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1-50 of 653
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jovial, somewhat flamboyant Frank Morgan (born Francis Wuppermann) will forever be remembered as the title character in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but he was a veteran and respected actor long before he played that part, and turned in outstanding performances both before and after that film. One of 11 children of a wealthy manufacturer, Morgan followed his older brother, Ralph Morgan (born Raphael Wuppermann) into the acting profession, making his Broadway debut in 1914 and his film debut two years later. Morgan specialized in playing courtly, sometimes eccentric or befuddled but ultimately sympathetic characters, such as the alcoholic telegraph operator in The Human Comedy (1943) or the shop owner in The Shop Around the Corner (1940). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Affairs of Cellini (1934). Frank Morgan died at age 59 of a heart attack on September 18, 1949 in Beverly Hills, California.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
In 1902, 16-year-old Wallace Beery joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer. He left two years later after a leopard clawed his arm. Beery next went to New York, where he found work in musical variety shows. He became a leading man in musicals and appeared on Broadway and in traveling stock companies. In 1913 he headed for Hollywood, where he would get his start as the hulking Swedish maid in the Sweedie comedy series for Essanay. In 1915 he would work with young ingénue Gloria Swanson in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). A year later they would marry and be wildly unhappy together. The marriage dissolved when Beery could not control his drinking and Gloria got tired of his abuse. Beery finished with the Sweedie series and worked as the heavy in a number of films. Starting with Patria (1917), he would play the beastly Hun in a number of films. In the 1920s he would be seen in a number of adventures, including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Sea Hawk (1924) and The Pony Express (1925). He would also play the part of Poole in So Big (1924), which was based on the best-selling book of the same name by Edna Ferber. Paramount began to move Beery back into comedies with Behind the Front (1926). When sound came, Beery was one of the victims of the wholesale studio purge. He had a voice that would record well, but his speech was slow and his tone was a deep, folksy, down home-type. While not the handsome hero image, MGM executive Irving Thalberg saw something in Beery and hired him for the studio. Thalberg cast Beery in The Big House (1930), which was a big hit and got Beery an Academy Award nomination. However, Beery would become almost a household word with the release of the sentimental Min and Bill (1930), which would be one of 1930's top money makers. The next year Beery would win the Oscar for Best Actor in The Champ (1931). He would be forever remembered as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934) (who says never work with kids?). Beery became one of the top ten stars in Hollywood, as he was cast as the tough, dim-witted, easy-going type (which, in real life, he was anything but). In Flesh (1932) he would be the dim-witted wrestler who did not figure that his wife was unfaithful. In Dinner at Eight (1933) he played a businessman trying to get into society while having trouble with his wife, link=nm0001318]. After Marie Dressler died in 1934, he would not find another partner in the same vein as his early talkies until he teamed with Marjorie Main in the 1940s. He would appear opposite her in such films as Wyoming (1940) and Barnacle Bill (1941). By that time his career was slowing as he was getting up in age. He continued to work, appearing in only one or two pictures a year, until he died from a heart attack in 1949.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Victor Fleming entered the film business as a stuntman in 1910, mainly doing stunt driving - which came easy to him, as he had been a mechanic and professional race-car driver. He became interested in working on the other side of the camera, and eventually got a job as a cameraman on many of the films of Douglas Fairbanks. He soon began directing, and his first big hit was The Virginian (1929). It was the movie that turned Gary Cooper into a star (a fact Cooper never forgot; he and Fleming remained friends for life). Fleming's star continued to rise during the '30s, and he was responsible for many of the films that would eventually be considered classics, such as Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and the two films that were the high marks of his career: Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ironically Fleming was brought in on both pictures to replace other directors and smooth out the troubled productions, a feat he accomplished masterfully. His career took somewhat of a downturn in the '40s, and most of his films, with the exception of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), weren't particularly successful. He ended his career with the troubled production Joan of Arc (1948), which turned out to be a major critical and financial failure.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Character fame on film came quite late for long-time stage actor Harry Davenport at age 70, but he made up for lost time in very quick fashion with well over a hundred film roles registered from the advent of sound to the time of his death in 1949. Beloved for his twinkle-eyed avuncular and/or grandfatherly types in both comedy and drama, Davenport also represented a commanding yet comforting wisdom in his more authoritative roles as judge, doctor, minister, senator, etc.
