Remembering Virginia Mayo

Virginia Mayo (born November 30, 1920) was an American actress and dancer.

Birth Name: Virginia Clara Jones
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Green
Height: 5' 5"
Nickname: "Ginny"
Quote: "Working with comedians like [Bob Hope] and [Danny Kaye] taught me timing, pace and fine points of acting I never would have learned otherwise."

One of her first films was the 1943 hit Jack London, which starred her future husband Michael O'Shea. Other roles soon followed as she became a popular actress who personified the dream girl or girl-next-door image in a series of films. Her first starring role came in 1944 opposite comedian Bob Hope in The Princess and the Pirate. Remaining in the comedy genre, Mayo had several popular on-screen pairings with dancer-actor Danny Kaye, including Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947).

Going against previous stereotype, Mayo accepted the supporting role of unsympathetic gold-digger Marie Derry in William Wyler's drama The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Her performance drew favorable reviews from critics, as the film also became the highest-grossing film inside the US since Gone with the Wind. At the zenith of her career, Mayo was seen as the quintessential voluptuous Hollywood beauty.

She would continue a series of dramatic performances in the late 1940s in films such as Smart Girls Don't Talk (1948). Virginia Mayo was a constant fixture in the movie theaters in 1949 as she co-starred in many movies all released that year. Among them were Flaxy Martin, opposite Joel McCrea in the western Colorado Territory, co-starred with future United States President Ronald Reagan in The Girl from Jones Beach, and with comedian Milton Berle in Always Leave Them Laughing. Mixing drama with comedy roles all year, Mayo received rave reviews for her performance alongside James Cagney and Edmond O'Brien in 1949's White Heat and received equally impressive reviews for co-starring with George Raft in Roy Del Ruth's Red Light that same year.

At the beginning of the 1950s, Mayo scored success with the adventure film The Flame and the Arrow (1950) with Burt Lancaster. She co-starred again with James Cagney and a young Doris Day in The West Point Story (1950), singing and dancing with Cagney, and appeared in the all-star cast of Starlift (1951). She starred opposite Dennis Morgan in David Butler's Technicolor musical, Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951) which was a moderate success.

During the rest of the 1950s, Mayo continued to appear in films with varying genres. In 1953, she appeared in the comedy-drama-action film South Sea Woman with Burt Lancaster and Chuck Connors. She played Helena in Victor Saville's The Silver Chalice (1954) opposite Pier Angeli and Paul Newman in his film debut. Mayo co-starred with Rex Harrison and George Sanders in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954). Mayo played Cleopatra in the 1957 fantasy film The Story of Mankind with Vincent Price, Hedy Lamarr, Cesar Romero, Agnes Moorehead, and the Marx Brothers. Her last film of the decade was 1959's Jet Over the Atlantic with Guy Madison and George Raft.

By the 1960s, Mayo's film career had tapered off considerably, although she continued to appear in films throughout the next several decades, with one of her last prominent roles being in Fort Utah (1967) with John Ireland. She was also one of the several stars to make a cameo appearance in the all-star box office bomb Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). Her final film appearance was in the 1997 film The Man Next Door.

Mayo died of pneumonia and complications of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles on January 17, 2005, aged 84.

Remembering Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood (born July 20, 1938) was an American film and television actress of Russian origin parents. She was known for her screen roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers, and West Side Story. She first worked in films as a child, then became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25-years-old.

Birth Name: Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'
Nickname: "Natasha"
Quote: "You get tough in this business, until you get big enough to hire people to get tough for you. Then you can sit back and be a lady."

Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and, at age eight, was given a co-starring role with Maureen O'Hara in the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street.

 As a teenager, her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). Her career continued with films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).

After this, she took a break from acting and had two children with different husbands, appearing in only three theatrical films during the 1970s. She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson. She had one daughter with Gregson, actress Natasha Gregson Wagner. Wood gave birth to Courtney Wagner during her second marriage to Wagner.

Wood starred in several television productions, including a remake of the film From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award. During her career, her films represented a "coming of age" for both her and Hollywood films in general.

During the making of the film Brainstorm, Wood drowned on November 29, 1981, while on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island on board the Splendour. She was 43 years old. 

Remembering Gloria Grahame

Gloria Grahame (born November 28, 1923) was an American stage, film and television actress.

Birth Name: Gloria Grahame Hallward
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 5' 5"
Nickname: "The Woman You Love to Hate"
Quote: "It wasn't the way I looked at a man, it was the thought behind it."

Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios. Often cast in film noir projects, Grahame received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947), and she won this award for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). She achieved her highest profile with Sudden Fear (1952), Human Desire (1953), The Big Heat (1953), and Oklahoma! (1955), but her film career began to wane soon afterwards.

She returned to work on the stage, but continued to appear in films and television productions, usually in supporting roles. In 1974, Grahame was diagnosed with breast cancer. It went into remission less than a year later and Grahame returned to work. In 1980, the cancer returned but Grahame refused to accept the diagnosis or seek treatment. Choosing instead to continue working, she travelled to England to appear in a play. Her health, however, declined rapidly and she developed peritonitis after undergoing a procedure to remove fluid from her abdomen in September, 1981. She returned to New York City where she died on October 5, 1981 at the age of 57.

Remembering Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee (born November 27, 1940),  was a Hong Kong and American actor, martial artist, philosopher, filmmaker, and founder of the martial art Jeet Kune Do. He is widely considered by commentators, critics, media, and other martial artists to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time. He is often credited with helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films.

Birth Name: Lee Jun-fan
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Height: 5' 7"
Nickname: "Little Phoenix"
Quote: "The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering."

Lee was born in Chinatown, San Francisco to parents from Hong Kong and was raised in Kowloon, Hong Kong with his family until his late teens. He was introduced to the film industry by his father and appeared in several films as a child actor. Lee moved to the United States at the age of 18 to receive his higher education, at the University of Washington, at Seattle and it was during this time that he began teaching martial arts.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, sparking a surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films influenced martial arts and martial arts films in the US, Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Golden Harvest's Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Golden Harvest and Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse.

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films.n He trained in the art of Wing Chun and later combined his other influences from various sources, in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

He died of an allergic reaction to headache medicine in Kowloon Tong on July 20, 1973 at the age of 32.

Remembering Robert Goulet

Robert Goulet (born November 26, 1933) was an American singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry.

Birth Name: Robert Gerard Goulet
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6'
Nickname: "Mr. Camelot"
Quote: "No one should take himself that seriously."

Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Cast as Sir Lancelot and originating the role in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot starring opposite established Broadway stars Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, he achieved instant recognition with his performance and interpretation of the song "If Ever I Would Leave You", which became his signature song. His debut in Camelot marked the beginning of an award-winning stage, screen, and recording career .

Goulet's first film performance was released in 1962: the UPA (United Productions of America) animated musical feature Gay Purr-ee, in which he provided the voice of the male lead character, 'Jaune Tom', opposite the female lead character, 'Mewsette', voiced by Judy Garland. His first non-singing role was in Honeymoon Hotel (1964), but it was not until a cameo appearance as a singer in Louis Malle's film, Atlantic City (1980) that Goulet was given critical acclaim.

In 1988, he was cast by Tim Burton as a houseguest blown through the roof by Beetlejuice and also played himself in Bill Murray's Scrooged (both 1988).

In 1991, he appeared as Quentin Hapsburg, opposite Leslie Nielsen, in the comedy film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear. This followed a cameo in the 1982 TV series Police Squad!. In the episode "The Butler Did It (A Bird in the Hand)", as "Special Guest Star", he died by firing squad during the opening credits.

Goulet continued to perform on stage and television until October 30, 2007, when he passed away from pulmonary fibrosis, less than a month short of his 74th birthday.

His vocal performances have involved every medium of the entertainment world. A Grammy, Tony, and an Emmy award winner, his career spanned almost six decades. It is for these achievements that Robert Goulet is considered to be one of the greatest baritones of all time and one of the most prominent musical stars of the second half of the 20th century.

Remembering Ricardo Montalban

Ricardo Montalbán (born  November 25, 1920), was a Mexican actor. whose career spanned seven decades.

Birth Name: Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6'
Nickname: "The Latin Lover"
Quote: "Through the fantasies, you learn to appreciate your own realities."

Though his first leading role was in the film noir Border Incident (1949) with actor George Murphy, many of his early roles were in Westerns in which he played character roles, usually as Native Americans or as Latin Lovers. He was cast against type in the film noir Mystery Street (1950), playing a Cape Cod police officer.

During the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of only a handful of actively working Hispanic actors in Hollywood, although he portrayed several ethnicities – occasionally of Japanese background, as in with the character of Nakamura in the film Sayonara (1957), and as Tokura in the Hawaii Five-O episode "Samurai" (1968). In the romance comedy Love Is a Ball (1963), he played a naive, penniless French duke being groomed as a potential husband for a rich American woman.

 In 1975, he was chosen as the television spokesman for the new Chrysler Cordoba. The car became a successful model, and over the following several years, was heavily advertised; his mellifluous delivery of a line praising the "soft Corinthian leather" upholstery of the car's interior, often misquoted as "fine" or "rich Corinthian leather" , became famous and was much parodied, and Montalbán subsequently became a favorite subject of impersonators.

Montalbán's best-known television role was that of Mr. Roarke on the television series Fantasy Island, which he played from 1977 until 1984. For a while, the series was one of the most popular on television, and his character as well as that of his sidekick, Tattoo (played by Hervé Villechaize), became popular icons.

Another of his well-known roles was that of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), in which he reprised a role that he had originated in the 1967 episode of Star Trek titled "Space Seed". Early rumors suggested Montalbán wore prosthetic muscles on his chest during filming of Star Trek II to appear more muscular. Director Nicholas Meyer replied that even in his sixties Montalbán, who had a vigorous training regimen, was "one strong cookie", and that his real chest was seen on film. Khan's costume was specifically designed to display Montalbán's physique. Critic Christopher Null called Khan the "greatest role of Montalbán's career".

Montalbán appeared in many diverse films including The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) as well as two films from both the Planet of the Apes and Spy Kids series.

On January 14, 2009, Montalbán died at his home in Los Angeles at age 88 of congestive heart failure.

Remembering Pat Morita

Pat Morita (born June 28, 1932 ) was an American film and television actor.

Birth Name: Noriyuki "Pat" Morita
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black/Dark Brown
Height: 5' 3"
Nickname: "Nori"
Quote: "It's been a career filled with very low valleys and some wonderful, high peaks."

He was well known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Kesuke Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1985. He's also known for portraying the Emperor of China in the Disney animated film Mulan and Ah Chew in Sanford and Son.

Morita was the series lead actor in the television program Mr. T and Tina, regarded as the first American sitcom centered on a person of Asian descent, and Ohara, a police-themed drama. Both made history for being some of the few TV shows to this day with an Asian American series lead. Both television shows were aired on ABC, but they were both short-lived.

Morita died on November 24, 2005, at his home in Las Vegas of kidney failure at the age of 73.

Remembering Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff (born 23 November 1887), was an English actor best known for his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster, and for "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" (1966).

Birth Name: William Henry Pratt
Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Height: 5' 11"
Nickname: "The Uncanny"
Quote: "My dear old monster. I owe everything to him. He's my best friend."

In Canada he began appearing in theatrical performances, and during this period he adopted the professional name of "Boris Karloff".  Karloff always claimed he chose the first name "Boris" because it sounded foreign and exotic, and that "Karloff" was a family name. One reason for the name change was to prevent embarrassment to his family.

Once Karloff arrived in Hollywood, he made dozens of silent films, but work was sporadic, and he often had to take up manual labour such as digging ditches or delivering construction plaster to earn a living. A key film which brought Karloff recognition was The Criminal Code (1931), a prison drama in which he reprised a dramatic part he had played on stage. Another significant role in the autumn of 1931 saw Karloff play a key supporting part as an unethical newspaper reporter in Five Star Final, a film about tabloid journalism which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

His role as Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931) made Karloff a star. The bulky costume with four inch platform boots made it an arduous role. The costume was a job in itself for Karloff with the shoes weighing 11 pounds each.  A year later, Karloff played another iconic character, Imhotep in The Mummy. The Old Dark House (with Charles Laughton) and the starring role in The Mask of Fu Manchu quickly followed. These films all confirmed Karloff's new-found stardom.

In later years, he hosted and acted in a number of television series, most notably Thriller, Out Of This World, and The Veil, but the last of these was never actually broadcast, and only came to light in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Karloff appeared in several films for American International Pictures, including The Comedy of Terrors, The Raven, and The Terror, the latter two directed by Roger Corman, and Die, Monster, Die! He also starred in Michael Reeves's second feature film, The Sorcerers, in 1966.

