Deaths: October 1

Beloved French chanson entertainer Charles Aznavour, who wrote more than 800 songs, recorded more than 1,000 of them in French, English, Italian, German and Spanish and sold over 100 million records in all, was born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian on May 22, 1924, in Paris, the younger of two children born to Armenian immigrants who fled to France. His mother was a seamstress as well as an actress and his father was a baritone who sang in restaurants. Both Charles and his elder sister waited on tables and he performed, as well. He delivered his first poetic recital while just a toddler. Within a few years later he had developed such a passion for singing/dancing, that he sold newspapers to earn money for lessons.

He took his first theatrical bow in the play "Emil and the Detectives" at age 9 and within a few years was working as a movie extra. He eventually quit school and toured France and Belgium as a boy singer/dancer with a traveling theatrical troupe while living the bohemian lifestyle. A popular performer at the Paris' Club de la Chanson, it was there that he was introduced in 1941 to the songwriter Pierre Roche. Together they developed names for themselves as a singing/writing cabaret and concert duo ("Roche and Aznamour"). A Parisian favorite, they became developed successful tours outside of France, including Canada. In the post WWII years Charles began appearing in films again, one of them as a singing croupier in Adieu... Chérie (1946).

Eventually Aznavour earned a sturdy reputation composing street-styled songs for other established musicians and singers, notably Édith Piaf, for whom he wrote the French version of the American hit "Jezebel". Heavily encouraged by her, he toured with her as both an opening act and lighting man. He lived with Piaf out of need for a time not as one of her many paramours. His mentor eventually persuaded him to perform solo (without Roche) and he made several successful tours while scoring breakaway hits with the somber chanson songs "Sur ma vie" and "Parce que" and the notable and controversial "Après l'amour." In 1950, he gave the bittersweet song "Je Hais Les Dimanches" ["I Hate Sundays"] to chanteuse Juliette Gréco, which became a huge hit for her.

In the late 50s, Aznavour began to infiltrate films with more relish. Short and stubby in stature and excessively brash and brooding in nature, he was hardly leading man material but embraced his shortcomings nevertheless. Unwilling to let these faults deter him, he made a strong impressions with the comedy Une gosse 'sensass' (1957) and with Paris Music Hall (1957). He was also deeply affecting as the benevolent but despondent and ill-fated mental patient Heurtevent in Head Against the Wall (1959). A year later, Aznavour starred as piano player Charlie Kohler/Edouard Saroyan in Francois Truffaut's adaptation of the David Goodis' novel Shoot the Piano Player (1960) [Shoot the Piano Player], which earned box-office kudos both in France and the United States. This sudden notoriety sparked an extensive tour abroad in the 1960s. Dubbed the "Frank Sinatra of France" and singing in many languages (French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Armenian, Portuguese), his touring would include sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall (1964) and London's Albert Hall (1967).

Aznavour served as actor and composer/music arranger for many films, including Gosse de Paris (1961), which he also co-wrote with director Marcel Martin, and the dramas Three Fables of Love (1962) [Three Fables of Love") and Caroline chérie (1968) [Dear Caroline]. The actor also embraced the title role in the TV series "Les Fables de la Fontaine" (1964), then starred in the popular musical "Monsieur Carnaval" (1965), in which he performed his hit song "La bohême".

His continental star continued to shine and Aznavour acted in films outside of France with more dubious results. While the satirical Candy (1968), with an international cast that included Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Ringo Starr, and epic adventure The Adventurers (1970) were considered huge misfires upon release, it still showed Aznavour off as a world-wide attraction. While he was also seen in The Games (1970) (1970), The Blockhouse (1973) (1973) and an umpteenth film version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (1974), it was his music that kept him in the international limelight. Later films included Yiddish Connection (1986), which he co-wrote and provided music; Il maestro (1990) with Malcolm McDowell; the Canadian-French production Ararat (2002) for which he received special kudos; cameos as himself in The Truth About Charlie (2002) and Emmenez-moi (2005); and his final feature film, Mon colonel (2006)

