Mount Sinai Los Angeles, CA
The men and women who were interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.
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By the early 1950s, future movie mogul Samuel Z. Arkoff was a brash 30-ish lawyer scratching out a living by representing his in-laws and the Hollywood fringe, which included many of now infamous director/angora-clad transvestite Edward D. Wood Jr.'s social circle. As a shark, Arkoff was physically imposing and capable of scaring the snot out of anyone who opposed him. One of his penny ante clients was Alex Gordon, a screenwriter who had submitted an unsolicited script to Realart Pictures, an outfit that was profitably re-releasing 20-year-old movies, often under new titles conjured up by its owner, Jack Broder. One such film, Man Made Monster (1941), had just been re-issued as "The Atomic Monster", coincidentally the same title of Gordon's screenplay. Arkoff, smelling blood in the water, paid Broder a visit and, incredibly, obtained a $500 settlement. Broder's sales manager, James H. Nicholson, was dumbfounded by Arkoff's ability to extract a dime, let alone $500, out of his notoriously tightfisted boss. He met with Arkoff and proposed a partnership, which led to the formation of American Releasing Corp. in 1954. The company's first release was Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954), a low-budget feature by 29-year-old producer'Roger Corman'. Made for less than $50,000, it netted $850,000 and Corman was brought into the fold as a silent partner. By 1955 the company was renamed American-International Pictures, generally known as AIP in the industry. Initially focusing on westerns on the premise that shooting on location was cheaper than renting space in a studio. Although the films were profitable, Arkoff was unhappy with the returns and solicited theater owners for advice on what types of films filled seats.
By the mid-'50s, thanks to television, movie audience numbers had dwindled considerably, with the key demographic now teenagers and young adults, who craved horror movies and, especially, drive-ins (where they could gather together without their parents). AIP jumped into the horror genre with both feet and made a fortune. Under the aegis of Nicholson and Arkoff, the company survived in a constricting industry by catering to the whims of the teenage trade and adapting to trends. AIP's long (350-plus) roster of kitsch classics, running the gamut from horror to rock-'n'-roll, from juvenile delinquency to Italian muscle men and from Edgar Allan Poe to Annette Funicello, have formed their own unique niche in film history. His company became infamous for clever advertising schemes that were often more entertaining than the films themselves. Arkoff never tolerated egos and his films were more often than not profitable, thanks to tight budgets and a clear understanding of the company's target market. After Nicholson's 1972 resignation, Arkoff assumed full control of the company and remained in charge until the 1979 merger with Filmways prompted his own departure. He then became the head of Arkoff International Pictures.Plot: Zion 5- Bambi Allen was born on 2 May 1938 in Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Hell's Bloody Devils (1970), Satan's Sadists (1969) and Angels Die Hard (1970). She died on 21 January 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Maimonides 17, L-6130, space 3
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A graduate of New York's Columbia School of Journalism, Irwin Allen was a magazine editor, the producer/director of a radio show and the owner of an advertising agency before entering film production in the 1950s. His documentary, The Sea Around Us (1953), won an Academy Award. A successful TV series producer (The Time Tunnel (1966), Lost in Space (1965)), Allen was nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" in the 1970s due to the tremendous success of his two special effects-laden epics, The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974).- Art Aragon was born on 13 November 1927 in Belen, New Mexico, USA. He was an actor, known for Fat City (1972), Off Limits (1952) and To Hell and Back (1955). He died on 25 March 2008 in Northridge, Los Angeles, California, USA.
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John Alderman was a talented, prolific, and ubiquitous actor in numerous low-budget exploitation features who appeared in everything from 1960s softcore items to 1970s drive-in fare to 1980s hardcore porn throughout the course of his long and diverse career.
Alderman was born on June 12, 1934, in Syracuse, New York. His father was a prominent lawyer. Alderman attended Syracuse University as a theater major. He first began acting in both films and TV shows alike in the late 1950s, alternating between lead and co-starring roles. His most memorable parts include pathetic twitchy heroin addict Jimmy Devlin in the gloriously lurid The Hard Road (1973), antsy hoodlum Lattimer in This Is a Hijack (1973), a flunky for Shelley Winters in Jack Starrett's delightful blaxploitation blast Cleopatra Jones (1973), stuttering drug dealer Cockroach in The Black Godfather (1974), uptight all-girls school principal Dr. Baxter in the amusing Delinquent School Girls (1975) and coldly rational researcher Dr. Frank Rogers in the nifty sci-fi doomsday thriller The Alpha Incident (1978). Alderman appeared in four softcore movies for legendary schlockmeister David F. Friedman: Starlet! (1969), Thar She Blows! (1968), The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972) and Trader Hornee (1970). Although he primarily worked in maverick independent cinema productions, he nonetheless did manage to pop up in the occasional mainstream film like Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and The Stunt Man (1980).
In the early 1980s Alderman acted in a handful of hardcore X-rated porno films for director Gary Graver, under the pseudonym Frank Hallowell. Among the TV shows Alderman appeared on are Hunter (1984), Dynasty (1981), The Fall Guy (1981), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Iron Horse (1966), 12 O'Clock High (1964), The Lieutenant (1963), Checkmate (1960), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), Hawaiian Eye (1959), Wagon Train (1957) and Gunsmoke (1955). He directed the crime opus Lisa's Folly (1970) and co-wrote the script for the lowbrow comedy romp C.B. Hustlers (1976).
John Alderman died at age 52 of an apparent heart attack on January 12, 1987, in Hollywood, California.Plot: Maimonides 13, L-7277, space 2- Writer
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Danny Arnold was born on 23 January 1925 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Barney Miller (1975), My World and Welcome to It (1969) and That Girl (1966). He was married to Donna Cooke and Joanne Gilbert. He died on 19 August 1995 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Courts of Heritage, Crypt 29-J- Actress
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Eleanor Audley was an American actress, with a distinctive voice that helped her find work as a voice actress in radio and animation. She is primarily remembered as the first actress to voice Lady Tremaine and Maleficent, two of the most memorable Disney villains.
