Girls of the Road

Ann Dvorak (born Anna McKim; August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979) was an American stage and film actress. Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told The Literary Digest: "My fake name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent." Dvorak was the daughter and only child of silent film actress Anna Lehr and director Edwin McKim. While in New York, she attended St. Catherine's Convent. After moving to California, she attended Page School for Girls in Hollywood. She made her film debut when she was five years old in the silent film version of Ramona (1916), credited as "Baby Anna Lehr". She continued in children's roles in The Man Hater (1917) and Five Dollar Plate (1920), but then stopped acting in films. Her parents separated in 1916 and divorced in 1920; she did not see her father again until 13 years later, when she made a public plea to the press to help her find him. In the late 1920s, Dvorak worked as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film as a chorus girl. Her friend, actress Karen Morley, introduced her to billionaire movie producer Howard Hughes, who groomed her as a dramatic actress. She was a success in such pre-Code films as Scarface (1932) as Paul Muni's sister; in Three on a Match (1932) with Bette Davis and Joan Blondell as the doomed, unstable Vivian; in The Crowd Roars (1932) with James Cagney; and in Sky Devils (1932) opposite Spencer Tracy. Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Bros. during the 1930s, and appeared in numerous contemporary romances and melodramas. At age 19, Dvorak eloped with Leslie Fenton, her English co-star from The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), and they married on March 17, 1932. They left for a year-long honeymoon in spite of her contractual obligations to the studio, which led to a period of litigation and pay disputes during which she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the boy who played her son in Three on a Match. She completed her contract on permanent suspension, then worked as a freelancer. Although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply. She appeared as secretary Della Street to Donald Woods' Perry Mason in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937). With her then-husband, Leslie Fenton, Dvorak traveled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver and acted in several British films. She appeared as a saloon singer in Abilene Town with Randolph Scott and Edgar Buchanan, released in 1946. The following year she adeptly handled comedy by giving an assured performance in Out of the Blue (1947). In 1948, Dvorak gave her only performance on Broadway in The Respectful Prostitute. Dvorak's marriage to Fenton ended in divorce in 1946. In 1947, she married Igor Dega, a Russian dancer who danced with her briefly in The Bachelor's Daughters. The marriage ended two years later. Dvorak retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her third and last husband, Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1975. She had no children.

Ann Lee Doran (July 28, 1911 – September 19, 2000) was an American character actress, possibly best known as the mother of Jim Stark (James Dean) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She was an early member of the Screen Actors Guild and served on the board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund for 30 years.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mary Field (June 10, 1909 – June 12, 1996) was an American film actress who primarily appeared in supporting roles. She was born in New York City. As a child she never knew her biological parents. During her infancy she was left outside the doors of a church with a note pinned to her saying that her name was "Olivia Rockefeller". She would later be adopted. In 1937, she was signed under contract to Warner Bros. Studios and made her film debut in The Prince and the Pauper (1937). Her other screen credits include parts in such films as Jezebel (1938), Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938), Eternally Yours (1939), When Tomorrow Comes (1939), Broadway Melody of 1940, Ball of Fire (1941), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Ministry of Fear (1944), Dark Angel (1946), Out of the Past(1947), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and Life With Father (1947). During her time in Hollywood she appeared in approximately 103 films. Her TV credits include parts in Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, and The Loretta Young Show. In 1963, her last acting role was as a Roman Catholic nun in the television series, Going My Way, starring Gene Kelly and modeled after the 1944 Bing Crosby film of the same name. She appeared in several episodes of the television comedy, Topper, as Henrietta Topper's friend Thelma Gibney.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Donald T. Beddoe (July 1, 1903 – January 19, 1991) was an American character actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe was the son of Dan Beddoe, a Welsh classical singer, and his wife Mary. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with bachelor's and master's degrees and taught English for three years. After a decade of stage work and bit parts in films, Beddoe began more prominent film roles in the late 1930s. He was usually cast as fast-talking reporters and the like. His commercial acting career was put on hold when he served in World War II in the United States Army Air Corps, in which he performed in the Air Force play, Winged Victory. Beddoe subsequently returned to films playing small character roles. He occasionally appeared in comedy shorts playing comic foils, such as in the Three Stooges shorts Three Sappy People and You Nazty Spy! Beddoe appeared in more than 250 films. Beddoe portrayed Mr. Tolliver in the ABC comedy The Second Hundred Years, and he was in the cast of Life with Father on CBS. He also was seen in dozens of television programs. In the 1950s and 1960s, he made four appearances on Have Gun – Will Travel, three times on Lawman, three on Maverick, three on Laramie, three on Lassie, and three on Perry Mason including in the 1958 episode 'The Case of the Buried Clock'. He was also cast on the western aviation series, Sky King, with Kirby Grant, on the ABC/Warner Brothers series, The Alaskans, with Roger Moore, on the ABC adventure series, Straightaway, with Brian Kelly and John Ashley, and on the NBC western series, The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager. He appeared too on the CBS sitcom, Pete and Gladys, with Harry Morgan and Cara Williams, and on the ABC drama series, Going My Way, with Gene Kelly. He guest starred as well on David Janssen's first series, the crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective. He also made appearances on episodes of The Lone Ranger in the '50s. Beddoe played the outlaw Black Bart in the 1954 episode "Black Bart The PO8" of the western anthology series Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Black Bart is cast as a debonair poetry-writing former school teacher who turns to stagecoach robbery after his first holdup, a prank, pays handsomely. Wells Fargo detectives track him down through a laundry mark. He was also pursued with a romantic interest by his landlady, Winona Webb (Helen Brown). Black Bart spent six years in the penitentiary, never to be heard from again. During the 1970–1971 season of ABC's Nanny and the Professor, Beddoe made four appearances, three as Mr. Thatcher. In 1984, he made his final television appearance as Kris in NBC's Highway to Heaven starring Michael Landon and Victor French.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Howard Charles Hickman (February 9, 1880 – December 31, 1949) was an American actor, director and writer. He was an accomplished stage leading man, who entered films through the auspices of producer Thomas H. Ince. Hickman directed 19 films and co-starred with his wife, actress Bessie Barriscale, in several productions before returning to the theatre. With the rise of the sound film, Hickman returned to the film business but received mostly small roles, often as an authoritarian figure. Hickman made a brief appearance as plantation owner John Wilkes, father of Ashley Wilkes, in Gone with the Wind (1939). He ended his film career in 1944, after more than 270 films. Hickman died of myocardial infarction in San Anselmo, California, and is buried at the Mount Tamalpais Cemetery, San Rafael, California.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Eddie Acuff (June 3, 1908 – December 17, 1956) was an American actor. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in the Blondie movie series that starred Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. Acuff was born Edward DeKalb Acuff in Caruthersville, Missouri. His maternal uncle was a performer on 19th century showboats along the Mississippi River. Before beginning his Hollywood film career in 1934, Acuff performed in Broadway theatre in the early-1930s. His Broadway credits include Jayhawker (1934), Yellow Jack (1934), John Brown (1934), Growing Pains (1933), Heat Lightning (1933), and The Dark Hours (1932). He was seen in three film serials — as Curly in Jungle Girl, as Red Kelly, in Daredevils of the West, and as Spud Warner in Chick Carter Detective. On December 17, 1956, Acuff died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California. He is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Ernie Adams (born Ernest Stephen Dumarais, June 18, 1885 – November 26, 1947) was an American vaudevillian performer, stage and screen actor and writer. Born in San Francisco, California to Leon D. Adams and Laurence G. Girard, he was also billed as Ernest S. Adams and Ernie S. Adams. He appeared in vaudeville, theater, and film. He started his career in musical comedy on Broadway. Along with his wife Berdonna Gilbert, he formed the vaudeville team "Gilbert and Adams". He appeared in more than 400 films starting from the silent era between 1919 and 1948, and was particularly known for playing shady characters. On Broadway, Adams appeared in Toot-Toot! (1918). On November 26, 1947, Adams died of an acute pulmonary edema at the West Olympic Sanitarium in Los Angeles, California, aged 62. He is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ernie Adams (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

