V.G.L.G. #1
Primarily men from the Silent Era through the late 1960's, listed alphabetically.
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- Actor
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Baseball's all-time home run king, Hank Aaron did more than hit home runs. Sure, Aaron led the National League (NL) four times, he also was a two-time batting champion and led the league in RBIs four times and runs scored three times. He won the NL's Most Valuable Player award in 1957 and has a lifetime batting average of .305. Aaron got his start playing for the Indianapolis Clowns, of the Negro Leagues before signing on with the Milwaukee Braves. He played at their minor league team in Eau Claire, Wis., one of the first black players there, and was brought up by the Braves in 1954. For the next 23 years, Aaron clobbered Major League pitchers. Never a charismatic player, Aaron often let his bat do the talking. He was the subject of intense media scrutiny in 1973-74 when he approached Babe Ruth's hallowed home run record. Aaron received more than 10,000 letters (most of them hate mail and even death threats) during the off-season claiming he should not break the record. Ever the ultimate professional and gentleman, he ignored the insults and slurs and went about the opening season in 1974. On April 8, 1974, Aaron hit his 715th home run, breaking Ruth's record and in doing so, received the undying support of the fans. He finished with 755 overall before retiring after the 1976 season. Aaron was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1982, and now works in the front office for the Atlanta Braves.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Nick Adams, best known to audiences as Johnny Yuma of the TV series The Rebel (1959), played leads and supporting parts in many films of the 1950s, often cast in the same "troubled young man" mold as his good friend, James Dean. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Twilight of Honor (1963). He died in 1968 due to an overdose of drugs he was taking for a nervous disorder.- Character actor Wesley Addy began his prolific career as a prime player on the classical stage before coming to occasional films and TV in the early 1950s. Known for his intelligent, white-collar demeanor and lean, icy, cultivated menace, the silver-haired performer, who was actually born in Omaha, Nebraska, was often mistaken as British.
Majoring in economics at the University of California in Los Angeles, Wesley switched gears and trained in summer theater on Martha's Vineyard before trekking to New York City to pursue a professional career. In 1935, the actor made his Broadway stage debut with Orson Welles in Archibald Macleish's "Panic". He continued with roles as both "Marcellus" and "Fortinbras" in Leslie Howard's production of "Hamlet". Other Shakespearean roles during this early period included "Hotspur" in "Henry IV, Part I", "Benvolio" in "Romeo and Juliet" and "Orsino" in "Twelfth Night". He often performed the Bard in the company of such legendary interpreters as Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier and, more frequently, Maurice Evans.
World War II interrupted Addy's early momentum but he eventually returned to the theatre following his tour of duty and played opposite Katharine Cornell in "Antigone" and "Candida". A continued presence on Broadway, he had strong stage roles in "The Traitor", "Another Part of the Forest", "King Lear" and "The Leading Lady".
In 1951, the 38-year-old Addy made his film debut in the drama, The First Legion (1951), and would be seen from time to time throughout the decade in such dramatic fare as Scandal Sheet (1952), My Six Convicts (1952) and Time Table (1956). Some of his chillier roles came in films directed by Robert Aldrich, who utilized the actor quite often -- Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), The Garment Jungle (1957), Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) and the Grand Guignol classics, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964).
Never acquiring a strong footing in the movies, Wesley changed his on-camera focus in the 1960s to TV and also sought out theatre roles, as well. In 1961, Wesley married actress Celeste Holm. Together, they proved a strong stage coupling in both comedies and dramas -- "Invitation to a March", "A Month in the Country", "Mame", "Candida", "Light Up the Sky", "Mama" and "With Love and Laughter".
A reliable, durable performer, Wesley played suave gents and villains on TV. A major portion of his work came from daytime soaps -- including The Edge of Night (1956), Days of Our Lives (1965), Ryan's Hope (1975) and Loving (1983). Later films included Seconds (1966), Network (1976), The Europeans (1979) and The Verdict (1982). He continued to act close to the end. His last film role was as a judge in Before and After (1996) starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson, which was released in the year of his death. He was 83. - Actor
- Music Department
John Agar was born in Chicago, the eldest of four children. In World War II, Sgt. John Agar was a United States Army Air Force physical instructor. His 1945 marriage at the Wilshire Memorial Church to "America's Sweetheart" Shirley Temple put him in the public eye for the first time, and a movie contract with independent producer David O. Selznick quickly ensued.
Agar debuted opposite John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Temple in John Ford's Fort Apache (1948), initial film in the famed director's "Cavalry Trilogy".
His marriage to Shirley Temple ended in 1949, while his movie career continued.
