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- Michele Carey was born on 26 February 1942 in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for El Dorado (1966), Live a Little, Love a Little (1968) and The Wild Wild West (1965). She was married to Fred G. Strebel and August Lee Schwab Jr.. She died on 21 November 2018 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
David Ogden Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Margaret Elizabeth (Ogden) and Kenneth Truman Stiers. He moved with his family to Eugene, Oregon, where he graduated from North Eugene High School in 1960. At the age of twenty, he was offered $200 to join the company of the Santa Clara Shakespeare Festival for three months. He ended up staying for seven years, in due course playing both King Lear and Richard III. In 1969, he moved to New York to study drama at Juilliard where he also trained his voice as a dramatic baritone. He joined the Houseman City Center Acting Company at its outset, working on such productions as The Beggar's Opera, Measure for Measure, The Hostage and the hit Broadway musical The Magic Show for which he created the character 'Feldman the Magnificent'. He lent his voice to animated films, with Lilo & Stitch (2002) being his 25th theatrically-released Disney animated film. He was also an avid fan of classical music and conducted a number of orchestras, including the Yaquina Chamber Orchestra in Newport, Oregon, where was the principal guest conductor.
His other theatrical work included performances with the Committee Revue and Theatre, the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, The Old Globe Theatre Festival in San Diego and at the Pasadena Playhouse in Love Letters with Meredith Baxter. As a drama instructor, he worked at Santa Clara University and also taught improvisation at Harvard. In addition to his long-running role in M*A*S*H (1972), Stiers' work on television also included the excellent mini-series North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985), North & South: Book 2, Love & War (1986), The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984) and roles in such productions as Anatomy of an Illness (1984), The Bad Seed (1985), J. Edgar Hoover (1987), The Final Days (1989), Father Damien: The Leper Priest (1980) and Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986). Among his screen credits were The Accidental Tourist (1988), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), Creator (1985), Harry's War (1981), Magic (1978) and Oh, God! (1977).
Above all, the prodigious talent that was David Ogden Stiers will be most fondly remembered as the pompous, ever-so articulate Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in M*A*S*H. He had found that taking on the role was -- from the beginning -- an easy choice. Stiers saw and loved the movie version. Moreover, he had a fond regard of fellow actor Harry Morgan (who played the character of Colonel Potter) as a kind of fatherly role model. In retrospect, Stiers viewed his experiences with the show as a career highlight, saying "No matter how much you read about the M*A*S*H company, the evolution of it, the quite beautiful human stance it takes, you will not know how much it means ". In his spare time on the set he often annoyed the security guards by skateboarding at 25 miles an hour and "cheerfully thumbing his nose at them".
David died of bladder cancer on March 3, 2018, in Newport, Oregon. He was 75.- Actress
- Producer
Tawny Kitaen was born on 5 August 1961 in San Diego, California, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Bachelor Party (1984), The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak (1984) and Witchboard (1986). She was married to Chuck Finley and David Coverdale. She died on 7 May 2021 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchman from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife, Benjamina, known as "Betty". Young Claire's interest in acting began when she was 11 years old. She attended high school in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. After starting classes at Columbia University, she spent six months at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, also in New York. Her adult acting experience began in the late 1920s in several stock productions; she appeared with Robert Henderson's Repertory Players in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930. That same year, aged 20, she signed with Warner Bros. Not too far from her home haunts was Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, the last and best of the early sound process studios, which had been acquired by Warner Bros. in 1925 to become Vitaphone. Trevor appeared in several of the nearly 2000 shorts cranked out by the studio between 1926 and 1930. Then she was sent west to do ten weeks of stock productions with other contract players in St. Louis. In 1931 she did summer stock with the Hampton Players in Southampton, Long Island. Finally, she debuted on Broadway in 1932 in "Whistling in the Dark".
Trevor moved to the silver screen, debuting in the western Life in the Raw (1933). There would be three more films (one more western) that year and six or more through the 1930s. Although she had been typed playing gun molls and hard-case women of the world, she displayed her already considerable versatility in these early films, often playing competent, take-charge professional women as well as "shady" ladies. There was a disappointed-pout-vulnerability in her face and that famous slightly New York-burred voice that cracked with a little cry when heightened by emotion that quickly revealed an unusual and sensitive performer. Many of her early films were "B" potboilers, but she worked with Spencer Tracy on several occasions, notably Dante's Inferno (1935).
