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- Actress
- Soundtrack
Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908. Her parents divorced in 1916 and her mother took the family on a trip out West. While there they decided to settle down in the Los Angeles area. After being spotted playing baseball in the street with the neighborhood boys by a film director, Carole was signed to a one-picture contract in 1921 when she was 12. The film in question was A Perfect Crime (1921). Although she tried for other acting jobs, she would not be seen onscreen again for four years. She returned to a normal life, going to school and participating in athletics, excelling in track and field. By age 15 she had had enough of school, though, and quit. She joined a theater troupe and played in several stage shows, which were for the most part nothing to write home about. In 1925 she passed a screen test and was signed to a contract with Fox Films. Her first role as a Fox player was Hearts and Spurs (1925), in which she had the lead. Right after that film she appeared in a western called Durand of the Bad Lands (1925). She rounded out 1925 in the comedy Marriage in Transit (1925) (she also appeared in a number of two-reel shorts). In 1926 Carole was seriously injured in an automobile accident that resulted in the left side of her face being scarred. Once she had recovered, Fox canceled her contract. She did find work in a number of shorts during 1928 (13 of them, many for slapstick comedy director Mack Sennett), but did go back for a one-time shot with Fox called Me, Gangster (1928). By now the film industry was moving from the silent era to "talkies". While some stars' careers ended because of heavy accents, poor diction or a voice unsuitable to sound, Carole's light, breezy, sexy voice enabled her to transition smoothly during this period. Her first sound film was High Voltage (1929) at Pathe (her new studio) in 1929. In 1931 she was teamed with William Powell in Man of the World (1931). She and Powell hit it off and soon married, but the marriage didn't work out and they divorced in 1933. No Man of Her Own (1932) put Carole opposite Clark Gable for the first and only time (they married seven years later in 1939). By now she was with Paramount Pictures and was one of its top stars. However, it was Twentieth Century (1934) that showed her true comedic talents and proved to the world what a fine actress she really was. In 1936 Carole received her only Oscar nomination for Best Actress for My Man Godfrey (1936). She was superb as ditzy heiress Irene Bullock. Unfortunately, the coveted award went to Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), which also won for Best Picture. Carole was now putting out about one film a year of her own choosing, because she wanted whatever role she picked to be a good one. She was adept at picking just the right part, which wasn't surprising as she was smart enough to see through the good-ol'-boy syndrome of the studio moguls. She commanded and received what was one of the top salaries in the business - at one time it was reported she was making $35,000 a week. She made but one film in 1941, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). Her last film was in 1942, when she played Maria Tura opposite Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be (1942). Tragically, she didn't live to see its release. The film was completed in 1941 just at the time the US entered World War II, and was subsequently held back for release until 1942. Meanwhile, Carole went home to Indiana for a war bond rally. On January 16, 1942, Carole, her mother, and 20 other people were flying back to California when the plane went down outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. All aboard perished. The highly acclaimed actress was dead at the age of 33 and few have been able to match her talents since.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical family in America, he was also its most acclaimed star. His father was Maurice Blyth (or Blythe; family spellings vary), a stage success under the name Maurice Barrymore. His mother, Georgie Drew, was the daughter of actor John Drew. Although well known in the theatre, Maurice and Georgie were eclipsed by their three children, John, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymore, each of whom became legendary stars. John was handsome and roguish. He made his stage debut at age 18 in one of his father's productions, but was much more interested in becoming an artist.
Briefly educated at King's College, Wimbledon, and at New York's Art Students League, Barrymore worked as a freelance artist and for a while sketched for the New York Evening Journal. Gradually, though, the draw of his family's profession ensnared him, and by 1905, he had given up professional drawing and was touring the country in plays. He survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and in 1909, became a major Broadway star in "The Fortune Hunter". In 1922, Barrymore became his generation's most acclaimed "Hamlet", in New York and London. But by this time, he had become a frequent player in motion pictures. His screen debut supposedly came in An American Citizen (1914), though records of several lost films indicate he may have made appearances as far back as 1912. He became every bit the star of films that he was on stage, eclipsing his siblings in both arenas.
Though his striking matinee-idol looks had garnered him the nickname "The Great Profile", he often buried them under makeup or distortion in order to create memorable characters of degradation or horror. He was a romantic leading man into the early days of sound films, but his heavy drinking (since boyhood) began to take a toll, and he degenerated quickly into a man old before his time. He made a number of memorable appearances in character roles, but these became over time more memorable for the humiliation of a once-great star than for his gifts. His last few films were broad and distasteful caricatures of himself, though in even the worst, such as Playmates (1941), he could rouse himself to a moving soliloquy from "Hamlet". He died on May 29, 1942, mourned as much for the loss of his life as for the loss of grace, wit, and brilliance which had characterized his career at its height.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Born Mary Jeanette Robison. She was the youngest daughter of Henry Robison of Penrith, Cumberland, England and Julia Schelesinger of Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Her father died in 1860 and her mother remarried. In 1866/67 they were living in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and moved back to London, England in 1871. She ran away from home to marry Charles Leveson Gore in 1875 and in 1877 the young couple went to Fort Worth, Texas, USA to establish a cattle ranch. They survived for two years before moving to New York where her husband died about 1881.
