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1-50 of 98
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Bill Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the son of Mary Lou (Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman and actor (as John Paxton). Bill moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where he found work in the film industry as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his film debut in the Corman film Crazy Mama (1975), directed by Jonathan Demme. Moving to New York, Paxton studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. After landing a small role in Stripes (1981), he found steady work in low-budget films and television. He also directed, wrote and produced award-winning short films including Barnes & Barnes: Fish Heads (1980), which aired on Saturday Night Live (1975). His first appearance in a James Cameron film was a small role in The Terminator (1984), followed by his very memorable performance as Private Hudson in Aliens (1986) and as the nomadic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987). Bill also appeared in John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), as Wyatt Donnelly's sadistic older brother Chet. Although he continued to work steadily in film and television, his big break did not come until his lead role in the critically acclaimed film-noir One False Move (1991). This quickly led to strong supporting roles as Wyatt Earp's naive younger brother Morgan in Tombstone (1993) and as Fred Haise, one of the three astronauts, in Apollo 13 (1995), as well as in James Cameron's offering True Lies (1994).
Bill died on February 25, 2017, in Los Angeles, from complications following heart surgery. He was 61.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Don Adams was born in New York, to a father of Hungarian Jewish descent, and a mother of German and Irish ancestry. He had a sister, Gloria, and a brother, Dick Yarmy. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and contracted malaria during the fighting on Guadalcanal island. After the war he began a career as a stand-up comic. He married singer Adelaide Adams and adopted her last name as his stage surname. He had seven children altogether, (four with his first wife, two with his second, one with his third): Caroline Adams, Christine, Catherine, Cecily Adams, Stacey Adams, Sean, Beige. His television career began when he won the Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour (1948) talent contest. His most famous role, of course, is as bumbling, incompetent, clueless yet endearing secret agent Maxwell Smart in the classic sitcom/spy spoof Get Smart (1965), although he also had a career as a television director and a Broadway and theatrical dramatic actor.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Paul Mazursky was born on 25 April 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). He was married to Betsy Mazursky. He died on 30 June 2014 in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Theresa Saldana was born on 20 August 1954 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Commish (1991), Raging Bull (1980) and I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). She was married to Phil Peters and Alfredo J. Feliciano Jr.. She died on 6 June 2016 in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ken Swofford was born on 25 July 1933 in Du Quoin, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Annie (1982), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and Black Roses (1988). He was married to Barbara Ann Biggs. He died on 1 November 2018 in Pacific Grove, California, USA.- Director
- Additional Crew
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. His parents were assistant district attorney Viktor Cukor and Helén Ilona Gross. His middle name "Dewey" honored Admiral George Dewey who was considered a war hero for his victory in the Battle of Manila Bay, in 1898.
As a child, Cukor received dancing lessons, and soon fell in love with the theater, appearing in several amateur plays. In 1906, he performed in a recital with David O. Selznick (1902-1965), who would later become a close friend.
As a teenager, Cukor often visited the New York Hippodrome, a well-known Manhattan theater. He often cut classes while attending high school, in order to attend afternoon matinees. He later took a job as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, and at times performed there in black-face.
Cukor graduated from the DeWitt Clinton High School in 1917. His father wanted him to follow a legal career, and had his son enrolled City College of New York. Cukor lost interest in his studies and dropped out of college in 1918. He then took a job as an assistant stage manager and bit player for a touring production of the British musical "The Better 'Ole". The musical was an adaptation of the then-popular British comic strip "Old Bill" by Bruce Bairnsfather (1887-1959).
In 1920, Cukor became the stage manager of the Knickerbocker Players, a theatrical troupe. In 1921, Cukor became the general manager of the Lyceum Players, a summer stock company. In 1925, Cukor was one of the co-founders the C.F. and Z. Production Company. With this theatrical company, Cukor started working as a theatrical director. He made his Broadway debut as a director with the play "Antonia" by Melchior Lengyel (1880-1974).