Hollywood finally took notice of her talents by nominating her for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her standout performance as a slum girl forced by poverty into prostitution in Dead End (1937), opposite Humphrey Bogart. That same year she did the radio drama "Big Town" with Edward G. Robinson, then teamed with he and Bogart again for the slightly hokey but entertaining The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). Director John Ford tapped her for his first big sound Western film, Stagecoach (1939), the film that made a star of John Wayne. All her abilities to bring complexity to a character showed in her kicked-around dance hall girl "Dallas", one of the great early female roles. She and Wayne were electric, and they were paired in three more films during their careers.
In the 1940s, Trevor began appearing in the genre that brought her to true stardom: "film noir". She started in a big way as killer Ruth Dillon in Street of Chance (1942) with Burgess Meredith. She was equally convincing as the more complex but nonetheless two-faced Mrs. Grayle in the Philip Marlowe vehicle Murder, My Sweet (1944). However, she was something very different and quite extraordinary as washed-up, hopelessly alcoholic former nightclub singer and moll Gaye Dawn in Key Largo (1948), for which she won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, again working with Bogart and Robinson. Her pitiful rendition of the torch song "Moanin' Low", which her character was forced to sing, humiliatingly, for the sadistic crime boss played by Robinson (to whom she is, figuratively speaking, permanently tethered) in exchange for a desperately needed drink. There were more quality movies and an additional Academy nomination (The High and the Mighty (1954)) into the 1950s,, but she also was doing work on stage and in television.
She was enthusiastic about live TV and appeared on several famous shows by the mid-1950s. She won an Emmy for Best Live Television Performance by an Actress as the flighty wife of Fredric March in NBC's Dodsworth (1956). She alternated her career among film, stage and TV roles. As she aged she easily transitioned into "distinguished matron" and mother roles, one of her most unusual ones being the murderous Ma Barker in Ma Barker and Her Boys (1959). Her final film role was as Sally Field's mother in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).
Trevor and her third husband, producer Milton H. Bren, had long been residents of tony Newport Beach, California, to which they returned when she finally retired from screen work. However, she did maintain an active interest in stage work, and became associated with the University of California-Irvine's School of Arts. She and her husband contributed some $10 million to further its development for the visual and performing arts (that included three endowed professorships). After her passing in April 2000 at 90 years of age, the University renamed the school The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Her presence on the UCI campus is in more than spirit alone. She donated her Oscar and her Emmy to UCI; both are on display in the arts plaza at the campus theatre that bears her name.- Diane Sayer was born on 22 February 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Kitten with a Whip (1964), The Strangler (1964) and Madigan (1968). She was married to Jerry Shepard. She died on 26 March 2001 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dolores Del Rio was the one of the first Mexican movie stars with international appeal and who had meteoric career in 1920s/1930s Hollywood. Del Rio came from an aristocratic family in Durango. In the Mexican revolution of 1916, however, the family lost everything and emigrated to Mexico City, where Dolores became a socialite. In 1921 she married Jaime Del Río (also known as Jaime Martínez Del Río), a wealthy Mexican, and the two became friends with Hollywood producer/director Edwin Carewe, who discovered Del Rio and invited the couple to move to Hollywood where they launched careers in the movie business (she as an actress, Jaime as a screenwriter). Eventually, they divorced after Carewe cast her in her first film Joanna (1925), followed by High Steppers (1926), and Pals First (1926). She had her first leading role in Carewe's silent version of Pals First (1926) and soared to stardom in 1928 with Carewe's Ramona (1928). The film was a success and Del Rio was hailed as a female Rudolph Valentino. Her career continued to rise with the arrival of sound in the drama/romance Bird of Paradise (1932) and hit musical Flying Down to Rio (1933). She later married Cedric Gibbons, the well-known art director and production designer at MGM studios.
