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1-9 of 9
- Jean Willes is best known for her roles in a number of B-movies in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as on the small screen. Lovely and curvaceous, she usually played hard-boiled gold-diggers, party girls, gun molls, and saloon girls. She came off as a wily, smarter version of Barbara Nichols or Iris Adrian, and although she was versatile, she never rose to the first tier of stardom; in retrospect, she seems to have been capable of much more than she was given during her three-decade-plus career.
Born in Los Angeles on April 15, 1923, she was raised in Utah and in Seattle. Interested in an acting career, she returned to the town of her birth and in 1942 started showing up in comedy film shorts for Columbia under her birth name. She was a smart and sexy foil to, among others, such enjoyable comics as Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde, Eddie Foy Jr., Joe DeRita, Sterling Holloway, and Hugh Herbert. After bit parts in such feature-length films as So Proudly We Hail! (1943), Here Come the Waves (1944), and Salty O'Rourke (1945), she began earning co-star status in such post-war feature-length programs as Revenue Agent (1950) opposite Douglas Kennedy, in A Yank in Indo-China (1952), and in one of Johnny Weissmuller's "Jungle Jim" outings.
Willes became a cheesecake fixture in Hollywood, and film and TV work was steady. But when she was lucky enough to score a role in an "A" film, she was barely glimpsed, as in the Bob Hope comedy Son of Paleface (1952) and the "Best Picture" war epic From Here to Eternity (1953). She had the most screen time in an "A" film as Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy)'s beautiful nurse and, reading between the lines, former paramour, in the sci-fi cult classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). (SPOILER: She succumbs to the aliens, like everyone else aside from Bennell, in the fictional California town of Santa Mira.) She was one of the four women vying for an aging Clark Gable's attentions in The King and Four Queens (1956), one of his lesser efforts. Guest spots on TV gave her greater visibility, and she frequently was seen in westerns (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), Maverick (1957)) and crime dramas (Perry Mason (1957)), usually playing unsympathetic women although occasionally playing more agreeable or respectable characters. Her last feature films roles were in McHale's Navy (1964), The Cheyenne Social Club (1970), and Bite the Bullet (1975). After a few more TV roles, she retired in 1976.
Willes died of liver cancer on January 3, 1989 at the age of 65. Her second husband, NFL football player Gerard Cowhig, died at their Van Nuys, California, home in 1995. They had one son, Gerry. - Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Born in Prairie Hill, Texas, in 1909, lovely Nell O'Day had the obvious breeding credentials to become a leading lady of westerns. She began as a child dancer in the early 1920s, later performing with the Tommy Atkins Sextet. This led to a part in the early musical King of Jazz (1930) and the stage play "Fine and Dandy" with dancer Eleanor Powell. This was impetus enough to make her stay and try her luck at a film career. A string of comedy shorts with Harry Langdon began things off, along with a few secondary parts in feature films, including This Side of Heaven (1934) with Lionel Barrymore, Woman in the Dark (1934) with Fay Wray and a juicy part in an interesting exploitation film for low-rent producer Willis Kent, The Road to Ruin (1934). In the 1940s she joined Universal's roster of western players and, thanks to her experience as a horsewoman, won a recurring cowgirl role in a series of hoss operas opposite star Johnny Mack Brown and his sidekick Fuzzy Knight. She was "second lead" in the horror film Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) with Maria Montez and went on to appear in westerns for other studios, including Republic and Monogram. She returned to the stage on occasion, and retired in 1945 after performing in the Broadway play "Many Happy Returns." She then turned full-time to writing; one success was the play "The Bride of Denmark Hill," which was later turned into a BBC-TV production in England. Interspersed were a couple of marriages and divorces. She died in 1989.- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Robert Thomas was born on 28 September 1927 in Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France. He was a writer and actor, known for 8 Women (2002), Mon curé chez les Thaïlandaises (1983) and La bonne soupe (1964). He died on 3 January 1989 in Paris, France.- Bahgat Kamar was born on 27 July 1937 in Egypt. He was a writer and actor, known for The Most Dangerous Man in the World (1967), El-Raqesah wa el-Tabbal (1984) and El mughammerun el talata (1966). He died on 3 January 1989 in Cairo, Egypt.
- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Director
Errol Le Cain was born on 5 March 1941 in Singapore. He was a director, known for Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969), Prudence and the Pill (1968) and The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). He was married to Dean Alison Thomson. He died on 3 January 1989.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Art Department
Maria Olejniczak was born on 4 July 1923 in Poddebice, Lódzkie, Poland. Maria was an assistant director and director, known for Dwie brygady (1950), Trudna milosc (1954) and Zaloga (1952). Maria died on 3 January 1989 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.- Marguerite Warner was born on 4 January 1911 in Austin, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for One Rainy Afternoon (1936), Confessions of a Co-Ed (1931) and Young Sinners (1931). She died on 3 January 1989 in Mission Hills, California, USA.
- Murad Kostanyan was born on 25 August 1902 in Haftvan, Salmas, Persia. He was an actor, known for Sevani dzknorsnere (1939), Sirtn e yergum (1957) and Svet i teni (1933). He died on 3 January 1989 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, USSR [now Armenia].
- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Johannes Knittel was born on 11 August 1910 in Waltrop, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Musterknaben (1959), Der Fackelträger (1957) and Der Arzt von Bothenow (1961). He died on 3 January 1989 in Berlin, Germany.