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1-50 of 57
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Sherman Hemsley played characters known to be wise-cracking, "Weezy" loving, boisterous fools which America and the entire world laughed with kindheartedly. Sherman Alexander Hemsley, Air Force veteran and actor, was born on Feb. 1, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, William Hemsley, worked at a printing press while his mother worked at various factories during the war. As a child, Hemsley was introduced to acting during school where the teachers would ask students to play different characters. The first play he did as a kid in school was about fire prevention and Hemsley played the fire. He eventually ended up dropping out of school and joined the Air Force. During his adolescence he never considered acting as a profession until after he served in the military. Hemsley then moved from south Philadelphia where he had spent most of his life to New York City. He worked graveyard shift as a post office clerk during the night and actor during the day. He considered New York the best place to be as it had several acting workshops and theater companies such as The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC)founded by Robert Hooks which helped actors/actresses obtain roles on theater, television and movies. His former co-star, Roxie Roker, was also part of the NEC alumni. Hemsley made his professional acting debut on the Broadway play, Purlie, and toured with the show for a year. In 1971, while on tour for Purlie, he received a call from producer/creator/writer Norman Lear. Lear wanted Hemsley to audition for a role which was going to be part of his sitcom All in the Family (1971). Due to his commitment to the Purlie project, Hemsley declined the role. Norman Lear said he would have the role open for him and Hemsley joined the cast two years later. Hemsley and co-star, Isabel Sanford were chosen to do a spin off of the show All In The Family called The Jeffersons (1975). Despite the age difference between Hemsley and Sanford (twenty years apart), many described their on-screen marriage as truly hilarious. Hemsley was nominated for a Golden Globe for his outstanding performance as George Jefferson. The Jeffersons turned out to be a success spanning eleven seasons ending in 1985. After The Jeffersons, Hemsley steadily started working on other projects and in 1986 joined the NBC sitcom Amen (1986) where he played religious deacon Ernest Frye. The show ran for five seasons until 1991. Hemsley then made his debut as a voice actor as part of the ABC live action-puppet series, Dinosaurs (1991). Hemsley played Bradley P. Richfield, Earl's cruel boss. The show ran successfully for four seasons. In 1997, the remaining cast of The Jeffersons had a reunion on the Rolonda (1994) talk show, still having the same charm they did decades ago. Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley made television guest appearances together on well-known television programs such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990) and were in commercials for The Gap, Old Navy and Denny's. Hemsley and Marla Gibbs guest starred on the TBS show House of Payne (2006) in 2011. Sherman Hemsley will be remembered as an actor who was on shows that addressed serious issues but also one who brought laughter into homes every week.- American general purpose actor, busy on television between the early 60s and the late 80s. Casper joined a travelling children's theatre straight out of high school. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942, serving in India, Burma and China. Upon his discharge, he perfected his craft at the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago and subsequently performed on and off-Broadway. In between acting assignments he toiled as a waiter at New York restaurants to make ends meet. In the late 50s, he settled in North Hollywood and appeared in several early anthology television series. He had a featured part in just a couple of cinematic motion pictures: Studs Lonigan (1960) (as a short-lived friend of the titular protagonist) and The Right Approach (1961) (as an aspiring set designer who goes by the highfalutin moniker Horace Wetheridge Tobey III). Otherwise, Casper's career was confined entirely to the small screen. In addition to several TV commercials, he made appearances in a steady dose of popular prime time fare like Perry Mason (1957), Batman (1966), Mannix (1967), Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) and Simon & Simon (1981), playing teachers, professors, lawyers, maitre D's, etcetera. He also enjoyed recurring roles in Room 222 (1969) and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) (as a cyptozoologist). Casper retired from acting in 1990. In private life, he was said to have been an avid reader and bibliophile.
