Canadian Actors of the Classic Era
Canadians who were active on screen from the 1900's-1960's.
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- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Legendary actor Glenn Ford was born Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford in Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne, Quebec, Canada, to Hannah Wood (Mitchell) and Newton Ford, a railroad executive. His family moved to Santa Monica, California when he was eight years old. His acting career began with plays at high school, followed by acting in West Coast, a traveling theater company.
Ford was discovered in 1939 by Tom Moore, a talent scout for 20th Century Fox. He subsequently signed a contract with Columbia Pictures the same year. Ford's contract with Columbia marked a significant departure in that studio's successful business model. Columbia's boss, Harry Cohn, had spent decades observing other studios'-most notably Warner Brothers-troubles with their contract stars and had built his poverty-row studio around their loan-outs. Basically, major studios would use Columbia as a penalty box for unruly behavior-usually salary demands or work refusals. The cunning Cohn usually assigned these stars (his little studio could not normally afford then) into pictures, and the studio's status rose immensely as the 1930s progressed. Understandably, Cohn had long resisted developing his own stable of contract stars (he'd first hired Peter Lorre in 1934 but didn't know what to do with him) but had relented in the late 1930s, first adding Rosalind Russell, then signing Ford and fellow newcomer William Holden. Cohn reasoned that the two prospects could be used interchangeably, should one become troublesome. Although often competing for the same parts, Ford and Holden became good friends. Their careers would roughly parallel each other through the 1940s, until Holden became a superstar through his remarkable association with director Billy Wilder in the 1950s.
Ford made his official debut in Fox's Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939), and continued working in various small roles throughout the 1940s until his movie career was interrupted to join the Marines in World War II. Ford continued his military career in the Naval Reserve well into the Vietnam War, achieving the rank of captain. In 1943 Ford married legendary tap dancer Eleanor Powell, and had one son, Peter Ford. Like many actors returning to Hollywood after the war (including James Stewart and Holden (who had already acquired a serious alcohol problem), he found it initially difficult to regain his career momentum. He was able to resume his movie career with the help of Bette Davis, who gave him his first postwar break in the 1946 movie A Stolen Life (1946). However, it was not until his acclaimed performance in a 1946 classic film noir, Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, that he became a major star and one of the the most popular actors of his time. He scored big with the film noir classics The Big Heat (1953) and Blackboard Jungle (1955), and was usually been cast as a calm and collected everyday-hero, showing courage under pressure. Ford continued to make many notable films during his prestigious 50-year movie career, but he is best known for his fine westerns such as 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Rounders (1965). Ford pulled a hugely entertaining turn in The Sheepman (1958) and many more fine films. In the 1970s, Ford made his television debut in the controversial The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970) and appeared in two fondly remembered television series: Cade's County (1971) and The Family Holvak (1975). During the 1980s and 1990s, Ford limited his appearance to documentaries and occasional films, including a nice cameo in Superman (1978).
Glenn Ford is remembered fondly by his fans for his more than 100 excellent films and his charismatic silver screen presence.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Although she was presented in 1969 the first Film Star of Tomorrow by The Motion Picture Exhibitors of Canada, the status of Sharon Acker as a star never materialized. Not that she was inactive, quite the opposite, but she worked almost only for TV and appeared only in a few undistinguished movies. She will, nevertheless, remain remembered for her role as Lee Marvin's ex-wife in John Boorman's classic Point Blank (1967). The victim of Marvin's rough manners, Acker as Lynne left a deep impact on male brains. Born in 1935, the Canadian-born actress started her film career in England when the play she was in, "Lucky Jim", Kingsley Amis' classic, was made into a movie. But she was not seen in many movies, except during the sixties, either in Canada or in the U.S. Meanwhile, she was very active on TV, first in Canada from the age of 19, then in the U.S. in made-for-TV movies or series like Star Trek (1966), Mission: Impossible (1966), Gunsmoke (1955), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), Barnaby Jones (1973), etc. She was a regular in the series The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970) for one year and played "Della Street" in the short-lived The New Perry Mason (1973). A talented actress seen too little in movie theaters.- Slight, birdlike Jean Adair came to the screen after playing a succession of crotchety or maternal roles on the stage. She was born Violet McNaughton in Ontario, Canada, and absolved her acting studies in Chicago. After extensive touring with local stock companies and a few seasons on the vaudeville Orpheum Circuit performing in one-act plays, she landed a starring role on Broadway in the 1922 comedy hit "It's a Boy!". From then on, she was never out of work.
The screen, alas, saw very little of Jean Adair. She danced a waltz with Gene Kelly in a minor musical, Living in a Big Way (1947). Otherwise, we remember her from her one indelible performance, a role she created for the original stage version of the long-running black farce and subsequent film version, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944): as Martha Brewster, one of two goofy spinster aunts (the other was Josephine Hull), who dispatch lonely old geezers by poisoning their elderberry wine. - Claire Adams was born in Winnipeg, Canada (her brother was prolific screenwriter Gerald Drayson Adams), and after her education in that country she was sent to a private school in England, where she studied drama. At the outbreak of World War I, however, she joined the nursing corps and spent the war years as a nurse. At war's end she returned to Canada, but soon left for California to break into films. She made quite a few pictures for producer Benjamin B. Hampton, whom she later married. She had a long career in silents, appearing with such major stars as John Gilbert, Tom Mix and Lon Chaney, but when sound came along she made one picture in 1934, What a Mother-in-Law! (1934), and then retired (Hampton had died in 1932).
She died in Melbourne, Australia, on September 25, 1978. - Amanda Alarie was born on 2 January 1888 in Saint-Jovite, Québec, Canada. She was an actress, known for Tit Coq (1953), Le gros Bill (1949) and La famille Plouffe (1953). She died on 9 December 1965.
- Richard Alden was born in Toronto, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Sadist (1963), Deadline (1980) and Friday the 13th: The Series (1987). He died on 10 June 2022.
- Beth Amos was born on 1 January 1916 in St Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Police Academy (1984), Bullies (1986) and Prom Night (1980). She was married to Robert Bruce Amos. She died on 31 January 1996 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Canadian-born Paul Anka first achieved success in the 1950s as a teenage singing star (and, for the times, an unusual one in that he wrote many of his own songs). Although he appeared in several films, and was quite believable as a nervous, hyper young soldier in The Longest Day (1962) (for which he also composed the theme music), Anka's main interest was music, and he concentrated his efforts into composing (he wrote lyrics for Frank Sinatra's classic "My Way") and nightclub appearances in Las Vegas.- Charles Arling was born on 22 August 1880 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Back to God's Country (1919), Number 99 (1920) and Droppington's Devilish Deed (1915). He died on 21 April 1922 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Julia Arthur was born on 3 May 1868 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Cavell Case (1918), The Common Cause (1919) and His Woman (1919). She was married to Benjamin Pierce Cheney. She died on 28 March 1950 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Joby Baker was born on 26 March 1934 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for Girl Happy (1965), Quincy M.E. (1976) and Key Witness (1960). He was previously married to Dory Previn, Joyce Harriet Winter and Joan Blackman.- Robert Beatty graduated with a B.A. from the University of Toronto and started in amateur dramatics with the Hamilton Player's Guild. For a while, he made a living as a cashier for a gas and fuel company. In order to further hone his acting skills, he made his way to London in 1936 (on the advice of Leslie Howard) to train for acting at RADA. He made his theatrical debut in "Idiot's Delight" at the Apollo, and from there obtained regular work on both stage and screen in bit parts and walk-ons, eventually making his breakthrough on radio as a broadcaster for the BBC. He was famously on hand, reporting eyewitness accounts of the London Blitz for the Overseas News Service during the war years.
On the strength of this, Beatty was promoted to more substantial film roles, beginning with San Demetrio London (1943), in which he played a brash, alcoholic American sailor mellowed by his good-natured British crewmates in the best 'stiff-upper-lip' tradition. This seemed to set the tone for his future screen personae, for he was henceforth typecast as tough, down-to-earth Canadians or Americans, many of them cops or gumshoes in low budget potboilers. That notwithstanding, he had his share of quality assignments as well, notably as loyal friend to IRA fugitive James Mason in Odd Man Out (1947); as a plausible Lord Beaverbrook in The Magic Box (1951); as Lieutenant William Bush, best friend and second-in-command to Gregory Peck's Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951); and as a washed-out heavyweight prizefighter in The Square Ring (1953). Throughout his career, Beatty's stock-in-trade was masculinity, dependability and forthrightness.
Immensely popular on radio, Beatty provided the voice for private eye Philip Odell in a long-running series for the BBC "Light Programme" between 1947 and 1961. From the late 1950's, he also became increasingly prolific on television and as a narrator of documentaries. If his face was not yet recognisable enough, he appeared in commercials for a hair care product. For two years, Beatty starred in his own half-hour series, Dial 999 (1958), as a Canadian mountie seconded to Scotland Yard. On the big screen he was cast as Dr. Ralph Halvorsen in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Towards the end of his lengthy career, he gave one of his finest performances, a thoroughly convincing impersonation of President Ronald Reagan in the documentary-drama Breakthrough at Reykjavik (1987). - Glenn Beck was born on 1 June 1935 in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor, known for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
- Henry Beckman was born on 26 November 1921 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was an actor, known for Marnie (1964), Blood & Guts (1978) and The Brood (1979). He was married to Hillary Beckman and Cheryl Maxwell. He died on 17 June 2008 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
- Actor
- Location Management
- Set Decorator
Hagan Beggs was born on 19 March 1937 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. He was an actor and set decorator, known for Titanic (1996), The Changeling (1980) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Anna Hagan. He died on 16 September 2016 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.- Catherine Bégin was born on 22 April 1939. She was an actress, known for Martyrs (2008), Laurence Anyways (2012) and Covergirl (1983). She died on 29 December 2013 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Juliette Béliveau was born on 28 October 1889 in Nicolet, Québec, Canada. She was an actress, known for Le gros Bill (1949), A Man and His Sin (1949) and La famille Plouffe (1953). She died on 26 August 1975 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Mickey Bennett was born on 28 January 1915 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He was an actor, known for Big Brother (1923), A Boy of the Streets (1927) and Big Pal (1925). He died on 6 September 1950 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
- Casting Director
Françoise Berd was born on 2 March 1923 in Saint-Pacome, Québec, Canada. She was an actress and producer, known for A Special Day (1977), Quintet (1979) and Killing 'em Softly (1982). She died on 10 August 2001 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
William Bertram was born on 19 January 1880 in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and director, known for The Old Maid's Baby (1919), Neal of the Navy (1915) and The Phantom Buster (1927). He was married to Jean. He died on 1 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Len Birman was born on 28 September 1932 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Silver Streak (1976), Captain America (1979) and Draw! (1984). He was married to Ruby Renaut and Harriet Jane Takefman. He died on 10 February 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Lionel and his sister Joyce's father, a barber encouraged their interest in dancing and theatre. Lionel started as a boy actor with the RSC but there was little money in it., When his father died his agent suggested that they switch to light entertainment where there was more money, For a while he danced at The Windmill in London's Soho and he had a few parts in films including The World of Suzi Wong. He married in March 1967 and had 3 children- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Ben Blue was a movie and TV comedian born on September 12, 1901, in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Emigrating to the US, he became a dance instructor and dance school owner, as well as a nightclub proprietor. He began his film career in short subjects for Warner Brothers in 1926, and later worked at the Hal Roach Studios, Paramount and MGM. He also, like his The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) co-star Bob Hope, was a radio comedian. In 1950 he had his own TV series, The Ben Blue Show (1950), and was a regular on The Frank Sinatra Show (1950).