In 1884 she took up acting to support her three children (only her son Edward Gore survived childhood). She played both leads and supporting roles on the road and on Broadway, and over several decades she became highly respected as a character actress. She appeared in a few silent films, then returned to the screen for good in 1926 and flourished in the subsequent sound era. She was usually cast as crusty, gruff, domineering society matron or grandmother. For her portrayal of Damon Runyon's Apple Annie in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933), one of her rare starring roles, she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Ultimately she appeared in more than 60 films, the last of which was released the year of her death.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was born Edna May Nutter, a child of solid New England stock, on 9th November 1883 in Malden, Massachusetts. The daughter of Ida May and Charles Edward Nutter, Edna was a descendant of the 2nd American president John Adams and his son, the 6th American president John Quincy Adams. In addition, her father's stepfather, Samuel Oliver, had a mother named Julia Adams who was descended from another John Adams (born 1724). Miss Oliver took an early interest in the stage, and she would quit school at the age of 14 to pursue her ambitions in the theater. Despite abandoning traditional schooling, Edna continued to study the performing arts, including speech and piano. One of her first jobs was as pianist with an all female orchestra which toured America around the turn of the century. By 1917 she had achieved success on Broadway in the hit play "Oh, Boy". By 1923 she had appeared in her first film. Edna May Oliver seems to have been born to play the classics of American and British literature. Some of her most memorable film roles were in adaptations of works of Charles Dickens. Although some have described her as plain or "horse faced", Edna May Oliver's comedic talents lent a beautiful droll warmth to her characters. She was usually called upon to play less glamorous roles such as a spinsters, but she played them with such soul, wit, and depth that to this day she remains one of the best loved of Hollywood's character actresses. A fine example of her comedic talent can be found in Laugh and Get Rich (1931). Here we find her playing a role almost autobiographical in nature, that of a proud woman with Boston roots who has married "down". As the plot unwinds, she is invited to a society gala despite her modest circumstances. At the gala she becomes tipsy. With a frolicsome air Edna May seems to use the role to gently mock her real self. Her slightly drunk character seizes upon a bit of flattery, and alluding to her old New England family, proudly proclaims to each who will listen, "I am a Cranston. That explains everything!". In real life, Edna May Oliver was a Nutter, and perhaps that explains everything. Edna May Oliver married stock broker David Pratt in 1928, but the marriage ended in divorce five years later. In 1939 she received an Oscar nomination for her supporting role as Widow McKlennar in the picture Drums Along the Mohawk (1939). That was to be one of her last films. Miss Oliver was struck ill in August of 1942. Although she seemed to recover briefly, she was re-admitted to Los Angeles's Cedars of Lebanon hospital in October Her dear friend actress Virginia Hammond flew out from New York to stay by her bedside. Edna May Oliver died on her 59th birthday, 9th November 1942. Virginia Hammond was with her and said, "She died without ever being aware of the gravity of her condition. She just went peacefully asleep."- Art Department
George Grenier was born in 1881 in Pennsylvania, USA. He is known for Fighting Blood (1916), The Honor System (1917) and Jack and the Beanstalk (1917). He died on 21 February 1942 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Although she could on a rare occasion display a bit of kindness, or at least some kind of grouchy benevolence, Helen Westley had few peers on stage or film when it came to outright unpleasantness. A stern, indomitable presence, her characters offered unsolicited advice to anyone and everyone within arm's reach. They could literally freeze a person in his or her own tracks with a mere hawk-like glare or arm-folding stance. They could be overbearing, greedy, spiteful, contentious, meddlesome, controlling, narrow-minded, viper-tongued, or all of the above. In essence, she was often major pain in the posterior to the film's star. It usually took a young, brave, gentle soul along the lines of a Shirley Temple or Anne Shirley to find a way to thaw out the icy cold heart that barely beat within.
The Brooklyn-born Helen was born on March 28, 1875 and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began on the stage at age 18 in a one-act comedy skit entitled "The Captain of the Nonesuch." Reaching stardom just before the dawn of the twentieth century, she co-founded both the Greenwich Square Players and the Washington Square Players, the latter growing into the Theatre Guild of which she became one of six managing directors. A steadfast player under the Broadway lights, she appeared in such classics as Chekhov's "The Seagull" (as Madame Arkadina) (1916), "Heartbreak House" (1920), "Liliom" (1921), "Peer Gynt" (1923), "The Adding Machine" (1923), "The Guardsman" (1924), "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1925), "The Doctor's Dilemma" (1927), "Strange Interlude" (1928), "Faust" (1928), "The Apple Cart" (1930), "Green Grow the Lilacs" (1931) and "They Shall Not Die" (1934), to name just a few.
