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Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, and the rest of his family was Mexican.
After starting life in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he grew up in the Boyle Heights and Echo Park neighborhoods. He played in the band of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson as a youth and as a deputy preacher. He attended Polytechnic High School and later Belmont High, but eventually dropped out. The young Quinn boxed (which stood him in good stead as a stage actor, when he played Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" to rave reviews in Chicago), then later studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright at the great architect's studio, Taliesin, in Arizona. Quinn was close to Wright, who encouraged him when he decided to give acting a try. Made his credited film debut in Parole! (1936). After a brief apprenticeship on stage, Quinn hit Hollywood in 1936 and picked up a variety of small roles in several films at Paramount, including an Indian warrior in The Plainsman (1936), which was directed by the man who later became his father-in-law, Cecil B. DeMille.
As a contract player at Paramount, Quinn's roles were mainly ethnic types, such as an Arab chieftain in the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope comedy, Road to Morocco (1942). As a Mexican national (he did not become an American citizen until 1947), he was exempt from the draft. With many other actors in military service during WWII, he was able to move up into better supporting roles. He married DeMille's daughter Katherine DeMille, which afforded him entrance to the top circles of Hollywood society. He became disenchanted with his career and did not renew his Paramount contract despite the advice of others, including his father-in-law, with whom he did not get along (whom Quinn reportedly felt had never accepted him due to his Mexican roots; the two men were also on opposite ends of the political spectrum) but they eventually were able to develop a civil relationship. Quinn returned to the stage to hone his craft. His portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in Chicago and on Broadway (where he replaced the legendary Marlon Brando, who is forever associated with the role) made his reputation and boosted his film career when he returned to the movies.
Brando and Elia Kazan, who directed "Streetcar" on Broadway and on film (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)), were crucial to Quinn's future success. Kazan, knowing the two were potential rivals due to their acclaimed portrayals of Kowalski, cast Quinn as Brando's brother in his biographical film of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Viva Zapata! (1952). Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for 1952, making him the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar. It was not to be his lone appearance in the winner's circle: he won his second Supporting Actor Oscar in 1957 for his portrayal of Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minnelli's biographical film of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life (1956), opposite Kirk Douglas. Over the next decade Quinn lived in Italy and became a major figure in world cinema, as many studios shot films in Italy to take advantage of the lower costs ("runaway production" had battered the industry since its beginnings in the New York/New Jersey area in the 1910s). He appeared in several Italian films, giving one of his greatest performances as the circus strongman who brutalizes the sweet soul played by Giulietta Masina in her husband Federico Fellini's masterpiece The Road (1954). He met his second wife, Jolanda Addolori, a wardrobe assistant, while he was in Rome filming Barabbas (1961).
Alternating between Europe and Hollywood, Quinn built his reputation and entered the front rank of character actors and character leads. He received his third Oscar nomination (and first for Best Actor) for George Cukor's Wild Is the Wind (1957). He played a Greek resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation in the monster hit The Guns of Navarone (1961) and received kudos for his portrayal of a once-great boxer on his way down in Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). He went back to playing ethnic roles, such as an Arab warlord in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and he played the eponymous lead in the "sword-and-sandal" blockbuster Barabbas (1961). Two years later, he reached the zenith of his career, playing Zorba the Greek in the film of the same name (a.k.a. Zorba the Greek (1964)), which brought him his fourth, and last, Oscar nomination as Best Actor. The 1960s were kind to him: he played character leads in such major films as The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969). However, his appearance in the title role in the film adaptation of John Fowles' novel, The Magus (1968), did nothing to save the film, which was one of that decade's notorious turkeys.