Popular with fans of Westerns and sci-fi flicks, Agar was a staple at film conventions and autograph shows.- Casting Department
- Casting Director
- Actor
Lane Allan was born on 4 August 1914 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a casting director and actor, known for Project U.F.O. (1978), Gemini Man (1976) and New Wine (1941). He was married to Ramona Eileen McKay, Randy Stuart and Betty White. He died on 5 August 1995 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ronald Allen was born on 16 December 1930 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Night to Remember (1958), The Projected Man (1966) and Doctor Who (1963). He was married to Sue Lloyd. He died on 18 June 1991 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK.- A familiar face to movie audiences in the 1950s, James Anderson's rugged and somewhat sinister good looks made him a natural for westerns, and he appeared in many of them over the years, often as a gunman or hired killer but occasionally as a storekeeper or grizzled frontier scout. He turned in a very good performance as one of the survivors of a nuclear attack in Five (1951) and another as a redneck farmer in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), but it's for his western roles in films and on TV that Anderson is best known.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
1950s and 60s second lead actor Keith Andes fits into the tall, handsome, strapping and highly virile mold that encompassed the likes of George Nader, Guy Madison, and Jeffrey Hunter. Although he may not be as well remembered as the aforementioned, he managed to maintain a reliable career on radio (from age 12), stage, TV and films for over three decades.
Born John Charles Andes on July 12, 1920, in Ocean City, New Jersey, Keith found work on radio singing and acting throughout his high school years. While serving with the Air Force during WWII, he performed in the patriotic 1943 Broadway stage show "Winged Victory" and, after being seen by studio mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, was given a minor part in the film version the following year.
Keith returned to Hollywood in the post-war years and won the role of one of Loretta Young's brothers (the others being Lex Barker and James Arness) in the classic film The Farmer's Daughter (1947). His enviable physique and photogenic good looks made the blond looker an obvious choice to continue in both rugged adventures and beefcake drama but his output was fairly minimal. In Clash by Night (1952), one of his best roles, he dallied hot and heavy with a young Marilyn Monroe and, in Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952), he demonstrated some expert swashbuckling skills.
Meanwhile on the musical front, Keith proved he had a resilient baritone. He won a Theatre World Award for "The Chocolate Soldier" in 1947 and, subsequently, starred in "Kiss Me Kate" with Anne Jeffreys of TV's Topper (1953) fame. More notably, he appeared opposite Lucille Ball in her only Broadway musical "Wildcat" in 1960, winding things up playing "Don Quixote" for over 400 performances in "Man of La Mancha" in 1968. Ironically, the movie studios did not take advantage of Keith's musical prowess, appearing in a bland role with Jane Powell and singing one musical number in The Girl Most Likely (1957).
Beside numerous episodic appearances on such popular 60's and 70's shows as "Have Gun, Will Travel," "The Rifleman," "77 Sunset Strip," "Perry Mason," "The Outer Limits," "Daniel Boone," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Star Trek," "I Spy," "Petticoat Junction," "Gunsmoke," "Cannon" and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," Keith co-starred in two television series: This Man Dawson (1959) and the sitcom Glynis (1963), the latter starring popular Brit actress Glynis Johns. Both were short-lived. He occasionally found voiceover work.
After a minor part in the film And Justice for All (1979), Keith made his final appearance as Father Adam in the TV movie drama Blinded by the Light (1980) ). He then retired, bought and lived on a boat and ran charters on trips to Catalina and Mexico. Twice married and divorced, Keith had two children (Mark and Matt) by first wife, Jean Alice Cotton. Mark Andes became a rock musician. Keith's second wife was actress/dancer/choreographer Shelah Hackett.
Sadly, his final years were marred by extreme ill health, including bladder cancer, and he committed suicide in his Santa Clarita, California home at age 85.- Born Ralph Bowman, the future film and TV star moved to California with his family when he was five; he attended Hollywood High and the University of Southern California. He first set his sights on a job behind the camera, taking a cinematography course at USC, but then couldn't even land an entry-level position. He later drifted into acting, on stage at the Ben Bard Playhouse and in serials at Universal and Republic. He then entered a radio contest, "Jesse Lasky's Gateway to Hollywood", where aspiring actors competed for a studio contract. The top prize, an RKO contract made out in the name of "John Archer", was won by Bowman after 13 weeks of competition (edging out Hugh Beaumont for the prize and the "Archer" name). The actor quips, "I went from being a Bowman to an Archer!" He has four children, two by wife number one Marjorie Lord (one of whom is Anne Archer) and two by his second wife Ann Leddy (whom he married in 1956).