The scion of an acting dynasty, he was born Harold George Bryant Davenport on January 19, 1866, in New York City to actors Edward Loomis Davenport (1815-1877) and Fanny (Elizabeth) Vining (1829-1891). One of nine children, two of his siblings died young while the seven surviving children went on to share their parents' love of the arts, including actress Fanny (1850-1898) and opera singer Lillie Davenport (1851-1927). Harry took his first stage bow in an 1871 production of "Damon and Pythias" in Philadelphia, and by his teen years was playing Shakespeare in stock companies.
Re-settling in New York, Harry began assertively building up his theater credits. In 1893, at age 27, he married actress Alice Shepard (aka Alice Davenport). Their brief marriage of three years produced daughter Dorothy Davenport, who would continue the acting dynasty into a new generation. She earned further recognition as the wife of tragic silent screen star Wallace Reid. Shortly after his divorce from Alice was final in early 1896, Harry married musical comedy star Phyllis Rankin (1875-1934). Their children Kate Davenport, Edward Davenport and Fanny Davenport became actors as well.
Making his Broadway debut with the musical comedy "The Voyage of Suzette" in 1894, Harry continued in the musical vein with Broadway productions of "The Belle of New York" (1897) (with wife Phyllis) (1895), "In Gay Paree" (1899) and "The Rounders" (1899) (again with Phyllis). The new century ushered in more musicals with "The Girl from Up There" (1901), "The Defender" (1901), "The Girl from Kay's" (1903), "It Happened in Nordland" (1904), "My Best Girl" (1912), "Sari" (1914) and "The Dancing Duchess" (1914). On the legit side he played expertly in "A Country Mouse" (opposite Ethel Barrymore), and in "The Next of Kin" (1909) and "Children of Destiny" (1910).
Co-founding the Actor's Equity Association along with vaudeville legend Eddie Foy as a means to confront the deplorable exploitation of actors, Harry was held in high regard as the acting community subsequently came together and executed strikes to protect and guarantee their rights. This dire situation also prompted Harry to seek work elsewhere -- in films. He joined up with Vitragraph in 1914 and made his silent screen debut with the film Too Many Husbands (1914). In the next year he starred in and directed a series of "Jarr Family" shorts, and made his last silent feature with an unbilled part in Among Those Present (1921) before refocusing completely on his first love -- the stage.
He and his actress/wife Phyllis joined forces once again with the Broadway hit comedies "Lightnin'" and "Three Wise Fools", both in 1918. Throughout the 1920s decade he continued to find employment on the stage with "Thank You," Cock O' the Roost, "Hay Fever" and "Julius Caesar". The untimely death of wife Phyllis in 1934 prompted Harry to abandon his stage pursuits and travel to California, at age 69, to again check out the film industry. It proved to be a very smart move.
Harry graced a number of Oscar-caliber films during his character reign: The Life of Emile Zola (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), All This, and Heaven Too (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), One Foot in Heaven (1941), Kings Row (1942) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942). Several of his films also featured family or extended family members. His brother-in-law Lionel Barrymore appeared in a number of Harry's films and Gone with the Wind (1939) also had a son and grandson in the cast.