In the 1960s, Quinn told Life magazine that he would fight against typecasting. Unfortunately, the following decade saw him slip back into playing ethnic types again, in such critical bombs as The Greek Tycoon (1978). He starred as the Hispanic mayor of a southwestern city on the short-lived television series The Man and the City (1971), but his career lost its momentum during the 1970s. Aside from playing a thinly disguised Aristotle Onassis in the cinematic roman-a-clef The Greek Tycoon (1978), his other major roles of the decade were as Hamza in the controversial The Message (1976) (a.k.a. "Mohammad, Messenger of God"); as the Italian patriarch in The Inheritance (1976); yet another Arab in Caravans (1978); and as a Mexican patriarch in The Children of Sanchez (1978). In 1983, he reprised his most famous role, Zorba the Greek, on Broadway in the revival of the musical "Zorba" for 362 performances (opposite Lila Kedrova, who had also appeared in the film, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance). His career slowed during the 1990s but he continued to work steadily in films and television, including an appearance with frequent film co-star Maureen O'Hara in Only the Lonely (1991).
Quinn lived out the latter years of his life in Bristol, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his time painting and sculpting. Beginning in 1982, he held numerous major exhibitions in cities such as Vienna, Paris, and Seoul. He died in a hospital in Boston at age 86 from pneumonia and respiratory failure linked to his battle with throat cancer.- Jeff Burton was born on 28 March 1924 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Planet of the Apes (1968), Black Hooker (1974) and Coffy (1973). He died on 18 January 1988 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Writer
- Director
McDowell was born in Enterprise, Alabama. According to his biography in the 1985 edition of Toplin, McDowell lived in Medford, Massachusetts. He also maintained a residence in Hollywood with his sister Ann and adventurer-filmmaker Peter Lake. The biography described a typical day: McDowell "writes in the mornings and spends the rest of the day looking out of the window in hope that something interesting will happen" and "collects photographs of corpses". He specialized in collecting photographs of train-decapitation victims and plaques from baby caskets. McDowell's life partner of 30 years was the theatre historian and director Laurence Senelick. McDowell died in 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts from AIDS-related illness. His unfinished novel Candles Burning was "completed" by Tabitha King, wife of Stephen King, and published in 2006.- An American character actor who specialized in "average joes", often timid or down-on-their-luck, Louis Jean Heydt was born in Montclair, New Jersey, and educated at Worcester Academy and Dartmouth College. He intended a career in journalism and worked as a reporter for the old New York World, but developed an interest in acting and landed a number of roles on the New York stage (active there from 1927-48). In the mid-'30s he traveled to Hollywood and quickly established himself as a reliable supporting player. He played dozens of roles in many fine films including Gone with the Wind (1939), They Were Expendable (1945) and The Big Sleep (1946), and although his face is exceptionally familiar to viewers of that period's films, his name never quite broke through. He remained a pleasant presence in scores of films of the 1940s and 1950s while continuing to work on the stage and on television. He died backstage at the Colonial Theatre in Boston during an out-of-town try-out performance of the play "There Was a Little Girl" in 1960.
- Eugene O'Neill, the winner of four Pulitzer Prizes for Drama and the 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature, is widely considered the greatest American playwright. No one, not Maxwell Anderson, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, nor Edward Albee, approaches O'Neill in terms of his artistic achievement or his impact on the American theater.
James O'Neill, one of the most popular actors of the late 19th century, was his father, so one could say that Eugene O'Neill was born to a life in the theater. His father, who had been born into poverty in Ireland before emigrating to the United States, developed his craft and became a star in the theaters of the Midwest. He married Mary Ellen "Ella" Quinlan, the Irish-American daughter of a wealthy Cleveland businessman, whose death when she was a teenager had hurt her emotionally. She remained emotionally fragile throughout her life, a condition exacerbated by a further tragedy, the loss of a child. A further strain was placed on her when it was discovered that James had lived in "concubinage" with a common-law wife who later sued him for child support and alimony, claiming he had fathered her child. Both were pious and believing Catholics.
They had three sons, including James Jr. (born 1878) and Edmund (1883), who died at the age of two from measles, leaving Ella distraught. Their last son, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (his middle name a salute to the British prime minister who was in favor of home rule for Ireland), was born at the Barrett Hotel (home of many theatrical artistes) in New York City, on October 16, 1888. Supposedly, it was a difficult delivery, and in the spirit of the times, Ella was given morphine for her pain. She became an addict.
James O'Neill made a fortune playing The Count of Monte Cristo, both on Broadway in multiple productions and as a touring show. However, he suffered an artistic death as a performing artiste through the sheer repetition of the Monte Cristo role, which he turned to repeatedly as it always proved a success. He reportedly played the role at least 4,000 times, perhaps nearly twice that number. He would provide the prototype for the character of James Tyrone, the pater familias in his son's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". James O'Neill Sr. knew that he had suffered artistically from his commercial instincts, and Eugene never forgot that. His son remained steadfast in his own fidelity to his principles of artistic integrity.
The father also was a notorious skinflint, terrified that some unforeseen calamity would throw him back into the hellish poverty of his childhood in Ireland. Both young Gene and his older brother Jamie tried their hands at acting, and though Jamie was more successful than Gene, he never developed a significant, independent career as a professional thespian due to instability caused by his alcoholism. Jamie relied on his father for work, which further fueled his drinking.
Jamie was a full-blown alcoholic, just like his younger brother, Gene, and he drank himself to death at a relatively young age, a fate Gene managed to avoid, but not from lack of trying. The characters of Jamie in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and James Tyrone Jr. in "A Moon for the Misbegotten" were based on him.
As a young man, Eugene suffered from tuberculosis, which likely exacerbated his propensity for pessimism (the stuff of his life became the guts of his last masterpiece, "Long Day's Journey Into Night"). His pessimistic, tragic outlook on life likely was hereditary: O'Neill's two sons, Eugene O'Neill Jr. and Shane O'Neill, became substance abusers as adults: Eugene Jr. was an alcoholic and Shane was a heroin addict. Both committed suicide. He disowned his daughter Oona Chaplin, for marrying Charles Chaplin, who was just six months younger than O'Neill himself. He had never had much to do with her anyway, nor any of his children. His life was devoted to writing.
After recovering from tuberculosis, O'Neill attended Princeton for the 1907-08 term, but was kicked out after his freshman year, allegedly for being drunk and disorderly at a reception held by the university president, future President of the United States Woodrow Wilson. For the next eight years he led a freebooting existence, fortune-hunting for gold in South America and plying the seas as an able-bodied seaman, while trying to drink himself to death (he even made an attempt at suicide). Eventually he returned to New York City and tried his hand at playwriting, and with the financial help of his father, studied playwriting at Harvard in 1915. His father was unimpressed by the results, and died the same year his son made his big breakthrough on Broadway (he did live to see the production of Eugene's first full-length play, "Beyond the Horizon", which opened on February 2, 1920 and ran for a then-impressive 111 performances, and its honoring with the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that May. James O'Neill Sr. died on August 10, 1920. His namesake, James O'Neill Jr., died three years later, at the age of 45.)
Where Eugene truly learned his craft was in the writing of one-act melodramas that dealt with the lives of sailors, that were performed by the Provincetown Players, which had theaters in Provincetown on Cape Cod and off of Washington Square in New York City (John Ford made a 1940 movie out of four of his sea plays, collected in The Long Voyage Home (1940)). The theater he created was a reaction against the theater of his father, the old hoary melodramas that packed them in for a night of crowd-pleasing entertainment.
Eugene started out as a dramatist at a time when there was an average of 70 plays being performed on Broadway each week. The Great White Way resembled a modern movie multiplex in that potential theatergoers would peruse the various marquees in and around Times Square seeking an entertainment for the night. At the time O'Neill began to establish himself, in pre- and post-World War I era, entertainment was first and foremost in most people's minds.
