Date of Death between 1962-01-01 and 1962-12-31 (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)
1. Marilyn Monroe
Actress | Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and professional struggles within the film industry. Her life and ...
2. Michael Curtiz
Director | Casablanca
Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner...
3. Charles Laughton
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). ...
4. Thomas Mitchell
Actor | Stagecoach
Thomas Mitchell was one of the great American character actors, whose credits read like a list of the greatest American films of the 20th century: Lost Horizon (1937); Stagecoach (1939); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Gone with the Wind (1939); It's a ...
5. Myron McCormick
Actor | The Hustler
American character actor of vast stage experience who appeared infrequently but memorably in films. A native of Albany, Indiana, he attended Princeton University, where he was an honors student and Phi Beta Kappa. In 1929, he joined the University Players in Massachusetts, joining and eventually ...
6. Will Wright
Actor | The Blue Dahlia
One of those familiar character actors who seems to have been born old, Will Wright specialized in playing crusty old codgers, rich skinflints, crooked small-town politicians and the like. A former newspaper reporter in San Francisco, he switched careers and entered vaudeville, then took to the ...
7. Clara Blandick
Actress | The Wizard of Oz
Clara Blandick was an American actress born as Clara Dickey and born aboard an American ship off the coast of Hong Kong on June 4, 1880. Little is known about her early life until she became an actress. She grew up in Boston and first acted on stage in E.H. Sothern's 'Richard Lovelace'. Although ...
8. Louise Beavers
Actress | Imitation of Life
1930s and 1940s film actress Louise Beavers was merely one of a dominant gallery of plus-sized and plus-talented African-American character actresses forced to endure blatant, discouraging and demeaning stereotypes during Depression-era and WWII Hollywood.
It wasn't until Louise's triumphant role in ...
9. Vladimir Sokoloff
Actor | The Magnificent Seven
Familiar character actor of Russian heritage who played in scores of films, mostly in the U.S. He studied at the University of Moscow but left there to attend the Moscow Academy of Dramatic Art. He joined the world- renowned Moscow Art Theatre, where he worked for the next decade as an actor and ...
10. Willie Best
Actor | The Hidden Hand
One of the hard-working, unappreciated African-American actors of Hollywood's "Golden Era" who produced good work with what he was given. He starred alongside some of film's great comedians including the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Laurel and Hardy and three films with Shirley Temple. Best is ...
11. Tom Gilson
Actor | The Crowded Sky
Tom Gilson was born on January 6, 1934 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Crowded Sky (1960), Young and Wild (1958) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958). He was previously married to Saundra Edwards. He died on October 6, 1962 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
12. Joseph Kearns
Actor | Alice in Wonderland
Joseph Kearns was born on February 12, 1907 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Dennis the Menace (1959) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). He died on February 17, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
13. Tod Browning
Director | The Unknown
Belonging to a well-situated family, Charles Browning fell in love at the age of 16 with a dancer of a circus. Following her began his itinerary of being clown, jockey and director of a variety theater which ended when he met D.W. Griffith and became an actor. He made his debut in Intolerance (1916)...
14. Ernie Kovacs
Actor | Bell Book and Candle
Author, actor, comedian, composer and producer. He was educated at the New York School of Theatre, and received the Sylvania Television Award. Joining the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1957, he composed a number of songs and themes, a number of which were used in ...
15. Lucile Watson
Actress | Watch on the Rhine
Unsmiling character player Lucile Watson was one of Hollywood's most indomitable mothers of the 1930s and 1940s...and you can take that both ways. The archetypal matriarch who enhanced scores of plush, soapy, Victorian-styled drama, her prickly pears could be insufferable indeed and heaven help ...
16. Frank Lovejoy
Actor | In a Lonely Place
Square-jawed, intense, no-nonsense Frank Lovejoy played a succession of detectives, street cops, reporters, soldiers and such over his career. Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1912, he worked on Wall Street as a teenager, but the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 cost him his job, and to make ends ...
17. Roscoe Ates
Actor | Freaks
Roscoe Ates was born on January 20, 1895 in Grange, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Freaks (1932), The Great Lover (1931) and Tumbleweed Trail (1946). He was previously married to Beatrice Heisser, Barbara Ray and Clara C. Adrian. He died on March 1, 1962 in Hollywood, California, USA.
18. 'Snub' Pollard
Actor | Rollin' Plains
In recalling silent movie comedian Harry "Snub" Pollard, his slight frame (5' 6"), bullet-shaped head and dark, droopy mustache are definitive identification badges. Born in Melbourne, Australia as Harold Fraser on November 9, 1889, he started off performing with the Pollard's Lilliputian Opera ...