Harry maintained his film career right up until his death at age 83 of a heart attack on August 9, 1949, and was buried back in New York (Valhalla).- Charles Brown Middleton was born 7th October 1879. His father was a military man with a strong sense of discipline which conflicted with Charles' own outlook on how to live his life so when 12 he ran away to join a circus and looked after the elephants before moving into performing in dramatic vignettes between traditional acts. At 18 he'd formed his own stock company which toured the South performing Shakespeare and self penned melodramas. He worked his way onto the Vaudeville circuit earning a reputation as a good actor which is how he met Stan Laurel. He appeared in some silent films in the 20's but his career took off with sound as stage actors were in demand due to their experience of vocal performance. He had a very distinctive voice which marked him out from the competition.He appeared with 3 great film comedy teams - Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. He was often cast as a 'Heavy' and appeared in a lot of serials - Di ck Tracy, Batman, and Black Raven but is probably best remembered as Ming the Merciless in 3 Flash Gordon serials of the 30's. He was never under contract which allowed him to choose his own roles but a succession of unwise career choices led to less work in his later years so for every good role there were some bad ones. In his final years he took to the stage touring theatres showing clips from his films and talking about his work. On 19th April 1949 he was admitted to hospital and had an operation for gangrene on his right foot and died on the 22nd with cause of death being given as arteriosclerotic heart disease which he'd been suffering from for 20 years.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
With his lanky frame, big nose, toothbrush moustache and horn-rimmed glasses he looked like someone had decided to cross Groucho Marx with Albert Einstein. The perennial scene-stealer Felix Bressart had two distinct careers as a comic actor: an earlier one, on stage and screen in his native Germany, and a later -- even more prosperous one -- in Hollywood. Trained under Maria Moissi in Berlin, Felix began acting professionally after World War I. He honed his skills in the genres of political parody, musical comedy and slapstick farce in the theatres of Hamburg, Berlin and Vienna (with Max Reinhardt). By 1933, he had established his film acting credentials in popular mainstream movies like Three from the Filling Station (1930) and Die Privatsekretärin (1931). Like so many other distinguished actors he was forced to leave the German realm after the Nazis took power in 1933. Felix moved via Switzerland and France to a new domicile in the United States where his connections to fellow émigrés like Joe Pasternak and Ernst Lubitsch guaranteed him rapid and steady employment.
In Hollywood, Felix joined the regular company of stock players at MGM. He was immediately typecast, his stock-in-trade being disheveled academics, wistful European philosophers, scientists and music professors of diverse ethnicity. His first major screen success was as one of the Russian commissars in Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939), a delightful performance which spawned as similar part being created for him in Comrade X (1940). The role which ultimately defined his career, in equal parts comedy and pathos, was in the classic wartime satire To Be or Not to Be (1942), as Greenberg, a Jewish member of an acting troupe with Carole Lombard and Jack Benny. It seemed, that Felix was still underemployed in films, since he managed to practise as a doctor of medicine on the side. Sadly, he died of leukemia in 1949 at the untimely age of 57.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Bill Robinson quit school at age seven and began work as a professional dancer the following year. Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and was considered one of the world's greatest tap dancers. His film debut was in Dixiana (1930). He worked in fifteen movies, but his movie fame came primarily from the films he made with Shirley Temple -- The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). In 1989 the US Congress named his birth date as National Tap Dancing Day.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a lawyer, Ouspenskaya studied singing at the Warsaw Conservatory and acting at Adasheff's School of the Drama in Moscow. She received her practical training as an actress touring in the Russian provinces. She later joined the Moscow Art Theatre. It was here that she first worked under the direction of the great Konstantin Stanislavski, whose "Method" she would go on to promote for the remainder of her life. She came to America with the Art Theatre in 1922 and, upon their return to Moscow, defected to the US to become a dominant Broadway actress for more than a decade until she founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York in 1929. It was to help keep the school funded that she accepted her first Hollywod film, Dodsworth (1936). She had appeared in six silent movies in Russia earlier in her career. This lucrative association, for Ouspenskaya, Hollywood and the viewing public, would last for more than a dozen years and two dozen films. Thanks to her often-superior demeanor and addiction to astrology, she could prove maddening on the set. She remained in nearly daily communication with L.A. Times' astrologer Carroll Righter who would advise her on the best times to appear on camera along with when and where to travel. As a consequence, most casts and crews disliked the over-bearing, wispy 90-pound actress intensely. She bounced between prestigious A-pictures (Love Affair (1939), Waterloo Bridge (1940)) and B-movies (Mystery of Marie Roget (1942), Tarzan and the Amazons (1945)), performing, and behaving, with equal intensity. She is especially notable for having appeared in the last great Universal horror entry, The Wolf Man (1941) and the interesting Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). A heavy smoker, she fell asleep in bed with a lit cigarette in late November 1949 and suffered massive burns. She died of a stroke in the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital three days later.