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- A reliable featured player and occasional co-star, actress Jeff Donnell was born Jean Marie Donnell in a boys' reformatory in South Windham, Maine in 1921, the younger of schoolteacher Mildred and penologist Howard's two daughters. She took piano and dance lessons during her childhood in Maryland; she loved the popular "Mutt and Jeff" cartoon strip so much that she gave herself the nickname "Jeff."
She studied at the Yale School of Drama and performed briefly in summer stock before marrying her first husband at 19: Bill Anderson, a drama teacher from her Boston alma mater, Leland Powers Drama School. Together they started the Farragut Playhouse in Rye, New Hampshire. Almost immediately a Columbia Studios talent scout noticed her in a play there and quickly signed her.
Whisked to Los Angeles, Jeff made her first appearance in the war-era movie My Sister Eileen (1942) while husband Bill was hired on as a dialogue director. Hardly the chic, glamour-girl type, Jeff possessed a perky, unpretentious, tomboyish quality that worked comfortably in unchallenging "B" escapism --usually the breezy girlfriend or spirited bobbysoxer. Typical of her movie load at the time were the fun but innocuous Doughboys in Ireland (1943), What's Buzzin', Cousin? (1943), Nine Girls (1944), A Thousand and One Nights (1945), Carolina Blues (1944), and Eadie Was a Lady (1945). She also enlivened a number of musical westerns that prominently featured Ken Curtis (Festus of "Gunsmoke").
On a rare occasion, Jeff found herself in "A" pictures, most notably the Bogart film noir classic In a Lonely Place (1950), but more often than not she played the obliging or supportive friend of the leading lady. Unable to break away from her established "B" ranking, she later tried a move to RKO Studios (1949) but fared no better or worse. She did make a successful move to TV in the early 50s and was seen in a number of comedy and dramatic parts.
Long separated from and finally divorcing her first husband in 1953 (they had one son, Michael, and an adopted daughter, Sarah Jane), she married rising film actor Aldo Ray in 1954, but the marriage crumbled within two years, beset by drinking problems; she also suffered a miscarriage. She went on to marry and divorce twice more. As the 1950s rolled on, she earned steady work on TV, bringing to life comedian George Gobel's often-mentioned wife Alice on the sitcom The George Gobel Show (1954) for four seasons. She also had the opportunity to play Gidget's mom in a couple of the popular lightweight movies of the early 1960s -- Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963).
Most daytime fans will remember Jeff's long-running stint on the soap drama General Hospital (1963) as Stella Fields, the Quartermain housekeeper, which started in 1979 and lasted until her death in 1988. Dogged by ill health in later years (including a serious bout with Addison's disease), Jeff died peacefully of a heart attack in her sleep at age 66. - Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Jesse Lasky Jr. was born in the golden age of Hollywood. The son of the man who produced the film town's first feature in a barn, grew up surrounded by the greatest stars, writers, and musicians of the 1920s. After attending Dijon University in France, he returned home to Hollywood to find his world turned upside down by his father's disastrous reversal of fortune on the stock market. Young Jesse, who had already had his first book of poetry, Songs from the Heart of a Boy, published at nineteen, had always wanted to be a writer. He got a job as a lowly reader and briefly dated Jean Harlow. Eventually he became a screen writer and his career boasts over 60 films for some of Hollywood's best known directors including Hitchcock, Sam Fuller, and his father Jesse Sr.'s ex-partner Cecil B. De Mille for whom he wrote many landmark films including The Ten Commandments (1956). In the sixties he settled in London and with his wife, Pat Silver, wrote many of the iconic British series of the day, including The Saint, Danger Man, The Prisoner, Space 1999, The Persuaders and The Baron. Lasky's collaboration with Silver on the first series of Chandlertown, the Philip Marlowe teleplay starring Powers Booth, is considered a classic by mystery buffs. Produced plays include Ghost Town, Love Scene and The Vicious Circle. Books include Spindrift, Naked in a Cactus Garden, the Offer, and his amusing and unvarnished autobiography, Whatever Happened to Hollywood?.- Filippo Trincia was born on 14 January 1923 in Rome, Italy. He was an actor, known for Un sacco bello (1980) and Orchestra Rehearsal (1978). He died on 11 April 1988 in Rome, Italy.
- Actor
Albert Ferris was born on 12 February 1902 in York, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor. He died on 11 April 1988 in Santa Ana, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Pauline Alpert was born on 27 December 1906 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Katz' Pajamas (1935) and What Price Piano (1927). She died on 11 April 1988 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA.