William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.
John G. Agar (January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002) was an American actor. He starred alongside John Wayne in the films Sands of Iwo Jima and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but was later relegated to B movies, such as Tarantula, The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous, Flesh and the Spur, and Hand of Death. He also starred with Lucille Ball in the 1951 movie The Magic Carpet.
Agar was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lillian (née Rogers) and John Agar, Sr., a meat packer (see Agar Hams). He was educated at the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago and Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, Illinois and graduated from Trinity-Pawling Preparatory School in Pawling, New York, but did not attend college. He and his family moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1942, following his father’s death. During World War II he served in the Army Air Corps, and he was a sergeant at the time he left the army in 1946.
He was Shirley Temple's first husband (1945–1950), and they worked together in Fort Apache. His marriage to Temple lasted five years and they had one daughter together, Linda Susan Agar, who was later known as Susan Black, taking the surname of her stepfather Charles Alden Black. Following his divorce from Temple, Agar was married in 1951 to model Loretta Barnett Combs (1922–2000). They remained married until her death in 2000. They had two sons, Martin Agar and John G. Agar III. Agar died on April 7, 2002 at Burbank, California of complications from emphysema. He was buried beside his wife at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.
Agar made six movies with John Wayne: Fort Apache, Sands of Iwo Jima, Big Jake, Chisum, The Undefeated and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. He also made two movies with Shirley Temple, Fort Apache and Adventure in Baltimore, also starring Robert Young.
He is mentioned in the Frank Zappa song "The Radio is Broken" from the album The Man From Utopia (1983).
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Kirk Alyn (1910–1999) was an American actor, best known for being the first actor to play Superman in live-action in Superman serial and Atom Man vs. Superman as well as Blackhawk in the Blackhawk serial, and Sam Lane in Superman: The Movie.
Alyn started as a chorus boy for Broadway plays, appearing in notable musicals such as Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing, and Hellzapoppin' during the 1930s.
He also worked as a singer and dancer in vaudeville before relocating to Hollywood during the early 1940s to act for feature movies, but he was successful only in gaining bit parts for low-budget movies before obtaining the role of Superman in 1948. During World War II he served in the United States Navy.
Alyn also featured in movie serials, including Federal Agents Vs. Underworld Inc., Radar Patrol Vs. Spy King and Blackhawk. Alyn played Superman for the first live-action Superman movie serial, released in 1948. The serial consisted of 15 episodes which recounted Superman’s arrival on Earth, getting a job as a reporter at the Daily Planet newspaper, and meeting Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.
After playing Superman, he again suffered casting problems. Apart from featuring in some similar comic book-type serials, he had few roles in television series and movies, some even uncredited, until he retired.
John Archer (May 8, 1915 – December 5, 1999) was an American movie and television actor.
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Jill Banner, born Mary Kathryn Molumby, was an American film actress, possibly best known for her role as Virginia, the "spider baby" in the 1964 cult horror-comedy film "Spider Baby". She had a longhand complicated relationship with Marlon Brando.
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Lionel Belmore (12 May 1867, Wimbledon, Surrey, England - 30 January 1953, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California) was an English character actor and director on stage for more than a quarter of a century.
Onstage, Belmore appeared with Wilson Barrett, Sir Henry Irving, William Faversham, Lily Langtry, and other famous actors. He entered in films from 1911. In total, he had some 200 titles to his film credit. He was notable as the huffy-puffy Herr Vogel the Burgomaster in Frankenstein (1931). Belmore played bit parts in several 1930s film classics. Unusually, he was a director before he became a prolific actor. He directed from 1914 to 1920, only acting in a limited number of films, until concentrating as an actor from then on.
He was the brother of the actress Daisy Belmore (Mrs. Samuel Waxman) (1874-1954) and the actor Paul Belmore. He was married to stage actress Emmeline Florence Carder and they had two daughters. Their daughter Violet had decided to follow in her father's footsteps and go into acting.
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Pat Boone (born Charles Eugene Patrick Boone on June 1, 1934) is an American singer, actor and writer who was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs (when part of the country was segregated) and sold more copies than his black counterparts. He sold over 45 million albums, had 38 Top 40 hits and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood movies. Boone's talent as a singer and actor, combined with his old-fashioned values, contributed to his popularity in the early rock and roll era. He continues to perform, and speak as a motivational speaker, a television personality, a conservative political commentator and a preacher.
