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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Typical of busy character actors, Fiedler made his face (and voice) recognizable to millions. Many know the bald-pated Fiedler as therapy patient "Mr. Peterson" on The Bob Newhart Show (1972); others might first recognize him for the 1968 movie, The Odd Couple (1968), and spin-off TV show, The Odd Couple (1970), or perhaps even from the Broadway play that preceded them. Even kids would know that helium-high voice from animated Disney features like Robin Hood (1973), The Fox and the Hound (1981) and the "Winnie the Pooh" stories, in which he voiced "Piglet". The son of an Irish-German beer salesman, Fiedler knew he wanted to be an actor from his childhood days, when he had a full head of reddish-yellow hair. He made his first professional appearances onstage, branched out into live TV in New York and, then, during the 20 years he lived in Hollywood (1960-80), he turned up in many movies and an ever greater number of popular TV shows.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Max Wright was born on 2 August 1943 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for ALF (1986), All That Jazz (1979) and The Shadow (1994). He was married to Linda Ybarrondo. He died on 26 June 2019 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Slim, pixie-like, two-time Tony Award winner Tammy Grimes who put on marvelously quirky Cowardesque airs and captivated audiences with her inimitably throaty, raspy voice was actually not British but born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on January 30, 1934, the daughter of Eola Willard (née Niles), a naturalist and spiritualist, and Luther Nichols Grimes, an innkeeper, country-club manager, and farmer. She attended the all-girls Beaver Country Day School in nearby Chestnut Hill and later received entry at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, before relocating to New York for professional acting purposes.
Grimes studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and made her NY debut there in "Jonah and the Whale" in 1955. Broadway offers came shortly after, first as a standby for Kim Stanley as Cherie in "Bus Stop" in June 1955. In 1956, she appeared in the off-Broadway production "The Littlest Revue," performed in a cross-country tour of "The Lark," made an Obie-winning appearance in the off-Broadway play "Clerambard," and in 1959 nabbed the lead role in Noël Coward's play "Look After Lulu!" on Broadway after the renowned playwright discovered her distinctive style of singing at Julius Monk's Downstairs at the Upstairs nightclub in New York. She won a Theatre World Award for that. She later was guest star at the New York City Opera in a revival of "The Cradle will Rock," recreating the role of Moll. On the classical side, Tammy starred with the American Shakespeare Festival at Stratford, Connecticut, as Mistress Quickly in "Henry IV", and Mopsa in 'The Winter's Tale".
Earning the role of the indomitable, rags-to-riches, Titanic-surviving Molly Brown in the 1960 musical comedy "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", Grimes won a Tony Award as "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" (due to below the title rules at the time). She followed this with the 1963 play "Rattle of a Simple Man" in 1963. On TV she appeared twice on the popular series "Route 66" and is fondly remembered for her performance in four TV specials: "Four for Tonight" with Cyril Ritchard, Beatrice Lillie and Tony Randall; "Hollywood Sings" with Eddie Albert; "The Datchet Diamonds" with Rex Harrison, and Archy and Mehitabel (1960) with Eddie Bracken.
Grimes was originally offered the part of Samantha Stevens in the sitcom Bewitched (1964) but was released from her contract when friend Noël Coward asked her to star on Broadway as Elvira in "High Spirits", a musical directed by Coward himself and based on his own comedic play, "Blithe Spirit." The role of Samantha in Bewitched (1964) went to Elizabeth Montgomery and the series was a smash hit.
1966-67 were tepid years for the actress. After "Bewitched", Grimes finally received her own ABC television series, The Tammy Grimes Show (1966), playing a wealthy heiress but the show was not well-received and dropped quickly, making it one of the shortest series shown in TV history. That same year she was featured in her first film, Three Bites of the Apple (1967), a diverting comedy starring British actor David McCallum and Italian actress Sylva Koscina. The film helped showcase Grimes's quirky talents, but it made no impression on the public and pretty much put the bite on a leading lady career. Later she was sporadically and sometimes bizarrely featured into such films as Play It As It Lays (1972), Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978), The Runner Stumbles (1979), America (1986), Mr. North (1988), Slaves of New York (1989), A Modern Affair (1995), and High Art (1998).
Grimes became the toast of New York when she appeared in a revival of Noël Coward's "Private Lives" as "Amanda", winning her second Tony Award, this time for "Best Actress". During her career, she also spent several seasons at the Stratford Festival in Canada. In addition to night clubs, she has also recorded several albums of songs, recited poetry, and hosted CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
In 2003, Grimes was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and later that year was invited by The Noel Coward Society (she later became its vice president) to be the first celebrity to lay flowers on the statue of Sir Coward at The Gershwin Theatre in Manhattan to celebrate the playwright's 104th birthday. In 2007, the septuagenarian returned to the cabaret stage in a critically acclaimed one-woman show at the Plush Room, "An Evening with Miss Tammy Grimes."
Grimes was married three times. First to actor Christopher Plummer in August 1956, by whom she had actress Amanda Plummer. The couple were divorced in 1960. Her second husband was actor Jeremy Slate, whose marriage in 1966 lasted but a year. Her 1971 union to Canadian composer Richard Jameson Bell, was a great success and lasted until his death in 2005.
Tammy Grimes died on October 30, 2016, aged 82, in Englewood, New Jersey, from undisclosed causes. She was survived by her brother, Luther Nichols "Nick" Grimes Jr., and her Tony-winning actress/daughter Amanda.- Actor
- Writer
Roland Winters was born on 22 November 1904 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Docks of New Orleans (1948), Blue Hawaii (1961) and The Chinese Ring (1947). He was married to Helen Lewis and Ada Carver Howe. He died on 22 October 1989 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Robert Earl Jones was born on 3 February 1910 in Senatobia, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for The Sting (1973), Sleepaway Camp (1983) and Witness (1985). He was married to Ruth Connolly, Jumelle P. Jones and Ruth Williams. He died on 7 September 2006 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Pert and pretty Brooklyn-born actress Pamela Duncan made brief movie news in the 1950s as a "B" level performer and would be best remembered for her damsel-in-distress participation in two of Roger Corman's cult turkeys -- Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) and The Undead (1957), both co-starring Richard Garland. She played a dual role in the latter. Known for her exceptional fresh-faced beauty, she won several local pageants as a bobbysoxer on her way up. Deciding to pursue a movie career, she made her debut in Whistling Hills (1951) and appeared in small bits for the most part. In addition to her two prime sci-fi roles, she also enacted the role of Mike Hammer's secretary in the low-budget film whodunit My Gun Is Quick (1957).