Dolores returned to Mexico in 1942. Her Hollywood career was over, and a romance with Orson Welles--who later called her "the most exciting woman I've ever met"--caused her second divorce. Mexican director Emilio Fernández offered her the lead in his film Wild Flower (1943), with a wholly unexpected result - at age 37, Dolores Del Río became the most famous movie star in her country, filming in Spanish for the first time. Her association with Fernández' team (cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, writer Mauricio Magdaleno and actor Pedro Armendáriz) was mainly responsible for creating what has been called the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. With such pictures as Maria Candelaria (1944), Las abandonadas (1945) and Bugambilia (1945), Del Río became the prototypical Mexican beauty. Her career included film, theater and television. In her last years she received accolades because of her work for orphaned children. Her last film was The Children of Sanchez (1978).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he was of Scottish ancestry, not Irish) and later character actor primarily in American films, Victor McLaglen was a vital presence in a number of great motion pictures, especially those of director John Ford. McLaglen (pronounced Muh-clog-len, not Mack-loff-len) was the son of the Right Reverend Andrew McLaglen, a Protestant clergyman who was at one time Bishop of Claremont in South Africa. The young McLaglen, eldest of eight brothers, attempted to serve in the Boer War by joining the Life Guards, though his father secured his release. The adventuresome young man traveled to Canada where he did farm labor and then directed his pugnacious nature into professional prizefighting. He toured in circuses, vaudeville shows, and Wild West shows, often as a fighter challenging all comers. His tours took him to the US, Australia (where he joined in the gold rush) and South Africa. In 1909 he was the first fighter to box newly-crowned heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, whom he fought in a six-round exhibition match in Vancouver (as an exhibition fight, it had no decision). When the First World War broke out, McLaglen joined the Irish Fusiliers and soldiered in the Middle East, eventually serving as Provost Marshal (head of Military Police) for the city of Baghdad. After the war he attempted to resume a boxing career, but was given a substantial acting role in The Call of the Road (1920) and was well received. He became a popular leading man in British silent films, and within a few years was offered the lead in an American film, The Beloved Brute (1924). He quickly became a most popular star of dramas as well as action films, playing tough or suave with equal ease. With the coming of sound, his ability to be persuasively debonair diminished by reason of his native speech patterns, but his popularity increased, particularly when cast by Ford as the tragic Gypo Nolan in The Informer (1935), for which McLaglen won the Best Actor Oscar. He continued to play heroes, villains and simple-minded thugs into the 1940s, when Ford gave his career a new impetus with a number of lovably roguish Irish parts in such films as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and The Quiet Man (1952). The latter film won McLaglen another Oscar nomination, the first time a Best Actor winner had been nominated subsequently in the Supporting category. McLaglen formed a semi-militaristic riding and polo club, the Light Horse Brigade, and a similarly arrayed precision motorcycle team, the Victor McLaglen Motorcycle Corps, both of which led to conclusions that he had fascist sympathies and was forming his own private army. McLaglen denied espousing the far right-wing sentiments that were often attributed to him. He continued to act in films into his 70s and died, from congestive heart failure, not long after appearing in a film directed by his son, Andrew V. McLaglen.- Actress
- Soundtrack
About as reliable as one could ever find, character actress Mary Treen was a familiar face to most and could always be counted on to bring a bit of levity to any film scene. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in 40s, 1950s/60s Hollywood.
She was born Mary Louise Summers in St. Louis, Missouri in 1907, her father dying while she was still an infant. Raised in Southern California by her mother, who once performed under the stage name Helene Sullivan, and her stepfather, a physician, she attended Westlake School for Girls as well as a convent where she tried out successfully in school plays.
Treen began dancing in vaudeville shows and revues before seeking her fame in the movies. Tall (5'9") and stringy-framed, she formed a musical comedy duo with Marjorie Barnett, who was 5'3", billing themselves as "Treen and Barnett: Two Unsophisticated Vassar Co-eds". Much of the comedy was centered around their difference in height. Not a beauty by Hollywood standards, she relied on humor to get attention. In 1934, Warner Brothers signed her up after seeing her in a local play.
After three years, she freelanced. Her scores of pudgy-cheeked nurses, waitresses, career girls, wallflowers and confidantes enhanced many a comedy or, at the very least, offered a brief respite in a heavier drama. A few of her highlights would include such films as Kentucky Moonshine (1938), I Love a Soldier (1944) (the role was written especially for her), Don Juan Quilligan (1945), and the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) (as James Stewart's cousin Tilly). In later years both Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley utilized her talents in their movie vehicles.
She was given a bit more to do on television and actually stole some scenes as maid/baby nurse Hilda Hinkelmeyer on The Joey Bishop Show (1961) for three seasons. She typically guested on lightweight sitcoms such as "The Andy Griffith Show", "Green Acres", "Here's Lucy", "Happy Days", and "The Dukes of Hazzard".
