Hollywood Actors Archives - Page 46 of 128

Dan Dailey

Dan Dailey was born in 1915 in New York City. His sister was the actress Irene Dailey. He made his movie debit as a Nazi in the MGM drama “The Mortal Storm”. After World War Two,he became famous for his many musicals with 20th Century Fox, many of them opposite Betty Grable. He also starred in “Theres No Business Like Show Business” in 1954 with Marilyn Monroe, Ethel Merman and Mitzi Gaynor. On television he had his own show in the 1970’s “The Govenor and JJ”. He died in 1978.

IMDB entry:

A child performer, by the early 1950s Dan Dailey’s life was under considerable strain. In 1951 he checked himself into the Menninger Clinic for five months and, after his return to Hollywood presented his experiences there frankly to Hedda Hopper and other reporters, pointing out that the necessity of this break from his hectic show business career was prompted by his “cracking up” over a period of time. During this period of excessive strain, he was performing in the serio-comic “I Can Get It For You Wholesale” at 20th Century Fox. Director Michael Gordon, in an interview with film scholar Ronald Davis in “Just Making Movies” said that he had found him “enormously gratifying” to work with and was later surprised to learn that Dailey later admitted that “he didn’t even remember doing some of the scenes…Yet he worked hard on the picture and gave a fine dramatic performance.”

The performer later explained that “Work, any amount of it,even too much work is all right if the rest of your life O.K. But when work is the only thing you have, when you bury yourself in it 24 hours a day — well, that’s dangerous.” The actor-dancer’s unusual candor in Hollywood may have made it easier for him to continue his career, which ended in 1978 after his unexpected death following a hip replacement. Unfortunately, psychological problems may have contributed to the suicide in 1975 of his only child Dan Dailey, Jr.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: anonymous

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Barbara Stanwyck was born in 1907 and was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille , Fritz Lang and Frank Capra . After a short but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood , before turning to television. She died in 1990. Her films include “Union Pacific” in 1938, “The Lady Eve”, “Double Indemnity” and “Walk On the Wild Side” in 1962.

TCM overview:

Barbara Stanwyck was a dazzling study in contrasts. At times sultry and sweet; vulnerable and tough; comedic and dramatic; joyous and tragic – she simply was one of the greatest and most unique actresses during Hollywood’s Golden Era. She could play whatever the part required, whether it was madcap glamour in comedies like “The Lady Eve” (1941), tough-minded feminism in weepies like “Stella Dallas” (1937), or poisonous vixens in noir classics like “Double Indemnity” (1944). A working-class girl from Brooklyn, she became one of the richest women in the United States due to wise investments. On a personal level, she was wildly popular among her peers, yet died a virtual recluse. Most astounding of all, she gave some of the most unforgettable performances in film history, yet never won an Academy Award for her work. Like many an aging glamour girl, she moved reluctantly into TV in the 1950s and 1960s when her movie career declined, but became an even bigger star than she had been before. Barbara Stanwyck – an American original and the true essence of the word “dame” – like no other actress of her generation enjoyed a long, varied career in film and television while remaining beloved by her millions of fans.

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Stevens on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, NY. She endured a rough-and-tumble childhood befitting the fierce heroines she would later play on screen. When Stanwyck was two, her mother died after being pushed from a moving trolley by a drunk. Her father was more interested in drinking and womanizing than raising his children and abandoned his brood to work on the Panama Canal. He was never heard from again. Sadly, neighbors put Ruby and her brothers and sisters into foster homes. It was a grim existence, but even at a young age, Stanwyck did not indulge in self-pity. Between the ages of 11 and 13, she learned to dance while living with her older sister Millie, a showgirl. She bounced in-and-out of school while working at a variety of low-level jobs, but had caught the performing bug from those early dance lessons and just knew her destiny was to be a star. The problem was how to be a star while broke and struggling in Brooklyn.

The gutsy perseverance embodied by the characters she would one day play came into focus for real while Stanwyck auditioned for Broadway shows. She was short, skinny and not conventionally pretty, but she was also unstoppable. Her grit got her on the chorus line of a few Broadway shows, but her ambition pushed her to center stage. The great Broadway producer David Belasco took notice of her, changed her name to “Barbara Stanwyck,” and cast her in his play, “The Noose.” The play was a smash hit and Stanwyck – just 20 years old – was now a stage star. She headlined another hit play, “Burlesk,” which attracted the attention of a film producer. Not long after, she won the small part of a fan dancer in the silent movie “Broadway Nights” (1927), and while the role and the film were not memorable, the experience in front of a camera was. Stanwyck and her new husband, actor Frank Fay, left New York for Hollywood to try their luck in motion pictures.

Stanwyck’s movie career caught fire as soon as she stepped into the hot Los Angeles sunshine. She won leads in the “The Locked Door” (1929) and “Mexicali Rose” (1929) and never looked back. From the beginning of her film career, she established the Stanwyck template: bright, beautiful, and ballsy – all on her own terms. Her powerful presence in those early films thrust her into her first “A” picture, “Ladies of Leisure” (1930). Directed by the up-and-coming Frank Capra and based on a play by her old friend David Belasco, Stanwyck shined as a “party girl” hired by a wealthy artist to be his model. The movie was a hit and Stanwyck established herself as someone to be reckoned with both on and off screen.

