Room for One More

Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986) was an English-born American actor, known as one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. He was known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. Grant was born in Horfield, Bristol. He became attracted to theater at a young age and began performing with a troupe known as "The Penders" at age six. At the age of 16, he went as a stage performer with the Pender Troupe for a tour of the US. After a series of successful performances in New York City, he decided to stay there. He established a name for himself in vaudeville in the 1920s and toured the United States before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s. Grant initially appeared in crime films or dramas such as Blonde Venus (1932) with Marlene Dietrich and She Done Him Wrong (1933) with Mae West, but later gained renown for his performances in romantic and screwball comedies such as The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne, Bringing Up Baby (1938) with Katharine Hepburn, His Girl Friday (1940) and The Philadelphia Story (1940) with Hepburn and James Stewart, often with some of the biggest female stars of the day. These films are frequently cited among the greatest comedy films of all time. Other well-known films in which he starred in this period were the adventure Gunga Din (1939) and the dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). He also began to move into dramas such as Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Penny Serenade (1941) and Clifford Odets' None but the Lonely Heart (1944); he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the latter two. During the 1940s and 1950s, Grant developed a close working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast the popular actor in several of his critically acclaimed films, including Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). The suspense-dramas Suspicion and Notorious both involved Grant showing a darker, more ambiguous nature in his characters. Toward the end of his film career, Grant was praised by critics as a romantic leading man, and he received five nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, including Indiscreet (1958) with Ingrid Bergman, That Touch of Mink (1962) with Doris Day, and Charade (1963) with Audrey Hepburn. He is remembered by critics for his unusually broad appeal as a handsome, suave actor who did not take himself too seriously, able to play with his own dignity in comedies without sacrificing it entirely. Description above from the Wikipedia article Cary Grant, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Betsy Drake (September 11, 1923 – October 27, 2015) was a French-born American actress and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant. She began looking for work as an actress in New York City, supporting herself by working as a Conover model. She met the playwright Horton Foote, who offered her a job as an understudy in his play Only the Heart, which enabled her to join the Actors' Equity Association and thus become a professional actress. After coming to the attention of the producer Hal Wallis, Drake was pressured by her agent to sign a Hollywood contract. She hated Hollywood and managed to get herself released from the contract by declaring herself insane. She returned to New York City and, in 1947, read for the director Elia Kazan for the lead role in the London company of the play Deep Are the Roots. Later that year, Drake was selected by Kazan as one of the founding members of the Actors Studio. Cary Grant first spotted her in 1947 while she was performing in London. The two, who both happened to be returning to the U.S. on the RMS Queen Mary, struck up an instant rapport. At the insistence of Grant, Drake was subsequently signed to a film contract by RKO Pictures and David Selznick, where she appeared, opposite Grant, in her first film, the romantic comedy Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called her performance “foxily amusing”. On Christmas Day 1949, Drake and Grant married in a private ceremony organized by Grant's best man, Howard Hughes, and deliberately chose a low-key, introspective private life. They delved into transcendentalism, mysticism, and yoga. She took up causes including the plight of homeless children in Los Angeles. In 1954, they bought the "Las Palomas" estate in the Movie Colony neighborhood of Palm Springs, California. The couple co-starred in the radio series Mr. and Mrs. Blanding (1951). They appeared together in the comedy-drama Room for One More (1952), and Drake appeared in a number of leading roles in England and the U.S., and a supporting role in the satiric