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1-25 of 25
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dubbed "The Sweetest Girl in Pictures", Mary Brian started life as Louise Byrdie Datzler. She was born in Corsicana, Texas, and went to high school in Dallas. Her widowed mother had big plans for young Louise and took her to California in 1923, with the intention of getting her into the film business. After several unsuccessful attempts, a bathing beauty competition in Long Beach resulted in a second-prize letter of introduction to Herbert Brenon at Paramount and the girl with the dark brown curls and blue/gray eyes wound up being screen-tested for the role of Wendy in Peter Pan (1924), co-starring Betty Bronson and Esther Ralston (with whom she would form lifelong friendships). She not only got the part but a five-year contract with Paramount (1925-30) and a new name.
In 1926 she became one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, which further enhanced her popularity. During the next few years she played ornamental leads and second leads as adolescent heroines, co-eds and ingénues. Many of those early silent features no longer exist today (Paris at Midnight (1926), among others), though surviving reels of some, like The Air Mail (1925), can still be accessed at the Library of Congress. Mary effortlessly made the transition from silents to talkies, co-starring with Gary Cooper as a feisty schoolmarm on the frontier in The Virginian (1929). One of her biggest hits was as Gwen Cavendish in the urbane comedy The Royal Family of Broadway (1930), with Ina Claire and Fredric March. A thinly disguised caricature of the private lives of the Barrymore dynasty, it hit the mark to the extent that Ethel Barrymore even threatened to sue Paramount. Mary acted three times opposite W.C. Fields, first as his daughter in Running Wild (1927), later reprising her role for The Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934) (the third was Two Flaming Youths (1927), another lost film).
Signing up for another four-year contract, Mary was one of the all-star cast in the musical Paramount on Parade (1930) and then was given another good part in the first talkie version of The Front Page (1931). However, she was dropped from her contract (alongside her more illustrious colleagues Fay Wray and Jean Arthur) when Paramount began to forsake innocence and charm in favor of glamour and sophistication. From 1932 Mary freelanced and also performed occasionally in vaudeville at the Palace Theater. Arguably her last good picture was the romantic comedy Hard to Handle (1933), with James Cagney as a grifter (hilariously promoting grapefruit diets, spoofing his infamous scene with Mae Clarke in The Public Enemy (1931)). In 1936 Mary went to England, where she co-starred opposite Cary Grant in The Amazing Adventure (1936). She then made several pictures for Poverty Row companies such as Majestic and Monogram, including the low-budget potboiler I Escaped from the Gestapo (1943).
Mary's motion picture career faded after 1937 and she turned towards the stage. In 1940 she went on tour with "Three after Three" , alongside Simone Simon and Mitzi Green and later entertained American troops in the South Pacific as part of the USO. In the 1950's, she enjoyed a brief resurgence on television as the mother of a "Gidget"-type teen in the syndicated sitcom Meet Corliss Archer (1954). After the death of her second husband, the film editor George Tomasini, Mary spent her retirement fulfilling a lifelong passion for portrait painting.- Lezlie Deane was born on 1 June 1964 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. She is an actress, known for Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Plump Fiction (1997) and Dynasty (1981).
- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Eddie Hassell was born on 16 July 1990 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kids Are All Right (2010), Surface (2005) and 2012 (2009). He died on 1 November 2020 in Grand Prairie, Texas, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Billy Joe Shaver was born on 16 August 1939 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Hell or High Water (2016), Crazy Heart (2009) and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001). He was married to Wanda Lynn Canady, Brenda Tindell and Jean. He died on 28 October 2020 in Waco, Texas, USA.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Beautiful auburn-haired, green-eyed leading lady of the silent screen, a "hand-picked" (by the great Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. himself) Ziegfeld Follies girl of 1920. "Jackie" was the daughter of architect Charles A. Logan and the Boston Conservatory opera singer and music teacher Marion Logan. She had a bit of a musical background, singing and learning to play piano and pipe organ at an early age. She was educated in Colorado and briefly worked as a newspaper reporter prior to finding her way into an acting troupe bound for Chicago. Having lied about her age, she was eventually let go and made her own way to New York, where (still without the requisite approval or even knowledge of her parents as to her newfound acting ambitions) she made her theatrical debut in a revival of "Floradora" in 1920. That same year she appeared as a dancer in the Follies and modeled as a "Dobbs Girl" for noted Broadway photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston (1885-1971). After successful auditions (with a little mentoring from the actor Ben Lyon), she began to grace the screen in 1922 and quickly moved on to leading roles in westerns, dramas and romantic comedies. Her part as Mary Magdalene in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The King of Kings (1927) is often cited as her most high-profile performance.