In the mid-1960s, he gained a late-career surge of American popularity when he narrated the made-for-television animated film of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and also provided the voice of the Grinch, although the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" was sung by the American voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft. The film was first broadcast on CBS-TV in 1966. Karloff later received a Grammy Award for "Best Recording For Children" after the story was released as a record.

His retirement was spent in England at his country cottage named Roundabout in the Hampshire village of Bramshott. He contracted bronchitis in 1968 and was hospitalized at University College Hospital.  He died of pneumonia at the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, in Sussex, on 2 February 1969 at the age of 81.

Remembering Rodney Dangerfield

Rodney Dangerfield (born  November 22, 1921) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter and comedian known for the catchphrase "I don't get no respect!"

Birth Name: Jacob Cohen
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 10"
Nickname: "Jack"
"My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met.."

Though his acting career had begun much earlier in obscure movies like The Projectionist (1971), Dangerfield's career peaked during the early 1980s, when he began acting in hit comedy movies.

One of Dangerfield's more memorable performances was in the 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack, in which he played a nouveau riche developer who was a guest at a golf club and began shaking up the establishment of the club's old guard. His role was initially smaller, but because he and fellow cast members Chevy Chase and Bill Murray were so deft at improvisation, their roles were greatly expanded (much to the chagrin of some of their castmates). His appearance in Caddyshack led to starring roles in Easy Money and Back To School.

In a change of pace from the comedy persona that made him famous, he played an abusive father in Natural Born Killers in a scene for which he wrote or rewrote all of his own lines.

Dangerfield was rejected for membership in the Motion Picture Academy in 1995 by the head of the Academy's Actors Section, Roddy McDowall. After fan protests the Academy reconsidered, but Dangerfield then refused to accept membership.

Dangerfield also appeared in the 2000 Adam Sandler film Little Nicky, playing Lucifer, the father of Satan (Harvey Keitel) and grandfather of Nicky (Sandler).

Dangerfield played an important role in comedian Jim Carrey's rise to stardom. In the 1980s, after watching Carrey perform at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, Rodney signed Carrey to open for his Las Vegas show. The two would tour together for about two more years.

 Rodney Dangerfield died on October 5, 2004–a month and a half shy of his 83rd birthday

Celebrating Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn (born November 21, 1945) is an American actress, director, producer, and occasional singer.

Birth Name: Goldie Jeanne Hawn
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 6"
Nickname: "Go-Go"
Quote: "I have a light personality and a deep-thinking brain. Those are two very different things."

She rose to fame on television's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–70). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1969 film, Cactus Flower, maintaining bankable star status for more than three decades thereafter.

Hawn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the title role in the 1980 film Private Benjamin. Other films include: There's a Girl in My Soup (1970), Butterflies Are Free (1972), The Sugarland Express (1974), Shampoo (1975), Foul Play (1978), Seems Like Old Times (1980), Best Friends (1982), Overboard (1987), Bird on a Wire (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992), Housesitter (1992), The First Wives Club (1996), and The Banger Sisters (2002).

She is the mother of actors Oliver Hudson, Kate Hudson and Wyatt Russell, and has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1983.

Remembering Judy Canova

Judy Canova (born November 20, 1913) was an American comedian, actress, singer, and radio personality.

Birth Name: Juliette Canova
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 3"
Nickname: "Queen of Corn"
Quote: "Sure, they (her films) were fairy tales that had a little upbeat lesson. I started out as a plain Jane, an ugly duckling, and ended up as a beautiful girl decked out in fancy dresses."

When bandleader Rudy Vallée offered the still-teenaged Canova a guest spot on his radio show in 1931, The Fleischmann Hour, the door opened to a career that spanned more than five decades. The popularity of the Canova family led to numerous performances on radio in the 1930s, and they made their Broadway theater debut in the revue Calling All Stars.

An offer from Warner Bros. led to several bit parts before she signed with Republic Pictures. She recorded for the RCA Victor label and appeared in more than two dozen Hollywood films, playing leading roles as well as supporting parts, including Scatterbrain (1940), Joan of Ozark (1942), and Lay That Rifle Down (1955).

In 1943, she began her own radio program, The Judy Canova Show, that ran for twelve years—first on CBS and then on NBC. Playing herself as a love-starved Ozark bumpkin dividing her time between home and Southern California, Canova was accompanied by a cast that included voicemaster Mel Blanc as Pedro.

By the time her radio program ended in 1955, Canova made a smooth transition to television with appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Steve Allen Show, Matinee Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Danny Thomas Show, The Love Boat, and other shows.

Judy Canova died from cancer on August 5, 1983 at age 69.

Remembering Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb (born November 19, 1889)  was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura (1944), amd The Razor's Edge (1946).

Birth Name: Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 10"
Quote: "In my case self-absortion is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention."

Webb was in his mid-fifties when actor/director Otto Preminger chose him to play the elegant but evil radio columnist Waldo Lydecker, who is obsessed with Gene Tierney's character in the 1944 film noir Laura. His performance won him wide acclaim, and Webb was signed to a long-term contract with Twentieth Century Fox. Two years later he was reunited with Tierney in another highly praised role as the elitist Elliott Templeton in The Razor's Edge (1946). He received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for both.

Webb also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1949 for Sitting Pretty, the first in a three-film series of comedic Mr. Belvedere features with Webb portraying a snide and omniscient babysitter.

In the 1950 film Cheaper by the Dozen, Webb and Myrna Loy played Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, real-life efficiency experts of the 1910s and 1920s, and the parents of 12 children. The film's success led to a sequel, Belles on Their Toes, with Webb appearing only in a cameo flashback as the movie covers the family's life after the death of the father.

Webb's subsequent film roles include that of college professor Thornton Sayre, who in his younger days was known as silent film idol Bruce "Dreamboat" Blair. Now a distinguished academic who wants no part of his past fame, he sets out to stop the showing of his old films on television in 1952's Dreamboat which concludes with Webb's alter ego Sayre watching himself star in Sitting Pretty.

Also in 1952 he starred in the Technicolor film biography of bandmaster John Philip Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever. In 1953, he had his most dramatic role as the doomed but brave husband of unfaithful Barbara Stanwyck in Titanic and in 1954 played the (fictional) novelist John Frederick Shadwell in Three Coins in the Fountain.

