Third Finger, Left Hand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her successful pairing with William Powell resulted in 14 films together, including five subsequent Thin Man films. Although Loy was never nominated for a competitive Academy Award, in March 1991 she was presented with an Honorary Academy Award with the inscription "In recognition of her extraordinary qualities both on screen and off, with appreciation for a lifetime's worth of indelible performances." During World War II, Loy served as assistant to the director of military and naval welfare for the Red Cross. She was later appointed a member-at-large of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO. Her acting career by no means ended in the 1940s. She continued to actively pursue stage and television appearances in addition to films in subsequent decades.

Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the 1939 romantic comedy Ninotchka with Greta Garbo. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award–winning performances in Hud (1963) and Being There (1979) and his Academy Award–nominated performance in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). In the last few years of his life Douglas appeared in films with supernatural stories involving ghosts. Douglas appeared as "Senator Joseph Carmichael" in The Changeling in 1980 and Ghost Story in 1981 in his final completed film role. Description above from the Wikipedia article Melvyn Douglas, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Lee Bowman (December 28, 1914 – December 25, 1979) was an American film and television actor. According to one obituary, "his roles ranged from romantic lead to worldly, wisecracking lout in his most famous years".

Daughter of Bernard 'Bunny' Granville and Rosina Timponi, Bonita Granville was born into an acting family on 2 Febuary 1923, in New York, New York. It's not surprising that she herself became a child actor, first on the stage and, at the age of 9, debuting in movies in Westward Passage (1932). She was regularly cast as a naughty little girl, as in These Three (1936) where she played Mary, an obnoxious girl spreading lies about her teachers. Her performance left an impression on the audience, and she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award. In 1938-39 came the movies she is now best remembered for -- playing the bright and feisty detective/reporter Nancy Drew in the Nancy Drew series. She also appeared with Mickey Rooney in a few Andy Hardy movies. She never really had a movie breakthrough, and after marrying oil millionaire and later producer Jack Wrather, she retired from acting in the middle of the 1950s, although she went on to produce the Lassie (1954) TV series. After her marriage to oil millionaire Jack Wrather in 1947, she appeared in only three more movies. She became an executive in the Wrather Corp., and first associate producer, then executive producer of the Lassie (1954) TV series. After Wrather's death in 1984, she took over as chairman of the board. She was also involved in many civic and cultural groups, and she was chair of American Film Institute, trustee of John F. Kennedy Center, as well as other well known organizations and charities. Walt Disney personally convinced the Wrathers to build the Disneyland Hotel when Disney could not raise the money to do so -- his credit was all tied up in building the theme park itself. After the phenomenal success of Disneyland, Disney attempted to buy the hotel; but the Wrathers steadfastly refused to sell. Long after Jack and Bonita Wrather's and Walt Disney's deaths, the Disney Company bought the Wrather Corporation. The Disney Company thus acquired the Disneyland Hotel, the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attractions in Long Beach, California, the rights to The Lone Ranger (1949) TV series, as well as other properties. Bonita Granville Rather died of cancer on 11 October 1988, in Santa Monica, California. She and Wrather had four children (two from Wrather's first marriage).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Felix Bressart (March 2, 1892 – March 17, 1949) was a German-American actor of stage and screen. Felix Bressart (pronounced "BRESS-ert") was born in East Prussia, Germany (now part of Russia) and was already a very experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1928. He started off as a supporting actor, e.g. as the Bailiff in the box-office hit Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930), but had soon established himself in leading roles of minor movies. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Jewish-born Bressart had to leave Germany and continued his career in German-speaking movies in Austria, where Jewish artists were still relatively safe. After no fewer than 30 films in eight years, he emigrated to the United States. One of Bressart's former European colleagues was Joe Pasternak, now a successful Hollywood producer. Bressart's first American film was Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), a vehicle for Universal Pictures' top attraction, Deanna Durbin. Pasternak also selected the reliable Bressart to perform in a screen test opposite Pasternak's newest discovery, Gloria Jean. The influential German community in Hollywood helped to establish Bressart in America, as his earliest American movies were directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Henry Koster, and Wilhelm Thiele (director of Die Drei von der Tankstelle). Bressart scored a great success in Lubitsch's Ninotchka, produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM signed Bressart to a studio contract in 1939. Most of his MGM work consisted of featured roles in major films like Edison, the Man. He combined his mildly inflected East European accent with a soft-spoken delivery to create kindly, friendly characters, as in Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be, in which he sensitively recites Shylock's famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech from The Merchant of Venice. Lubitsch also directed Bressart to similar effect in The Shop Around the Corner. Bressart soon became a popular character actor in films like Blossoms in the Dust (1941), The Seventh Cross (1944), and Without Love (1945). Perhaps his largest role was in RKO Radio Pictures' "B" musical comedy Ding Dong Williams, filmed in 1945. Bressart, billed third, played the bemused supervisor of a movie studio's music department, and appeared in formal wear to conduct Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu." After almost 40 Hollywood pictures, Felix Bressart suddenly died of leukemia at the age of 57. His last film was My Friend Irma (1949), the movie version of a popular radio show. Bressart died during production, forcing the producers to finish the film with Hans Conried. In the final film, Conried speaks throughout, but Bressart is still seen in the long shots. Description above from the Wikipedia article Felix Bressart, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.    

