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Phillips Raymond Holmes (July 22, 1907 – August 12, 1942) was an American actor. In 1928 Holmes was spotted in the undergraduate crowd at Princeton University during the filming of Frank Tuttle's Varsity and offered a screen test. In the early 1930s he became a popular leading man, playing leads in a few important productions, notably in Josef von Sternberg's An American Tragedy.
At Paramount, Holmes starred in melodrama and comedy. In 1933 his Paramount contract ran out and he moved to MGM for one year. As the decade progressed, his career declined, and he appeared in a few box-office failures, including Sam Goldwyn's poorly received Nana (1934). His last American movie was General Spanky (1936). In 1938 Holmes appeared in two UK movies. Housemaster was his last film. Then he returned to acting on stage in the United States.
At the start of World War II, Holmes joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was killed in a mid-air collision in northwest Ontario, Canada in 1942.
For his contributions to the film industry, Phillips Holmes was posthumously given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
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Frances Dade, also known early in her career as Lorelei Lee (February 14, 1910 – January 21, 1968), was an American film actress of the late 1920s and 1930s.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dade moved to Hollywood, California in the late 1920s to pursue an acting career. She first caught the attention of Samuel Goldwyn as a member of the touring company of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. He gave her a contract though she later went freelance. Her first film role was in 1928, when she had an uncredited role alongside stars Dorothy Boyd and Mabel Poulton in The Constant Nymph. In 1930 she appeared in four films, including Grumpy.
In 1931 Dade was cast in the biggest role of her career, Lucy Weston in Dracula, which starred Bela Lugosi and Helen Chandler. The scene with Bela Lugosi hovering over her prostrate body remains an indelible part of pop culture. That role would catapult her to brief notoriety, and would result in her being selected one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars, including Marian Marsh, Karen Morley, and Marion Shilling, that same year.
Despite her performance in Dracula, Dade's film role offers dwindled. She starred in six films in 1931, three of which were horror films.
In 1932, she was featured in only one film, Big Town, and she appeared on Broadway in the play Collision. Shortly thereafter, she retired from acting and married wealthy socialite Brock Van Avery. She eventually moved back home to Philadelphia, and went into nursing. She died there in 1968 at the age of 57.
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Halliwell Hobbes (16 November 1877 – 20 February 1962) was an English actor. His stage debut was in 1898, playing in Shakespearean rep alongside actors such as Ellen Terry and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. His earliest American work was as an actor and director from 1906, before moving to Hollywood in early 1929 (aged 51) to play older men's roles such as clerics, butlers, doctors, lords and diplomats.
Receiving fewer film roles during the 1940s (though he still managed to have been in over 100 films by 1949), he moved back to Broadway by mid-1940, appearing in Romeo and Juliet as Lord Capulet and continuing there until late 1955. By 1950 he had moved to American television in the diverse playhouse format.
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Paul Cavanagh (8 December 1888 – 15 March 1964) was an English film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1928 and 1959.
Cavanagh was born in Chislehurst, Kent, and attended the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Cavanagh studied law in England, earning a master of arts degree at Cambridge. A newspaper article published 17 June 1931, reported, "It is on record that Cavanagh won high honors in mathematics and history."
Cavanagh practised "for several years" before he changed professions. He went to Canada "for a year of sightseeing and wandering" before he joined the Royal Northwest Mounted Police.
After serving in World War I, he returned to Canada, where he practised law, including revising the statutes of Alberta, but eventually went back to England to practise law.
Cavanagh went onto the stage after a stroke of bad luck in 1924 caused him to lose his savings, and later he went into films.
In 1926, Cavanagh lost $22,000 in one evening on a roulette wheel in Monte Carlo. An observer offered to provide a letter "to some of my theatrical acquaintances" in London, England. Those contacts led to Cavanagh's role in It Pays to Advertise.
Cavanagh first film contract and film came in 1929 with Paramount Pictures.
Cavanagh died In London from a heart attack in 1964, aged 75.