In 1951 Blue began concentrating on managing and appearing in the nightclubs he owned in Hollywood and San Francisco. He made the cover of "TV Guide"'s June 11, 1954, Special Issue along with Alan Young, headlining an edition featuring that season's summer replacement shows. He made a handful of appearances on Ed Sullivan's The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) variety series in 1956 and 1957, and appeared sporadically on other shows, including The Jack Benny Program (1950) in 1960.
In 1958 he shot a pilot for a proposed CBS series, "Ben Blue's Brothers," but it was not picked up, although the pilot was later shown in 1965. Coming out of his self-imposed near-retirement with a bit part in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Blue began making cameo appearances in movie comedies. He also had a regular role on Jerry Van Dyke's short-lived TV series Accidental Family (1967). He made his last appearance on film in the Doris Day comedy Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) and his last TV appearance on Land of the Giants (1968) in 1969.
He died in 1975, and his career papers covering the years 1935 to 1955 were deposited in the Special Collections at the UCLA Library.- Lloyd Bochner had that wonderfully sonorous type of voice that was always tailor-made for radio or for the stage. Unsurprisingly then, by the time he was eleven, Lloyd was already employed as part-time voiceover artist and reader of drama serials by radio stations in Vancouver.
Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Frieda (Kenen) and Charles Abraham Bochner. He was of Russian Jewish and Ukrainian Jewish descent. He made his acting debut as a youth with the Joseph Barrington Juveniles. Lloyd's education at the University of Toronto was interrupted in 1943 by wartime service in the Royal Canadian Navy. However, in 1947, he graduated with a B.A. and a few years later moved to New York to further hone his acting skills. In 1953, he returned to Canada to participate in the inaugural season of the Stratford Festival getting to enact choice Shakespearean roles from Horatio in "Hamlet" to Orsino in "Twelfth Night".
Having made his screen bow in a small Canadian production, The Mapleville Story (1946), Lloyd's first significant exposure in television was as British army officer Nicholas Lacey in the half-hour NBC serial One Man's Family (1949), which had first been performed on radio and starred Bert Lytell and Marjorie Gateson. His real breakthrough came quite a few years later, once having moved to Hollywood, as co-star of the studio-bound crime series Hong Kong (1960). He played local British police-chief Neil Campbell, solving crime in tandem with an American newspaper correspondent (played by Australian actor Rod Taylor). This, in turn, led to other key roles including his almost legendary appearance in the classic The Twilight Zone (1959) episode "To Serve Man" in 1962 (at one time voted 11th in a TV guide poll of 100 best TV episodes of all time). Based on a short story by Damon Knight written in 1950, "To Serve Man" unfolds in flashback as narrated for the viewer by Lloyd's decoding expert Michael Chambers. It has all the elements of great television, with an excellent cast (including Richard Kiel, later known as 'Jaws' from the 'James Bond' movies; and Theodore Marcuse as Citizen Grigori giving an indelible impression of Nikita Khrushchev); and an unexpected and disturbing denouement when it turns out that the supposedly altruistic alien Kanamits have come to earth to harvest humans for food. Lloyd repeated his famous punch-line, "it's a cook book!", years later as a spoof in Leslie Nielsen's The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991).
For most of the 1960s and 1970s, Lloyd was cast in supporting roles, often as mellifluous, meticulously-attired, upper-class snobs, practically guaranteed to harbour treacherous intent. He appeared in several motion pictures, notably as the malicious, smooth villain Frederick Carter who unsuccessfully tangles with Lee Marvin in Point Blank (1967), and in the same year, as homosexual drug dealer Vic Rood on the receiving end of the beating from Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967). However, on the whole, Lloyd's preferred medium was television. He had a recurring role in the long-running soap-opera Dynasty (1981) as Blake Carrington's manipulative rival, Cecil Colby, in league with archvillain Alexis Carrington (Joan Collins). A versatile character actor, Lloyd's clean-cut, aquiline features and quiet air of authority lent themselves to portraying a vast gallery of medical men, soldiers, politicians and executives. Some of these were men of integrity, but like many a good actor, Lloyd rather enjoyed the challenge of playing the scoundrel.
During his half century-long acting career, Lloyd Bochner garnered two Liberty Awards as best television actor, Canada's equivalent of the Emmy Awards. He was also an active member in the Association of Canadian Radio and Television Artists. He died at age 81 of cancer on October 29, 2005 in Santa Monica, California. His children are actors Hart Bochner, Paul Bochner, and Johanna Courtleigh. - Charlotte Boisjoli was born on 12 June 1923 in Québec, Québec, Canada. She was an actress, known for Sous un ciel variable (1993), Laurier (1984) and Ça peut pas être l'hiver, on n'a même pas eu d'été (1980). She was married to Fernand Doré. She died on 30 January 2001.
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
He had an impressive sporting background, Ay high school in Canada he was boxing champion and qualified as a runner for the Junior Olympics, The sport he really shone at was basketball, He qualified for the Olympic Games but never made it because at the time he was working for a radio station in Vancouver which was struggling with 3 announcers on a 24 hour schedule and he was told that if he went it would be the end of his career. He said that it was one of the hardest decisions of his life but he stayed.He once played against the Harlem Globetrotters and his team lost, He has also played a vicious seven a side Canadian game called Box Lacrosse. Today tennis is the only sport he plays regularly except for the odd game of golf or bar billiards at which he is an expert and has a table in his flat, He is an above average tennis player and is a member of Londons 2 most famous tennis clubs - Queens and Hurlingham, He says he often regrets not taking the sport up professionally- Donald Brian was born on 17 February 1875 in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Man Without a Country (1937), The Voice in the Fog (1915) and The Smugglers (1916). He was married to Virginia O'Brien (actress, b. 1896). He died on 22 December 1948 in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Rae Brown was born on 13 March 1913 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Beachcombers (1972), That Cold Day in the Park (1969) and Cariboo Country (1960). She was married to Douglas Brown. She died on 8 December 2000 in British Columbia, Canada.- Clifford Bruce born in Toronto, Canada in 1885, a well-built touch performer who supported in many American silent drama, westerns and action-serial's, first with the Selig Film Company in 1913, followed by Fox studios and later the Metro Film Company in the late 1910's, he's perhaps best remembered as the Gypsy Leader in Pearl White's action-adventure serial 'The Perils of Pauline' for the Pathe Film Company in 1914 and as Tom the Friend in Theda Bara's 'A Fool There Was' directed by Porter Emerson Browne at the Fox Film Company in 1915, he was last seen as Baron Demetrius Strakosch in 'Black Is White' in 1920 released a year after his death, he dead in New York aged only 34 in 1919.
- Actor
- Production Manager
- Director
Born Raymond William Stacy Burr on May 21, 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia, he spent most of his early life traveling. As a youngster, his father moved his family to China, where the elder Burr worked as a trade agent. When the family returned to Canada, Raymond's parents separated. He and his mother moved to Vallejo, California, where she raised him with the aid of her parents. As he got older, Burr began to take jobs to support his mother, younger sister and younger brother. He took jobs as a ranch hand in Roswell, New Mexico; as a deputy sheriff; a photo salesman; and even as a nightclub singer.
During World War II, he served in the United States Navy. In Okinawa, he was shot in the stomach and sent home. In 1946, Burr made his film debut in San Quentin (1946). From there, he appeared in more than 90 films before landing the titular character on Perry Mason (1957), the role for which he was best-known. Decades later, he reprised the role opposite former co-star Barbara Hale in a series of NBC television movies. At age 65, he returned to teaching drama as a professor of theatre at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park.
After a brave battle with cancer, Burr died at age 76 on September 12, 1993 at his ranch home in Geyserville, Sonoma County, California. Married once, the union ended in divorce. He had no children.- Actor
- Casting Department
- Additional Crew
Tom Busby was born on 7 November 1936 in Toronto, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Dirty Dozen (1967), Husbands (1970) and Never Take Candy from A Stranger (1960). He died on 20 September 2003 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.- Barry Cahill was born on 28 May 1921 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was an actor, known for Hang 'Em High (1968), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) and Tick, Tick, Tick (1970). He was married to Rachel Ames. He died on 9 April 2012 in Ventura, California, USA.
- Richard Carlyle was born on 20 March 1914 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Harper (1966), Star Trek (1966) and Lights Out (1946). He died on 15 November 2009 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
When Jack Carson arrived in Hollywood in 1937, he found work at RKO as an extra. His first major acting role came alongside Humphrey Bogart in the romantic comedy Stand-In (1937). After a few years, he developed into a popular character actor who would be seen in a large number of comedies, musicals and a few westerns. Not happy with the direction his career was heading, he went to Warner Brothers in 1941, where the quality of his supporting roles improved. It also did not hurt to be in films that starred James Cagney, such as The Strawberry Blonde (1941) and The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941).