Thomas Donald Meek (14 July 1878 – 18 November 1946) was a Scottish-American actor. He first performed publicly at the age of eight and began appearing on Broadway in 1903. Meek is perhaps best known for his roles in the films You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Stagecoach (1939). He posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Meek was born in Glasgow to Matthew and Annie Meek. In the 1890s, the Meek family emigrated to Canada and then to the United States. By 1900, they were living in Philadelphia where Meek was employed as a dry goods salesman, according to the United States census of that year with Meek later working on stage. After years on the stage, Meek became a film actor, appearing memorably in several movies including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Miss Broadway, and State Fair. Before becoming an actor, he fought in the Spanish–American War in the United States Army and contracted yellow fever which caused him to lose his hair. He was cast as timid, worried characters in many of his films, and is perhaps best known for his roles as Mr. Poppins in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You and as whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock in John Ford's Stagecoach. From 1931 through 1932, Meek was featured as criminologist Dr. Crabtree in a series of 12 Warner Brothers two-reel short subjects written by S.S. Van Dine. Meek and Isabella "Belle" Walken married in Boston in a Methodist church on January 3, 1909. By this marriage, the American-born Belle Meek lost her United States citizenship by taking her husband's British nationality. Donald Meek died of leukaemia on 18 November 1946 in Los Angeles, while filming the role of Mr. Twiddle in Magic Town. A prolific film actor in over 100 Hollywood movies during its Golden Age, he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was entombed in the Fairmount Mausoleum at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Sidney Alderman Blackmer (13 July 1895 – 6 October 1973) was an American actor. Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately decided to go into acting. Blackmer went to New York hoping to act on the stage. While in the city, he took jobs and extra work at various film studios at the then motion picture capital, Fort Lee, New Jersey, including a bit part in the highly popular serial, The Perils of Pauline (1914). He made his Broadway debut in 1917, but his career was interrupted by service in the U.S. military in World War I. After the war, he returned to the theatre and in 1929 returned to motion pictures and went on to be a major character actor in more than 120 films. He won the 1950 Tony Award for Best Actor (Drama) for his role in the Broadway play, Come Back, Little Sheba. In film, Blackmer is remembered for his more than a dozen portrayals of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and for his role in the Academy Award-winning 1968 Roman Polanski film about urban New York witches, Rosemary's Baby, in which he played an over-solicitous neighbor. A humanitarian, Blackmer served as the national vice president of the United States Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 1972, he was honored with the North Carolina Award in the Fine Arts category. It is the state of North Carolina's highest civilian award. On his passing in 1973, Blackmer was interred in the Chestnut Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sidney Blackmer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 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.

Jeff Corey (August 10, 1914 – August 16, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor and director who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.

Milton Kibbee (born Milne Bryan Kibbee) was an American screen actor. He appeared in over 360 films from 1933 to 1953. His older brother was popular character actor Guy Kibbee.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia May McAvoy (September 8, 1899 – April 26, 1984) was an American actress who worked mainly during the silent film era. Some of her major roles are Laura Pennington in The Enchanted Cottage, Esther in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, and Mary Dale in The Jazz Singer. McAvoy appeared in her first film, entitled Hate, in 1917. After appearing in more than three dozen films, she co-starred with Ramón Novarro and Francis X. Bushman in director Fred Niblo's 1925 production of Ben-Hur, released by MGM. The feature-length film was one of the most lavish and spectacular productions of the silent movie era. Although her voice was not heard in The Jazz Singer, McAvoy did speak in several other films, including the second "all-talkie" released by Warner Brothers, The Terror, which was directed by Roy Del Ruth and co-starred Conrad Nagel. For years a rumor circulated that McAvoy retired from the screen at the transition to sound films because of a lisp or speech impediment. In truth, she married the treasurer of United Artists, who asked her not to work. Later, she returned to films and played small roles during the 1940s and 1950s, making her final film appearance in a small part in the 1959 version of Ben-Hur.