By age 60, she had discovered and settled into filming, and for the next (almost) decade, spread misery in movie after movie. Her dour dowagers, no-nonsense matrons and acidulous relatives took the form of Granny Mingott in The Age of Innocence (1934); the designer title character in Roberta (1935); the manipulative and malicious mother of Joel McCrea in Splendor (1935); the harridan-like Parthy Hawkes in the Irene Dunne/Allan Jones version of Show Boat (1936); and the cackling, pipe-smoking grandmaw in Banjo on My Knee (1936). Her finger-wagging authority figures showed up to intimidate Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables (1934) and courageous little Shirley Temple who somehow managed to reveal her human side in four films: Dimples (1936), Stowaway (1936), Heidi (1937), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). Helen remained a vital character presence on the large screen up until her death at age 67 in 1942. She married John Westley in 1900 but they parted ways 12 years later. She had one daughter.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Buck Jones was one of the greatest of the "B" western stars. Although born in Indiana, Jones reportedly (but disputedly) grew up on a ranch near Red Rock in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and there learned the riding and shooting skills that would stand him in good stead as a hero of Westerns. He joined the army as a teenager and served on US-Mexican border before seeing service in the Moro uprising in the Philippines. Though wounded, he recuperated and re-enlisted, hoping to become a pilot. He was not accepted for pilot training and left the army in 1913. He took a menial job with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show and soon became champion bronco buster for the show. He moved on to the Julia Allen Show, but with the beginning of the First World War, Jones took work training horses for the Allied armies. After the war, he and his wife, Odelle Osborne, whom he had met in the Miller Brothers show, toured with the Ringling Brothers circus, then settled in Hollywood, where Jones got work in a number of Westerns starring Tom Mix and Franklyn Farnum. Producer William Fox put Jones under contract and promoted him as a new Western star. He used the name Charles Jones at first, then Charles "Buck" Jones, before settling on his permanent stage name. He quickly climbed to the upper ranks of Western stardom, playing a more dignified, less gaudy hero than Mix, if not as austere as William S. Hart. With his famed horse Silver, Jones was one of the most successful and popular actors in the genre, and at one point he was receiving more fan mail than any actor in the world. Months after America's entry into World War II, Jones participated in a war-bond-selling tour. On November 28, 1942, he was a guest of some local citizens in Boston at the famed Coconut Grove nightclub. Fire broke out and nearly 500 people died in one of the worst fire disasters on record. Jones was horribly burned and died two days later before his wife Dell could arrive to comfort him. Although legend has it that he died returning to the blaze to rescue others (a story probably originated by producer Trem Carr for whatever reason), the actual evidence indicates that he was trapped with all the others and succumbed as most did, trying to escape. He remains, however, a hero to thousands who followed his film adventures.- A future in movies for this fair-haired, fresh-faced young adult of the 1930s was by no means certain at the time of his untimely death in a mid-air plane collision. Hints of the All-American leading man promise Phillips Holmes managed to convey during the early to mid decade, particularly in the film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser 's novel An American Tragedy (1931), had faded significantly. In the meantime he was maintaining with stage work and had just graduated from Air Ground School as an aircraftsman when he suddenly died at age 35 on August 12, 1942.
Phillips, his sister Madeline and their youngest brother, Ralph Holmes (pronounced "Rafe," who later became an actor as well) came from ripe acting stock. Character actor Taylor Holmes was a well-established character player in vaudeville and on the stage and screen. He and actress wife Edna Phillips met during a production of "Hamlet" and first-born Phillips' odd first name was bestowed upon him courtesy of his Canadian-born mother. The children were often shunted about to live with various relatives while their parents were on the road. Phillips attended many different schools growing up and graduated from Newman Prep School in New Jersey. He traveled to Europe for his college education, attending Cambridge University in England and (later) Grenoble University in France. His natural ability at athletics led to solid respect as a member of the rowing team during his college years. He eventually returned to the US and decided upon Princeton.
An inherent interest in acting (Princeton's The Triangle Club) led to his stage debut in the Princeton Triangle Show "Napoleon Passes" at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1927. While at college he, by luck and via certain connections, also managed to make his film debut with Varsity (1928) and was offered a Paramount contract as a result. After a number of false starts, bit parts, bad pictures and a major bout with nervous exhaustion, Phillips began to score some early first impressions with juvenile leads in the films The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), Pointed Heels (1929), the Gary Cooper starrer Only the Brave (1930) and, more notably, The Devil's Holiday (1930) and Stolen Heaven (1931), both opposite established star Nancy Carroll.
It all led to the role of his career in Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1931) the ill-fated story of a wanderlust young man who falls hard for a beautiful socialite (Frances Dee) while trying to find a way to extricate himself from the clutches of a drab, maudlin girl from the wrong side of the tracks he had met earlier and impregnated (Sylvia Sidney). In the same part that would later establish Montgomery Clift as a archetypal tortured romantic in A Place in the Sun (1951), Holmes equipped himself admirably in a difficult role and was seemingly on his way to Hollywood stardom.
Firmly on the Paramount roster list, the handsome blue-eyed blond co-starred as both vulnerable, weak-willed gents and feistier men in comedy and melodrama, including Broken Lullaby (1932) and Two Kinds of Women (1932). He then signed with MGM and appeared in more of the same standard filming -- Night Court (1932), The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933) and Men Must Fight (1933). A huge chance for major attention turned bleak after being heavily promoted in the film Nana (1934) opposite beauteous Russian import Anna Sten. Touted as the "next Garbo", the movie tanked badly with his performance cited as bland and wooden, and the equally stiff Ms. Sten lost all hope for stardom. Phillips provided a bit more dash and élan in Caravan (1934) opposite Loretta Young but it was not enough to turn his career around. From then on he freelanced both here and abroad in mostly "B" fodder that included the "Our Gang" feature-length misfire General Spanky (1936) and the British programmers The Dominant Sex (1937) and (his swan song) Housemaster (1938), both with "tea rose" beauty Diana Churchill.
Phillps had to make do on stage at this point with his participation in such plays as "The Petrified Forest", "Golden Boy", "The Male Animal" and "The Philadelphia Story". Along with his career decline, he suffered upsets in his personal life. A fractured romance with scandalous millionaire chanteuse Libby Holman led to her marrying brother Ralph on the rebound. That 1939 marriage fell apart within a few years and Ralph would subsequently commit suicide in his NY apartment from a barbiturate overdose in 1945, three years after Phillips' death.
