The Human Factor

Sandy-haired, tall and burly George Harris Kennedy, Jr. was born in New York City, to Helen A. (Kieselbach), a ballet dancer, and George Harris Kennedy, an orchestra leader and musician. He had German, Irish, and English ancestry. A World War II veteran, Kennedy at one stage in his career cornered the market at playing tough, no-nonsense characters who were either quite crooked or possessed hearts of gold. Kennedy notched up an impressive 200+ appearances in both TV and film, and was well respected within the Hollywood community. He started out in TV westerns in the late 1950s and early 1960s: Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Rawhide (1959), Maverick (1957), Colt .45 (1957), among others; before scoring minor roles in films including Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). The late 1960s was a very busy period for Kennedy, and he was strongly in favor with casting agents, appearing in Hurry Sundown (1967), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and scoring an Oscar win as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cool Hand Luke (1967). The disaster film boom of the 1970s was kind to Kennedy, too, and his talents were in demand for Airport(1970) and the three subsequent sequels, as a grizzled cop in Earthquake (1974), plus the buddy/road film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) as vicious bank robber Red Leary. The 1980s saw Kennedy appear in a mishmash of roles, playing various characters; however, Kennedy and Leslie Nielsen surprised everyone with their comedic talents in the hugely successful The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), and the two screen veterans hammed it up again in, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), plus Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). Kennedy remained busy in Hollywood and lent his distinctive voice to the animated Cats Don't Dance (1997) and the children's action film Small Soldiers (1998). A Hollywood stalwart for nearly 50 years, he is one of the most enjoyable actors to watch on screen. His last role was in the film The Gambler (2014), as Mark Wahlberg's character's grandfather. George Kennedy died on February 28, 2016 in Middleton, Idaho.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sir John Mills, CBE (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, 22 February 1908 – 23 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. On screen, he often played people who are not at all exceptional, but become heroes because of their common sense, generosity and good judgement.

Raffaele "Raf" Vallone (17 February 1916 – 31 October 2002) was an Italian actor and an international film star. Born in Tropea, Calabria, the son of a lawyer, Vallone attended Liceo classico Cavour in Turin, and studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Turin and entered his father's law firm. He played professional Football at a young age, playing in Serie A for Torino. He won an Italian Cup with his team in season 1935-1936. Subsequently, he became the editorial head of the culture section of L'Unità, then the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party, and also a film and drama critic for the Turin newspaper La Stampa. During World War II, Vallone served with the Communist resistance. His first film appearance was as a sailor in We the Living (1942), but Vallone was not interested in an acting career. Nevertheless, he was cast as a soldier competing with Vittorio Gassman for the love of Silvana Mangano in Riso amaro (Bitter Rice) (1949). The film became a neo-realist classic and Vallone was launched on an international career. In 2001 he published his autobiography, L'alfabeto della memoria, with Gremese (Rome). Vallone was married to the actress Elena Varzi from 1952 until his death. They had three children, two of whom are actors, Eleonora Vallone and Saverio Vallone. He died in Rome on 31 October 2002. Description above from the Wikipedia article Raf Vallone, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Barry Sullivan (August 29, 1912 – June 6, 1994) was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s. Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football. During the later Depression years, Sullivan was told that because of his 6 ft 3 in (1.9 m) stature and rugged good looks he could "make money" simply standing on a Broadway stage. This began a successful career on Broadway, movies and television. One of Sullivan's most memorable roles was playing a movie director in The Bad and the Beautiful opposite Kirk Douglas. Sullivan toured the US with Bette Davis in theatrical readings of the poetry of Carl Sandburg and starred opposite her in the 1951 film Payment on Demand. In 1950, Sullivan appeared in the film A Life of Her Own and replaced Vincent Price in the role of Leslie Charteris' Simon Templar on the NBC Radio show The Saint. Unfortunately, Sullivan only lasted two episodes before the show was cancelled, and then resurrected five weeks later with Vincent Price once again playing the starring role. Sullivan's first starring TV show was a syndicated adaptation of the radio series The Man Called X for Ziv Television in 1956-1957, as secret agent Ken Thurston, the role Herbert Marshall originally portrayed before the microphone. In the 1957-1958 season, Sullivan starred in the adventure/drama television series Harbormaster. He played a commercial ship's captain, David Scott, and Paul Burke played his partner, Jeff Kittridge, in five episodes of the series, which aired first on CBS and then ABC under the revised title Adventure at Scott Island. In 1960, Sullivan played frontier sheriff Pat Garrett opposite Clu Gulager as outlaw Billy the Kid in the western television series The Tall Man (although the series ran for seventy-five half-hour episodes, the one in which Garrett kills Billy was never filmed). Sullivan appeared in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) as John Chisum, but his scene was excised from the release print (though later restored to the film). He had a featured role in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man Book II. In additional to The Tall Man, Sullivan also starred in the television series The Road West, which aired on NBC on Monday, alternating with Perry Como), during the 1966-1967 season. Sullivan played the role of family patriarch Ben Pride. Sullivan guest starred in many series, including The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Reporter, The Love Boat, Little House on the Prairie, and McMillan and Wife. He starred in many Hallmark Hall of Fame specials including a highly acclaimed production of "The Price" opposite George C. Scott. Sullivan was consistently in demand for the entirety of his career. His acting career spanned romantic leading man roles to villains and finally to character roles. In his later years, Sullivan had roles in the films, Oh God with George Burns and Earthquake, where he shared scenes with Ava Gardner. Sullivan has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 1500 Vine St. for his work in television, and another at 6160 Hollywood Blvd. for motion pictures.

Rita Tushingham (born 14 March 1942) is an English actress. She is known for her starring roles in films including A Taste of Honey (1961), The Leather Boys (1964), The Knack …and How to Get It (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Smashing Time (1967). For A Taste of Honey, she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and Most Promising Newcomer at both the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards. Her other film appearances include An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), Under the Skin (1997), and Being Julia (2004). Description above from the Wikipedia article Rita Tushingham, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Shane Rimmer was a Canadian actor, voice actor and screenwriter, known for providing the voice of Scott Tracy in the British television series Thunderbirds. He has mostly performed in supporting roles, frequently in films and television series filmed in the United Kingdom, having relocated to England in the late 1950s. His appearances include roles in such widely-known films as Dr. Strangelove (1964), Rollerball (1975), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Gandhi (1982), Out of Africa (1985) and Crusoe (1989). More recently he has appeared in Spy Game (2001), and Batman Begins (2005). In the earlier years of his career, there were several uncredited performances, among others for films such as You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Star Wars (1977) and Superman II (1980). With the exception of recurring featured cast members he has appeared in more James Bond films than any other actor. Rimmer has a long association with Gerry Anderson. Thunderbirds fans may recognize him as the voice actor behind the character Scott Tracy. He drafted the plotline for the penultimate episode, "Ricochet", which was later turned into a script by Tony Barwick. He also wrote scripts and provided uncredited voices for Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 and The Secret Service, has made appearances in episodes of Anderson's live-action UFO and The Protectors, has and provided voices for Space: 1999 and has guest-starred in the episode "Space Brain". In later years he starred in the unscreened pilot Space Police (later made into a series with other actors and titled Space Precinct) and provided the voice for Anderson's stop-motion gumshoe Dick Spanner, P.I.. Rimmer and fellow Anderson actor Ed Bishop often joked about how often their professional paths crossed and termed themselves "Rent-a-Yanks". They appeared together as NASA operatives in the opening of You Only Live Twice and as USN sailors in The Bedford Incident as well as touring together in live stage shows, including "Death of a Salesman" in the 1990s. He also appeared in Doctor Who in 1966, and in Coronation Street as two different characters: Joe Donnelli (1968–1970), who held Stan Ogden hostage in No. 5 before committing suicide, and Malcolm Reid (1988), father of Audrey Roberts' son Stephen. He has made many guest appearances in British television series for ITV, including in Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, and ITC's The Persuaders!. In 1989 Rimmer was reunited with former Gerry Anderson actors Ed Bishop and Matt Zimmerman in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study In Scarlet. Rimmer and Bishop also appeared in the BBC drama-documentary Hiroshima completed not long after Bishop's death in 2005. Note: His official website and travel record on the Immigration & Travel section of Ancestry give his year of birth as 1929. Description above from the Wikipedia article Shane Rimmer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Haydée Politoff is a French actress and writer born on May 25, 1946 in Paris.