The movies and O'Neill would change that. The competition of the more sophisticated movies of the late silent era, and then the talkies, usurped the position of Broadway and the theater as the premier venue for American entertainment. The light plays that were the equivalent of television fare became extinct. Musicals continued to thrive, as did comedies, but drama became more serious and developed a psychological depth. O'Neill was the midwife of the phenomenon.
Eugene O'Neill helped foster the maturation of American drama, as he incorporated the techniques of both European expressionism and realism in his work. Influenced by Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, brought to the American stage a tragic vision that influenced scores of American playwrights that followed.
Eugene O'Neill died in the Shelton Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1953. Allegedly, his last words were, "Born in a hotel room, and goddammit! Died in one!" His health had been hurt by his alcoholism and he suffered from Parkinson's disease-like tremors of his hands that had made it difficult, if not impossible, to write since the early 1940s. It is believed that he suffered cerebellar cortical abiotrophy, a neurological disease in which certain neurons in the cerebellum of the brain die off, adversely affecting the balance and coordination of the sufferer. As a dramatist, he had flourished on Broadway from 1920, when his first full-length work, "Beyond the Horizon", debuted, winning him his first Pulitzer, until 1934, when his first and only comedy, Ah, Wilderness! (debut October 1933) came to an end that June and his play, "Days Without End," was staged in repertory between January and November). After 1934, he entered a cocoon, staying away from Broadway until after World War II, when the 1946 production of "The Iceman Cometh" debuted. The first production of "Iceman" failed, and O'Neill's reputation suffered, but the 1956 production of "Iceman" starring Jason Robards and directed by José Quintero was a great success, as was the posthumous production of "Long Day's Journey Into Night", which brought O'Neill his fourth Pulitzer. The two plays solidified his legend. - Actor
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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.- Karl Weber was born on 17 March 1916 in Columbus Junction, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Walk East on Beacon! (1952), Rocky King, Detective (1950) and Search for Tomorrow (1951). He was married to Marjorie Scott Williams. He died on 30 July 1990 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Louisa May Alcott was born on 29 November 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA. She was a writer, known for Little Women (2019), Little Women (1994) and An Old-Fashioned Girl (1949). She died on 6 March 1888 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Shirley Clarke is an important figure in the history of mid-20th century independent cinema. Born Shirley Marion Brimberg to Samuel Nathan and Florence (Rosenberg) Brimberg, she was the eldest of their three daughters. She grew up in a wealthy family. Her father, who was born in present-day Belarus, made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer. Her sisters were Elaine Rita (better known as actress and writer Elaine Dundy) and Betty Rose Brimberg.
As a young child, Shirley developed a passion for dance. Shirley's father was a violent bully, who didn't support her artistic ambitions. She married Bertram Clarke in 1942, partially to escape her father's control and to study dance with the masters of modern dance.
In the early 1950s, she became a filmmaker. Her love of dance informed her early work. Her first film, Dance in the Sun (1953), a six-minute short featuring dancer Daniel Nagrin was well-received. She would go on to direct several short films throughout the decade, some by herself and others in collaboration with others.
By the 1960s, when women directors were still somewhat of a novelty, she embarked on her first feature film. Rather than play it safe and do a romance or a comedy, she decided to do a film adaptation of "The Connection," a play by Jack Gelber. The Connection (1961) tells the story of a group of junkies who await the arrival of Cowboy (Carl Lee), their drug connection. Lee's portrayal, much like Bernie Hamilton as Traver in The Young One (1960) marked the arrival of a new type of Black character that hadn't been seen on the screen before -- brash, defiant, and bold. It would foreshadow the protagonists that dominated the blaxploitation films a decade later. However, in 1962, the film was initially banned in New York City because of it's use of the "S-word." However, after several legal challenges, "The Connection" was eventually able to screen in cinemas. Despite, it's limited commercial success, "The Connection," was the most widely seen of Clarke's three feature length films at the time of its release. The others were the narrative feature The Cool World (1963) and the landmark LGBTQ documentary, Portrait of Jason (1967).