After three years, he starred with Jane Wyman in Make Your Own Bed (1944) and, again, in The Doughgirls (1944). Carson would play the nice guy with the heart of gold who was still a nice guy even when he was angry. He would take the double take and the quizzical look to a higher level, but he could also act in dramas. He provided a good portrayal of "Albert" in The Hard Way (1943) and was acclaimed for his performance in Mildred Pierce (1945). However, it was comedies that provided most of his work. He teamed up with his old friend, Dennis Morgan, for several films in the tradition of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. It was in the 1940s that Carson would become popular as a wisecracking comedian on radio. This would lead him to television work in the 1950s, where he was one of 4 rotating hosts on All Star Revue (1950), until 1951, when he had left the show and the title was changed to "All Star Revue".
He hosted and performed on The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) from 1952-55. He would also help host The U.S. Royal Showcase (1952). He would appear on a number of shows during the 1950s, one of his most remembered being an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959), where he played a somewhat shady used-car salesman who came into possession of an old Model-A Ford that was "haunted" in that whoever owned it had to tell the truth, whether he wanted to or not. Although his movie career slowed in the 1950s, he still appeared in a number of prestige pictures, such as A Star Is Born (1954) with Judy Garland, The Tarnished Angels (1957) with Rock Hudson and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman.
Collapsed in August 1962 while in rehearsal for the play "Critic's Choice." An early diagnosis deemed it a stomach "disorder," but two months later, cancer was discovered while he was undergoing an unrelated operation.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Al Christie began his career in 1909 with the Nestor Company. In 1912 he was put in charge of production for a series of westerns. By 1916 he had set up his own production company that produced comedy two-reelers and occasionally a full-length feature. He was the brother of producer/director Charles Christie. In 1926 Christie, along with Vera Steadman and H. Prevost, Marie Prevost's mother, was in a car accident in Florida that left Mrs. Prevost dead from a broken spine. Steadman and Christie suffered cuts and bruises.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Robert Christie was born on 20 September 1913 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for On Camera (1954), Encounter (1952) and The Unforeseen (1958). He was married to Margot Christie. He died on 22 May 1996 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Berton Churchill was born on 9 December 1876 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Stagecoach (1939), Sweethearts (1938) and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). He was married to Harriet Elizabeth Gardner. He died on 10 October 1940 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Round-faced and twinkling, George Cleveland had a 58-year career of stage, vaudeville, motion picture, radio and television acting. His first film was Mystery Liner (1934) with Noah Beery and he went on to appear in 150 others. However, he is best remembered as Gramps on the original Lassie (1954) TV series.- Clothier enlisted in the Canadian army at age 18, and was injured in a plane crash south of Vancouver just as the war was ending. Shortly afterward, Clothier studied Architecture at the University of British Columbia, and then moved to England where he studied theatre. He was a sculptor and prominent Canadian stage and television actor, best known for his role as "Relic" in the long running TV series "The Beachcombers" (1971).
- Actress
- Producer
Lovely French Canadian actress Suzanne Cloutier, the daughter of the director of the National Printing Office, was born into a large family. She had indeed no fewer than six brothers and sisters. After happily growing up in the heart of nature (her parents had a house in the woods), she became a model in New York. A photograph of her was noticed by director-producer George Stevens who offered her a contract but, as she did not speak English well enough yet, she declined. Later on, having improved her level in Shakepeare's language, she was hired by a drama company featuring Charles Laughton. Which did not hinder her from playing in French for, after her American experience, she chose to join Jean Dasté's company in France. It is when she appeared in one of the plays produced by Dasté that she was hired by Julien Duvivier for her first major role in the movies, the unfortunate Marie Lambert in The Sinners (1949). Another interesting role in an interesting movie followed ( Juliette, Gérard Philipe 's dream lover in'Marcel Carné''s poetic Juliette ou La clef des songes (1951). To crown it all, 'Orson Welles' chose her to play Desdemona in his admirable adaptation of 'William Shakespeare''s Othello (1951). Suzanne Cloutier really excelled in the pathetic role of the beautiful but doomed wife of the jealous Moor. It looked as if Suzanne was then on the threshold of a great career. In fact, It was the contrary that happened due to the fact that she chose family life instead . Indeed after marrying Peter Ustinov she practically retired from artistic life. Too bad for the frustrated spectator but so much the better for her as she always declared herself happy with her married life.- Joy Coghill was born on 13 May 1926 in Findlater, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was an actress, known for Double Jeopardy (1999), Stargate SG-1 (1997) and The Beachcombers (1972). She was married to John Thorne. She died on 20 January 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Colicos was born on 10 December 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Changeling (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). He was married to Mona McHenry. He died on 6 March 2000 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Russ Conway was born on 25 April 1913 in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. He was an actor, known for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Our Man Flint (1966) and Sea Hunt (1958). He was married to Muriel Idell Morrison. He died on 12 January 2009 in Laguna Hills, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Hume Cronyn was a Canadian actor with a lengthy career. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The Seventh Cross" (1944).
Cronyn was born to a prominent family. His father was politician Hume Blake Cronyn (1864-1933), Member of Parliament for London, Ontario (term 1917-1921). The elder Cronyn was a grandson of both Benjamin Cronyn, first bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Huron (1802-1871) and politician William Hume Blake (1809-1870), first Chancellor of Upper Canada.
Cronyn's mother was Frances Amelia Labatt, heiress of the Labatt Brewing Company. Labatt remains the largest brewing company of Canada. Frances' father was businessman John Labatt (1838-1915), and her grandfather was company founder John Kinder Labatt (1803-1866). The Labatts were a prominent Irish-Canadian family, claiming descent from a French Huguenot family which settled in Ireland.
Cronyn was sent to a boarding school in Ottawa, where he studied from 1917 to 1921. The school was at the time called "Rockliffe Preparatory School", but has since been renamed to Elmwood School. Elmwood has become a school for girls. Cronyn attended first Ridley College in St. Catharines, and then McGill University in Montreal.
During his university years, Cronyn was a featherweight boxer. He was nominated for Canada's Olympic Boxing team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Cronyn was studying pre-law in the University, but switched his major to acting. He then enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he studied under theatrical director Max Reinhardt (1873-1943).
Cronyn made his Broadway debut in 1934, in the play "Hipper's Holiday". He had the minor role of a janitor. After a decade as a theatrical actor, Cronyn made his film debut in the psychological thriller "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943). He played crime fiction buff Herbie Hawkins. This was Cronyn's first collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock. Cronyn later acted in "Lifeboat" (1944), and served as a screenwriter for both "Rope" (1948) and "Under Capricorn" (1949).
Cronyn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Paul Roeder in the concentration camp themed film "The Seventh Cross" (1942). Roeder is a common factory worker in Nazi Germany, who risks his life and family to assist his old friend George Heisler (played by Spencer Tracy) to flee the country. While Cronyn's role was well-received, the award was instead won by rival actor Barry Fitzgerald (1888-1961).
In 1942, Cronyn married actress Jessica Tandy, and for many years they appeared together in theatre, film and television. The duo headlined the radio series "The Marriage" (1953-1954), depicting the difficulties of a professional woman in transitioning to the roles of housewife and mother. The duo also appeared in a television adaptation of the radio series, but it only lasted for 8 episodes.
Cronyn acting career mostly included supporting roles, but he found himself in the spotlight for the role of Joe Finley in the science fiction film "Cocoon". It became a surprise box office hit, and Cronyn was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actor. The award was instead won by a much younger actor, Michael J. Fox (1961-).
Cronyn returned to the role of Joe Finley in the sequel "Cocoon: The Return" (1988). While less successful than its predecessor, Cronyn's role was well-received. He was again nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actor, but again lost to a younger actor. The award was won by Tom Hanks (1956-).
Jessica Tandy died in 1994, and the widowed Cronyn married writer Susan Cooper in 1996. Cronyn had one of his last prominent roles in the film "Marvin's Room" (1996). He played the incapacitated and bed-ridden Marvin Wakefield, who has to be taken care of by his adult daughters. The cast of the film was collectively nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Cronyn's last film role was the role of con-artist Sam Clausner in the television film "Off Season" (2001). Cronyn died in 2003 from prostate cancer. He was 91-years-old.- Larry Cross was born on 25 December 1913 in Nova Scotia, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Wind and the Lion (1975), A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) and The Avengers (1961). He was married to Doris Mildred Slater and Evangeline Faustina Bardeney. He died on 29 June 1976 in London, England, UK.
- Josephine Crowell was a Canadian-born character actress. She appeared in vaudeville as early as 1879. On screen, she is best remembered for her dramatic portrayal of the mother in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), her comedic performances in Harold Lloyd's Speedy (1928) and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's Wrong Again (1929). She also played a succession of queens and princesses in such films as Main Street (1923), Mantrap (1926), The King of Kings (1927) and The Man Who Laughs (1928).
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Lawrence Dane was an exceptionally fine, versatile, and shamefully underrated Canadian character actor who was equally adept at both comedy and drama alike. Tall and lean, with silver gray hair, a gaunt face, and a distinguished air about him, Dane was often cast as smooth business executives, physicians, police officers, and stern authority figures. Born on April 3, 1937 in Masson, Quebec, Lawrence grew up in Ottawa and initially took acting lessons in order to overcome shyness. Dane first started acting on stage in the late 1950's. He soon amassed a substantial volume of film and TV show credits. Lawrence gave an especially terrific performance as one of five doctors who find themselves being terrorized by vicious vengeful hillbillies when they go camping in the remote Canadian wilderness in the harrowing Deliverance (1972) variant Rituals (1977); the multi-talented Dane also produced this gritty and suspenseful cult favorite thriller. Other notable roles Dane has played are Michael Ironside's evil business partner in David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981), Melissa Sue Anderson's father in the superior slasher item Happy Birthday to Me (1981), and Peter Weller's tough, but fair boss in the excellent killer rat knockout Of Unknown Origin (1983). Moreover, Dane displayed a delightful flair for comedy in the amusing features It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975) and Find the Lady (1976), in which he was nicely paired with a then-unknown John Candy. Lawrence continued to act in both TV shows and movies with pleasing regularity well into his 70's. He died at age 84 at his home in Ontario, Canada from pancreatic cancer on March 21, 2022.- Dorothy Davis is known for The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), Shivers (1975) and The Vagabond King (1930).