Pamela was also a decorative presence on many major TV programs, especially westerns, such as Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951), The Roy Rogers Show (1951), The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954), Colt .45 (1957), Laramie (1959), Death Valley Days (1952) and Maverick (1957). She also provided pleasant distraction on crime-solving dramas including Perry Mason (1957), Peter Gunn (1958), Mr. Lucky (1959) and The Detectives (1959). Following her brief "15 minutes" of fame, her career quickly phased out in the early 60s. Out of touch for decades, she appeared out of nowhere in the Oscar-nominated documentary Curtain Call (2000), a documentary that focused on the lives and careers of the residents of the Lillian Booth Actors' Fund of America Home in Englewood, New Jersey. She lived there for the last ten years of her life. The 80-year-old Pamela suffered a stroke and died at the home on November 11, 2005. She left no survivors. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Her quivery, high-pitched, Southern-cracked tones were once described as sounding like "a Tweetie Pie cartoon bird strangling on peanut butter." Just the absurdity of that description fits comedienne Dody Goodman to a tee. One did not know what to make of her, but she could certainly induce laughter with a mere perplexed look, a spaced-out pause, or by opening her mouth and spouting out a silly malaprop. Her flakiness seemed so real that one wondered if that was the REAL Dody Goodman or just some savvy comedienne who knew exactly how to package herself. Maybe a little of both.
An endearing scenestealer, Dody put her own indelible patent on the feather-brained relative, inept teacher and neighborhood chatterbox, playing them all to the hilt in an over six-decade career. Her characters alway seemed lost in their own little world...whatever world that was, it must have been a sweet and happy little place for she always displayed a pleasant demeanor and had a fixed smile plastered on that rather blank face of hers. TV was Dody's choice of medium later in life and her ditsy foils became a popular addiction on prime-time and late-nite TV shows during the 1960s and 1970s.
She was born Dolores Goodman, the daughter of Dexter, a cigar factory owner, and Leona Goodman, in Columbus, Ohio on October 28, 1914. Dody's beginnings were in dance and ballet and, after traipsing off to New York in the hopes of becoming a ballerina, fell into the ballet company at Radio City Music Hall. She eventually went the Broadway route and made her debut as a ballet dancer in the short-lived musical "Viva O'Brien" in 1941. From that she continued to gain experience in the dancing ensembles of "Something for the Boys," "One Touch of Venus," Laffing Room Only," "High Button Shoes," "Miss Liberty," "Call Me Madam" and "My Darlin' Aida." A featured role in the 1953 musical "Wonderful Town" starring Tony-winner Rosalind Russell was a huge turning point, and another standout part in 1955's "Shoestring Revue" had her introducing the show-stopping novelty song "Someone Is Sending Me Flowers".
It was comedienne Imogene Coca and "Wonderful Town" director George Abbott who saw Dody's true potential as a funny girl and helped steer her towards comedy. Soon Dody was performing on 50s TV in comedy skits. With a pixie-like eccentricity that reminded one of the late great Gracie Allen, Dody's big break happened in mid-career when, at age 43, she made a chatty 1957 guest appearance on the second episode of Jack Paar's "Tonight Show" and was hired as a regular. An enormous hit with audiences, she earned an Emmy nomination in the process, but Paar dropped her from the show the following year because she had a disconcerting habit of upstaging him. She later became a well-oiled guest on game shows and on Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin's chatfests.
On stage, Dody played the Carol Burnett role in a tour of "Once Upon a Mattress" and added "Fiorello!" and the "New Cole Porter Review" to her musical comedy resume in the early 1960s. She did not return to Broadway until over a decade later with a supporting role in "Lorelei" starring Carol Channing in 1974. Two decades later she would reappear in a Broadway revival of "Grease". On the legit comedy stage, she added to the wackiness of such plays as "A Thurber Carnival," "Don't Drink the Water, "The Front Page" and "George Washington Slept Here".
An ideal showcase for her loopy talents was as Louise Lasser's mother, Martha Shumway, on the cutting edge TV satire, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976). An off-the-wall sendup of soap operas, Goodman was in her element as the title character's mother who engaged in conversation with her plants. When Lasser left the show, the cast maintained for another six months and the title was changed to Forever Fernwood (1977).
An older Dody appeared as a regular for a season on sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978) and in such teen-oriented movies as Grease (1978) and Grease 2 (1982), as well as Splash (1983) and Private Resort (1985). She also provided a regular cartoon voiceover for "Alvin & the Chipmunks" for years. On stage she earned a Drama Desk nomination for her 1984 appearance in the O'Neill play "Ah, Wilderness!" and later spent several seasons touring in the musical farce "Nunsense" -- starting out as Sister Mary Amnesia and graduating to the role of Mother Superior. At age 85 she was still kicking up her heels in one of the show's many spin-offs, "Nuncrackers," and was glimpsed occasionally as her old flaky self as a guest on "The David Letterman Show".
Appearing at special events past the age of 90, she died peacefully on June 22, 2008, at the Englewood, New Jersey Hospital and Medical Center. Declining health had forced her to move into assisted living (Lillian Booth Actors' Fund Home) in Englewood back in October of 2007. The unmarried Dody was survived by several nieces and nephews.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
She was born Lelia Vita Goldoni in New York City, of Sicilian ancestry, the daughter of an actor. After her family relocated to California, she spent her upbringing in Los Angeles and eventually attended L.A. City College to study Italian, English literature and psychology. After hours, she performed with the Lester Horton troupe of interpretive dancers. Aged nineteen, she moved back to New York to study drama at a workshop run by John Cassavetes and Burton Lane on West Forty-Sixth Street in Manhattan. Cassavetes gave Goldoni her first break by casting her in his independently produced avant-garde racial drama Shadows (1958) as the youngest of three African-American siblings living in a cramped New York apartment. The film focused on their various relationships, on human rather than racial issues. According to Ray Carney in his book 'The Films of John Cassavetes: Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Movies', "Cassavetes was opposed to the notion of art having a negative or satiric agenda, and to works that mocked or denigrated their characters." Carney further asserts that Goldoni "steals most of the scenes in which she appears, not only because her part is so much more emotionally expressive than anyone else's, but because Lelia Goldoni...is brilliantly able to use her face, voice and body to express the smallest flicker of feeling".
Goldoni received the first of her two BAFTA nominations for her role in Shadows. Her unaffected appearance in the picture also set the tone for her future look in subsequent roles. In her own words: "When you do not have regular features you must make the most of your individuality... I like a pale look with the accent on my eyes".