Audley's real name was Eleanor Zellman, and she was from New York City. She was Jewish, but little is known about her family background and she apparently never married.
She made her acting debut in 1926, aged 20, at the Broadway production of "Howdy, King". She remained primarily a theatrical actress through the 1920s and the 1930s. During the 1940s, Audley started playing a number of prominent roles in radio serials. Among them was mother-in-law Leticia Cooper in "My Favorite Husband" (1948-51), receptionist Molly Byrd in "The Story of Dr. Kildare" (1949-51), and neighbor, Elizabeth Smith in "Father Knows Best" (1949-54).
Audley was hired by Disney to play the role of wealthy widow Lady Tremaine in the animated feature film "Cinderella" (1950). Audley was also used as the live-action model of the character, and her facial features were used by the animators who designed the character. In the film, Lady Tremaine is depicted as the abusive stepmother of Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods) and the domineering mother of Anastasia Tremaine (voiced by Lucille Bliss) and Drizella Tremaine (voiced by Rhoda Williams). The film was a box office hit, and its profits helped rescue the Disney studio from a financial decline that had lasted for almost a decade.
For the rest of the decade, Audley appeared regularly in supporting roles in film, and guest roles in television. She returned to animation when hired to voice the evil fairy Maleficent in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959). As before, Audley was also used as a live-action model for the character. During the film's production, Audley was struggling with tuberculosis, While nominally the villain, Maleficent received more screen-time in the finished film than titular protagonist Princess Aurora (voiced by singer Mary Costa).
"Sleeping Beauty" had box office receipts of more than $51 million in the U.S. and Canada, against a budget of $6 million. It finished the year second in ticket sales, behind the number one film, "Ben-Hur." Audley was not invited to voice other villains. The film earned critical and popular acclaim through later re-releases, and Maleficent has been revived many times by Disney. But never with her original voice actress.
In the 1960s, Audley played supporting roles in then-popular television series. Among her most prominent roles were Irma Lumpkin in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", Peggy Billings in "The Dick Van Dyke Show", Millicent Schuyler-Potts in "The Beverly Hillbillies" , Aunt Martha in "Mister Ed", Jenny Teasley in "Pistols 'n' Petticoats", Eunice Douglas in "Green Acres", and Beatrice Vincent in "My Three Sons".
Audley worked with Disney again to voice psychic medium Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion attractions in Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Leota is depicted as a ghost who communicates with the living, and other actresses have since voiced the character.
Her long career ended prematurely in the 1970s, due to increasingly poor health. She lived in retirement until her death in 1991, at the age of 86. The cause of death was respiratory failure. Audley was interred at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Her character of Madame Leota received its own tombstone in 2001. The epitaph reads: "Dear sweet Leota, beloved by all. In regions beyond now, but having a ball."Plot: Kedron 10, L-7191, space 4- Actor
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Dave Barry was a trailblazing stand-up comedian who began his comedy, acting and voice-over career at age 17. He played his first professional gig at New York's old Palace Theater in April of 1935. The young comedic talent (born Dave Siegel, and then changing legally to Dave Barry in the early 1940s) was the son of a furniture store owner in Brooklyn, calling himself an "amateur cartoonist and sign painter" when he made his debut in April 1935 on the radio talent show "Major Edward Bowes and the Original Amateur Hour." Bowes radio show encouraged listeners to vote for favorite acts either by calling the station in New York or sending in a postcard. The act that gained the most votes won the opportunity to go on a road tour with one of Major Bowes' touring "units," making $50 weekly plus meals. Barry was a hit with listeners, winning several contests and Major Bowes signed him to a contract for live shows. Bowes became Barry's first mentor, schooling him on showbiz and suggesting that Barry hang out by the New York docks to soak up the funny sounds and things he heard.
Barry next cut his comedic chops on the vaudeville stage, touring for almost 7 years with Major Bowes units, handling emcee chores and featured in a nightly comedy slot among a troupe of variety acts doing 35 shows a week across the 48 states, including Mexico and Canada. Constant work followed during which he played theaters nationwide with acts such as Paul Winchell, Jack Carter, George Liberace, Beverly Sills, Glen Gray, Jimmy Dorsey, and Charlie Barnet. Dave Barry was given a headline spot in Bowes unit #1 in June 1935, opening in Houston Texas and learning the showbiz ropes, surrounded by many future luminaries. It was on the road that he met beautiful singer Ginny Wayne (Ginger Seiden), who was also working the same unit. The two married while touring in 1940, garnering a standing rousing ovation from their fellow performers during a ceremony in between shows. They had their first son (Alan) while on the road in August 1941, just a few months before the attack at Pearl Harbor and the beginning of WW2.
Barry built up a reputation as a dependable stand-up comic and impersonator, entertaining troops during his military service in World War II while serving at Camp Roberts CA where he became an army sergeant in June 1944. He performed on radio often (Command Performance USO, Major Bowes, The Connee Boswell show) and while attached to the army's Special Services Unit he spent his short stint in the war doing what he did best - entertaining servicemen and women at home & overseas with luminaries such as Red Skelton, Eddie Cantor, Mary Pickford, Jimmy Durante, The Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. In 1945 he came to Hollywood landing a spot at Billy Gray's Band Box, a popular comedy club and dinner bistro on Fairfax Blvd. His drawl humor and smart impersonations scored immediately with the Band Box crowd, and Barry was held over for months. It was here that his work attracted the attention of local radio and film execs, bringing the lad plenty of radio appearances and finally a permanent berth on the Jimmy Durante radio show.