With WWII now a harsh reality, both brothers enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force toward the end of 1941. While Ralph became a pilot officer, Phillips attended the Air Ground School at Winnipeg. Following graduation, he and six of his aircraftsmen classmates were transferred but the plane carrying the men en route to their new destination (Ottawa) collided with another in Ontario killing all aboard. - Actress
This tiny (4' 11"), appealing, coquettish-looking Hollywood actress had only a few active years in early talkies before her career took a bad hit. A few years after that she joined other shattered 1930s hopefuls (Peg Entwistle, Gwili Andre, Peggy Shannon) as tragic symbols of unrequited stardom.
Sidney Fox was born Sidney Liefer in New York City on December 10, 1907 (many resources inaccurately give 1910 as her birth date), the daughter of Joseph Liefer. Sidney began contributing to her family income as a teenager in a variety of ways - as a model on Fifth Avenue and a lovelorn columnist to, name two. At one point she entertained the thought of a law career, but her acting desires soon took over. She joined a stock company in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where she performed in such shows as "The Big Pond," "Wedding Bells," "The Ghost Train" and "Gregory's Woman."
Back in New York she made her Broadway debut in 1929 with the popular comedy "It Never Rains" at the Republic Theatre, then garnered more attention the next year with another comedy role in "Lost Sheep", which served as her breakthrough into films. Discovered by Universal mogul Carl Laemmle Jr., she was placed directly into a starring role opposite Bette Davis (in her film debut as well) in Bad Sister (1931). In an odd bit of casting, it was innocent-eyed Sidney who played the scheming, vixenish sister and the formidable Bette playing the timid, sympathetic one in a movie that also co-starred up-and-comer Humphrey Bogart.
Guided by Laemle, Jr., Universal continued their buildup of the pert and girlish brunette starlet with appearances in more pictures. Named one of 13 "Wampas Baby Stars" of 1931, she also began making the covers of such movie magazines as "Modern Screen" and "Movie Mirror". Sidney continued making strides in film comedy co-starring with Spencer Tracy in 6 Cylinder Love (1931) and, more importantly, Paul Lukas in Strictly Dishonorable (1931), the latter arguably the best role of her career as the Southern girl who attracts the attention of an Italian opera star (Lukas). Amazingly, she received top billing over Universal horror icon Bela Lugosi in her best-remembered film, Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), but Lugosi easily stole the proceedings from the rather overly dramatic ingénue.
Sidney's performances in film tended toward the saccharine and obviousness and this one-dimensional aspect hurt a number of her films, including the dramatic "soapers," Nice Women (1931), Afraid to Talk (1932) and, notably, Midnight (1934), in which she ineffectively re-teamed with Bogart. Sweet and simple in style, she seemed better suited towards lighter comedy and one of her better films at the time was Once in a Lifetime (1932) co-starring funny guy Jack Oakie. Targeted by gossip-mongers as to her "professional relationship" with Laemmle, Jr., she avoided the Hollywood limelight for a time and tried her luck appearing in such European features as Don Quixote (1933), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole (1933) [The Adventures of King Pausole], but to little avail.
A stormy marriage to Universal Studios editor Charles Beahan (they married in December of 1932) did not help matters as she became more famous for her tabloid-feeding off-camera life than for the films she was making. They had no children. Her last three pictures -- Midnight (1934), Down to Their Last Yacht (1934) a School for Girls (1934) -- did nothing to reverse her downhill fortunes in Hollywood, although she remained a romantic leading lady throughout her career and was never reduced to bit parts. The following years included some work here and there on the Orpheum Theatre circuit, on radio and a brief return to Broadway in a replacement role. Then there was nothing.
Illness and depression set in, not helped by her unhappy, abusive marriage. On the morning of November 15, 1942, the 34-year-old actress was found dead in her Beverly Hills bedroom by her husband after consuming a fatal number of sleeping pills. A most probable suicide, she was buried in Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Queens, New York. Little remembered today, lovely Sidney Fox remains a sad footnote in the Hollywood annals but her pictures still deserve a curious look.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Here he grew up in the educated Jewish middle class, together with his brother Alfred. The Zweig family was not religious. He passed his high school diploma at the Wasagymnasium in Vienna. Zweig wrote his first poems here. At that time he was influenced by writers such as Hugo von Hofmannstahl and Rainer Maria Rilke. In 1901, Stefan Zweig's first volume of poetry entitled "Silberne Saiten" was published. He also began translating works by French writers at this time. In 1904 he completed his doctorate in German and Romance studies. Until 1910 he traveled extensively through Europe. The focus here was on exchanges with other writers and artists, with whom he mostly maintained friendship through intensive correspondence. By 1911, works such as "Tersites", "The House by the Sea" and "Burning Secret" as well as his first biography "Émile Verhaeren" had been created.
With his work "First Experience. Four Stories from Kinderland," Zweig approached an intuitive psychological style. At the beginning of the First World War, Stefan Zweig signed up as a volunteer. Here he was employed in the war press quarters until 1917. To demonstrate against war in any form, he wrote the drama "Jeremiah", which premiered in Zurich in 1918. From 1918 onwards, Zweig also worked as a journalist and correspondent for the Swiss newspaper "Neue Freie Presse". He also uses this medium to publish his non-partisan views. After the end of the war he settled in Salzburg. His idea was to found a spiritually, holistically and humanistically motivated alliance in Europe. So he began, initially in numerous lectures and essays, to warn against radicalization through nationalism and to call for calm, diplomacy and patience.
