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1-5 of 5
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Henry Koster was born Herman Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany, on May 1, 1905. His maternal grandfather was a famous operatic tenor Julius Salomon (who died of tuberculosis in the 1880s). His father was a salesman of ladies unmentionables who left the family while Henry was at a young age, leaving him to support the family. He still managed to finish gymnasium (high school) in Berlin while working as a short-story writer and cartoonist. He was introduced to movies in 1910 when his uncle Richard opened a movie theater in Berlin and his mother went there every day to play the piano to accompany the films. Henry went with her--day care being nonexistent then--and had to sit for a couple of hours a day staring at the movie screen.
He achieved success as a short-story writer at age 17, resulting in his being hired by a Berlin movie company as a scenarist. He became an assistant to director Curtis Bernhardt. Bernhardt fell sick one day and asked Henry to direct (this was around 1931 or 1932). He had directed two films in Berlin for Aafa when Adolf Hitler came to power. He was in the midst of directing The Private Secretary Gets Married (1933) at that point, and having already been the victim of anti-Semitism, he knew he had to leave Germany, and soon. Any doubts he entertained about leaving were erased when, at a bank on his lunch hour one day, a Nazi SA officer insulted him; Henry hit the Nazi so hard he knocked him out. He proceeded to go directly to the railroad station and took a train for France. Upon arriving in France he was rehired by Bernhardt (who had left earlier). Eventually Henry went to Budapest and met and married Kató Király (1934). It was there he met producer Joe Pasternak, who represented Universal Pictures in Europe, and directed four films for him.
In 1936 he was signed to a contract with Universal and brought to Hollywood with Pasternak, several other refugees and his wife. At first he had some troubles at the studio (he didn't speak English), but eventually convinced Universal to let him make Three Smart Girls (1936) with Deanna Durbin and coached Durbin, who was 14 years old. The picture was a huge success and pulled Universal from the verge of bankruptcy. His second film, One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) with Durbin and Leopold Stokowski, put Universal, Durbin, Pasternak and himself on top. He went on to do numerous musicals and family comedies during the late 1930s and early 1940s, many with Betty Grable, Durbin and other musical stars of the era. He stayed at Universal until 1941, then worked for MGM, and around 1948 moved over to 20th Century-Fox. He was nominated for an Academy Award for The Bishop's Wife (1947).
In 1950 he directed what was his biggest success to date--the James Stewart comedy Harvey (1950), but, although many in the industry thought it would be nominated for Best Picture, it wasn't. He directed the first American film in which Richard Burton appeared, My Cousin Rachel (1952), then was assigned by Fox to direct its first CinemaScope picture, The Robe (1953), also with Burton, which was a tremendous success. He directed a few more costume dramas, such as Désirée (1954) with Marlon Brando, then went back to family comedies and musicals, such as Flower Drum Song (1961) for Universal. After he finished The Singing Nun (1966) he retired from the film business to Leisure Village, Camarillo, CA, to indulge his lifelong interest in painting. He did a series of portraits of the movie stars with whom he worked.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Britain's first notorious post-war sex siren in films, the enticing, green-eyed blonde bombshell Christine Norden, was a singer and dancer who had been performing since her teens. The story goes that she was "discovered" by agents of the distinguished film mogul Sir Alexander Korda while waiting outside a theatre ticket line.
Born Mary Lydia Thornton of humble beginnings to a bus driver three days after Christmas 1924, she was the first entertainer to land on the Normandy beaches in 1944 to perform for Allied troops after D-Day. Korda promptly signed her to a seven-year contract and placed her in stark, dark-edged films as a fetching, sometimes singing femme; she appeared in a surprising number of quality films, including Mine Own Executioner (1947), An Ideal Husband (1947), Nightbeat (1947) and Saints and Sinners (1949).
A prime pin-up attraction over the years, she admitted to many affairs (with both men and women) over the years. By the early '50s her film career was over, however, and she trod the New York theatre boards for the next few decades, making her Broadway debut in the musical "Tenderloin" in 1960 and appearing in such productions as "Marat/Sade." She made history of sorts as the first actress to appear topless on Broadway in the 1967 production of "Scuba Duba."
Christine was married five times and has one of the craters of the planet Venus named after her as a tribute to her being a "forerunner of the modern sex symbol." Her last husband developed and named a mathematical formula in her honor. She eventually returned to London for her final years, developed a respiratory infection and died of lobar pneumonia following bypass surgery at age 63. Her memoirs were discovered posthumously but deemed too gamey to be published at the time. Friend and royal biographer Michael Thornton, to whom they were left, has now made segments of her private story public.- Actress
- Music Department
Zubeida was born in 1911 in Surat, India. She was an actress, known for Heer Ranjha (1970), Heer Ranjha (1928) and Rashk-e-Laila (1934). She was married to Maharaj Narsingir Dhanrajgir Gyan Bahadur. She died on 21 September 1988 in Bombay, India.- Rudi Alvadj was born in 1929 in Petrovac na Mlavi, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He was an actor, known for Love and Rage (1978), Walter Defends Sarajevo (1972) and Valter brani Sarajevo (1974). He died on 21 September 1988 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Yugoslavia.
- Walter Vogt was born on 31 July 1927 in Zurich, Switzerland. He was a writer, known for Spiele der Macht - Auf den Abgrund zu... (1970), Der Club (1985) and Leichen pflastern seinen Ruhm (1972). He was married to Elisabeth Schwarz. He died on 21 September 1988 in Muri bei Bern, Bern, Switzerland.