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1-6 of 6
- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Irwin McGiver came to acting relatively late in life. He held B.A. and Master's degrees in English from Fordham, Columbia and Catholic Universities and spent his early years teaching drama and speech at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx. He had an early flirtation with the acting profession in 1938 as actor/director for the Irish Reperatory Theatre, but found his weekly income of $26.42 insufficient for daily survival. The next year he enlisted and saw action during World War II, fighting with the U.S. 7th Armored Division in Europe (including the Battle of the Bulge). When he was demobbed after six years in the army, he held the rank of Captain. He returned to teaching drama, with occasional forays into off-Broadway acting. In 1947, he married Chicago scenic designer Ruth Shmigelsky and settled down to live in a converted 19th-century former Baptist church.
There are conflicting stories as to how McGiver ended up becoming a film and television actor, but it happened sometime after one of his part-time acting performances in September 1955, either through the offices of an old University classmate turned stage producer or through the persuasive abilities of an agent from the Music Corporation of America. In any case, the portly, balding, owl-like and precisely spoken McGiver quickly developed an inimitable style as a comic (and occasionally serious) actor on television and in films. He was most memorable as the obtuse landscape contractor in The Gazebo (1959), a pompous jewelry salesman in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and an inept twitcher in Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962). He also played Mr. Sowerberry in a television version of Oliver Twist (1959) and starred in his own (sadly short-lived) TV show, Many Happy Returns (1964), as the complaints manager of a department store. His dramatic roles included a senator in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and, on television, the corrupt mayor in The Front Page (1970), plus a rare villainous role in the TV episode The Birds and the Bees Affair (1966). Among his numerous guest starring roles on television, he was at his best as the self-absorbed Roswell Flemington, who learns a moral lesson in Sounds and Silences (1964) (1964).- Early silent screen comedienne Araminta Durfee started out as a chorus girl and began her career on stage in 1908 in musical revues. In August of that year she married comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. In 1914, both players entered the fledgling film industry with Mack Sennett and were soon paired as a comedy double. By that time, Charles Chaplin had arrived from England to join the troupe and Minta became his leading lady in the two-reeler Making a Living (1914). The pairing was prompted by Mack Sennett who found the new arrival 'very peculiar' and felt it necessary to counterbalance his eccentricities with an actress who had a reputation for being able to 'get along with everybody'.
In addition to the series of 'Fatty' featurettes, Minta also worked at Keystone in the classic madcap farce Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914). She co-starred opposite the likes of Chester Conklin, Mack Swain and Ford Sterling in a series of outrageous daredevil comedies until 1916. A popular story goes that on one occasion director Wilfred Lucas bribed her with the bonus of a pet dog to hang suspended from a bridge, held only by a piano wire (Love, Speed and Thrills (1915)).
Minta and 'Fatty' Arbuckle separated in 1921, just prior to the scandal over the death of Virginia Rappe which destroyed her husband's career. In spite of divorcing him in 1925, Minta nonetheless remained Arbuckle's staunchest defender during three well-publicized trials and throughout her remaining life. In later years, Minta reminisced about the heyday of silent comedy in a series of interviews. She described most of her fellow players at Sennett -- including her husband and comedienne Mabel Normand -- as being extremely 'shy' when not on the job. She also made several candid (and not always complimentary) revelations about Chaplin's personal hygiene and idiosyncrasies.
Minta continued to make sporadic screen appearances in cameos and walk-ons until the early 70s. She died at the Motion Picture Country Home in September 1975 of a heart ailment. - Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of actor-manager Samuel Rupert Woods and actress Lillie Roberts, Ethel Griffies began her own stage career at the age of 3. She was 21 when she finally made her London debut in 1899, and 46 when she made her first Broadway appearance in "Havoc" (1924). Discounting a tentative stab at filmmaking in 1917, she made her movie bow in 1930, repeating her stage role in Old English (1930). Habitually cast as a crotchety old lady with the proverbial golden heart, she alternated between bits and prominently featured roles for the next 35 years. Her larger parts included Grace Poole in both the 1934 (Jane Eyre (1934)) and 1943 (Jane Eyre (1943)) versions of "Jane Eyre" and "Mrs. Bundy", the amateur ornithologist in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Every so often she'd take a sabbatical from film work to concentrate on the stage; she made her last Broadway appearance in 1967, at which time she was England's oldest working actress. Presumably at the invitation of fellow Briton Arthur Treacher, Ethel was a frequent guest on TV's The Merv Griffin Show (1962), never failing to bring down the house with her wickedly witty comments on her 80 years in show business.- Edmund Corthell was born on 22 October 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for For Pete's Sake! (1934). He died on 9 September 1975 in Webb County, Texas, USA.
- Berta Friedrichová was born on 26 January 1892 in Prague, Cechy, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for Jarní sen starého mládence (1913) and Její první film (1973). She died on 9 September 1975 in Mariánské Lázne, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].
- Editor
- Production Manager
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Giuseppe Fatigati was born on 20 September 1906 in Terracina, Lazio, Italy. He was an editor and production manager, known for Theodora, Slave Empress (1954), The Three Avengers (1964) and Laugh Pagliacci (1943). He died on 9 September 1975 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.