958), along with being one of the top big bands of the post-WW2 era.

Annette Warren was born on 11 July 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She is an actress, known for Lured (1947), Sorrowful Jones (1949) and The Devil's Sleep (1949). She was previously married to Paul T. Smith.

Warm, charming leading lady of 1940s films, Jacqueline White was under contract to both MGM (which wasted her in mostly unbilled bits) and then RKO, where she appeared in two classics--Crossfire (1947) and The Narrow Margin (1952). RKO used her as a second lead in A pictures and leading roles in Bs.

She retired in 1950 upon her marriage to Bruce Anderson and they relocated to Wyoming, where her husband started an oil business. When she returned to Los Angeles for the birth of her first child, she was spotted in the RKO commissary visiting friends by director Richard Fleischer and producer Stanley Rubin, who offered her a co-starring role in "The Narrow Margin". The film, widely acknowledged to be one of the classics of "film noir", sat on the RKO shelf for two years while studio boss Howard Hughes considered whether to extensively edit it or re-shoot it as an "A" with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Eventually, selected scenes were reshot and added in December 1951, nearly a year after the film had originally wrapped--she was flown out from her home in Casper, Wyoming, for these added scenes--and the film was, thankfully, spared any more of Hughes' "improvements". It was released mostly intact due to director Fleischer's striking a deal with Hughes to release the picture without further changes in return for Fleischer's reshooting the end of His Kind of Woman (1951).

Long retired from the film industry, Jacqueline has recently begun appearing at film festivals and conventions.

Gallic Actress Anne Vernon, who was born Edith Antoinette Alexandrine Vignaud in Saint-Denis, France, in January 1924, is not well known outside of Europe. Following graduation from the Paris Ecole des Beaux Arts, she found work as a model and apprenticed with an advertising designer. Developing an interest in acting, she subsequently toured with a French theatre group before embarking on a movie career. Glamorous leading lady roles came her way beginning in 1948, particularly in light post-war romantic souffles and farcical comedies where she sweetly played ingénues both English-speaking (Warning to Wantons (1949)) and non-English speaking (Edward and Caroline (1951)). Capable of tense dramatic roles as well, she made only one Hollywood film during her career, playing second femme lead in the film noir Shakedown (1950) with Howard Duff and Peggy Dow.

Audiences might recognize her from the British films Terror on a Train (1953) [aka Terror on a Train] as a bomb defuser Glenn Ford's wife, and the mild comedy The Love Lottery (1954), as part of a love triangle with David Niven and Peggy Cummins. For the most part, however, Anne stayed on French/Italian soil appearing opposite such dashing leading men as Daniel Gélin, Vittorio Gassman and Jean Marais. In the 1960s she matured into chic, maternal roles, most noticeably as Catherine Deneuve's cautious, concerned mother in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) [The Umbrellas of Cherbourg]. Surprisingly, she also had a role in the notorious soft-core lesbian flick Therese and Isabelle (1968). Following some TV work in the early 1970s, she gently phased out her career.

Actress and producer Eva Marie Saint was born on July 4, 1924 on Newark, New Jersey. She is known for starring in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). Her film career also includes roles in Raintree County (1957), Exodus (1960), The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966), Grand Prix (1966), Nothing in Common (1986), Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), Superman Returns (2006) and Winter's Tale (2014).

Saint made her feature film debut in On the Waterfront (1954), starring Marlon Brando and directed by Elia Kazan - a performance for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was a major success and launched her movie career. She starred in the pioneering drug-addiction drama A Hatful of Rain (1957) with Don Murray and Anthony Franciosa. She also starred in lavish the Civil War epic Raintree County (1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

Director Alfred Hitchcock surprised many by choosing Saint over dozens of other candidates for the femme fatale role in what was to become a suspense classic North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant and James Mason. Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the director's early "wrong man" spy adventures of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, including The 39 Steps (1935), Young and Innocent (1937), and Saboteur (1942). North by Northwest (1959) became a box-office success and an influence on spy films for decades.