According to Billboard, Boone was the second biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley but ahead of Ricky Nelson and The Platters, and was ranked at No. 9—behind The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney but ahead of artists such as Aretha Franklin and The Beach Boys—in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955-1995. Boone still holds the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with more than one song.
At the age of twenty-three, he began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers, including Edie Adams, Andy Williams, Pearl Bailey and Johnny Mathis made appearances on the show. His cover versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable effect on the development of the broad popularity of rock and roll. During his tours in the 1950s, Elvis Presley was one of his opening acts.
As a prolific author, Boone had a No. 1 bestseller in the 1950s (Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Prentice-Hall). In the 1960s, he focused on gospel music and is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
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Jean Byron (born Imogene Audette Burkhart; December 10, 1925 – February 3, 2006, Height 5 feet 9 inches [1.75 meters]) was an American film, television, and stage actress. She was best known for the role of Natalie Lane, Patty Lane's mother in the sitcom The Patty Duke Show.
Byron was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and raised in Louisville. She began her career as a singer on radio, and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She made her film debut in 1952's Voodoo Tiger. She appeared in several other films, including The Magnetic Monster (1953), Serpent of the Nile (1953), and The Opposite Sex (1956).
Byron's most famous role was as Natalie Lane on The Patty Duke Show. She appeared in all three seasons of the show, from 1963 to 1966. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1964.
After The Patty Duke Show, Byron continued to work in television, appearing in shows such as The Wild Wild West, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote. She also appeared in several films, including The Sting (1973) and The Muppet Movie (1979).
Byron retired from acting in the early 1990s. She died in Mobile, Alabama, in 2006, at the age of 80.
In addition to her acting career, Byron was also a talented singer and dancer. She was a member of the Actors Studio and the Screen Actors Guild. She was also a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.
John Carradine (born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theatre. In the later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies, but continued to also appear in higher-profile fare. In total, he holds 351 film and television credits, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking actors of all time.
Carradine was married four times, had five children, and was the patriarch of the Carradine family, including four sons and four grandchildren who are or were also actors.
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William Castle (April 24, 1914 – May 31, 1977) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies. Castle began directing films in the early 1940s, and later television, before moving on to the "gimmick films".
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Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973), born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster movies and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. He is notable for playing Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man movies. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935. Chaney had English, French and Irish ancestry.
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Ray "Crash" Corrigan (February 14, 1902 – August 10, 1976), born Raymond Benard, was an American actor most famous for appearing in B-Western movies. He also performed stunts and frequently appeared in a gorilla costume at both the beginning and end of his film career; Corrigan owned his own ape costume.
In 1937, Corrigan purchased land in the Santa Susana Mountains foothills in Simi Valley and developed it into a movie ranch called "Corriganville." The movie ranch was used for location filming in film serials, feature films and television shows, as well as for the performance of live western shows for tourists. Bob Hope bought the ranch in 1966 and renamed it 'Hopetown,' it is now a Regional Park and nature preserve.
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Louis Francis Costello (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello was famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many Americans over the decades, and for his shouted line of "HEEEEYYY ABBOTT!!."
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Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack; October 20, 1918 – May 20, 1989) was a German actor.
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Troy Donahue (born Merle Johnson Jr., January 27, 1936 – September 2, 2001) was an American film and television actor and singer. He was a popular sex symbol in the 1950s and 1960s.
His father was Merle Johnson, the manager of the motion-picture department of General Motors. His mother, Edith Johnson, was a retired stage actress. Donahue attended a New York military academy, where he met Francis Ford Coppola. When Donahue was 18, he moved to New York and got a job as a messenger in a film company founded by his father. He was fired, he says, because he was too young to join the union. He attended Columbia University and studied journalism. He trained briefly with Ezra Stone, and then moved to Hollywood.
The big break of Donahue's career came when he was cast opposite Sandra Dee in A Summer Place, made by Warner Bros. in 1959. The director was Delmer Daves. Warner signed him to a long-term contract. They put him to work guest-starring in episodes of their Western TV series, such as Colt .45 (1959), Maverick (1959), Sugarfoot (1959), The Alaskans (1960), and Lawman (1960).
In 1968, Donahue signed a long-term contract with Universal Studios for films and TV. This lasted a year and saw him get four roles: guest shots on Ironside (1968), The Name of the Game (1968), and The Virginian (1969), and an appearance in the TV movie The Lonely Profession (1969).