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- Soundtrack
Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of Hollywood's elite. Yvonne's mother wanted her to be in the entertainment field and enrolled her in a local dance school and also saw that she studied dramatics. Yvonne was not shy in the least. She was somewhat akin to Colleen Moore who, like herself, entertained the neighborhood with impromptu productions. In 1937, when Yvonne was 15, her mother took her to Hollywood to try for fame and fortune, but nothing came of it and they returned to Canada. They came back to Hollywood in 1940, where Yvonne would dance in chorus lines at night while she checked in at the studios by day in search of film work. After appearing in unbilled parts in three short films, she finally got a part in a feature.
Although the film Harvard, Here I Come! (1941) was quite lame, Yvonne glowed in her brief appearance as a bathing beauty. The rest of 1942 and 1943 saw her in more uncredited roles in films that did not quite set Hollywood on fire. In The Deerslayer (1943), she played Wah-Tah. The role did not amount to much, but it was much better than the ones she had been handed previously. The next year was about the same as the previous two years. She played small parts as either secretaries, someone's girlfriend, native girls or office clerks. Most aspiring young actresses would have given up and gone home in defeat, but not Yvonne. She trudged on. The next year, started out the same, with mostly bit parts, but later that year, she landed the title role in Salome, Where She Danced (1945) for Universal Pictures. While critics were less than thrilled with the film, it was at long last her big break, and the film was a success for Universal. Now she was rolling.
Her next film was the western comedy Frontier Gal (1945) as Lorena Dumont. After a year off the screen in 1946, she returned in 1947 as Cara de Talavera in Song of Scheherazade (1947), and many agreed that the only thing worth watching in the film was Yvonne. Her next film was the highly regarded Burt Lancaster prison film Brute Force (1947). Time after time, Yvonne continued to pick up leading roles, in such pictures as Slave Girl (1947), Black Bart (1948), Casbah (1948) and River Lady (1948). She had a meaty role in Criss Cross (1949), a gangster movie, as the ex-wife of a hoodlum. At the start of the 1950s, Yvonne enjoyed continued success in lead roles. Her talents were again showcased in movies such as The Desert Hawk (1950), Silver City (1951) and Scarlet Angel (1952). Her last film in 1952 was Hurricane Smith (1952), a picture most fans and critics agree is best forgotten.
In 1956, she appeared in the film that would immortalize her best, The Ten Commandments (1956). She played Sephora, the wife of Moses (Charlton Heston). The film was, unquestionably, a super smash, and is still shown on television today. Her performance served as a springboard to another fine role, this time as Amantha Starr in Band of Angels (1957). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Yvonne appeared on such television series as Bonanza (1959) and The Virginian (1962). With film roles drying up, she took the role of Lily Munster in the smash series The Munsters (1964). However, she still was not completely through with the big screen. Appearances in such films as McLintock! (1963), The Power (1968), The Seven Minutes (1971) and La casa de las sombras (1976) kept her before the eyes of the movie-going public. Yvonne De Carlo died at age 84 of natural causes on January 8, 2007 in Woodland Hills, California.- Born in Canada, Sam De Grasse entered films in 1912 and specialized in playing thoroughly disreputable, nasty, slimy bad guys. Douglas Fairbanks was so impressed with De Grasse's villainy that he used the actor in several of his more memorable productions. He wasn't the only member of the De Grasse family in films, though. His brother Joseph De Grasse was an actor and director, and his nephew Robert De Grasse was a cinematographer.
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- Script and Continuity Department
A dark, exotic beauty, Katherine DeMille was a fascinating screen presence in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in Canada to a Scottish schoolteacher, Edward Gabriel Lester, and his Italian-Swiss wife, Cecile Bianca Bertha (Colani) Lester. Her father was killed in France during World War I, and her mother, who was terminally ill, traveled to California to find Katherine's paternal grandparents and leave her with them. Mrs. Lester died before she could contact her in-laws and Katherine was placed in a Los Angeles orphanage. Constance Adams, the wife of Hollywood's top filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, was a director of the orphanage. The DeMilles were moved by Katherine's misfortune and decided to adopt her. She became a member of a family that also included the DeMilles' only natural child, Cecilia de Mille; another adopted child, John de Mille; and Richard de Mille, who was actually DeMille's nephew.
Katherine was educated at the Hollywood School for Girls and the Santa Barbara School for Girls. She loved acting in school plays and eventually found work as a movie extra, using the stage name Kay Marsh. DeMille, aware of his daughter's dream of becoming a star, hired her as a script supervisor for his film Four Frightened People (1934) and permitted her to visit the sets of his films and watch his editing process. She secretly auditioned for the role of Pancho Villa's wife, Rosita Morales, in the MGM production Viva Villa! (1934), starring Wallace Beery in the title role. She won the role and impressed the critics with her performance and beauty. Her portrayal of a Mexican maid in The Trumpet Blows (1934) earned her a contract with Paramount Pictures, and she was cast as the villain in Mae West's Belle of the Nineties (1934). Her ability to succeed in films on her own helped her gain her father's admiration as well as a featured role in his next epic, The Crusades (1935). She played Alice, Princess of France, and competed with Loretta Young's Berengaria for the love (and title as consort) of Richard the Lionheart (Henry Wilcoxon). The critics appreciated Katherine's talent and appearance in the lavish DeMille production. Her career was ascending.
After her excellent work in the prestigious DeMille picture, Katherine was finally elevated to leading lady status. Paramount starred her in Drift Fence (1936) and Sky Parade (1936). She was also loaned out to MGM for an uncredited appearance as Romeo's first love, Rosaline, in Romeo and Juliet (1936). 20th Century-Fox cast her in a supporting role in the Barbara Stanwyck-Joel McCrea starrer Banjo on My Knee (1936) and gave her second billing in Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937). Katherine fell in love with Mexican actor Anthony Quinn and married him in 1937. She was billed third in The Californian (1937) and appeared in Love Under Fire (1937), a Spanish Civil War drama. At Columbia Pictures, she was billed second in the Jack Holt vehicle Under Suspicion (1937). This was followed by a small role in another Spanish Civil War drama, Blockade (1938), and a leading lady role in another Jack Holt vehicle, Trapped in the Sky (1939). Unfortunately, the big studios failed to showcase her talent in notable productions. Her next roles were featured in B movies: In Old Caliente (1939), Isle of Destiny (1940), Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940), and Dark Streets of Cairo (1940). She returned to Paramount for a role in the Technicolor film Aloma of the South Seas (1941).
The Quinns had five children. She abandoned her film career after the tragic death of their firstborn, Christopher, in 1941. She made a comeback with a leading role in Black Gold (1947), co-starring her husband, and a supporting role as a Native American woman in her father's Unconquered (1947). She also starred in the film noir The Judge (1949). The Quinns divorced in 1965, and Katherine later moved to Tucson, Arizona, where she died of Alzheimer's disease in 1995.- Actor
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Victor Désy was born on 8 June 1932 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for Scanners (1981), Inspector Gadget (1983) and Claire... cette nuit et demain (1985). He died on 5 August 2017 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Actress
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Most familiar to TV audiences as the diminutive but feisty court bailiff on Night Court (1984), Selma Diamond's entrance into acting was not through the usual venue of vaudeville, stage work or modeling - she was a writer for TV shows, once having been nominated for an Emmy for Caesar's Hour (1954). Although she had that tough New York accent and street demeanor, she was actually born in London, Ontario, Canada, then raised in Brooklyn. A graduate of New York University, she at first made a living by selling cartoons and fiction to the "New Yorker" magazine. NBC hired her as a writer for one of its radio shows, "The Big Show," and she later made the transition into writing for television. Her film debut was as the voice on the telephone of Spencer Tracy's wife in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), where the world got a sample of the distinctive Diamond voice: nasal, high-pitched and one that could never be mistaken for anyone else's. She did a lot of TV work and was a regular on another series, Too Close for Comfort (1980) before Night Court (1984). She died due to lung cancer in 1985.- Actor
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Best known as Scotty in Star Trek he was educated at High School in Sarnia, Ontario, where he acted in school productions.
When WWII began he joined the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery eventually obtaining the rank of Captain. He was wounded on D-Day, suffering severe damage to his right middle finger which was removed ahead of first knuckle, then became a flying observer for the rest of the war. His daring aerial maneuvers flying in an observation plane got him known as the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Once the war ended, he found himself on many other adventures although none of them would come anywhere close to what he experienced before.
He would become a popular voice actor who participated in thousands of CBC programs spread across both radio and television.
Later on, during the mid-1960's, he would develop into the Star Trek great we now know as Montgomery Scott, "Scotty".
In 1946 he won a 2 year scholarship to the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York City and from there went to teach for three years.
In 1953 he returned to Canada and lived in Toronto for 8 years acting on radio, television and some films before moving to Hollywood where he also appeared in a number of popular television series such as the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, R.C.M.P., Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Hazel, The Gallant Men, Bonanza, The Richard Boone Show, The Outer Limits, Ben Casey, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Fugitive, Laredo, Bewitched, The Virginian, The Man from Uncle, The F.B.I., Peyton Place, Daniel Boone, Marcus Welby M.D., Fantasy Island, Magnum P.I., Danger Bay and The Bold and The Beautiful, while in between he made a return to the stage for various plays.
James Doohan departed the scene at the age of 85 on 20 July 2005.