Films aside, his chart-busting single "She" (1972-1974) went platinum in Great Britain. He also received thirty-seven gold albums in all. His most popular song in America, "Yesterday When I Was Young" has had renditions covered by everyone from Shirley Bassey to Julio Iglesias. In 1997, Aznavour received an honorary César Award. He has written three books, the memoirs "Aznavour By Aznavour" (1972), the song lyrics collection "Des mots à l'affiche" (1991) and a second memoir "Le temps des avants" (2003). A "Farewell Tour" was instigated in 2006 at age 82. He died

Married at least three times (some claim five) to Micheline Rugel, Evelyne Plessis and Ulla Thorsell, he fathered six children (daughters Katia, Patricia and Seda Aznavour, and sons Misha, Nicholas, and Patrick Aznavour). He died on October 1, 2018, in France.

Englishman Alan Lyle-Smythe was born in 1914. The future film and TV writer-actor trained as an actor before serving for four years with the Palestine Police in the 1930s. At the outbreak of World War II, he joined the British Army; part of their Intelligence Corps, he operated behind enemy lines in Libya and Tunisia, escaped a firing squad execution, and worked with guerrillas in Yugoslavia. ("Alan Caillou" was one of Lyle-Smythe's many wartime aliases; thinking it lucky, he took it in real life.) After the war, he was a police chief in Ethiopia, a district officer in Somalia, and the founder of a theatrical company in Africa. Returning to the old professions of acting and writing, Caillou worked in Canadian TV in the 1950s and later relocated to Hollywood, where he became a familiar name in the credits of movies and TV series.

Arthur Janov was born on 21 August 1924 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy (2018), Primalterapi: Vintern 1977 (1978) and Arthur & France Janov 1982 (1982). He was married to France Daunic and Glickenstein, Vivian. He died on 1 October 2017 in Malibu, California, USA.

Ben Daglish was a composer, known for 60 Days of Honesty, The Last Ninja (1987) and Cobra (1986). He was married to Sarah. He died on 1 October 2018 in Derbyshire, England, UK.

Beverly Watkins was born on 6 April 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She died on 1 October 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Carlos Ezquerra was born on 12 November 1947 in Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. He was a writer, known for Judge Dredd (1995), Dredd (2012) and Judge Dredd: Mega City One. He died on 1 October 2018.

Caroline Charrière was a composer, known for Thérèse Raquin, histoire d'une tournée (2005). She died on 1 October 2018 in Freiburg im Üechtland, Freiburg, Switzerland.

Cathryn Harrison was born on 25 May 1959 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Black Moon (1975), Images (1972) and The Dresser (1983). She was married to Paul Laing. She died in October 2018 in Plymouth, Devon, England, UK.

Donald Cook was born on 26 September 1901 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He was an actor, known for The Public Enemy (1931), Show Boat (1936) and Baby Face (1933). He was married to Princess Gioia Tasca di Cuto. He died on 1 October 1961 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Dorothy Arzner, the only female director during the "Golden Age" of Hollywood's studio system--from the 1920s to the early 1940s and the female director with the largest oeuvre in Hollywood to this day--was born January 3, 1897 (some sources put the year as 1900), in San Francisco, California, to a German-American father and a Scottish mother. Raised in Los Angeles, her parents ran a café which featured German cuisine and which was frequented by silent film stars including: Charles Chaplin and William S. Hart, and director Erich von Stroheim. She worked as a waitress at the restaurant, and no one could have foreseen at the time that Arzner would be one of the few women to break the glass ceiling of directing and would be the only woman to work during the early sound era.