- John Reynolds was born on 15 September 1941 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966). He died on 16 October 1966 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Carol Monson (aka Laura Shelton) was born Carol Jean Ready Shelton on September 5, 1935 in Eastland, Texas, and raised primarily in El Paso, Texas. She graduated from Austin High School in 1953. She was married briefly to classmate Frank Grimmer while attending Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso). After divorcing and winning a contest to appear on a television game show, she was offered a scholarship to the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse's School of Theatre, known as the Hollywood "Star Factory", where her contemporaries included Oscar-winner Gene Hackman and Rue McClanahan. While there she met and later married actor/director Carl Monson in 1961. In 1964, with Carl, she founded the Curtain Call Theater in North Hollywood, a critically acclaimed invitational playhouse run by professional actors on a cooperative basis. In addition to working in the theater throughout the 1960s, Ms. Monson focused on her television career as "Laura Shelton" and her two children, Clay Monson (born 1964) and Cristen Monson (born 1969). Her last stage appearance was as "Elsa Schraeder" in "The Sound of Music", starring Oscar-nominated Ann Blyth for Houston's Theatre Under the Stars in 1969. After her second marriage ended in 1972, Ms. Monson moved from California back to El Paso to provide a home for her children.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Eddie Ryder was born on 31 January 1923 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Up Yours (1979), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Hot Rod Girl (1956). He died on 29 March 1997 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Gunfighter John Wesley Hardin was one of the most notorious killers to come out of the Old West (while staying overnight at a hotel, he was awakened by the snoring of a man in the next room; Hardin reached over, grabbed his pistol and fired a shot through the wall, killing the man). He was a Southerner who harbored a deep hatred of blacks; the first man he is known to have killed, when he was 15, was black, and while fleeing the law for that murder he shot and killed at least one, and possibly four, Union soldiers, most of them black, who were attempting to arrest him.
Hardin later got a job herding cattle on the Chisholm Trail, but the combination of his white-hot temper, a quick draw and the prodigious amounts of alcohol he regularly imbibed resulted in his killing at least seven men along the way; when the herd arrived in Abilene, KS, he got into more gunfights, resulting in three more deaths. He returned to Texas soon afterwards, got married and settled down to raise a family (he had three children), but he soon reverted to his old ways, adding four more murders to his total, before being captured by a county sheriff. Although jailed, he soon broke out and was on the run again.
His hatred of Northerners in general and blacks in particular caused him to become involved in a political battle between pro- and anti-Reconstruction forces in Texas (he naturally took the side of the latter) in 1873 and he killed a former State Police officer who led the pro-Reconstruction forces. In 1874 he murdered a sheriff's deputy in Brown County, TX. The deputy was well liked, and it roused the fury of the locals, who formed a lynch mob. The mob actually lynched three men for the murder, none of whom had anything to do with it but all of whom were related to Hardin, which is why they were hanged; by this time Hardin had managed to flee to Florida (his wife and parents remained safe in protective custody). In 1877 he was captured in Pensacola, FL, by Texas Rangers (during his stay in Florida he was suspected of at least one and probably five more murders). He was tried for the Brown County deputy's murder in 1878 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, but only served 16 years before being pardoned in 1894. While in prison he had studied law, and after his release he was admitted to the Texas bar.
In 1895 Hardin testified as a defense witness in a murder trial in El Paso, and after the trial was over he decided to stay in that city and open up a law practice. Although he tried to remain "straight" after becoming a lawyer, he was--almost inevitably--drawn back to his old ways by his pride and a return to the heavy drinking he had once been known for. On top of that, El Paso Constable John Selman Sr., an outlaw in his own right, had an ongoing conflict with Hardin; Selman's son, a lawman, had attempted to arrest a female acquaintance of Hardin's and was pistol-whipped by Hardin for his trouble. Seething over Hardin's beating of his son, Selman entered the Acme Saloon where Hardin often played dice. The bustle of the saloon allowed Selman to enter unnoticed by Hardin. He got behind Hardin and shot him several times, although the first one actually killed him. Like many of the legendary figures of the old west, Hardin had met a violent end from someone who hadn't the courage to face him man-to-man and shot him in the back. It was said that in his last moments, even though slowed own by age and without the advantage of his youthful quick reactions, Hardin still managed to reach for his pistol before he died, although not aware of who it was who had shot him.
In the end, he died as he had lived--by the gun. - Mercedes Ramirez was born on 10 April 1927 in Colorado, USA. She was married to Julian Ramirez. She died on 12 April 2016 in El Paso County, Texas, USA.
- Served as a medic with the 118th Coast Artillary Battalion, Medical Detachment, in the US Army during WW2 attaining the rank of Tec 5. He retired from acting in 1952 and moved to El Paso in Texas, where he died in 1961. He is buried in Fort Bliss Military Cemetary in El Paso.
- Miguel Angel Valles was born on 14 June 1949 in Mexico. He was married to Suzane Valles and Josefina Bretado Valles. He died on 8 April 1995 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Julian Ramirez was born on 16 February 1927 in Camargo Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico. He was married to Mercedes Ramirez. He died on 19 August 1991 in El Paso County, Texas, USA.