Gaunt-looking American character actor Frank McGlynn Sr. is best remembered for his many portrayals in 1930s and 1940s historical films of US President Abraham Lincoln. McGlynn began performing on stage in 1896. Prior to that, he had been a practicing lawyer, a graduate of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

William Bailey was born on September 26, 1886 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA as Gordon Reineck. He was an actor and director, known for On Dangerous Ground (1917), The Penitent (1912) and Hilda Wakes (1913). He was married to Alethia Hamilton Fadden, Mary Florence Cannon and Polly Vann. He died on November 8, 1962 in Hollywood, California, USA.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Barbara Bedford (born Violet May Rose; July 19, 1903 – October 25, 1981) was an American actress who appeared in dozens of silent movies. Her career declined after the introduction of sound, but she continued to appear in small roles until 1945. After high school she set out for Hollywood. She had written many fan letters to actor William S. Hart, and he helped her get a small role in his 1920 movie The Cradle of Courage. While working as an extra that same year on The White Circle, she was noticed by fellow cast member John Gilbert, who recommended her to director Maurice Tourneur. Tourneur cast her alongside Gilbert in Deep Waters. Tourneur also cast her in The Last of the Mohicans, where she was the love interest for Alan Roscoe, whom she later married in real life. In 1925 she appeared opposite Hart in his final film, Tumbleweeds, a key western of the silent period. She starred in the 1926 silent film Old Loves and New and in Mockery with Lon Chaney the following year. When her career declined after the switch to sound, she signed with MGM in 1936 to play bit and extra parts. Her last known film appearance was in 1945.

Brooks Benedict (born Harold J. Mann, February 6, 1896 – January 1, 1968) was an American actor of the silent and sound film era, where he played supporting and utility roles in over 300 films, mostly uncredited.

From Wikipedia Maurice George Costello (February 22, 1877 – October 29, 1950) was an American prominent vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s, who later played a principal role in early American films, as both a leading man, supporting player and a director. Costello was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants Ellen and Thomas Costello. He appeared in his first motion picture in 1905, in which he had the honour of appearing in the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes in the movie Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which Costello played the title role. He continued to work for Vitagraph, being a member of the first motion picture stock company ever formed, playing opposite Florence Turner. Among some of his best known pictures are A Tale of Two Cities, The Man Who Couldn't Beat God and For the Honor of the Family. After an absence of some years he returned to the screen. He was married to actress Mae Costello (née Altschuk). His descendants include two daughters, actresses Dolores Costello and Helene Costello, a grandson John Drew Barrymore, and a great granddaughter Drew Barrymore. He was one of the world's first leading men in early American cinema, but like a lot of other silent screen stars, he found the transition to "talkies" extremely difficult, and his leading man status was over. However, Costello was a trouper, and continued to appear in movies, often in small roles and bit parts, right up until his death in 1950.

Edna Holland (September 20, 1895 – May 4, 1982) was an American actress.

Frank McLure was born on July 14, 1893 in Mobile, Alabama. He was an actor, known for Citizen Kane (1941), Notorious (1946) and His Girl Friday (1940). He died on January 23, 1960 in Los Angeles, California.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jack Mulhall, born John Joseph Francis Mulhall, (October 7, 1887 in Wappingers Falls, New York – June 1, 1979 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California) was a movie actor since the silent film era and appeared in over 430 films. Reputedly, he was one of a number of male models(Fredric March & Reed Howes were two others) for the Arrow Collar Man in the Arrow collar ads illustrated by J. C. Leyendecker for the Cluett Peabody shirt company. Died from congestive heart failure. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack Mulhall, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Forbes Murray was born on November 4, 1884 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada as Murray Forbes Barnard. He was an actor, known for A Chump at Oxford (1940), Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride (1940) and The Spider's Web (1938). He died on November 18, 1982 in Douglas County, Oregon, USA.

Frank O'Connor was an American screen and television actor, as well as a director, screenwriter, and producer. His lengthy film acting career began in 1915.

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).

Tim Ryan was an American performer who is probably best known today as a film actor. Ryan and his wife, Irene who later played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, were a show business team that performed on Broadway, film and radio. They made some short films for Educational Pictures in the mid-1930s based on their vaudeville act. They were married from 1922 to 1942. Even after their divorce in 1942, the couple occasionally worked together. In the 1940s, Ryan found opportunities at Monogram Pictures where he acted in films as well as wrote screenplays. In films of the 1940s and the early 1950s, Ryan appeared on screen playing numerous roles as cops, newspaper editors and detectives.

Gertrude Simpson was born on February 16, 1890 in Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Jungle Bride (1933), Happy Landing (1934) and Half a Sinner (1934). She was married to Russell Simpson. She died on July 23, 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dorothy Vernon (November 11, 1875 – October 28, 1970) was a German-born American film actress. Born Dorothy Baird, she appeared in 131 films between 1919 and 1956. She died in Granada Hills, California from heart disease, aged 94. Her son was actor and entertainer Bobby Vernon.

From Wikipedia Lloyd Whitlock (January 2, 1891 – January 8, 1966) was an American actor. He appeared in 199 films between 1916 and 1949.