In her fifteen-year career as a director (1928-43), Arzner made three silent movies and fourteen talkies. Her path to the director's chair was different than that of female directors in the future (indeed, different than most male directors too). Directors nowadays are typically graduates of film schools or were working actors prior to directing. Like most of the directors of her generation, Arzner gained wide training in most aspects of film-making by working her way up from the bottom. It was the best way to become a film-maker, she later said.

After graduating from high school in 1915, she entered the University of Southern California, where she was in the premedical program for two years. When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Arzner was unable to realize her ambition of serving her country in a military capacity, as there were no women's units in the armed forces at the time, so she served as an ambulance driver during the war.

After the cessation of hostilities, Azner got a job on a newspaper. The director of her ambulance unit introduced her to film director William C. de Mille (the brother of Cecil B. DeMille, one of the co-founders of Famous Players-Lasky, which eventually became known by the title of its distribution unit--Paramount Pictures). She decided to pursue a film career after visiting a movie set and being intrigued by the editing facilities. Arzner decided that she would like to become a director (there was no strict delineation between directors and editors in the immediate postwar period as the movie studios matured into a "factory" industrial production paradigm).

Though she was the sole member of her gender to direct Hollywood pictures during the first generation of sound film, in the silent era a woman behind the camera was not unknown. The first movie in history was directed by a Frenchwoman, and many women were employed in Hollywood during the silent era, most frequently as scenario writers (some research indicates that as many as three-quarters of the scenario writers during the silent era--when there was no requirement for a screenplay as such as there was no dialogue--were women). Indeed, there were female directors in the silent era, such as Frances Marion (though she was more famous as a screenwriter) and Lois Weber, but Arzner was fated to be the only female director to have made a successful transition to talkies. It wasn't until the 1930s and the verticalization of the industry, as it matured and consolidated, that women were squeezed out of production jobs in Hollywood.

The introduction to William deMille paid off when he hired her for the sum of $20 a week to be a stenographer. Her first job for DeMille was typing up scripts at Famous Players-Lasky. She was reportedly a poor typist. Ambitious and possessed of a strong will, Arzner offered to write synopses of various literary properties, and eventually was hired as a writer. Impressing DeMille and other Paramount powers that be, Arzner was assigned to Paramount's subsidiary Realart Films, as a film cutter. She was promoted to script girl after one year, which required her presence on the set to ensure the continuity of the script as shot by the director. She then was given a job editing films. She excelled at cutting: as an editor (she was the first Hollywood editor professionally credited as such on-screen), she labored on 52 films, working her way up from cutting Bebe Daniels comedies to assignments on "A" pictures within a couple of years. She came into her own as a film-maker editing the Rudolph Valentino headliner Blood and Sand (1922), about a toreador. Her editing of the bull-fighting scenes was highly praised, and she later said that she actually helmed the second-unit crew shooting some of the bullfight sequences. Director James Cruze was so impressed by her work on the Valentino picture that he brought her on to his team to edit The Covered Wagon (1923). Arzner eventually edited three other Cruze films: Ruggles of Red Gap (1923), Merton of the Movies (1924) and Old Ironsides (1926). Her work was of such quality that she received official screen credit as an editor, a first for a cutter of either sex.

While collaborating with Cruze she also wrote scenarios, scripting her ideas both solo and in collaboration. She was credited as a screenwriter (as well as an editor) on "Old Ironsides", one of the more spectacular films of the late silent era, being partially shot in Magnascope, one of the earliest widescreen processes. She would always credit Cruze as her mentor and role model. "Old Ironsides" proved to be the last film on which she was credited as an editor, as her ambitions to become a director would finally come to fruition. To indulge her, Paramount gave her a job as an assistant director, for which she was happy--until she realized it was not a stepping stone to the director's chair, and she was determined to sit in that chair.

Arzner pressured Paramount to let her direct, threatening to leave the studio to work for Columbia Pictures on Poverty Row, which had offered her a job as a director. Unwilling to lose such a talented film-maker, the Paramount brass relented, and she made her debut with Fashions for Women (1927). It was a hit. In the process of directing Paramount's first talkie, Manhattan Cocktail (1928), she made history by becoming the first woman to direct a sound picture. The success of her next sound picture, The Wild Party (1929), starring Paramount's top star, Clara Bow, helped establish Fredric March as a movie star.

Arzner proved adept at handling actresses. As Budd Schulberg related in his autobiography "Moving Pictures", Clara Bow--a favorite of his father, studio boss B.P. Schulberg--had a thick Brooklyn accent that the silence of the pre-talkie era hid nicely from the audience. She was terrified of the transition to sound, and developed a fear of the microphone. Working with her sound crew, Arzner devised and used the first boom mike, attaching the microphone to a fish pole to follow Bow as she moved around the set. Arzner even used Bow's less-than-dulcet speaking tones to underscore the vivaciousness of her character.

Though Arzner made several successful films for Paramount, the studio teetered on the edge of bankruptcy due to the Depression, eventually going into receivership (before being saved by the advent of another iconic woman, Mae West). When the studio mandated a pay cut for all employees, Arzner decided to go freelance. RKO Radio Pictures hired her to direct its new star, headstrong young Katharine Hepburn, in her second starring film, Christopher Strong (1933). It was not a happy collaboration, as both women were strong and unyielding, but Arzner eventually prevailed. She was after all the director. The fiercely independent Hepburn complained to RKO, but the studio backed its director against its star. Eventually the two settled into a working relationship, respecting each other but remaining cold and distant from one another. Ironically, Arzner would display her directorial flair in elucidating the kind of competitive rivalries between women she experienced with Hepburn.

The Directors Guild of America was established in 1933, and Arzner became the first female member. Indeed, she was the only female member of the D.G.A. for many years.

Arzner's films featured well-developed female characters, and she was known at the time of her work, quite naturally, as a director of "women's pictures". Not only did her movies portray the lives of strong, interesting women, but her pictures are noted for showcasing the ambiguities of life. Since the rise of feminist scholarship in the 1960s, Arzner's movies have been seen as challenging the dominant, androcentric mores of the times.

Arzner was gay, and cultivated a masculine look in her clothes and appearance (some feel as camouflage to hide the boy's club that was Hollywood). Many gay critics discern a hidden gay subtext in her films, such as "Christopher Strong". Whereas feminist critics see a critique of gender inequality in "Christopher Strong", gay female critics see a critique of heterosexuality itself as the source of a woman's troubles. The very private Azner, the woman who broke the glass ceiling and had to survive, and indeed throve, in the all-male world of studio film-making, refused to be categorized as a woman or gay director, insisting she was simply a "director." She was right.

Arzner did have less troubled and more productive collaborations with other actresses after her experience with Hepburn. She developed a close friendship with one of her female stars, Joan Crawford, whom she directed in two 1937 MGM vehicles, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937) and The Bride Wore Red (1937). Arzner later directed Pepsi commercials as a favor to Crawford's husband, Pepsi-Cola Company's Chairman of the Board Alfred Steele.

In 1943 Arzner joined other top Hollywood directors such as John Ford and George Stevens in going to work for the war effort during World War Two. She made training films for the U.S. Army's Women's Army Corps (W.A.C.s). That same year her health was compromised after she contracted pneumonia. After the war she did not return to feature film directing, but made documentaries and commercials for the new television industry. She also became a film-making teacher, first at the Pasadena Playhouse during the 1950s and 1960s and then at the University of California-Los Angeles campus during the 1960s and 1970s. At U.C.L.A. she taught directing and screenwriting, and one of her students was Francis Ford Coppola, the first film school grad to achieve major success as a director. She taught at U.C.L.A. until her death in 1979.