Donahue declared bankruptcy in 1968 and eventually lost his home. In 1969, Donahue moved from Los Angeles to New York City. By this time, Donahue's drug addiction and alcoholism had ruined him financially. In May 1982, he joined Alcoholics Anonymous, which he credited for helping him achieve and maintain sobriety.
Donahue continued to act in films throughout the 1980s and into the late 1990s. Donahue's final film role was in the 2000 comedy film The Boys Behind the Desk, directed by Sally Kirkland.
On August 30, 2001, Donahue suffered a heart attack and was admitted to Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. He died three days later, on September 2, at the age of 65.
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Marilyn Eastman (December 17, 1933 - August 22, 2021) was an American actress known for her role as Helen Cooper in the film Night of the Living Dead (1968). She also appeared in the films Houseguest (1995) and Santa Claws (1996).
Contrary to popular belief, Eastman was not married to her co-star from Night of the Living Dead, Karl Hardman, who played her husband in the film. She was married to writer and broadcaster John F. Eastman. However, despite not being married to Karl, she was his business partner and starred alongside him in several motion pictures.
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Douglas Fowley (born Daniel Vincent Fowley; May 30, 1911 – May 21, 1998) was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs. Fowley is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and for his regular supporting role as Doc Holliday in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
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.
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Dolores Agnes Fuller(March 10, 1923 – May 9, 2011) was an American actress and songwriter best known as the one-time girlfriend of the low-budget film director Ed Wood. She played the protagonist's girlfriend in Glen or Glenda, co-starred in Wood's Jail Bait, and had a minor role in his Bride of the Monster. After she broke up with Wood in 1955, she relocated to New York and had a very successful career there as a songwriter. Elvis Presley recorded a number of her songs written for his films.
Beverly Garland (1926–2008) was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner.
Garland gained prominence with her role on My Three Sons. In the 1980s, she co-starred as Kate Jackson's widowed mother on Scarecrow and Mrs. King. She also had a recurring role as on 7th Heaven.
Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness on March 18, 1926 on Minneapolis, Minnesota. While growing up in Minnesota, he excelled at sports and music (as a saxophonist), and by age 16, he was a radio announcer at WMIN in Minneapolis. After two years in the United States Air Force, he studied drama at the University of Minnesota and then headed to Hollywood, where he first appeared on television and later made his film debut in Rogue River (1951). Numerous film appearances followed, especially in Westerns. However, Graves is primarily recognized for his television work, particularly as Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible (1966). Peter Graves died of a heart attack on March 14, 2010, just four days before his 84th birthday.
Sid Haig was an American film actor known for blaxploitation films of the 1970s as well as his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie's horror films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. He has appeared in many television programs during his career.
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Margaret Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actor in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image.
In later years, Hamilton made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals, and retained a lifelong commitment to public education.
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Karl Hardman (March 22, 1927 – September 22, 2007) was an American horror film producer and actor. He produced George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) and also co-starred as Harry Cooper. He also appeared in Santa Claws (1996) as Bruce Brunswick. He was born Karl Hardman Schon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Motion picture actor and director. Born Samuel William Hinzman, he was working in 1968 as an assistant cameraman on the low budget, black and white film, "Night of the Living Dead", when director George Romero cast him as the zombie in the opening sequence. The iconic role earned Hinzman the admiration of horror fans who have affectionately referred to him as "No. 1 zombie". Hinzman also went on to direct and star in the 1980s horror movies "The Majorettes" (1987) and "FleshEater" (1988). He died of cancer. He requested that his body be cremated because he jokingly said if he was buried he would come back.
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Olin Ross Howland (February 10, 1886 – September 20, 1959) was an American film and theatre actor.
Howland was born in Denver, Colorado, to Joby A. Howland, one of the youngest enlisted participants in the Civil War, and Mary C. Bunting. His older sister was the famous stage actress Jobyna Howland.
From 1909 to 1927, Howland appeared on Broadway in musicals, occasionally performing in silent films. The musicals include Leave It to Jane (1917), Two Little Girls in Blue (1921) and Wildflower (1923). He was in the film Janice Meredith (1924) with Marion Davies. With the advent of sound films, his theatre background proved an asset, and he concentrated mostly on films thereafter, appearing in nearly two hundred movies between 1918 and 1958.