- Actor
- Producer
Robert Arden was born on 11 December 1922 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Confidential Report (1955), Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and Whoops Apocalypse (1986). He died on 25 March 2004 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Arledge was born on 12 May 1907 in Crockett, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), County Fair (1937) and Two in Revolt (1936). He died on 15 May 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
During World War I, Richard Arlen served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps as a pilot, but he never saw combat. After the war he drifted round and eventually wound up in Los Angeles, where he got a job as a motorcycle messenger at a film laboratory. When he crashed into the gates of Paramount Pictures and suffered a broken leg, the studio provided prompt medical attention. Impressed by his good looks, executives also gave him a contract after he had recovered. Starting as an extra in 1925, Arlen soon rose to credited roles, but the quality of his work left much to be desired. However, he continued in films, and his big break came when William A. Wellman cast him as a pilot in the silent film Wings (1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Clara Bow. The story of fighter aces would win the Oscar for Best Picture and Arlen would continue to play the tough, cynical hero throughout his career. Arlen appeared in three more pictures directed by Wellman, Beggars of Life (1928), Ladies of the Mob (1928) and The Man I Love (1929). In "Wings" he had a scene with a young actor named Gary Cooper. In 1929, he again worked with Cooper in the western The Virginian (1929), only this time Cooper was the star and Arlen was the supporting actor. While Arlen moved easily into sound, his career just bumped along. By 1935 he was working in such "B" pictures as Three Live Ghosts (1936). It was in 1935 that he became a freelance actor and his freelance career soon waned. In 1939, he signed with Universal and began working in its action films. In 1941 he moved to the Pine-Thomas unit at Paramount, where he appeared in adventure films. With the war on, most of his earlier films included war scenarios. By the end of the 1940s Arlen was becoming deaf and this seemed to signal the end of his career. However, he had an operation in 1949 that restored his hearing and he went on making a handful of adventures and westerns through the 1950s and working more in the 1960s. He made 15 westerns for producer A.C. Lyles, who worked with the old western stars.
Besides movies, Arlen also appeared on television and in commercials. After leaving the business in the late 1960s, he was coaxed back to the screen for three small roles in films that were released the same year that he died.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Russell Arms played Chester Finley opposite Doris Day in "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (Warner Bros. 1953). Chester, a nerd in love with Marjorie Winfield, Day's character, was Marjorie's piano teacher, a rival to Bill Sherman, played by Gordon MacRae. Arms, in 1953, was not yet a featured player on NBC-TV's "Your Hit Parade." He became one of the program's four regular singers in 1954.- Todd Armstrong was born on 25 July 1937 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Icebound in the Antarctic (1983) and Iron Horse (1966). He died on 17 November 1992 in Butte, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Another in the long line of dramatically handsome foreign imports who made an immediate impact on WWII Hollywood was debonair French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont. The epitome of grace and sophistication, the stylish leading man went on to have a long and respected career on stage, film and TV, both here and abroad.
Aumont was born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons on January 5, 1911 (some sources list 1909) in Paris, France, to Suzanne (Cahen), an actress, and Alexandre Abraham Salomons, a well-to-do department store executive. His brother, François Villiers (né Francois Salomons), went on to become a film writer/director. His father was a Dutch Jew and his mother was from a French Jewish family; he was of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi ancestry. Jean-Pierre was transferred from various prep schools before enrolling at the Paris Conservatory of Dramatic Art at the age of 16. Run by the renowned Louis Jouvet, young Aumont's first two film roles were prime roles in Jean de la Lune (1931) and Échec et mat (1931). He then went on to appear strongly in a number of Gallic films. He also made an impressive theater debut playing the role of Oedipus in Jean Cocteau's "La Machine Infernale" at the Comedie Champs-Elysees in 1934, which set up a long and lucrative tenure on the stage. Splitting his time between live performances and film-making opposite such lovelies as Simone Simon, Danielle Darrieux and Annabella), Aumont served with the French Third Mechanized Division for nearly a year (1939-1940) and earned a medal of distinction for his valour (Croix de Guerre). Two of his finest screen roles came just prior to this: 'Marcel Carne''s farcical comedy Bizarre, Bizarre (1937) starring mentor Louis Jouvet, and the romantic drama Hotel du Nord (1938) opposite the lovely Annabella and co-starring Jouvet again.
Aumont arrived in America barely speaking English in 1942 and only a few days later was "discovered" by stage legend Katharine Cornell, making his American debut in her production of "Rose Burke". During the play's Los Angeles engagement, he was signed by MGM for films and made a noticeable debut as Captain Pierre Matard in the espionage war picture Assignment in Brittany (1943) co-starring the tragic Susan Peters. Classily promoted as an up-and-coming Jean Gabin, the lithe, handsome, blue-eyed blond captured the admiration of the American public with his Charles Boyer-like charm and charisma. His second American film was the equally successful The Cross of Lorraine (1943), a dramatic Stalag 17-like story of French POW's held in a German war camp.
The lovely Technicolor siren Maria Montez, known for her popular (and campy) WWII escapism films at Universal, quickly caught his eye and the couple married in 1943 after only a three-month courtship. An earlier marriage to French's Blanche Montel had ended in divorce in 1940, well before his arrival in America. Aumont again interrupted his burgeoning acting career by serving with the Free French forces in North Africa and was again awarded a medal (Legion of Honor) for his bravery. He was twice wounded during his active years of service.