Arthur Franz (February 29, 1920 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey – June 17, 2006) was a B-movie actor whose most notable role was as Lieutenant, Junior Grade H. Paynter, Jr. in The Caine Mutiny. He also appeared in Roseanna McCoy (1949), Invaders from Mars (1953), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) and The Unholy Wife (1957), among others. In The Sniper (1952), he played a rare movie lead in the film's title role as a tormented killer. In addition to films, Franz was a familiar face on American television, appearing on dozen of television programs including Crossroads, Perry Mason, The F.B.I., The Mod Squad, Custer, The Virginian and Rawhide. Franz portrayed Congressman Charles A. Halleck in the 1974, made for TV film, The Missiles of October. Franz's last film role was in That Championship Season in 1982. Franz's interest in acting developed when he was a high school student. During World War II, Franz served as a B-24 Liberator navigator in the United States Army Air Forces. He was shot down over Romania and incarcerated in a POW camp, from which he escaped. Franz died in Oxnard, California at the age of 86 from emphysema and heart disease. Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur Franz, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston. He is known for his roles in films such as Ivans Xtc (2000), for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, 21 Grams (2003), Birth (2004), The Aviator (also 2004), The Constant Gardener (2005), Marie Antoinette (2006), Children of Men (also 2006), The Kingdom (2007), 30 Days of Night (also 2007), Robin Hood (2010), Hitchcock (2012), The Congress (2013), Big Eyes (2014), Wonder Woman (2017), Game Night (2018), Stan & Ollie (also 2018), and Angel Has Fallen (2019). Huston portrayed The Axeman on the FX series American Horror Story: Coven and Massimo Dolcefino on American Horror Story: Freak Show. He played Ben "The Butcher" Diamond on Magic City (2012–13), Dan Jenkins in the first two seasons of the Paramount Network drama series Yellowstone (2018–19), and Jamie Laird on the second season of Succession (2019). His directing credits include the films Mr. North (1988), The Maddening (1995) and The Last Photograph (2017). Description above from the Wikipedia article Danny Huston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Born in October 1934, Buchanan made his first listed appearance late, at the age of 31 in the 1975 film C.I.A. Secret Story, directed by the arch provocateur Giuseppe Ferrara. Before this, however, he had already been active in Italian cinema for almost half a decade – much like many anonymous American adventurers – as a stuntman and extra, sometimes using the name Buck West. His part in C.I.A. Secret Story was largely insignificant, and although he played a named character in Edward Dmytryk’s big-budget spy film The Human Factor he was just one of a number of jobbing Americans buried deep in the credits (including a very young Danny Huston, who was only thirteen at the time). More fleeting appearances followed – in Pupi Avati’s Bordella, Dino Risi’s Telefoni bianchi – before he secured his first major role in Mino Guerrini’s comedy Vinella e Don Pezzotta, based on a successful radio play and starring Giorgio Bracardi. A religious parody, the third billed Buchanan played Padre Splendid, a modernizing priest sent to Italy from the States. Next came his best known roles, internationally at least: three appearances in the series of cheapskate Star Wars rip offs directed by Alfonso Brescia. In War of the Planets he was again third billed, playing space captain John Richardson’s engineer and right hand man as he battles a giant, malevolent robot. It’s not a good film by any means, but with his stocky build and shocking blonde hair Buchanan made an impression. He was back for Battle of the Stars, although this time round only in a cameo role as a pilot and friend of space captain John Richardson, again battling a (different) giant, malevolent robot. Finally came another guest spot in War of the Robots, this time as an associate of space captain Antonio Sabato as he battles several malevolent if not particularly giant robots. Around this time there were other films as well. He popped up in Lina Wertmuller’s A Night Full of Rain (78), Pier Carpi’s gothic horror film Ring of Darkness, in which he played the husband of the protagonist Anne Heywood, Nino Manfredi’s Nudo di donna and the Giorgio Bontempi’s ambitious espionage thriller Spy Connection (83), which was made for TV but also released on video in a shorter theatrical version. In the early eighties he moved back to America, where he starred in David Hess’s slasher movie To All a Goodnight (80) and well down the credits in Walter Hill’s epic western The Long Riders. A handful of small roles followed in low budget films before he made his bow in Rex Pickett’s obscure 1988 production From Hollywood to Deadwood. Buchanan died aged 61 in 1995.