Howland often played eccentric and rural roles in Hollywood. His parts were often small and uncredited, and he never got a leading role. He was a personal favorite of David O. Selznick, who cast him in his movies Nothing Sacred (1937) as a strange luggage man, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938, as the teacher Mr. Dobbins) and Gone with the Wind (1939) as a carpetbagger businessman. He also played in numerous westerns from Republic Pictures, including the John Wayne films In Old California (1942) and Angel and the Badman (1947). As a young man, Howland learned to fly at the Wright Flying School and soloed on a Wright Model B. This lent special sentiment in his scenes with James Stewart in the film The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), as Stewart was also a pilot in real life. The Spirit of St. Louis and Them (1954),where he played a drunken old man, and The Blob (1958) were his last films.
He also played in telelevision shows during the 1950s. In 1958 and 1959, he was cast as Charley Perkins in five episodes of ABC's sitcom The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan.
Howland never married and had no children. He worked until his death in Hollywood, California, at the age of 73.
Robert Hutton (born Robert Bruce Winne; June 11, 1920 – August 7, 1994) was an American actor.
Robert Bruce Winne was born in Kingston, New York, and he grew up in Ulster County, New York. He was the son of a hardware merchant and a cousin of the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton.
He attended Blair Academy, a small boarding school in Blairstown, New Jersey.
Before he ventured into films, Hutton acted at the Woodstock Playhouse in Woodstock, New York for two seasons. His film debut as Robert Hutton came in Destination Tokyo (1943).
Hutton resembled actor Jimmy Stewart: during World War II when Stewart enlisted in the Army Air Forces in March 1941, Hutton benefited from "victory casting" in roles that would ordinarily have gone to Stewart.[4] His final film was The New Roof (1975).
After leaving Warner Brothers’ studios Hutton continued working in movies, TV shows and as a writer and director in England for several years. He returned years later to the United States and lived in New York where he was born and raised.
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Frieda Inescort (born Frieda Wrightman, 29 June 1901 – 26 February 1976) was a Scottish-born actress best known for creating the role of Sorel Bliss in Noël Coward's play Hay Fever on Broadway. She also played the shingled lady in John Galsworthy's 1927 Broadway production Escape.
Inescort's acting debut came in The Truth About Blayds (1922), which was presented at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include You and I (1923), The Woman on the Jury (1923), Windows (1923), The Fake (1924), Ariadne (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Love in a Mist (1926), Mozart (1926), Trelawny of the "Wells" (1927), Escape (1927-1928), Napi (1931), Company's Coming (1931), Springtime for Henry (1931-1932), When Ladies Meet (1933), False Dreams, Farewell (1934), Lady Jane (1934), Soldier's Wife (1944-1945), The Mermaids Singing (1945-1946) and You Never Can Tell (1948).
Frieda Wrightman adopted her mother's surname as her professional name and moved to Hollywood and made her film debut in The Dark Angel (1935). Her other films include Mary of Scotland (1936), The Letter (1940), The Trial of Mary Dugan (1941), You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and A Place in the Sun (1951).
She appeared with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson as the conniving Caroline Bingley in the 1940 film version of Pride and Prejudice. She had a leading role in Call It A Day, a 1937 film in which she appeared with Olivia de Havilland, Bonita Granville, Roland Young, and Ian Hunter. She appeared in at least one episode of Perry Mason, as Hope Quentin in "The Case of the Jealous Journalist" (season 5, 1961).
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Duane L. Jones (February 2, 1936 – July 22, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his role as Ben in the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead. He was director of the Maguire Theater at the State University of New York at Old Westbury. He was the artistic director of the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art in Manhattan.
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Boris Karloff (November 23, 1887 – February 2, 1969), whose real name was William Henry Pratt, was an English-born actor who emigrated to Canada in 1909. Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939). His popularity following Frankenstein was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or "Karloff the Uncanny". His best-known non-horror role is as the Grinch in the television special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
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Michael Landon (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz; October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991) was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989). Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball.
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).
Bela Lugosi (born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko) was a Hungarian stage, screen, and television actor. He was born on October 20, 1882 and passed away on August 16, 1956. He is best remembered for his iconic portrayal of Count Dracula in the classic 1931 Dracula film.
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Don Megowan (May 24, 1922 – June 26, 1981) was an American actor. He played the Gill-man on land in The Creature Walks Among Us, the final part of the Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy.
Don Megowan was born in Inglewood, California to Robert and Leila (née Dale) Megowan. His mother Leila worked as a negative cutter for Pathé. At 6'7" Megowan was very active in sports, playing baseball, football, and throwing discus. He went to the University of Southern California on a football scholarship before serving in the United States Army during World War II.