As the 1930s progressed and Americans struggled with the economic hardships of the Great Depression, Stanwyck became a potent symbol of the underdog who could triumph over any circumstances. In movies like “Ten Cents a Dance” (1931), “The Miracle Woman” (1931), and “Shopworn” (1932), she played variations on the good girl from the wrong side of the tracks who must overcome social prejudice and economic adversity to realize her dreams of love and prosperity. It was an old formula but Stanwyck’s aggressive and witty approach breathed new life into it.

Stanwyck’s career raced forward with vehicles tailored to her inimitable mix of attitude and allure. She usually made three to four pictures a year and earned a reputation as one of the hardest working women in Hollywood. Her marriage to Fay crumbled as she became a rising star and he became an unemployed drunk. Perhaps this additional emotional pain brought even more poignancy to the succession of parts she played. “The Bitter Tea of General Yen” (1933) showcased the actress as a self-sacrificing missionary’s wife during the Chinese Civil War. “The Woman in Red” (1935) featured her as a poor but noble woman who rides show horses for wealthy snobs intent on ruining her marriage to a once-wealthy polo player. “Annie Oakley” (1935) saw Stanwyck playing the eponymous sharp shooter who finds love and fame as the star of Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West Show.” The movies were not always first rate, but nobody quibbled with Stanwyck’s performances.

Stanwyck’s star rose steadily through the 1930s, but it took her blockbuster turn in the romantic drama “Stella Dallas” (1937) to put her in the elite of Hollywood’s actresses – on par with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Carole Lombard. Although based on a novel, the film seemed crafted to play to Stanwyck’s strengths. In the title role of a working-class woman who marries and has a child with a well-born but destitute man, Stanwyck once again revisited her underdog persona. But the movie’s power sprung from the self-sacrifice that Stella makes for her beloved daughter after the marriage breaks up. Choosing to give up her child so that she can lead a better life among the wealthy and privileged, Stanwyck’s powerful performance earned her an Academy Award nomination – no doubt helped by the classic scene of her standing outside her daughter’s window, crying as she watches her join her new family.

For the first of several times, Stanwyck lost out on the Oscar but kept winning great parts. A tireless worker, she churned out movies at a steady pace. “The Mad Miss Manton” (1938) allowed her to switch gears and play a wacky debutante rather than her usual plucky pauper. It also teamed her with Henry Fonda, who would soon co-star with Stanwyck in the classic screwball comedy “The Lady Eve.” “Golden Boy” (1939) featured Stanwyck playing a cunning boxing promoter’s wife who supports the career of a young fighter, played by newcomer William Holden. In reality, Stanwyck grew especially close to the young actor, helping to promote his career. She fought hard on Holden’s behalf when the studio wanted to replace him, and the movie’s subsequent success turned Holden into a star. It also earned him the nickname “Golden Boy,” which Stanwyck would refer to him thereafter, until his untimely death in 1981. For his part, Holden was so grateful to the actress for fighting for him that he reportedly sent her flowers every year on the anniversary of the first day of filming.

Stanwyck slowed down her busy career long enough to marry the impossibly handsome actor Robert Taylor in 1939. Cynics whispered that it was an arranged marriage to quell rumors that both of them were gay. She treated these rumors with her characteristic fortitude, plowing headfirst into some of the most creatively brilliant work of her life. The year 1941 may have been a bad year for America as the country staggered into World War II, but it was a great year for Stanwyck. She starred in four movies – three of which became instant classics, including “The Lady Eve,” “Meet John Doe” (1941), and “Ball of Fire” (1941).

In “The Lady Eve” Stanwyck played a con artist who seduces the wealthy but unsophisticated Henry Fonda. After a misunderstanding causes them to split, she impersonates a wealthy English aristocrat to get back at him. The comedy’s absurd premise remains grounded in reality, thanks to Stanwyck, who demands the audience’s sympathy despite her scheming. The tiny, quirky-looking, and aggressive Stanwyck was more than a match for the tall, pretty and passive Fonda, and despite not earning an Academy Award nomination, Stanwyck’s work in “The Lady Eve” ranks as perhaps her greatest comedic performance of them all.

“Meet John Doe” paired Stanwyck with yet another ridiculously tall, good looking leading man in Gary Cooper. They could not have been more different. Cooper was 6’3,” came from Montana, and spoke – when he spoke at all – in the quiet, flat tones of the upper Plains. Stanwyck was 5’3,” came from Brooklyn, and never lost the clipped cadences of her native New York. Director Frank Capra took full advantage of his stars’ contrasts by letting their natural personalities and differences play out on screen. Stanwyck, in the role of a reporter who must scramble to save her reputation after printing a fake letter by an imagined “John Doe,” again won audience sympathy through the engaging forces of her personality and intelligence.

“Ball of Fire” featured Stanwyck and Cooper again, but this time in a lighter comedy than the socially pointed “Meet John Doe.” Stanwyck was in her familiar element, playing another girl from the wrong side of the tracks; this time, a wisecracking nightclub singer on the lam from the mob. Cooper did a variation on the Henry Fonda role in “The Lady Eve,” lending his charm to the role of a naïve professor researching American slang. Sparks fly between Stanwyck and Cooper, with each teaching the other a thing or two about their disparate worlds before falling in love. Under Howard Hawks’ crisp direction, the screwball premise crackled with pitch perfect comedy and romance, leaving Stanwyck with yet another hit on her hands. She also earned her second Academy Award nomination for her work in the film.