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Richard Dix was a major leading man at RKO Radio Pictures from 1929 through 1943. He was born Ernest Carlton Brimmer July 18, 1893, in St. Paul, Minnesota. There he was educated, and at the desires of his father, studied to be a surgeon. His obvious acting talent in his school dramatic club led him to leading roles in most of the school plays. At 6' 0" and 180 pounds, Dix excelled in sports, especially football and baseball. These skills would serve him well in the vigorous film roles he would go on to play. After a year at the University of Minnesota he took a position at a bank, spending his evenings training for the stage. His professional start was with a local stock company, and this led to similar work in New York. He then went to Los Angeles, became leading man for the Morosco Stock Company and his success there got him a contract with Paramount Pictures. His rugged good looks and dark features made him a popular player in westerns. His athletic ability led to his starring role in Paramount's Warming Up (1928), a baseball story and also the studio's first feature with synchronized score and sound effects. His deep voice and commanding presence were perfectly suited for the talkies, and he was signed by RKO Radio Pictures in 1929, scoring an early triumph in the all-talking mystery drama, Seven Keys to Baldpate (1929). In 1931 he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his masterful performance in Cimarron (1931), winner of the Best Picture Oscar that year. Throughout the 1930s Dix would be a big box-office draw at RKO, appearing in mystery thrillers, potboilers, westerns and programmers. He appeared in the "Whistler" series of mystery films at Columbia in the mid-40s. He retired from films in 1947. He first married Winifred Coe on October 20, 1931, had a daughter, Martha Mary Ellen, then divorced in 1933. He then married Virginia Webster on June 29, 1934. They had twin boys, Richard Jr. and Robert Dix and an adopted daughter, Sara Sue. Richard Dix the actor, died at age 56 on September 20, 1949.- Actress
Jean was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1923. She graduated from Franklin High School in Los Angeles in 1941. Soon, Jean was working as a model for a local clothing firm. Later, she was a dancer with the Earl Carroll Theatre. Jean got married to Dexter Benner, and they had a daughter, Christine, in 1944. Two years later, in 1946, she had a bitter court battle with her ex-husband regarding the custody of their young daughter. In 1948, ruling a daughter's place is with her mother, a judge awarded full custody to Jean. Sultry and statuesque, Jean, a divorced mother and nightclub dancer, struggled to make it as an actress; she was a bit player and uncredited extra in movies and early television. In 1949, she met Kirk Douglas on the set of Young Man with a Horn (1950), which was released February 9, 1950. On October 7, 1949, when she was 3 months pregnant, she disappeared. A note was found in her purse that read: "Kirk, Can't wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away." All the police found was her purse and this cryptic note -- Jean had vanished without a trace. Her disappearance is still an unsolved mystery.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Following a two-year apprenticeship under Cecil B. DeMille as assistant director, Samuel Grosvenor Wood had the good fortune to have assigned to him two of the biggest stars at Paramount during their heyday: Wallace Reid (between 1919 and 1920) and Gloria Swanson (from 1921 to 1923). By the time his seven-year contract with Paramount expired, the former real estate dealer had established himself as one of Hollywood's most reliable (if not individualistic) feature directors. Not bad for a former real estate broker and small-time theatrical thesp. In 1927, Wood joined MGM and remained under contract there until 1939. During this tenure he was very much in sync with the studio's prevalent style of production, reliably turning out between two and three films a year (of which the majority were routine subjects).
Most of his films in the 1920s were standard fare and it was not until he directed two gems with The Marx Brothers, A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937) that his career picked up again. Looking at the finished product it is difficult to reconcile this to Groucho Marx finding Wood "rigid and humorless". Maybe, this assessment was due to Wood being vociferously right-wing in his personal views which would not have sat well with the famous comedian. His testimonies in 1947 before the House Un-American Activities Committee certainly gained Wood more enemies than friends within the industry.