The 1956 British film The Man Who Never Was saw him playing the part of Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu in the true story of Operation Mincemeat, the elaborate plan to trick the Axis powers about the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War II. In 1957's Boy on a Dolphin, second-billed to Alan Ladd, with third-billed Sophia Loren, he portrayed a wealthy sophisticate who enjoyed collecting illegally obtained Greek antiquities. In a nod to his own identity, the character's name was Victor Parmalee.

Webb's final film role was an initially sarcastic, but ultimately self-sacrificing Catholic priest in Leo McCarey's Satan Never Sleeps.

Because of health problems, Webb spent the last five years of his life as a recluse at his home in Beverly Hills, California, eventually succumbing to a heart attack on October 13, 1966, at the age of 76.

Remembering James Coburn

James Coburn (born August 31, 1928) was an American actor.

Birth Name: James Harrison Coburn III
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue/Grey
Height: 6' 2"
Quote: "Actors are boring when they are not working."

He was featured in more than 70 films, largely in action roles, and made 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, ultimately winning an Academy Award in 1997 for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.

A capable, rough-hewn leading man, his toothy grin and lanky body made him a perfect tough guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in westerns and action films, such as The Magnificent Seven, Hell Is for Heroes, The Great Escape, Charade, Our Man Flint, In Like Flint, Duck, You Sucker!, and Cross of Iron. Coburn also provided the voice of Henry Waternoose in the Pixar film Monsters, Inc.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s Coburn cultivated an image synonymous with "cool", and along with such contemporaries as Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson became one of the prominent "tough-guy" actors of his day.

Coburn died of a heart attack on November 18, 2002 while listening to music at his Beverly Hills home.

Remembering Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson (born November 17, 1925) was an American actor.

Birth Name: Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6' 5"
Nickname: "Rock Pyle"
Quote: "Hollywood is seldom what it seems."

Hudson is generally known for his turns as a leading man in the 1950s and 1960s and is viewed as a prominent actor and 'heartthrob' of the Hollywood Golden Age.

He achieved stardom with roles in films such as Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Giant (1956), and found continued success with a string of romantic comedies co-starring Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964).

After appearing in films like Seconds (1966), Tobruk (1967) and Ice Station Zebra (1968) in the late 1960s, Hudson began a second career in television through the 1970s and 1980s, starring in the popular mystery series McMillan & Wife and the soap opera Dynasty.

Hudson was voted Star of the Year, Favorite Leading Man, and similar titles by numerous film magazines. He completed nearly 70 films and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned more than four decades.

Hudson died from AIDS-related complications in October 2, 1985, becoming the first major celebrity to die from an AIDS-related illness.

Remembering Burgess Meredith

Burgess Meredith (born November 16, 1907) was an American actor, director, producer, and writer in theater, film, and television.

Birth Name: Oliver Burgess Meredith
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 5"
Nickname: "Buzz"
Quote: "I was born a character actor. I was never really a leading man type."

Active for more than six decades,Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the century". A life member of the Actors Studio[ by invitation, he won several Emmys, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Meredith was known later in his career for his appearances on The Twilight Zone, portraying arch-villain The Penguin on the 1960s TV series Batman, and boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky film series. "Although those performances renewed his popularity," observed Mel Gussow in The New York Times, "they represented only a small part of a richly varied career in which he played many of the more demanding roles in classical and contemporary theater—in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett and others.

Meredith died on September 9,1997 from death Melanoma and Alzheimer's disease.

Celebrating Ed Asner

Ed  Asner (born November 15, 1929) is an American actor, voice actor and a former president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Birth Name: Yitzhak Edward  Asner
Hair: Dark Brown/ Black
Eyes: Hazel
Height: 5' 7"
Nickname: "Eddie"
Quote: "Raising kids is part joy and part guerrilla warfare."

Asner is best known for his character Lou Grant, who was first introduced on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1970. In 1977, after the series, Asner's character was given his own show, Lou Grant (1977–82). In contrast to the Mary Tyler Moore series, a thirty-minute comedy, the Lou Grant series was an hour-long award-winning drama about journalism. (For his role as Grant, Asner is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award for a sitcom and a drama for the same role, with the second being Uzo Aduba.)

Other television series starring Asner in regular roles include Thunder Alley, The Bronx Zoo and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He also starred in one episode of the western series, Dead Man's Gun (1997), as well as portraying art smuggler August March in an episode of the original Hawaii Five-O (1975) and reprised the role in the Hawaii Five-0 (2012) remake.

Asner was acclaimed for his role in the ABC miniseries Roots, as Captain Davies, the morally conflicted captain of the Lord Ligonier, the slave ship that brought Kunta Kinte to America. That role earned Asner an Emmy Award, as did the similarly dark role of Axel Jordache in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). In contrast, he played a former Pontiff in the lead role of Papa Giovanni: Ioannes XXIII (Pope John XXIII 2002), an Italian television film for RAI.

Asner has also had an extensive voice acting career. In 1987, he performed the role of the title character, George F. Babbitt, in the L.A. Classic Theatre Works' radio theatre production of Sinclair Lewis's novel "Babbitt." He also provided the voices for Joshua on Joshua and the Battle of Jericho (1986) for Hanna-Barbera, J. Jonah Jameson on the 1990s animated television series Spider-Man (1994–98); Hoggish Greedly on Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–95); Hudson on Gargoyles (1994–96); Jabba the Hutt on the radio version of Star Wars; Master Vrook from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel; Roland Daggett on Batman: The Animated Series (1992–94); Cosgrove on Freakazoid!; Ed Wuncler on The Boondocks (2005–14); and Granny Goodness in various DC Comics animated series. Asner also provided the voice of famed American orator Edward Everett in the 2015 documentary film The Gettysburg Address.

Asner provided the voice of Carl Fredricksen in the Academy Award-winning Pixar film Up (2009). He received great critical praise for the role, with one critic going so far as to suggest "They should create a new category for this year's Academy Award for Best Vocal Acting in an Animated Film and name Asner as the first recipient."

Asner has won more Emmy Awards for performing than any other male actor (seven, including five for the role of Lou Grant). In 1996, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

Remembering Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake (born November 14, 1922) was an American film, stage, and television actress.

Birth Name: Constance Frances Marie Ockelman
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 4' 11"
Nickname: "The Peek-a-boo Girl"
Quote: "You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."

Lake won both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in Sullivan's Travels and for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd, during the 1940s. She was also well known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle. By the late 1940s however, Lake's career had begun to decline in part due to her alcoholism.