Megowan starred in the science fiction films The Werewolf in the role of Sheriff Jack Haines, in The Creation of the Humanoids (1962) as a captain in the anti-robot Order of Flesh and Blood, who must stop the Humanoids, and in The Creature Walks Among Us as the Gill-man.
Megowan also appeared in westerns: Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966), The Devil's Brigade (1968), and Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles (1974).
In 1962, he starred with Cameron Mitchell in the television series, The Beachcomber. He guest starred in various programs, including the westerns: Gunsmoke, Wagon Train (twice), The Californians, The Tall Man, Maverick, Cimarron City, Have Gun–Will Travel, Tales of Wells Fargo, The Rifleman, Lawman, Cheyenne, Colt .45, Bonanza, The Americans, Rawhide, and Daniel Boone. He was also cast in episodes of such series as Angel, U.S. Marshal, Get Smart, and Fantasy Island.
Megowan, a smoker from age 12 to 48, died of throat cancer at age 59. His weight had dwindled from nearly 300 pounds to barely 150. CLR
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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.
Beverly Jo Morrow (born November 1, 1939)[1] is an American actress who played the female lead in six B films between 1958 and 1964, and supporting roles in four major studio features, as well as appearing in 12 television episodes. Following a six-year absence, she returned to the screen in 1970, but after a few minor supporting roles, retired again in 1976.
George Garfield Nader, Jr. (October 19, 1921 – February 4, 2002) was an American actor and writer of Lebanese descent. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 to 1974, including Sins of Jezebel (1953), Congo Crossing (1956), and The Female Animal (1958). During this period, he also did episodic television and starred in several series, including NBC's The Man and the Challenge (1959–60). In the 1960s he made several films in Germany, playing FBI agent Jerry Cotton. One of his first starring roles was in the low-budget 3-D sci-fi film Robot Monster (1953), known as "one of the worst films ever made."
Discreetly gay during his acting career, he and his life partner Mark Miller were among Rock Hudson's closest friends. After retiring from acting, he wrote Chrome (1978), a science-fiction novel dealing positively with a same-sex relationship.
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Judith O'Dea (born April 20, 1945) is an American actress known for her role as Barbra in the George A. Romero film Night of the Living Dead (1968).
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William Edward "Bill" Phipps (born February 4, 1922 in Vincennes, Indiana) is a retired American actor and producer, perhaps best known for his roles in dozens of classic sci-fi and westerns, both film and television, from the late 1940s through the mid 1960s. From then, until his retirement in 2000, his work was mainly in television.
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Judson Pratt (December 6, 1916 – February 9, 2002) was an American character actor. Pratt began his professional career on stage in the 1940s. From the 1950s to 1980, he appeared in over 100 film and television roles. Pratt retired from acting in 1980.
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films. His career spanned other genres, including film noir, drama, mystery, thriller, and comedy. He appeared on stage, television, radio, and in over one hundred films. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, and one for television.
Price was an art collector and consultant, with a degree in art history. He lectured and wrote books on the subject. He was the founder of the Vincent Price Art Museum in California. He was also a noted gourmet cook.
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Mae Questel (September 13, 1908–January 4, 1998) was an American actress and vocal artist best known for providing the voices for the animated characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. She began in vaudeville, and played occasional small roles in films and television later in her career, most notably the role of Aunt Bethany in 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Angelo Salvatore Rossitto (February 18, 1908 – September 21, 1991) was an American actor and voice artist. He had dwarfism and was 2'11" (89 cm) tall, and was often billed as Little Angie or Moe. Angelo first appeared in silent films opposite Lon Chaney and John Barrymore. On-screen, he portrayed everything from dwarfs, midgets, gnomes, and pygmies as well as monsters, villains, and aliens, with appearances in more than 70 films.
Rossitto was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Salvatore Rossitto and Carmela Caniglia, both born in Carlentini, Province of Siracusa, Sicily, Italy, and had a sister, Josephine Rossitto.
He was discovered by John Barrymore and made his screen debut opposite Barrymore in The Beloved Rogue (1927). That same year he appeared in Warner Brother's Old San Francisco. He appeared in the controversial 1932 film Freaks directed by Tod Browning, and another controversial film, 1938's Child Bride. During the 1940s, he appeared in several poverty row movies starring Bela Lugosi. He appeared frequently in television series and mini-series, particularly best known for the police drama Baretta, and his later film roles included appearances in Alex in Wonderland (1970), Brain of Blood (1971), Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), Little Cigars (1973), and Fairy Tales (1978). His last major role was as "Master" opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).