The C.F. and Z. Production Company was eventually renamed the Cukor-Kondolf Stock Company, and started recruiting up-and-coming theatrical talents. Cukor's theatrical troupe included at various times Louis Calhern, Ilka Chase, Bette Davis, Douglass Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, Elizabeth Patterson, and Phyllis Povah.
Cukor attained great critical acclaim in 1926 for directing "The Great Gatsby", an adaptation of a then-popular novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). He directed six more Broadway productions until 1929. At the time, Hollywood film studios were recruiting New York theater talent for sound films, and Cukor was hired by Paramount Pictures. He started as an apprentice director before the studio lent him to Universal Pictures. His first notable film work was serving as a dialogue director for "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930).
After returning to Paramount Pictures, he worked as aco-director. His first solo directorial effort was "Tarnished Lady" (1931), and at that time he earned a weekly salary of $1500. Cukor co-directed the film "One Hour with You" (1932) with Ernst Lubitsch, but Lubitsch demanded sole directorial credit. Cukor filed a legal suit but eventually had to settle for a credit as the film's assistant director. He left Paramount in protest, and took a new job with RKO Studios.
During the 1930s, Cukor was entrusted with directing films for RKO's leading actresses. He worked often with Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), although not always with box-office success. He did direct such box office hits as "Little Women" (1933) and "Holiday" (1938), but also notable flops such as "Sylvia Scarlett" (1935).
In 1936, Cukor was assigned to work on the film adaptation of the blockbuster novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. He spent the next two years preoccupied with the film's pre-production, and with supervising screen tests for actresses seeking to play leading character Scarlett O'Hara. Cukor reportedly favored casting either Katharine Hepburn or Paulette Goddard for the role. Producer David O. Selznick refused to cast either one, since Hepburn was coming off a string of flops and was viewed as "box office poison," while Goddard was rumored to have had a scandalous affair with Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) and her reputation suffered for it.
Cukor did not get to direct "Gone with the Wind", as Selznick decided to assign the directing duties to Victor Fleming (1889-1949). Cukor's involvement with the film was limited to coaching actresses Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) and Olivia de Havilland (1916-). Similarly, the very same year, Cukor also failed to receive a directing credit for "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), though he was responsible for several casting and costuming decisions for this iconic classic.
In this same period, Cukor did direct an all-female cast in "The Women" (1939), as well as Greta Garbo's final motion picture performance in "Two-Faced Woman" (1941). Then his film career was interrupted by World War II, as he joined the Signal Corps in 1942. Given his experience as a film director, Cukor was soon assigned to producing training and instructional films for army personnel. He wanted to gain an officer's commission, but was denied promotion above the rank of private. Cukor suspected that rumors of his homosexuality were the reason he never received the promotion.
During the 1940s, Cukor had a number of box-office hits, such "A Woman's Face" (1941) and "Gaslight" (1944). He forged a working alliance with screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, and the trio collaborated on seven films between 1947-1954.
Until the early 1950s, most of his Cukor's films were in black-and-white, and his first film in Technicolor was "A Star Is Born" (1954), with Judy Garland as the leading actress. Casting the male lead for the film proved difficult, as several major stars were either not interested in the role or were considered unsuitable by the studio. Cukor had to settle for James Mason as the male lead, but the film was highly successful and received 6 Academy Award nominations. But Cukor was not nominated for directing.
He had a handful of critical successes over the following years, such as Les Girls (1957) and "Wild Is the Wind" (1957), and also helmed the unfinished "Something's Got to Give" (1962), which had a troubled production and went at least $2 million over budget before it was terminated.
Cukor had a comeback with the critically and commercially successful "My Fair Lady," one of the highlights of his career., for which he won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, along with the Directors Guild of America Award. However, his career very quickly slowed down, and the aging Cukor was infrequently involved with new projects.