Her next appearance was in an episode of Johnny Staccato (1959), which starred Cassavetes as a jazz piano-playing private detective. Sandwiched in between TV guest spots (and based in Britain for some years) Goldoni headlined as a murderess in the Hammer-produced thriller Hysteria (1965) and then enjoyed a notably animated role pivotal to the gothic drama Theatre of Death (1967), starring opposite horror icon Christopher Lee. Upon her return to the U.S. in 1973, she played Ellen Burstyn's best friend Bea in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) (her second BAFTA nominated performance) and the girlfriend of tough-talking Abe Kusich (Billy Barty) in The Day of the Locust (1975), a bitter satire about failed aspirations in 1930s Hollywood. In the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Goldoni played one of the alien infectees, duplicated as 'a pod person'. She was also a frequent guest star in episodic television, often in crime dramas like Vega$ (1978), Cagney & Lacey (1981), The New Mike Hammer (1984), L.A. Law (1986) and Cold Case (2003).
A lifelong alumnus of The Actor's Studio, Goldoni later taught acting technique at several institutions, including UCLA and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. As to her own role models, she admitted to being a big fan of actor Stanley Tucci. Goldoni died at the age of 86 at The Actor's Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, on July 22 2023.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Allan Rich was a recognizable character actor who worked in film, television, and theatre.
In 2006, he was featured in "My Sexiest Year", opposite Frances Fisher and Frankie Muniz, and was interviewed for the documentary, "Troupers". Last year he appeared in three soon to be released features. "Rise", "Lies & Alibis", and "The Man in the Chair". Recent Independent features include "The Burial Society" (with David Paymer), "The Dog Walker", and "Intoxicating" (with John Savage). Other feature film credits include Disclosure (1994) (as Demi Moore's character's attorney), Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994), and Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997). Additional notable performances include the role of Dr. Benfante in Jack (1996) and as Bill Adolphe (Halle Berry's character's lawyer) in The Rich Man's Wife (1996). More recent television credits include "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as a holocaust 'Survivor,' "Living With Fran", "NYPD Blue", "Judging Amy", "CSI", and "The Division".
Allan began his distinguished acting career as a teenager in New York, working with Edward G. Robinson, Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy, Jack Palance, Kim Hunter, Milton Berle, and Henry Fonda, among others. He was enjoying the fruits of his labor until his dreams were shattered with the advent of McCarthyism and Rich was caught up in the Red Scare and blacklisted. With no income, a family to support and with little training outside of the acting profession, he cajoled his way onto Wall Street. After five years of buying and selling, he decided to open his own brokerage firm and with fervor, began to collect fine art. With the same drive and determination to master yet another field of endeavor, he soon became an expert in modern art, opening Allan Rich Galleries on Madison Avenue, where he began selling major paintings to important collectors and publishing lithographs of Miro, Calder, and Salvador Dalí. His experience with Dalí, in 1970 led him to co-write a screenplay, "Memories of Surrealism".
Rich returned to the stage in Ronald Ribman's "Journey of the Fifth Horse", with a young Dustin Hoffman. He re-launched his film career in 1973 playing the D.A. in "Serpico" with Al Pacino. One of his main scenes was shown on the Academy Awards. Rich took out ads in the trades and received one call from John Crosby at ICM, who helped re-established his reputation and went on to appear in more than 75 television shows, MOWs and 68 features that also include "Frances", "Eating Raoul", and "Guilty By Suspicion".
After years of teaching, he developed his own acting technique, described in his book "A Leap From the Method". In 1994, he co-founded We Care About Kids, a non-profit organization that produces live action educational short films for middle and high school youths on socially relevant topics.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
O'Neal was born in New York in 1969, but moved to Boston when he was just 1 year old. He was educated at West Roxbury High School and went on to attend Northeastern University, both in Boston. After this, various jobs followed including a sausage cart vendor at a train station, flower seller and popcorn seller at the Boston Garden Arena.
In October 1992, O'Neal attended an open microphone comedy night. He heckled one of the comedians, who challenged O'Neal to perform himself at the next open mic night. He did just that and so began his comedy career. Over the next 6 years, O'Neal became a fixture on the Boston comedy circuit. He then relocated to New York, becoming a regular at Manhattan's Comedy Cellar. After this, O'Neal moved to Los Angeles and radio, television and film projects followed.
He appeared in various shows, both in acting roles and as himself. In 2005, he taped his own episode of One Night Stand (2005) and in 2011 he had his own Comedy Central special, 'Patrice O'Neal: Elephant in the Room'. As well as on-screen projects, O'Neal worked on radio and continued as a stand-up in clubs and theaters.
O'Neal's final screen appearance was in September 2011 when he took part in the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen (2011). On November 29, 2011, O'Neal, who suffered from diabetes, passed away, following complications from a stroke. He was 41 years old.- John Ford Noonan was born on 7 October 1943 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Adventures in Babysitting (1987), St. Elsewhere (1982) and American Playhouse (1980). He was married to Marcia Lunt. He died on 16 December 2018 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Sheila MacRae was born on 24 September 1921 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and producer, known for Backfire (1950), Caged (1950) and Bikini Beach (1964). She was married to Ronald Wayne and Gordon MacRae. She died on 6 March 2014 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Earle Hyman is a distinguished African American actor who had a 46-year-long career on Broadway, where he was nominated for a Tony Award. Hyman also was nominated for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for his appearance on The Cosby Show (1984) playing Bill Cosby's father Russell Huxtable.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina on October 11, 1926, Hyman and his family moved to Brooklyn, where he grew up. His parents took him to a production of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" starring Alla Nazimova in Brighton Beach as a present for his 13th birthday, which made him want to be an actor. Impressed with Ibsen, he learned Norwegian, a language he became fluent in, enabling him to act in Norway, where he keeps a second home.
In 1944, Hyman made his debut on Broadway in Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta (1949), a hit that ran for 957 performances. He next appeared on Broadway in 1952, in Moss Hart's "The Climate of Eden", which was a flop, then played the Prince of Morocco the following year in a production of The Merchant of Venice (1973) starring Luther Adler as Shylock. In 1955, he had a role in No Time for Sergeants (1958), a hit that made Andy Griffith a star. Over the next 37 years, he would appear on Broadway another 11 times, ending with his turn in the title role of Ibsen's The Master Builder (1960) in 1992. The circle that had begun back in 1939 had been completed.
In addition to his work on Broadway, he was a charter member of the American Shakespeare Theatre that was created in 1955, playing Othello in 1957. (He had appeared as The Moor two years earlier on a Camera Three (1955) production). He was in the London production of A Raisin in the Sun (1961) in 1959. For his theatrical work in Norway, the Norwegian sovereign awarded him St. Olav's medal in recognition of "outstanding services rendered in connection with the spreading of information about Norway abroad".
Hyman made his movie debut as an uncredited extra in the Oscar-winning The Lost Weekend (1945) in 1945, but it was TV that proved more welcoming to his talent. He appeared on numerous TV programs from 1954 to 2001, most famously on "The Cosby Show".