comedy film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Drake subsequently gave up acting to focus on her other interests, such as writing. Under the name Betsy Drake Grant, her novel Children, You Are Very Little (1971) was published by Atheneum Books. She worked as a volunteer and studied at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, and earned a Master of Education degree from Harvard University. Drake's last screen appearance was in the documentary film Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2005), in which she reflected on Grant and their time together, and denied rumors alleging he was bisexual. Description above from the Wikipedia article Betsy Drake, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Lurene Tuttle (August 29, 1907, Pleasant Lake, Indiana - May 28, 1986, Encino, California) was a character actress, who made transitions from vaudeville to radio, to films and television. Her most enduring impact was as one of network radio's most versatile actresses. Often appearing in 15 shows a week, comedies, dramas, thrillers, soap operas, and crime dramas, and she became known as the First Lady of Radio. Heaven Only Knows (1947) was her first film. She went on to roles in other films such as Orson Welles's Macbeth (1948), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), as the wife of Sheriff Chambers. In Don't Bother to Knock (1952) she portrayed a mother who lets a disturbed Marilyn Monroe babysit her daughter. The next year she appeared again with Marilyn in Niagara, as Mrs. Kettering. She had a rare starring role in Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960). She played Grandma Pusser in the original Walking Tall film trilogy, and also appeared in horror films such as The Manitou (1978), starring Tony Curtis. Her final film role was in the 1983 film Testament. Tuttle became a familiar face to millions of television viewers with more than 100 appearances from 1950 to 1986, often in the role of an inquisitive busybody. On television and in films, Tuttle streamlined herself into a pattern of roles between wise, loving wives/mothers or bristling matrons. She was familiar to the early television audience as wife/mother Lavinia (Vinnie) Day in Life with Father (1953–1955). Columnist Hedda Hopper called the selection of Leon Ames as Father and Tuttle as Mother "what I consider 22 carat casting with two all-Americans." Description above from the Wikipedia article Lurene Tuttle, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Randy Stuart, born as Elizabeth Shaubell (October 24, 1924 – July 20, 1996), was an American actress in film and television. A familiar face in several popular films of the 1940s and 1950s, and later in Western-themed television series, she is perhaps best remembered as Louise Carey, the wife of Scott Carey, played by Grant Williams, in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), a science-fiction classic named in 2009 as “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to be preserved for all time in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. A screen test in the play The Women led to Stuart being placed under contract at 20th Century Fox. Her film debut was uncredited in the 1947 picture, The Foxes of Harrow. Stuart plays the birth mother of main character Stephen Fox, in the film's initial scene. In 1948, she played Peggy, a knowing secretary (and collaborator with star Clifton Webb) in the comedy Sitting Pretty. She also appeared that year (sixth-billed) as the wife of a returning veteran in Apartment for Peggy with William Holden and Jeanne Crain. In 1949, she portrayed Lieutenant Eloise Billings, an object of desire for Cary Grant, in the Howard Hawks film I Was a Male War Bride, also starring Ann Sheridan. That same year, she appeared opposite Jose Ferrer in Otto Preminger's psychological noir, Whirlpool. Stuart was billed on posters as a supporting player in the comedy / musical Dancing in the Dark, starring William Powell and Betsy Drake. In 1950, Stuart was briefly in that year's Best Picture, All About Eve, as a telephone friend of Anne Baxter. She had fourth billing in the noir comedy Stella, with Ann Sheridan and Victor Mature. In 1951, she appeared as Marge Boyd in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, in what might have been her breakout role. In 1952, Stuart teamed again with Grant and Drake in the comedy Room for One More for Warner Bros. After 1957's Incredible Shrinking Man, she was cast as Nancy Dawson in the 1958 western film, Man from God's Country, starring George Montgomery. She also guest-starred about that time in Montgomery's short-lived television western television series, Cimarron City.