Regardless of his personality or his habitually having to shoot each scene twenty times over, Wood turned out some very powerful dramatic films during the last ten years of his life, beginning with Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). This popular melodrama earned him his first Academy Award nomination. At RKO, he coaxed an Oscar-winning performance out of Ginger Rogers (and was again nominated himself) for Kitty Foyle (1940). Ronald Reagan gave, arguably, his best performance in Kings Row (1942) under Wood's direction. His most expensive (and longest, at 170 minutes) assignment took him back to Paramount. This was Ernest Hemingway's Spanish Civil War drama For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), bought for $150,000 (De Mille was originally slated as director). In spite of editorial incongruities and the relatively uneven pace, the picture turned out to be the biggest (and last) hit of Wood's career.
Sam Wood died of a heart attack on September 22 1949. He has a star on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.- Kiki Palmer was born on 11 July 1907 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Wedding March (1936) and La luce del mondo (1935). She died on 11 August 1949 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Craig Reynolds was born on 15 July 1907 in Anaheim, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Perils of Pauline (1933), Back in Circulation (1937) and Love Birds (1934). He was married to Barbara Pepper. He died on 22 October 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
William Thompson Hay was probably one of the most versatile of entertainers. He was not only a character comedian of the first rank, but was also an astronomer of high repute - he discovered the spot on the planet Saturn in 1933 - and a fully qualified air pilot; he was once an engineer. Born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham in 1888, he became interested in astronomy at school and carried on his research work in this direction after he had finished his nightly stage entertainments. He was first "on the air" in 1922 and his then comedy sketches of "St. Michaels School" (of which he was the headmaster) proved to be one of the most popular comedy characters on radio at that time. This character was transferred to film and became equally successful. He worked at Elstree Studios, then Gainsborough, then Ealing; the Gainsborough period was the most consistently successfully, particularly when he worked with the team of Marcel Varnel (director), Val Guest and Marriott Edgar (writers), and Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt (supporting cast). By the time he made his first film, he was in his mid forties and his last role came less than a decade later. Between 1934 and 1943, he was a prolific and popular film comedian. He was credited on several films as a writer or co-ordinator, and was arguably the dominant 'author' of all the films in which he appeared, in that they were built around his persona and depended on the character and routines he had developed over years on the stage.- Roman Bohnen, known as "Bud" to his family and friends was not only an excellent film actor but also a stage actor of note. As a member of the prestigious Group Theatre from 1934-40, he appeared in such classic productions as "Waiting for Lefty", "Golden Boy", "Awake and Sing" and "The Gentle People". He left for Hollywood in the late '30s to pursue a film career mainly as an effort to earn money for his family and ailing wife, Hilda.
In film, he is perhaps best known for his performances as Candy in Of Mice and Men (1939) with Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr., as Francois Soubirous in The Song of Bernadette (1943), and as Pat Derry in William Wyler's classic The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). The latter role although a small one is beautifully played. It is a rare opportunity to see a full life artfully created in a few short scenes. Take a look in particular at the scene where "Bud" reads the citations awarded to his son, Fred Derry (ably played by Dana Andrews). It is rich with the feeling and pride of a father, helpless to provide for his son (with beautiful support by the great Gladys George as Hortense).
Roman was also an integral member of "The Actor's Laboratory Theatre" in Hollywood. He was stricken with a heart attack while performing on stage for the Lab Theatre and died shortly after at age 47. A rare talent, an underrated actor who left us too soon. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Geneva Doris Mitchell was born on February 3, 1908 in Medarysville, Indiana. Her father died in 1909 and her mother Verna Mitchell became a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl. When she was fourteen Geneva was hired to be in the Follies too. Florenz Ziegfeld said she was "the find" of the season. Her nickname was "The Pogo Girl". She also appeared in the show Sally and was chosen to be Marilyn Miller's understudy. Geneva eloped with Robert Savage, a millionaire's son, in March of 1922. They split up just five days later because she was too young. She made headlines again in May when she was fired from the Ziegfeld Follies. Florenz Ziegfeld got mad when she attended a wild party in her pajamas. After a ten day courtship she married Jack Hayes, a publicity agent, on September 22, 1923. The blue-eyed brunette starred on Broadway in the musicals Yours Truly and Take the Air. In 1929 she was offered a contract at Warner Brothers and made her film debut in the comedy Adam's Eve. She had small roles in Safety In Numbers and Her Wedding Night with Clara Bow.