Having been in a relationship with Rolf Sirnes (1926-2004), Hyman lived with the Norwegian seaman for fifty years. Hyman learned Norwegian through Sirnes, who was originally from Haugesund.
In the 1990s they lived together in New York City. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Alfred Ryder, the veteran actor who appeared on radio and Broadway and in the movies and TV and who also was a renowned stage director, was born Alfred Jacob Corn on January 5, 1916, in New York City. He made his professional debut as an actor at the age of eight and attended New York City's Professional Children's School. His Broadway debut came in 1929, when the 13-year-old Ryder played a "lost boy" in Eva Le Gallienne's production of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan". Ryder studied acting with Benno Schneider, Robert Lewis and Lee Strasberg. He appeared in the 1938 Broadway production of "Our Town" - his Broadway debut as an adult performer - as well as numerous Broadway productions before World War II, including the 1939 revival of Clifford Odets's "Awake and Sing!". For many years he was the voice of Sammy in the radio serial "Rise of the Goldbergs" Ryder joined the Army Air Force during World War II, eventually appearing in the U.S. Army Air Force's gala Broadway stage show "Winged Victory" in 1943. The following year, he made his movie debut as "PFC Alfred Ryder" in the film version of the show Winged Victory (1944)). After the war he made more films, including director Anthony Mann's classic 1947 film noir T-Men (1947). On Broadway, he appeared as Oswald in the 1948 revival of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" and as Mark Antony in the 1950 production of "Julius Caesar". Also that year, he appeared as Orestes in the Broadway play "The Tower Beyond Tragedy".
Ryder had the singular honor of being cast as the understudy for Laurence Olivier in one of the legendary actor's greatest roles, that of Archie Rice, in the 1958 Broadway production of John Osborne's "The Entertainer". Olivier's Archie Rice is considered one of the greatest performances of the 20th century, and Ryder was chosen to keep the Broadway patrons in their seats in the event the great British theatrical knight couldn't go on. Ryder also appeared in the original Broadway production of Eugène Ionesco's absurdist masterpiece "Rhinoceros" in 1960.
A noted theatrical stage director with such companies as Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage, Ryder made his Broadway directorial debut with the play "A Far Country" in 1961. He subsequently directed two more Broadway productions, "The Exercise" in 1968 and the 1971 revival of August Strindberg's "Dance of Death."
Despite his achievements on the stage, film and radio, Ryder is mostly remembered as a prolific and versatile TV character actor. He made over 100 appearances on TV, including memorable turns on Star Trek (1966) (he appeared as Prof. Robert Crater in the series' very first aired episode, "The Man Trap"), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) (two appearances as the ghost of Nazi U-boat commander Capt. Gerhardt Krueger), and The Invaders (1967) (appearing as The Alien Leader). Ryder retired from screen acting in 1976 to concentrate on the stage, both as an actor and director. He died on April 16, 1995 in Englewood, NJ, at the age of 79. He was married to actress Kim Stanley, with whom he had a child, from 1957 until 1964, and he was the brother of actress Olive Deering.- Franklin Cover was born on 20 November 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Wall Street (1987), Almost Heroes (1998) and The Stepford Wives (1975). He was married to Mary Bradford Stone. He died on 5 February 2006 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Producer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dan Rowan was a comedian most famous as the straight man to Dick Martin, with whom he co-hosted the watershed TV program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) from 1968-1973. The comedian debuted into small-town life as Daniel Hale David in Beggs, Oklahoma on July 22, 1922, the son of show people. As a child, Rowan toured the carnival circuit with his mother in father as part of a song and dance act. Orphaned in 1933, he eventually was adopted by a family in Denver, Colorado. He moved to Hollywood after high school, and obtained employment as a writer at Paramount Studios. Rowan joined the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II, where he distinguished himself as a P-40 fighter plane pilot in the Pacific Theater. Rowan was credited with downing two Japanese aircraft (it took five kills to be named an ace during World War II), but he was shot down and seriously wounded in New Guinea. During his military career, Rowan was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart.
Demobilized, Dan Rowan returned to California and married Phyllis Mathis in 1946. He and Phyllis had three children, Thomas, Mary Ann (who was briefly married to actor and professional Presidential brother-in-law Peter Lawford, and Christie. (Rowan divorced his first wife and married again, to Adriana Van Ballegooyen in 1963). He eventually teamed up with Dick Martin in a comedy act that toured the night-club circuit and played Las Vegas. Rowan & Martin had made TV appearances before on such programs as "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Merv Griffin" before being hired by NBC to host a comedy special in the summer of 1967. In an era of "Be-Ins" and "Love-Ins" (an outgrowth of the "Sit-Ins" of the Civil Rights Movement, itself a reflection of the autoworkers' sit-ins of the late 1930s staged to win labor union recognition), NBC wanted to host a "Laugh-In". The middle-aged Rowan & Martin were picked as the hosts. The success of the special lead to the scheduling of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) as part of NBC's regular line-up in 1968, programmed against the popular Lucille Ball on CBS.
A hybrid comedy-variety program that proved a counterpoint to the more satirical and political The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967) on rival network CBS, "Laugh-In" was rooted in traditional vaudeville like most musical/variety series of the time, but had an improvisational, anarchic style. This style, which downplayed appearances of guest stars like Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor and even Richard Nixon in favor of the cast of regulars, reflected the late '60s zeitgeist. As hosts, Dan Rowan and Dick Martin did not dominate their variety show as did a contemporary like Dean Martin. Part of the fun and the freshness of the series was that the two co-hosts were continually being undermined by the appearances of the regulars, during which a comedic "all-hell" would break loose. The sight-gags and appearance of the eccentric performers created a sense of the unexpected that proved intoxicating to TV audiences. (The regular cast included announcer Gary Owens, Emmy-winner Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Emmy-winner Arte Johnson, Alan Sues, Jo Anne Worley, and Judy Carne, while the regularly appearing guest stars included Tiny Tim, Peter Lawford and Henny Youngman).
The dynamic of the two co-hosts also was anarchic, as Dan Rowan's straight-man continually was undermined by the silliness and outright other-world imbecility of Dick Martin's comic persona. In this, Martin was an ally of the cast, who appeared willy-nilly during the broadcast, without discernible rhyme or reason other than making merry. Rowan, as the "mature" member of the hosting ensemble, was less a conductor of the comedy show than a ring-master who seemed to have found himself put down inside the center of the lion's den, with a hopelessly inept lion-tamer (Martin) as his partner.