To this point, Stanwyck had proved she could play comedy, drama – even melodrama. But with “Double Indemnity” (1944), she upped the ante, proving in a platinum wig and seductive satin heels that she could play Fred MacMurray – play him for a sap, that is. One of the greatest film noir thrillers of all time, “Double Indemnity” was directed and adapted by Billy Wilder with Raymond Chandler from the James M. Cain novel. A wicked waltz danced by a scheming femme fatale and crooked insurance salesman, Stanwyck seduces MacMurray before convincing him to kill her husband to collect on his life insurance. Multiple double-crosses follow, as the couple’s plan begins to unravel. Stanwyck’s performance – packed with treachery, seduction and venom – earned her a third Academy Award nomination. And yet again, she was overlooked, losing out to Ingrid Bergman for “Gaslight” (1944).

“Double Indemnity” represented the high-water mark of Stanwyck’s cinema career. She continued acting in movies for another dozen years but none of the movies approached the searing brilliance of her earlier films. “Sorry, Wrong Number” (1948) was a fine thriller and garnered Stanwyck her final Academy Award nomination, but it did not leave an indelible mark on film culture as “Double Indemnity” did. As she aged and the movie roles became less interesting, Stanwyck turned her inestimable talents to television. “The Barbara Stanwyck Show” (NBC, 1960) lasted only one season but earned its star an Emmy Award. Stanwyck’s marriage to Robert Taylor had ended in divorce in 1951, but she kept the ranch and horses they had shared. This kept her in prime riding shape to handle a host of guest appearances on Western shows like “Wagon Train” (NBC, 1957-1962; ABC, 1962-65). Finally, with the Western series “The Big Valley” (ABC, 1965-69), Stanwyck landed a long-running prime time hit that kept her busy and made her a fortune. She also won another Emmy Award for the role, playing the matriarch of a large family in central California.

The aging Stanwyck’s final professional triumphs were all on TV, including another Emmy Award for her work in the phenomenally successful miniseries “The Thorn Birds” (ABC, 1983) in which she played Mary Carson, the hard-as-nails owner of a ranch in Australia’s outback who lusts after her local priest (Richard Chamberlain). In fact, her porch scene with a naked and decades-younger Chamberlain became the final classic in her canon of memorable onscreen moments. Mustering up the youthful lust she feels for Chamberlain, but cursing out the old body she is trapped inside, it was an Emmy-worthy scene. After “The Thorn Birds,” she lent her class and grace to the primetime soap operas “Dynasty” (ABC, 1981-89) and its spin-off “The Colbys” (ABC, 1985-87), but after a lifetime of hard work she was growing tired of the grind.

A robbery at Stanwyck’s home precipitated her withdrawing from public view, although she continued to be active with charity work. Both on and off screen, she had seemed a fierce, invulnerable presence, able to conquer any man or circumstance. In real life, her heavy smoking habit and relentless working schedule finally caught up with her. She died from congestive heart failure and emphysema on Jan. 20, 1990, leaving behind an impressive body of work and a unique personality indelibly captured for all time on the silver screen.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Finola Hughes was born in 1959 in London. She has carved out a niche in long running television series in the U.S. such as “All My Children” and “General Hospital”. She starred opposite Joan Collins and Carol White in “Nutcracker” and John Travolta in the movie “Staying Alive” in 1983.

TCM overview:

Starting as a dancer, the British-born Finola Hughes originated the role of Victoria in “Cats” and then made the leap to Hollywood as Laura, the icy Broadway dance diva opposite John Travolta in the sequel “Stayin’ Alive” (1983). She achieved her greatest fame on “General Hospital” (ABC, 1963- ) as superspy Anna Devane, who became a longtime fan favorite and earned the actress a Daytime Emmy as well as a fun cameo in “Soapdish” (1991). Although she notched many non-soap credits, including notable stints as the English stepmother of “Blossom” (NBC, 1990-95) and the spirit of the dead mother of the witchy sisters of “Charmed” (The WB, 1998-2006), Hughes grabbed her biggest headlines when she jumped to “All My Children” (ABC, 1970-2011) as Dr. Alex Devane Marick, twin sister to the beloved Anna Devane, whom she subsequently reprised. She briefly hosted the makeover show “How Do I Look?” (Style Network, 2004- ), wrote a juicy novel about soap operas, and returned repeatedly for a series of guest spots as Anna on “General Hospital.” Although she was most widely known for her soap stardom, Finola Hughes managed to maintain a loyal fanbase and to carve out an interesting and enviable career.

Born Oct. 29, 1959 in London, England, Finola Hughes began her dance training from an early age, joining the Northern Ballet Company after winning the Markova award. After a few small dancing appearances in films, Hughes’s talents caught the eye of Andrew Lloyd Webber, who cast her as the original Victoria the White Cat in the London production of the global smash musical “Cats.” Hollywood took notice, and Hughes booked the female lead in the Sylvester Stallone-helmed “Stayin’ Alive” (1983), the sequel to the blockbuster “Saturday Night Fever” (1977). As Laura, the haughty star dancer in the Broadway musical “Satan’s Alley,” Hughes sparred with star John Travolta as Tony Manero, memorably dismissing him after a one-night stand with an icy “Everybody uses everybody.” Although critics hated nearly every aspect of the film and she herself earned two Razzie nominations, Hughes emerged relatively unscathed and was rewarded with a juicy role on the most popular daytime soap in the history of the genre.