Rossitto appears alongside singer/songwriter Tom Waits and Lee Kolima on the cover art of Waits' 1983 album Swordfishtrombones, which pays homage to his performance in Freaks. He also appears on the cover of Bob Dylan's album The Basement Tapes.
Gene Roth (January 8, 1903 – July 19, 1976) was an American film actor. Born in Redfield, South Dakota, Roth was born Eugene Oliver Edgar Stutenroth. He appeared in over 250 films between 1922 and 1967.
Roth is remembered for his portrayals of heavies and bad guys in Three Stooges short films such as Slaphappy Sleuths, Hot Stuff, Quiz Whizz, Outer Space Jitters and Pies and Guys. His most memorable role was as Russian spy Bortsch in Dunked in the Deep (1949), as well as its remake, Commotion on the Ocean (1956). His most famous line was his threat to Shemp Howard: "Give me dat fill-um!" ('fill-um' being 'film' with a Russian accent).
Roth also starred in the 1953 Columbia Pictures serial The Lost Planet, as the dictator of the lost planet Ergro.
He later made frequent television appearances including seven episodes of The Lone Ranger from 1949 to 1954. His Stooge film appearance was in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules.
Roth was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver in Los Angeles, California on July 19, 1976.
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Rodman Edward Serling (Rod Serling) (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues including censorship, racism, and war.
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Robert Shayne (October 4, 1900 – November 29, 1992), born Robert Shaen Dawe, was an American actor whose career lasted for over 60 years. He was best known for portraying Inspector Bill Henderson in the American television series Adventures of Superman.
Shayne became an actor after having worked as a reporter at the Illustrated Daily Tab in Miami, Florida. His initial acting experience came with repertory companies in Alabama, including the Birmingham Players.
Shayne's first Broadway appearance came by 1931 in The Rap. His other Broadway shows include Yellow Jack (1934), The Cat and the Canary (1935), Whiteoaks (1938), with Ethel Barrymore, and Without Love (1942), with Katharine Hepburn.
Shayne began his film career in 1934, appearing in two features. In 1942, he became a contract actor with Warner Bros.. He played many character roles in movies and television, including a film series of Warner Bros. featurettes called the "Santa Fe Trail" series such as Wagon Wheels West, and as a mad scientist in the 1953 horror film The Neanderthal Man.
He appears briefly in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, seated at a booth in a hotel bar, where his character meets Cary Grant's character, just as the latter is about to be kidnapped. He also had a small but pivotal role in the 1953 sci-fi classic Invaders From Mars as a scientist. He also enjoyed a brief rebirth in his career when he was cast as the blind newspaper vendor in The Flash television show. He was by this time actually blind and learned his lines by having his wife read them to him and then rehearse until he memorized them.
Shayne portrayed Police Inspector William "Bill" Henderson on the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman. He appeared sporadically in the early episodes of the series, in part because he came under HUAC scrutiny and was briefly blacklisted on unproven and unspecific charges of association with Communism. As the program evolved, especially in the color episodes, he was brought into more and more of them, to the point where he was a regular on the series.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sokoloff (Russian: Владимир Александрович Соколов; December 26, 1889 – February 15, 1962) was a character actor on stage and particularly in film.
Sokoloff was born in Moscow, Russia. He became an actor and assistant director with the Moscow Art Theatre before emigrating to Berlin in 1923. With the rise of Nazism, Sokoloff who was Jewish, moved first to Paris in 1932, then to the United States in 1937.
He appeared in a number of Broadway plays from 1937 to 1950. He also quickly found work in American films, playing characters of a wide variety of nationalities (he himself once estimated 35), for example, Filipino (Back to Bataan), French (Passage to Marseille), Greek (Mr. Lucky), Arab (Road to Morocco), Romanian (I Was a Teenage Werewolf), and Chinese (Macao). Among his better known parts are the Spanish guerrilla Anselmo in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and the Mexican Old Man in The Magnificent Seven.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he also appeared on a number of television series, including three episodes of CBS's The Twilight Zone ("Dust", "The Gift" and "The Mirror"). On January 1, 1961, Sokoloff guest starred as "Old Stefano", a wise shepherd, in the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Lawman, with John Russell and Peter Brown. He also appeared on one episode of The Untouchables entitled "Troubleshooter".
He was a pupil of Stanislavski, but in a 1960 newspaper article, he rejected Method acting (as well as all other acting theories).