She made only one film in the 1950s but appeared in several guest-starring roles on television. She returned to the screen in 1966 with a role in the film Footsteps In the Snow, but the role failed to revitalize her career.

Lake released her memoirs, Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake, in 1970. She used the money she made from the book to finance a low-budget horror film Flesh Feast. It was her final onscreen role.

Lake died on July 7, 1973 from hepatitis and acute kidney injury at the age of 50.

Remembering Jack Elam

Jack Elam (born November 13, 1920), was an American film and television actor.

Birth Name: William Scott Elam
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6'
Nickname: "Jack"
Quote: "The heavy today is usually not my kind of guy."

Elam was best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villainous image). His most distinguishing physical quality was his lazy left eye which was the result of  a boyhood accident when he was stabbed with a pencil at a Boy Scout meeting.

Elam made his debut in in 1949 She Shoulda Said No!, an exploitation film where a chorus girl's marijuana smoking ruins her career and drives her brother to suicide. He appeared mostly in westerns and gangster films playing villains. Elam made multiple guest star appearances in many popular Western television series in the 1950s and 1960s, including "Gunsmoke", "The Rifleman", "Lawman", "Bonanza", "Cheyenne", "Have Gun Will Travel", "Zorro", "The Lone Ranger", "The Rebel", "F Troop" and "Rawhide". In 1961, Elam played a slightly crazed character in an episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?." In April 1966 Jack Elam co-starred with Clint Walker in the western The Night of The Grizzly.

In 1968, Elam had an amusing cameo in Sergio Leone's celebrated spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West, where he was one of a trio of gunslingers sent to kill Charles Bronson's character. Elam spent a good part of the scene trying to trap an annoying fly in his gun barrel. In 1969, he was given his first comedic role in Support Your Local Sheriff!, which was followed two years later by Support Your Local Gunfighter; both were opposite James Garner, after which he found his villainous parts dwindling and his comic roles increasing. (Both films were also directed by Burt Kennedy, who saw Elam's potential as a comedian and would direct him a total of 15 times in features and television.) In between those two films, he also played a comically cranky old coot opposite John Wayne in Howard Hawks's Rio Lobo (1970).

Elam played in 73 movies, and made an appearance in 41 television series. His best known works consist of Once Upon A Time In The West, High Noon and the television program, The Twilight Zone.

Jack Elam died on October 20, 2003 of congestive heart failure at the age of 82.

Remembering Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly (born November 12, 1929) was an American actress who, after marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956, became Princess of Monaco.

Birth Name: Grace Patricia Kelly
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 6"
Nickname: "Gracie"
Quote: "Hollywood amuses me. Holier-than-thou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality."

After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television.

In October 1953, she gained stardom from her performance in the film Mogambo. It won her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination in 1954. She had leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, for which her deglamorized performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Other films include High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper, Dial M for Murder (1954) with Ray Milland, Rear Window (1954) with James Stewart, To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant, and High Society (1956) with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Kelly retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Rainier and began her duties as Princess of Monaco. They had three children: Caroline, Albert, and Stéphanie. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship.

 She died on September 14, 1982, a day after suffering a stroke while driving, causing her car to crash.

Remembering Pat O'Brien

"Pat" O'Brien (born November 11, 1899) was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.

Birth Name: William Joseph Patrick O'Brien
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 11"
Nickname: "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence"
Quote: "I think the Method has ruined an awful lot of potentially fine actors.."

After a decade in plays on Broadway and in the New York City area, O'Brien began appearing in movies in 1930. Often playing fast-talking "smart alecs" or romantic leads at first, he soon progressed to playing a string of authority figures, especially cops and priests. His first starring role was as ace reporter Hildy Johnson in the original 1931 version of The Front Page with Adolphe Menjou.

Warner Brothers hired O'Brien as a contract player in 1933. He remained with the studio until 1940, when he left after a dispute over the terms of his contract renewal.  He appeared with James Cagney, also under contract to Warner Brothers, in nine feature films, including Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Cagney's last film, Ragtime (1981). The two originally met in 1926 and remained friends for almost six decades. After O'Brien's death, Cagney referred to him as his "dearest friend".

After he left Warner Brothers in 1940, O'Brien briefly worked for Columbia Pictures. Soon he signed a contract with RKO and appeared in several movies for that studio. In 1946 he starred in the successful film-noir suspense film, Crack-Up.

O'Brien's movie career slowed considerably by the early 1950s, although he still managed to get work in television. In his autobiography, The Wind At My Back, he professed to being completely flummoxed about the decline of his career. His close friend, Spencer Tracy, fought with his studio, MGM, to get roles for O'Brien in his films, The People Against O'Hara (1951) and The Last Hurrah (1958).

In 1959 O'Brien appeared in one of his best-known movies as a police detective opposite George Raft in Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. He had a small role as Burt Reynolds' father in the 1978 comedy film The End, opposite Myrna Loy, cast as Reynolds' mother.

Pat O'Brien died on October 15, 1983 from a heart attack at age 83.

Remembering Claude Rains

Claude Rains (born November 10, 1889) was an English film and stage actor whose career spanned 46 years.

Birth Name: William Claude Rains
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 6"
Nickname: "Willy Wains"
Quote: "I learn the lines and pray to God.."

After his American film debut with The Invisible Man (1933) he played in classic films like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Wolf Man (1941), Casablanca (1942, as Captain Renault), Notorious (1946), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). He was a four-time nominee for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, but never won. Rains was considered to be "one of the screen's great character stars" with an extraordinary voice who was, according to the All-Movie Guide, "at his best when playing cultured villains"

Rains came relatively late to film acting. His screen test for A Bill of Divorcement (1932) for a New York representative of RKO was a failure but, according to some accounts, led to him being cast in the title role of James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) after his screen test was inadvertently overheard from the next room.

Rains signed a long term contract with Warner Bros. on 27 November 1935. He played the villainous role of Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Rains later credited the film's co-director Michael Curtiz with teaching him the more understated requirements of film acting, or "what not to do in front of a camera."

On loan to Columbia Pictures, he performed the role of the corrupt American senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) for which he received his first Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. For his home studio, Warner Bros, he played the murderer Dr. Alexander Tower in Kings Row (1942) and the cynical police chief Captain Renault in Casablanca (also 1942). On loan again, Rains played the title character in Universal's remake of Phantom of the Opera (1943).