Perhaps because she could play old maid types so easily in later years, she was often thought to have never married. She actually did marry in 1944 to Herbert C. Pearson, a wholesale liquor dealer. They had no children. He died in 1965. She later moved in with her ex-vaudeville partner, Marjorie Barnett-Klein, also widowed. In later years the two performed their old routines to the delight of other senior citizens. Treen was living in Balboa Beach, California when she died of cancer in 1989, aged 82.- She was born Donna Lee Hickey, the daughter of a vaudevillian. At seventeen, she entered show biz as a dancer at the Copacabana and thereafter won several beauty contests, including "Miss American Legion," "Miss Miami Beach", and "Miss Fire Fighter". In January 1950, she was voted Queen of the New York Press Photographers' Ball. From there, it was but a small step to motion pictures and a contract with 20thCentury Fox, courtesy of a sympathetic member of that studio's casting department. However, after a year playing nothing but bit parts, Donna Lee declared with some disappointment "I didn't even work during my last six months there. Every week I hired a taxi, drove to the studio, picked up my check and drove home. They said they would hire me for another year at the same salary. I said no thanks." Instead, she made a move to Columbia which appeared to pay off with a leading role in Edward Dmytryk's classic military courtroom drama The Caine Mutiny (1954) (opposite Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray). Her character, a night club singer, was named May Wynn. At the insistence of producer Stanley Kramer, Donna Lee henceforth adopted this as her stage moniker since there 'hadn't been a May since the days of May McAvoy and Mae Murray'. Freshly minted as May Wynn, she went on to co-star (albeit as second fiddle to, respectively, Donna Reed and Dianne Foster) in two back-to-back westerns: They Rode West (1954) and The Violent Men (1955). Second-billing finally came her way -- but it was to be in B-grade fare like The White Squaw (1956) and The Man Is Armed (1956) for 'Poverty Row' studios Allied Artists and Republic.
In October 1956, May married actor Jack Kelly (who would become popular as James Garner's more serious younger brother Bart in Maverick (1957)). Jack and May appeared together in low budget productions like Taming Sutton's Gal (1957) and Hong Kong Affair (1958) (with May standing in as a Chinese girl, since the local actress originally chosen for the part failed to come to grips with the English language). She also had recurring roles on The Bob Cummings Show (1955) and in the short-lived NBC drama series Noah's Ark (1956), with May as a secretary in a veterinary hospital. The only claim to fame of this series was that it was one of the first to be shot in colour. After exiting show business in 1960, May worked in real estate. She divorced Kelly in 1964 and four years later married realtor Jack Wesley Custer. This union also ended in divorce in 1979. As Donna Lee Custer, she retired to Newport Beach, California, where she passed away at the age of 93 on March 22 2021. - Michael Sheard was born on 18 June 1938 in Aberdeen, Grampian, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Outsider (1983) and The Tomorrow People (1973). He was married to Rosalind Allaway. He died on 31 August 2005 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK.
- Actor
- Writer
While in Vietnam entertaining troops with Bob Hope and others touring with the USO, Thomas Tully contracted a filarial worm, similar to the worm which can lead to elephantiasis. After returning to the U.S. his condition was diagnosed after a blood clot in a major leg vein cut off circulation so severely his left leg was amputated very close to the hip. This was circa 1971. The amputation was performed in Laguna Beach, California, close to his home in San Juan Capistrano. Complications to this surgery caused pleuritis, deafness and serious debilitation. His death was due, in great part, to these serious medical conditions. He should be remembered as a true patriot who sacrificed his life to entertain our troops during the Vietnam War.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Perpetually glum standup comedian Joey Bishop was born Joseph Abraham Gottlieb on February 3, 1918, in the Bronx, New York. He was the youngest of five children of Chana "Anna" (Siegel) and Jacob Gottlieb, a bicycle repairman. His father was an Austrian Jewish immigrant and his mother was a Romanian Jew. He was raised in Philadelphia and learned while growing up how to tap dance, do imitations and play the mandolin and banjo. Dropping out of high school at 18, he started out in the humor business in vaudeville as part of a comedy act with his brother. Billed as "Joey Gottlieb" at the time, he later joined a comedy group that called themselves "The Bishop Trio" and kept the last name for himself after the team broke up. His nascent career was interrupted while serving in the Army during WWII, but quickly resumed things after his discharge in 1945. He appeared on television as early as 1948, but it took a while before he caught on. A master ad-libber, he became a nitery specialist at such establishments as the Latin Quarter, and served as an opening act for a number of stars, including Frank Sinatra, in the mid-50s. As his reputation increased, he became a steadfast cog on the talk show, sitcom and game show circuits. A frequent and amusing guest panelist on What's My Line? (1950), the jug-eared jokester went on to guest-host on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) a record 177 times. He also frequently appeared as a guest for Steve Allen and Jack Paar in their earlier late-nite formats.
Bishop entered the sitcom venue in the early 1960s. On his first show, The Joey Bishop Show (1961), he played Joey Barnes, the host of a TV talk show in New York. Abby Dalton came on board in the second season as wife Ellie. Among his co-stars were up-and-coming stars Bill Bixby and Marlo Thomas and such character veterans as Joe Besser, of The Three Stooges fame, and Mary Treen were brought aboard for stronger support. This popular show lasted four seasons. Life imitated art several years later when Bishop went on to compete against Carson for the late-night viewing audience with his own talk show The Joey Bishop Show (1967) for ABC. The show was no match for Carson, however, and quickly dwindled in ratings, fading away after two years. His co-host/sidekick/foil was none other than Regis Philbin. Dick Cavett eventually replaced him to fill the ABC midnight void.