Jimmy Durante became Barry's mentor, bringing him under his wings for his 1947-1948 radio broadcasts, with Barry regularly appearing in cameos doing gags and sounds, and as "Mr Ripple," the Commissioner of Waterways. On some episodes, his six year old son Alan Barry would chime in as his youthful cherub "Trickle." Guest stars on Durante's popular show included Bob Hope, Van Johnson, Rose Marie, and Frank Morgan - the well known Wizard in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Barry also did a short lived "Hollywood Showcase" radio show with Mickey Rooney in July of 1947. All the while, Barry was also working his stage show jokes & gags - honing and testing them for bigger laughs. In December of 1948 Barry made his very first TV appearance on "Toast Of The Town" with Ed Sullivan, just as the new TV medium was about to begin its golden age.
Barry excelled at mimicry and mastered an endless stream of accents/dialects and offbeat sounds (in fact at the start of his stage work he advertised himself as an impressionist). He based his routines on the everyday happenings of "Mr. Average" -things that happen at home, problems with money, and the trials and tribulations with the wife and kids. When Barry moved to Hollywood, he sought out more cartoon voice work and signed contracts with Columbia, Warner Brothers, Disney, Republic Pictures, and Screen Gems. He was initially sought-after as an animation voice artist in the 1930's at the age of just 18, hired by the legendary Warner Bothers (Merrie Melodies) mogul Leon Schlesinger with the Hollywood themed The CooCoo Nut Grove (1936) where he voiced actor Ned Sparks, Porky's Road Race (1937) and then a year later with Disney with the star studded Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938). Barry partnered with the most creative minds of early animation, and cartoon voice work (especially celebrities) became a lucrative side gig supplementing his comedy résumé. During a 1942 Miami stand-up performance, he was doing his act at a hotel when a man from the audience (who worked for the Miami based Famous Studios) approached him at the bar after the show. He said they needed a deeply baritone voice for Popeye's arch nemesis Bluto in a series of Popeye features. Barry got the Miami cartoon job starting with Kickin' the Conga Round (1942). Ultimately Barry provided the swaggering voice for Bluto between 1942 and 1944, and worked on six Popeye features.
Barry's cartoon work grew along with his reputation, voicing more than 50 credited (and mostly uncredited) features . His most sought-after skills were foreign dialects and uncannily impersonating celebrities of the period including Groucho Marx, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Cagney and Clark Gable, which he did with gusto in countless Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. He also voiced Elmer Fuddstone in Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958), standing in for Arthur Q. Bryan when he was taken ill and was not able to voice him. For Looney Tunes, Dave Barry became best known for numerous appearances of Humphrey Bogart and other classic celebrities in cartoons such as "Bacall to Arms (1946)," "8 Ball Bunny (1950)" and the star studded "Hollywood Steps Out (1941)." He also voiced many nameless background characters.
Barry also performed a bevy of distinctive radio voices for the famous "Marilyn Monroe Is Getting Married" radio episode on the Edgar Bergen show, aired October 26th 1952 with Marilyn Monroe and Bergen's ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy.
Barry continued to find his sweet spot with clean but punchy jokes about the everyday guy or gal; hilarious stories about wives who can't drive straight, long-haired kids who won't get a haircut and sexy bald men like himself who get stopped by the cops after a few too many drinks. Barry's comedic stage work in Las Vegas started around 1945, just as the dessert town became a magnet for top entertainment. Starting at the newly opened El Rancho and Dessert Inn Hotels, Barry became a fixture in Vegas for over 5 decades. In these early Vegas days before the strip (with junket buses bringing in gamblers from nearby Los Angeles), Barry performed in luxurious smoke-filled showrooms with singers Marilyn Maxwell, Sunny Skylar, Betty Grable, Ethel Smith, Frank Sinatra, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Nat 'King' Cole, Liberace and Jane Powell. During his decades in Vegas, he played at nearly every resort including The Dunes, The Stardust, The Royal Nevada, The Riviera, and what was originally known as The Last Frontier. In the 1950s he performed his impressions and fast-paced gags at the El Cortez and newly opened Flamingo opened by the infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel (no relation to Barry). While at The Flamingo, Barry performed comedy opening for soprano Tony Martin and Rose Marie.
In addition to Vegas, Barry also appeared in comedy clubs (nightery dates) across the USA: Chicago (Chez Paree), San Francisco (Bimbo 365), New York (The Paramount), Austin TX (The Paramount), Florida (The Americana) Palm Springs (The Chi Chi and Palm House), and Los Angeles (Billy Grays Band Box. The Moulin Rouge, Cocoanut Grove, Ciros).
Constant back-to-back nightclub work across the USA paired Barry with glittering names of the period including Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Della Reese, Frank Sinatra, Liberace, The Four Step Brothers, Gypsy Rose Lee and Tommy Dorsey. In June 1949 Barry was flown in for a one month engagement at the London Palladium paired with The Marx Brothers (Harpo Marx and Chico Marx).
Voice-over work, inevitably, came second to his growing vocation as a busy Vegas comedian and entertainer. In the early 1950's Barry pivoted from stage and radio to the new medium of television and garnered appearances during TV's golden age including The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), The Jackie Gleason Show (1952), Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948) and appearing eight separate times on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) - including the third highly anticipated USA appearance by The Beatles in February 1964 in a prerecorded segment. He appeared in 1952 with Eddie Cantor in a Colgate Comedy Hour Maxie The Taxi sketch with the immensely popular Eddie Cantor at the time. From there he appeared as himself doing his stand up-act or skits in numerous shows including "All Star Revue (1950)," and "The Jackie Gleason Show (1952) ."