Maria Riva was born on 13 December 1924 in Berlin, Germany. She is an actress and writer, known for Scrooged (1988), The Scarlet Empress (1934) and Target (1958).

Kerima was born on 10 February 1925 in Toulouse, France. She is an actress, known for The Quiet American (1958), The Devil Is a Woman (1953) and The Ship of Damned Women (1953).

Bob Graham was born on 22 June 1925 in Los Angeles, California. He is an actor, known for Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), The I Don't Care Girl (1953) and People Are Funny (1946).

Glamorous, shapely Parisienne Brigitte Auber briefly flirted with international fame as Danielle Foussard in Alfred Hitchcock's romantic thriller To Catch a Thief (1955). As a member of a gang of jewel thieves, she vied with heroine Grace Kelly for the affections of debonair cat burglar Cary Grant. The story goes, that, while filming a particularly perilous rooftop scene which had Brigitte fearing an accidental fall and possible death, she spotted a quartet of Catholic priests and was said to have quipped "Mon Dieu! You Americans think of everything!"

Brigitte (born Marie-Claire Cahen de Labzac) was the daughter of a man of letters and expert on the writings of Balzac, Robert Cahen, who had adopted the nom-de-plume Robert Cahen de Labzac ('Labzac', of course, being an anagram of Balzac). Initially wanting to become a dancer, young Brigitte instead turned to dramatics and began acting on screen from the age of 21. After early bit parts, her first leading role was opposite Daniel Gélin and Nicole Courcel in Jacques Becker's charming comedy Rendezvous in July (1949), set in post-war Paris. After that, she had back-to-back starring turns in Vendetta en Camargue (1950) (a rural comedy about a girl inheriting a farm house and facing larceny from some of the locals and resentment from others), Julien Duvivier's episodic melodrama Under the Paris Sky (1951),L'amour toujours l'amour (1952) (which was made for teen consumption) and Femmes de Paris (1953), a musical comedy. Hitch then picked her for the coveted role of Danielle in To Catch a Thief. In appearance, she certainly fitted the director's known predilection for cool blondes. However, Hitch thought Brigitte's French accent as too pronounced to cast her in his next picture, The Trouble with Harry (1955).

By the mid-60s, Brigitte worked intermittently on both the big and the small screen, mostly in comedies or crime dramas. She had one more supporting role in an English-language production, appearing as an attendant to Queen Anne (played by Anne Parillaud) in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role.

Born in New York City on June 25, 1925, the daughter of actors Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart, June Lockhart made her professional debut at age eight in a Metropolitan Opera production of "Peter Ibbetson", playing Mimsey in the dream sequence. In the mid-1930s, the Lockharts relocated to California, where father Gene enjoyed a long career as one of the screen's great character actors. June made her screen debut in MGM's version of A Christmas Carol (1938), playing--appropriately enough the daughter of stars Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart. June appeared in a dozen or more movies before 1947, when she made her Broadway bow playing the ingénue in the comedy "For Love or Money" with John Loder. She got a standing ovation on opening night; one critic compared her debut to the first big hits of Helen Hayes and Margaret Sullavan. The overnight toast of Broadway, she went on to win a Tony Award, the Donaldson Award, the Theatre World Award and the Associated Press citation for Woman of the Year for Drama for her work in that play. On television, she has co-starred in popular series like Lassie (1954) and Lost in Space (1965).

Peggy Webber started her career at age two and a half, performing during intermissions in silent movie theaters. She started working in radio at age 11; by 18, she was writing, producing and directing early television shows; at 21, she won the award that was later known as the Emmy for her drama anthology series Treasures of Literature. Among her many thousands of radio credits, workhorse Webber appeared in over 100 Dragnet programs, playing Ma Friday and many other characters.