Geneva divorced her husband and fell in love with director Lowell Sherman. The couple announced their engagement but they kept postponing the wedding. Lowell directed her in the 1933 drama Morning Glory. The following year she was signed by Columbia. Geneva costarred with the Three Stooges in several films including Restless Nights and Pop Goes The Weasel. She was heartbroken when Lowell, her longtime fiance, died suddenly in December of 1934. A few months later she married financier Harry J. Bryant. Sadly this marriage also ended in divorce. By the late 1930s her career had stalled and she was suffering from severe alcoholism. Her final film was the 1946 short Andy Plays Hookey. She stopped acting and got a job as a bookkeeper. Geneva married Daniel Sylvester Tuttle in February of 1948. Tragically on March 10, 1949 she died on from acute pancreatitis and cirrhosis of the liver caused by her alcoholism. She was only forty-one years old. Geneva was cremated and her ashes were buried at the Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.- Fritz Leiber was born on 31 January 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Bagdad (1949), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Anthony Adverse (1936). He was married to Virginia Bronson. He died on 14 October 1949 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Born in the upstate New York town of Horseheads in 1878, William Desmond began his show business career in vaudeville and on the stage. He had his own theatrical company by the time he made his film debut in Kilmeny (1915). Starting out in dramatic parts, Desmond soon switched to westerns and action serials, and became a major western star. When the sound era began Desmond was almost 50 years old, and was soon relegated to supporting roles. He continued making films into the 1940s.
- Oscar Polk was born on 25 December 1899 in Marianna, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), The Green Pastures (1936) and Reap the Wild Wind (1942). He was married to Ivy V. Polk. He died on 4 January 1949 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Richard Strauss was a German composer best known for symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) used as the music score in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by director Stanley Kubrick.
He was born Richard Georg Strauss on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Bavaria (now Germany). His father, named Franz Strauss, was the principal horn player at the Royal Opera in Munich. Young Strauss was taught music by his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of 6. From the age of 10 he studied music theory and orchestration with an assistant conductor of the Munich Court Orchestra. He was also attending orchestral rehearsals. In 1874 Strauss heard operas by Richard Wagner, but his father did not share his son's interest and forbade him to study Wagner's music until the age of 16.
Strauss studied philosophy and art history at Munich University, then at Berlin University. In 1885 he replaced Hans von Bulow as the principal conductor of the Munich Orchestra. Strauss emerged from under his father's influence when he met Alexander Ritter, a composer, and the husband of one of the nieces of Richard Wagner. He abandoned his father's conservative style and began writing symphonic tone poems. In 1894, Strauss married soprano singer Pauline Maria de Ahna. She was famous for being dominant and ill-tempered, but she was also a source of inspiration to Strauss, resulting in the preferred use of the soprano voice in his compositions.
The image of Richard Strauss and his music was abused by the Nazi propaganda machine, to a point of damaging the composer's posthumous reputation. Richard Strauss was trapped in Nazi Germany just as the Russian intellectuals were under Stalin in the Soviet regime. Strauss' name and music was used by the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who appointed Strauss, without his consent, to the State Music Bureau, as a mask on the ugly regime. Strauss was commissioned to write the Olympic Hymn for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. His cautious apolitical position was the only way to survive and to protect his daughter-in-law Alice, who was Jewish.
In 1935 Strauss was fired from his job at the State Music Bureau. He refused to remove from the playbill the name of his friend and opera librettist, the writer Stefan Zweig, who was Jewish. Later Gestapo intercepted a letter from Strauss to Zweig, where Strauss condemned the Nazis. Strauss' daughter-in-law Alice was placed under the house arrest in 1938. In 1942 Strauss managed to move his Jewish relatives to Vienna. There Alice and Strauss's son were later again arrested and imprisoned for two nights. Only Strauss' personal effort saved them. They were returned under house arrest until the end of the Second World War.
Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949, in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany at the age of 85. Strauss' symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) was recorded under the baton of Herbert von Karajan and was used as the music score in '2001: A Space Odyssey' by director Stanley Kubrik, as well as in many other films.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Buddy Clark grew up in the Westend of Boston. As a youngster, he expressed strong interests in sports, body building, exercising, and one of his big dreams was to become a professional baseball player. Buddy even had plans to become a lawyer. He attended Northeastern Law School in Boston, however his love for music was stronger than his dreams of becoming a pro baseball player or an attorney. As a young boy Buddy sang as often as he could at gatherings, and in what today's times would be called "joints", local pubs, where the floors of the local pubs and ba rooms were covered with sawdust. He often times sang just to earn enough to pay for a square meal. Neighbors and friends, who heard this young lad sing were supportive; whether he sang on the streets or in a pub, he was well liked; it wasn't long before Buddy was appearing with local Boston bands, singing his heart out to supportive loyal Boston fans. At 27 years old the young Sam Goldberg was singing at a local wedding in Boston when he was heard by David Lilienthal, a proprietor of Boston's leading furriers, I.J. Fox, located on Washington Street in Boston. Sam became a protégé of Mr. Lilienthal who arranged music lessons for him and started him off on a professional career as a band vocalist and radio star. He appeared for nine years on a Boston radio show sponsored by I.J. Fox; Sam made two evening broadcasts and sang six days a week on morning shows. Sam was now on his way to a new musical career with his own Boston radio show, with a new name, were he was billed as Buddy Clark...a name that had more of a show business flair than his own. It wasn't too long that the Buddy Clark stylish unique baritone voice was catching on to local audiences in his own home state of Massachusetts. Within a few years after his successful Boston radio show, he was now ready to tackle the "Big Apple"...New York City, where singers often went to seek their musical careers by joining the big bands.... and Buddy was no exception. In 1934 he made his big band singing debut career in earnest as a vocalist with the Benny Goodman band on the "Let's Dance" radio show. Buddy was billed on several other top radio shows including the "Hit Parade" from 1936-1939. Buddy worked hard to achieve his musical goals. He even supplemented his vocal activity by appearing, often times unaccredited, on the transcription discs recorded with such giants of the big band era as Fred Rich, Archie Blyer, Freddy Martin, Lud Gluskin, Nat Brandywynne, and other popular bands of the radio stations that couldn't afford to have a live music program of their own. In fact, Buddy Clark's renown as a "ghost singer" was such that film producer Darryl F. Zanuck hired him to do the singing for actor Jack Haley in "Wake Up and Live", a 1937 movie about a popular radio singer who gets "Mike Fright". The Hollywood welcome mat was now laid down for Buddy. He was offered his own radio show called, "Here's to Romance" and he even played a small cameo role in the 1942 film "Seven Days Leave' which starred two of Hollywood's leading stars, Lucille Ball and Victor Mature. He also sang for actor Mark Stevens in the musical hit "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now". Buddy made scores of hit records many of them with Xavier Cugat's orchestra. The balding Clark who didn't care whether he lost his hair or not earned the title of the "Contented Crooner", partly because of his radio sponsor on the "Carnation Contented" program, and also because of his appeal to the bobby-sox fans. He didn't care if his fans swooned when he sang. Although fame and fortune came to Buddy Clark, in the 30's and 40's he was one who never forgot where he came from as a struggling singer of Boston. Every year he would return back to the Westend of Boston and perform for friends, and fans alike. Jdacob Burnes at the time was an official of the Westend House on Blossom Street in Boston, where Clark was an alumnus of the famous Westend House. Burnes recalled, "The young singer was a good looking boy, an excellent debater and a fine athlete. He was the catcher on the Wesend House baseball team and was on the basketball team." Buddy Clark put his career on hold by enlisting into the U.S. Army for three years during World War II. While serving his country, Buddy sand with many of the military bands until his discharge in 1945, in which he resumed his career. For the last ten years of his singing career as a super star in radio and a top ranking celebrity of the juke boxes, he had lived in an aura of success while earning over a $100,000 a year, which in those days would be equivalent to millions of dollars to popular singers of the 1990's and now of the 2000's. Buddy married twice. His first wife was Louise Dahl, the adopted daughter of famed hotelier, Ralph Hitz, who owned the famous New Yorker Hotel, as well as the Lexington, and several other New York hotels. Buddy and Louise had three children, all born between 1935 and 1939. Following their divorce, Buddy married Nedra Stevens. They had one daughter, Penelope, born in 1943. Penny, as she was called, died in 1950, as a result of being hit by a car as she ran across the street to meet her governess. Penny was a 'little friend' of Clark Gable, the Clark's next-door neighbor, who often shared 'little tea' with his young neighbor.