As Dave Barry's confidence grew, he was offered film roles. His first cameo role was as tough guy Eddie Steele in the 1947 picture Joe Palooka in the Knockout (1947), playing a carnival barker who gets quickly knocked off. The next year in 1948 Barry was cast as the smartly dressed (but odd) interior decorator "Mr. Ripple" in Marilyn Monroe's third feature film, Ladies of the Chorus (1948) using his distinctive gurgle voice that he was using on Durante's radio show. Other movies followed, including Playgirl (1954) with Shelley Winters where Barry played the sneezing Photographer Jonathan Hughes. Barry morphed into his hilarious role of the pianist Señor Palumbo in the popular Bowery Boys High Society (1955). For this more physically comedic role, Barry played a cross-eyed candelabra impression of Liberace, which he had been using to great effect as a stage gag.
Barry also began to get some serious roles for a variety of TV series - playing a gangster kingpin on death row in 87th Precinct (1961), a bookie in a barbershop Going My Way (1962), or as a jewel thief in M Squad (1957).
But Dave Barry's most iconic movie role landed by happenstance in 1959 with Billy Wilder's hilarious romp Some Like It Hot (1959) where he played the bespectacled "Bienstock," the manager of the all-girl band with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. It was this role that marked the pinnacle of all his work in a movie widely called one of the funniest comedies of all time,
"What is this part?" Barry asked his agent, trying out initially for a minor part in the film. "It will be four days in a great movie," the agent promised. However at the audition, director Billy Wilder watched Barry's performance and took a moment, then looked at writer I.A.L. Diamond and announced, "Its Bienstock!" Diamond agreed, "Bienstock!"
Barry called his agent and quizzically asked, "What the hell is a Bienstock?" "Dave that's four paid weeks in the movie!" his agent explained.
In 1966 Barry also made a brief cameo appearance with the legendary Elvis Presley as his manager Harry in the movie Spinout (1966). He was also heard in Roger Corman film "The Raven (1963)," making sounds for the title character and dubbing voices for Peter Lorre and Vincent Price.
On November 30, 1965 Dave Barry opened for legendary singer Judy Garland at the Sahara Congo Room for a 2 week engagement of sold out shows, backed by the 30-piece Louis Basil orchestra. In 1966 Barry was signed as the headliner for the Desert Inn's lavish musical revue "Hello America." Highlights of the Donn Arden produced Vegas show included the sinking of the Titanic, a recreation of the San Francisco earthquake, and a mid-air butterfly ballet. One of the newly hired showgirls was a young unknown actress by the name of Goldie Hawn, who was apparently fired by producer Arden after only three weeks. The long running show was popular, and when "Hello America" closed at the Crystal Room in March of 1967, it had reportedly entertained over a million people.
"I'm the kind of comic who fits here," Barry told The New York Times about his 5 decades in Vegas. "My jokes are short and punchy. I give the audience no time to think. They've been saturated with free drinks in the casino - to give them cerebral comedy would be deadly. I think the people from Keokuk Iowa want to hear something they don't hear there - something a little risqué, a little salty, but not too much."
For nearly a decade in Vegas, Dave Barry provided opening act laughs for legendary "Midnight Idol" Wayne Newton working in the early 1970's at all of the Howard Hughes owned hotels including The Sands, The Desert Inn and The Frontier. He was also a founding member of the Friars Club in Beverly Hills, and for decades roasted longtime showbiz pals like Phyllis Diller, George Jessel, Phil Silvers, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Milton Berle.
Barry continued to do stand-up well into the late 1990's, plying his craft in Las Vegas at the Comedy Store, on cruise ships and as a member of the cast of The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a throwback to the Ziegfeld Follies replete with vaudeville acts, lavish production numbers and a bevy of statuesque over 60 showgirls in feathers and rhinestones.
Dave Barry's trademark one liners lasted until the final gags. At one of his last shows lamenting a gig on a cruise ship, Barry recalled "Some of those people were so old I didn't know whether to say hello or goodbye! The late show was at 2 o'clock. Anybody with their own teeth was overdressed."Plot: Garden of Heritage, Main Level, South Wall- André Baruch was born on 20 August 1908 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for On the Wing (1938), Skating Lady (1946) and Antique Antics (1952). He was married to Bea Wain. He died on 15 September 1991 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.Plot: Gardens of Heritage, Main Level, Crypt 104B
- Wolfe Barzell was born on 1 September 1897 in Staszów, Poland, Russian Empire [now Staszów, Swietokrzyskie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961), Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) and The Blue Angel (1959). He died on 14 February 1969 in Acapulco, Mexico.Plot: Moses 19, L-5356, space 1
- Cute, tiny, and prolific little old lady character actress Frances Bay worked constantly in both films and TV shows alike after making her debut at the age of 59 in life with a small part in the comedy Foul Play (1978) in 1978.
She frequently portrayed eccentric elderly women and good-hearted grandmothers in all kinds of pictures and television programs. Frances acted several times for David Lynch: she's Kyle MacLachlan's sweet doddery aunt in Blue Velvet (1986), a gruff, profane whorehouse madam in Wild at Heart (1990), and the spooky Mrs. Tremond in the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990) and its spin-off feature Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Frances popped up in two movies for director Stuart Gordon: she's a kind witch in The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and a fortune teller in Edmond (2005).
Other notable film roles include a snippy librarian in The Attic (1980), a mysterious blind nun in the offbeat Nomads (1986), another librarian in In the Mouth of Madness (1994), and Adam Sandler's loving grandmother in the hit comedy Happy Gilmore (1996). Frances had the unique distinction of guesting on the final episodes of the TV shows Happy Days (1974), Who's the Boss? (1984), and Seinfeld (1989).
Among the many TV series Bay had guest spots on are Charmed (1998), ER (1994), Matlock (1986), The X-Files (1993), Murder, She Wrote (1984), The Commish (1991), L.A. Law (1986), Hill Street Blues (1981), Touched by an Angel (1994), The Golden Girls (1985), and Amazing Stories (1985).