Academy Award-winner Lee Grant was born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal on October 31, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City, to Witia (Haskell), a teacher and model, and Abraham Rosenthal, an educator and realtor. Her father was of Romanian Jewish descent, and her mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant. Lee made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, playing the abducted princess in "L'Orocolo". After graduating from high school, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where she studied acting with Sanford Meisner. When she was a teenager Grant established herself as a formidable Broadway talent when she won The Critics' Circle Award for her portrayal of the shoplifter in "Detective Story". She reprised the role in the film version (Detective Story (1951), a performance that garnered her the Cannes Film Festival Citation for Best Actress as well as her first Academy Award Nomination. Immediately following her screen debut, however, Lee became a victim of the McCarthy-era blacklists in which actors, writers, directors, etc., were persecuted for supposedly "Communist" or "progressive" political beliefs, whether they had them or not. Except for an occasional role, she did not work in film or television for 12 years. In 1965 Lee re-started her acting career in the TV series Peyton Place (1964), for which she won an Emmy Award as Stella Chernak, and she later garnered her first Academy Award for Shampoo (1975), also receiving Academy Award nominations for The Landlord (1970) and Voyage of the Damned (1976). Since 1980 Lee has been concentrating on her directorial career, which began as part of the Women's Project at The Americal Film Institute (AFI); her adaptation of August Strindberg's, "Stronger, The" was consequently selected as one of the 10 best films ever produced for AFI. In 1987 she received an Academy Award for the HBO documentary, Down and Out in America (1985) and directed Nobody's Child (1986) for CBS, for which she received the Directors Guild Award. In 1983 she received the Congressional Arts Caucus Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting and Independent Filmmaking. Subsequently, Women in Film paid tribute to her in 1989, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. Both the New York City Council and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors have recognized Ms. Grant for the contribution her films have made to the fight against domestic violence.

Brunette, green-eyed Louise Marie Odette Bourdin-Perrier was born in Néris-les-Bains, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeast-central France. Her brother, Roland Bourdin, became a noted playwright, the first administrator of the Orchestre de Paris, as well as a co-founder of the Ensemble orchestral de Paris.

Leaving school at the age of sixteen, Lise learned typing and shorthand in preparation for her move to Paris where she found work at a radio station. Before long, her good looks got her noticed for a position as a saleswoman for the couturier Pierre Balmain. Lise rapidly progressed from there to becoming a top fashion model, featured in magazines like Harper's Bazaar, Marie-Claire and Noir et Blanc. Between 1946 and 1950, she was the most photographed model in France. In addition, Lise featured in two articles in Life magazine, a fact of which she was immensely proud, later saying "Few French women have had two pages in Life. There was Bardot, Moreau and me." During a subsequent sojourn to the United States, she was 'discovered' on the catwalk, while showcasing French couture, by producers David L. Loew and Charles Einfeld. Two years later, she was back in New York as a model, but now at a base salary of $25 an hour.

Lise had just a brief fling with the stage, but soon commanded leads in post-war French cinema, beginning with Léonide Moguy's social-realist drama Children of Love (1953). She was also featured alongside Sophia Loren in The River Girl (1954), then played a nice princess in an episode of Sherlock Holmes (1954) and an evil one in the adventure film The River of Three Junks (1957). On the international scene, she was a 'Madame X' in Billy Wilder's romantic Gary Cooper-Audrey Hepburn comedy Love in the Afternoon (1957), filmed on location in Paris. Her final picture was the dour Van Johnson war film The Last Blitzkrieg (1959) , in which Lise's presence was, at best, perfunctory. After that, she quit the acting profession, declaring "I told myself that I would never have the career I deserved, so I stopped."

Lise Bourdin was formerly married to Brazilian industrialist Roberto Seabra. From 1974, she was in a relationship with the French politician Raymond Marcellin (1914-2004), a former Interior Minister of France under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle.

Dick Van Dyke was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, to Hazel Victoria (McCord), a stenographer, and Loren Wayne Van Dyke, a salesman. His younger brother was entertainer Jerry Van Dyke. His ancestry includes English, Dutch, Scottish, German and Swiss-German. Although he had small roles beforehand, Van Dyke was launched to stardom in the musical "Bye-Bye Birdie" (1960), for which he won a Tony Award, and, then, later in the movie based on that play, Bye Bye Birdie (1963). He has starred in a number of films through the years including Mary Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Fitzwilly (1967), as well as a number of successful television series which won him no less than four Emmy Awards and three made-for-CBS movies. After separating from his wife, Margie Willett, in the 1970s, Dick later became involved with Michelle Triola. Margie and Dick had four children born during the first ten years of their marriage: Barry Van Dyke, Carrie Beth Van Dyke, Christian Van Dyke and Stacy Van Dyke, all of whom are now in their sixties and seventies, and married themselves. He has seven grandchildren, including Shane Van Dyke, Carey Van Dyke, Wes Van Dyke and Taryn Van Dyke (Barry's children) and family members often appear with him on Diagnosis Murder (1993).

English-born David Frankham forged a respectable career as an expatriate in Hollywood. He had served with the British Army in India and Malaya during the Second World War. Following his demobilization, he returned to Britain. In 1948, he began working for the BBC as an announcer, news reader, and, subsequently, writer and producer. A one-time guest on his radio program, the famed vocalist Rosemary Clooney, encouraged him to pursue acting as a profession. Given that he had always admired Golden Age stars like Gary Cooper and Laird Cregar, Frankham eagerly took this advice and relocated to Los Angeles in 1955.

Chance encounters with supportive movie icons like Elizabeth Taylor and Alec Guinness played an important role in kick-starting his career. It enabled Frankham to quickly establish himself as a character actor in episodic television, often typecast as British officers. He made several appearances in different roles in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Thriller (1960), The Outer Limits (1963), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964) and The F.B.I. (1965). Star Trek (1966) fans might remember him as Dr. Laurence Marvick, one of the original designers of the Enterprise, in the episode "Is There No Truth In Beauty". In his autobiography, Frankham said "I was a jobbing actor for more than thirty years and never really stopped working."

On the big screen, he was featured on three occasions opposite Vincent Price: third-billed, as the villainous Ronald Holmes in Return of the Fly (1959), one of the captives in Master of the World (1961) and as the helpless physician to Ernest Valdemar in chapter three of Tales of Terror (1962).

He was also occasionally utilised (often without credit) as a voice actor. Frankham did, however, receive credit for providing the voice for the tabby cat Sergeant Tibbs in Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

Frankham eventually moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2012, he published his autobiography, 'Which One was David?'. He retired from acting six years later.

In 1931, a one-day effort by Marilyn Knowlden's attorney father led to an interview, a next-day screen test and a large part for four-year-old Marilyn in one of the early "talkies", Women Love Once (1931). A ten-year movie career followed, where she played the daughter of such stars as Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, Allan Jones and Norma Shearer.

She appeared in some of the screen's great classics, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), David Copperfield (1935) and Les Misérables (1935), in which she played the child Cosette. She appeared in six films nominated by the Academy for Best Production of the Year and performed with such distinguished actors as Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power, Greta Garbo and Bette Davis.

College, marriage and four children followed. A composer and playwright as well as an actress, she wrote the music and lyrics for ten produced musicals, including three for which she also wrote the scripts. The latter included her musical, "I'm Gonna Get You in the Movies!" for which she drew heavily on her own early experience.

After a 50-year hiatus, Marilyn returned to acting in 1994. She appeared in over 20 plays and musicals in San Diego County, including the role of Aunt Abby in "Arsenic and Old Lace," the leads in "Sorry, Wrong Number" and "Quilters," and Prof. Higgins' mother in "My Fair Lady." In 2011 Bear Manor published Marilyn Knowlden's autobiography "Little Girl in Big Pictures."