The French actor returned to Hollywood films after the war co-starring with Ginger Rogers in the comedy Heartbeat (1946) and appearing as composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in Universal's Song of Scheherazade (1947). The reception to both were lukewarm and Aumont decided to return to France with his wife (whose career was now in decline), and his daughter (who was born in 1946 and grew up to become the actress Tina Aumont). Seeking to rediscover his earlier glory in European films and the theatre, he also began writing plays. Now and then he would return to the American soil and appeared on Broadway in 1949 with his work "Figure of a Girl," which was retitled "My Name Is Aquilon" by the time it arrived on the Great White Way. While it co-starred the embraceable Lilli Palmer, who was also making her Broadway debut, the play itself was not as embraced.
On the international film scene, Aumont appeared with wife Maria in such uninspired offerings as the United Artist escapist fare Siren of Atlantis (1949), the French crime drama Wicked City (1949) [Wicked City] and the Italian adventure La vendetta del corsaro (1951)_ [The Revenge of the Pirates], the last-mentioned proving to be the last for the fetching Ms. Montez. The 39-year-old star tragically drowned in September of 1951 after her hot mineral salt bath triggered a heart seizure.
After a period of grieving, Aumont continued transcontinentally, but rather unspectacularly, with acting parts that seemed hardly challenging. He cavorted with Paulette Goddard in the mediocre action adventure Charge of the Lancers (1954); appeared among an international cast in the spectacle Napoleon (1955); co-starred rather stiffly opposite Jean Simmons in the glossy "sudspenser" Hilda Crane (1956); was overshadowed by Eleanor Parker, who paled next to Garbo in the remake of Garbo's "The Painted Veil" entitled The Seventh Sin (1957); and, played a cameo as the doomed Louis XVI in the US-based John Paul Jones (1959) co-starring wife Marisa. On a more positive note, he, Mel Ferrer and the ever-enchanting Leslie Caron were wonderful in MGM's touching musical Lili (1953). Aumont also fared much better in his 1950s televised appearances of classic works, notably "Arms and the Man" and "Crime and Punishment".
Following a torrid 1955 romance with Grace Kelly (whom, as we all know, went on to marry her Prince), the actor met and married lovely Italian actress Marisa Pavan, the sister of the late Pier Angeli, in 1956, and had two sons, Jean-Claude and Patrick, by her. Troubled by his erratic output and the uneventful film roles offered, which included those in The Enemy General (1960), The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961) and Five Miles to Midnight (1962) [Five Miles to Midnight], Aumont wisely refocused on the theatre and his playwriting skills. Stage performances included "The Heavenly Twins" and "A Second String" (both on Broadway), the title role in "The Affairs of Anatol", "Murderous Angels" and appearances in the musicals "Tovarich" with Vivien Leigh (on Broadway), "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris," "South Pacific" (as the debonair Emile DeBecque), and "Gigi" with wife Marisa. The couple also went on to form a warmly-received nightclub act in New York.
For the remainder of his career, Aumont remained the ever-charming and worldly continental, vacillating between the stage ("Camino Real," "Private Lives," "The Sound of Music" and "Tiger at the Gates"); international films (Castle Keep (1969), Catherine & Co. (1975), Mahogany (1975), Nana (1983), Sweet Country (1987), Becoming Colette (1991) and a pair of Merchant/Ivory films Jefferson in Paris (1995) and The Proprietor (1996)): and classy TV fare (The Memory of Eva Ryker (1980), Melba (1988), A Tale of Two Cities (1989)). Some of the actor's finest movie roles in years occurred in the 1970s with the excellent Day for Night (1973) [Day for Night] and Cat and Mouse (1975) [Cat and Mouse].