In 1920, Zweig published the writings "Fear", "The Compulsion" and, from 1920, three essays about master builders of the world: "Three Masters", in 1925 "The Fight with the Demon" and in 1928 "Three Poets of Their Life". Zweig enjoyed great stage success in 1926 with his adaptation of Ben Jonson's "Volpone". The publication of the book "Star Hours of Humanity" in 1927 was equally successful. In 1928 he traveled to the Soviet Union, where his books were also published in Russian at the instigation of Maxim Gorki, with whom he corresponded. After the NSDAP came to power in Germany, Stefan Zweig fled to London for fear of persecution. The book "Impatience of the Heart" was written here. From 1934 onwards, his works were no longer published in Germany and with the annexation of Austria to the Third Reich in 1938, production in his homeland also stopped. In 1935, Zweig wrote the libretto for the opera "Die schweigsame Frau" for Richard Strauss.
In 1936 the NSDAP immediately banned the sale of all of his works. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1938, and his second marriage was to Charlotte Altmann in 1939. In 1940 he received English citizenship from Great Britain. Nevertheless, he left Europe and traveled on to New York. In 1942 his chess novella and the monograph Brazil were published. After a short stay he visited Argentina and Paraguay. He then settled in Brazil. Here Stefan Zweig fell into deep sadness and depression.
Stefan Zweig committed suicide on February 22, 1942 in Petrópolis, near Rio de Janeiro. In 1944 his autobiography was published posthumously under the title "The World of Yesterday".- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Coming from a Mormon family in Utah, James Cruze was reportedly part Ute Indian. He worked as a fisherman to pay his way through drama school. Among his former wives were actresses Betty Compson (also from Utah) and Marguerite Snow. He was also married to Alberta McCoy (died on July 7, 1960), who is interred in the Columbarium at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (unmarked). Many of the films Cruze directed in the 1920s and 1930s have been lost. He directed a large variety of films, from Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle slapstick two-reelers to suspense thrillers to big-budget epics. In 1929 he appeared before a grand jury in Los Angeles that was investigating an accident on one of his films in which one man was killed and others were injured, one of many run-ins Cruze had with the law. He used the name Cruze on screen, but in real life remained James Bosen.- Actress
- Editorial Department
- Additional Crew
Laura Hope Crews was born on 12 December 1879 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), The Silver Cord (1933) and Camille (1936). She died on 13 November 1942 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Director
James C. Morton was born on 25 August 1884 in Helena, Montana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for A Daughter of Uncle Sam (1918), Lucky Devils (1941) and She's Dangerous (1937). He died on 24 October 1942 in Reseda, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Tucker was born on 4 June 1884 in Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Jazz Singer (1927), The Squall (1929) and Wings (1927). He was married to Ruth Mitchell and Mabel Reed. He died on 5 December 1942 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Reinhard Heydrich began his career as an officer in the post-World War I German navy. He was dishonorably discharged after becoming involved in an illicit love affair. The young woman became pregnant, but instead of marrying her, Heydrich met and soon got engaged to Lina von Osten. In 1930 Heydrich, now unemployed, was persuaded by his wife to join Adolf Hitler's National Socialist (Nazi) party, which he did the next year; he also became a member of the SS at that same time. As one of its first officers, Heydrich was tasked by Heinrich Himmler to expand the small organization into an internal security force to monitor the Nazi party. The result was the creation of the SD (Sicherheistdienst [Security Service]), which was combined, in 1934, with the Gestapo (Gestaatspolizei, or state secret police) to form the much feared SS Security Police, which Heydrich--now an SS Brigadier General--commanded. He played a major role in the destruction of the SA, known as the "storm troopers", which was an internal security service set up by Hitler but which he now suspected of plotting against him; the organization was destroyed and many of its officers, including its leader, Ernst Röhm, were murdered in June of 1934. For his services Heydrich was made a Lieutenant-General in the SS.
At the start of World War II Heydrich became commander of the consolidated Reich security forces, which he formed into the Reich Security Central Office of the SS. Also, by this time, Heydrich had become a major figure in the rounding up and planned extermination of Europe's Jews. On his orders, the SS-Einsatzgruppen--Special Groups--were created for the purpose of hunting down, rounding up and exterminating Jews in Poland and Russia. Three years later, in 1942, he chaired the infamous Wannsee Conference, where the decision was made to exterminate all the Jews of Europe. Promoted to SS-General (Obergruppenfuhrer), Heydrich was made the Reich Governor of Czechoslovakia at the start of 1942. Aware of how powerful, cunning and dangerous Heydrich was, British intelligence agents put together an operation designed to kill him, and trained and dispatched three Czech exiles to Prague. The assassination was carried out in May of 1942. Heydrich died a short while later, on June 4th, the same day of the historic Battle of Midway in the Pacific.