Cukor's most notable film in the 1970s was the fantasy The Blue Bird (1976) , which was the first joint Soviet-American production. It was a box-office flop, though it received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and was groundbreaking for its time. Cukor's swan song was "Rich and Famous" (1981), depicting the relationship of two women over a period of several decades., played by co-stars Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen, Cukor's final pair of leading ladies.
He retired as a director at the age of 82, and died a year later of a heart attack in 1983. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated to be $2,377,720. He was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA. Cukor was buried next to his long-time platonic friend Frances Howard (1903-1976), the wife of legendary studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn.- Robert came from a large Catholic family, raised in Los Angeles, and lived at Sycamore Farms, Malibu CA in about 1970, which he leased with his brother Peter Porter. This was an old horse stable that had been a Malibu landmark for decades, still located on Cross Creek Road today just off the Malibu Lagoon and the central shopping area.
The brothers built the large two-story horse barn using materials "borrowed" from the county building site a block away, and at the time the trainer was Capt. Pat Conar, an Irishman that had served in the British Cavalry and coached Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet. The stable clientèle was a mix of socialites like Gigi Gaston (Getty), actors & models along with regular locals like director Sam Peckinpah's daughter Melissa Peckinpah.
The brothers lived in the small house on the property and much of the layout is still the same, except the stable was later expanded in front of the large barn and in the back. Robert's girlfriend at the time was a beautiful Hippy local Erin Murphy whose grandfather was director Dudley Murphy, founder of the famous Holiday House hotel & restaurant located a few miles up the coast. Their relationship was a tumultuous, passionate affair out of an Italian movie.
This was the period after he had a few roles in major movies and was beginning to do the Indy type work that most know him for. Robert was so charismatic there was a constant stream of female stable boarders looking for any excuse to hang out. These were also the times of the anti-war protests and anti-establishment Yippies and the brothers lived the part, dressing like European aristocratic vagabonds.
Robert had been heavily influenced by the Actors Studio, Method Acting and actors like Brando and James Dean, that had set the bar in the previous decade. His throwback style was out of place in the new industry which had taken on television level mass production values and cookie cutter acting styles. His friendship and association with talents like Zalman King, who later gained notoriety for cult films like Wild Orchid (1989) encouraged him to step off into the independent type roles that would let him stretch his acting chops.
This was the period when he did The Jesus Trip (1971) and in the first wave of the counterculture following films such as Easy Rider (1969) there was a buzz at the time that this might be his big break in a lead role. Distribution & PR was lacking though and his last major film was Klansman (1974) with a large cast of A & B list actors starting with Lee Marvin & Richard Burton and descending down to other names like O.J. Simpson, Lola Falana and Linda Evans.
His last work of note, Trip WIth the Teacher (1975), a low budget movie inspired by European New Wave films such as Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), saw him in a supporting role to his friend Zalman King, who played the lead bad guy while Robert was the conflicted younger brother exasperated by his sibling's evil doings. This work would presage later violent Grindhouse movies such as Tarantino's, also influenced by major fare like Peckinpah shooters.
The Porter brothers dropped out of the horse business and got into agriculture, first with a foolhardy pot grow near the Malibu/Ventura county line off Yerba Buena Road below Mt. Boney Peak, and later a stint doing some back to the land farming on the McGrath Family Farms in Oxnard which led to brother Peter going into the pickling business selling hot peppers through their company Hosan Produce.
Robert was working as a stonemason in Sacramento CA in 2007 and talking about returning to acting as a teacher. - Additional Crew
Frank Lucas was born on 9 September 1930 in La Grange, North Carolina, USA. He is known for America's Book of Secrets (2012), Mobsters (1997) and Gangland (2007). He was married to Julianna Farrait. He died on 30 May 2019 in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Peter S. Fischer was born on 10 August 1935 in Queens, New York, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Murder, She Wrote (1984), The Law and Harry McGraw (1987) and Columbo (1971). He was married to Lucille Warnock . He died on 30 October 2023 in Pacific Grove, California, USA.- Debra McCurdy was born on 17 July 1957 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, USA. She died on 20 September 2013 in Garden Grove, California, USA.