"Laugh-In" was considered revolutionary at the time in terms of production, as it broke away from the old proscenium stage production that had dominated variety shows on TV since the beginning of broadcast television after World War II. The program was produced with a quick-cutting, fragmentary editing style that not only reflected current avant-garde movie production techniques but fully realized the power of video. It was an audacious melding of form and content, and "Laugh-In" proved to be a huge hit and was one of the highest-rated series of the late 1960s. It would prove to be the single most influential TV show in terms of its influence on comedy until the debut of the more conventionally produced Saturday Night Live (1975) in 1975.
"Laugh-In" won three Emmys at the 1968 Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Musical or Variety Program (for the 1967 Special), for Best Musical or Variety Series, and for Best Writing (shared by ten writers, including series creator Digby Wolfe). Due to its topicality and because it so closely caught the spirit of the '60s and reflected that era's aesthetic, "Laugh-In" quickly dated and never packed the punch in syndication that other retired TV shows did. Nothing becomes old-fashioned more quickly than the fashionable. However, "Laugh-In" also proved ground-breaking in its introduction and use of female and minority performers, bringing to a mainstream audience such diverse entertainers as the great, "Chitlin Circuit" African-American comedian Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham and the young, Emmy-nominated Goldie Hawn, who would go on to a long movie-career as an Oscar-winning comedienne and top box-office star. Rowan & Martin attempted to launch a movie career, but their attempt to become the late '60s answer to Martin & Lewis with the ill-conceived The Maltese Bippy (1969) flopped. After "Laugh-In" was canceled in 1973, Rowan occasionally made some TV program and game show appearances, but eventually retired to Florida. A type II diabetic, he died of lymphatic cancer in Manasota Key, Florida on September 22, 1987. He was 65 years old.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jane Connell was born on 27 October 1925 in Berkeley, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Mame (1974), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Bewitched (1964). She was married to Gordon Connell. She died on 22 September 2013 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Judith Malina was born on 4 June 1926 in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. She was an actress and director, known for The Addams Family (1991), The Secret of My Success (1987) and When in Rome (2010). She was married to Hanon Reznikov and Julian Beck. She died on 10 April 2015 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Wendy Barrie was born in Hong Kong to an English-Irish father and a Russian Jewish mother. Her dad was the distinguished King's Counsel F.C. Jenkins which ensured that the family was well off. Wendy received her education at a convent school in England and a finishing school in Switzerland. After working in beauty parlors for a brief period she set her sights on the stage and made her first foray into acting at the London Savoy Theatre in "Wonder Bar" (1930). Two years later, she was "discovered" by producer Alexander Korda while lunching at the Savoy Grill. Having successfully auditioned for the part she was famously cast as Jane Seymour, the third of the six wives at the center of The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), starring Charles Laughton. Hollywood soon beckoned and Wendy left England for America in 1934. During the next decade and a bit, she found regular employment at Paramount (1935), Universal (1936-38) and RKO (1938-42). A blonde, vivacious lass with a certain innocent charm and an instinctive acting ability, she tended to play mostly ingenue roles in minor films and often rose above her material. This led to her being given a grittier role in the social drama Dead End (1937) and Wendy's career henceforth alternated between supporting roles in bigger pictures and leads in B-movies.
From the late 1930s her parts became more varied, ranging from a gangster's moll in the crime melodrama I Am the Law (1938) to a plane crash victim in Five Came Back (1939) and Richard Greene's love interest in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), with Basil Rathbone as "Sherlock Holmes". By the 1940s, Wendy's star began to fade. This was in no small part due to the bad publicity generated by her real-life role as mistress of notorious underworld figure Bugsy Siegel. As her pickings became ever slimmer she found herself relegated to perfunctory leads in various entries of "The Saint" and "Falcon" series at RKO. After appearing in a string of other decidedly mediocre productions she decided to embark on what turned out to be a successful new career as television host of her own pioneering talk show, Picture This (1948) (1948-50). Her relaxed, informal style brought her great popularity and plaudits from television critics like Jack Gould of the New York Times. Wendy's other claim to fame was as one of the first celebrities to make television commercials, famously with Revlon on 'The $64,000 Question'. During the 1960s, she also broadcast her own radio interview show from the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. She was actively involved in various charities and was known to attend as guest speaker at philanthropic functions, freely giving of her time without remuneration. In the mid '70s, Wendy suffered a stroke which affected her mental state and she spent the last years of her life at a nursing home in Englewood, New Jersey, where she died in February 1978, aged 65.- Clarice Taylor was born on 20 September 1917 in Buckingham County, Virginia, USA. She was an actress, known for Play Misty for Me (1971), The Cosby Show (1984) and Smoke (1995). She was married to Maxwell Glanville. She died on 30 May 2011 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Russ Brown was born on 30 May 1892 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Anatomy of a Murder (1959), South Pacific (1958) and Damn Yankees (1958). He was married to Cornelia Rogers, Loretta Daye and Gertrude Jean Whitaker. He died on 19 October 1964 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Suzanne Kaaren was born on March 21, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York. When she was a teenager she won a high-jumping contest. She wanted to compete in the Olympics but her parents wouldn't let her. Suzanne started modeling and was hired to be one of the original Rockettes. She signed a contract with 20th Century Fox in 1933. Suzanne was given small roles in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Strangers All (1935). Her biggest success came when she began working with the Three Stooges. She appeared in several of their comedy shorts including What's the Matador? (1942) and Disorder in the Court (1936). Suzanne became known for displaying her long legs and as a publicity stunt, they were insured for one million dollars. In 1940 she costarred with Bela Lugosi in the horror film The Devil Bat (1940). Unfortunately, her career stalled and she found herself stuck making B-movies. She married actor Sidney Blackmer in 1943. Suzanne was supposed to play Judy Garland's sister in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), but when Louis B. Mayer found out she had gotten married he gave the role to another actress. She and Sidney had a turbulent marriage and they separated several times. They had two sons and starred in several plays together. Suzanne continued to act on the stage and starred in the Broadway show Chicken Every Sunday. She and Sidney remained together until his death in 1973. After a fire burned down her North Carolina home, Suzanne moved to a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan. When real estate developer Donald Trump wanted to tear down her building, she refused to move. In 1984, she had a small role in the film The Cotton Club (1984). Suzanne died on August 27, 2004 from pneumonia. She is buried at Chestnut Hill Cemetery in Salisbury, North Carolina.