Unaccountably, though she took vocal lessons, her career in talking pictures never took off. Her looks remained exquisite and her voice was apparently good enough for the Broadway stage, to which she returned-- albeit unsuccessfully--in the mid-'30s. She attempted another comeback on the London stage and co-starred with English matinée idol Owen Nares in the comedy The Middle Watch (1930). Under contract to British International Pictures the following year, she wrote and directed the crime comedy Strictly Business (1931), a modest box-office success. However, upon her return to Hollywood, she found all doors firmly closed. Another Dorothy Arzner was not what the studios had in mind.
She may well have been too outspoken for her time, for in her later years she took on another role as a determined advocate of right-wing conservatism.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
At age 6 in 1935, Anita Gordon moved with her family from Texas to Hollywood where she became a successful child star. As a teenager, she achieved singing fame on network radio as a regular on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's show (allegedly, his famous dummy Charlie McCarthy was smitten with her). She was the voice who said "I don't talk to strangers" on the Buddy Clark hit "Linda" (1946), and she voiced the Singing Harp who helped Mickey Mouse escape from the Beanstalk Giant with "... in his right vest pocket you'll find a key..." for Disney in 1947. In the early days of television, Anita was a regular on the Ken Murray Show, and later a featured singer on the Tennessee Ernie Ford show on ABC. In 1948 she married Dale Sheets, who was later an MCA/Universal executive, and she gave birth to their three daughters. In the 1960s she appeared on various episodic television show, then enjoyed a mini-career as the "ghost singer" for various female film stars in movie musicals, including Jean Seberg in the role of Elizabeth in "Paint Your Wagon" (1969). In the 1980s and 1990s she wrote music and co-produced videos for various international clients including Philippine Airlines and Continental Airlines. Anita and Dale eventually divorced and she later married El Chan; they were married for 41 years. They retired to Newhall, California, where they stayed active and in touch with her three daughters, 9 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren. She was married to him for 41 years. Her health declined rapidly in the year before her death in 2015.- Martha Matthews was born on 3 April 1936 in Corsicana, Texas. She was married to Willie Nelson, Mickey Scott and ??? Andrews. She died on 29 November 1989 in Austin, Texas, USA.
- Soundtrack
Lefty Frizzell was born on 31 March 1928 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was married to Alice Harper. He died on 19 July 1975 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Additional Crew
- Actor
Guy Chapman was born on 29 September 1975 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He is an actor, known for All Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos (2005), Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002) and Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005).- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jack Bunch was born on 27 October 1928 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. Jack is a writer, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), Startime (1959) and Folk Music Theater (1962).- Actress
- Make-Up Department
Carol Dawson was born on 12 October 1951 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. She is an actress, known for Waking Life (2001), Dead Boyz Can't Fly (1992) and Every Little Girl's Dream (2002).- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Price Payne is an actor, comedian, and writer based in Los Angeles. He has written numerous works including the Short-Film Purple Foxes in the Night Sky (2021) He holds a BFA degree in Acting from Hardin-Simmons University and has frequently collaborated with Jess Westman, Beyond Star Films, and Cody Tolle. He is enrolled at classes in The Groundlings School studying improvisation.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Christopher Warren was born on 17 August 1991 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for The Nightwing (2017), PK Pat (2016) and Justice League Dark: Best of the Worst.- Maston P. "Mack" Williams was a character actor for Republic Film Studios from 1931 to 1940. After that he retired from movies and shortly thereafter relocated to his birthplace of Corsicana, Texas to live until his death.