After a long career, he died of a stroke in 1962 in Hollywood, California.
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Olan Evart Soule (February 28, 1909 – February 1, 1994) was an American actor, who had professional credits in nearly 7,000 radio shows and commercials, appearances in 200 television series and television films, and in over 60 films. Soule's voice work on television included his 15-year role (1968–1983) as Batman on several animated series that were either devoted to or involved the fictional "Dark Knight" superhero.
Soule married Norma Elizabeth Miller on September 29, 1929. They had two children and were married for 63 years, until Norma's death on July 1, 1992. His daughter Joann, was also an actress, under the name of Sydney Soule. Soule was a 32-degree Mason as well as a member of the Los Angeles Show Business Shrine Club (Al Malikah).
On February 1, 1994, Soule died at age 84 of lung cancer in Corona, California, at the home of his daughter, Joann, and son-in-law, Dr. David Henriksen. His burial took place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. CLR
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At various times in his life a rancher, deputy sheriff and rodeo performer, this huge, towering (6' 5") beast of a man was born George Glenn Strange in Weed, New Mexico, on August 16, 1899, but grew up a real-life cowboy in Cross Cut, Texas. Of Irish and Cherokee Indian descent, he taught himself (by ear) the fiddle and guitar at a young age and started performing at local functions as a teen. In the late 1920s, Glenn and his cousin, Taylor McPeters, better known later as the western character actor Cactus Mack, joined a radio singing group known as the "Arizona Wranglers" that toured throughout the country.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Madame Sul-Te-Wan (born Nellie Crawford; March 7, 1873 – February 1, 1959) was the first African-American actress to sign a film contract and be a featured performer. She was an American stage, film and television actress for over 50 years. The daughter of former slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the East Coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community. She became known as a character actress, appeared in high-profile films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), and easily navigated the transition to the sound films.
In 1986, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
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Henry Victor (2 October 1892 – 15 March 1945) was an English-born character actor. Raised in Germany, Victor is probably best remembered for his portrayal of the strongman Hercules in Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks. He originally was a leading figure in UK silent films. Later in his career, he mostly portrayed villains or Nazis in both American and British films with his trademark German accent. He died at 52 of a brain tumor. He is buried in Chatsworth, California's at the Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery.
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Beverly Washburn was born on November 25, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Old Yeller (1957), Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told(1967) and Here Comes the Groom (1951).
Keith Wayne was born on January 16, 1945 in Washington, Pennsylvania, real name Ronald Keith Hartman. He was an actor known for playing Tom in Night of the Living Dead (1968).
Richard Webb (September 9, 1915 – June 19, 1993) was a film, television and radio actor. He was born in Bloomington, Illinois.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Helen Westcott (born January 1, 1928, Los Angeles, California — died March 17, 1998, Edmonds, Washington) was an American stage and screen actor and former child actor. She was the daughter of Warner Bros. studio actor Gordon Westcott who died when Helen was seven years old, in 1935. She appeared opposite Gregory Peck in the western classic The Gunfighter released in 1950. She was also known in part for her role in Charles Lamont's 1953 comedy horror film Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
She moved from the big screen to television roles in the late 1950s, including Perry Mason, Bonanza, and The Twilight Zone. Westcott also appeared on the stage later in her career, including in Anthony Mann's God's Little Acre in 1958. Description above from the Wikipedia article Helen Westcott, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Donald Woods (born Ralph Lewis Zink, December 2, 1906 – March 5, 1998) was a Canadian-American film and television actor whose career in Hollywood spanned six decades.
Born in Brandon, Manitoba, Woods moved with his family to California and was raised in Burbank. A son of William and Margaret Zink, Presbyterians of German descent. His younger brother, Clarence Russell Zink, also became an actor (Russ Conway).
Woods graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and made his film debut in 1928. His screen career was spent mostly in B movies, for example as lawyer Perry Mason in the 1937 film The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. He also occasionally played major roles in bigger feature films like A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Watch on the Rhine (1943), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944), and Roughly Speaking (1945).
Of considerable importance to his acting career were several seasons as leading man with the Elitch Gardens Theatre Company in Denver, Colorado, where he performed in 1932, 1933, 1939, 1941, 1947, and 1948.
In the early days of television, Woods starred as the title character in the 1951 syndicated TV series Craig Kennedy, Criminologist, and he was the host of Damon Runyon Theater on CBS-TV. He played himself on the dramatic series Hotel Cosmopolitan, also on CBS, and he was one of three hosts of The Orchid Award on ABC-TV. He portrayed Walter Manning on Portia Faces Life on CBS.