The distinguished actor/playwright went awardless throughout his cinematic career but this glaring oversight was finally rectified in the form of the cross of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1991 and an honorary César Award in 1992. He died in his native country of a heart attack a few weeks after his 90th birthday in 2001.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in San Diego, California. A college dropout, he was found by a talent scout in the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles and entered Hollywood as a bit player. He was leading man to Greta Garbo in The Kiss (1929), but it was the role of Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) that was his big break. He was profoundly affected by the anti-war message of that film, and when, in 1942, the popular star of Young Dr. Kildare (1938) and subsequent Dr. Kildare films was drafted, he was a conscientious objector. America was outraged, and theaters vowed never to show his films again, but quietly he achieved the Medical Corps status he had requested, serving as a medic under fire in the South Pacific and as a chaplain's aid in New Guinea and the Phillipines. His return to film after the war was undistinguished until Johnny Belinda (1948) - his role as the sympathetic physician treating the deaf-mute Jane Wyman won him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Subsequent movie roles were scarce; an opportunity to play Dr. Kildare in television was aborted when the network refused to honor his request for no cigarette sponsorship. He continued to act, but in the 1970s put his long experience into a project to bring to the west the philosophy of the East - the resulting film, Altars of the World (1976), while not a box-office success, won critical acclaim and a Golden Globe Award. Lew Ayres died in Los Angeles, California on December 30, 1996, just two days after his 88th birthday.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Buddy was the younger brother of world heavyweight champion Max Baer. In films, he played giants in Quo Vadis (1951) and Jack and the Beanstalk (1952). When television westerns were in vogue in the '50s and '60s, he often played the heavy to super-sized heroes James Arness, Clint Walker and Chuck Connors.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Max Baer is arguably best known today for siring Max Baer Jr., the actor who played Jethro Bodine on the classic TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). However, old-timers, followers of the sweet science and viewers of the film Cinderella Man (2005) all know that Max Sr. was boxing's heavyweight champion of the world for all of 364 days, from the time he knocked out Primo Carnera on June 14, 1934, to the day he lost his title to Jimmy Braddock on June 13, 1935. Cinephiles also will remember the colorful Max from his numerous bit roles in films, including Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's Africa Screams (1949) to his near-autobiographical turn in the Budd Schulberg boxing expose The Harder They Fall (1956) starring Humphrey Bogart. Ironically, it was his acting in the latter film that likely led to his misrepresentation in "Cinderella Man" as being something akin to a monster, when actually, according to his family and those who knew him, he was an amiable man. Some fight fans thought that it was his good nature, which they attributed to his clowning, that eventually did him in, as he would not bear down on his opponents in the latter part of his career. Max Jr. says that his father wanted to be an actor, an insight that explains the flashy persona he displayed in and outside the ring as he wisecracked and clowned his way through careers as a boxer and performer in movies and nightclubs. Blessed with what "The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book" terms the most powerful right hand in heavyweight history, Baer used that right to gain a fearsome reputation as a California prizefighter before moving to New York and taking on the top ranks of the heavyweight division.
Max Baer was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 11, 1909, to a Jewish father, Jacob Baer, and a mother of Scots-Irish descent, Dora (Bales). The family moved first to Colorado and then to California, where he dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work with his father on a cattle ranch. Baer developed tremendous physical strength as a ranch hand, and when he turned to boxing, he trained in a most dedicated fashion, a regimen he did not keep to when he reached the zenith of his craft. In 1929 he turned professional and racked up 22 wins in his first 24 fights, nine via first-round knockouts. He was a very dangerous fighter, and in 1930 he was suspended from the ring in California for a year after the death of one of his opponents, Frankie Campbell (the brother of pro baseball player Dolph Camilli). Campbell had died after being KO'ed by Baer, and criminal charges were filed against him. Though the manslaughter charges ultimately were dropped, Baer had to deal with the psychological burden of having taken another man's life. He quit the ring for several months after Campbell's death, and Max Jr. claims that this is when the Max the Clown (one of his nicknames was "Madcap Maxie") emerged, as a way of dealing with his torment. Plagued by nightmares for many years, he also took up smoking, which was not very wise for a fighter who depended on his wind in the ring. When Baer returned to boxing after the layoff, he was a different fighter, shy to go on the offense against his opponents. He lost four of his next six fights; according to one opponent who had beaten him in that period, Tommy Loughran, Baer was telegraphing his punches with a looping attack. Baer's career was revitalized when former heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey took a financial interest in the boxer and taught him to shorten his punches. The "monster" of the ring was back. Baer knocked out Ernie Schaaf, rendering him unconscious, in the tenth round of their August 31, 1932, fight. When Schaaf died after fighting future heavyweight champ Primo Carnera in a Februry 14, 1933, bout, many attributed his death to the beating he had taken at the hands of Baer.