Clarke received an Oscar nomination for the short Skyscraper (1959), which she also co-directed. She also directed Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World (1963), an Oscar-winning short.
She would continue to make a series of short films and video works into the 1980s. One of her last completed works was Ornette: Made in America (1985), a documentary on jazz musician and composer Ornette Coleman.
From 1975 until 1983, she was an instructor at UCLA, where she taught a highly popular design class.
After her marriage to Bertram Clarke ended, she was in a relationship with Lee until his death in 1986.
Shirley Clarke died of a stroke in Boston in 1997 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
In 2014, Milestone Films, began releasing restored versions of her projects both theatrically and on home video.- Writer
- Art Department
William H. Steig was an American author from Brooklyn, New York who was known for writing the book Shrek, which got adapted into a successful animated film franchise by DreamWorks starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas. He passed away at Boston in 2003, 2 years after the first Shrek film came out.- Johnny Lee Davenport was born on 24 July 1950 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Fugitive (1993), U.S. Marshals (1998) and Ted (2012). He died on 2 February 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Steven Kozlowski was born on 22 April 1977 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Good Will Hunting (1997), Holes (2003) and Collateral (2004). He died on 23 August 2007 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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Robert Lee Frost, arguably the greatest American poet of the 20th century, was born in San Francisco, California, on March 26, 1874. His father, William Prescott Frost Jr., was from a Lawrence, Massachusetts, family of Republicans, and his mother, Isabelle Moodie Frost, was an immigrant from Scotland. His father was a journalist who dabbled in politics, was rebellious and named his son after the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. William Frost was also an alcoholic and tubercular.
William met his wife while teaching school in Pennsylvania. Their marriage was not a happy one due to a dissimilarity of temperament. He succumbed to tuberculosis in 1885, and Isabelle honored her husband's wish he be buried in his native Massachusetts. With Robert and her daughter Jeanie, they relocated to Lawrence, near his father's parents.
Isabelle became a schoolteacher in Salem, New Hampshire, just over the state line, close to Lawrence. Robert and Jeanie became two of her pupils. Robert attended Lawrence High School, where his first poems were published in the school's bulletin. Upon graduation in 1892, he shared valedictorian honors with Elinor White, to whom he became engaged later that year.
Frost entered Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in September 1892, but left after one semester. This caused a conflict with Elinor, who wanted him to finish college and refused to marry him until he did so. In his late teens and early 20s he worked at various occupations, including mill hand, newspaper reporter and teacher in his mother's school.
His first published poem, "My Butterfly: An Elegy", appeared in the New York magazine "The Independent" in 1894, and he eventually self-published a book of poems. He and Elinor were married on December 19, 1895. Their first child, a son they named Elliott, was born on September 29, 1896. Robert was accepted at Harvard as a special student, but had to drop out due to tuberculosis and the birth of the couple's second child in 1899. He never finished his college education.
As the new century dawned, the Frost family was afflicted with the first of the tragedies that would dog them all of their lives. Elliott contracted cholera and died in July of 1900, at age four, a development that rocked the Frost marriage (Frost later addressed the event in his poem "Home Burial"). Frost's mother died that year from cancer, and his grandfather, William Prescott Frost Sr., passed away in 1901. His grandfather left him an annual annuity of $500 and the use of his Derry, New Hampshire, farm for ten years, after which ownership would pass to Robert.
The Frosts had four more children; their last, a daughter born in 1907, died after three days. Although Frost longed to be a poet since he was a youth, recognition of his talent would prove elusive. To support himself he had to work the farm and supplemented his income by teaching school, often in partnership with his wife. He tried to make a go as a poultry farmer, but he was not successful. Economic necessity forced him to spend the 1910-11 school year teaching at the State Normal School in far-off Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Frost practiced education by poetry with his children, since to him the two were one and the same. Poetry thus became part of the everyday life of the Frost family. His daughters Lesley, Irma, Marjorie and son Carol were home-schooled by their parents. Along with the basic instruction, they were encouraged to develop their powers of observation and cultivate their imaginations. Reading and writing were intended to be both pleasurable and a vehicle of discovery.