She was honored in her own life-time, becoming a symbol and role model for female directors who desired entry into mainstream cinema. The feminist movement in the 1960s championed her. In 1972 the First International Festival of Women's Films honored her by screening "The Wild Party", and her oeuvre was given a full retrospective at the Second Festival in 1976. In 1975 the D.G.A. honored her with "A Tribute to Dorothy Arzner." During the tribute, a telegram from Katharine Hepburn was read: "Isn't it wonderful that you've had such a great career, when you had no right to have a career at all?"

Eric Hobsbawm was born on 9 June 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt. He is known for Alle origini della mafia (1976), Jazz (2001) and Machine Gun: History Down the Barrel of a Gun (1999). He was married to Marlene Schwarz and Muriel Seaman. He died on 1 October 2012 in London, England, UK.

Eric Pleskow was born on 24 April 1924 in Vienna, Austria. He was a producer, known for Beyond Rangoon (1995), The Hollywood Sign (2001) and Pledge to Bataan (1943). He was married to Barbara Black. He died on 1 October 2019 in Westport, Connecticut, USA.

Lean, aristocratic-looking British character actress,on stage from the 1940's. She was noted on Broadway for her performance (and for bringing the house down with her tango on opening night) as Lady India in Jean Anouilh's 'Ring Around the Moon' (1950-51). On television, her aquiline features and impeccable bearing led to her gravitating towards upper class roles as wealthy or snooty socialites -- few more memorable than her unnamed party-goer in the dream sequence of The Prisoner (1967) episode "A.B.and C."; and as Mrs. Butterworth, who not only resides in Patrick McGoohan's old flat and drives his sports car but turns out to be another Number 2 (in the episode "Many Happy Returns"). She also had to graciously scrape the mould of a bread-roll offered her by Steptoe and Son (1962) in "Loathe Story", as the hyphenated mother of Joanna Lumley.

Georgina had a rare lead in the title role of the low-budget thriller The Woman Who Wouldn't Die (1965) as Gary Merrill's crippled and demanding wife, who, unsurprisingly gets killed and disposed of in the potting shed. Of course, she comes back to haunt her evil hubby (really, just a double-cross staged by his two accomplices). In many of her other appearances on screen, Georgina played opposite great British comic actors, from Sidney James to Tony Hancock. Privately, her circle of friends included Denholm Elliott and Terry-Thomas (with whom she shared the stage in 'Full House'). Her final curtain call before retirement in Australia was as the lead in the comedy play 'A Breath of Spring' in 1990.

Giuliano Gemma was born in Rome on 2 September 1938, grew up in Reggio Emilia but returned to Rome with his parents in 1944. While he was playing on the grass he found a WW II bomb that exploded and today the signs of injury are still visible on his face. He played many sports in his life including boxing, gymnastics, and tennis. He also worked in a circus. In the early years of his youth he discovered a great passion for the cinema. He knew the most important Italian actors; his idol was Burt Lancaster and decided to start acting. In the beginning, he worked as stunt-man, and in small roles in big productions such as "Bem Hur" where his role was uncredited. The director, Duccio Tessari, gave him the first role as protagonist in the film "Arrivano i Titani". Luchino Visconti cast him the role of a general in "Il gattopardo", but his scenes were mostly cut. This was followed by important roles in "Angelica", by the French director Bernard Borderie, where Gemma has a leading role; and the first spaghetti western films where he was credited as Montgomery Wood. "Una pistola per Ringo", "Il ritorno di Ringo" and "Un dollaro bucato" are among his greatest successes. Then he played his most important roles in "Il deserto dei Tartari" by Valerio Zurlini and "Il prefetto di ferro" by Pasquale Squitieri. He won important prizes: best actor at the Festival of Karlovy Vary, best actor at the Montréal Film Festival, and the Grolla d'Oro in San Vincent Festival. In 1986 he became Cavaliere della Repubblica italiana.

In the last years Gemma worked mostly for Italian television, and he discovered another great passion, sculpture, where he has become rather skilled. He is the father of actress Vera Gemma and Giuliana Gemma.