As the glamorous spy Anna Devane, Hughes created a sensation day one of her arrival on “General Hospital” (ABC, 1963- ). Viewers adored the character’s complicated love affairs and intrigue Anna coolly navigated, including tumultuous marriages to fellow spy Robert Scorpio (Tristan Rogers) and mobster Duke Lavery (Ian Buchanan). A soap superstar, Hughes also found time to film guest spots on “L.A. Law” (NBC, 1986-1994) and to parody her overly dramatic persona in a juicy “Soapdish” (1991) cameo. That same year, Hughes won a Daytime Emmy for her “General Hospital” work, and she would also collect several Soap Opera Digest Awards and nominations. Surprisingly, Hughes was fired by the soap’s producer Gloria Monty in 1991, and briefly replaced by another actress. But fans would have none of it and the stage was set for a return by popular demand.

In the meantime, Hughes played a waitress on “Jack’s Place” (ABC, 1992-93) and continued to lens a steady stream of guest spots and supporting roles, including a lengthy stint as a sympathetic stepmother to “Blossom” (NBC, 1990-95) and an appearance as the evil comic book psychic Emma Frost, the White Queen, on “Generation X” (Fox, 1996). She played a seemingly perfect wife on the verge of collapse on the short-lived series “Pacific Palisades” (Fox, 1997) and contributed voices to “Superman: The Animated Series” (The WB, 1996-2000), “Life with Louie” (Fox, 1994-98) and “Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World” (1998). Her soap opera roots came calling, however, and strangely, she joined “All My Children” (ABC, 1970-2011) as neurologist Dr. Alexandra “Alex” Devane Marick, who was revealed to be the twin sister of Anna Devane of the network’s “General Hospital.” Thankfully for “GH” fans, Alex located and rescued her sister, then conveniently left Pine Valley to return to Port Charles so Hughes could solely focus on breathing life back into Anna, who quickly reclaimed her fan favorite mantle, embarking on a slew of new adventures.

Hughes kept her other options open, however, making a string of guest appearances as Patty Halliwell, the deceased matriarch of the Halliwell clan on “Charmed” (The WB, 1998-2006), appearing to provide support, advice and love to her witch daughters (Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and eventually Rose McGowan). Hughes proved quite the popular figure despite the inherent limitations of playing a spirit, and recurred throughout the hit show’s run. After briefly hosting the makeover show “How Do I Look?” (Style Network, 2004- ), she was eventually replaced. Her fans remained loyal however, and Hughes’ much trumpeted return to “General Hospital” as part of the 2006 May sweeps earned excellent ratings, opening the door for Hughes to continue to make special appearances over the next few years and to pop up on “General Hospital: Night Shift” (SOAPnet, 2007-08). She branched out into writing when, along with Digby Diehl, Hughes penned a successful soap opera-themed novel Soapsuds, which offered up enough bitchy bon mots and over-the-top events to delight readers. The actress continued to earn credits on a variety of projects as varied as the procedural “CSI: NY” (CBS, 2004- ), the gymnastics teen drama “Make It or Break It” (ABC Family, 2009- ) and the well-reviewed romance “Like Crazy” (2011) which also featured Jennifer Lawrence.

By Jonathan Riggs

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

William Devane was born in 1939 in Albany, New York. He made his movie debut in “In the Country” in 1967 . He had a small part in ” McCabe & Mrs. Miller” in 1971, but what made his reputation was his turn as President John F. Kennedy in the The Missiles of October (1974) (TV), a 1973 telefilm about the Cuban Missile Crisis. He made a bid for stardom with major roles in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Family Plot (1976) and John Schlesinger‘s Marathon Man (1976) (both 1976) and The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) (1977), as well as roles in Schlesinger’s Yanks (1979) and the TV adaptation of James Jones‘ classic barracks drama “From Here to Eternity” (1979). However, any chances for a successful movie career essentially were doomed by the monumental failure of Schlesinger’s comedy Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), one of the great flops its time, bringing in only $2 million at the box office against a $24 million budget. Devane moved over to nighttime series TV, playing the cad Greg Sumner on the night-time soap opera “Knots Landing” (1979) for 10 years.

A look a like to John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his ability to acquire as needed a Boston accent, Devane continues to be in demand as politicians, including presidents, in such shows as “The West Wing” (1999), “24” (2001), and “Stargate SG-1” (1997).

TCM overview:

A charismatic lead on television and in the occasional feature, William Devane was an inveterate scene-stealer whose devilish grin and intense focus were among the highlights of such projects as “The Missiles of October” (ABC, 1974), “Marathon Man” (1976), “Rolling Thunder” (1977) and the soap “Knots’ Landing” (CBS, 1980-1993). Devane’s versatility allowed him to play presidents and politicians, including several Kennedys, with the same degree of believability as his evil but lovable Greg Sumner on “Knots.” Along the way, he netted Emmy nods, a fistful of Soap Opera Digest Awards, and a favored player status among television audiences that was reserved for very few performers over the course of a four-decade career. As much in demand in his seventh decade as he was at the beginning of his career, Devane remained one of the most respected and appreciated actors to frequent the small screen.