- Gwenda Deacon was born on 17 February 1946 in Galt, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), L.A. Confidential (1997) and Joy Ride (2001). She died on 25 November 2006 in Garden Grove, California, USA.
- Michael Ward was born George William Everard Yeo on 9th April 1909 in the village of Carmenellis, Cornwall. Being the son of a clergyman, his family moved from parish to parish for most of his early life. He detested this nomadic lifestyle and being an only child. It was not until 1930 when the family settled in Caddington, near Luton, that he got the chance to make friends and become independent.
Between 1930 and 1945 Michael worked as a private tutor and then as an ambulance driver during the war years.
By March 1946 he had chosen acting after abandoning his first love, to be a concert pianist, winning a scholarship to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
On completing the course, he began auditioning and in 1946 landed the role as understudy to comedian Vic Oliver in The Night and the Music at the Coliseum, now the home of English National Opera.
This was the beginning of a long career in supporting roles comprising of nearly seventy films, twenty West End shows and over two hundred television appearances.
It was in 1947 that Michael secured his first film role. Directed by Alexander Korda, An Ideal Husband starred Paulette Goddard and was released in June of that year. It was generally well received and acted as a springboard for Michael's screen career, as between 1947 and 1960 he starred in no fewer than thirty films, making him one of the country's busiest and best-known character actors.
The year 1961 brought Michael to the attention of an even wider audience, playing the photographer in Carry On Regardless. Further roles in the series included 'Man in Tweeds' in Carry On Cabbie, 'Archimedes' in Carry On Cleo, 'Vivian the Window Dresser' in Carry On Screaming and 'Andre the Wigmaker' in Carry On Don't Lose Your Head.
The BFI credited Michael as delivering one of the funniest one liners in British film history, as the effete gentleman in tweeds who alights from Kenneth Connors' black cab. Remember it? Watch it again and judge for yourself.
Other classic British comedy vehicles included four Norman Wisdom comedies, as well as dozens of other films, but eventually television provided the bread and butter of his later career.
His work on the big screen was reflected on TV, from the early 1960's to the mid-1970's, the golden age of British television comedy. Appearances ranged from Hancock's Half Hour, The Jack Benny Show, Steptoe and Son, Sykes and Rising Damp. Other shows included The Avengers, The Two Ronnies and The Dick Emery Show. He was most memorably cast in Morecambe and Wise, where he played Adrian, the comedy duo's extremely camp next door neighbour.
After making what would be his last ever screen outing in 1978's Revenge of the Pink Panther, Michael suffered a stroke, forcing him to retire. He finally passed away on 8 November 1997 at St Mary's Hospital, Ladbroke Grove, London, aged eighty-eight. - Stunts
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Bud Ekins was born on 11 May 1930 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Blues Brothers (1980), Sorcerer (1977) and The Specialist (1994). He was married to Betty Gene Towne. He died on 6 October 2007 in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Stephen Coit was born on 27 October 1920 in Dunbar, West Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for The Long Goodbye (1973), Fear and Desire (1952) and Ben Casey (1961). He died on 21 January 2005 in Garden Grove, California, USA.