Bette Davis named him her favourite co-star, and they made four films together, including Now, Voyager (1942) and Mr. Skeffington (1944). He followed it with Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946) as a refugee Nazi agent opposite Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

Rains remained active as a character actor in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in films and as a guest in television series. Two of his late screen roles were as Dryden, a cynical British diplomat in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and King Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), his last film. In CBS's Rawhide, he portrayed Alexander Langford, an attorney in a ghost town, in the episode "Incident of Judgement Day" (1963)

He died from an abdominal haemorrhage in Laconia on 30 May 1967, aged 77.

Remembering Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn (born November 9, 1886) was an American actor and comedian noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor.

Birth Name: Isaiah Edwin Leopold
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Grey
Height: 6'
Nickname: "The Perfect Fool"
"A comedian says funny things. A comic says things funny."

 He adapted his middle name "Edwin" into his new stage name, "Ed Wynn", to save his family the embarrassment of having a lowly comedian as a relative.

Wynn began his career in vaudeville in 1903.   He adapted his middle name "Edwin" into his new stage name, "Ed Wynn", to save his family the embarrassment of having a lowly comedian as a relative. Wynn went on to write, direct, and produce many Broadway shows in the subsequent decades, and was known for his silly costumes and props as well as for the giggly, wavering voice he developed for the 1921 musical review, The Perfect Fool.

In the 1949-50 season, Ed Wynn hosted one of the first network, comedy-variety television shows, on CBS, and won both a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award in 1949. Buster Keaton, Lucille Ball, and The Three Stooges all made guest appearances with Wynn. This was the first CBS variety television show to originate from Los Angeles, which was seen live on the west coast, but filmed via kinescope for distribution in the Midwest and East, as the national coaxial cable had yet to be completed.

After the end of Wynn's third television series, his son, actor Keenan Wynn, encouraged him to make a career change rather than retire. The comedian reluctantly began a career as a dramatic actor in television and movies. Father and son appeared in three productions, the first of which was the 1956 Playhouse 90 broadcast of Rod Serling's play Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Requiem established Wynn as serious dramatic actor who could easily hold his own with the best. His role in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

For the rest of his life, Wynn skillfully moved between comic and dramatic roles. He appeared in feature films and anthology television, endearing himself to new generations of fans.

He appeared as the Fairy Godfather in Jerry Lewis' Cinderfella. His performance as Paul Beaseley in the 1958 film The Great Man earned him nominations for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actor" and a BAFTA Award for "Best Foreign Actor". The following year he received his first (and only) nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Mr. Dussell in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). Six years later he appeared in the Bible epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Wynn provided the voice of the Mad Hatter in Walt Disney's film, Alice in Wonderland and played The Toymaker alongside Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands in Walt Disney's Babes in Toyland released in 1961.

Possibly his best-remembered film appearance was in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (1964). His played an the eccentric man floating around just beneath the ceiling in uncontrollable mirth, singing "I Love to Laugh".

Re-teaming with the Disney team the following year, in That Darn Cat! (1965) featuring Dean Jones and Hayley Mills, Wynn filled out the character of Mr. Hofstedder, the watch jeweler with his bumbling charm. He also had brief roles in The Absent Minded Professor (as the fire chief, in a scene alongside his son Keenan Wynn, who played the film's antagonist) and Son of Flubber (as county agricultural agent A.J. Allen). His final performance, as Rufus in Walt Disney's The Gnome-Mobile, was released a few months after his death.

Wynn died June 19, 1966 in Beverly Hills, California of throat cancer, aged 79.

Remembering Esther Rolle

Esther Elizabeth Rolle (born November 8, 1920) was an African-American actress. She is best known for her role as Florida Evans, on the CBS television sitcom Maude, and its spin-off series Good Times.

Birth Name: Esther Elizabeth Rolle
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 6"
"I was proud of the family life I was able to introduce to television."

Esther Rolle was born in Pompano Beach, Florida, to Bahamian immigrants. She was the tenth of 18 children.  Rolle graduated from Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, Florida, and began er acting career on the stage.

Rolle is best known for her television role as Florida Evans, the character she played on two 1970s sitcoms. The character was introduced as Maude Findlay's housekeeper on Maude, and was spun off in the show's second season into Good Times, a show about Florida's family. Rolle was nominated in 1975 for the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Golden Globe Award for her role in Good Times.

Rolle was 19 years older than the actor (John Amos) who played her husband James Evans. The James Evans character was only added after Esther Rolle fought hard for a father figure and husband to be added to the show. Rolle had fought for the father character on the show, more relevant themes and scripts and was unhappy when the success of Jimmie Walker's character, J.J. Evans, took the show in a frivolous direction. Rolle quit when her contract ended. Although the show continued without her for the fifth season, she returned for the show's final season. In 1979.

After Good Times ended, she appeared in a number of made-for-television movies and films, including Driving Miss Daisy and My Fellow Americans. A memorable role was that of Aunt Sarah in the 1997 film Rosewood. She had a major role in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings based on Maya Angelou's memoir of the same name, and has the distinction of having won the first Emmy Award for the category Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie, in 1979, for her work in the television movie Summer of My German Soldier.

Rolle died on November 17, 1998 in Culver City, California, from complications of diabetes, nine days after her 78th birthday.

Remembering Dean Jagger

Dean Jagger (born November 7, 1903) was an American film, stage and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High (1949).

Birth Name: Dean Jeffries Jagger
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6' 2"
Quote: "I'm not looking for an easy religion. I'm looking for one I can bring my family up decent in.."

Jagger studied acting at Chicago's Lyceum Arts Conservatory.He joined a stock company as Spencer Tracy's replacement. He performed in vaudeville, on the radio and on stage making his Broadway debut in 1925 in a bit part in a George M. Cohan production. Through the '30s and '40s, he performed in a number of Broadway plays, including the original production of Tobacco Road.

Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell (1929) with Mary Astor. He became a successful character actor and appeared in almost 100 films in a career that lasted until shortly before his death. Jagger made his breakthrough with his portrayal of Brigham Young in Brigham Young (1940).  According to George D. Pyper, a technical consultant on the film who had personally known Brigham Young, Jagger not only resembled Young, he also spoke like him and had many of his mannerisms.