Born Sept. 5, 1937 in Albany, NY, he was the son of Joseph Devane, chauffeur to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his tenure as Governor of New York from 1929 to 1932. Acting became his primary interest during high school, when he began acting in neighborhood theater. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Art, he began making the rounds in off-Broadway theater, most notably in the political spoof “MacBird” (1967) which marked his first portrayal of a Kennedy (Robert). That same year, he made his film debut in the 16mm independent production, “In the Country,” as a radical who reflects on his life while in hiding. Guest appearances on television soon followed, as did small but notable roles in films like “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971) as a town lawyer who urges Warren Beatty’s McCabe to stand up against a powerful mining concern. That same year, he scored a personal triumph on stage in the Broadway revival of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Devane’s breakthrough screen role was, not surprisingly, as a Kennedy in the suspenseful TV movie, “The Missiles of October” (ABC, 1974). His portrayal of President John F. Kennedy in the midst of the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis earned him an Emmy nomination and delivered him to leading man status. For much of the 1970s, Devane played men of intense gravitas, including blacklisted radio personality John Henry Faulk in “Fear on Trial” (CBS, 1975), which earned him a second Emmy nomination, and the cold-hearted government agent Janeway in John Schlesinger’s “Marathon Man” (1976). Occasionally, his characters displayed an unpredictable, even dangerous side, like his murderous jeweler in “Family Plot” (1976), Alfred Hitchcock’s final film, or his damaged and mutilated POW who avenges his murdered family with brutal ruthlessness in the Paul Schrader-penned “Rolling Thunder” (1977). Despite the serious or even unsavory elements of these roles, Devane’s exuberant personality always made them personable and even charming.

However, the failure of several high-profile projects, most notably Schlesinger’s “Yanks” (1979) and the expensive “Honky Tonk Freeway” (1981), sent Devane to television for most of the next three decades. There were occasional returns to features, especially as the doomed paterfamilias in the harrowing “Testament” (1983), but Devane was otherwise exceptionally busy in TV projects like “A Woman Named Jackie” (NBC), which cast him as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ hard-living father “Black Jack” Bouvier. His greatest success of the period was the primetime soap “Knots Landing,” which brought him onboard during its fifth season as Greg Sumner, an aspiring state senator who showed his true colors almost immediately by blackballing his best friend Mack (Kevin Dobson) in an ill-gotten land deal. Soon after, Sumner was teamed with the series’ chief villainess, Abby (Donna Mills) to make life miserable for most of the other characters; as always, Devane found a way to make this down-and-dirty heel charming and even sexy, complete with his Cheshire Cat grin. In later seasons, Sumner was partnered romantically with Mack’s illegitimate daughter, the much younger Paige Matheson (Nicollette Sheridan) for more underhanded dealings, though both actors frequently tinged their performances with the blackest of comedy and a somewhat surprising chemistry. For his 10-year stint on “Knots,” Devane received three Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Golden Globe nomination between 1988 and 1991.

In addition to his acting roles, Devane had several credits as writer and director to his name. He penned four episodes of “Knots” and directed an additional four; earlier in his career, he was credited with providing additional dialogue to the experimental feature “The 300 Year Weekend” and co-wrote the original story for “The Million Dollar Rip-Off” (NBC, 1976), an Emmy-nominated caper movie with Freddie Prinze. Devane also owned and operated a horse ranch and a popular Italian restaurant in Indio, CA. “Knots” also made Devane an in-demand performer on television in the decades following its departure from the airwaves. There were scores of subsequent series, most notably “Phenom” (ABC, 1993-94), with Devane as the fast-talking coach of a tennis prodigy who butts heads with her single mom (Judith Light), and the doomed “Michael Richards Show” (NBC, 2000) as the employer of Richards’ bumbling detective. Devane was also put to solid use in the Mel Gibson thriller “Payback” (1999) and in “Space Cowboys” (2000), where his NASA ground controller aided Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones’ rescue mission in space.

His longtime association with all things Presidential and Kennedy-esque lead to some notable guest shots on popular series in the early 21st century. “The West Wing” (NBC, 199-2004) reunited him with his “Missiles of October” co-star Martin Sheen (who later also played JFK) in two episodes that cast him as the Secretary of State, while on “24” (Fox, 2001-2010), he played Secretary of Defense James Heller, who attempted to aid Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) in bringing down President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin). He later assumed the highest office in the land for “Stargate SG-1” (Showtime/Sci-Fi Channel, 1997-2007), which cast him as President Henry Hayes in season seven.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Francesco Quinn obituary in “The Los Angeles Times” in 2011.

Francesco Quinn the actor son of movie legend Anthony Quinn, had a promising debut with a supporting role in the Oscar-winning film “Platoon” before carving out a journeyman career with steady TV work and straight-to-video productions. He died Friday evening of a suspected heart attack at 48.

Quinn collapsed on the street where he lived in Malibu while walking home from a nearby store with one of his sons, said Lt. James Royal of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Malibu/Lost Hills station. He was pronounced dead at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center. Quinn’s agent, Arlene Thornton, said in a statement that the cause had not been determined but that he was believed to have suffered a heart attack.

One of a reported 13 children of Anthony Quinn, the Academy Award-winning actor remembered for his title role in “Zorba the Greek,” Francesco Daniele Quinn was born in Rome in 1963. His mother, Iolanda Addolori, was an Italian wardrobe assistant who met his father on the set of the film “Barabbas” and later married him. The couple had two more children.

Francesco Quinn’s ancestry — Anthony was of Mexican-Irish descent — allowed him to portray a range of characters.ADVERTISEMENT

After playing the drug-dealing soldier Rhah in “Platoon,” Oliver Stone’s 1986 Vietnam War drama that won the Academy Award for best picture, Quinn appeared in more than a dozen films. In “The Tonto Woman,” a Western based on an Elmore Leonard story that became a 2008 Academy Award nominee for best live-action short, he played a Mexican gunslinger.

On television, he had recurring roles in prime time series, including “JAG,” “24″ and “The Shield,” and from 1999 to 2001, he played writer Tomas del Cerro on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” He also played the young Santiago in a TV movie version of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” that starred his father as the title character.

Quinn’s survivors include his wife, Valentina Castellani-Quinn, and three children. He was previously married to Julie McCann.