If ever a truly monstrous and evil man existed, it was Reinhard Heydrich, one of the masterminds of the Holocaust. In a horrific act of revenge, called "Operation Reinhard," Hitler had the entire village of Lidice, Czechoslovakia--near where Heydrich was killed--exterminated. All male inhabitants above the age of 15 were shot; all other residents were sent to concentration camps, and the village itself was physically wiped off the face of the earth. Heydrich was buried with full honors. His grave on the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin is now anonymous in order to prevent any form of remembrance. - Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Arthur Housman was born on 10 October 1889 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Sunrise (1927), The Bat (1926) and The Gay Lord Quex (1919). He died on 8 April 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jeanette Loff was born Janette Lov in Orofino, Idaho, on October 9, 1906. Her father Maurice was a successful violinist from Denmark who moved their family to Canada when Jeanette was a child. She loved to sing and she studied music at the Ellison-White Conservatory in Portland, Oregon. At age sixteen she had a starring role in the operetta Treasure Hunters. In Portland, Loff played the organ at local theaters. She made her acting debut in the 1927 film Uncle Tom's Cabin. Cecil B. Demille offered her a contract and she quickly became one of Hollywood busiest starlets. In 1928 she appeared in Annapolis, Love Over Night, and Hold 'Em Yale. After her parents divorced Jeanette's mother Inga and sisters Irene and Myrtle came to live with her in California. Jeanette married a salesman named Harry Rosenbloom but they divorced in 1929. She also had a love affairs with producer Paul Bern, song writer Walter O'Keefe, and actor Gilbert Roland. Jeanette got the chance to show off her soprano voice in films like King Of Jazz and Party Girl. By 1931 she was tired of playing ingénues and decided to take a break from making movies. She moved to New York city and starred in several Broadway shows. Jeanette tried to make a comeback with the 1934 drama St. Louis Woman but it was not a hit. After a few more small roles her career stalled. Her final film was the comedy Million Dollar Baby. She retired from acting and married producer and liquor salesman Bert E. Friedlob. Sadly she did not get to enjoy her new life for very long. On August 5, 1942 Jeanette died after ingesting ammonia. She was only thirty-five years old. Although many believe she committed suicide her death may have been accidental. Her family does not believe she took her own life. Jeanette is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.- Actor
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Sidney Bracey was born on 18 December 1877 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was an actor and director, known for The Monster Walks (1932), The Million Dollar Mystery (1914) and Show People (1928). He was married to Evelyn Foshay. He died on 5 August 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
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American composer, librettist, actor, dancer, author, director, and producer on the stage. Started his career in his family vaudeville shows, came to Broadway at the beginning of the 20th century. Was the composer of the American battle hymn of World War 1, 'Over There' Received the Congressional Gold Medal for his lifetime achievement 1936.- Actress
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Rafaela Ottiano was born on 4 March 1888 in Venice, Italy. She was an actress, known for Curly Top (1935), Grand Hotel (1932) and The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942). She died on 15 August 1942 in East Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Director
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The daughter of a cavalry captain, she was raised by a grandmother in Paris, where she studied various forms of art with an emphasis on music and the opera. In 1905 she married engineer-novelist Marie-Louis Albert-Dulac and under his influence veered toward journalism. As one of the leading radical feminists of her day, she was editor of La Française, the organ of the French suffragette movement. She also doubled as theater and cinema critic of the publication and became increasingly enamored with film as an art form. In 1915 she formed, with her husband, a small production company, Delia Film, and began directing highly inventive, small-budget pictures. Chronologically, she was the second woman director in French films, after Alice Guy, a contemporary of Georges Méliès. With La fête espagnole (1920) and her masterpiece, _Souriante Madame Beudet, La (1922)_, Dulac emerged as a leading figure in the impressionist movement in French films. In the late 20s, she was an important part of the "second avant-garde" of the French cinema with the surrealistic _Coquille et le Clergyman, La (1927)_ and a number of other experimental films. In these as well as in her theoretical writing, her goal was "pure" cinema, free from any influence from literature, the stage, or even the other visual arts. She talked of "musically constructed" films, or "films made according to the rules of visual music." Dulac was also instrumental in the development of cinema clubs throughout France in the mid-20s. Sound put an end to her experimentations and her career as a director. From 1930 until her death she was in charge of newsreel production at Pathé, then at Gaumont.- Writer
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J. Walter Ruben was born on 14 August 1899 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for The Phantom of Crestwood (1932), The Roadhouse Murder (1932) and The Getaway (1941). He was married to Virginia Bruce and Jane. He died on 16 August 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
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Carl Alstrup was born on 11 April 1877 in Sundbyvester, Tårnby, Denmark. He was an actor and director, known for Peter Ligeglad paa Eventyr (1923), Bukseskørtet (1911) and Gøngehøvdingen (1909). He was married to Ruth Rubin and Sophie Wiegand-Hansen. He died on 2 October 1942 in Snekkersten, Denmark.- Hale Hamilton was born on 28 February 1883 in Fort Madison, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for His Children's Children (1923), The Girl from Missouri (1934) and The Great Lover (1931). He was married to Grace La Rue, Myrtle Tannehill and Minnie Dorothy Pepper (aka Jane Oaker). He died on 19 May 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.