He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Twelve O'Clock High (1949). In the film, he played the retread World War I veteran, middle-aged adjutant Major/Lt. Col. Harvey Stovall, who acts as an advisor to the commander, General Savage (Gregory Peck). He appeared in the biblical epic The Robe (1953) as the weaver Justus of Cana. He played the retired Army major general Tom Waverly honored by Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) in the musical White Christmas (1954), and an impotent local sheriff in the modern Western Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), starring Spencer Tracy. Jagger also portrayed the father of Elvis Presley's character in 1958's King Creole. He was the traveling manager for an evangelist played by Jean Simmons in the acclaimed 1960 drama Elmer Gantry.

He won a Daytime Emmy award for a guest appearance in the religious series This Is the Life. He played dozens of TV dramatic roles, including an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Static." In an early episode of the television series Kung Fu Jagger appeared as Caine's grandfather, who wants little to do with him, but starts Caine on his series-long search for his half-brother Danny.

In later life Dean Jagger suffered from heart disease and died in his sleep in Santa Monica, California. He was 87.

Remembering Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney (Born November 19, 1920) was an American film and stage actress.

Birth Name: Gene Eliza Tierney
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 7"
Nickname: "The Get Girl"
Quote: "Jealousy .... makes a victim of both parties."

Acclaimed as a great beauty, she became established as a leading lady. Tierney was best known for her portrayal of the title character in the film Laura (1944), and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven (1945).

Tierney's other roles include Martha Strable Van Cleve in Heaven Can Wait (1943), Isabel Bradley Maturin in The Razor's Edge (1946), Lucy Muir in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Ann Sutton in Whirlpool (1949), Maggie Carleton McNulty in The Mating Season (1951), and Anne Scott in The Left Hand of God (1955).

With difficult events in her personal life, Tierney struggled for years with episodes of manic depression. Tierney consulted a psychiatrist and was admitted to Harkness Pavilion in New York. Later, she went to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. After some 27 shock treatments, intended to alleviate severe depression, Tierney fled the facility, but was caught and returned. She later became an outspoken opponent of shock treatment therapy, claiming it had destroyed significant portions of her memory.

Tierney made a screen comeback in Advise and Consent (1962), co-starring with Franchot Tone.Tierney's career as a solid character actress seemed to be back on track as she played Jane Barton in The Pleasure Seekers (1964), but then she suddenly retired. Her final performance was in the TV miniseries Scruples (1980)

Tierney died of emphysema on November 6, 1991 in Houston, thirteen days before her 71st birthday.

Remembering Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers (born November 5, 1911) was an American singer and cowboy actor who was one of the most popular Western stars of his era.

Birth Name: Leonard Franklin Slye
Hair: Light Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 10"
Nickname: "King of the Cowboys"
Quote: "If there were no valleys of sadness and death, we could never really appreciate the sunshine of happiness on the mountain top."

He appeared in over 100 films and numerous radio and television episodes of The Roy Rogers Show. In many of his films and television episodes, he appeared with his wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino Trigger, and his German Shepherd dog Bullet. His show ran on radio for nine years before moving to television from 1951 through 1957. His productions usually featured a sidekick, often Pat Brady, Andy Devine, or George "Gabby" Hayes.

In the Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars poll, Rogers was listed for 15 consecutive years from 1939 to 1954, holding first place from 1943 to 1954. He appeared in the similar Box Office poll from 1938 to 1955, holding first place from 1943 to 1952. (In the final three years of that poll he was second only to Randolph Scott.) Although these two polls are really an indication only of the popularity of series stars, Rogers also appeared in the Top Ten Money Makers Poll of all films in 1945 and 1946.

With money from not only Rogers' films but his own public appearances going to Republic Pictures, Rogers brought a clause into a 1940 contract with the studio where he would have the right to his likeness, voice and name for merchandising.] There were Roy Rogers action figures, cowboy adventure novels, and playsets, as well as a comic strip, a long-lived Dell Comics comic book series (Roy Rogers Comics) written by Gaylord Du Bois, and a variety of marketing successes. Roy Rogers was second only to Walt Disney in the amount of items featuring his name.

When Rogers died of congestive heart failure on July 6, 1998, he was 86 years old. 

Remembering Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts (born November 4, 1925) was an American actress, author, and philanthropist whose career spanned six decades of television.

Birth Name: Doris May Green
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 3"
Quote: "Everybody's a teacher if you listen."

Roberts started in films in 1968, and had prominent roles in movies, including playing opposite Shirley Stoler in The Honeymoon Killers (1969), Elliott Gould in Little Murders (1971), Steven Keats in Hester Street (1975), Billy Crystal in Rabbit Test (1978), Robert Carradine in Number One with a Bullet (1987), and Cady McClain in Simple Justice (1989), among many others.

She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1951. She played Mildred Krebs in Remington Steele, a role she played from 1983 to 1987. She achieved continuing success for her co-starring role as Raymond Barone's mother, Marie Barone, on the long-running CBS sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005). In 2010 she played Ms. Rinsky, Brick Heck's schoolteacher in the second season premiere episode of The Middle. Roberts returned in two other episodes that season, "The Math Class" and the finale, "Back to Summer".

Roberts died in Los Angeles, California, on April 17, 2016 in her sleep due to a stroke at age 90.

Remembering Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson (born November 3, 1921) was a Lithuanian-American film and television actor.

Birth Name: Charles Dennis Buchinsky
Hair: Dark Brown
Eyes: Grey
Height: 5' 8"
Quote: "Audiences like to see the bad guys get their comeuppance."


In 1943, Bronson enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. Bronson flew 25 missions and received a Purple Heart for wounds received in battle.

After the end of World War II, Bronson worked at many odd jobs until joining a theatrical group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1950, he married and moved to Hollywood, where he enrolled in acting classes and began to find small roles.

Bronson's first film role — an uncredited one — was as a sailor in You're in the Navy Now in 1951. Other early screen appearances were in Pat and Mike, Miss Sadie Thompson and House of Wax (as Vincent Price's mute henchman Igor).

He made several appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, including a 1952 segment, with fellow guest star Lee Marvin, of Biff Baker, U.S.A., an espionage series on CBS starring Alan Hale, Jr. and played a killer named Crego in Gunsmoke (1956)

In 1958, he was cast in his first lead film role in Roger Corman's Machine-Gun Kelly, followed by the lead role in the WWII film When Hell Broke Loose later the same year.

In 1960, he garnered attention in John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven, in which he was cast as one of seven gunfighters taking up the cause of the defenseless.

