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Stanley Clements (July 16, 1926 – October 16, 1981) was an American actor and comedian.
Stanley Clements was born Stanislaw Klimowicz in Long Island, New York. Young Stan realized that he wanted a show-business career while he was in grammar school, and when he graduated from college he toured in vaudeville for two years. He then joined the touring company of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour. In 1941, he was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox and appeared in several B films for the studio.
After a short stint with the East Side Kids, he set out on his own again, this time landing roles in more prestigious pictures. He was featured in the Bing Crosby hit Going My Way, and scored a great success as a jockey in the Alan Ladd feature Salty O'Rourke. His career was interrupted by military service in World War II, and when he returned, he began appearing in lower-budgeted films, including Johnny Holiday (cast against type as a psychopath). He starred in a series of action/detective pictures at Allied Artists for producer Ben Schwalb and director Edward Bernds.
Schwalb soon became staff producer for The Bowery Boys, and when he needed a replacement for Leo Gorcey in 1956, he asked Clements to step in. Clements comfortably settled into the role of Huntz Hall's sidekick, beginning with Fighting Trouble, and co-starred in the final seven Bowery Boys comedies.
The series finally ended in 1958, and Clements went on to a steady career of supporting roles in film and TV until his death from emphysema in 1981. One of his last jobs was an appearance in a nationally advertised commercial for Pringle's potato chips.
Stanley Clements died of emphysema in Pasadena, California, and is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.
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Darryl Hickman (July 28, 1931 - May 21, 2024) emerged as a prominent American actor whose career transitioned from childhood stardom to adult roles. Starting in the industry at a young age, he showcased his talent in notable films like "The Grapes of Wrath" and "The Human Comedy." Hickman's versatility allowed him to navigate between acting and later, directing, contributing to television shows such as "The Wonderful World of Disney" and "Gunsmoke." His passion for the craft extended to writing, publishing insightful books on the entertainment business and being an acting coach. Hickman's enduring career spanned decades, marking him not only as a seasoned performer but also as a multifaceted contributor to the entertainment world.
Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer was born on August 7, 1927 in Paris, Illinois, USA as Carl Dean Switzer. He was an actor, known for The Defiant Ones (1958), Our Gang Follies of 1938(1937) and I Love You Again (1940). He was married to Dian Collingwood. He died on January 21, 1959 in Mission Hills, California, USA.
Thomas Ross "Tommy" Bond was an American actor. A native of Dallas, Texas, Bond was best known for his work as a child actor for two different nonconsecutive periods on Our Gang (Little Rascals) comedies, and also for being the first actor to portray the role of "Superman's pal" Jimmy Olsen on screen.
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Vince Barnett (July 4, 1902 – August 10, 1977) was an American film and television actor. He appeared on stage originally.
Barnett's initial involvement with Hollywood was as a screenwriter, writing screenplays for the two-reeler movies of the late 1920s. He began appearing in films in 1930, playing hundreds of comedy bits and supporting parts. One of his more sizable screen roles was the moronic, illiterate gangster "secretary" in Scarface (1932). Among his best-regarded early roles, apart from Scarface, were The Big Cage (1933), Thirty Day Princess (1934) and Princess O'Hara (1935).
In later years, Barnett played straight character parts, often as careworn little men, undertakers, janitors, bartenders and drunks in pictures ranging from films noir (The Killers, 1946) to westerns (Springfield Rifle, 1952). He was a welcome presence in "B" comedies and mysteries: as Runyonesque gangsters in Petticoat Larceny (1943), Little Miss Broadway (1947), and Gas House Kids Go West (1947), and notably as Tom Conway's enthusiastic sidekick in The Falcon's Alibi (1946).
After World War II, with the Hollywood studios making fewer films, Barnett became a familiar face on television.
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Charles Arnt (August 20, 1906 – August 6, 1990) was an American film actor from 1933 to 1962.