- Manuel Alvarado was born on 10 July 1922 in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters (1970), Cazadores de espías (1969) and Shark (1969). He was married to María de los Ángeles Rodríguez. He died on 30 June 1978 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Patrick J. Waggaman was born on 5 December 1943 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Pastor Jim and Mary Sue Colerick: Rappin' for Jesus (2013). He died on 9 August 2021 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Talent manager of Smokin Joe Frazier and The Stepping Out Band, seasoned actress Sybil Danning to an over-30-year manager relationship with Sherman Hemsley, Ken Johnston dies on July 14, 2013.
Rhode Island native Ken Johnston held numerous positions, such as booking agent, business owner, talent manager and producer. Ken started out booking bands like New Country Sunrise on national and international tours, which led to managing Smokin' Joe Frazier and "The Stepping Out Band", which toured nationally in the late 1970s. Ken Johnston died on July 14, 2013 of natural causes.
When the tour ended, Ken Johnston headed off to Los Angeles CA and became a partner in "Ken B. Johnston & Assoc.", a major talent management firm and became manager to Sherman Hemsley of The Jeffersons (1975), for 30 years. During this time, Ken managed seasoned actress Sybil Danning for several years and and various character actors and bands.
Ken developed stage plays, such as "Norman Is That You?", starring Sherman Hemsley, won an award in Vegas for Best Produced Show with the Sherman Hemsley Show and contributed as producer to the NBC-TV shows of the 80s and 90s, Amen (1986) and Goode Behavior (1996). - Actor
- Stunts
Chavo Guerrero Sr. was born on 7 January 1949 in El Paso, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Streets of Rage (1993), The One and Only (1978) and Alligator II: The Mutation (1991). He was married to Nancy Vasquez. He died on 11 February 2017 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- He weighed only four pounds at birth and was so tiny that doctors feared he wouldn't live. But immediately, he began to grow at an incredible rate and by age ten was over six feet tall. He was discovered by Hollywood as a teenager and offered a job acting in comedies. He made over fifty of them, until one day on the set when he fell from a scaffolding. When he woke up, he found he was losing his peripheral vision, due to a newly-discovered pituitary gland tumour. Doctors attempted to shrink the tumor with X-rays which miraculously both restored his sight and stopped his incredible growth. He enrolled in college, during which he went to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus where he saw Jack (Jim) Tarver, billed as 'the tallest man in the world'. He joined the circus and traveled with them for fourteen years. Upon retiring from the circus, Jack became a successful traveling salesman and was intensely creative. He painted, sculpted, was a prize-winning photographer.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Robert J. Horner was a prolific, if spectacularly untalented, producer/director in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He had only one eye and no legs (accounts differ as to whether he was born that way or lost them in a traffic accident in his youth), but that didn't stop him from producing quite a few low-budget--very, VERY low-budget--westerns and action pictures and even directing a few of them. Contemporary accounts of the films, and a perusal of the few that exist today, indicate that Horner would not only equal but far surpass Edward D. Wood Jr. as the absolute worst director in film history.
Horner's silent pictures in the 1920s had a reputation for being among not only the cheapest (on par with his contemporary fellow hack director-producer actor Victor Adamson, a.k.a. Denver Dixon) but also the most spectacularly inept to ever come out of Hollywood. The advent of sound films by 1930 added a new and exciting dimension to Horner's incompetence. He appeared to have only the vaguest understanding of synchronization, apparently believing that "noise" and "sound" were synonymous. Audio volume would vary wildly between scenes, literally driving the few people brave (or masochistic) enough to endure a Horner feature--invariably on the lower half of a double bill--out into the comparative quiet of the street. His films seldom took more than three days to shoot and rarely, if ever, cost more than $2,000. Even with those chump-change budgets, though, he still found it difficult to obtain financing through conventional channels--mainly because no legitimate producer in his right mind would let Horner anywhere near him--and he was forced to be "creative" in obtaining financing. This "creativity" often consisted of such tactics as soliciting donations from aspiring actors and actresses in exchange for a part in one of his upcoming films, and those naive--or stupid--enough to give him money often ended up never hearing from him again (in addition, many of these aspiring actresses also charged him with trying to solicit more than just a financial donation). This and other schemes--such as hiring actors and actresses to work in his films and once they were finished refusing to pay them--invariably landed him in hot water with the authorities, among others. He was arrested several times by Los Angeles police on fraud and racketeering charges, resulting in a string of criminal convictions and civil-court assessments against him, and he spent a good deal of time dodging creditors and tax agents looking to take him to court and lawmen looking to take him to jail. If there was one word that could describe Robert J. Horner it would probably be "sleazeball", but given all his personal and professional shortcomings, he was still able to eke out a living on the far, far, far fringes of Poverty Row, an accomplishment that many other low-buck producers down at Horner's level couldn't manage.