- Producer
- Composer
- Writer
Scott Honea is an American film producer, composer, screenwriter and novelist. He was executive producer of the 2015 short "The Procedure" which won the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. It was his third appearance at the festival after composing the score for "The Rambler" in 2013 and producing "The Oregonian" in 2011. In 2010, he wrote and directed his debut feature, "Believe You Me," which premiered at the 2011 Asheville Cinema Festival before making its Texas debut at the 2011 Lone Star International Film Festival in Fort Worth. The film went on to find distribution through Hulu. He was also co-producer of the 2012 feature "Satellite of Love," which premiered at the 2012 Dallas International Film Festival. He has written and directed two shorts, and his feature script "Winners" was a finalist in the 2013 Sundance Producers Lab. A native Texan, he lived in Los Angeles and Austin before settling in Dallas. In 2015, he wrote his first novel, "Devil in a Sleeping Bag."- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Matt Dickson is a writer, actor, and producer known for Placebo (2009), All for Love (2008), and The Dealer (2007).
Matt was born in Corsicana, Texas on March 31, 1979. His family soon moved to the college town of Denton, Texas where Matt grew up. Matt played football in high school for both the Denton Broncos and Ryan Raiders before discovering a love for theater, appearing as Fred Gregory in the play Meet Me in St. Louis. Over the next few years, Matt would appear in several school and community theater productions, including The King and I, It's a Wonderful Life, and Neal Simon's comedy God's Favorite in which he played the lead role of Joe Benjamin. He also acted in two short films made for the local TV station in Denton, "A Father's Love," and "A Father's Heart."
After graduating from Billy Ryan High School in 1997, Matt enrolled in the University of North Texas where he majored in Theater Arts. While at UNT he performed in David Mamet's American Buffalo, and Howard Korder's Boy's Life. He also gained valuable experience working on the tech, costume, and stage crews for various productions.
In 2004 Matt began pursuing independent filmmaking, forming Trailer House Films with partners Phil Vandermeer and Brad Thames. Matt co-produced and starred in their first short film, "Something in the Closet," a faith-based haunted house comedy. For their next project Matt wrote, produced, and starred in the drug comedy The Dealer (2007), playing Sean, a down-on-his-luck young man trying to make a one time drug deal to score some quick cash. He followed this with supporting roles in more short films including Daniel Piatt's psychological thriller Placebo (2009) and Jared Johnson's award winning All for Love (2008).
As a writer, Matt has worked on a variety of scripts across multiple genres for both stage and screen. In 2005 he sold his short play The Giver to the Ground Zero Theater Company in Dallas, where it was produced as part of the "Christmas at Ground Zero" play festival. He also wrote and directed two children's plays with his church. Recently, Matt has started working on a project to bring the true story of Horatio Spafford, author of the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul," to the big screen.- David 'Fathead' Newman Jr. was born on 24 February 1933 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Kansas City (1996), Soul! (1968) and Soul Deep: The Story of Black Popular Music (2005). He was married to Karen Newman. He died on 20 January 2009 in Kingston, New York, USA.
- Danieal Manning was born on 9 August 1982 in Corsicana, Texas, USA.
- Vernon Elkins was born on 14 June 1895 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lady Fare (1929). He died on 13 February 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Tom Wilson was born on 24 February 1944 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was married to Daun. He died on 10 August 2016 in the USA.
- Bethel Johnson was born on 11 February 1979 in Corsicana, Texas, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tyree Glenn was born on 23 November 1912 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Once Upon a Tune (1951), Jazz Party (1958) and BBC Show of the Week (1965). He died on 18 May 1974 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Barney Dewey was born on 3 May 1928 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He was married to Stella May. He died on 23 March 2019 in Lodi, California, USA.
- C.L. Dellums was born on 3 January 1900 in Corsicana, Texas, USA. He died on 6 December 1989 in Oakland, California, USA.
- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Editorial Department
Jonathan Reeves Holt was born in a small town Corsicana, Texas. After attending grade school in Corsicana, he moved to Austin, TX at the age of eighteen to pursue a degree from Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas where he continued his education, graduating in December 2007 earning a B.F.A. in Theatre with an emphasis on Directing. During his Junior and Senior years at Texas State, Jonathan worked on numerous film projects and live shows as a writer, producer, director, editor, and camera operator.
In August 2008, Jonathan worked in and around Austin, Texas on feature and indie films alike.
In December 2010, Jonathan is the Head Creative Director for 1023media LLC in Austin, TX. He works as director, cinematographer, and editor for the company and oversees every aspect of the creative process from pre-production to post-production in their production process.