Hedda Hopper (May 2, 1885 – February 1, 1966) was an American actress and gossip columnist, notorious for feuding with her arch-rival Louella Parsons. She had been a moderately successful actress of stage and screen for years before being offered the chance to write the column Hedda Hopper's Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times in 1938. At the height of her power in the 1940s she commanded a 35 million strong readership. She was well known for her political conservatism, and during the McCarthy era she named suspected communists. Hopper continued to write gossip until the end, her work appearing in many magazines and later on radio.
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Guinn Terrell Williams Jr. (April 26, 1899 – June 6, 1962) was an American actor who appeared in memorable westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and The Comancheros (1961). He was nicknamed "Big Boy" as he was 6' 2" and had a muscular build from years of working on ranches and playing semi-pro and professional baseball.
Williams made his screen debut in the 1919 comedy, Almost A Husband, with Will Rogers and Cullen Landis, and was featured in a large supporting role ten years later in Frank Borzage's Lucky Star with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Throughout the 1920s Williams would have a string of successful films, mostly westerns.
He then appeared in The Great Meadow alongside Johnny Mack Brown, which was Brown's breakout film. Throughout the 1930s, Williams acted in supporting roles, mostly in westerns, sports, or outdoor dramas. Although not the lead actor in any of them, he was always employed, and was successful as a supporting actor. He often played alongside Hoot Gibson and Harry Carey during that period. In 1941, he became one of many actors cast by Universal Pictures in their large film series, Riders of Death Valley. From the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, Williams appeared in supporting roles in a number of A-pictures, sometimes with high billing, such as You Only Live Once, and in Columbia's first Technicolour film The Desperadoes (1943).
Williams was frequently teamed with Alan Hale, Sr. as sidekicks to Errol Flynn in several of his pictures. In 1960, he was cast in the epic film The Alamo and in Home from the Hill with Robert Mitchum. His last role was opposite his close friend John Wayne and Stuart Whitman in The Comancheros.
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Grant Withers (January 17, 1905, Pueblo, Colorado – March 27, 1959, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California), born Granville G. Withers, was a prolific American film actor with a sizeable body of work.
With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into talkies establishing himself with an impressive list of headlined features as a young and handsome male lead.
As his career progressed, his importance diminished, but he did manage a 10-year contract at Republic Pictures. His friendships with both John Ford and John Wayne secured him a spot in nine of Wayne's films, but later roles dwindled to supporting parts, mainly as villains in B-movies, serials, and finally television. He appeared in the late 1950s in two episodes of the syndicated western series 26 Men, set in Arizona, where he had earlier eloped with Loretta Young.
His life in film, five unsuccessful marriages, and a tragic end had all the makings of its own Hollywood drama.
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Sheila Terry (March 5, 1910 – January 19, 1957) was an American film actress. She was born Kay Clark in Warroad, Minnesota. Terry first studied dramatics at Dickson-Kenwin academy, a school affiliated with London's Royal Academy. Later she moved to New York, where she continued her studies and appeared in a number of plays. While appearing on Broadway in The Little Racketeer, she was spotted by an alert film scout and given a test which led to a contract with Warner Bros.
She played in 1930s for Warner Bros. She appeared with John Wayne in the Western films Haunted Gold (1932); Neath the Arizona Skies and The Lawless Frontier (1934). She appeared with Bette Davis, Louis Calhern and Spencer Tracy in 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932). She appeared with Cary Grant and Sylvia Sidney in Marion Gering's film Madame Butterfly (1932). In 1933 she left Hollywood briefly for the New York stage. She married Major Laurence E. Clark, a wealthy Toronto socialite on August 16, 1928. She divorced him February 16, 1934. In 1937, she married William Magee of San Francisco, and retired from show business. After his death, Terry wanted to return to show business, but couldn't find a job.
In 1947, she said in a newspaper-interview: "I'm going back into show business and I need an act, I can't sing, I can't dance and I can't play the piano. I should be terrific in night clubs". She worked as a press agent for 15 years.
In January 1957, her body was discovered in the third floor apartment, which was both her home and office. A friend and neighbour, Jerry Keating, went to the apartment when he failed to reach her on the telephone. The door was locked, and Terry did not answer the bell. Keating called the police; they broke in and found Terry's body on the bedroom floor, her back leaning against the bed. Five capsules, their contents gone, were on the floor beside her.
Friends told the police that she returned from a trip to Mexico a few days before her death and that she was ill when she came home. It was later discovered that she died broke; she left only a scanty wardrobe. She was buried in Potter's Field in New York City.
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Erville Alderson (September 11, 1882, Kansas City, Missouri – August 4, 1957, Glendale, California) was an American film actor. He appeared in nearly 200 films between 1918 and 1957.