- Minor American character actor Forrest Taylor was a veteran of the stage by the time he started appearing as a silent lead in both short and feature-length films. He went on to appear in hundreds of secondary "B" movies, although his name does not appear in a large percentage of them. Taylor was born Edwin Forrest Taylor in Bloomington, Illinois, in 1883. Little is known about his early days on stage but he assayed prime roles in such films as In the Sunset Country (1915), April (1916), True Nobility (1916) and The Abandonment (1916) before World War I service intervened. With his leading-man career fatally interrupted, he would not return to films until a decade later in 1926. Playing a few strong supports, he regressed quickly to atmospheric bits primarily in westerns and cliffhangers. With a no-nonsense attitude and imposingly thick mustache, his attorneys, judges, scientists, executives and professors were for the most part scarcely acknowledged, so when he did receive a bit more screen time than usual he pounced on the opportunity, such as he got in John Wayne's programmer Riders of Destiny (1933) where he played a sagebrush villain; the serial Shadow of Chinatown (1936) as a Chief of Police; and The Oregon Trail (1939) as a nemesis to hero Johnny Mack Brown. Taylor also managed some deliciously hammy roles in a few popular serials including The Green Archer (1940), The Spider Returns (1941) and The Iron Claw (1941). On-camera for nearly five decades, he extended himself into TV programming in the 1950s, taking part in various TV westerns including episodes of Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951), Annie Oakley (1954), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), Maverick (1957) and My Friend Flicka (1955), not to mention both Gene Autry's and Roy Rogers' weekly shows. He was an occasional player on the series The Cisco Kid (1950) from 1950 on, and from 1952-1954 had one of his more visible roles as Grandpa Fisher on the religious TV series This Is the Life (1952). Broaching the age of 80, Taylor finally retired in 1962 after filming an episode of Bonanza (1959) and died three years later of natural causes in Garden Grove, California.
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
- Composer
Wes Farrell was born on 21 December 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for The Partridge Family (1970), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). He was married to Jean Alice Inman, Pamela Hensley, Tina Sinatra and Joan Ellen Arthurs. He died on 29 February 1996 in Coconut Grove, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Producer
Tony Keyes was born on 5 February 1960 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), Nash Bridges (1996) and Salome's Kiss (2003). He was married to Julie Decker. He died on 16 December 2008 in Elk Grove, California, USA.- Stan Meyer was born on 24 August 1940 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He died on 21 March 1998 in Grove City, Ohio, USA.
- Charles Becker was born on 24 November 1887 in Muschenheim, Germany. He was an actor, known for Spangles (1926) and The Terror of Tiny Town (1938). He died on 28 December 1968 in Elk Grove, California, USA.
- Billy Sheffield was born on 15 December 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Best Man Wins (1948), King of the Wild Horses (1947) and The Boy with Green Hair (1948). He died on 12 December 2010 in Webster Groves, Missouri, USA.
- Myrtle Reeves was born on 15 January 1897 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She was an actress, known for Beautifully Trimmed (1920), A Kentucky Cinderella (1917) and The Grip of Evil (1916). She was married to Oliver Hardy. She died on 18 January 1983 in Garden Grove, California, USA.
- Helen Seamon was born in Dermott, Ark, and brought up in Pine Bluff. Her father was a ticket railroad agent. She made a theatrical debut of sorts in a movie house in Pine Bluff; During children's matinees Helen sat on the organ console and sang. She also studied dancing. Her parents scraped up some money and sent her to Los Angeles for further training with Ernest Belcher. One day she accompanied a friend to a studio and sat in the waiting room, while the friend talked to the casting director. Another executive raced into the waiting room, waved Helen into his office and said he had to have a girl in a dance number. He had telephoned Belcher and the teacher had told him that Miss Seamon was in the studio.
- Hazel Keener was born on 22 October 1904 in Fairbury, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Murder by Invitation (1941), Ten Days (1925) and North of Nevada (1924). She died on 7 August 1979 in Pacific Grove, California, USA.
- Frank Hohimer was born on 17 June 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was a writer, known for Thief (1981). He died on 2 February 2005 in Fox River Grove, Illinois, USA.
- Writer
- Actor
John Galsworthy was born on 14 August 1867 in Kingston Hill, Surrey, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for That Forsyte Woman (1949), 21 Days Together (1940) and The Stranger (1924). He was married to Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper. He died on 31 January 1933 in Grove Lodge, Hampshire, England, UK.