Relatively overlooked for his work on film, Bishop did show some promise early in the game with occasional straight roles that veered away from his sarcastic comedy demeanor with such roles in The Deep Six (1958), The Naked and the Dead (1958) and Onionhead (1958). He would also generate public interest as the less-than-slick member of Hollywood's "Rat Pack", which was comprised of ultra-hip pals Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. Known as "Sinatra's comic" at one time (for having frequently opened for the star), Bishop wrote material and serving as the emcee for many of the clan's Las Vegas shows in the 1960s. In addition he appeared in the "Rat Pack"-oriented movies Ocean's Eleven (1960) and Sergeants 3 (1962), but the straight-laced comedian later butted heads with the party-hearty Sinatra and split while the next film Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) was in preparation. Elsewhere, he appeared as either a foil, sidekick, or guest cameos in such standard movies as Johnny Cool (1963), Texas Across the River (1966) with Dean Martin, Who's Minding the Mint? (1967) and even Valley of the Dolls (1967).
Once his late night TV show folded he returned to night clubs for a time but gradually withdrew more and more from the show-biz limelight in the 1970s. He appeared in only three films after this point -- The Delta Force (1986), Betsy's Wedding (1990) and Mad Dog Time (1996) -- and showing up on a rare occasion as a TV guest. Married to Sylvia Ruzga since 1941, their son Larry Bishop is an actor-turned-director and producer. Long retired and the last surviving "Rat Pack" member after Sinatra's death in 1998, his wife Sylvia of 58 years died of cancer in 1999. Joey, in failing health for some time, died of multiple organ failure on October 17, 2007, at his Newport Beach, California home.- Virile-looking, hairy-chested actor Anthony George is best remembered for a couple of popular TV crime series back in the early 1960s. Born Octavio George in Endicott, New York, he began in small roles in motion pictures and TV in the 1950s. Picked up by 20th Century-Fox he was sometimes billed as Tony George or Ott George in such "B" movies as You Never Can Tell (1951), Three Bad Sisters (1956), Chicago Confidential (1957) and Gunfire at Indian Gap (1957). More often than not, however, he appeared uncredited and his dark, swarthy features usually had him typed as minor heavies (convicts, thugs, mobsters, etc.). The fast pace and expectations of making movies proved too much for the actor, however, and he suffered a nervous breakdown during one such filming. Traveling back East to recover, TV ended up being a more adaptable medium. He finally hit pay dirt in 1960 when he was cast as a tough-talking good guy, agent Cam Allison, alongside Robert Stack's Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1959). He abruptly left that series to head up his own cast as investigator Don Corey in the detective drama Checkmate (1960). The show lasted two seasons and made him a familiar face, if not a household name. Following this peak, he became a steadfast presence in daytime soaps with regular roles on Dark Shadows (1966), Search for Tomorrow (1951) and One Life to Live (1968). On occasion he would appear on stage and in 1966 had a chance to play Nicky Arnstein in "Funny Girl" at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre opposite singing comedienne and impressionist Marilyn Michaels, who was known for her dead-on impersonation of Barbra Streisand. Other productions would include "The Front Page," "Winterset," "Come Blow Your Horn" and "Cactus Flower." A voice-over actor in commercials as well, Anthony George died of complications from lung disease in Los Angeles, California on March 16, 2005.
- John Zaremba was born on 22 October 1908 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and The Time Tunnel (1966). He was married to Elinor Deck Suter. He died on 15 December 1986 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Niall MacGinnis is not as well known outside of Europe, but he was a wonderful character actor whose variety of roles matched his great gift for characterization and the look beyond just makeup that he projected. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a basic medical education which qualified him as a house (resident) surgeon during World War II in the Royal Navy. But after the war he decided to pursue acting. He worked in stage repertoire and stock companies and moved on to do significant stage work at the Old Vic Theatre in London, where John Gielgud was director and Shakespeare has a particular focus. MacGinnis had the burly look of a farm hand with a large head and curly hair falling away from a progressively receding hairline. He could portray a broad enough accent - or little at all, as the case might be - which could entail any part of the British Isles.