James Conaty was an American screen actor whose career spanned from 1928 to his death.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lester Dorr (born Harry Lester Dorr; May 8, 1893 - August 25, 1980) was an American actor who between 1917 and 1975 appeared in well over 500 productions on stage, in feature films and shorts, and in televised plays and weekly series. His extensive filmography attests to his versatility as a supporting actor and reliability as a bit player. Although Dorr's screen roles are at times credited, the great majority of his work is uncredited. Dorr was cast in more than 250 films in just the 1930s alone. Dorr continued to appear regularly in studio productions throughout the 1940s, but with reduced frequency when compared to the preceding decade; nevertheless, he still added more than 140 Hollywood films to his résumé in that decade. His work on the big screen decreased even further in the 1950s as acting opportunities increased on television. He was, though, cast in at least 45 feature films and shorts during the 1950s. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, programming in the rapidly expanding medium of television attracted the talents of many experienced personnel in the film industry, including Dorr. As with his film career, Dorr’s 15 years of being cast in television series consisted predominantly of brief appearances on screen and portraying characters who had relatively few lines. Yet, his characterizations on television, like in films, were highly diverse and can be seen in at least 84 episodes of Westerns, crime and detective series, courtroom and hospital dramas, adventure programs, and sitcoms of the period.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Edward Earle (16 July 1882 – 15 December 1972) was a Canadian-American stage, film and television actor. In a career which lasted from the early 1900s to 1966, he appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956. He was born in Toronto and died in Los Angeles, aged 90.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Cyril Ring (December 5, 1892 – July 17, 1967) was an American film actor. He began his career in silent films in 1921. By the time of his final performance in 1951, he had appeared in over 350 films, almost all in small and/or uncredited parts. He is probably best remembered today for his role as Harvey Yates, a con artist captured and hand-cuffed to fellow con artist Penelope, played by Kay Francis at the very end of the Marx Brothers first film The Cocoanuts (1929).

Harry Strang was an American screen and television actor, his career active from 1929 to 1965.

Collier's acting career started in 1938, when she had a small but credited role in A Desperate Adventure, starring Ramon Novarro and Marian Marsh. From 1940 through 1949, her career would be active and somewhat successful, with her playing mostly heroine roles in B-movies. During that period, she often starred opposite western stars Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, and Dennis Moore. In 1950, she starred in the sci-fi serial The Flying Disc Man from Mars. Collier was sometimes called the Fourth Mesquiteer because seven of Republic Pictures' The Three Mesquiteers movies featured her as the female lead. Collier played Carol in the soap opera Dear John, which ran on CBS in the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning December 6, 1948, she was featured in You, a program on KMGM in Los Angeles, California. In 1949, Collier co-starred in City Desk, a drama about activity in the newsroom of a newspaper. From 1950 through 1957, she starred mostly on television series episodes. She played Mary, the hero's girlfriend and sidekick, in 58 episodes of the television series Boston Blackie, which ran from 1951 to 1954. She retired from acting after 1957.