We've Never Been Licked

Richard Quine (November 12, 1920 – June 10, 1989) was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director. Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year. His screen acting credits include The World Moves On (1934), Jane Eyre (1934), Babes on Broadway (1941), My Sister Eileen (1942), and Words and Music (1948), among others. At MGM he became friends with Mickey Rooney and later directed several of Rooney's films. During World War II, Quine served in the United States Coast Guard, He married actress Susan Peters in November 1943. After the war, he tried directing, first as co-producer and co-director on Leather Gloves (1948), with William Asher, before his first solo effort on the musical The Sunny Side of the Street (1951). His directing credits include Pushover (1954), My Sister Eileen (1955), Operation Mad Ball (1957), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Strangers When We Meet (1960), and The World of Suzie Wong (1960). He also produced such films as the comedy Paris, When It Sizzles (1964) with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, How to Murder Your Wife (1965) with Jack Lemmon, Synanon (1966), and Hotel (1967). By the late 1960s, his output fell, and in the 1970s, Quine made only a few disappointing films. Turning to television, he had in the 1954-1955 season created with Blake Edwards the first Mickey Rooney series, The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan, which aired on NBC. Quine later directed three episodes of Peter Falk's Columbo, including Dagger Of The Mind, an episode set in Britain which some UK fans of that series regard as an embarrassment. He also worked on, another, much less successful NBC Mystery Movie series, McCoy starring Tony Curtis. His final work was on The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) with Peter Sellers, although he was briefly part of the crew for another Sellers film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), for which he received no credit. His first wife, whom he married on 11 July 1943, was actress Susan Peters, who was crippled from the waist down on a hunting trip with Quine in 1945 when her 22-caliber rifle accidentally discharged. The bullet lodged in her spine. On 17 April 1946, the couple adopted an infant, whom they named Timothy Richard Quine. They divorced in 1948, and she died of the effects of anorexia nervosa in 1952, at age 31. Quine was later engaged to Kim Novak, but the two did not marry. He also married actresses Barbara Bushman (with whom he had two daughters, Katherine and Victoria), Fran Jeffries, and Diana Balfour. After an extended period of depression and poor health, Quine committed suicide by shooting himself in Los Angeles on June 10, 1989. A rifle injury eerily reminiscent of his first wife's hunting accident. Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Quine, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Noah Lindsey Beery (August 10, 1913 – November 1, 1994), known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting roles. His father, Noah Nicholas Beery (known professionally as Noah Beery or Noah Beery, Sr.), enjoyed a similarly lengthy film career as a supporting actor. Beery was best known as James Garner's father, Joseph "Rocky" Rockford, in the 1970s television series The Rockford Files. Description above from the Wikipedia article Noah Beery, Jr., licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

William Frawley was born in Burlington, Iowa. As a boy he sang at St. Paul's Catholic Church and played at the Burlington Opera House. His first job was as a stenographer for the Union Pacific Railroad. He did vaudeville with his brother Paul, then joined pianist Franz Rath in an act they took to San Francisco in 1910. Four years later he formed a light comedy act with his new wife Edna Louise Broedt, "Frawley and Louise", touring the Orpheum and Keith circuits until they divorced in 1927. He next moved to Broadway and then, in 1932, to Hollywood with Paramount. By 1951, when he contacted Lucille Ball about a part in her TV show I Love Lucy (1951), he had performed in over 100 films. His Fred Mertz role lasted until the show ended in 1960, after which he did a five-year stint on My Three Sons (1960). Poor health forced his retirement. He collapsed of a heart attack on March 3, 1966, aged 79, walking along Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a movie. He is buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edgar Barrier (March 4, 1907 - June 20, 1964) was an American actor who appeared on radio, stage, and screen. In the 1930s he was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre and played Simon Templar on The Saint radio show. Barrier was born in New York City and died in Hollywood, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article Edgar Barrier, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum  (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time. Mitchum is largely remembered for his starring roles in several major works of the film noir style, and is considered a forerunner of the anti-heroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Mitchum, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Harold George Bryant Davenport was an American film and stage actor who worked in show business from the age of six until his death. After a long and prolific Broadway career, he came to Hollywood in the 1930s, where he often played grandfathers, judges, doctors, and ministers.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Samuel Southey Hinds (April 4, 1875 – October 13, 1948) was an American actor and former lawyer. He was often cast as kindly authoritarian figures and appeared in over 200 films until his death. Hinds was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Joseph E. Hinds and Mary A. Beetham Hinds. He was a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Harvard Law School and worked for over 32 years as a lawyer before becoming a professional actor. After he lost most of his money in the financial crisis of 1929, Hinds retired as a lawyer and joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He started acting in Broadway shows at age 54. Hinds is perhaps best remembered for playing Peter Bailey, the father of James Stewart and founder of the Bailey Building and Loan, in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and for his part as Paul Sycamore in You Can't Take It With You (1938), both films directed by Frank Capra. Hinds was also known for his roles in the Abbott & Costello films such as Buck Privates (1941), Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942) and Pardon My Sarong (1942). He also portrayed Lew Ayres' father in the Dr. Kildare film series during the early 1940s. Hinds mostly played supporting roles, often kind and dignified authority figures; often lawyers, doctors, mayors, judges or the father of the main figure. Hinds' first film was If I Had a Million (1932); his second film was The Road Is Open Again (1933) where he portrayed President Woodrow Wilson. His earlier career was reflected in the role of Judge Thatcher, tortured by the mad Dr. Richard Vollin (Bela Lugosi) in The Raven (1935). Hinds acted in a total of 214 films. His last film was The Bribe, released in 1949, after his death. Hinds died of pneumonia in Pasadena, California, on October 13, 1948 at age 73. He was married to Dorothy Cruickshack, they had two children.

Although his brand of humor has been reviled for decades, Negro character actor Mantan Moreland parlayed his cocky but jittery character into a recognizable presence in the late 1930s and early 1940s, appearing in a long string of comedy thrillers . . . and was considered quite funny at the time! Born just after the turn of the century in Louisiana, Mantan began running away from home at age 12 to join circuses and medicine shows, only to be brought back time and again. During these times he sharpened his comic skills and developed routines and acts that eventually became popular on the vaudeville stage, or what was then called the "chitlin' circuit." A solo performer by nature, he often teamed up with other famous comics (such as Ben Carter) to keep working, and became a deft performer of "indefinite talk" routines, where two quicksilver comics continually topped each other in mid-sentence, as if reading each other's mind (i.e., "Say, did you see...?" "Saw him just yesterday...didn't look so good"). Mantan's focus gradually shifted his trade toward film, where he initially appeared in servile bits (shoeshine men, porters, waiters). However, his talent for making people laugh couldn't be overlooked and he soon earned featured status in Harlem-styled western parodies and grade "A" comedy films playing the superstitious, ever-terrified manservant running from any kind of impending doom. Moreland's peak in movies came with his recurring role as Birmingham, the skittish chauffeur, in the "Charlie Chan" series, where he was forever forewarning his boss to stay away from an obviously dangerous case or situation. Though haunted mansions were an ideal place for setting off his stereotyped character, Mantan would be haunted in a different way by this Hollywood success in years to follow. By the 1950s, racial attitudes began to change and, with the rise of the civil rights movement, what was once considered hilarious was now interpreted as demeaning and offensive to both blacks and whites. Mantan and others, such as Stepin Fetchit, were ostracized and ridiculed by Hollywood for their past negative portrayals. It took decades for audiences to forgive and newer generations to forget the Depression-era comedy of Mantan Moreland in order for the actor to come back. In the late 1960s he managed a modest resurgence on TV and in commercials and occasional films, allowing him to work again with such comic heavyweights as Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge and director Carl Reiner. It was all too brief, however, for Mantan, long suffering from ill health, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1973, just as he was settling in to his renewed popularity. Today, audiences tend to be kinder and more understanding of Moreland, remembering him as a highly talented comic who, in the only way he knew, broke major barriers and opened the doors for others black actors to follow.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Moroni Olsen (June 27, 1889 – November 22, 1954) was an American actor. Olsen was born in Ogden, Utah, to Mormon parents Edward Arenholt Olsen and Martha Hoverholst, who named him after the Moroni found in the Book of Mormon. Some sources have claimed that Olsen's birth name was John Willard Clawson, but there appears to be no support for this claim. Olsen studied at Weber Stake Academy, the predecessor of Weber State University. He then went to study at the University of Utah, where one of his teachers was Maud May Babcock. During World War I, he sold war bonds for the United States Navy. He also studied and performed in the Eastern United States around this time. In 1923, Olsen organized the "Moroni Olsen Players" out of Ogden. They performed at both Ogden's Orpheum Theatre and at various other locations spread from Salt Lake City to Seattle. After having worked on Broadway, he made his film debut in a 1935 adaptation of The Three Musketeers. He later played a different role in a 1939 comedy version of the story, starring Don Ameche as D'Artagnan and the Ritz Brothers as three dimwitted lackeys who are forced to substitute for the musketeers, who have drunk themselves into a stupor. His most famous role was the voice of the Slave in The Magic Mirror in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Olsen also provided the voice of the senior angel in It's a Wonderful Life. Olsen was an active member of the LDS Church, being a teacher of youth in the Hoolwood Ward. He also was director of the Pilgramage Play of Hollywood for several years.

Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned half a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Charly. On television, he portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 adaptation of Aldrin's autobiographic Return to Earth, played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors, and portrayed Henry Ford in Ford: The Man and the Machine (1987). His last well-known film appearances were as Uncle Ben in the 2002–2007 Spider-Man film trilogy. Description above from the Wikipedia article Cliff Robertson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Paul Langton was an American screen, radio, and television actor best known for his role as Leslie Harrington on the prime time television series Peyton Place (1964-68).