His father died at 86 in 2001.

Mark Stevens. IMDB.

For a brief period in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Mark Stevens starred in some superior Hollywood dramas. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1916. His movies include “The Dark Corner” with Lucille Ball in 1946, “The Street With No Name” with Richard Widmark, “The Snake Pit” with Olivia de Havilland and “Please Believe Me” with Deborah Kerr. He died in Spain in 1994.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

Mark Stevens, a second-tier star during the 1940s and 1950s, was born Richard William Stevens in Cleveland, Ohio in 1916 (the dates in reference books vary between 1915 and 1920). Of Scottish and English heritage, the freckle-faced boy with the reddish hair had a father who was an American flyer. But his parents divorced while he was young and Mark was sent to England. He resided briefly with his maternal grandparents until a second move to Canada, where he was raised by his older sister. Slight in stature, Mark built himself up through athletics. A back injury, however, kept him from serving in WWII.

Mark’s initial interest appeared to be art, which he studied for a time, but a gift for singing led to night club work. He began turning to acting as well and performed in musicals and legit plays throughout the various Canadian provinces. Radio broadcasting turned into another creative outlet for Mark. He eventually returned to his Ohio hometown in the early 1940s and won lead roles at the Cleveland Playhouse.

Notice here on the stage eventually had him setting his sights on Hollywood. Being young and talented combined with a 4-F classification that actually helped gain him a studio contract, first at Warner Brothers where he was groomed in bit roles and was briefly billed as Stephen Richards. That name as quickly changed by Darryl F. Zanuck to Mark Stevens after Mark’s move to 20th Century Fox.

They darkened his hair and covered up the freckles to enhance his serious good looks. He soon materialized into a prime film noir contender with such films as Within These Walls (1945) and the excellent film noirThe Dark Corner (1946) (interestingly starring but 4th billed!), the latter pairing him up with a cast-against-type Lucille Ball five years before her “I Love Lucy” fame.

One of his best roles, however, was as an FBI man at odds with Richard Widmark in The Street with No Name (1948). On the musical front, Mark appeared rather colorlessly in such tunefests as I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947) and Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) in which he seemed overshadowed by his leading ladies.

Indeed, despite his good looks and abilities, Stevens was constantly (and unfairly) compared to a lesser version of John Payne or Alan Ladd. In retrospect, many of his capable performances leave viewers thinking he was a producer’s casting Plan B.

TV played a big part in the 1950s with two classic dramatic series coming his way. A move into producing with Mark Stevens Television, Inc. and music publishing with Mark Stevens Music, Inc. prodded him to consider retiring from acting, although he occasionally did guest spots on such TV dramas as Wagon Train (1957) and Playhouse 90 (1956), occasionally directing as well. A jack of all trades, Mark moved to Europe in the late 1950s and spent a decade operating a restaurant in Spain while writing novels (This, Then My Mind; Run Fast, Run Far; The Ex-Patriots).

He was married for some time to actress Annelle Hayes and had two children, Mark Richard and Arrelle. His rather nomadic existence eventually led to him not only filing for bankruptcy but headed for divorce in 1962.

Mark remained content in Europe, however, for most of his later life, but he did work in Hollywood and owned and maintained apartment buildings as well. He married a second time to a Swedish woman named Hilde. He died of cancer in Majores, Spain at 77 well-lived years old.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Betty Garrett obituary in “The Guardian” in 2011.

Betty Garrett had a long and distinguished career on film, stage and television in the U.S. She was born in 1919 in Missouri. She had a movie contract with MGM and made such classic movies as “On the Town” and “Words and Music”. In her later years she was very popular on U.S. television in the series “Laverne and Shirley” and All in the Family”. She was married to actor Larry Parks. She died in 2011 at the age of 91.

Ronald Bergan’s “Guardian” obituary:

The most famous role played by the all-round entertainer Betty Garrett, who has died aged 91, was Brunhilde Esterhazy, the taxi driver in Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly’s musical On the Town (1949). In the film, she introduces herself to a shy sailor played by Frank Sinatra and asks him: “Why don’t you come up to my place?” She is soon vigorously chasing him around her cab, rejecting any of his suggestions about what to see in New York with the rapid retort: “My place!”

In Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), Garrett had pursued Sinatra with equal zeal, assuring him by singing It’s Fate, Baby, It’s Fate. She also panted after Red Skelton in Neptune’s Daughter (1949), begging him not to leave her apartment with the song Baby, It’s Cold Outside. This was a gender role-reversal, contrasting with Esther Williams resisting Ricardo Montalban’s pleas in the same number in that film. Garrett played these man-hungry characters with a great deal of zest, humour and self-mockery, as well as proving herself an excellent singer of witty ditties and no mean dancer. As Sinatra sings to her in On the Town, she was “awful … awful good”.

However, she never had the show-business career she deserved. Primarily, Garrett was not a beauty along the lines of Esther Williams, Vera-Ellen or Janet Leigh, three of the stars she worked with in her meagre filmography, but she also suffered from the way she supported her husband, Larry Parks, whom she married in 1944, through difficult times.

In the early 1950s, Parks, who impersonated Al Jolson in The Jolson Story (1946), one of Columbia’s biggest hits, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee, declared his past membership of the Communist party and refused to name names. As a result, Columbia dropped Parks from their roster, and other studios shunned him. Garrett, who was also a member of the Communist party in the 1940s, had taken time off to bring up their two sons. She did not return to the screen until several years later– ironically, for Columbia – in My Sister Eileen (1955).