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Susanna Foster was brought to Hollywood at the age of 12 by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for a singing and acting career. Two of her classmates in school were Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Oddly enough, MGM never used her, and she was signed by Paramount in 1939, where she made The Great Victor Herbert (1939). William Randolph Hearst was so impressed with her after seeing her in that film, that he had her flown out to his mansion for a private recital for him and Marion Davies. She signed with Universal in 1941, and was used basically as leverage against Deanna Durbin, to keep her in line. Reportedly, Phantom of the Opera (1943), Susanna's most famous role, was a Durbin reject. As such, her roles kept going downhill, even though she was immensely popular at that time. After That Night with You (1945), she'd had it. She made her last film for Universal in 1945, but was still under contract. She went overseas to study voice for three years, paid for by Universal. When she quit Universal in 1948, she sold her mink stole and used the money to move to the East Coast, where she eventually met and married Wilbur Evans, who was 20 years her senior. The Evans' did a lot of stage work, performing in operettas and musicals of the time, touring quite extensively. In between all of this, Susanna miscarried her first child, but went on to have two sons: Phillip and Michael. Susanna had tired of show business and wanted a more normal life, so when she and Evans divorced in 1956, she quit performing altogether and got jobs to support her and her children. With the children raised (Phillip passed away) she set back out to California, and lived in her car for a while until she got established. Sadly, any dream of making a comeback was hampered by several health problems.- After a long career on stage and film, in New York and Hollywood, Dorothy Tree, as Dorothy Uris, had a second career, as a speech and voice coach at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, privately, and teaching speech and acting at the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. She was the author of "Everybody's Book of Better Speaking", "A Woman's Voice" and "To Sing in English", a classic text still in print and still used by teachers of speech and voice.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Maurice Hines was born on 13 December 1943 in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Cotton Club (1984), Oops, Ups & Downs: The Murder Mystery of Humpty Dumpty and The Equalizer (1985). He died on 29 December 2023 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Wallace Rooney was born on 29 December 1910 in Plattsburgh, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Exorcist (1973), The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Defenders (1961). He died on 10 October 1996 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Richard Towers was born on 20 May 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Last House on the Left (1972), Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972) and Deadly Weapons (1974). He was married to Cathryn Damon. He died on 27 February 2016 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Ted Sorel was born on 14 November 1936 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for From Beyond (1986), Network (1976) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). He was married to Jacqueline Coslow. He died on 30 November 2010 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Vivian Nathan was born on 26 October 1916 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Klute (1971), Teacher's Pet (1958) and Playhouse 90 (1956). She was married to Nathan Schwalb. She died on 3 April 2015 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Martin Garner was born on 9 July 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Memphis (1992) and It Takes Two (1982). He was married to Virginia. He died on 28 September 2001 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Glenn Anders was born September 1, 1889 in Los Angeles, California. He attended the Wallace dramatic school in California and began a career as a performer in vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit. He arrived in New York in 1919 and attended Columbia University from 1919 until 1921. He made his Broadway debut in 1919 in a play entitled Just Around the Corner. Mr. Anders had a very long and distinguished career on Broadway and during his career appeared in three Pulitzer Prize winning plays. Those plays were: Hell Bent for Heaven (1924) written by Hatcher Hughes; They Knew What They Wanted (1924) written by Sidney Howard and Strange Interlude (1928) written by Eugene O'Neill. Most of his career was spent on stage but he also had some noteworthy film appearances. He made approximately eight movies from 1925 to 1951. His most memorable film role was that of Grisby the lawyer in Lady from Shanghai, The (1948) starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. After retiring from the stage he resided for several years in Mexico. He returned to the United States to reside at the Actor's Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. He resided at the Actor's Fund Home until his death in 1981 at the age of 92.
- Actor
- Writer
Marshall Efron was born on 3 February 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Robots (2005), THX 1138 (1971) and Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006). He died on 30 September 2019 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Claudia McNeil was born on 13 August 1917 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Black Girl (1972) and The DuPont Show of the Month (1957). She was married to Herman McCoy and Henry Smith. She died on 25 November 1993 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Gaetano Lisi was born on 30 August 1940 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Carlito's Way (1993) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). He was married to Katharine Ross. He died on 16 December 2020 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The beautiful Ann Corio appeared in a less than a handful of poverty row exotic films, but her real stardom was on the stage, over a period of twenty years. She was a hugely popular striptease artist, best known for her work at Minsky's Burlesk Theater in New York. In 1940, she was making around $1,000 a week for her work, plus a contractual 25% intake of house receipts. Corio suggested once that the art of the striptease should be rechristened "deciduous kinesthetics."- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was born in China and raised in Haiti and the Washington, D.C., area. She lived in Manhattan for nearly 50 years. She met George Roy Hill while both were actors in a Shakespeare repertory company. They married in 1951 and remained close even after they divorced in the 1970s. She was described as the only actress to play Sally in "The Voice of the Turtle" in all three companies of the romantic comedy.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marilyn Cooper was born on 14 December 1934 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Keeping the Faith (2000), Family Business (1989) and The Survivors (1983). She died on 22 April 2009 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Anne Sargent was born on 18 November 1917 in Pittston, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Naked City (1948), Suspense (1949) and Three Guys Named Mike (1951). She was married to Edmon Ryan. She died on 23 July 2007 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Walter Kinsella was born on 16 August 1900 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Tattooed Stranger (1950), The Heart Breaker (1930) and I Spy (1955). He died on 11 May 1975 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Truly a Renaissance man, Emett Babe Wallace, born 1909 in Brooklyn, N.Y., is the epitome of a "show-biz" person.
After becoming a bouncer for Harlem's Savoy Ballroom at age 19, he went on to eventually perform as a singer there. He also performed in the most noted venues worldwide; including Small's Paradise, The Apollo Theater and The Cotton Club. Around 1940, he fronted Ella Fitzgerald's band and in 1956, went on to reside in Israel, where he became a popular recording artist for the Blue Jazz record label, singing in English and Yiddish. From there he took Europe by storm performing in Spain, France, Germany and Holland, sharing the stage with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Della Reese, Johnny Otis and Cab Calloway to name a few.
As an actor, Babe is among the early pioneers of Black Cinema, starring in numerous films alongside some of the finest names in the industry. His career took flight, when in 1943 he co-starred in the 20th Century Fox classic "Stormy Weather", with Lena Horne and Bill Robinson. He went on to perform in stage musicals such as "Anna Lucasta " in London during 1947, " Les Folies Bergere " in Paris during 1952 (appearing as the first Black male star), and "Guys and Dolls" on Broadway during 1976, with Robert Guillaume and James Randolph. In 1989, he was presented the prestigious Paul Robeson Award by the Black American Cinema Society, along with Marla Gibbs.
Babe is a prolific songwriter, poet and novelist, who has some of his works included in the Schomburg Research Center for Black Culture. Of his thousands of songs, some have been recorded by Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway. In 1999, Burger King franchise featured one of his songs "A Chicken Ain't Nothin But A Bird" in their TV/radio ad campaign.
