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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.
James Gleason was born in New York City to William Gleason and Mina Crolius, who were both in the theatre. He was married to Lucile Gleason (born Lucile Webster), and had a son, Russell Gleason. As a young man James fought in the Spanish-American War. After the war he joined the stock company at the Liberty Theater in Oakland, California, which his parents were running. James and his wife then moved to Portland, Oregon, where they played in stock at the Baker Theater. For several years afterward they toured in road shows until James enlisted in the army during World War I. When he returned he appeared on the stage in "The Five Million." He then turned to writing, including "Is Zat So", which he produced for the NY stage. He also wrote and acted in "The Fall Guy" and "The Shannons on Broadway." Next he wrote The Broadway Melody (1929) for MGM. He collaborated, in 1930, on The Swellhead (1930), Dumbbells in Ermine (1930), What a Widow! (1930), Rain or Shine (1930) and His First Command (1929). He and his wife were then contracted to Pathe, Lucille to act, and James (or Jimmie as he was known) as a writer. Probably his most famous acting role was as Max Corkle, the manager of Joe Pendleton who was wrongly plucked from this life into the next, in the hit fantasy Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).
Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era.
Born Jacob Krantz in New York City into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street in a broker's office and as a boxer before his looks got him into the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name to Cortez to appeal to film-goers as a "Latin lover" to compete with such highly popular actors of the era as Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno. When rumour began to circulate that Cortez was not actually Spanish, the studios tried to pass him off as a different type of Latin, French, before they finally admitted his (supposedly) Viennese origin.
Cortez appeared in over 100 films. He played opposite Joan Crawford in Montana Moon in 1930, played Sam Spade in the original The Maltese Falcon in 1931, co-starred with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis in The Big Shakedown and Wonder Bar (with Al Jolson and Dolores del Río) in 1934. He also played Perry Mason in the 1936 film The Case of the Black Cat. Although he began his career playing romantic leads with actresses like Greta Garbo, when sound cinema arrived, his powerful delivery and New York accent made him an ideal villain and conman, and he switched from sex symbol to character actor.
Cortez was married to silent film actress Alma Rubens until her death of pneumonia in 1931.
When he retired from the film business, Cortez went to work as a stockbroker for Solomon Brothers on New York's Wall Street. He died in New York City in 1977 and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.
He was the older brother of noted cinematographer Stanley Cortez (born Stanislaus Krantz).
Slim Summerville (born George Joseph Somerville; July 10, 1892 – January 5, 1946) was an American film actor and director best known for his work in comedies.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in scores of feature films playing essentially the same character: prissy, polite, elegant, highly energetic, often officious, fastidious, somewhat nervous, prone to becoming flustered but essentially upbeat, and with immediately recognizable high-speed, patter-type speech. He typically played an officious desk clerk in a hotel, a self-important musician, a fastidious headwaiter, an enthusiastic birdwatcher, and the like, and was usually put in a situation of frustration or flustered by the antics of others. Pangborn was an effective foil for many major comedians.
Stanley Fields (born Walter L. Agnew; May 20, 1883 – April 23, 1941) was an American actor.
On Broadway, Fields performed in Fifty Miles from Boston (1908) and The Red Widow (1911). After that, for eight years, Fields performed in vaudeville with Frank Fay. Thanks to Norma Talmadge, who thought his broken nose gave him a ferocious appearance, he started on a film career with a screen debut as a gunman in her talkie New York Nights. In 1930, he signed a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures.
He died on April 23, 1941. He died of a heart attack.
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