Horner filed for bankruptcy in February 1933, listing six silent western film negatives as his only assets. His liabilities included $29,573 owed in back taxes and a large number of unpaid-labor claims. His personal assets totaled $1,500. He attempted to make a comeback by producing a few western films for Aywon Pictures. His days as a producer ended in 1935, though, when he tried to bring silent-screen cowboy Ted Wells back as a western hero; the result was the stupefying inept The Phantom Cowboy (1935). Horner was planning an eight-film series with Wells beginning with Defying the Law (1935), which he produced for Aywon, but the "series" ended with that picture.
Robert J. Horner passed away on July 29, 1942, at the El Paso (TX) City-County Hospital from cirrhosis of the liver.- Don Haskins was born on 14 March 1930 in Enid, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Glory Road (2006), ESPN SportsCentury (1999) and ESPN 25: Who's #1? (2004). He was married to Mary. He died on 7 September 2008 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Anthony Escobar was an actor, known for Logan (2017), Prison Break (2005) and Rx (2005). He died in October 2017 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Alma Rayford was born on 24 March 1903 in Muskogee, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. She was an actress, known for Cactus Trails (1925), Between Dangers (1927) and The Son of Sontag (1925). She died on 14 February 1987 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
Beatriz Baz was born on 21 August 1923 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She was an actress and producer, known for Trampas de amor (1969), Mi amor por ti (1969) and Corazón salvaje (1966). She died on 5 January 2010 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Reece 'Goose' Tatum was born on 3 May 1921 in El Dorado, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Harlem Globetrotters (1951), Go Man Go (1954) and Basketball Headliners of 1951 (1951). He was married to Nona. He died on 18 January 1967 in El Paso, California, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Harry Solter was born on 19 November 1873 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Taming of the Shrew (1908), The Romance of a Photograph (1914) and Blind Man's Bluff (1916). He was married to Florence Lawrence. He died on 2 March 1920 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Stunts
- Actress
Audrey Scott was born on 4 July 1914 in Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Riding Habits (1948). She was married to Charles "Red" Barnett. She died on 23 April 1973 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Actor
Gene Tracy was born on 8 April 1927 in Anadarko, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor. He died on 3 November 1979 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Gory Guerrero was born on 11 January 1921 in Ray, Arizona, USA. He was an actor, known for Santo vs. the Zombies (1962) and La furia del ring (1961). He died on 18 April 1990 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Camera and Electrical Department
Kyme Meade was born on 12 December 1904 in Wisconsin, USA. She is known for Shakedown (1950), The Facts of Life (1960) and Soldier in the Rain (1963). She died on 23 October 1988 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Luis Carlos Montalván was born on 13 April 1973 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was a producer, known for From Baghdad to Brooklyn (2015) and Late Show with David Letterman (1993). He died on 2 December 2016 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Jesus 'Chuy' De La O was an actor, known for Lone Wolf McQuade (1983). He died on 8 April 2002 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Frank Crow was born on 29 January 1929 in the USA. Frank was a writer, known for Hazel (1961), Petticoat Junction (1963) and The Flying Nun (1967). Frank died on 22 July 2010 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Elmer Warren was born on 25 May 1919 in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Sundown Valley (1944). He died on 10 February 2010 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Zita Moulton was born on 9 May 1896 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for Modern Marriage (1923), Big Money (1930) and Hoosier Schoolboy (1937). She died on 5 February 1988 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Adrianna Galvez was born on 10 March 1907 in Muskogee, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. She was an actress, known for The Gentleman from Arizona (1939). She died on 1 March 1979 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Billy Atkins was born on 19 November 1934 in Millport, Alabama, USA. He died on 5 November 1991 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Allan Keown was born on 26 February 1935 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Fandango (1985). He was married to Wanda J. Hill, Dorothy L. Strickrodt, Marianne Gridley and Jacqueline Cain. He died on 25 September 2014 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- William Chamberlain was born on 30 August 1903 in Jefferson, Washington, USA. He was a writer, known for Advance to the Rear (1964), Imitation General (1958) and Schlitz Playhouse (1951). He died