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Stanley Lupino was born on 15 May 1893 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Over She Goes (1937), You Made Me Love You (1933) and Cheer Up! (1936). He was married to Connie Emerald. He died on 10 June 1942 in London, England, UK.- Director
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Horne worked at a number of studios in the early 1920s and directed his first short at The Hal Roach Studios in 1925. He also directed Buster Keaton's successful "College" in 1927. Horne direct ten two-reel shorts for the Hal Roach All Star series between 1925 and 1926. Horne returned to Roach in 1929 and directed late silent shorts for Charley Chase and most significantly, Laurel & Hardy's classic "Big Business." Horne's first talkie for Roach was "Whispering Whoopie" with Charley Chase in 1930; he directed more than 30 sound shorts for Roach, including Laurel & Hardy's "Chickens Come Home" and the 4-reel "Beau Hunks" in which, not being able to find an actor to play an Arabian Riff, played the part himself. While Hal Roach had other directors working on the English language versions of Stan and Ollie's films he preferred Janes to work on the German, French and Spanish versions. Horne left the Roach Studios in 1932 but returned in 1935 to direct their last short "Thicker Than Water" and was an uncredited writer and the credited director of Laurel & Hardy's features "Bonnie Scotland," "The Bohemian Girl" and "Way Out West." Later he worked at Columbia where he produced a number of serials.- Director
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André Calmettes was born on 18 August 1861 in Paris, France. He was a director and actor, known for La dame aux camélias (1912), Tosca (1908) and La Tosca (1909). He died on 14 March 1942 in Paris, France.- Composer
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Academy Award-winning composer and songwriter ("Whistle While You Work", "Some Day My Prince Will Come"), and pianist, educated at the University of California. He was a pianist in film theatres, and then came to Hollywood under contract to Walt Disney. Joining ASCAP in 1938, his chief musical collaborators included Ann Ronell and Larry Morey. His other popular-song compositions include "I Bring You a Song", "Love Is a Song", "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", "Spring is in the Air", "Ain't Nature Grand?", "The Golden Youth", "Slow but Sure", "With a Smile and a Song", "I'm Wishing", "Heigh-Ho", "Happy as a Lark", "The Sunny Side of Things", "One Song", and "Baby Mine".- Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author with roots in Scotland. She lost her mother at an early age, and was raised by her maternal grandparents. She began to keep a diary and discovered at the age of 10 that she could write poetry. After college she became a teacher but kept writing. In 1908 her first novel, "Anne of Green Gables", was published after having been rejected by several publishers. It was a success. She followed up with a whole series of novels about Anne, and many other stories as well, including a second series starting with "Emily of New Moon". The novels about Anne and Emily are semi-autobiographical and contain many of her own memories from the 1880s and 1890s on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Her novels have been published in over 40 languages, and Anne is known all over the world. Mongomery's books are particularly popular in Japan.
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Ed Brady was born on 6 December 1889 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Son of Kong (1933), Law of the West (1932) and Fires of Rebellion (1917). He was married to Lillian West. He died on 31 March 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Carmen Laroux was born on 4 September 1909 in Durango, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Cavalier of the West (1931), Saved by the Belle (1939) and Las campanas de Capistrano (1930). She was married to Elmer Ellsworth and ? Ybarra. She died on 24 August 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Margaret Carthew was born in Florida. She lived in Palm Beach and started her career as a dancer on the stage,when she was a teenager. In the early 1930's she went to Hollywood with her parents,where she found work as a dancer on stage and as a dance-instructor. She became a dancer in films,and worked in nearly all the Busby Berkeley-movies in the 1930's. In 1934 she received a longterm-contract by Warner Bros,but was only seen in bit and extra parts. She was in the news in 1935,when the famous actor George Brent said in a newspaper that he thought that Margaret Carthew was one of the most beautiful women in the world.- Actor
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Murdock MacQuarrie was born on 25 August 1878 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Modern Times (1936), The Star Gazer (1914) and The Old Bell-Ringer (1914). He was married to Claire M.. He died on 22 August 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Effie Ellsler was born on 17 September 1855 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Daddy Long Legs (1931), The Actress (1928) and The Lady of Scandal (1930). She was married to Frank Weston. She died on 8 October 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actress
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Virginia Lee Corbin was born on 5 December 1910 in Prescott, Arizona, USA. She was an actress, known for Bare Knees (1928), Hands Up! (1926) and The Forbidden Room (1919). She was married to Theodore Elwood Krol and Charles Jacobson. She died on 5 June 1942 in Winfield, Illinois, USA.- Bud McClure was born on 21 February 1883 in Hopland, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Flyin' Buckaroo (1928), The Mystery Rider (1928) and Heroes of the Range (1936). He was married to Grace. He died on 2 November 1942 in North Hollywood, California, USA.
- First a cabaret artist in his native country (Holland), Frederick Vogeding made a few silent films in Germany first, then back in Holland before moving to the USA in 1920. In the States he made few films during the silent era but was active in the theater, including on Broadway. His real breakthrough in Hollywood was "Below the Sea" (1933), in which he impressed the viewers in the shoes of a somber U-boat captain. From then on, he got regular work, most of the time as a heavy and more precisely in the last part of his career, as a Gestapo agent or the Nazi spy in office. He died of a stroke aged only 55 and is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles.
- Otis Skinner was born on 28 June 1858 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Kismet (1930), Kismet (1920) and Tom's Little Star (1919). He was married to Maud Durbin. He died on 4 January 1942 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Tony the Horse was an acting horse and the companion of Western-star Tom Mix. It was the first horse labeled as 'Wonder Horse' and became very famous through appearances in over two dozen films. Tony is known for The Arizona Wildcat (1927), Silver Valley (1927) and Six-Shooter Andy (1918). It died two years to the day after his screen-companion Tom Mix.