19. William Faulkner
Writer | To Have and Have Not
William Faulkner, one of the 20th century's most gifted novelists, wrote for the movies in part because he could not make enough money from his novels and short stories to support his growing number of dependants. The author of such acclaimed novels as "The Sound and the Fury" and "Absalom, Absalom...
20. Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Actor | Cowboy and the Senorita
The son of a rancher-turned-politician, Guinn Williams was given the nickname "Big Boy" (and he was, too - 6' 2" of mostly solid muscle from years of working on ranches and playing semi-pro and pro baseball) by Will Rogers, with whom he made one of his first films, in 1919. Although his father ...
21. Hoot Gibson
Actor | The Horse Soldiers
A pioneering cowboy star of silent and early talking Westerns, Hoot Gibson was one of the 1920s' most popular children's matinée heroes. In his real life, however, he had a rather painful rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags career, a problem that seemed to plague a number of big stars who fell victim ...
22. Frank Borzage
Director | 7th Heaven
Frank Borzage was born on April 23, 1894 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor and director, known for 7th Heaven (1927), Bad Girl (1931) and No Greater Glory (1934). He was previously married to Juanita Scott, Edna Skelton and Rena Rogers. He died on June 19, 1962 in Hollywood, Los Angeles...
23. Cactus Mack
Soundtrack | Stormy
A cousin of cowboy actors Rex Allen and Glenn Strange, Taylor Curtis McPeters was the oldest son born to John and Leona Byrd McPeters in Weed (Otero County), New Mexico, USA on August 8, 1899. He was the second of eleven children. Glenn Strange's mother was Leona's sister. Rex Allen was 21 years ...
24. Richard Hylton
Actor | The Secret of Convict Lake
Richard Hylton was born on December 11, 1920 in Collinsville, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for The Secret of Convict Lake (1951), Halls of Montezuma (1951) and Fixed Bayonets! (1951). He died on May 12, 1962 in San Francisco, California, USA.
25. Victor Moore
Actor | Swing Time
Victor Moore was born on February 24, 1876 in Hammonton, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Swing Time (1936), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). He was previously married to Shirley Paige and Emma Littlefield. He died on July 23, 1962 in East Islip, ...
26. Wendell Holmes
Actor | The Twilight Zone
Wendell Holmes was born on August 17, 1914 in Cheshire, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Twilight Zone (1959), Zorro (1957) and Leave It to Beaver (1957). He was previously married to Adrienne Marden and Lois Holmes. He died on April 27, 1962 in Paris, France.
27. Rex Bell
Actor | Broadway to Cheyenne
Rex Bell was born on October 16, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Broadway to Cheyenne (1932), Fighting Pioneers (1935) and Lucky Larrigan (1932). He was previously married to Clara Bow. He died on July 4, 1962 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
28. Esther Minciotti
Actress | The Wrong Man
Esther Minciotti was born on May 20, 1888 in Provincia di Torino, Piemonte, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Wrong Man (1956), Marty (1955) and Playhouse 90 (1956). She was previously married to Silvio Minciotti. She died on April 15, 1962 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, New York...
29. Robert Burton
Actor | The Big Heat
Robert Burton was born on August 13, 1895 in Eastman, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for The Big Heat (1953), The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Slime People (1963). He was previously married to Marguerite Garrett. He died on September 29, 1962 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
30. William Bailey
Actor | The Penitent
William Bailey was born on September 26, 1886 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Penitent (1912), Hilda Wakes (1913) and Let No Man Put Asunder (1913). He was previously married to Alethia Hamilton Fadden, Mary Florence Cannon and Polly Vann. He died on November 8,...
31. Robert Emmett O'Connor
Actor | A Night at the Opera
Stalwart Irish-American character actor Robert Emmett O'Connor was born on March 18, 1885, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He made his bones performing in circuses and in vaudeville. He made his Broadway debut in the musical "Fritz in Tammany Hall" at the Herald Square Theatre on October 16, 1905, ...
32. Halliwell Hobbes
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
Born at Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon, Halliwell Hobbes could perhaps not aspire to anything else but to be an actor. He made his stage debut in 1898 playing Shakespearean repertory with the famous acting company of Sir Frank Benson throughout England. Among others he played opposite ...
33. Eleanor Roosevelt
Writer | Women in Defense
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She served as the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States. Roosevelt ...
34. Karen Blixen
Writer | Out of Africa
Karen Blixen was born on April 17, 1885 in Rungsted, Denmark. She was a writer, known for Out of Africa (1985), Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction and Babette's Feast (1987). She was previously married to Bror Frederik von Blixen-Finecke. She died on September 7, 1962 in Rungsted, Denmark.
