Remembering Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd (July 29, 1906) was an American actress. Appearing in about 120 pictures between 1926 and 1935.

Birth Name: Thelma Alice Todd
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Nickname: Hot Toddy
Height: 5' 4"

During the silent film era, Todd appeared in numerous supporting roles that made full use of her beauty but gave her little chance to act. With the advent of the talkies, Todd was given opportunity to expand her roles when producer Hal Roach signed her to appear with such comedy stars as Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy. In 1931

she was given her own series, teaming with ZaSu Pitts for slapstick comedies. This was Roach's attempt to create a female version of Laurel and Hardy. When Pitts left Roach in 1933, she was replaced by Patsy Kelly. The Todd shorts often cast her as a working girl having all sorts of problems, and trying her best to remain poised and charming despite the embarrassing antics of her sidekick.

Todd became highly regarded as a capable film comedian, and Roach loaned her out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers. She also appeared successfully in such dramas as the original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, in which she played Miles Archer's treacherous widow.

During her career she appeared in 119 films although many of these were short films, and was sometimes publicized as "The Ice Cream Blonde". In August 1934, she opened a successful cafe at Pacific Palisades, called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe, attracting a diverse clientele of Hollywood celebrities as well as many tourists.

Todd continued her short-subject series through 1935, and was featured in the full-length Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bohemian Girl. This was her last film; she died after completing all of her scenes, but most of them were re-shot. Producer Roach deleted all of Todd's dialogue and limited her appearance to one musical number.

On the morning of December 16, 1935, Thelma Todd was found dead in her car inside the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress and former wife of Todd's lover and business partner, Roland West. Subsequently a grand jury probe was held to determine whether Todd's death was a murder. The case was closed by the Homicide Bureau, which listed the death as "accidental with possible suicide tendencies."

Remembering Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler (born December 15, 1918) was an American actor, film producer and singer best remembered for playing Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950), for which he was Oscar nominated.

Birth Name: Ira Grossel
Hair: Black (premature gray)
Eyes: Green
Nickname: Big Gray
Height: 6' 4"
Quote: "Today, for a man to be a hit on the screen, he has to take his shirt off."

After being discharged from the Army, Chandler moved to Los Angeles in December 1945 with $3,000 he had saved. Chandler had appeared on air in Rogue's Gallery with Dick Powell, who was impressed by the actor and put pressure on Columbia to give Chandler his first film role, a one-line part as a gangster in Johnny O'Clock (1947). He received more attention playing Eve Arden's boyfriend on radio in Our Miss Brooks, which debuted in July 1948 and became a massive hit.

Chandler's performance in Our Miss Brooks brought him to the attention of executives at Universal, who were looking for someone to play an Israeli leader in Sword in the Desert (1948). He was cast in February 1949.[16] Chandler impressed studio executives so much with his work that shortly into filming Universal signed him to a seven-year contract. His first movie under the arrangement was a supporting role in Abandoned (1949).

Writer-director Delmer Daves was looking for an actor to play Cochise in a Western, Broken Arrow (1950), over at 20th Century Fox. The part was proving tricky to cast; in Chandler's words, "Fox were looking for a guy big enough physically to play the role and unfamiliar enough to moviegoers to lend authenticity." Chandler's performance as a similar resistance-leader-type in Sword of the Desert brought him to the studio's attention and he was borrowed from Universal for the role in May 1949.As part of the arrangement Chandler signed a deal with Fox to make a movie a year with them for six years.

Broken Arrow turned out to be a considerable hit, earning Chandler an Oscar nomination and establishing him as a star. He was the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for portraying an American Indian.

In 1952 exhibitors voted Chandler the 22nd most popular star in the US.

While working on Merrill's Marauders in the Philippines, on April 15, 1961, Chandler injured his back while playing baseball with U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers who served as extras in the film. He had injections to deaden the pain and enable him to finish the production.

On May 13, 1961, he entered a Culver City hospital and had surgery for a spinal disc herniation. There were severe complications when an artery was damaged and Chandler hemorrhaged. He died on June 17, 1961 at age 42.

Remembering Patty Duke

Patty Duke (born December 14, 1946) was an American actress of stage, film, and television.

Birth Name: Anna Marie Duke
Hair: Light Brown
Eyes: Blue
Nickname: Patty
Height: 5'
Quote: "Actors take risks all the time. We put ourselves on the line. It is creative to be able to interpret someone's words and breathe life into them."

She first became known as a teen star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16 for her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962), a role which she had originated on Broadway. The following year she was given her own show, The Patty Duke Show, in which she played "identical cousins".

She later progressed to more mature roles such as that of Neely O'Hara in the film Valley of the Dolls (1967).

 Over the course of her career, she received ten Emmy Award nominations and three Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Duke also served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1985 to 1988.

Duke was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982, after which she devoted much of her time to advocating for and educating the public on mental health issues.

Duke died on the morning of March 29, 2016  of sepsis from a ruptured intestine at the age of 69.

Recommended Films:

The Miracle Worker (1962)
The Daydreamer (1966)
Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Celebrating Dick Van Dyke

Dick Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, comedian, writer, singer, dancer, and producer whose career in entertainment has spanned almost seven decades.

Birth Name: Richard Wayne Van Dyke
Hair: Light Brown
Eyes: Blue
Nickname: "Dick"
Height: 6' 1"
Quote: "I've retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit."

Van Dyke starred in the films Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Mary Poppins (1964), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and in the TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis: Murder.

Beginning in 2006, he was introduced to a new generation through his role as Cecil Fredericks in the popular Night at the Museum film series.