Garrett was born in St Joseph, Missouri. Her father was an alcoholic travelling salesman, who died when she was young. She won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and made her stage debut in 1938 in crowd scenes in Orson Welles’s Mercury theatre production of Danton’s Death by Georg Büchner. She then became a dancer with the Martha Graham company and sang in nightclubs and resort hotels.

Between stage work, she had jobs as a shop assistant and an elevator operator. After appearing in the Broadway revue Let Freedom Sing (1942), which lasted for eight performances, Garrett’s big break came in 1943 in Cole Porter’s Something for the Boys, starring Ethel Merman. But it was her singing and her personality, shown across seven roles, in the revue Call Me Mister (1946), which won her an MGM contract.

Her screen debut was in Big City (1948) as a saloon singer whom an Irish cop (George Murphy) wants to marry in order to supply an orphan (Margaret O’Brien) with a mother. Garrett added a little spice to the sugary concoction, and sang Ok’l Baby Dok’l. She was then badly miscast in Words and Music (1948), the fanciful biopic of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Mickey Rooney played Hart, who is smitten with Garrett’s character, but she feels she can never love him because he is too short. (Actually, the real Hart was gay.)

At least she got to sing There’s a Small Hotel rather touchingly. It was in her three musicals in 1949 – Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Neptune’s Daughter and On the Town – that Garrett really came into her own. The following year, she and Parks appeared at the London Palladium in a programme of songs, before the unofficial blacklist struck. Garrett’s return to the screen in My Sister Eileen revealed her versatility. She played the vivacious, literary-minded sister of Leigh and belted out some good songs. After the minor thriller The Shadow On the Window (1957), in which she played a mother kidnapped by three delinquents, she gave up the cinema to do theatre, often with her husband until his death in 1975.

As vibrant as ever, Garrett also appeared in two successful TV series, All in the Family (1973-75) and Laverne & Shirley (1976-81). In the former, based on the British series Till Death Us Do Part, Garrett was the bigoted Archie Bunker’s liberal neighbour, Irene. In the latter, she played Edna, the eponymous single girls’ tolerant landlady. There followed a number of TV guest spots, the last of which was in Grey’s Anatomy (2006).

Garrett returned to the big screen after 50 years in two lampoons written and directed by Larry Blamire: Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007), a takeoff of 1950s sci-fi movies, and Dark and Stormy Night (2009), in which Garrett co-starred with a man in gorilla suit. Appearing in both films was her son, the actor Andrew Parks. He survives her, along with her other son, the composer Garrett Parks, and a granddaughter.

• Betty Garrett, actor, born 23 May 1919; died 12 February 2011 The above “Guardian” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Margot Grahame was a British actress who had lead roles in Hollywood movies of the 1930’s but continued her career in the UK from the 1950’s on. She was born in 1911 in Canterbury. She made her film debut in 1930 in the British film “Rookery Nook”. By 1935 she was in Hollywood where she made “The Informer” for John Ford and “The Buckaneer” for Cecil B. De Mille. She died in 1982 in London.

IMDB entry:

Perhaps best remembered as the prostitute inamorata of Gypo Nolan (in that AA-winning performance by Victor McLaglen) in John Ford‘s The Informer (1935).

Britain’s answer to Jean Harlow was dubbed the “Aluminum Blonde” during her peak; however, she turned into a redhead when she returned to films in the post-war years.

She developed a drinking problem in the early 1970s following the death of her third husband and became a recluse.

The highest-paid actress in England during the 1930s, she suffered from camera fright.

Married three times, she had no children.

Reared and stage-trained in South Africa, this statuesque blonde appeared in several UK films of the early 1930s before going to Hollywood, where she performed in a number of films of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

Spent her childhood in South Africa where she was educated at Ladies College Durban. She first appeared on stage there in 1926 with a touring company under Dennis Neilson-Terry and accompanied them to London the following year. She made her film debut in 1929.

Tina Louise was born in 1934 in New York City. She starred in such 1950’s movies as “God’s Little Acre”, and “Day of the Outlaw” in 1959. She had a major success on television in the aeries “Gilligan’s Island” in 1964. In the seventies she starred in “The Stepford Wives”.

TCM overview:

A sultry figure in film and on television and stage since the early 1950s, Tina Louise was, for most viewers, the one and only Ginger Grant, the movie star castaway on the enduring TV series “Gilligan’s Island” (ABC, 1966-69). The breathy, vampish Ginger was an object of erotic fascination for most of the men on the tiny island, as well as at homes across the country, but Louise was used to such attention, having earned wolf whistles since her teenage years as a magazine model and chorus dancer. Hot-blooded turns in Broadway productions of “Li’l Abner” and “God’s Little Acre” (1958) preceded her turn as Ginger that, according to Louise, capsized her career, stereotyping her as the titian-haired, Marilyn Monroe-esque bombshell. In response to this pigeonholing, she distanced herself from any cast reunions while maintaining a low but active profile on television. Despite her protestations, Ginger remained Louise’s defining role, an icon of sanitized sexuality for over four decades.