Buddy's career ended abruptly in the plane crash onto Beverly Boulevard on the 1st of October 1949.- Actress
British actress Jean Gillie met husband Jack Bernhard while he was stationed in Britain during the war. When they came to Hollywood, he produced and directed Decoy in May 1946 as a vehicle to showcase her talents to American audiences, while Gillie was simultaneously at work in The Macomber Affair (April-June 1946). However, the couple divorced the following year, and she returned to England, never again to appear in front of the motion picture cameras; she died three years later at the age of 33, allegedly as the result of pneumonia.- Handsome actor William Wright's mid-film 1940s career was pushed with a wave of Columbia Studio publicity promoting him as World War II's answer to Clark Gable. The push ultimately did not work and Wright's rather obscure career faded within a decade.
The Utah-born actor moved to California after his schooling and studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. His film debut came about with the small role of a pilot in China Clipper (1936). Groomed in uncredited and featured roles for both large (Paramount) and small (Monogram) studios, his more visible work in Rookies on Parade (1941), World Premiere (1941), The Devil Pays Off (1941) and Glamour Boy (1941) eventually led to a Columbia contract in 1942.
The handsome, dapper, mustachioed Wright proved reliable and lent a smooth air to his "B" series mixed bag of heroes and villains. Throughout the war-era he supported in such Columbia films as Not a Ladies' Man (1942), Night in New Orleans (1942), Sweetheart of the Fleet (1942) and Lucky Legs (1942) before earning his first co-star role opposite Marguerite Chapman in Parachute Nurse (1942) and A Man's World (1942).
Wright continued reliably in a variety of parts. He was a major suspect in the two of the "Boston Blackie" series entitled Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942) and One Mysterious Night (1944), and romanced Ann Miller in Reveille with Beverly (1943) and, despite she overshadowed him with her dance routines, reteamed with her again in both Eadie Was a Lady (1945) and Eve Knew Her Apples (1945). He also was fourth billed as a detective in Murder in Times Square (1943) which reunited him with Marguerite Chapman, played a slick-haired villain in the western Saddles and Sagebrush (1943) with Ann Savage and played alongside her again in Dancing in Manhattan (1944). Appearing in Escape in the Fog (1945) opposite Nina Foch, he pursued Martha O'Driscoll in the western Down Missouri Way (1946).
Wright's leading man status would wane in the late 1940s with secondary roles for "Poverty Row" studios in Lover Come Back (1946) and The Beginning or the End (1947). What didn't help was a chronic problem with alcohol. Wright did manage to play the lead supersleuth Philo Vance in the cheapjack production of Philo Vance Returns (1947), however, and co-starred in such cheapies as King of the Gamblers (1948)) and Rose of the Yukon (1949). His last release was for Columbia playing a second lead alongside Marjorie Lord in Air Hostess (1949).
Whether Wright could have progressed into unctuous character roles would never be known as he died of cancer at age 38. Although performing right up until the end, his death was generally overlooked. - Actor
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Johnnie Walker was born on January 7, 1894 in New York City, New York. At the age of 20 he began singing and dancing in vaudeville. He starred in Edison films and then went to Fox where he was billed as a star. Johnnie's greatest movies were Over the Hill (1920) in which he played the black sheep son who saved his mother from the poorhouse and Old Ironsides in which he played Lt. Steven Decatur. He is also known for The Matinee Idol which had great success when it was "revived" in 1996. Johnnie was dapper and often touted as the best dressed man in Hollywood. He was married to Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty, Maude Wayne and Broadway actress, Rena Parker. He died on December 5, 1949 in New York City.- Actor
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- Writer
Neal Hart was born on 7 April 1879 in Staten Island, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Butterfly Range (1922), Lure of Gold (1922) and South of Northern Lights (1922). He was married to Lula Gertrude Pielstick. He died on 2 April 1949 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.