Hansje Bunschoten was born on 3 May 1958 in Hilversum, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She was a director, known for Taxi (1993), De Avondetappe (2003) and Jinek (2013). She was married to Joop. She died on 1 October 2017 in Almere, Flevoland, Netherlands.

House Peters Jr. spent over 32 years in Hollywood as a well-respected, journeyman character actor and occasional star of B-movies. Beginning his career in 1935's Hot Tip (1935), he went on to portray mostly supporting characters and a host of baddies in a large number of stage roles, films, serials, TV shows and commercials.

House was born into an acting family, the son of silent screen star House Peters and actress Mae King Peters. Affectionately known as "Junior" or "Juny" by friends and relatives, he grew up in Beverly Hills, attended local schools with many children of Hollywood's elite and dove into the acting business upon graduation from Beverly Hills High, with modest success. With his new career put on hold because of WWII, House served in the U.S. Army Air Corps' Air Sea Rescue section as a small-boat operator. Meeting and subsequently marrying Lucy Pickett during his tour in the Phillipines, he returned home after the war and resumed his career. During the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, House found a lot of work in both movies and television, playing such roles as soldiers, police detectives, western outlaws and even as the original Mr. Clean in a popular string of TV commercials. Peters had set himself a goal when he began his acting career that if he didn't achieve star status by age 50, he would leave show business for good. Being true to his word after remaining typed as a perennial supporting player, he left the set after finishing a Lassie (1954) episode in 1965 in which he played a recurring role as county sheriff Jim Simmons, and ended his career. From that day forward House went into the real estate business in the San Fernando Valley and never turned back. When he finally retired from this profession, he and Lucy toured the entire country many times over in their van and travel trailer, fishing, gold prospecting, site seeing and attending every swap meet they could find. He was the recipient of the coveted Golden Boot Award and penned an autobiography, "Another Side of Hollywood," House makes occasional appearances at western film festivals, including the ever-popular gathering at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. If he had anything to do over again in his entire life, Peters emphatically proclaims that it would be to "change my name!"

Jim is a quadriplegic actor/writer, one of a handful in the business. He started in radio, moved into acting/writing and never looked back. He loves both acting and writing so much he would be hard pressed to choose between them.

He is a highly-skilled improvisor, the only quadriplegic improvisor in the business. He trained with Avery Schreiber, Theatersports, and Off The Wall, and performed for a year and a half in The Moving Targets, a political satire/sketch comedy/improv troupe he also co-produced and wrote for.

Jim hosts/writes/produces a podcast series "The Hollywood Quad", a laugh out loud look at his journey toward success in Hollywood. It's fast growing in popularity and can be found all over the Internet at keywords Hollywood Quad.

Jerry González was born on 5 June 1949 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He is known for Crossover Dreams (1985), The Other Barrio (2015) and Harlem's Last Poet. He was married to Andrea Zapata-Girau and Betty Luciano. He died on 1 October 2018 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Jouko Innanen was born on 29 October 1952 in Ristiina, Finland. He was married to Tiina Innanen. He died on 1 October 2019 in Savonlinna, Finland.

Joyce Jillson was born on 26 December 1945 in Cranston, Rhode Island, USA. She was an actress, known for Superchick (1973), Peyton Place (1964) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She was married to Joseph Gallagher. She died on 1 October 2004 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Julie Parrish was born on 21 October 1940 in Middlesboro, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress and director, known for Mannix (1967), Fireball 500 (1966) and Return to Peyton Place (1972). She died on 1 October 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Karel Gott was born on 14 July 1939 in Pilsen, Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia [now Plzen, Czech Republic]. He was an actor and composer, known for Bad Company (2002), Starci na chmelu (1964) and Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973). He was married to Ivana Gottová. He died on 1 October 2019 in Prague, Czech Republic.