This chain of events has long been considered part of boxing lore, which Baer helped perpetuate. In the 1956 movie "The Harder They Fall," the fictionalized story of Carnera's rise and fall through the heavyweight ranks, the Max Baer character, who was played by none other than Baer himself, says: "You know I'm the guy who nailed Gus [Ernie Schaaf], murdered him for 15 rounds. Don't know what held him up, but when Gus left the ring that night he was a dead man. All your joker did was tap him. I did all the work and they gave your guy all the glory." The "your guy" being referred to was the fictionalized Carnera (in actuality, it is most unlikely that Baer caused Schaaf's death. Schaaf likely was suffering from a form of meningitis caused by influenza when he fought Carnera six months after the Baer beating). Baer moved to New York to be near Dempsey and the boxing powers-that-be. In 1933 Baer publicly identified himself as a Jew and began wearing a Star of David on his trunks. This was when he was scheduled to meet the German Max Schmeling in the ring, just at the beginning of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Baer also wore a Star of David on his trunks during his title defense against Jim "Cinderella Man" Braddock, which was the centerpiece of Howard's film. In the movie, the Star of David is significantly less prominent than the real one Baer wore in the 1935 fight. Boxing in America has always capitalized at the box office on racial and ethnic conflicts, real and imagined, since at least the days of Jack Johnson and "The Great White Hope." Some thought Baer's self-identification as a Jew was opportunistic, as it appealed to the very large contingent of Jewish fight fans in the New York City metropolitan area. Baer's father was a non-practicing Jew, and his parents raised their son a Catholic, which fueled the charges of opportunism. However, writer Jeremy Schaap, whose book "Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History" served as the basis of Ron Howard's film, believes that Baer's manager, Ancil Hoffman, used Baer's ethnic consciousness to motivate him against Schmeling in the ring. Hitler had already launched his anti-Semitic campaign in Germany, and a Jew against a "Nazi" (though Schmeling would always be reluctant about his manipulation as a showpiece of the Nazi state) made good economic sense at the gate--and if it motivated Baer and his fans, so much the better. As it turned out, Baer beat Schmeling so badly at Yankee Stadium before 60,000 fans that the fight had to be stopped in the tenth round due to the ferocity of Baer's attack and the amount of punishment absorbed by Schmeling, himself a future heavyweight champ. Baer won the lead in the 1933 flick The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) in which he starred with Myrna Loy and future opponent Primo Carnera, then the world's heavyweight boxing champ.
In a foreshadowing of what was to come in his career (his first title shot and first defense, though it would be Jimmy Braddock who was the underdog then), Baer was cast as an all-American underdog who challenges Carnera -- playing himself -- for the championship (Carnera only agreed to adhere to the script and retain his crown through a draw with Baer in the final reel for an additional fee of $10,000). The thespian Baer garnered good reviews and the film was a success at the box office, though Joseph Goebbels banned it in Germany, as the "Jew" Baer was in the cast. By defeating Schmeling, Baer had earned a title shot against the Italian Carnera, who at 6'6" and 263 pounds was two inches taller than Baer and outweighed him by 53 pounds. As was fictionalized in "The Harder They Fall" a generation later, there was a certain dubious quality about Carnera's career. Many thought that his career had been manipulated by the Mafia, and that he had been unfairly steered into the heavyweight title through a series of unworthy opponents and via outright corruption. As in the film, where the fictionalized Carnera got his comeuppance at the hands of Max Baer, the real Carnera was about to face his own Götterdämmerung in the ring.
At the Madison Square Garden Bowl, 50,000 fans of the fistic arts witnessed a ferocious Baer knock down Carnera (who along with Baer later would unsuccessfully take on the eponymous giant ape in Mighty Joe Young (1949) in a New York nightery) ten to 12 times during the 11-round bout (records differ as to the number of times Carnera went down). During the fight Baer constantly taunted and grimaced at Carnera, who kept his dignity despite Baer's shenanigans, which included playing to the ladies in the crowd and non-stop merciless mugging. After the last knockdown in the 11th, the referee stopped the fight, giving Baer the decision on a technical knockout. Max Baer was now the heavyweight champion of the world. He would hold the title for exactly 364 days. That his first order of business after the title fight was repairing to a nightclub where he served as master-of-ceremonies at a fee of $10,000 did not bode well for the length of his future reign as Heavyweight Champ. Baer's nemesis turned out to be New Jersey longshoreman James "Plain Jim" Braddock, a former top contender who had dropped out of the ranks after an injury. He was soon renamed "Cinderella Man" by Damon Runyon. According to Max Baer Jr., his father didn't prepare for the fight with a boxer many considered a "has been" or a "never will be," whose best days in the ring already were eclipsed. Bradock was a 20:1 underdog before the fight, but he wore the heavyweight championship belt after their match-up at the Madison Square Bowl. Lacking motivation, Baer's disdain for training left him at the losing end of one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Braddock won a unanimous decision after 15 rounds in the ring with Baer, the monster tamed through his own malfeasance. Baer had all the talent and the hardest right in the world, enough to make him a longer-reigning champ than just shy of one year, but he squandered. During his fight with Braddock, Baer clowned around while Braddock built up points. Baer thought he could knock out Braddock at will, but he could not find it in himself to do so. The emergence of the potentially great boxer that lurked inside him essentially was denied by Baer's overt persona, the good-natured clown. How much of this is rooted in his desire not to kill again in the ring is pure speculation. Something seemingly went out of Baer after losing the title. Future heavyweight champ Joe Louis, one of the all-time greats, administered a terrible beating to the former champ during Baer's next fight, in which he was counted out on one knee in the fourth round. Many aficionados of the sweet scene thought that Baer was through, and to keep his dignity, he should retire. Baer did quit the ring for a spell, but came back, knocking out "Two-Ton" Tony Galento, a top-ranked contender.