He moved on to film work in 1935 when British sound cinema was hitting its stride. He met young but well experienced director Michael Powell, who was eager to sell his script for an intriguing film to be shot on the furthest island from the north coast of the UK, Foulda. Alexander Korda was impressed and optioned the production of this script for The Edge of the World (1937), and MacGinnis got the nod as the central protagonist, Andrew Gray. Soon after in 1938, MacGinnis worked with Old Vic mentor and director Gielgud for a role in an early TV production of the play "Spring Meeting" (1938). As the war years ensued and before his own service, MacGinnis did several war effort films, most notably asked by Powell to take the role of a German U-boat cook in 49th Parallel (1941). The film sported a great ensemble cast, including Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey, and was shot in Canada where the drama unfolded, but it lacked the drive to keep the story vital. MacGinnis shone as the good-natured peasant who loved food and had no use for Nazi strictures and warring on the world. Luckily for Powell, the movie with its flag waving spirit was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the late 1940s, MacGinnis was donning historical garb for what would be some of his most familiar roles. Olivier remembered him and gave him small but standout roles in both his Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948). At about that time MacGinnis began associations with American film actors and production money coming over to Britain, the first being with Fredric March and his wife Florence Eldridge in Christopher Columbus (1949). He finally came to American shores with an appearance on Broadway in "Caesar and Cleopatra" in late 1951 through April of 1952. In 1952 back in England, he had a supporting role as the Herald in a screen version of the story of Thomas a' Becket titled Murder in the Cathedral (1951). Interestingly, he was also in the much better known and Hollywood-financed Becket (1964), as one of the four murderous barons. When MGM came back to England to follow up its previous visit and subsequent huge hit, Ivanhoe (1952), with Knights of the Round Table (1953), MacGinnis had a brief but again noticeable role as the Green Knight, bound by loss of combat to Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. The next year brought one of his rare lead roles, an exemplary one in every measure. As Luther in Martin Luther (1953), MacGinnis joined a mostly British cast in a US/West German co-production and American director Irving Pichel with West German and historical scenery topped with a first rate script with American and German co-writers. It received two Oscar nominations.
Into the later 1950s, MacGinnis held to a steady diet of sturdy movie roles, usually supporting but always memorable because of his great acting skill. Historically, he went further back in time with several films of epic Ancient Greece, first as King Menelaus in Helen of Troy (1956), an American/Italian co-production with Robert Wise directing. That same year he stayed on the continent for another epic, this time Alexander the Great (1956) with American director Robert Rossen in an US/Spanish co-production that enlisted another first tier British cast, centered on box office idol Richard Burton, along with former co-star Freddy March. MacGinnis finally made it to Mount Olympus - that is, playing Zeus - in the rousing US/UK co-production of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), certainly best remembered for the stop motion animation magic of Ray Harryhausen.
Yet, MacGinnis' perhaps best remembered role - certainly to discriminating fans of horror/fantasy - was that of two-faced Dr. Julian Karswell, jocular magician - but deadly serious cult leader and demon conjurer (loosely based on the outrageous English social rebel and occultist Aleister Crowley). The film Curse of the Demon (1957) (the American cut was renamed "Curse of the Demon") was a stylishly atmospheric and convincingly spooky outing directed by Jacques Tourneur, the protégé of Hollywood veteran film producer Val Lewton, best known for Cat People (1942). Based on M.R. James' Edwardian ghost story, "Casting the Runes," the film is now considered a classic of the genre with MacGinnis, sporting a devilish goatee, having fun with his split personality but also effectively betraying his inward fear of the powers he has unleashed. He easily stole the show from co-star Dana Andrews, as the stubborn American psychologist almost done in by the demon he does not believe exists.
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, MacGinnis kept to up a fairly steady stream of varied historical and contemporary movie roles, always noticeable, and in some of the high profile films of the period, including: Billy Budd (1962), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and the Cinerama adventure Krakatoa: East of Java (1968). There were some TV spots as well to showcase his character-molding talents into the year of his passing to round out a body of over 75 screen appearances. - On Friday, August 5, the Lakers and Angels lost their biggest fan. Richard Roat, the most supportive friend a person in the entertainment industry could ever have, passed away suddenly. Richard had amassed over 135 acting roles on television, film, and on Broadway. He guest starred on "The Golden Girls" twice, the first as a Murder Mystery Host and later playing Betty White's boyfriend, only to be found dead in her bed the next morning. He appeared in "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Hill Street Blues," and just about every TV show going back to "Car 54 Where Are You?" Richard performed on Broadway, (Sunday in New York, Any Wednesday, The Wall,) at The Public Theatre in Central Park (Julius Caesar,) The Huntington Hartford Theatre in Los Angeles, (Boys in the Band) and the Pasadena Playhouse (Moon Over Buffalo.) In addition to his distinguished career as an actor, Richard had a successful practice as an entertainment tax preparer for over 50 years. As an individual, Richard was a true Renaissance Man. He loved music, playing the violin, the theatre, movies, literature, provocative conversation, and a good whiskey. Richard loved sports and would have been ecstatic that the Angels won on the Friday night he passed. He had a gorgeous smile, a naughty twinkle in his eyes, and loved to badinage with everyone. His greatest love was his family, with whom he shared his incredible sense of humor, intelligence, and unmatched zest for life. Richard was fortunate to marry the love of his life, his true soulmate, Kathy. They had recently celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary. Their life together was a magical journey of travel, fun, laughter, and love. It was truly "An Affair to Remember." Richard will be missed by family, friends, colleagues, and clients. He will be thought of often, with warm memories and a quiet chuckle for all the good times he brought to our lives.