Many current-day engineers credit Scotty with being their childhood inspiration and in honour of his memory a portion of Doohan's ashes were sprinkled in space by the rocket SpaceLoft XL.- Colette Dorsay was born on 5 March 1916 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. She was an actress, known for Pas de vacances pour les idoles (1965), Let's Talk About Love (1976) and A Man and His Sin (1949). She was married to Noé Henry and Émile Forest. She died on 17 January 1996 in Repentigny, Quebec, Canada.
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Although she made her career playing the quintessential Parisian coquette, Fifi D'Orsay was actually a Canadian. She was born Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Québec, in 1904. At the age of 20 she arrived in New York, determined to become an actress. She was met by Helen Morgan, whom she knew from Montreal. Morgan put up the young Yvonne and taught her the ropes about finding jobs. She was soon hired to appear in The Greenwich Village Follies after an audition in which she sang "Yes! We Have No Bananas" in French and told the director that she was an ex-Follies Bèrgere showgirl from Paris. The director renamed her Mademoiselle Fifi". During the run she became involved with vaudeville veteran Edward Gallagher (who, with Al Shean, formed the hit comedy act "Gallagher and Shean"), who was 37 years her senior. He taught her "all the little tricks of the business". She said, "I wanted to learn everything about show business and he taught me - believe me!" She and Gallagher put together a vaudeville act and worked together for two years. When they parted ways, she was teamed with Herman Berrans by noted vaudeville sketch writer Herman Timberg. They put together an act that featured Fifi as a saucy music student and Berrans as her teacher, and it soon became a hit on the Orpheum circuit. Hollywood beckoned and on the strength of a favorable screen test, she dumped her fiancé (Berrans' brother Freddie) and took off for Hollywood. By this time she had adopted the last name "D'Orsay", after her favorite perfume. She continued her career in movies, alternating them with highly paid appearances in vaudeville. In 1950 the Palace Theatre revived vaudeville and Fifi returned to sparkling acclaim. She was one of the first major stars to appear on television in its early days, and later acted in such series as Bewitched (1964), Adventures in Paradise (1959) and Perry Mason (1957), among other shows. In 1971-72, at the age of 67, she appeared on Broadway in the Stephen Sondheim musical "Follies". She played "Solange LaFitte", a former Follies headliner (a character more than just a little reminiscent of her own life and career). Her song "Ah, Paris" was strong and sexy and helped make the cast album a success. "Follies" opened April 4, 1971, at New York's Winter Garden Theatre and ran for 522 performances. It won seven Tony Awards and the New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Musical. Fifi died on December 2, 1983- Actress
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Shirley Douglas was born on 2 April 1934 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was an actress, known for Dead Ringers (1988), Wind at My Back (1996) and Lolita (1962). She was married to Donald Sutherland and Timothy Emil Sicks. She died on 5 April 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Actress
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As an actress, Susan Rubes has enjoyed a Broadway career where she won the Donaldson Award for best supporting actress in 1946. Breaking into American TV she played the character "Kathy" for 10 years on the daytime drama, Guiding Light (1952). Moving to Canada with her actor husband, Jan Rubes, she continued her acting career and also found time to return time to her profession by founding the Young Peoples Theatre in 1965. In 1979, she became head of Radio Drama for C.B.C. (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) Drama Canada. She was a Board member of the St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto and the Ontario Arts Council. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1977 and was Woman of the Year of the Toronto B'nai Brith in 1979.- Actress
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Once you saw her, you would not forget her. Despite her age and weight, she became one of the top box office draws of the sound era. She was 14 when she joined a theater group and she went on to work on stage and in light opera. By 1892, she was on Broadway and she later became a star comedienne on the vaudeville circuit. In 1910, she had a hit with 'Tillie's Nightmare' which Mack Sennett adapted to film as Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) with Charles Chaplin. Marie took top billing over a young Chaplin, but her film career never took off and by 1918, she was out of films and out of work. Her role in the chorus girls' strike of 1917 had her blacklisted from the theaters. In 1927, MGM screenwriter Frances Marion got her a small part in The Joy Girl (1927) and then a co-starring lead with Polly Moran in The Callahans and the Murphys (1927) (which was abruptly withdrawn from circulation thanks to objections of Irish-American groups over its depiction of gin-guzzling Irish). Her career stalled and the 59-year old actress found herself no longer in demand. In the late 1920s she had been largely forgotten and reduced to near-poverty. Despite her last film being a financial disaster, Irving Thalberg, somewhat incredibly, sensed her potential was determined to re-build her into a star. It was a slow return in films but her popularity continued to grow. But it was sound that made her a star again. Anna Christie (1930) was the movie where Garbo talks, but everyone noticed Marie as Marthy. In an era of Harlow, Garbo and Crawford, it was homely old Marie Dressler that won the coveted exhibitor's poll as the most popular actress for three consecutive years. In another film from the same year, Min and Bill (1930) she received a best actress Oscar for her dramatic performance. She received another Academy Award nomination for Emma (1932). She had more success with Dinner at Eight (1933) and Tugboat Annie (1933). In 1934, cancer claimed her life.- Jean Duceppe was born on 25 October 1923 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor, known for My Uncle Antoine (1971), La mort d'un commis-voyageur (1962) and Terre humaine (1978). He was married to Hélène Rowley. He died on 7 December 1990 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Yvan Ducharme was born on 24 August 1937 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor, known for 2001: A Space Travesty (2000), Pas de vacances pour les idoles (1965) and Visiting Hours (1982). He died on 21 March 2013 in Laval, Québec, Canada.
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Jack Duffy was born in Montreal, Canada. He began his career as a singer and actor on CBC Radio at age 19. After this he joined a vocal group called the Bob-O-Links that toured America for two years with Tommy Dorsey's orchestra. Jack continued as a solo singer with Dorsey's band until 1950. In 1952, Jack was a cast member of the Wayne and Shuster Show. Jack Duffy became a regular on CBC variety shows, including The Barris Beat, Showtime and Folio. His skill as comic and impressionist, as well as his singing voice, earned him his own series, Here's Duffy, which ran in 1958-59. Jack was recruited to U.S. variety shows and spent two years on The Perry Como Kraft Music Hall.
In 1952, Jack was a cast member of the Wayne and Shuster Show. Later he went on to host his own half-hour series, Here's Duffy.
In 1970 he joined forces with Dinah Christie and Billy Van to perform in a comedy show called Party Game in which they played charades on the comedy show. The show hosted by Bill Walker and made by CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario ran for eleven years and was syndicated throughout Canada.
In addition to Party Game, Jack also did the CBC series Upside Town and Canadian show And That's the News, Goodnight with Don Harron. He was a cast member on U.S. sketch comedy series Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour,and The Bobby Vinton Show.
In more recent years, Jack did voice work in the 1983 TV series Curious George, and appeared in films such as Ghost Mom and A Holiday Romance. He kept acting through the 1980s and 1990s, with roles in films such as The Silent Partner, The Dream Team, Men with Guns and 2002's A Killing Spring.- Distinguished character villain Douglass (R.) Dumbrille, whose distinctive stern features, beady eyes, tidy mustache, prominent hook nose and suave, cultivated presence graced scores of talking films, was born on October 13, 1889, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was first employed as a bank clerk in his home town but caught the acting bug and subsequently left his position to pursue work in various stock companies in the States.
After appearing in a production of "Rain" in 1923, Dumbrille made his Broadway debut in 1924 as Banquo in "Macbeth" at the 48th Street Theatre. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s he was a moderate fixture on the Great White Way, appearing in dramas ("The Call of Life" (1925) with Eva Le Gallienne, "Chinese O'Neill" (1929), "As You Desire Me" (1931)), romantic comedies ("Joseph" (1930), "Child of Manhattan" (1932)) and musical operettas ("Princess Flavia" (1925), "Princess Charming" (1930)). He also appeared in Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s 1928 musical production of "The Three Musketeers", portraying Athos alongside Dennis King's D'Artagnan, with Rudolf Friml providing the music. A decade later he portrayed Athos once again, this time in a film version (The Three Musketeers (1939)).
On the silent screen he portrayed Thomas Jefferson in the short historical film The Declaration of Independence (1924), but did not return to film until 1931, when he began unleashing a number of sneering, oily villains on the viewing public. His first film job was to harass sea captain Gary Cooper in His Woman (1931). From there he proved a slick nemesis to a number of stars, both male and female: Marion Davies with his leering moneybags in Blondie of the Follies (1932); Pat O'Brien with his cruel-minded chain gang warden in Laughter in Hell (1933); Barbara Stanwyck as her unctuous love patsy in Baby Face (1933); James Cagney as gangster Spade Maddock in Lady Killer (1933); Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy as a mobster involved in horse race fixing in Broadway Bill (1934) and, most notoriously, Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone, both of whom he induces fingernail torture ("We have ways of making men talk!") as the sinister, turban-wearing rebel leader Mohammed Khan in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935).
Dumbrille was also a great pompous foil in comedy slapstick - harassing everybody from The Marx Brothers, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello to Bob Hope. He returned to the musical operetta fold as well on film and played a nuisance to Jeanette MacDonald in three of her films. Seen everywhere, both billed and unbilled, he played sheriffs who went bad in westerns, red-herring suspects or victims who deserved their fate in murder mysteries and corrupters of the legal system in political dramas.
The man everybody loved to hate on film softened his image a bit with old age, playing a number of non-plussed executive or officious types in films and TV comedy. Finding a stream of TV work in the 1950s and early 1960s (including The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), The Untouchables (1959), Perry Mason (1957), Laramie (1959). Petticoat Junction (1963)), Dumbrille's final role was at age 76 as a doctor in a TV episode of Batman (1966) in 1966.
His long-time first wife, Jessie Lawson, died in 1957, leaving him two sons, John and Douglas Murray. Dumbrille had more than a few Hollywood tongues wagging when, at age 70, he married Patricia Mowbray, the 28-year-old daughter of his good friend, character actor Alan Mowbray. The marriage was a lasting one, however, and she was among his survivors when he passed away several years later from a heart attack on April 2, 1974. Dumbrille was buried at Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California. - Paul Dupuis was born on 11 August 1913 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948), Passport to Pimlico (1949) and Madness of the Heart (1949). He died on 23 January 1976 in St-Sauveur, Québec, Canada.