He retired for good in 1941 after being whipped soundly by a young Lou Nova, departing professional pugilism with a career record of 72 wins (52 KOs) and 12 losses. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995. Max Baer died of a massive heart attack on November 21, 1959, in a Hollywood hotel. He was 50 years old. While he lay dying in his room, the hotel operator asked him if he needed the "house doctor." "No," he replied. "I need a people doctor!" A clown to the end.- Actor
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The son of former heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, Max Baer Jr. is a classic (except probably to him) example of Hollywood typecasting. Known around the world as "Jethro Bodine" in the smash TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Baer did not find work as an actor in Hollywood for three years after the Hillbillies went off the air. Baer finally had to put himself to work as an actor in his movie Macon County Line (1974), which he also wrote and produced with a friend. Although it didn't let him escape his Jethro character, he did earn more than $35 million dollars in box office and (later) rental receipts. This after an initial investment of just over $100,000. Not bad for a boy with a "sixth grade education!"- Actor
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Cast in a number of racially-motivated British films during the 1950s and 1960s, actor Harry Baird was born in Georgetown, Guyana (then called British Guiana) on May 12, 1931 and received his education both in Canada and England.
Famed director Carol Reed gave Harry his film break in 1954 at age 23 when he cast the actor in the smallish role of a black boxer named Jamaica in A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), a tale that dealt with the tense ethnic struggles of London's East End. A year later Harry made a minor stage bow in the musical "Kismet" at the Stoll theatre in London. Although he continued sporadically before live audiences, including a role in Jean Genet's "The Blacks" in 1961, his stronger focus would be in the cinema and on TV where he often took to stunt work just to keep himself in front of the lens.
His first lead on TV was as Rhodes Reason's bearer, Atimbu, in the low-budget White Hunter (1957) adventure series. Moviegoers first took notice of Harry, however, with his stirring portrayal of a young black brutalized by the police in the film Sapphire (1959), a role that helped him continue into the next decade. Extremely good-looking and physically fit, he rarely managed to attain leads, primarily due to the lack of parts at the time for men of his race. He did find regular supporting roles on TV, however, including the series Secret Agent (1964) and the science-fiction program UFO (1970).
As jobs grew scarce into the 60s Harry traveled to other parts of Europe, especially Italy and France, to find work. Some were even leads or co-leads. He played well-muscled action heroes in a handful of Italian spectacles and "spaghetti" westerns and scored a personal triumph in France with first-time director Melvin Van Peebles' landmark low-budget film The Story of a Three Day Pass (1967), in which he starred as a black American GI who falls in love with a white French girl (played by the late Nicole Berger) while on leave in Paris. Sadly, Ms. Berger was killed in a car accident shortly after filming the movie.
Other films around this time included Bryan Forbes' classic The Whisperers (1967) starring Edith Evans, The Touchables (1968), in which the athletic actor played a gay wrestler named "Lillywhite," the Edgar Allan Poe adaptation The Oblong Box (1969) with Vincent Price, and friend Michael Caine's picture The Italian Job (1969). In the 1970s Harry was diagnosed with glaucoma.
He was forced to retire as the impairment worsened and he eventually went completely blind. He remained upbeat and positive in later years as he adapted to his handicap and took classes on film history among other interests. He was married and divorced and survived by a stepdaughter when he died of cancer at age 73 in London on February 13, 2005.- Actor
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George was stage struck at the age of 14 and ran away from school to get a 25 shilling (25p) a week job at a seaside theatre, He spent 6 years going through the mill of small town repertory theatre then the cinema discovered him. After making 12 films he left the studios for 7 years during which time he went back to the theatre appearing in classics at the Old Vic and plays in the West End with films in between - his 13th was The Curse of the Fly,- Actor
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Stanley Baker was unusual star material to emerge during the Fifties - when impossibly handsome and engagingly romantic leading men were almost de rigueur. Baker was forged from a rougher mould. His was good-looking, but his features were angular, taut, austere and unwelcoming. His screen persona was taciturn, even surly, and the young actor displayed a predilection for introspection and blunt speaking, and was almost wilfully unromantic. For the times a potential leading actor cast heavily against the grain. Baker immediately proved a unique screen presence - tough, gritty, combustible - and possessing an aura of dark, even menacing power.
Stanley Baker came from rugged Welsh mining stock - and as a lad was unruly, quick to flare, and first to fight. But like his compatriot and friend Richard Burton, the young Baker was rescued from a gruelling life of coal mining by a local teacher, Glyn Morse, who recognized in the proud and self-willed lad a potent combination of a fine speaking voice, a smouldering intensity, and a strong spirit. And like Burton, Stanley Baker was specially and specifically tutored for theatrical success. In fact, early on, Burton and Baker appeared together on stage as juveniles in The Druid's Rest, in Cardiff, in Wales. But later, by way of Birmingham Repertory Theatre and then the London stage, Stanley Baker charted his inevitable course toward the Cinema.