in May 1966 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- James Forbes was born on 18 July 1952 in Fort Rucker, Alabama, USA. He was a producer, known for The Atrocity Exhibition (1998), Tri sekundy (2018) and Munich 1972: Games of the XX Olympiad (1972). He died on 21 January 2022 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- T. Kizer tha Dummy was born on 15 August 1998. He was an actor, known for T. Kizer tha Dummy: Spazz (2017), T. Kizer tha Dummy: Young & Dumb (2017) and Kazi Mook feat. T. Kizer: Milli Remix (2017). He died on 27 January 2019 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Harry Stone Jr. was born on 18 December 1933 in Ennis, Texas, USA. He was married to Carol A. Stone. He died on 26 February 2008 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Israel Calvo was born on 22 March 1935. He was an actor, known for Glory Road (2006) and Untameable (2023). He died on 30 January 2013 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Margaret Osbourne was born on 4 March 1918 in Joseph, Oregon, USA. She was an actress, known for Queens of the Court (1946). She was married to William du Pont Jr.. She died on 24 October 2012 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Ford Fenimore was an actor, known for For High Stakes (1915), The Hand of the Law (1915) and The Parson's Horse Race (1915). He was married to Dorothy Armstong. He died on 20 April 1941 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Donald Chambers was born on 23 November 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. He died on 18 July 1999 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Ilse Sigler was born on 30 May 1927 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She died on 9 March 2009 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Daniel Nathan Rubin was born on 4 August 1892 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. He was a writer, known for Night Club Scandal (1937), Dishonored (1931) and Midnight Madness (1928). He died on 31 January 1965 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Sam Marshall was born on 18 July 1900 in Catskill, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Snakeville's Home Guard (1914), Snakeville's Most Popular Lady (1914) and The Bell-Hop (1915). He died on 17 December 1977 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Clementina Morín was born on 2 December 1882 in Puebla, Puebla, Mexico. She was an actress, known for La madrina del diablo (1937), Eterna mártir (1937) and No basta ser madre (1937). She died on 6 December 1956 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Ingeborg Heuser was born in 1928 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Bal paré (1940). She died on 14 February 2022 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Wayne Hansen was born on 6 October 1928 in McCamey, Texas, USA. He died in August 1987 in El Paso, Texas, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
- Art Department
Tom Lea was born on 11 July 1907 in El Paso, Texas, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Brave Bulls (1951), The Wonderful Country (1959) and They Drew Fire (2000). He was married to Sarah Dighton. He died on 29 January 2001 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- Victoriano Huerta was a former general in the Mexican army who became President of Mexico in 1913 by overthrowing President Francisco I. Madero, and later had him executed. Huerta's regime was marked by extreme brutality against his opponents and the Mexican population in general, and his excesses resulted in a coalition of prominent Mexican military and political figures that united to overthrow him.
Huerta was born in Colotlan, Mexico, in 1854 to Indian parents. He was educated at the Chapultepec Military College and graduated as an officer in the Mexican army. He rose to the rank of general during the rule of longtime dictator Porfirio Díaz, and when Diaz was overthrown Huerta remained in the army to serve Diaz's successor, Francisco Madero, as Chief of Staff.
In 1913 units of the army in Mexico City rebelled against Madero, and Huerta joined forces with them. Madero was forced to resign, and Huerta took over the presidency. Several days later Madero was shot on Huerta's orders. Huerta then dissolved the national legislature and established a military dictatorship, with himself at the head. His regime quickly earned a reputation for inefficiency, corruption and brutality, which resulted in an alliance of well known Mexican figures, both civilian and military, such as Pancho Villa, Álvaro Obregón, Emiliano Zapata and Venustiano Carranza to overthrow him. The American government eventually dropped its support of Huerta and switched it to the rebels. It sent troops to occupy the coastal city of Veracruz, and did not stop the smuggling of arms to the rebel forces inside Mexico. Huerta's army was badly defeated in several battles against the opposition forces, and on July 15, 1914, with rebels approaching Mexico City, he resigned and fled to Spain. He traveled to the US in 1915 and attempted to organize forces to return to Mexico and take power again, but was arrested by American authorities on charges of fomenting rebellion in Mexico. He was jailed at the US army post of Fort Bliss, TX. He died there of cirrhosis of the liver in 1915.