Recipient of five Emmys, a Tony and a Grammy, Van Dyke was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the Screen Actors Guild's highest honor, the SAG Life Achievement Award, in 2013.

Van Dyke has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard and has also been recognized as a Disney Legend.

He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke and father of Barry Van Dyke.

Remembering Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra (born December 12, 1915) was an American singer, actor, and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.

Birth Name: Francis Albert Sinatra
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Nickname: "Ol' Blue Eyes"
Height: 5' 7"
Quote: "A friend is never an imposition"

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra found success as a solo artist after he signed with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "bobby soxers". He released his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946. Sinatra's professional career had stalled by the early 1950s, and he turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best known performers as part of the Rat Pack. His career was reborn in 1953 with the success of From Here to Eternity and his subsequent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sinatra released several critically lauded albums, including In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Songs for Swingin' Lovers! (1956), Come Fly with Me (1958), Only the Lonely (1958) and Nice 'n' Easy (1960).

Sinatra forged a highly successful career as a film actor. After winning an Academy Award for From Here to Eternity, he starred in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), and received critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). He appeared in various musicals such as On the Town (1949), Guys and Dolls (1955), High Society (1956), and Pal Joey (1957), and toward the end of his career he became associated with playing detectives, including the title character in Tony Rome (1967). On television, The Frank Sinatra Show began on ABC in 1950, and he continued to make appearances on television throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

Sinatra left Capitol in 1960 to start his own record label, Reprise Records, and released a string of successful albums. In 1965 he recorded the retrospective September of My Years, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way". After releasing Sinatra at the Sands, recorded at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Vegas with frequent collaborator Count Basie in early 1966, the following year he recorded one of his most famous collaborations with Tom Jobim, the album Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim. It was followed by 1968's collaboration with Duke Ellington. Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971, but came out of retirement two years later and recorded several albums and resumed performing at Caesars Palace. In 1980 he scored a Top 40 hit with "New York, New York". Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally until a short time before his death on May 14, 1998, aged 82, after a heart attack..

Remembering Marie Windsor

Marie Windsor (born December 11, 1919)  was an actress known as "The Queen of the Bs" because she appeared in so many B-movies and film noirs.

Birth Name: Emily Marie Bertelsen
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 9"
Quote: "I had to do a tango with George Raft and I learned to dance in ballet shoes with my knees bent."

In 1940, after moving to Hollywood, and entering Maria Ouspenskaya's drama school, she appeared in the play Forty Thousand Smiths, her first use of the stage name Marie Windsor. The next year she appeared in Once in a Lifetime at the Pasadena Playhouse. She also was seen as a villainess in a New York production of Follow the Girls.

After working for several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, Windsor began playing feature parts on the big screen in 1947. Her first film contract, with Warner Bros. in 1942, resulted from her writing jokes and submitting them to Jack Benny. Windsor said she submitted the gags under the name M.E. Windsor "because I was afraid he might be prejudiced against a woman gag writer." When Benny finally met Windsor, "he was stunned by her good looks" and had a producer sign her to a contract.  After a tenure with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in which the studio "signed her, put her in two small roles and then promptly forgot her", she signed a seven-year contract with The Enterprise Studios in 1948.

The 5'9" actress's first memorable role was in 1948 opposite John Garfield in Force of Evil playing seductress Edna Tucker. She had roles in numerous 1950s film noirs, notably The Sniper, The Narrow Margin, City That Never Sleeps, and Stanley Kubrick's heist movie, The Killing, in which she played Elisha Cook Jr.'s scheming wife. She also made a foray into science fiction with the 1953 release of Cat-Women of the Moon.  Windsor co-starred with Randolph Scott in The Bounty Hunter (1954).

Later, Windsor moved to television. She appeared in 1954 as Belle Starr in the premiere episode of Stories of the Century. In 1962, she played "Ann Jesse", a woman dying in childbirth, in the episode "The Wanted Man" of Lawman. She appeared on such programs as Maverick, Bat Masterson, Perry Mason, Bourbon Street Beat, The Incredible Hulk, Rawhide, General Hospital, Salem's Lot (TV miniseries), and Murder, She Wrote.

Windsor worked consistently through the '60s and '70s, and remained on screen once or so annually clear up to the 1990s, playing her final role at 72 in 1991.

Windsor died of congestive heart failure on December 10, 2000......one day before her 81st birthday.

Remembering Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson (born  December 12, 1893) was a Romanian-born American actor. He is ranked #24 in the American Film Institute's list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classic American cinema.

Birth Name: Emanuel Goldenberg
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 7"
Nickname: "Eddie"
Quote: "To my mind, the actor has this great responsibility of playing another human being . . . it's like taking on another person's life and you have to do it as sincerely and honestly as you can.."

A popular star on stage and screen during Hollywood's Golden Age, he appeared in 40 Broadway plays and more than 100 films during a 50-year career. He is best remembered for his tough-guy roles as a gangster, such as his star-making film Little Caesar and Key Largo.

During the 1930s and 1940s, he was an outspoken public critic of fascism and Nazism which was then growing in Europe. His activism included contributing over $250,000 to more than 850 organizations involved in war relief, along with cultural, educational and religious groups. During the 1950s, he was called to testify at the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare, but was cleared of any Communist involvement.

Robinson's character portrayals have covered a wide range, with such roles as an insurance investigator in the film noir Double Indemnity, Dathan (adversary of Moses) in The Ten Commandments, and his final performance in the science-fiction story Soylent Green.

Robinson received an Honorary Academy Award for his work in the film industry, which was posthumously awarded two months after his death on January 26, 1973 of bladder cancer at age 79.