Film welcomed the adult Baker as the embodiment of evil. Memorable early roles cast the actor in feisty unsympathetic parts - from the testy bosun in Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) to his modern-day counterpart in The Cruel Sea (1953), to the arch villains in Hell Below Zero (1954) and Campbell's Kingdom (1957) to the dastardly Mordred in Knights of the Round Table (1953) and the wily Achilles in Helen of Troy (1956). For a time there was a distillation of Baker's screen persona in a series of roles as stern and uncompromising policemen - in Violent Playground (1958), Chance Meeting (1959), and Hell Is a City (1960). But despite never having been cast as a romantic leading man, and being almost wholly associated with villainous roles, Stanley Baker nevertheless became a star by dint of his potent personality.
Although now enthroned by enthusiastic audiences Stanley Baker was obviously aware he need not desert unsympathetic parts - and his relish in playing the scheming Astaroth in Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) and the unscrupulous mobster Johnny Bannion in The Concrete Jungle (1960) was readily evident. But soon there were more principled, if still surly characters, in The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Games (1970), Eva (1962), and Accident (1967), the latter two films reuniting Baker with the American expatriot director of The Criminal, Joseph Losey. Stanley Baker also established a fruitful working relationship with the American director Cy Endfield, following their early collaboration on Hell Drivers (1957). When Baker inaugurated his own film production company - it was Endfield he commissioned to write and direct both Zulu (1964) and Sands of the Kalahari (1965), with Baker allotting himself the downbeat roles of the martinet officer John Chard in Zulu and the reluctant hero Mike Bain in The Sands Of The Kalahari.
Baker must have felt more assured in disenchanted roles - as further films from Baker's own stable still promoted the actor in either criminal or villainous mode - as gangster Paul Clifton in Robbery (1967) and the corrupt thief-taker Jonathan Wild in Where's Jack? (1969). The success of Baker's own productions was timely and did much to enhance the prestige of what was then considered an ailing British film industry. Stanley Baker also took the opportunity to move into the realm of television, appearing in, among other productions, the dramas The Changeling (1974) and Robinson Crusoe (1974), and also in the series How Green Was My Valley (1975).
Knighted in 1976 it was evident that Stanley Baker may well have continued to greater heights, both as an actor and a producer, but he succumbed to lung cancer and died at the early age of forty-eight. But his legacy is unquestioned. He was a unique force on screen, championing characterizations that were not clichéd or compromised. He established his own niche as an actor content to be admired for peerlessly portraying the disreputable and the unsympathetic. In that he was a dark mirror, more accurately reflecting human frailty and the vagaries of life than many of his more romantically or heroically inclined contemporaries. There have forever been legions of seemingly interchangeable charming and virile leading men populating the movies - but Stanley Baker stood almost alone in his determination to be characterized and judged by portraying the bleaker aspects of the human condition. Consequently, more than twenty-five years after his death, his sombre, potent personality still illuminates the screen in a way few others have achieved.- Jess Barker was born on 4 June 1912 in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for Reign of Terror (1949), Scarlet Street (1945) and Cover Girl (1944). He was married to Susan Hayward. He died on 8 August 2000 in North Hollywood, California, USA.
- Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. was a direct descendant of the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and of Sir William Henry Crichlow, historical Governor-General of Barbados. Barker attended the Fessenden School and Phillips-Exeter Academy, where he excelled in football and track. He went to Princeton, but left to become an actor. A year later he was spotted while working in summer stock theatre, and received a contract offer from 20th Century Fox. World War II intervened; he enlisted as an infantry private, and rose to the rank of major.
Although later signed by Fox and then Warner Bros, he was too tall for supporting parts and too unknown for leads. Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949) (RKO) provided his first starring role. After five Tarzan films, he went into other adventure films. After 16 non-Tarzan films, mostly westerns, he went to Europe in 1957 (he spoke French, Spanish, Italian, and German). He went on to make more than 50 more films worldwide: Brazil, Germany, Spain, Yugoslavia, Italy, Lebanon, France, as well as the USA. He became very popular in Germany owing to his roles as "Old Shatterhand", "Kara Ben Nemsi", and "Dr. Karl Sternau", in films based on books written by Karl May, a popular German writer of adventure literature. Barker won Germany's Bambi Award as Best Foreign Actor of 1966. - Rayford Barnes was born on 23 October 1920 in near Whitesboro, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Wild Bunch (1969), Death Hunt (1981) and Young Jesse James (1960). He was married to Debra ?. He died on 11 November 2000 in Santa Monica, California, USA.