35. Fred 'Snowflake' Toones
Actor | Out of Singapore
Toones is one of the most "colorful" character faces in B-Westerns and cliffhangers. He appeared in over 200 films between 1928 and 1951; and during 1936 and 1947, Toones often worked under contract for Republic Pictures, appearing in about 40 of its films.
Toones first appeared as a porter in The ...
36. Tito Vuolo
Actor | The Killing
Short, squat, voluble and Italian-born, Tito Vuolo could not avoid being typecast as the jolly Italian in office. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, Tito Vuolo portrayed dozens of Italian barbers, pizza makers, vendors, grocers, waiters, hotel or restaurant proprietors. He played them well but he...
37. Sam McDaniel
Actor | The Great Lie
Sam McDaniel was born on January 28, 1886 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Great Lie (1941), I Was Framed (1942) and Captains Courageous (1937). He died on September 24, 1962 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
38. Frank Jenks
Actor | His Girl Friday
Wavy-haired American character actor and musician Frank Jenks was the son of advertising man Frank Jenks and pianist Lillian Sadler. After his family settled in Los Angeles, he attended the University of Southern California. He learned to play trumpet, trombone and clarinet, but eventually dropped ...
39. Ken Christy
Actor | The Werewolf
Ken Christy was born on November 23, 1894 in Greenville, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Werewolf (1956), General Electric Theater (1953) and Blackjack Ketchum, Desperado (1956). He died on July 23, 1962 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
40. Syd Saylor
Actor | The Lost Jungle
Leo Sailor, a.k.a. Syd Saylor, was born into a very notable family. His father, George Sailor, was a renowned engineer, and was often called out to various locations for consultation and evaluation. In 1906 he was called to San Francisco on a job, and he had no sooner checked into his hotel than ...
41. Will Price
Will Price was born on October 27, 1913. He was a director and writer, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), Tripoli (1950) and North West Frontier (1959). He was previously married to Maureen O'Hara. He died on July 4, 1962 in McComb, Mississippi, USA.
42. William Terry
Actor | Strangers in the Night
William Terry was born on March 21, 1914 in Eugene, Oregon, USA. He was an actor, known for Strangers in the Night (1944), Stage Door Canteen (1943) and Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1944). He was previously married to Edith M. Fowler. He died on October 8, 1962 in Patton, California, USA.
43. Louise Fazenda
Actress | The Bat
When top "working girl" silent screen comedienne Mabel Normand would gripe to Mack Sennett about making classier films, Sennett's quippy retort would always be, "I'll send for Fazenda." This pretty, oval-faced, highly popular Keystone comedy cut-up put in her time first in comic two-reelers from ...
44. James Barton
Actor | The Shepherd of the Hills
James Barton was born on November 1, 1890 in Gloucester City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), His Family Tree (1935) and The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950). He was previously married to Kathryn M. Mullin and Ottilie Regina Kleinert. He died...
45. Kenneth MacKenna
Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg
Kenneth MacKenna was born on August 19, 1899 in Canterbury, New Hampshire, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Men Without Women (1930) and Good Sport (1931). He was previously married to Mary Philips and Kay Francis. He died on January 15, 1962 in Hollywood, ...
46. Lew Landers
Director | Pacific Liner
Rivaling Sam Newfield and William Beaudine as one of the American film industry's most prolific directors, Lew Landers began directing features in the mid-'30s under his real name of Louis Friedlander, but changed it to Lew Landers after several films. His first effort, The Raven (1935), with Boris...
47. Lucky Luciano
US gangster and racketeer. Born Charles Salvadore Lucania in Sicily, he emigrated with his family to the US in 1906. In 1907 he started shoplifting. He was given his nickname by childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky for his luck with betting on racehorses, but it also could have applied...
48. Sid Tomack
Actor | The Life of Riley
Sid Tomack was born on September 8, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Life of Riley (1948), Living It Up (1954) and Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture (1949). He died on November 12, 1962 in Palm Springs, California, USA.
49. Irene
Costume Department | Gaslight
Irene Maud Lentz was born on December 8, 1901 in Baker. Montana. When she was a teenager she moved to Hollywood to become an actress. She found work as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty and appeared in the comedies Picking Peaches (1924) and A Tailor-Made Man (1922). Irene married director F. Richard ...
50. Willis H. O'Brien
In 1949, 16 years after his ground-breaking work on the 1933 film "King Kong", Willis O'Brien worked as Chief Technician on another gorilla film for Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack titled "Mighty Joe Young". A young Ray Harryhausen would do most of the animation, but O'Brien did come up ...