Two years later, Sturges cast him for another Hollywood production, The Great Escape, as claustrophobic Polish prisoner of war Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski, nicknamed "The Tunnel King". In 1962, he played alongside Elvis Presley as his loyal trainer, Lew Nyack, in Kid Galahad. In 1963,  In 1965, Bronson was cast  in The Dirty Dozen (1967). He played an Army death row convict conscripted into a suicide mission.

Bronson made a serious name for himself in European films. In 1968, he starred as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. The director, Sergio Leone, once called him "the greatest actor I ever worked with", and had wanted to cast Bronson for the lead in 1964's A Fistful of Dollars. Bronson turned him down and the role launched Clint Eastwood to film stardom. In 1970, Bronson starred in the French film Rider on the Rain, which won a Hollywood Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The following year, this overseas fame earned him a special Golden Globe Henrietta Award for "World Film Favorite - Male" together with Sean Connery. In 1972 he began a string of successful action films for United Artists, beginning with Chato's Land.

Bronson's most famous role came when he was age 52, in Death Wish (Paramount, 1974), the most popular film of his long association with director Michael Winner. He played Paul Kersey, a successful New York architect who turns into a crime-fighting vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter sexually assaulted. This successful movie spawned various sequels over the next two decades, all starring Bronson.

In 1974, he had the title role in the Elmore Leonard film adaptation Mr. Majestyk, as an army veteran and farmer who battles local gangsters. For Walter Hill's Hard Times (1975), he starred as a Depression-era street fighter making his living in illegal bare-knuckled matches in Louisiana. He earned good reviews. Bronson reached his pinnacle in box-office drawing power in 1975, when he was ranked 4th, behind only Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Al Pacino. His stint at UA came to an end in 1977 with The White Buffalo.

In the years between 1976 and 1994, Bronson commanded high salaries to star in numerous films made by smaller production companies, most notably Cannon Films, for whom some of his last films were made. Many of them were directed by J. Lee Thompson, a collaborative relationship that Bronson enjoyed and actively pursued, reportedly because Thompson worked quickly and efficiently. Thompson's ultra-violent films such as The Evil That Men Do (TriStar Pictures, 1984) and 10 to Midnight (1983) were blasted by critics, but provided Bronson with well-paid work throughout the 1980s. Bronson's last starring role in a theatrically released film was 1994's Death Wish V: The Face of Death.

Bronson's health deteriorated in later years, and he retired from acting after undergoing hip-replacement surgery in 1998. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years and died of pneumonia at age 81 on August 30, 2003 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Remembering Bud Abbott

Bud Abbott (born October 2, 1897) was an American actor, producer, and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.

Birth Name: William Alexander Abbott
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue
Height: 5' 8"
Nickname: "Bud"
Quote: "Well, I always had a chauffeur, because I have never driven a car in my life. I still can't drive.."

Abbott crossed paths with Lou Costello in burlesque a few times in the early 1930s. They first worked together in 1935 at the Eltinge Theatre on 42nd Street, after an illness sidelined Costello's regular partner. They formally teamed up in 1936, and went on to perform together in burlesque, vaudeville, minstrel shows, and stage shows.

In 1938, they received national exposure as regulars on the Kate Smith Hour radio show. In 1940, Universal signed the team for their first film, One Night in the Tropics. Despite having minor roles, Abbott and Costello stole the film with several classic routines, including an abbreviated version of "Who's On First?"

During World War II, Abbott and Costello were among the most popular and highest-paid stars in the world. Between 1940 and 1956 they made 36 films. They had their own radio program (The Abbott and Costello Show) throughout the 1940s. In the 1950s, they introduced their comedy to live television on The Colgate Comedy Hour, and launched their own half-hour series, The Abbott and Costello Show.

Universal dropped their contract after 14 years in 1955, and Abbott and Costello split in 1957. Lou Costello died on March 3, 1959.

Abbott died of cancer at the age of 76 on April 24, 1974, at his home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

When Groucho Marx was asked about Abbott shortly after his death, his response was that Abbott was "the greatest straight man ever."

Remembering Phil Silvers

Phil Silvers (born May 11, 1911) was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah".

Birth Name: Philip Silver
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5' 11"
Nickname: "The King of Chutzpah"
Quote: "You're brilliant? Say something in algebra."

Silvers started entertaining at age 11, when he would sing in theaters when the film projector broke down (a common occurrence in those days), to the point where he was allowed to keep attending the same movie theater free of charge, to sing through any future breakdowns. By age 13, he was working as a singer in the Gus Edwards Revue, and then worked in vaudeville and as a burlesque comic.

He made his feature film début in Hit Parade of 1941 in 1940. Over the next two decades, he worked as a character actor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, in such films as 1942's All Through the Night with Humphrey Bogart, Lady Be Good (1941), Coney Island (1943), Cover Girl (1944), and Summer Stock (1950). When the studio system began to decline, he returned to the stage. Cover Girl demonstrates that Silvers was an accomplished dancer, performing flawlessly in quick-tempo trios with famed dancers Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.

Silvers scored a major triumph in Top Banana, a Broadway show of 1952. Silvers played Jerry Biffle, the egocentric, always-busy star of a major television show. (The character is said to have been based on Milton Berle.) Silvers dominated the show and won a Tony Award for his performance. He repeated the role in the 1954 film version that was originally released in 3-D.

Silvers became a household name in 1955 when he starred as Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko in You'll Never Get Rich, later retitled The Phil Silvers Show. The military comedy became a television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. In 1958, CBS switched the show to be telecast on Friday nights and moved the setting to Camp Fremont in California.

Throughout the 1960s, he appeared in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)] and 40 Pounds of Trouble (1963).

Silvers also guested on The Beverly Hillbillies, and various TV variety shows such as The Carol Burnett Show, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and The Dean Martin Show. Perhaps Silvers' most memorable guest appearance was as curmudgeonly Hollywood producer Harold Hecuba in the classic 1966 episode "The Producer" on Gilligan's Island,

His guest appearances continued into the early 1980s, including  an appearance on Fantasy Island as an old comic trying to reunite with his old partner, and on Happy Days as the father of Jenny Piccolo (played by his daughter Cathy Silvers). In 1978, Silvers played the cab driver "Hoppy" in Neil Simon's send-up of hard-boiled detective films, The Cheap Detective, which starred Peter Falk. His final appearance was in an episode of CHiPs in 1983.

On November 1, 1985, Silvers died in his sleep in Century City, California. According to his family, Silvers died of natural causes. He was 74.