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Ridgely (born John Huntington Rea, September 6, 1909 – January 18, 1968) was an American film character actor with over 175 film credits. He appeared in the 1946 Humphrey Bogart film The Big Sleep as blackmailing gangster Eddie Mars and had a memorable role as a suffering heart patient in the film noir Nora Prentiss (1947). He appeared in a large number of other Warner Bros. films in the 1930s and 1940s. Freelancing after 1948, John Ridgely continued to essay general-purpose parts until he left films in 1953. Thereafter, he worked in summer-theater productions and television until his death from a heart attack at the age of 58 in 1968.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Irving Bacon (September 6, 1893 – February 5, 1965) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 500 films. Bacon played on the stage for a number of years before getting into films in 1920. He was sometimes cast in films directed by Lloyd Bacon (incorrectly named as his brother in some sources) such as The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). He often played comical "average guys". In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he played the weary postman Mr. Crumb in Columbia Pictures' Blondie film series. One of his bigger roles was as a similarly flustered postman in the thriller Cause for Alarm! in 1952. During the 1950s, Bacon worked steadily in a number of television sitcoms, most notably I Love Lucy, where he appeared in two episodes, one which cast him as Ethel Mertz's father.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Mary Treen (born Mary Louise Summers, March 27, 1907 – July 20, 1989) was an American film and television actress, a familiar face who brought levity to the screen. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in the Hollywood of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Early years She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of attorney Don. C. Summers and actress Helene Sullivan Summers. In 1908, when Mary Louise was 11 months old, her mother sued her father for divorce on the grounds that he failed to provide for her. Her father died while she was an infant. She was reared in California by her mother and her stepfather, a physician. Treen attended the Westlake School for Girls and a convent where she tried out successfully in school plays. Career During her career, Treen was seen in over 40 films. Among her film roles were Tilly, the secretary of the Building and Loan, in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and the role of Pat in the drama Kitty Foyle (1940) starring Ginger Rogers. Her longest-running role was as Hilda, the maid and baby nurse, in 64 episodes from 1962 to 1965 of the NBC and CBS sitcom The Joey Bishop Show. Earlier, in the 1954–1955 season, she was cast in thirty-eight episodes as Emily Dodger on the CBS sitcom Willy. Death Treen died of cancer in Newport Beach, California, July 20, 1989. She was 82. Her only survivors were distant cousins. One of her cousins was actor Mort Mills.