She won a Gemini Award for her performance in the Disney TV program Avonlea (1990). Frances was also in the music video for Jimmy Fallon's "Idiot Boyfriend." In addition to her substantial movie and TV credits, Bay also acted in both Off-Broadway stage productions and regional theater; these plays include "Finnegan's Wake," "Grease," "Genuis," "The Caucasion Chalk Circle," "Number Our Days," "Uncommon Women," "Sarcophagus," and "The Pleasure of His Company." Frances won two DramaLogue Awards and was nominated for a Los Angeles Dramatic Critics' Award.
In 2002 Bay was the unfortunate victim of an automobile accident which resulted in having part of her right leg amputated. Her husband Charles sadly died in 2002 as well.
In real life Frances Bay was a very practical and unassuming woman with an avid love for jazz music. - Actor
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The character actor Herschel Bernardi was born into a theatrical family on October 30, 1923, in New York, New York. The Yiddish-language theater in the United States was centered in New York City's Lower East Side, on Second Avenue, and the Bernardi family were stage people who plied their craft in Yiddish, as did the Adler Family (Jacob and his children Luther and Stella), Paul Muni and the young Sidney Lumet. The young Herschel was a trouper and appeared on the stage as a child and as a teenager. As a teen, he appeared in the movies Green Fields (1937) and Yankel the Blacksmith (1939), which were shot in Yiddish and directed by future Hollywood B-movie director Edgar Ulmer.
The adult Bernardi, who briefly used the name "Harold" professionally in place of the more ethnic-sounding "Herschel," appeared in bit parts in Hollywood B pictures. In the early 1950s, his movie and television career suffered when he was blacklisted for alleged communist sympathies. After being cleared, Bernardi began to work steadily on TV, in the movies and on the stage.
In 1958, he made his first impact on popular American culture as Lieutenant Jacoby, the hapless policeman who was a friend of Craig Stevens's eponymous private detective Peter Gunn (1958) in Blake Edwards' influential TV series. "Peter Gunn" was heavily indebted to film noir, German expression, and California cool jazz, and the contrast of the harassed Jacoby with the coolly patrician Gunn was part of the dynamic that drove the series. For his role as Lt. Jacoby, Herschel Bernardi received his sole Emmy nomination, in 1959.
Possessed of a resonant voice, Bernardi did a lot of voice over work on television, providing the "Ho ho ho!" of the Jolly Green Giant and the voice of Charley the Tuna in TV commercials. Most famously, he used his singing voice to take over for Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971), which was a smash hit when it debuted in 1964. In addition to two stints on Broadway, in both the original show and the revival, Bernardi played Tevye in several road show tours. He was nominated for a Tony in the Broadway revival. He received his first Tony nomination in 1969 for playing the lead in the musical "Zorba."
Off the Broadway stage, Herschel Bernadi was a supporting character owing to his average face. Yet in 1970, Bernardi finally played a leading man in a filmed entertainment when he was cast as Arnie Nuovo, an ethnic blue-collar worker who is promoted off of the loading dock into management by an eccentric business owner. As the eponymous Arnie (1970), Bernardi was twice nominated for a Golden Globe. The series was canceled after two seasons.
Bernardi continued to find steady work as a character actor, mostly on TV. In 1976, he appeared in support of Woody Allen in Martin Ritt's The Front (1976), a movie about the Hollywood blacklist that also featured another of the Big Three Tevyes, Zero Mostel. (Both Bernardi and Mostel were beaten out for the role in the Fiddler on the Roof (1971) movie by Topol, who received an Oscar nomination in the role and took over Bernardi's place as Tevye in traveling road shows of "Fiddler on the Roof" after Bernardi's death.) Mostel, like Ritt, had been blacklisted in the 1950s.
Herschel Bernardi died on May 9, 1986, at the age of 62, still a working actor whose services had been in demand from childhood.Plot: Courts of TaNaCH, Crypt 52250- Actress
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This accomplished voice actress with an ear for accents, first made her mark on Jack Benny's radio program in the dual role of wisecracking, gum-chewing telephone operator Mabel Flapsaddle and Jack's plumber girlfriend Gladys. Brunette Sara Berner's real name was Lillian Herdan and she was born in Albany, New York, in January 1912. Her family moved to Oklahoma where she studied drama for two years at Tulsa University. Before she came to notice with the Major Bowes Amateur Hour on radio to embark on nationwide tours with their all-girl unit, Sara's instinctive talents sometimes got her into trouble -- such as being fired from an earlier job as a salesgirl at a Philadelphia department store for mimicking the customers. Of course, this turned out to be a blessing. Job offers in the entertainment industry abounded in the 1930's and 40's for those who possessed genuine talent, and, above all, versatility. As both a comedienne and a natural dialectician, Sara went on to earn five times the salary she would have made in retail. Her stock in trade were exaggerated ethnic dialects, her gallery of voices including Hillbilly, Yiddish (Mrs. Horowitz in "Life with Luigi"), Italian (Mrs. Mataratza on "The Jimmy Durante Show"), Spanish (Chiquita on the Gene Autry program), Greek, Polish and Armenian (to get the hang of this one, she resorted to telephoning assorted Armenian rug dealers!). By 1950, Sara had her own comedy detective series on network radio -- "Sara's Private Caper" -- as a former police secretary, turned sleuth. Sadly, despite the assemblage of a good supporting cast, the show flopped (then again, this was something even the great Mel Blanc had experienced four years earlier).
Beginning in 1933, Sara worked extensively in Hollywood -- primarily in animation -- though rarely receiving screen credit. She was particularly successful mimicking Katharine Hepburn's voice, which she first did to much acclaim on the "Eddie Cantor Show". This led to a spate of cartoon roles with Walt Disney (Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938)); Walter Lantz (Hollywood Bowl (1938)) and Leon Schlesinger at Warner Brothers (Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938)). Perhaps her 'signature voice' from those years was that of Beaky Buzzard's Italian Mamma, first heard on The Bashful Buzzard (1945). That same year, she also voiced the cartoon mouse Jerry, dancing with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh (1945). According to a 1949 news article -- shortly after the movie was broadcast -- Sara received a parcel with an assortment of cheeses from a Wisconsin admirer. Such can be the fringe benefits of fame.