Born Tina Blacker in New York City on Feb. 11, 1934, she was the daughter of model Betty Horn, who divorced her husband, a Brooklyn candy store owner, when their daughter was four. The following year, she was shipped off to a private school, where she remained until she was eight years old. Her mother remarried Dr. John Myers, who brought Tina into the lap of luxury. While attending Scarborough High School in Westchester, NY, she earned her stage moniker when a drama teacher learned that she had no middle name. She was subsequently dubbed Tina Louise Blacker, and the surname would be soon dropped. At 17, Louise began studying drama and singing in the hopes of landing a role on Broadway. To support herself, she posed for numerous men’s magazines, and cultivated a sultry image that earned her publicity in New York social pages and gossip magazines. No less of a pop culture figure than Lenny Bruce singled her out as a lust object in his routines. While her statuesque figure was splashed across the tabloid pages, Louise began to slowly make her way into Broadway via the chorus line.

Her official acting debut came in 1952’s “Two’s Company,” a disaster-plagued musical revue built around Bette Davis. She enjoyed greater success with “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac” (1953), a musical revue that won a Tony for star Harry Belafonte, while launching her on-screen career with appearances on early variety series and anthology programs like “Climax!” (CBS, 1954-57). An early glimpse of stardom came when she filled out the skimpy costume of Al Capp’s earthy temptress Appassionata Von Climax in the original Broadway production of “Li’l Abner,” though Stella Stevens played the role in the 1967 film version. In 1958, she made her feature film debut as a backwoods temptress in Anthony Man’s “God’s Little Acre,” a racy adaptation of the controversial Erskine Caldwell novel about dirty doings in rural Georgia. Frequent shots of Louise’s heaving décolletage added to the furor over the film. A 1957 album, It’s Time for Tina, featuring breathy renditions of standards and Coleman Hawkins on saxophone, furthered her alluring screen image.

Louise strove for more dramatic roles, but found them to be few and far between. A marital scandal involving her mother and stepfather brought her back to the gossip pages, so she took a page from numerous fledging American actors and headed for Europe to work in the continent’s blossoming film industry. There, she filmed a pair of sword-and-sandal costume epics, as well as a bit part for Roberto Rossellini’s “Garibaldi” (1960), about the Italian national hero who helped to unify his country. These efforts did little for Louise’s stateside career, so she began studying at the Actors Studio upon her return to America in 1961. She soon resumed steady work in features and television; one of her last pre-“Gilligan” movie roles was as a tempo-impaired dancer in “For Those Who Think Young” (1964), a surfing comedy that co-starred Bob Denver as a beach bum. That same year, Louise left the troubled Broadway musical “Fade Out – Fade In,” starring Carol Burnett, to assume the role of a movie star on a ridiculously silly comedy series she had little hope would succeed.

Now officially a cast member of “Gilligan’s Island,” Louise was not the first person to play movie star Ginger Grant; in the unaired 1963 pilot, actress Kit Smythe played a secretary by that name who was among the castaways, but producer Sherwood Schwartz changed the character to add a dose of glamour to the characters. In early scripts, Ginger was written as a more sarcastic and mean-spirited figure, but Louise balked at such a depiction, preferring to play Ginger as a Marilyn Monroe manqué, complete with breathy tones. The issue was the first of many clashes between producers and Louise, who reportedly believed that Ginger was the focus of the show, despite the title’s claims to the contrary. In subsequent interviews, castmates likes Denver and especially Dawn Wells, who played farm girl Mary Ann, cited their struggles to get along with Louise.

After “Gilligan” came to an unexpected close in 1967, Louise strove to distance herself from the series and roles like Ginger. Though she complained that the show had typecast her as a glamorous figure, she appeared to have no trouble finding work throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. Many of her roles, including a femme fatale in “The Wrecking Crew” (1969) and a brief stint as J.R. Ewing’s secretary and lover, Julie Gray, on the first season of “Dallas” (CBS, 1978-1991) were based more on her aesthetic appeal than her acting ability, though she did receive fine showcases for her talents, including a turn as a heroin addict on “Kojak” (CBS, 1973-1978) and a convincingly evil prison honoree in the graphic women-in-prison movie, “Nightmare in Badham County” (ABC, 1976). Her performance as a strong feminist who was transformed into a docile suburbanite in “The Stepford Wives” (1975) also reaped positive critical praise.

Louise refused to participate in any of the numerous “Gilligan” TV-movies or animated spin-offs. She was replaced by Judith Baldwin in the live-action “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island” (NBC, 1978) and “The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island” (NBC, 1979), and later by Constance Forslund in “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island” (NBC, 1981), while Jane Webb and Dawn Wells provided the voice of Ginger for the Saturday morning cartoons “The New Adventures of Gilligan” (ABC, 1974-76) and “Gilligan’s Planet” (CBS, 1982-83). However, she did appear alongside several of the surviving cast members on an episode of “Roseanne” (ABC, 1988-1997) in which the sitcom’s cast played the “Gilligan” castaways, while Denver, Louise, Wells and Russell Johnson played “Roseanne” characters, with Louise handling Roseanne herself. In 2005, she put to rest long-standing rumors of animosity between her and Denver by eulogizing him in an issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Despite her career ambitions, Louise continued to play well-heeled, sultry types into the 1980s and 1990s. She was a wealthy suburbanite in Robert Altman’s disastrous “O.C. and Stiggs” (1985), and then moved uptown to play a moneyed New Yorker in Tom DiCillo’s offbeat comedy “Johnny Suede” (1992). Television offered the majority of her appearances, with stints on the daytime soaps “Rituals” (syndicated, 1984-85) and “All My Children” (ABC, 1970- ). In addition to her acting career, Louise was a committed advocate for children’s literacy. She served as a volunteer reading teacher in the New York City school system, and penned two books for young readers, When I Grow Up(2007) and What Does a Bee Do? (2009). A third publication, Sunday: A Memoir, was released in 1997.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.