He also appeared in such anthology series as The Philco Television Playhouse, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, The United States Steel Hour, Crossroads, and General Electric Theater. On April 11, 1961, Woods appeared as "Profesor Landfield" in the episode "Two for the Gallows" on NBC's Laramie western series. Series character Slim Sherman (John Smith) is hired under false pretenses to take Landfield into the Badlands to seek gold. Landfield, however, is really Morgan Bennett, a member of the former Henry Plummer gang who has escaped from prison. Slim has no idea that Lanfield is seeking the loot that his gang had hidden away. Series character Jess Harper (Robert Fuller), Pete Dixon, played by Warren Oates, and Pete's younger brother soon come to Slim's aid. The title stems from the talk that the undisciplined Dixon brothers might eventually wind up on a hangman's noose.
Woods later was a regular in the role of John Brent on the short-lived series Tammy and made guest appearances on Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, Ben Casey, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Stoney Burke, Bourbon Street Beat, Bonanza, Coronet Blue, Ironside, Alias Smith and Jones, The Wild Wild West and Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, among many others before retiring from acting in 1976.
Besides his film career, he also worked as a successful real estate broker in Palm Springs where he lived with his wife, childhood sweetheart Josephine Van der Horck. They were married from 1933 until his death and had two children, Linda and Conrad. He was interred at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California.
Victor Sen Young (born Victor Cheung Young or Sen Yew Cheung; October 18, 1915 – body discovered November 9, 1980) was an American character actor, best known for playing Jimmy Chan in the Charlie Chan films and Hop Sing in the Western series Bonanza. He was born in San Francisco, California to Gum Yung Sen and his first wife, both immigrants from China.
His mother died during the flu epidemic of 1919. His father placed Victor and his younger sister, Rosemary, in a children's shelter, and returned to his homeland to seek another wife. He returned in 1922 with his new wife, Lovi Shee, forming a household with his two children.
Sen Yung made his first significant acting debut in the 1938 film Charlie Chan in Honolulu, as the Chinese detective's "number two son", Jimmy Chan. Sen Yung played Jimmy Chan in 11 Charlie Chan films between 1938 and 1942. Moonlighting from the popular Chan series, Sen Yung won critical acclaim playing the nuanced role of Ong Chi Seng, a young attorney assisting Howard Joyce, in defending Leslie Crosbie, in The Letter. Like other Chinese-American actors, he was cast in Japanese parts during World War II, like his role as the treacherous Japanese-American Joe Totsuiko in the 1942 Humphrey Bogart film Across the Pacific.
During World War II he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces just as his erstwhile co-star Sidney Toler was set to revive the dormant Charlie Chan series at Monogram Pictures. Sen Yung's military obligations forced him to decline rejoining the series immediately, but Monogram gave him a standing invitation to work there after his tour of duty. Sen Yung's military service included work in training films at the First Motion Picture Unit and a role in the Army Air Forces' play and film Winged Victory.
In 1946 Sen Yung resumed his Hollywood career at Monogram, now billed as Victor Sen Young, and reunited with Sidney Toler. Toler's health was failing; Monogram was conserving Toler's waning energy, limiting his scenes and giving him long rest periods during filming. To relieve the burden on Toler, Monogram entrusted much of the action to Victor Sen Young; he and either Mantan Moreland or Willie Best shared much of the footage in Toler's final three films, Dangerous Money, Shadows Over Chinatown, and The Trap. The addition of Moreland as Chan's black chauffeur, Birmingham Brown, reflected the fact that by this time the Chan pictures had a significant following among black Americans, who liked a film series that for once did not feature a white hero. Moreland's popularity in the Chan pictures was so great that he was booked for a nationwide vaudeville tour.
Following Toler's death in 1947, Victor Sen Young appeared in five of the remaining six Charlie Chan features. His character "Jimmy" was renamed "Tommy".
Victor Sen Young continued to work in motion pictures and television in roles ranging from featured players (affable or earnest Asian characters) to bit roles (clerks, houseboys, waiters, etc.).
Arguably even more than for his work in the Charlie Chan films, Victor Sen Yung is remembered as "Hop Sing," the irascible cook and general factotum on the iconic television series Bonanza, appearing in 107 episodes between 1959 and 1973.
Sen Yung was also an accomplished and talented chef. He frequently appeared on cooking programs and authored The Great Wok Cookbook in 1974.