Preston Foster (August 24, 1900 – July 14, 1970) was an American stage and film actor, and singer. Foster entered films in 1929 after appearing as a Broadway stage actor. He was appearing in Broadway plays as late as October 1931 when he acted in a play titled Two Seconds starring Edward J. Pawley. Some of his notable films include: Doctor X (1932), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Annie Oakley (1935), The Last Days of Pompeii (also 1935), The Informer (1935) (as the head of the organization), and My Friend Flicka (1943).
He starred on the television drama, Waterfront (1954–1955), playing the role of Captain John Herrick. Foster has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was sometimes credited in movies as Preston S. Foster. His first wife was stage actress Gertrude Warren (1926–1945; divorced). He had one daughter, Stephanie. He was married to his second wife, actress Sheila Darcy, from 1946 until his death.
During World War II while serving with the United States Coast Guard, he rose to the rank of Captain, Temporary Reserve. He eventually held the honorary rank of Commodore in the U.S. Coast Guard.
After the war and before his productive movie career, Foster became a singer of some note. In 1948 Foster created a trio with himself, Gene Leis and Foster’s wife, actress Sheila Darcy. Gene arranged the songs, and they played on radio and in clubs, appearing with Orrin Tucker, Peggy Ann Garner and Rita Hayworth.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Preston Foster, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barbara Pepper (born Marion B. Pepper; May 31, 1915 – July 18, 1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress. She is best known as the first "Doris Ziffel" on the sitcom Green Acres. Pepper was born in New York City, the daughter of actor David Mitchell "Dave" Pepper, and his wife, Harrietta S. Pepper. At age 16 she started life in show business with Goldwyn Girls, a musical stock company where she met lifelong friend Lucille Ball.
Pepper began making movies. Among her later film parts were small roles in My Fair Lady and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. She also performed radio parts. In 1943, she married actor Craig Reynolds (né Harold Hugh Enfield), and the couple later had two sons. After Reynolds died in 1949 in a California motorcycle accident, Pepper was left to raise their children alone. She never remarried.
After gaining weight, her roles were mostly confined to small character parts on television, including several appearances on I Love Lucy, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Petticoat Junction, and The Jack Benny Program. She made four appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Martha Dale, mother of the title character, in the 1957 episode "The Case of the Vagabond Vixen".
A long-time friend of Lucille Ball, Barbara was considered for the role of Ethel Mertz on "I Love Lucy," but was passed over due to the fact that she was reportedly a drinker. William Frawley ("Fred Mertz") was, likewise, reportedly, a drinker and was already cast. It was felt that having two drinkers in the cast might eventually cause difficulties so they auditioned and found Vivian Vance to play Ethel instead.
She may be best remembered as the first Doris Ziffel on Petticoat Junction in 1964, although her character's name on the "Genghis Keane" episode of Petticoat Junction was Ruth Ziffel. Her role as Doris Ziffel continued on Green Acres from 1965 to 1968, until heart ailments finally forced her to leave that weekly series. Veteran actress Fran Ryan replaced her on Green Acres, which would continue to run for another three years. Her final performance was in the 1969 film Hook, Line & Sinker, in which she played Jerry Lewis's secretary.
Clarence Hummel Wilson (November 17, 1876 – October 5, 1941) was an American character actor. He appeared in nearly 200 movies between 1920 and 1941, mostly in supporting roles as an old miser or grouch. He had notable supporting roles in films like The Front Page (1931), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), and You Can't Take It With You (1938). Wilson also played in several Our Gang comedies, most notably as Mr. Crutch in Shrimps for a Day and school board chairman Alonzo Pratt in Come Back, Miss Pipps, his final film.
Wilson died on October 5, 1941, approximately three weeks before the release of Come Back, Miss Pipps.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Meeker (March 5, 1904 – August 19, 1984) was an American character movie and Broadway actor who became more of a legend off-camera than on. Meeker made several movies such as Crime, Inc. (1945) and Thief in the Dark (1928), and he played an uncredited part in All Through the Night (1941).
Meeker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edward Russell Hicks (June 4, 1895 – June 1, 1957) was an American film actor.
Born in 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland, Hicks appeared in nearly 300 films between 1915 and 1956. His first appearance was an uncredited role in The Birth of a Nation (1915). He often appeared as a smooth-talking confidence man, as in the W.C. Fields film The Bank Dick (1940). Distinguished, suave and a consummate actor, Hicks played a variety of judges, corrupt officials, businessmen and attorneys, working in a variety of mediums almost until his death. Hicks appeared once in the syndicated western television series The Cisco Kid as an uncle of the Gail Davis character, whom he threatens to disinherit if she marries a known gangster.
He died in Los Angeles, California, from a heart attack.
Thomas E. Jackson (July 4, 1886 – September 7, 1967) was an American stage and screen actor. His 67-year career spanned eight decades and two centuries, during which time he appeared in over a dozen Broadway plays, produced two others, acted in over a 130 films, as well as numerous television shows. He was most frequently credited as Thomas Jackson and occasionally as Tom Jackson or Tommy Jackson.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Thomas Jackson (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wardell Edwin Bond (April 9, 1903 – November 5, 1960) was an American film character actor whose rugged appearance and easygoing charm were featured in more than 200 films, as well as in the NBC television series Wagon Train from 1957 to 1961. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's The Searchers (1956).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wilfred Lucas (January 30, 1871 – December 13, 1940) was a Canadian-born American stage actor who found success in film as an actor, director, and screenwriter.
Wilfred Lucas made his Broadway debut in 1904, playing in both the The Blue Grass Handicap and The Superstition of Sue. Following his 1906 role in the highly successful play The Chorus Lady, he was recruited to the fledgling Biograph Studios by D. W. Griffith.
At the time, the film business was still looked down upon by many members of the theatrical community. In her 1925 book titled When the Movies Were Young, Griffith's wife, actress Linda Arvidson, told the story of the early days at Biograph Studios. In it, she referred to Lucas as the "first real grand actor, democratic enough to work in Biograph movies." In 1908 Lucas made his motion picture debut in Griffith's The Greaser's Gauntlet, appearing in more than 50 of these short (usually 17 minutes) films over the next two years.
In 1910 while still acting, he wrote the script for Griffith's film Sunshine Sue, which was followed by many more scripts by 1924. Lucas also began directing in 1912 with Griffith on An Outcast Among Outcasts, and directed another 44 films over the next 20 years.
In early 1916 he starred as John Carter in Acquitted, about which Photoplay wrote, "No single performance in the records of active photography has surpassed his visualization of the humble book-keeper in Acquitted." Later in 1916 he appeared in D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance.
Part of the group of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, Lucas became friends and sometimes starred with Mary Pickford, Sam De Grasse, and Marie Dressler. Canadian-born director Mack Sennett hired him to both direct and act in a large number of films at his Keystone Studios.
Lucas made the successful transition from silent film to sound. While working in Hollywood, in 1926 he returned to the stage, performing in several Broadway plays. He later appeared as a foil for Laurel and Hardy in their feature films Pardon Us and A Chump at Oxford.
During his long career, Wilfred Lucas appeared in more than 375 films. Although for a time he was cast in leading roles, he became very successful as secondary and minor characters, making a good living in the film industry for more than three decades.