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.

Character actor with a wildly distinctive face. Used real name Oliver Prickett for stage work, especially at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he was a longtime fixture and teacher and where his brother was managing director. Used stage name Oliver Blake for scores of small film and television roles. Brother-in-law of actress Maudie Prickett. He died on 12 February 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lillian Bronson (October 21, 1902 - August 2, 1995) was an American character actress. She performed in over 80 films, 60 of the films from 1939 to 1964, and appeared in over one hundred television productions from 1949 to 1975. Bronson was born Lillian Rumsey Bronson in Lockport, New York, the daughter of a carriage builder, and attended the University of Michigan. She began her artistic career by performing plays at Broadway. During the Great Depression, Bronson and her late sister, Dorothy, opened the Bronson Studio in New York, designing and making toy animals and pillows. In 1943, Bronson appeared in the movie Happy Land as Mattie Dyer and on television in the episode "The Druid Circle" of The Philco Television Playhouse, that aired on March 6, 1949, in the role of Miss Dagnall. She then appeared in a long series of minor characters for many television series episodes from the early days of television until the mid-1970s, including many western genres. She became widely known for her role as the grandmother in the Kings Row television series. Bronson's final appearance on the small screen was as "Grandma Nussbaum", Fonzie's grandmother, in the episode "Fonzie Moves In" of the ABC-TV sitcom series Happy Days, which aired on September 9, 1975. Her final big screen appearance was in the film Kisses for My President (1964), in which she plays the part of Miss Currier.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Frank S. Ferguson (born December 25, 1899, Ferndale, California – died September 12, 1978, Los Angeles) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Ferguson's best known role was as the Swedish ranch handyman, Gus Broeberg, on the CBS television series, My Friend Flicka, based on a novel of the same name. He appeared with Gene Evans, Johnny Washbrook and Anita Louise. At this time, Ferguson also portrayed the Calverton veterinarian in the first several seasons of CBS's Lassie. He made his film debut in 1939 in Gambling on the High Seas (released in 1940), and appeared in nearly 200 feature films and hundreds of TV episodes subsequently. Film appearances include: McDougal's House of Horrors (1948), Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair 1952. Television series appearances include The Pride of the Family, The Andy Griffith Show, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Peyton Place and Perry Mason. Ferguson died in Los Angeles of cancer on September 12, 1978.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert William "Dabbs" Greer (April 2, 1917 – April 28, 2007) was an American actor who performed many diverse supporting roles in film and television for over 50 years. His distinctive voice and southern accent was a good fit for shows featuring rustic characters, especially westerns. He also was portrayed on other shows as a minister, and is probably best remembered as the Reverend Robert Alden in NBC's Little House on the Prairie. Earlier, Greer had a recurring role as Coach Ossie Weiss in the NBC sitcom Hank.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Barry Norton (born Alfredo Carlos Birabén; June 16, 1905 – August 24, 1956) was an Argentinian-American actor. He appeared in over 90 films, starting in silent films from 1925 until his death in 1956. He is perhaps best known for his role as Juan Harker in Universal Pictures' Spanish-language version of Drácula in 1931, the English language role of Jonathan Harker originated by David Manners. Arriving in Hollywood in the 1920s, Norton first appeared as an extra in The Black Pirate (1926) but was soon cast in Fox Films' The Lily that same year. His big break came when he was given the role of Pvt. "Mother's Boy" Lewisohn in What Price Glory?, which turned out to be a huge commercial success. He landed substantial roles in Legion of the Condemned and 4 Devils (both 1928), which were also very successful. His acting was well received by audiences and critics at the time, and during the silent era he avoided being typecast as a Latin lover. One theater owner in Golden City, Montana said, "[Norton] has as yet to show me a bad performance. There's a boy that is a 'natural'." In the early 1930s, Norton could still get leading roles in major films. Major Hollywood studios started producing alternate-language versions of their prestige productions, and he became one of dozens of Latino actors needed. Drácula was one of these films, but Norton also appeared in Spanish-language versions of Paramount on Parade (1930), The Benson Murder Case (1930), and The Criminal Code (1931). In a few cases, he appeared in both versions of a film. Examples include Storm Over the Andes (Spanish version: Alas sobre El Chaco), The Sea Fiend (El diablo del Mar), and Captain Calamity (El capitan Tormenta), the latter film reuniting him with Lupita Tovar, his romantic interest from Dracula. In addition to roles in Spanish-territory films, he had roles in numerous major films, usually playing sophisticated Europeans. With the decline in Spanish-language film production in Los Angeles, Norton's opportunities for leading roles became less and less frequent. Though he had a pleasing voice, his Argentine accent seemed incongruous with his appearance. According to some sources, he never mastered English very well. In 1933, he secured what would be his last important role, playing Jean Parker's Spanish fiancé in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933). Although he would continue to work for another 15 years, Norton's last credited screen role would be Should Husbands Work? (1939). For the rest of his career, Norton continued to reside in Los Angeles and obtain small roles in films. Many films he appeared in are now considered to be classics.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Meredith (August 27, 1894 – November 28, 1964) was an American film and television actor. Meredith was born in Knoxville, Pennsylvania. He was a popular silent film leading man and played opposite such actresses as Blanche Sweet, Mary Miles Minter, Florence Vidor, and others in romantic drama and comedy films. In 1924, he left his film career for work on the stage. He returned to film in 1947 where he played a number of small character roles. Toward the end of his career, he turned to television as well, notably as Secretary Drake in the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954) series. He also appeared in three episodes of The Lone Ranger, each time as a doctor. He died, aged 70 in 1964, in Los Angeles, California.

John Alban was born on January 2, 1903 in Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor known for The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) and Gunga Din (1939). He was married to Renee Evans and Pauline Garon. He died on August 9, 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA

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

Frederick Alvin Kelsey (August 20, 1884 – September 2, 1961) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. Kelsey directed one- and two-reel films for Universal Film Manufacturing Company. He appeared in more than 400 films between 1911 and 1958, often playing policemen or detectives. He also directed 37 films between 1914 and 1920. Kelsey was caricatured as the detective in the 1943 MGM cartoon Who Killed Who? directed by Tex Avery. He was born in Sandusky, Ohio and died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Hollywood, California, aged 77.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia George Samuel O'Hanlon (November 23, 1912 – February 11, 1989) was an American actor, comedian, writer and director. He was best known for his role as Joe McDoakes in the Warner Bros.' live-action Joe McDoakes short subjects from 1942 to 1956 and as the voice of George Jetson in Hanna-Barbera's 1962 prime-time animated television series The Jetsons and its 1985 revival.

Born Lillian Wilkes, Lillian O’Malley was a character actress who started her career in minor roles during the 1930s and was most frequently seen in western movies playing supporting bit parts. She married silent film star and fellow but part player Pat O’Malley, with whom she had three daughters.