Frost shared his stories and poems with his children and they, in turn, were encouraged to write and share their stories and poems with their parents. The Frost children published their own little magazine, "The Bouquet", with their English friends while their family was living in England. The family had moved there in August 1912 because no American publisher was interested in his poems and he was feeling isolated. After coming into possession of the Derry farm in 1911, he sold it to raise the funds to finance the move. The relocation proved fortunate, as he quickly made friends and, for the first time in his life, was a member in good standing of a group of serious poets.
Living on a farm in Buckinghamshire with his family, Frost became a prolific writer as he went about finding his own, distinct poetic voice. Through an acquaintance, he met fellow American exile 'Ezra Pound', the great avant-garde poet who would prove to be a supporter of his.
Just two months after his arrival in England, the small London publisher David Nutt accepted his submission of a collection of poems primarily consisting of the work he had done over the previous nine years. "A Boy's Will" was published in 1913, and received good reviews from the English press despite being a young man's work. Frost then relocated to Gloucestershire, England, to be closer to the group of poets known as The Georgians. The second collection, his seminal "North of Boston", was published in 1914. The volume contained his classic poems "Mending Wall", "The Death of the Hired Man" and "After Apple-Picking", which have been frequently anthologized. Frost, as a poet, had not only arrived, but he had matured as an artist.
After the publication of "North of Boston", Frost moved his family back to the US due to England's involvement in World War One. By the time of his return, publisher Henry Holt had published "North of Boston" to great success. Frost was a shrewd promoter of himself as a poet, and he became celebrated by the literary establishments of Boston and New York. Holt, who would be his publisher throughout his life, brought out his third volume, "Mountain Interval", in 1916. The book, containing poems he had written in England and in his nine-year exile as a farmer-teacher, solidified his reputation. The collection included "The Road Not Taken", "An Old Man's Winter Night", "The Oven Bird" and "Birches".
Once again settling in the New England he would forever be associated with, Frost bought a farm at Franconia, New Hampshire. In 1917 he took a position at Amherst College as professor of literature and poet-in-residence. By the 1920s he was acknowledged as one of America's most important poets. Frost won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924 for his fourth book of verse, "New Hampshire". He published new and collected volumes of poetry at fairly regular intervals, assumed teaching appointments at Dartmouth, Harvard and the University of Michigan, and maintained a busy schedule of lectures and poetry readings. His honors, which included a record four Pulitzer Prizes, were matched by his popularity. He was the only poet ever chosen as a selection of The Book of the Month Club, and his books of poetry were sold in mass-market editions.
Frost has been frequently but erroneously mentioned as a Nobel laureate, but he never won the prize. As he became a leading literary lion in America, he became more influential, and was a favorite of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Frost successfully lobbied Ike to have Ezra Pound, incarcerated in a madhouse since being arrested for his treasonous radio broadcasts from fascist Italy during World War II, released and returned to private life.
One of the most famous moments in American history came at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, a fellow New Englander, on January 20, 1961, when Frost read a poem. He was the first poet ever to read at an American inauguration, and the event testified to both his greatness as a serious poet and his popular appeal. He represented the United States on official foreign missions during both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. The U.S. Congress voted Frost a Congressional Gold Medal in 1962, presented to him by President Kennedy at a public ceremony. Kennedy sent Frost as a cultural emissary to the USSR at the height of the Cold War in 1962, not long before his death.
Towards the end of his life he had achieved a popular acclaim unique for an American poet, though his critical reputation had declined due to a diminution of his powers. "A Witness Tree", his last truly significant book of verse, was published in 1942. His final three collections of poetry were not as praised as his older poetry had been, though certain pieces were acknowledged as among his best.