Her subsequent work in animation encompassed providing the voices for Andy Panda and cartoon penguin Chilly Willy for Walter Lantz's studio. There was also regular work as a small-part supporting player in films and television. Sara repeated her Mabel role on The Jack Benny Program (1950). Other than that, she was destined to round off her career in no-name parts, cameos and walk-ons, most memorably as the dog-owning upstairs neighbour in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). Sara made her final TV appearance in 1967 and died just two years later in Van Nuys, California, aged 57.Plot: Canaan 8, L-2474, space 2- Actress
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Lovely, lithe and light-haired Zina Bethune, noted ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher, also had a promising acting career during the late 1950s and 1960s.
The native New Yorker was born on February 17, 1945, the daughter of William Charles Bethune (who died in 1950 when Zina was 5) and established actress Ivy Bethune (née Vigner) of General Hospital (1963) fame. Zina's mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant, born in Sevastopol.
Formally trained in dance from age 6, she was a student at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet, and performed with the New York City Ballet as a teen despite the fact she was diagnosed at various times with scoliosis, lymphedema and hip dysplasia.
As an adolescent, she appeared in several daytime TV dramas, including a breakthrough part (1956-1958) as the first "Robin Lang" on the serial Guiding Light (1952). Over time, she joined the cast of other soaps, including a lengthy running part on Love of Life (1951) from 1965-1971 and, many years later, a recurring part on Santa Barbara (1984). Zina co-starred with Shirl Conway on the TV drama The Doctors and the Nurses (1962) [best known as "The Nurses," the series was later entitled "The Doctors and the Nurses"], and won touching reviews for her naive student nurse role. She also played the sensitive role of "Amy" in one of several TV adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's beloved Little Women (1958). As a young adult, she continued to demonstrate a formidable dramatic flair on such popular shows as Route 66 (1960), Naked City (1958), Gunsmoke (1955), Lancer (1968), The Invaders (1967), Emergency! (1972) and CHiPs (1977).
Making her first movie appearance as one of the Roosevelt children in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) starring Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson, she did not make as indelible a mark in film as promised, but did earn semi-cult notice for her moving streetwise role opposite Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese's autobiographical feature-length debut Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967) [aka Who's That Knocking at My Door?], a notable predecessor to his acclaimed star-maker Mean Streets (1973).
Zina graced many musicals as a singer/dancer and made her Broadway debut at age 11 playing "Tessie" in "The Most Happy Fella". A number of touring productions came her way in the form of "Sweet Charity", "Oklahoma!", "Damn Yankees!", "Carnival", "Carousel" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Non-musical offerings came in the form of "The Member of the Wedding", "Barefoot in the Park" and "The Owl and the Pussycat". In 1992, Zina returned to Broadway as a replacement in "Grand Hotel" in which she portrayed Russian ballerina "Elizaveta Grushinskaya".
Ms. Bethune's ultimate passion and commitment, however, has remained in the art of dance...and on many levels. In her prime, she was a highly-regarded prima ballerina. Among her many credits were "Swan Lake", "Le Corsair", "Romeo and Juliet", "Black Swan", "Giselle", "Don Quixote" and "Sleeping Beauty", not to mention Balanchine's own "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux". A guest artist with The Royal Danish Ballet, Nevada Dance Theatre and San Francisco Ballet Theatre, she went on to form her own New York-based company in 1969 -- Zina Bethune and Company. Her career as a dance director and choreographer has encompassed over 50 plays, films, videos and ballets.
Bethune was sporadically seen on camera in later years, including small roles in the film The Boost (1988) as a dance choreographer, the TV movie Nutcracker: Money, Madness & Murder (1987) and the TV series "Santa Barbara" and "Party of Five." Throughout her life, she has remained steadfast in her contribution to children with physical and mental disabilities. Helping them embrace the art of dance as a means of self-expression and therapy, she was prompted by her own physical ailments diagnosed while growing up. In addition to the Theatredanse (aka Theature Bethune) dance performance company she founded in 1980, she also organized Dance Outreach (now known as Infinite Dreams) in 1982, which continues to enroll disabled young children in dance-related activities throughout Southern California.