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The girl who one day would be known as "Winnipeg's Sweetheart" was born at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. In her early childhood there were no obvious signs that one day she would be a bigger box office attraction than Shirley Temple. Renamed Deanna Durbin for show business purposes, by age 21 she was the most highly paid female star in the world. Her major motion pictures were Three Smart Girls (1936), Mad About Music (1938) and That Certain Age (1938). By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. Her voice was often described as "natural and beautiful" and her version of "One Fine Day" from Madame Butterfly, became a classic. Deanna was a Hollywood star in every way. There were Deanna Durbin dolls and dresses. An engineering firm named its so-called dream home in her honor. Her first screen kiss was described in a headline story across the continent. What makes Deanna Durbin's story different is that she was never comfortable with adulation. When she was at the top of her career as Hollywood's leading actress and singer, she turned her back on that world for a life of seclusion. Her first two marriages had failed, and before she married her third husband, director Charles David, she set one condition: he had to promise that she could have what she yearned for - "the life of nobody". Her seclusion is incomplete. She lives in the French village of Neauphlé-le-Château, and for over 35 years has resisted every approach from film companies. Her husband has told journalists that "Mario Lanza pleaded with her for years to make a film with him. But she will never go back to that life." She granted only one interview since 1949 to film historian David Shipman in 1983.- Louisette Dussault was born on 11 June 1940 in Thetford Mines, Québec, Canada. She was an actress and writer, known for Les héritiers Duval (1994), IXE-13 (1972) and Chez Denise (1979). She died on 14 March 2023 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
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Canadian native Edward Earle was born in Toronto on July 16, 1882, and was raised and schooled there. His stage career took form in Canada with an early emphasis on musical comedy, and he later toured in vaudeville and stock in association with Belasco, DeWolf Hopper Sr., Marie Cahill and the Schuberts, among other theatrical illuminaries. Making his Broadway debut in the comedy "The Triumph of Love" in 1904, his work on the stage eventually led to film parts in 1914.
Earle entered via the Edison film company and emerged a star not long after, distinguishing himself at other studios as well, including Vitagraph, Famous Players, Metro, Warners and Columbia, with a tally of over 400 silent and talking films by the time he retired four decades later. Tawny blond, blue-eyed, well-built and with a clean-cut handsomeness, Earle was a natural for dashing, romantic silent film leads. He gained initial film attention starring in Edison's "Olive's Opportunities" one-reeler series paired opposite Mabel Trunnelle in 1914 and 1915. Adding dash and verve to such silents as Ranson's Folly (1915), a western also showcasing Ms. Trunelle; The Innocence of Ruth (1916); The Light of Happiness (1916) and The Gates of Eden (1916), all opposite a dramatic Viola Dana, he went on to dress up everything from stalwart war dramas (For France (1917)) to mystery comedies (The Blind Adventure (1918)). From 1917 through 1919, he and Agnes Ayres enjoyed great success in a series of two-reeler shorts based on the works of O. Henry.
Earle ventured into the 1920s with such stylish movie showcases as East Lynne (1921), False Fronts (1922) and The Dangerous Flirt (1924), but then began to falter into second leads and support roles, which including the George Arliss starrer The Man Who Played God (1922), the Marie Prevost comedy How to Educate a Wife (1924), little Baby Peggy's showcase The Family Secret (1924), Colleen Moore's comedy romance Irene (1926), the John Gilbert/Joan Crawford sea tale Twelve Miles Out (1927), and Conrad Nagel's part talking prohibition tale Kid Gloves (1929). Come the advent of sound Earle was offered character parts and by the end of the pre-Code talkies era was relegated to bit and unbilled extra parts in Shirley Temple, Laurel and Hardy and Marx Bros. flicks.
He continued to appear throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and tended to be more visible in oaters and serial cliffhangers. Extremely athletic with a daredevil instinct, he tried his hand as an artist, aviator and automobile racing car driver. Retiring in the early 1960s, Earle eventually retired to the Woodland Hills, California Motion Picture Country Home, where he passed away from complications of old age at age 90 in 1972.- Actor
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Richard Easton was born on 22 March 1933 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Revolutionary Road (2008), Dead Again (1991) and Henry V (1989). He died on 2 December 2019 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Eburne started on the stage in Ontario and New York, later appearing on Broadway in 1914, playing a cockney maid. She played comic servants on stage until 1930 then moved to films in 1931. On screen, she played a variety of roles from maids to aristocrats to pipe-smoking harridans. Eburne retired from the screen in 1951.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Clive Endersby was born on 9 December 1944 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is a writer and actor, known for Alexander Graham Bell (1965), The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (2010) and Read All About It! (1979).- Actor
- Writer
Marc Favreau was born on 9 November 1929 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for Témoignages (1973), J'ai pas dit mon dernier mot (1986) and Bye-Bye (1968). He died on 17 December 2005 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.- Rockliffe Fellowes was born on 17 March 1884 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Monkey Business (1931), The Understanding Heart (1927) and The Crystal Cup (1927). He was married to Lucile Watson. He died on 28 January 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- A tall, willowy, highly attractive blonde, Canadian leading lady Rosemary Forsyth was born in Montreal on July 6, 1943, who moved to New York at age 5 with her divorced mother who found work as a model. Rosemary was keen on the idea of acting and studied drama both in high school. Inspired by her mother, she became a teenage model and attended the Wynn Handman Drama School.
In the mid 1960s, Rosemary attracted the attention of Universal and was groomed for TV and films. The soft, demure beauty with a similar classic elegance and resemblance to Grace Kelly showed quite a bit of promise amid the rugged surroundings as the young ingénue or romantic co-star to a number of top male veterans. James Stewart in Shenandoah (1965) (for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Promising Newcomer"), Charlton Heston in The War Lord (1965), and both Dean Martin and Alain Delon in Texas Across the River (1966) all utilized her services in their respective films.
Marrying actor Michael Tolan in 1966, Rosemary took a leave of absence from filming to have their child, daughter Alexandra. While the occasion, of course, was a joyous and fulfilling one, it managed to put a damper on her career. She returned to filming with the so-so film Where It's At (1969) starring Robert Drivas and the very mediocre Dick Van Dyke comedy vehicle Some Kind of a Nut (1969), never quite reaching the peak prior to her maternity time off.
Rosemary showed up regularly on the small screen, however, in a slew of standard 70s TV-movies and episodic guest roles. On daytime, she took over the role of Laura Horton on Days of Our Lives (1965) from 1976-1980 and also had regular, albeit brief, parts on Santa Barbara (1984) and General Hospital (1963).
In recent years, she has popped up as more and arch matron types on such popular shows as Monk (2002), NYPD Blue (1993), and Without a Trace (2002). She also appeared in several films, often as mom or various professional types, including the crime comedy Exit to Eden (1994), the music dramedy Girl (1998), the dark drama Valerie Flake (1999) and the sci-fi horror Ghosts of Mars (2001). She made her last appearances to date on TV with "Providence," "Boston Public," "Monk," "NYPD Blue" and "Without a Trace," having been last seen featured in the tender family-oriented TV movie Sweet Nothing in My Ear (2008) starring Jeff Daniels and Marlee Matlin.
Rosemary divorced actor/husband Tolan in 1970 and married and divorced twice more.. - A curvaceous and comely lead and second lead actress of the 1950s and 1960s, Dianne Foster was born Olga Helen Laruska on October 31, 1928 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Of Ukrainian parentage, she began her stage career performing in high school plays and in local community theater productions. Her school drama teacher saw extreme promise in her and encouraged her to continue her studies. Dianne then enrolled at the University of Alberta and majored in drama.
She eventually found work in Toronto as a model and as both a radio and stage actress. Encouraged again by her high school teacher, she saved up enough money to go to England for further training and to find work. She won a stage role in the play "The Hollow" starring Jeanne De Casalis that later toured. Following a radio job with Orson Welles, he offered her the part of Cassio's whore in a West End production of "Othello" while Laurence Olivier was holding court at the St James Theater. Welles and Peter Finch starred as Othello and Iago, respectively, with Olivier in the director's seat.
After establishing herself as a bad girl second lead in such "B" level British films as The Quiet Woman (1951), in which she played a scheming ex-girlfriend of Derek Bond and The Big Frame (1952) as a temptress opposite Mark Stevens, Dianne was encouraged to come to Hollywood in the early 1950's. Her first role in Hollywood was as a British character in a TV episode of "Four Star Playhouse" opposite David Niven. As a result of her fine performance, Harry Cohn placed her under a Columbia Pictures contract even though she had not yet secured an agent. Most of her subsequent films were standard adventures in which she provided a pleasant diversion from the rugged action going on around her. She was, on occasion, cast in more substantial roles.
Dianne made a sturdy US cinematic debut in the film noir favorite Bad for Each Other (1953) as a dedicated nurse and love interest to Dr. Tom Owen Charlton Heston. It was Lizabeth Scott who played the bad girl here. Dianne would make a strong stand in westerns notably opposite Dana Andrews in Three Hours to Kill (1954), Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson in The Violent Men (1955) and James Stewart and Audie Murphy in Night Passage (1957). She was also quite good, if not better, as Richard Conte's wife in The Brothers Rico (1957) as they struggle together to distance him from his mob ties. Dianne returned to England, where she appeared in Uncle Willie's Bicycle Shop (1953), as a snooty American heiress out to impress Robert Urquhart, and, briefly, in Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958) as Ronald Howard's wife who threatens Jack Hawkins' title character. Her last two films of the 1950s were opposite Alan Ladd in The Deep Six (1958) and Spencer Tracy in The Last Hurrah (1958).
In the 1960s Dianne moved into episodic TV with guest parts in dramas (Perry Mason (1957), Route 66 (1960), Peter Gunn (1958), Ben Casey (1961), Hawaiian Eye (1959), The Detectives (1959), Honey West (1965)), comedies (Petticoat Junction (1963), My Three Sons (1960), "Green Acres") and, of course, westerns (Bonanza (1959), The Deputy (1959), "Have Gun--Will Travel", Laramie (1959), Wagon Train (1957), Gunsmoke (1955), The Big Valley (1965)). She appeared in only two more films before retiring in 1967 -- co-starring with David Janssen in King of the Roaring 20's: The Story of Arnold Rothstein (1961) and with Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery in the light comedy Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963).