Arnt was born in Michigan City, Indiana, the son of a banker. He graduated from Phillips Academy and Princeton University. While at Princeton, he helped to found the University Playes and was president of the Princeton Triangle Club theatrical troupe. He became a banker after he graduated from college.
In the early 1930s, Arnt acted with the University Repertory Theater in Maryland. On Broadway, he appeared in Carry Nation (1932), Three Waltzes (1937), and Knickerbocker Holiday (1938).
Arnt appeared as a character actor in more than 200 films.
In 1962, Arnt retired from acting and began to import and breed Charolais cattle on a ranch in Washington state.
Arnt died in Orcas Island, Washington from pancreatic and liver cancer. He was survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, and four grandchildren.
Lane Chandler (1899–1972) was an American actor specializing in Westerns.
In the early 1920s he moved to Los Angeles, California, and started working as an auto mechanic. His real-life experiences growing up on a horse ranch landed him bit parts in westerns from 1925, for Paramount Pictures. Studio executives suggested changing his name to Lane Chandler, and as such he began achieving leading roles, the first being The Legion of the Condemned.
As a silent film star Chandler performed well, but when talkies arrived he was cast more in supporting roles, as in The Great Mike of 1944. He starred in a few low-budget westerns in the 1930s, but was more often cast as the leading man's partner, or saddle pal, or a sheriff or army officer. With the advent of television Chandler began making appearance on numerous series, often in Westerns such as The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Lawman, Have Gun – Will Travel, Rawhide, Maverick, Cheyenne, and Gunsmoke. He continued acting on TV and in films through 1966.
He died in Los Angeles of heart disease in 1972, aged 73.
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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.
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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.
Leading man in silent films until mid to late 1920s when Farnum transitioned to a character actor. Then later in life he remained in the film business as a paid extra in many films and TV shows.
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Mary Gordon (born Mary Gilmour, 16 May 1882 – 23 August 1963) was a Scottish actress, long in the United States, who mainly played housekeepers and mothers, most notably the landlady Mrs. Hudson in the Sherlock Holmes series of movies of the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Her body of work included nearly 300 films between 1925 and 1950. With her mother and daughter (both also named Mary), she arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1920s and began playing variations on the roles she would spend her career on. She became friends with John Ford while making Hangman's House in 1928 and made seven more films with him. In 1939, she took on her best-remembered role as Sherlock Holmes' landlady and played the role in ten films and numerous radio plays. She was a charter member of the Hollywood Canteen, entertaining servicemen throughout the Second World War. On the radio show Those We Love, she played the regular role of Mrs. Emmett.
She entered retirement just as television reshaped the entertainment industry, making only a single appearance in that medium.
She was active in the Daughters of Scotia auxiliary of the Order of Scottish Clans.
She lived out her final years in Pasadena, California with her daughter and grandson. She died at age 81 on 23 August 1963 in Pasadena, California after a long illness.
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.
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Richard Keene was born on September 16, 1899 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Happy Days (1929), Yours Sincerely (1933) and Her Golden Calf (1930). He died on March 11, 1971 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
Charles Cahill Wilson (July 29, 1894 – January 7, 1948) was an American screen and stage actor. He appeared in numerous films during the Golden Age of Hollywood from the late 1920s to late 1940s. Born in New York City in 1894, the white-haired, burly actor was often typecast as an earnest police officer, newspaper editor or principal. He appeared in over 250 films between 1928 and 1948, mostly playing small supporting roles with a few sentences. Charles Wilson began his acting career at the theatre, including roles in six Broadway plays between 1918 and 1931. In 1928, he directed the Hollywood comedy Lucky Boy (1928), where he also made his film debut. According to the Internet Movie Database, Lucky Boy was Wilson's only film as a director.
His most notable role was probably Clark Gable's "wonderfully aggravated" newspaper boss in Frank Capra's comedy It Happened One Night, which won five Academy Awards in 1935. He was also cast in small roles in other Capra movies such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Shortly before his death, Wilson appeared as the boss of the Three Stooges in the two-reel comedy Crime on Their Hands (1948).