- Norman Jones was born on 16 June 1932 in Donnington, Telford, Shropshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for You Only Live Twice (1967), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Curtain of Fear (1964). He died on 23 April 2013 in Newport, Shropshire, England, UK.
- An immaculate gent of sober appearance and cultivated presence, Bate was seemingly destined to play spymasters and senior civil servants. Lean, pale-eyed and of deceptively mild intonation, he was capable of unnervingly icy composure, never more effectively displayed than as the chameleon-like Soviet mole Kim Philby in ITV's telemovie Philby, Burgess and Maclean (1977). In similar vein, Bate played the enigmatic, debonair American-born spook, Bret Renssalaer, in Len Deighton's Game, Set, and Match (1988). Most famously, he added an authentic touch to the affable, officious Home Office security undersecretary, Sir Oliver Lacon -- "Whitehall's Head Prefect" - in John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979), and its sequel, Smiley's People (1982).
Anthony Bate began working life behind the bar of a hotel owned by his family on the Isle of Wight. After completing his national service with the Royal Navy Volunteers in 1947, he started dabbling in amateur dramatics and then took the next step to formal training at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating a gold medal winner. After the obligatory sojourn in repertory theatre, he made his West End debut in a 1960 dramatisation of the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, "Inherit the Wind", at St. Martin's Theatre. Over the next three decades, he drew many excellent notices for such classical roles as Don Pedro in "Much Ado About Nothing", for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In occasional films from 1957, Bate popped up as straight man in minor comedies, like Dentist in the Chair (1960). However, in due course, he found his niche to be on the small screen, where he was increasingly sought-after by producers for a wide variety of characters of, either, furtive, stern, starchy, supercilious or sinister disposition. Besides crime and espionage, Bate was a ubiquitous protagonist in screen adaptations from the classics: the obsessive Inspector Javert on the trail of Frank Finlay's Jean Valjeon, in a 1967 version of Victor Hugo's oft-filmed masterpiece; as the intrepid Dr. Livesey of Treasure Island (1977); and as the Knight's Templar, Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, chief nemesis of Ivanhoe (1970). Another of his outright villains was treacherous London gangster Eddie Edwards, taking advantage of his boss's (Ray McAnally) incarceration to usurp his criminal empire. In Intimate Strangers (1974), Bate was given a rare starring role, as a middle-aged family man, re-evaluating his life after a heart attack. This introspective and nuanced performance was, arguably, one of his best. The cool, unflappable Mr. Bate also portrayed such historical personae as Joseph Stalin, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt and Eduard Shevardnadze -- all with equal vigour and conviction. One of the unsung heroes of British television, Anthony Bate passed away in June 2012 at the age of 84. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Dark-haired beauty Jeanne Carolyn Cagney was born in New York City, New York on March 25, 1919 - just a few months after the end of World War I. She and her four brothers - including James Cagney and William Cagney - were raised by her widowed mother. Jeanne majored in French and German during her years at Hunter College High School, and starred in plays produced by the Hunter College of City College of New York. Upon graduating from college, she studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
She began her movie career in 1939, with a role in the obscure comedy All Women Have Secrets (1939). This succeeded an appearance on Bing Crosby's radio program. However, she did not become known until three years later, when she acted in the highly-acclaimed biographical musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) alongside her brother, James (who won an Academy Award for his performance as George M. Cohan). Regrettably, Jeanne only made sporadic appearances in film and television until her retirement from acting in 1965. Notable movies include Quicksand (1950) - in which she played a femme fatale - and the Marilyn Monroe thriller Don't Bother to Knock (1952). Jeanne also made three more films with her brother James (The Time of Your Life (1948), A Lion Is in the Streets (1953), and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)), and, in 1948, appeared on stage in a production of 'The Iceman Cometh'.
Jeanne was married to actor Ross Latimer from 1944 to 1952. She later wed Jack Sherman Morrison, a faculty member in theater arts at UCLA, in 1953, with whom she had two daughters: Mary and Terry. Jeanne and Morrison ended their marriage in 1973.