When Frost died in a Boston hospital on January 29, 1963, two months shy of his 89th birthday, he was the most widely respected man of American letters. Since his death his reputation has not diminished, the mark of a great artist. In 1996 three poets who won the Nobel Prize for literature, Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott jointly published an homage to the influence of Frost, whom they feel is one of literature's greatest poets.- Producer
- Art Department
Joan Wilson was born on 3 November 1928 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Joan was a producer, known for Masterpiece (1971), Masterpiece Mystery (1980) and Polygamous Polonius (1960). Joan was married to Jeremy Brett. Joan died on 4 July 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
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.- Donald E. Wahlberg Sr. was born on 8 May 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Southie (1998). He was married to Alma McPeck. He died on 14 February 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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Robert Mapplethorpe was born on 4 November 1946 in Queens, New York, USA. He was a director, known for Breathless (1983), Lady (1984) and Patti Smith: Still Moving (1978). He died on 9 March 1989 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Alissa Ann Smego was born on 25 May 1975 in Livingston, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993) and Star Kid (1997). She was married to Edward "Ned" Bigelow IV. She died on 5 October 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
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Richard Burton Cronin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was raised in the Boston neighborhood of West Roxbury, and moved to the city of Kingston on the south shore of Massachusetts later. He attended a Catholic High School (Sacred Heart) and graduated in 1993. LFO (with former member Brian Gillis (aka "Brizz" Gillis)) released 2 singles in Europe in 1997/1998 but failed to make it in America until 1999. Brizz had now left LFO, to be replaced by Harold "Devin" Lima. Rich then wrote and recorded the song "Summer Girls" in Danny Wood's, of New Kids On The Block, basement. After giving a copy of the song to a friend at Logic Records, Summer Girls was leaked to a radio station in Washington, DC, and the song immediately blew up. "Summer Girls" has been called the anthem of the Summer of 1999. In 2000, Rich began dating Jennifer Love Hewitt, but their relationship ended weeks after he went public about it in "Teen People" magazine. Rich moved from Orlando to Massachusetts last summer .- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Gene Wood was a prolific game show announcer during the 1970s and 1980s. Most often heard over Goodson-Todman (later Mark Goodson Productions) game shows, he was the voice that introduced game shows including "Card Sharks", "Tattletales," "Classic Concentration," "Password Plus"/"Super Password" and "Family Feud." Few fans will ever forget his beckoning contestants to get "ready for action!"; and "On your marks, let's start ... the 'FAMILY FEUUUDDD!'" or the sotto whisper of "The password is ..." Wood's first regular run as an announcer (after several substitute jobs in the 1960s) was on the 1969 version of "Beat the Clock," which Wood later hosted. In the mid-1990s, he retired from the world of game show announcing, apparently bitter over younger announcers taking his place.- Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. (December 9, 1912 - January 5, 1994) was a Massachusetts politician who won the House seat vacated by John F. Kennedy when he ran for the Senate in 1952. An outspoken liberal Democrat, O'Neill became one of the most influential members of the House of Representatives, rising to become Speaker of the US House of Representatives in 1977. He held the post until his retirement from Congress in 1987, after 34 years in the House. He was the second longest serving Speaker in history after Sam Rayburn.