Married twice, Dianne had one child from her first marriage and twins from her second. She retired in order to focus on marriage and family, as well as painting.
She lived in the Los Angeles area for the remainder of her life, dying on July 27, 2019, at the age of 90. - Ivor Francis, besides his many roles on television and at the movies, acted on radio as well in shows like "Fibber McGee and Molly"; on Broadway in shows such as "J.B." with Christopher Plummer, and came west to California when New York plays turned mostly to musicals. He worked in films, television and in day-time soaps as well. In addition, he operated the Ivor Francis Actors Workshop in West Hollywood and, among the class members, were Ben Murphy (Alias Smith and Jones (1971)); Linda Haynes (Brubaker (1980) & The Drowning Pool (1975)); Mary Douvan (Sandra Dee's mother) and the Goldrup brothers, Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup, who appear on stage in Santa Cruz County, California, stage productions.
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
A man who has many irons in the entertainment fire, hirsutely handsome Canadian actor, vocalist and jazz musician Don Francks (also known as "Iron Buffalo") was born Donald Harvey Francks on February 28, 1932, in Vancouver, British Columbia. One can, with confidence, add drummer, poet, motorcyclist, author and peace activist to his many lists of accomplishments. He grew up quite adept at athletics (soccer, lacrosse and rugby) and performed in vaudeville and in summer stock shows before relocating to Toronto. On stage from age 11, he landed an early job singing on the radio, then moved into television in 1954. While acting in both variety shows and dramas, he was also a writer and penned several documentaries and public affairs specials in both Toronto and Montreal. On the nightclub scene, Don was featured as a jazz vocalist, a DJ, a trombonist in a country western band and a member of a barbershop quartet called "Model-T Four".
In the mid-1960s, he focused on small screen acting and racked up a number of rugged, adventurous guest-star turns on TV episodes of The Wild Wild West (1965), Mannix (1967), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Mission: Impossible (1966). A promising lead that could have led to stardom in the NBC series, Jericho (1966), was cut short when the show was bowled over by its ABC competition -- Batman (1966) -- and quickly canceled. He also appeared on- and off-Broadway, which included a stint with the musical, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever".
Don contributed one strapping co-starring turn in a big-budgeted musical film during his less-than-a-decade stay in Hollywood. As the robust "Woody Mahoney", he dallied with the likes of beguiling Petula Clark, who played his lady love in Finian's Rainbow (1968). Their enchanting and sensuous duet on "That Old Devil Moon" is only one of the film's highlights. The film was not successful, however, in launching Don's movie career.
Afterwards, he moved his family to the Red Pheasant Indian Reserve, near North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and is an honorary Cree and named "Iron Buffalo". Since 1974, he has been living in Toronto with his wife, Lili Francks (Red Eagle), a member of the Plains Cree First Nation and also a dancer. Their children are voice artist and actress Cree Summer, best-known for her regular role on the TV sitcom, A Different World (1987), and actor/songwriter Rainbow Sun Francks.
In later years, Don gained some attention after being cast as "Walter", an arms expert, on the hit TV series, La Femme Nikita (1997). More recently, he traveled to Montreal for a part in the film, I'm Not There (2007), filmmaker Todd Haynes' meditative take on the famous singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan.
Don continued to perform in Canada in both films (He Never Died (2015) and The Second Time Around (2016)) and as a recurring presence of series TV (Hemlock Grove (2013) and Gangland Undercover (2015)) until the end. He passed away at age 84 on April 3, 2016, in Toronto, Ontario.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Canada's child prodigy violinist. Played a command performance for the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII, at age 5.) First cousin of Walter Huston, father of child actress Baby Rose, Grandfather of Sharmagne Leland-St. John-Sylbert, Great-grandfather of 'Daisy Alexandra Sylbert'.- Jacques Galipeau was born on 22 September 1923 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Tang (1971), La petite patrie (1974) and The Pyx (1973). He was married to Pauline Julien and Irène Poujol. He died on 30 August 2020 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Robin Gammell was born on 22 September 1936 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor, known for Skyline (2010), Bulworth (1998) and Contact (1997).
- Gabriel Gascon was born on 8 January 1927 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Les belles histoires des pays d'en haut (1956), Possible Worlds (2000) and Mars and April (2012). He was married to Gisèle Mauricet. He died on 30 May 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Claude Gauthier was born on 31 January 1939 in Lac-Saguay, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor and composer, known for Orders (1974), Entre la mer et l'eau douce (1967) and La guêpe (1986).- Émile Genest was born on 27 July 1921 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), The Plouffe Family (1981) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He was married to Anita Gwendolyn Kugel and Suzanne Begin. He died on 19 March 2003 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Actor, author, and musician Chief Dan George was born in present-day North Vancouver as Geswanouth Slahoot (later anglicized as 'Dan Slaholt'), the son of a tribal chief on Burrard Indian Reserve Nº. 3. He is the only Aboriginal actor in Canadian history to date with the right to use the title "Chief", serving as leader of the Squamish First Nation of Burrard Inlet from 1951-63, and retained the honorary title after his term ended. His last name was changed to George when at age 5 he entered a mission boarding school where the use of his native language was discouraged, if not forbidden.
Until 1959, he had worked as a longshoreman, logger, bus driver, and itinerant musician. After spending much of his early life as a longshoreman, a construction worker, and a school-bus driver, Chief Dan George auditioned for the role of Ol' Antoine on Cariboo Country (1960), a CBC series, and won the part. He made his screen debut at age 65. On the strength of his performance in the series, and after playing the same part in Smith! (1969), a Disney adaptation of one of the show's episodes based on "Breaking Smith's Quarterhorse", a novella by Paul St. Pierre, and starring Glenn Ford, he was asked to play "Old Lodge Skins" in Little Big Man (1970). This role led to an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1970. He continued to appear in films and became an accomplished stage actor. He died in 1981 on the same Indian reserve where he was born in North Vancouver at age 82.- Philip Gilbert was born on 29 March 1930 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was an actor, known for Superman III (1983), Dentist in the Chair (1960) and The Tomorrow People (1973). He died on 6 January 2004 in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Antoinette Giroux was born on 27 September 1899 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Serial (1963), Séraphin (1950) and Rue des Pignons (1966). She died on 8 July 1978 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Claude Godbout was born on 29 January 1941 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He is a producer and actor, known for Good Riddance (1980), Platinum (1997) and Comme les six doigts de la main (1978).- Jacques Godin was born on 14 September 1930 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. He was an actor, known for Vieux Jeu (2017), O.K. ... Laliberté (1973) and Being at Home with Claude (1992). He died on 26 October 2020 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Montreal-born Huntley Gordon was educated in both Canada and England, and upon completing his education took a job with the Bank of Montreal, later starting his own stock trading firm. However, he had had a taste of "the stage" in amateur productions, and soon gave up the business life for that of an actor, moving to New York and eventually managing to get small parts in Broadway productions. As luck would have it, one day he ran into a friend who was on his way to the Lambs Club to offer an actor who was living there a part in a film being shot by Vitagraph in New York City. Gordon said that he would take the part, and he was soon in front of the cameras. Director Ralph Ince took Gordon under his wing and secured him a contract with Vitagraph. Gordon became a reliable leading man and character actor in silents and, unlike many of his contemporaries, easily made the transition into sound films. He made his last film in 1941. He died of a heart attack at his home in Van Nuys, CA, in 1956.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Robert Gerard Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a family of French-Canadian origin. He was the son of Jeanette (Gauthier) and Joseph Georges André Goulet. After hearing his son sing "Lead Kindly Light", in their church hall, his father told him, "I'm proud of you, son". A few weeks later, his father, lying on his death bed, called Robert to his side and told him the Lord had given him a beautiful voice and he must go and sing. His father died when Robert was 13 and he moved to Edmonton, Canada, a year later. Goulet won a singing scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of music in Toronto and, in 1951, made his concert debut at Edmonton in George Frideric Handel's "Messiah". Goulet was also a DJ on Canada's CKUA in Edmonton for two years. In 1960, he landed one of his biggest roles as "Lancelot" in Broadway's "Camelot", opposite Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. He received a Tony award in 1968 for his role in "Happy Time". He and his first wife, Louise Longmore, had one daughter, Nicolette Goulet (aka Nikki). His second wife, actress and singer Carol Lawrence, produced two sons, Christopher and Michael. In 1982, with Glenn Ford giving the bride away, he was married in Las Vegas to Vera Goulet (aka Vera Novak), a Yugoslavian-born writer, photographer and artist. When not living at their home in Las Vegas, they reside on their yacht, "Rogo", in Los Angeles. Goulet has performed at the White House for three presidents, as well as a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II.
On September 30, 2007, he was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, "a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition". On October 13, he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined that he "would not survive without an emergency lung transplant".
Goulet died on October 30, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, while awaiting a transplant.
He is survived by his wife, Vera Goulet, and three children, sons Christopher and Michael, and daughter Nicolette Goulet, who is the mother of his grandchildren, Jordan Gerard and Solange.- Françoise Graton was born on 4 June 1930 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She was an actress, known for This Is My Father (1998), À la croisée des chemins (1943) and Bonheur d'occasion (1983). She was married to Gilles Pelletier. She died on 8 November 2014 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Vernon Gray grew up in Elk Point, Alta., as Vernon Raham-Gray. "Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be an actor," said Gray in a 1953 interview, but his family was dead set against his bid for a show-business career. Chief opponents were his father, Arthur Raham, a railway agent in Elk Point, and three engineering brothers who wanted him to be an engineer. But Gray had been acting since high school days and, while working with an automobile firm in Windsor, Ont., he had acted for the Windsor Theatre Guild. He later joined the Ottawa Repertory Company.