Jeanne Cagney was sadly diagnosed with lung cancer later on in her life, and died of the disease on December 7, 1984. She was 65. While not a household name, Ms. Cagney is remembered today among modern-day aficionados of 1940s and 1950s cinema.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Lane was born on 28 May 1899 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for The Big Wheel (1949), Meet Boston Blackie (1941) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). He died on 5 September 1982 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Dale Van Sickel was born on 29 November 1907 in Eatonton, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1949), Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) and Flash Gordon (1936). He was married to Iris Van Sickel. He died on 25 January 1977 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Kane Richmond was born on 23 December 1906 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lost City (1935), Brick Bradford (1947) and Spy Smasher (1942). He was married to Marion Burns. He died on 22 March 1973 in Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Lidia Kristen was born on 3 December 1918. She was an actress, known for Young Frankenstein (1974), Love at First Bite (1979) and Die Sister, Die! (1978). She died on 4 September 2008 in Newport Coast, California, USA.
- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Actress, producer and writer Yakira Chambers grew up on the Southside of Chicago. She graduated from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science and started her working life in St. Louis as a software quality assurance manager. After completing a Master's Degree in business administration, she moved to Los Angeles to find work in the entertainment industry. Chambers studied the Meisner technique for two years at the Baron Brown Studio in L.A. and then further honed her craft through the Midsummer in Oxford Program at Magdalen College. She made her screen debut in 2007. Five years later, she worked as executive producer on a TV sitcom, M.O. Diaries (2012), in which she also starred as Michelle Obama. She later appeared in several films which addressed social issues. In 2020, she was selected for the Viacom CBS Writers Mentoring Program. This led to Chambers becoming a staff writer and story editor on the spin-off series NCIS: Hawai'i (2021). Tragically, her life was cut short due to acute asphyxia on November 30, 2022. She was aged just 42.- Handsome, strapping, wavy-haired, New Jersey-born Bill Edwards started out to be an artist but sidetracked somewhat successfully into acting during WWII. Born on September 14, 1918, he was raised in Wyoming country and rode on the rodeo circuit for a couple of years until a number of broken bones forced him to rethink his life's direction. He traveled to New York to pursue art and studied at the Art Students League. To supplement his tuition he worked as a 6'5", 215 lb. Conover model. A talent agent saw his pictures and encouraged him to try acting.
Despite his complete lack of experience, Warner Brothers saw promise in Bill's blond-haired, blue-eyed good looks and solid-oak build and placed him under contract in 1942. For the first two years he appeared in a number of unbilled parts as reporter and military types in such films as Murder in the Big House (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Escape from Crime (1942), Air Force (1943) and Princess O'Rourke (1943). Unable to rise above these small parts, he moved to Paramount where he earned his first featured part as Forrest Noble, the mayor's son who is engaged to Ella Raines in the Preston Sturges classic Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). He then went on play Diana Lynn's hunky love interest in Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944) and its sequel Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946) but couldn't do better than being billed sixth and eighth in the films Miss Susie Slagle's (1946) with Veronica Lake and The Virginian (1946) with Joel McCrea, respectively.
Freelancing by 1947, Bill found himself cast in primarily "Poverty Row" programmers. He was billed third behind Jane Withers and Robert Lowery in the Pine Thomas production Danger Street (1947) and made use of his cowboy-raised upbringing with the westerns, again third billed in Home in San Antone (1949) starring Roy Acuff, Panorama from a Moving Train on White Pass & Yukon Railway, Alaska (1905) starring Kirby Grant and Border Outlaws (1950) starring cowboy singer Spade Cooley. He received his one and only star status in the western The Fighting Stallion (1950) for the Jack Schwarz Productions.
It would have seemed Bill could have continued on as a cowboy star but his acting proved wooden and following a few more years in films and TV guest spots ("Bonanza," "Dragnet," etc.), abandoned his career and returned to his first joy -- art. He later became a familiar name in California as an exhibited oil and acrylic painter of the Old West and as an illustrator. A well-known scuba diver and instructor in the Southern California area, he at one time owned a diving and scuba gear shop. Bill also returned to occasional acting in the 1970s and 1980s, notably the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the TV movies Pearl (1978) and Gidget's Summer Reunion (1985).
Long married to Hazel Allen in 1946, the couple had one daughter, Linda. They divorced in the mid 1970s after nearly 30 years of marriage and Bill married Beryl Hunter in the ensuing years. Following their divorce, he remarried first wife Hazel, who survived him. Bill suffered from a disease that attacked his muscular system in his final years and he died of pneumonia in Southern California in 1999 at age 81.