During the Presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, Tip O'Neill, whose nickname was that of a famous baseball player of the 19th Century, as well as a reference to his first two initials, "TP", was the face of the Democratic Party and of liberalism. He was beloved in his district and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and will long be remembered for his commitment to the liberal welfare state championed by Democratic Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, a commitment that frequently caused clashes with Democratic President Jimmy Carter, a fiscal conservative. - Costume Designer
- Additional Crew
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Mary Grant was born on 20 February 1917 in Broad Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK. She was a costume designer, known for Sweet Smell of Success (1957), We're No Angels (1955) and The Princess and the Pirate (1944). She was married to Vincent Price. She died on 2 March 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Editorial Department
- Art Department
- Writer
Natalie Kalmus was born on 7 April 1882 in Houlton, Maine, USA. She was a writer, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Rope (1948) and Gone with the Wind (1939). She was married to Herbert T. Kalmus. She died on 15 November 1965 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Robert Hazard was born Robert Rimato on August 21, 1948 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was a tenor opera singer with the Philadelphia Opera Company and owned a jeweler's shop. Hazard began writing and singing songs at age ten. He grew up in Springfield, Pennsylvania and graduated from Springfield High School in 1966. Robert started out as a folk singer performing in local folk clubs and coffee houses in his native Philadelphia in the early 1970's. Following a brief stint as a reggae band member, he formed the New Wave rock group Robert Hazard and the Heroes in the late 1970's. Hazard recorded a demo of his own composition "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" in 1979; Cyndi Lauper did a cover of this song in 1983 that went on to become a huge international smash (it peaked at #2 on the US Billboard pop charts in 1984). Robert's group recorded a five song EP in 1982. The Heroes had a minor hit with the single "Escalator of Life" in 1983. Hazard released the full length album "Wing of Fire" in 1984. This was followed by the album "Darling" in 1986. Robert reunited the Heroes for a 10th Anniversary reunion concert at the Chestnut Cabaret on 38th Street in Philadelphia. In 1998 Hazard recorded the album "Howl" with his new band the Hombres. Robert released the album "The Seventh Lake" in the summer of 2003. The album "Blue Mountain" came out the next year. Hazard's final album "Truobadour" was issued on the Rykodisc label on October 9, 2007. In his latter years Robert also ran an antique shop with his wife Susan nearby their home in Old Forge, New York. Hazard died on August 5, 2008 at age 59 after surgery for pancreatic cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He's survived by his daughter Corrina and sons Rex and Remy.- After a year as an undergraduate at Oxford, Andreas Teuber was cast in the role of Mephistopheles in the Oxford University Drama Society production of Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus," opposite Richard Burton as Faustus and Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy and he repeated his role in the Columbia Pictures movie version of Doctor Faustus (1967) made the following summer and now available on DVD. Subsequently he guest-starred on a number of television series, among them, "I Spy" with Bill Cosby and Robert Culp and "The Big Valley" with Barbara Stanwyck, Linda Evans, Lee Majors, Richard Long, and Peter Breck.
He also played the title role in the PBS N.E.T. Playhouse National telecast of _Generation of Leaves: Jesus - A Passion Play for Americans (1970_, a jazz/rock re-telling (music by Peter Ivers) of the last ten days of Christ, produced by Jac Venza, a forerunner of _Godspell: A Musical Based on the Gospel According to St. Matthew (1973)_ and _Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)_.
He founded the new Poets' Theater and was its Artistic Director from 1987 to 1998, working with poets Seamus Heaney, Joseph Brodsky, Derek Walcott, Anthony Hecht, Amy Clampitt, Richard Wilbur, John Ashbery, Kenward Elmslie, Alison Lurie, Kenneth Koch, William Corbett, Joe LeSuer, Lloyd Schwartz, Gail Mazur and Allen Ginsberg. In 1992 he founded the Cambridge Theater Company, and also served as its Artistic Director until 1998. The Theater Company produced its shows at the Hasty Pudding Theater in Harvard Square and gained a reputation as Boston's leading off-Broadway theater. In 1998 the Theater Company was awarded the Elliot Norton Award, Boston's highest Theater Honor, for the Best Production of the Year.
As director of many of the stage productions for both the Poets Theater and the Cambridge Theater Company, he directed onstage, among others, Claire Bloom, William Cain, Stockard Channing, Lindsay Crouse, Blythe Danner, Peter Falk Julie Harris, John Heard, Cherry Jones, Bill Murray, Alan Rachins, Christopher Reeve, Wallace Shawn, Kathryn Walker, Sam Waterston, Debra Winger and Irene Worth.