Today, in his 90s, Babe resides at the famed Actors Fund Retirement Home in New Jersey, where he is far from retiring. He spends his days writing songs, poetry and stories, leaving his family a fine legacy in entertainment. His grandson, Jimy Bleu, currently administers this legacy and a documentary about Babe Wallace is in post-production.- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, along with Charlie Parker, ushered in the era of Be-Bop in the American jazz tradition. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, and was the youngest of nine children. He began playing piano at the age of four and received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. Most noted for his trademark "swollen cheeks", Gillespie admitted to copying the style of trumpeter Roy Eldridge early in his career. He replaced Eldridge in the 'Teddy Hill' Band after Eldridge's departure. He eventually began experimenting and creating his own style which would eventually come to the attention of Mario Bauza , the Godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz who was then a member of the Cab Calloway Orchestra. Though Calloway disliked Gillespie's style, calling it "Chinese music", he hired him to his band in 1939. Gillespie was later fired after two years when he cut a portion of Calloway's buttocks with a knife after Calloway accused him of throwing spitballs (the two men later became lifelong friends and often retold this story with great relish until both of their deaths). Although noted for his on- and off-stage clowning, Gillespie endured as one of the founding fathers of the Afro-Cuban &/or Latin Jazz tradition. Influenced by Mario Bauza, known as Gillespie's musical father, he was able to fuse Afro-American jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms to form a burgeoning CuBop sound. Always a musical ambassador, he toured Africa, the Middle East and Latin America under the sponsorship of the US State Department. Quite often he returned, not only with fresh musical ideas, but with musicians who would eventually go on to achieve world renown. Among his proteges and collaborators are 'Chano Pozo', the great Afro-Cuban percussionist; Danilo Pérez, a master pianist and composer originally from Panama; Arturo Sandoval, trumpeter, composer and music educator originally from Cuba; Mongo Santamaria, an Afro-Cuban conguero, bonguero and composer; David Sanchez, saxophonist and composer; Chucho Valdés, an Afro-Cuban virtuoso pianist and composer; and Bobby Sanabria, a Bronx, NY-born Nuyorican percussionist, composer, educator, bandleader and expert in the Afro-Cuban musical tradition. Indeed, many Latin jazz classics such as "Manteca", "A Night in Tunisia" and "Guachi Guaro [Soul Sauce]" were composed by Gillespie and his musical collaborators. With a strong sense of pride in his Afro-American heritage, he left a legacy of musical excellence that embraced and fused all musical forms, but particularly those forms with roots deep in Africa such as the music of Cuba, other Latin American countries and the Caribbean. Additionally, he left a legacy of goodwill and good humor that infused jazz musicians and fans throughout the world with a genuine sense of jazz's ability to transcend national and ethnic boundaries--for this reason, Gillespie was and is an international treasure.- Born in New York City, Ms. Carter's acting, directing and producing career has spanned the Atlantic, performing in England and France, on Broadway numerous times, on national tours as well as in California and Arizona. After winning the "Anne Baxter Scholarship" at Theodore Irvine's School of Theatre in New York City awarded previously to Anne Bancroft and Clark Gable, and already interested in directing and producing, Ms. Carter started her own theatre company, The Professional Experimental Guild at the Hotel Des Artistes. Betsy Blair, John Dahl and John Forsythe were members of the avant-garde young group, which disbanded after the first season when Ms. Carter rapidly became a member of that rare breed, a working actress and could no longer devote all her efforts to the Company she founded. She was selected as the resident ingénue at the Ivoryton, Connecticut Playhouse in the tradition of her childhood stage heroine, Katherine Hepburn.
On Broadway, Lynne was seen in Vicki directed by Jose Ferrer, starring Uta Hagen, Red Buttons and Jose Ferrer and written by Around the World in 80 Days' renowned Sig Herzig; A Young Man's Fancy; Hear that Trumpet; Round Trip; The Legal Grounds; Panama Hattie revival starring Ethyl Merman and Victor Moore; and Sea Legs. National Tours include Native Son, directed by Orson Welles and starring Canada Lee; A Goose for the Gander directed by Harold J. Kennedy, and starring Gloria Swanson and Ralph Forbes; and Ladies of the Corridor starring Maureen O'Sullivan, Arlene Francis, and Lilia Skala; Good Night Ladies starring Stu Irwin and Skeets Gallagher.
Her films include Port of New York starring Yul Brynner, Richard Rober, K.T. Stevens, and Scott Brady; and Experiment Alcatraz starring John Howard and Joan Dixon. She performed for Warner Brothers in a series of Vitaphone short musical films as a contract player.
TV credits include Sunday with Lynne, As the World Turns, Weekly Newscasts, and General Hospital.
Ms. Carter directed and produced Lead Me Gently by Marjorie Ralson-Metz, featuring the Lynne Carter Company with a cast of twenty, starring Peggy Thorpe Bates and Brian Quilton at the New Lindsey Theatre, Nottingham Gate, London. In Hollywood, Lynne and Bill Talman co-produced Honest John directed by Bill Talman, written by Buddy Ebsen, co-starring Buddy and Lynne.
Among those actors with whom Miss Carter appeared or directed are Orson Welles, John Carradine, Yul Brynner, John Forsythe, Craig Stevens, Buddy Ebsen, Maureen O'Sullivan, Ralph Forbes, Paul Robeson, Ethel Barrymore, William Talman, Elka Chase and Jose Ferrer.
Lynne was represented in Hollywood by her agent the late Lou Sherell and her press representative Sir Richard Gully.
Lynne Carter was married to the late William Talman, while acting on Broadway with him. Bill later appeared in the Perry Mason TV series for many years as Hamilton Burger while Lynne continued to act, direct and produce in TV and theatre. Bill appeared in nine "film noir" movies.
Miss Carter died in the Equity Actrors' Home in Englewood, New Jersey in 2015 at the age of 96. - Actor
- Soundtrack
This multi-faceted comic appeared first in burlesque - usually as "second banana" to a star comedian (oft-times Phil Silvers) - and then appeared successfully on the legitimate stage, in film, on television and in adverts. He claimed credit for two of vaudeville's more renowned pieces of business: "Floogle Street" and "Slowly I Turn," the latter later popularised more widely by Abbott & Costello (see Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) and also by the sometime team of Ben Blue and Sid Fields. Joey Faye continued working even while well into his 80s.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Margaret Whiting was the daughter of Richard A. Whiting, himself a successful songwriter and author of "On The Good Ship Lollipop", "The Japanese Sandman" and "Ain't We Got Fun?" and the sister of actress/singer Barbara Whiting.
Born July 22,1924 in Detroit, she began singing as a small child and, by the age of seven, signed with Johnny Mercer, the popular songwriter and founder of Capitol Records, for whom her father worked. She was a popular vocalist in the 1940s and 1950s, recording dozens of hits for Capitol Records, launched by her father and two partners. She was the first artist to be engaged by the label, where she began recording in 1942. She served as President of the Johnny Mercer Foundation, and she continued her work as a performer of Mercer songs. In the early 1940s, her hits included "That Old Black Magic" (with Freddie Slack), "Moonlight in Vermont" (with Billy Butterfield) and "It Might As Well Be Spring" (with Paul Weston). Between 1946-54, she had more than 40 solo hit tunes for Capitol. After stints with Dot Records and Verve Records and, a brief return to Capitol in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, she recorded for the London label beginning in 1966.
In the late 1990s, she appeared in the Broadway musical "Dream" (1997) and in the PBS broadcast The Songs of Johnny Mercer: Too Marvelous for Words (1997). Under her own name in late 1945, she recorded the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II composition "All Through The Day", which became a bestseller in the spring of 1946, and "In Love In Vain", both of which were featured in the film Centennial Summer (1946). She also had hits with songs from the Broadway musicals "St. Louis Woman" and "Call Me Mister" in 1946. Those first recordings under her name were made in New York. In late 1946, she returned to California and began recording there, with Jerry and His Orchestra--"Guilty" and "Oh, But I Do" were the best-selling results of that session. Her hit streak continued in 1948-49.
Due to a musician's strike in the US, orchestral tracks were recorded outside of the country and vocals added in US studios. Whiting supplied vocals to tracks cut by 'Frank DeVol' (q) and His Orchestra, including "A Tree In The Meadow", a #1 hit in the summer of 1948, recorded in London. Her next #1 song occurred in 1949 with "Slipping Around", one of a series of duet recordings made with country/western singer and cowboy star Jimmy Wakely. Also during that year, Whiting recorded a duet with Mercer, "Baby, It's Cold Outside". In 1950, she had a hit with "Blind Date", a novelty record made with Bob Hope and Billy May and His Orchestra.
Whiting continued recording for Capitol into the mid-1950s, until her run of hits dried up. She left the company in 1958 for Dot Records but achieved only one hit there. She switched to Verve Records in 1960 and recorded a number of albums, including one with jazz vocalist Mel Tormé. A brief return to Capitol was followed by a hiatus, after which Whiting signed with London Records in 1966, where she recorded her last two charting pop singles. Her recordings continued to appear on the easy listening charts into the 1970s. Whiting was still recording in the early 1990s and performing in cabaret and concerts. She died on January 10, 2011 (aged 86) in Englewood, New Jersey.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Harvey Evans was born on 7 January 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for West Side Story (1961), Enchanted (2007) and Ravagers (1979). He died on 24 December 2021 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Clebert Ford was born on 29 January 1932 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for New Jack City (1991), K-PAX (2001) and Malcolm X (1992). He was married to Susan Batson. He died on 22 July 2011 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Thelonious Monk was born on 10 October 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for The Omega Man (1971), La La Land (2016) and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995). He was married to Nellie Monk. He died on 17 February 1982 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Leslie Barrett, born on October 30, 1919 in New York City, had a lifelong and accomplished career in the theater; on Broadway, from his first role while still a teenager succeeding Billy Halop in "Dead End" in 1937, through to "The Dresser" in 1981. Between roles on Broadway, television and feature films, Barrett, with Paul Curtis. formed the American Mime Theatre, he joined the Shakespeare Theatre Workshop under the direction of Joseph Papp and appeared in "Much Ado About Nothing" and "As You Like" It at the Westport Country Playhouse and in "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Walnut Street Theatre. Fans of TV's Dark Shadows will know him as Judge Hanley who presided over the 1795 trial of Victoria Winters for witchcraft, while fans of The Honeymooners will know him from the episode "The Bensonhurst Bomber", where he plays George, the best friend of Harvey.
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Actress-cum-writer Hildy Parks was born Hilda DeForrest Parks in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 1926. She studied acting at the University of Virginia and made her New York stage debut in the role of Curley's wife in "Of Mice and Men" at the New School in the late 40s.
From 1947 to 1957, Hilda enhanced a number of productions on Broadway, including "Bathsheba," her debut starring James Mason, as well as "Summer and Smoke," "Magnolia Alley," "To Dorothy, a Son," "Be Your Age" and "The Tunnel of Love." In London she appeared in "Mister Roberts" as the only female member of the cast.
Hildy began as a TV celebrity, appearing in a number of game shows ("The Name's the Same," "Down You Go," "To Tell the Truth") and making several acting appearances on such anthologies as "Kraft Theatre," "Studio One in Hollywood," "Starlight Theatre," "Omnibus," "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "Armstrong Circle Theatre." She also had the 1952-1953 regular role of Ellie Crown on the daytime soap opera Love of Life (1951) and a recurring role on the series Danger (1950).
In the mid-1950's Hildy attempted to move to film, taking her first bow in the tense "Desperate Hours" like crime noir The Night Holds Terror (1955). She co-stars as a wife who is held for ransom in her home along with her husband Jack Kelly and two children by escaped convicts Peter Eklund, John Cassavetes and David Cross. This movie, surprisingly, did not lead to a film career. She appeared appearing fleetingly in the 60's political thrillers Fail Safe (1964) and Seven Days in May (1964). After a few guest shots on such popular shows as "The Phil Silvers Show," "The Millionaire," "The Defenders" and "The Patty Duke Show," Hildy ended her acting career with a minor role in the film drama The Group (1966), turned to writing and producing.
Briefly married to actor/executive Jackie Cooper (1950-1954), Hildy married producer Alexander H. Cohen in 1956. They had two sons, Gerry and Christopher. Together they became partners in many theatre endeavors, producing a host Broadway plays over the years, including "The Unknown Soldier and His Family" (1967), "Dear World" (1969), "6 Rms Riv Vu" (1972), "Comedians" (1977), "A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine" (1980), "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" (1984), "Accomplice" (1990), "Comedy Tonight" (1994) and "The Herbal Bed" (1998). Beginning in 1967, she also wrote the 20 Tony Awards telecasts that her husband produced. Hildy received several Emmy nominations for these producing/writing efforts, finally winning for her 1980 Tony Awards telecast. Son Chris Cohen became a production stage manager for these telecasts.
On TV, Alexander and Hildy produced (and she wrote) the popular 1982 Night of 100 Stars (1982) TV special from Radio City Music Hall, which hosted a parade of renown entertainment and sports celebrities in a performing and non-performing capacity. They won the Emmy for "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program." They went on to producing the others that followed.
Following her husband's death in 2000, Hildy would later reside at the Actors' Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. The 78-year-old followed him in death on October 7, 2004, following complications from a stroke- Graham Brown was born on 24 October 1924 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Clockers (1995), Malcolm X (1992) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). He died on 13 December 2011 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.