A gentle redhead with a peaches and cream complexion, Marilyn Betty Erskine had a notably early start in show biz, perhaps encouraged by her father Robert, who presided over the New York City Credit Bureau. By the age of three, Marilyn was active on the airwaves at a Buffalo radio station. Between 1948 and 1960, she featured on numerous nationwide radio shows, including The Cavalcade of America, Radio City Playhouse and Let's Pretend. She had extensive theatrical experience from the age of eleven, appearing on and off-Broadway in plays like The Primrose Path, Our Town and The Linden Tree. In later years, she recalled an incident while performing in The Shining Hour, which starred Jane Cowl and had Marilyn playing the role of ingénue: "I was supposed to trip lightly down a flight of stairs and get on with the dialogue. But-on the top stair I tripped and fell the whole flight right into the arms of Miss Cowl. Personally, I think mine was an entrance that never has been topped!"

Marilyn began acting on the screen in 1949, though films offered her little more than small supporting roles. A possible highlight may have been the part of Eddie Cantor 's wife Ida in The Eddie Cantor Story (1953). She fared rather better on television where she managed to amass an impressive resume in anthology drama appearances between 1953 and 1962. She also had a recurring role in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Tom Ewell Show (1960) as the star's wife Fran. Towards the close of her career, Marilyn had featured roles in Perry Mason (1957) and Ironside (1967), both starring Raymond Burr.

Marilyn's first husband (for all of two months) was the distinguished director and producer Stanley Kramer. She was subsequently married for five years to a Dr. Samuel Eugene Neikrug. Her third husband, Charles William Curland, was a senior partner in the Los Angeles insurance firm of Curland, Moss & Meltzer. They had two children. Curland died in 2012.

Bambi Linn was born on 26 April 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Oklahoma! (1955), Thru the Crystal Ball (1949) and The Philip Morris Playhouse (1953). She has been married to Joseph de Jesus since 4 August 1960. They have two children. She was previously married to Rod Alexander.

Tommy Morton was born on 17 February 1926 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for The Stars Are Singing (1953), Target (1958) and Main Street to Broadway (1953).

Terry Kilburn was born on 25 November 1926 in West Ham, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), A Christmas Carol (1938) and Lolita (1962).

H.M. Wynant's many-faceted career began at age 19 when he left his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, after having attended Wayne State University for just two years. He arrived in New York City with only $125 in his pocket and a lot of ambition. Jerome Robbins hired him on the spot at Wynant's first audition, an open call for the Broadway musical "High Button Shoes" starring Eddie Foy. H.M. was working as a draftsman and told Robbins that he had to go to work the next day, Robbins said, "Then quit!" Thus began a career in theater which included productions such as "As You Like It" with Katharine Hepburn, "Love of Four Colonels" starring Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, "Venus Observed" directed by Laurence Olivier, "The Sound of Music" with Shirley Jones and "Teahouse of the August Moon" starring David Wayne and John Forsythe. These performances garnered him many outstanding reviews and led to a prolific motion picture and television career. In 1956, RKO Pictures cast Wynant, based on his theatrical reputation, sight unseen, in a co-starring role of "Crazy Wolf" in the western, Run of the Arrow (1957). In those days, he was known as Haim Weiner, which was his given name. In New York, he had changed his name to Haim Winant, and the film's director, Samuel Fuller, changed it again to H.M. Wynant, and he's been known by that name ever since. Wynant was true to form as a wild Indian and performed many of his own stunts. A budding film career ensued. In addition to his theatrical career in New York and his film career in Hollywood, he became part of television history by appearing in many live, dramatic television shows. Recently, Wynant's Los Angeles stage performances included playing the lead role in "Karlaboy", a suspense ghost story written by screenwriter Steven Peros. Jules Aaron directed him in "The Sisters Rosensweig" and in "Philadelphia Story" and he continues his work in film, television, commercials, radio and voice-overs. H.M. is the proud father of three grown boys who also have successful show business careers: William Winant, a professor and avant-garde percussionist; Scott Winant, an Emmy-winning producer and director; and Bruce Winant, an actor and singer on Broadway as well as film and television. H.M. lives in Southern California with his wife, Paula, and their young daughter, Pasha (born in 2000).

Betty Harford was born on 28 January 1927 in New York, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for The China Syndrome (1979), Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and The Paper Chase (1978).