Lionel Ames was born on 6 March 1923 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Broadway Television Theatre (1952), Thundering Jets (1958) and Playhouse 90 (1956). He was married to Barbara Colton. He died on 1 October 2017 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.

Trained in classical music, London-born pianist Lynsey de Paul entered art college and turned her hand to designing album sleeves as a means to boost her income. This awakened her interest in songwriting and some of her first tunes were recorded by other artists in 1971. In 1972, after co-writing her first hit single for The Fortunes ("Storm in a Teacup"), Lynsey emerged as a performer in her own right with hit single "Sugar Me". Success as a singer-songwriter was consolidated with a run of hit singles and four albums, including representing the U.K. with Mike Moran in the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest with the song, "Rock Bottom", which came second. In 1973, Lynsey was the first women to win an Ivor Novello award for "Won't Somebody Dance With Me", a feat she repeated again in 1974 for the TV theme "No Honestly". Ever busy, she also wrote a number of hits for other artists in the 70s and 80s. Lynsey was oft to be seen on a variety of UK TV shows, particularly during the 70s, displaying her varied talents and so it was inevitable that she would turn to acting. She has appeared on stage in the thriller "Shriek" and the musical "Pump Boys and Dinettes" as well as in the film Gabrielle and the Doodleman (1984) and the TV drama The Starlight Ballroom (1983). More recently, she released a self-defense video for women, titled Taking Control (1992). She was well known for her stance on animal rights and her support for Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party, composing "Vote Tory, Tory, Tory for election glory", which she performed at the 1983 Conservative Party conference.

This saucy and engaging Tennessee born-and-bred brunette beauty came into the world on March 2, 1913, the daughter of John Thomas Weaver and Ellen Martin, both non-professionals. She attended private and high schools while growing up and attended the University of Kentucky and the University of Indiana. Showing early signs of a musical talent, she instinctively made use of her beauty and singing capabilities as she strove to find a place for herself in the entertainment business.

Paying her dues as a band singer, model, and stage performer (with the McCauley Stock Company and in Billy Rose's Shrine Minstrels), Marjorie made an inauspicious film debut in Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934) in an uncredited bit part. 20th Century Fox saw something special in her, however, and signed her up in 1936. Her first few years were uneventful playing a round of alluring bit parts as chorus girls and secretary/receptionist types. Moving up the credits ladder she found lead and second lead femme roles coming her way, typically essaying the resourceful but wholesome daughter, paramour or "girl Friday" type opposite a number of virile and handsome leading men, including Ricardo Cortez in The Californian (1937); Tyrone Power in Second Honeymoon (1937); Warner Baxter in I'll Give a Million (1938); John Barrymore in Hold That Co-ed (1938); and Cesar Romero in The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939). In the comedy Sally, Irene and Mary (1938), Alice Faye, Joan Davis and Marjorie made up the distaff trio of starry-eyed hopefuls (Marjorie played "Mary"), while providing lovely distraction in a couple of The Ritz Brothers vehicles -- Life Begins in College (1937) and Kentucky Moonshine (1938). One of her best parts came opposite Henry Fonda as Mary Todd to his Abe Lincoln in the quality bio-drama Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). She was also top-billed in such programmers as Murder Among Friends (1941) and Man at Large (1941). Most of her assignments, however, were relegated to "B" pictures and following co-star roles in two "Charlie Chan" and three "Michael Shayne" mysteries, Marjorie left Fox (in 1942) by choice and free-lanced. Her rating did not improve much, however, although she was seen to good advantage in the serial The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944). She made her last inconsequential movies with Fashion Model (1945) and Leave It to Blondie (1945).

Marjorie decided to retire from the business in 1945 and, save for an unbilled part (by accident) in We're Not Married! (1952) over at Fox, that was all she wrote. Married to Don Briggs in 1943, she and her husband had a son and daughter, Joel and Leigh, and later owned and operated a classy liquor establishment in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. She died following a stroke in 1994.