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Herbert Selpin was born on 29 May 1902 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Trenck, der Pandur (1940), Titanic (1943) and The Dream of the Rhine (1933). He was married to Annie Markart. He died on 1 August 1942 in Berlin, Germany.- Actor
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Ashton Dearholt worked with Universal on a number of melodramas during the 1910s but usually worked outside the studio system, producing a series of "Pinto Pete" westerns during the 1920s in which he starred himself. He occasionally acted under the name Richard Holt.
Dearholt is best known to contemporary popular culture, however, through his association with author Edgar Rice Burroughs, whom he met and befriended in 1929. At that time Dearholt was married to Florence Gilbert, a former stand-in for Mary Pickford and occasional heroine of some of his own pictures before their marriage. Burroughs, who was having marital difficulties and self-doubts at the time, found himself attracted to Mrs. Dearholt at their first meeting, when Dearholt, accompanied by Florence, visited Burroughs at his home to discuss making films of some of Burroughs non-Tarzan novels and stories. Burroughs refused, being already thoroughly discouraged with Hollywood's treatment of his "ape-man" character, but developed a social relationship with Ashton and Florence.
Then in 1934, while on a business trip for RKO to Guatemala, Dearholt met and fell in love with a young American competitive swimmer, returned home with her to California and installed her in the Dearholt household. Florence Dearholt soon left and sought support from Burroughs, whom she eventually married after divorcing Dearholt. Florence took custody of her and Ashton's two children.
In 1935 Dearholt finally convinced Burroughs to allow him to make a Tarzan film. The trick was turned by Dearholt's offering, with two partners, to set up a single corporation under which Burroughs could subsume and personally manage his various Tarzan franchises, in exchange for allowing Dearholt to make a Tarzan serial, set in Guatemala, with his new love appearing in the lead female role under the screen name of Ula Holt (it's unclear if this was her real name, or a name contrived by Dearholt--who, as already noted, used the name Holt for himself at times and, additionally, adopted another screen name for himself, Don Costello, for use in his role as chief villain in the planned Tarzan film). It is unclear when (or if) he ever actually married Ms. Holt and, if so, how long the marriage lasted.
Contrary to popular legend, Burroughs had little actual involvement in the making of the new Tarzan picture, which he viewed as Dearholt's project. Dearholt selected Bruce Bennett--then known as Herman Brix--to play Tarzan: Burroughs only briefly met Bennett after his contract was signed, to pose for some publicity pictures. Dearholt commissioned a script, hired a crew and arranged transit to Guatemala. Burroughs entered the picture only briefly to co-sign a bank loan for production costs when the necessary credit was denied Dearholt on the basis of some of his rather unfavorable past bank experiences. The party eventually set sail for Guatemala in November of 1934 and returned in March of 1935 with the film only partly completed, due to cost overruns and numerous physical mishaps in the Guatemalan jungles under Dearholt's leadership. The script was almost entirely rewritten at least once: the pressbook, printed by Dearholt's partners back in California from the original screen treatment, barely resembles the finished film in its descriptions of the plot line. The serial was completed within two months of the party's return to California and faced release under threat from MGM to deny rentals on any of their future Tarzan pictures with Johnny Weissmuller to any theaters that played the Dearholt film. Although the film was fairly popular abroad, it was unable to recoup its costs and none of the cast--including the star--or crew were ever paid their salaries. Within a year, Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises went bankrupt and Dearholt never made or appeared in another motion picture. However, he and Burroughs remained close friends until his (Dearholt's) sudden death in 1942.- Albert Payson Terhune was born on 21 December 1872 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was a writer, known for Sunken Silver (1925), The Lotus Eater (1921) and Whom the Gods Destroy (1934). He was married to Anice Morris Stockton (composer) and Lorraine Marguerite Bryson. He died on 18 February 1942 in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, USA.
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John Gottowt was born on 15 June 1881 in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Lviv, Ukraine]. He was an actor and writer, known for Nosferatu (1922), Das schwarze Los (1913) and The Student of Prague (1913). He died on 27 August 1942 in Wieliczka, Malopolskie, Poland.- Actress
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Suzanne Clair was born in 1910 in France. She was an actress, known for 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941) and Spitfire (1942). She died on 3 November 1942 in Stepney, London, England, UK.- Actor
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Carl Schenstrøm was born on 13 November 1881 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor and director, known for Med fuld musik (1933), Hallo! Afrika forude! (1929) and Don Quixote (1926). He died on 10 April 1942 in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Brenda Fowler was born on 16 February 1883 in Jamestown, North Dakota, USA. She was an actress, known for Judge Priest (1934), The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936) and Two-Fisted Gentleman (1936). She was married to John W. Sherman. She died on 27 October 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- She was born in 1903 into a Ukrainian Jewish family, and emigrated to Paris as a young woman. She wrote nine books between 1929 and 1937, one of which was made into a movie ("David Golder", 1930). She became well-known in France, but did not become a French citizen. She converted to Catholicism in 1939, but could not escape the rise of anti-Semitism. After the Nazis invaded France, she was arrested in 1942 as "a stateless person of Jewish descent" and deported to Auschwitz, where she and her husband both died.
- Mrs. Wong Wing was born on 10 January 1875 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Dangerous Paradise (1930), Where East Is East (1929) and Mr. Wu (1927). She died on 12 March 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Andrej Warhola was born on 18 November 1886 in Miková, Slovakia. He was married to Julia Warhola. He died on 15 May 1942 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Monte Brewer was born on 12 May 1932 in Lamar, Colorado, USA. He was an actor, known for Mr. Dynamite (1941). He died on 21 April 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.