While visiting Canada to search for backgrounds for the movie "Campbell's Kingdom," British film producer Betty Box first spotted Gray in a local television program in Fort William, Ontario. She likely encouraged Gray to go to Britain because he was working there in the early 1950s. He appeared on the West End stage as "Duke" in the Broadway hit, "Stalag 17," which had a short run, and with a number of provincial theatre companies. It was his role in "Death of a Salesman," at the Repertory Theatre in Windsor, Berkshire that got him a leading part in in a television play that again drew the attention of Box who hired him in her film "A Day to Remember," (1953). In this movie, he played the role of Marvin, a corporal in the United States Army. Box felt that Gray had leading man potential, saying "At last, a new Man for British pictures." ( Gray subsequently appeared in "To Paris with Love" (1954) and "The Gold Express" (1955), his first and only staring movie role. - Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Lorne Greene was born Lyon Himan "Chaim" Green on February 12, 1915, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He began acting while attending Canada's Queen's University, and after graduation got a job in radio broadcasting. His rich, deep, authoritarian voice quickly propelled him to prominence as Canada's top newscaster. He left Canada in the early 1950s for a film career in Hollywood, and soon began appearing regularly in television, films and on radio. His greatest successes came in two television series, the long-running Western Bonanza (1959), in which he played the patriarch of a wealthy frontier family, and the science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica (1978). In 1969 he was awarded Officer of the Order of Canada for his services to the performing arts and community.
Lorne Greene died at age 72 of pneumonia following heart surgery on September 11, 1987, in Santa Monica, CA.- Actor
- Director
Handsome classical stage and screen actor James K. Hackett born James Keteltas Hackett in Ontario, Canada in 1869. Son of the celebrated Shakespearian actor James Henry Hackett. Like his father he studied law at the College of the City of New York, his outstanding acting talent soon became evident in college theatricals and after leaving he embarked on a stage career after graduation in 1891. He made his professional stage debut in 'The Broken Seal' in Philadelphia in 1892, he became a highly well-known matinee idol through the 1890's, playing such roles as Romeo with Olga Nethersole as Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet' and as Captain Basil Jennico in the 1900 production of 'The Pride of Jennico' with Bertha Galland in her New York stage debut. He eventually formed his own theatre Company. In 1913 Adolph Zukor asked him to star in a movie version of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' playing the duel roles Rudolf Rassendyll and King Rudolf of Ruritania a role which he played in the theatre numberous times, the film was directed by Edwin S. Porter and co-starred his wife Beatrice Beckley as Princess Flavia for the Famous Players Film Co. Later starred in only two more films, as Arthur Woodridge in Ivan Abramson's 'Ashes of Love' co-starring Effie Shannon in 1918 and his last screen appearance in A.J. Bloome's 'The Greater Sinner' starring opposite Ormi Hawley for Rivoli Film Co in 1919. Late in his stage career he attempted a number of Shakespearian revivals, which met with only modest success , and his last Broadway appearance was in 1924 as Macbeth. Married actress Mary Mannering in 1897 and in 1911 married Beatrice Beckley. Hackett died from cirrhosis of the liver in Paris, France at 57, leaving a $1 million bequest to the Actors' Home in Staten Island, New York.- Canadian-born character actor Jonathan Hale had a long and distinguished film career, appearing in over 260 pictures and television programs.
He was a member of the diplomatic service prior to his film career, and his stately bearing stood him in good stead for the large variety of corporate executives, military officers and high-level politicians he often played.
His best known and most memorable role was that of Dagwood Bumstead's boss, J.C. Dithers, in the "Blondie" film series, a role he assayed from the first entry (Blondie (1938)) until he left the series in 1946 having appeared in 16 of the 28 "Blondie" films.
In 1966, despondent over health and personal problems, he shot himself to death. - Producer
- Actor
- Director
Monty Hall was born Maurice Halperin on August 25, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba in 1945. He's the father of Tony Award winner Joanna Gleason, television writer/director Sharon Hall, and Emmy Award winner television writer/director Richard Hall. He has five grandchildren. He was awarded the Order of Canada for his charitable works for the Variety Clubs International, the Muscular Dystrophy Association.- Barbara Hamilton was born on 11 December 1926 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Lost and Found (1979), Avonlea (1990) and Car 54, Where Are You? (1994). She died on 7 February 1996 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Clarence Handyside was born in 1854 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Jungle (1914), The Turn of the Wheel (1918) and Mice and Men (1916). He was married to Blanche Sharp and Kate D. Baker. He died on 20 December 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Musical theater devotees will undoubtedly know that the song "Let Me Entertain You" was from the classic musical "Gypsy", the born-in-a-trunk story of resilient kid troopers Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc who were mercilessly pushed into vaudeville careers by an unbearably headstrong mother. While the lesser-talented Gypsy, of course, became the legendary ecdysiast who turned stripping into an art form, sister June survived her "Baby June" vaudeville child days of old and the tougher road of Depression-era dance marathons to become a reputable actress of stage, screen and TV, among other things. While June may have immortalized in "Gypsy," based on her older sister's memoirs, it was a bittersweet notoriety as she felt it was a very unjust, hurtful and highly inaccurate portrait of her. It also caused a deep rift between the sisters that lasted for well over a decade.
The Canadian-born actress (she was born in Vancouver, not Seattle) entered the world in 1912 (some sources insist 1913 or 1916, but Havoc confirmed her true birth date in 2006), the younger daughter of audacious "stage mother" Rose Thompson Hovick and her husband, John Olaf Hovick, a cub reporter for a Seattle newspaper. Baby June was primed for stardom by Rose by age 2 and was soon dancing with the great ballerina Anna Pavlova and appearing in Hal Roach film shorts (1918-1924) with Harold Lloyd. A flexible, high-kicking vaudeville sensation at 5, she was featured front-and-center in an act completely built around her ("Dainty June and Her Newsboys"). Earning around $1,500 a week at her peak, the delightful child star had audiences eating out of the palm of her little hand while sharing the stage with the likes of "Red-Hot Mama" Sophie Tucker and "Baby Snooks" Fanny Brice. The unrelenting pressures and suffocating dominance of her mother, however, led to a capricious elopement at age 13 with a young boy from the act (Bobby Reed, who inspired the dancing character of Tulsa in "Gypsy"). They married in North Platte, Nebraska with each lying about their age. By the time the Depression hit, however, vaudeville, the nation's economy and her marriage had all collapsed.
Now a mother of a young daughter, April (born out of wedlock in 1930, April Kent acted briefly in the 1950s and died of a heart attack in 1998), June made ends meet by modeling, posing and toiling in dance marathons. The blonde, blue-eyed stunner also found work in stock musicals and on the Borscht Belt circuit. She made her Broadway debut in the musical "Forbidden Melody in 1936". Years passed before she earned her big break as Gladys in Rodgers and Hart's classic musical "Pal Joey" opposite Van Johnson and Gene Kelly in 1940. As a result of their scene-stealing work, the trio earned movie contracts - the two men heading off to the MGM studio and June to RKO.
Unlike her male counterparts, June found herself inextricably caught up in "B" level material. Her film debut in the war-era Four Jacks and a Jill (1942) was followed by the equally ho-hum Powder Town (1942) and Sing Your Worries Away (1942), neither requiring much in the line of acting. Her personality was big for the screen due to her broad vaudeville background, but she nevertheless could show some true grit and talent on occasion, particularly with her support role in My Sister Eileen (1942).
For the next few years she experienced both highs and lows. Her Broadway shows were either hits, such as the musical "Mexican Hayride" (1944) (for which she won the Donaldson Award), and the dramatic "The Ryan Girl" (1945), or complete misses, which included a musical version of the Sadie Thompson saga Rain. June's film acting continued to be a stumbling block, scoring best when asked to play brassy, cynical dames. While she fared well as the femme fatale in Intrigue (1947), the racist secretary in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and the gun moll The Story of Molly X (1949), more often than not, she was handed second-rate fodder to flounder in such as The Iron Curtain (1948), Once a Thief (1950) and Follow the Sun (1951). She appeared on TV in the early 50s, and she received her own short-lived vehicles as a lawyer in Willy (1954) and as host of her own show The June Havoc Show (1964).
After completing her last film Three for Jamie Dawn (1956), June refocused on stage and TV - particularly the former. She earned some of her best reviews both here and abroad in later years: Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Mistress Sullen in "The Beaux' Stratagem," Sabina in "The Skin of Our Teeth," Millicent in "Dinner at Eight," Jenny in "The Threepenny Opera," Mrs. Swabb in "Habeas Corpus," and Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd". In 1982 she pulled out all the stops on Broadway and gave a real Rose's Turn as a Miss Hannigan replacement in "Annie".
June expanded her talents to include both playwriting and directing. In addition to "I Said the Fly," she wrote "Marathon '33" (based on her Depression-era struggles) and received a 1964 Tony nomination for directing the play. June became the artistic director of the New Orleans Repertory Theatre in 1970, and later went on tour with her own one-woman show "An Evening with June Havoc". On stage and broaching age 80, the never-say-die actress appeared in a production of "Love Letters" and "An Old Lady's Guide to Survival".
June's mid-career biography "Early Havoc" was published in 1959. Married three times (her last husband, producer/director/writer William Spier died in 1973), June was long estranged from her sister, none too happy with Gypsy's portrayal of her in the best-selling memoir, "Gypsy" and equally dismayed of her Baby June character in the smash musical hit. The girls, noted for their trademark elongated faces and shapely gams, were estranged as children as well, but eventually patched things up for a time as adults. The sisters didn't truly grow close until Gypsy told June that she was dying of lung cancer in 1970. June elaborated more about her relationship with her sister in her second autobiography, "More Havoc" in 1980.
Ms. Havoc died peacefully on March 28, 2010, at her home in Stamford, Connecticut of natural causes. She was 97 years young.- Actor
- Director
- Cinematographer
Peter Helm was born on 22 December 1941 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and director, known for The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Longest Day (1962) and Wagon Train (1957).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Dell Henderson was born on 5 July 1883 in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and director, known for Show People (1928), The Servant Question (1920) and The Dead Line (1920). He was married to Florence Lee. He died on 2 December 1956 in Hollywood, California, USA.