On February 12, 2012, Bethune was killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident while visiting the Griffith Park area in Los Angeles. She was five days short of her 67th birthday. She was survived by her husband, technical/visual effects artist 'Sean Feeley and mother Ivy.- Preston Black is known for Guilty Innocence (2010).Plot: Courts of TaNaCH, Crypt 55310
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She was was born in London's East End, the daughter of a Russian immigrant family who settled in Britain at the turn of the century. During WWII she was evacuated to South Wales where Welsh choirs fascinated her and she remembers the miners harmonising which made her want to sing professionally. Her first engagement at 17 was at London's Stork Club where she sang Blues numbers. She got steady work in cabaret and on the variety circuit. Tiring of all the touring in 1956 she auditioned for and got a part in the production of 'The Threepenny Opera at the Royal Court which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in the West End and then to New York. When that closed she got the offer of singing in a Hollywood night club but that was a disaster. She returned to New York broke and destitute then she got a message that London Television wanted to do a programme about her.She was then asked to record some songs for a new show called 'The Lily White Boys'which she stared in with Albert Finney at the Royal Court. After that she was cast as Nancy in 'Oliver' which she played in London and New York for 4 years earning the London Critics Award and a New York Tony Award nomination. She was, needless to say, disappointed at not getting the role in the film version. She returned to London for Lionel Bart's 'Maggie May' then made her film debut in 'The Fixer'Plot: Zion 1, L-3058, space 1- Director
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Edward Buzzell was born in Brooklyn, NY, and became a musical comedy star on Broadway. He went to Hollywood in 1929 to star in the movie version (Little Johnny Jones (1929)) of the old George M. Cohan stage show "Little Johnny Jones" in 1929. He starred also in Vitaphone shorts, where he started his career as director. Subsequently he directed shorts for Columbia Pictures before he started directing features in 1933. Later he came to MGM, where he made his best remembered films with the Marx Brothers ( At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940)), Eleanor Powell (Ship Ahoy (1942), Honolulu (1939)) and Esther Williams (Neptune's Daughter (1949)).Plot: Courts of Tanach 1, Lot 1400, Space 6- Actress
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Songwriter ("Love Is a Simple Thing") and author, educated at Hollywood High School in California. She wrote songs for films and for the Broadway revues "Who's Who", "New Faces of 1952", and "New Faces of 1956". Joining ASCAP in 1952, her chief musical collaborators include Arthur Siegel and Richard Lewine. Her other popular-song compositions include "Penny Candy", "Monotonous", "The Boy Most Likely to Succeed", "Let's Hold Hands", "I Want You to Be the First to Know", "He Takes Me Off His Income Tax" and "Rinka Tinka Man".Plot: Court of Tanach, Crypt 54251- Writer
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Sidney Carroll was born on 25 May 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Hustler (1961), The United States Steel Hour (1953) and Gambit (2012). He was married to June Carroll. He died on 3 November 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Courts of TaNaCH, Crypt 54252- Music Department
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Composer, songwriter ("Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," "Anniversary Song"), pianist, conductor, arranger, author and producer, educated at the NYU School of Commerce. As a young man, he joined an orchestra as pianist, and Sammy Cahn was in that orchestra as a violinist. He joined ASCAP in 1936 and came to Hollywood in 1941. His chief musical collaborators included Sammy Cahn and Johnny Mercer. His other popular-song compositions include "Rhythm Is Our Business" (the Jimmy Lunceford theme), "Shoe Shine Boy," "Rhythm In My Nursery Rhymes," "Please Be Kind," "If It's the Last Thing I Do," "Joseph, Joseph," "Posin'," "Dedicated to You," "Inspiration," "Tell Me Why," "You Wonderful You," and "Pipes of Pan."Plot: Ramah 11, L-3718, space 3- Actor
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Sidney Clute was born on 21 April 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for And Justice for All (1979), McCloud (1970) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). He died on 2 October 1985 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Moses 3, L-9396- Actor
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Lee J. Cobb, one of the premier character actors in American film for three decades in the post-World War II period, was born Leo Jacoby in New York City's Lower East Side on December 8, 1911. The son of a Jewish newspaper editor, young Leo was a child prodigy in music, mastering the violin and the harmonica. Any hopes of a career as a violin virtuoso were dashed when he broke his wrist, but his talent on the harmonica may have brought him his first professional success. At the age of 16 or 17 he ran away from home to Hollywood to try to break into motion pictures as an actor. He reportedly made his film debut as a member of Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals (their first known movie appearance was in the 1929 two-reeler Boyhood Days), but that cannot be substantiated. However, it's known that after Leo was unable to find work he returned to New York City, where he attended New York University at night to study accounting while acting in radio dramas during the day.
An older Cobb tried his luck in California once more, making his debut as a professional stage actor at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1931. After again returning to his native New York, he made his Broadway debut as a saloonkeeper in a dramatization of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, but it closed after 15 performances (later in his career, Dostoevsky would prove more of a charm, with Cobb's role as Father Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) garnering him his second Oscar nomination),
Cobb joined the politically progressive Group Theater in 1935 and made a name for himself in Clifford Odets' politically liberal dramas Waiting for Lefty and Til the Day I Die, appearing in both plays that year in casts that included Elia Kazan, who later became famous as a film director. Cobb also appeared in the 1937 Group Theater production of Odets' Golden Boy, playing the role of Mr. Carp, in a cast that also included Kazan, Julius Garfinkle (later better known under his stage name of John Garfield), and Martin Ritt, all of whom later came under the scrutiny of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the heyday of the McCarthy Red Scare hysteria more than a decade later. Cobb took over the role of Mr. Bonaparte, the protagonist's father, in the 1939 film version of the play, despite the fact that he was not yet 30 years old. The role of a patriarch suited him, and he'd play many more in his film career.
It was as a different kind of patriarch that he scored his greatest success. Cobb achieved immortality by giving life to the character of Willy Loman in the original 1949 Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. His performance was a towering achievement that ranks with such performances as Edwin Booth as Richard III and John Barrymore as Hamlet in the annals of the American theater. Cobb later won an Emmy nomination as Willy when he played the role in a made-for-TV movie of the play (Death of a Salesman (1966)). Miller said that he wrote the role with Cobb in mind.
Before triumphing as Miller's Salesman, Cobb had appeared on Broadway only a handful of times in the 1940s, including in Ernest Hemingway's The Fifth Column (1940), Odets' "Clash by Night" (1942) and the US Army Air Force's Winged Victory (1943-44). Later he reprised the role of Joe Bonaparte's father in the 1952 revival of Golden Boy opposite Garfield as his son, and appeared the following year in The Emperor's Clothes. His final Broadway appearance was as King Lear in the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center's 1968 production of Shakespeare's play.
Aside from his possible late 1920s movie debut and his 1934 appearance in the western The Vanishing Shadow (1934), Cobb's film career proper began in 1937 with the westerns North of the Rio Grande (1937) (in which he was billed as Lee Colt) and Rustlers' Valley (1937) and spanned nearly 40 years until his death. After a hiatus while serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Cobb's movie career resumed in 1946. He continued to play major supporting roles in prestigious A-list pictures. His movie career reached its artistic peak in the 1950s, when he was twice nominated for Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards, for his role as Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront (1954) and as the father in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). Other memorable supporting roles in the 1950s included the sagacious Judge Bernstein in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), as the probing psychiatrist Dr. Luther in The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and as the volatile Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men (1957).
It was in the 1950s that Cobb achieved the sort of fame that most artists dreaded: he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee on charges that he was or had been a Communist. The charges were rooted in Cobb's membership in the Group Theater in the 1930s. Other Group Theater members already investigated by HUAC included Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan, both of whom provided friendly testimony before the committee, and John Garfield, who did not.
Cobb's own persecution by HUAC had already caused a nervous breakdown in his wife, and he decided to appear as a friendly witness in order to preserve her sanity and his career, by bringing the inquisition to a halt. Appearing before the committee in 1953, he named names and thus saved his career. Ironically, he would win his first Oscar nomination in On the Waterfront (1954) directed and written by fellow HUAC informers Kazan and Budd Schulberg. The film can be seen as a stalwart defense of informing, as epitomized by the character Terry Malloy's testimony before a Congressional committee investigating racketeering on the waterfront.
Major films in which Cobb appeared after reaching his career plateau include Otto Preminger's adaptation of Leon Uris' ode to the birth of Israel, Exodus (1960); the Cinerama spectacle How the West Was Won (1962); the James Coburn spy spoofs, Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967); Clint Eastwood's first detective film, Coogan's Bluff (1968); and legendary director William Wyler's last film, The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970).
In addition to his frequent supporting roles in film, Cobb often appeared on television. He played Judge Henry Garth on The Virginian (1962) from 1962-66 and also had a regular role as the attorney David Barrett on The Young Lawyers (1969) from 1970-71. Cobb also appeared in made-for-TV movies and made frequent guest appearances on other TV shows. His last major Hollywood movie role was that of police detective Lt. Kinderman in The Exorcist (1973).
Lee J. Cobb died of a heart attack in Woodland Hills, California, on February 11, 1976, at the age of 64. He is buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Though he will long be remembered for many of his successful supporting performances in the movies, it is as the stage's first Willy Loman in which he achieved immortality as an actor. Bearing in mind that the role was written for him, it is through Willy that he will continue to have an influence on American drama far into the future, for as long as Death of a Salesman is revived.Plot: Garden of Shemot 1, Lot 421- Writer
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Martin Cohan was born on 4 July 1932 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Who's the Boss? (1984), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) and Diff'rent Strokes (1978). He was married to Dawn Aldredge and Monica Nyquist. He died on 19 May 2010 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Writer
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Ronald M. Cohen was born on 23 December 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Exile (1991), American Dream (1981) and Call to Glory (1984). He died on 21 April 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Garden of Moriah 1, L-1920, space 1- Cinematographer
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Stanley Cortez was born Samuel Krantz in New York City, New York, the son of Sarah (Lefkowitz) and Moses/Morris Krantz, Austrian Jewish immigrants. His famous actor brother, born Jacob Krantz, changed his name to Ricardo Cortez in order to acquire a more suitably romantic Hollywood image. Stanley changed his name accordingly. After studies at New York University he embarked on a photographic career, first as assistant to noted portrait photographers Streichan and Bachrach (he designed many of their lavish background sets), then as camera assistant for Pathé Revue and for various Manhattan-based film companies. Grabbing the chance to join Gloria Swanson Productions, Stanley then spent a lengthy apprenticeship in the 1920s and early 1930s learning the intricacies of his craft from such established Hollywood cinematographers as Lee Garmes and Hal Mohr. After moving from studio to studio, either as a camera assistant or shooting screen tests, he was signed to a seven-year contract by Universal in 1936, albeit consigned to its "B" unit. His first film as full director of photography was Four Days Wonder (1936). During World War II, he was assigned to the Army Pictorial Service of the Signals Corps.
Much of his subsequent career was spent on fairly routine and undistinguished second features and it was not until he started working for charismatic filmmakers like Orson Welles and David O. Selznick that he was able to fully develop some of his experimental techniques. One of his low-budget outings, a gothic old-dark-house horror/comedy entitled The Black Cat (1941), rather impressed the genial Mr. Welles who promptly hired him for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). This was the first of two Cortez films generally regarded as visual masterpieces, with beautiful lighting effects, clever angles and lingering close-ups. Of particular note are the staircase scene and the famous long shot -- via hand-held camera -- of the abandoned mansion. Despite critical plaudits, "Ambersons" was a financial disaster for RKO (it cost $1,1 million and lost $624,000 at the box office) and Cortez was partly blamed for costly delays and extravagant scenes, some 40-50 minutes of which were cut by direct orders from studio boss George Schaefer without consulting either Welles or Cortez. The latter ended up being indirectly censured by receiving lesser assignments. What remained of "Ambersons" has become more appreciated as a sublime visual experience with the passing of time.
The second outstanding Cortez contribution was the chillingly dark, haunting thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955)--a brilliant allegory of good versus evil masterminded by Charles Laughton in his sole directorial effort. Cortez's lighting and use of irises are reminiscent of German expressionist cinema, or, at least, the work of Karl Struss and Charles Rosher on Sunrise (1927). Among many indelible images are the flowing hair of drowned Shelley Winters in the underwater current and the lights flickering across the water in what is an almost surreal nightly landscape.
A third Cortez effort deserving of mention is the superior psychological drama The Three Faces of Eve (1957), his differential lighting for the face of schizophrenic Eve White (Joanne Woodward) effectively contrasting the multiple personalities within her psyche. Sadly, by the end of the decade Cortez's career went into a decline. It continued that way through the 1960s, the quality of his assignments fluctuating wildly between the occasional "A" picture (The Bridge at Remagen (1969)) and Z-grade turkeys like The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966).Plot: Psalms 9, L-2924, space 1