Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 252
- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Brassy blonde actress Margaret Whitton was born on November 30, 1949, at Fort Meade, a U.S. Army base in the suburbs of Baltimore. Her father being an Army colonel and mother a nurse, there was much traveling in Margaret's early life and she spent her early years in Japan. Returning to the states, the family finally settled in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she developed an interest in acting in Northeast High School plays.
Margaret began her career onstage in New York, performing off-Broadway in "Baba Goya" (1973) and "Nourish the Beast" (1973). Billed as Peggy Whitton, she appeared in small parts in low-budget films -- Parades (1972) and Teenage Hitchhikers (1974) and the role as Joan Dancy in the daytime soap opera The Doctors (1963).
Now billing herself as "Margaret Whitton," she started to make a stronger name for herself when she made her Broadway debut in "Steaming" (1982). She also impressed in films, effectively cast as sexy and strong supporting characters in such movies as the prison drama Love Child (1982), the football dramedy The Best of Times (1986) with Robin Williams and Kurt Russell, and especially her breakout role in The Secret of My Success (1987) in which she nearly stole the movie from Michael J. Fox as his character's hard-as-nails aunt. She complemented this success with a hilarious role as scheming widow-cum-baseball-team owner Rachel Phelps in Major League (1989) and its sequel, and as the resilient mother to young Nick Stahl in Mel Gibson's directorial debut The Man Without a Face (1993).
She also worked on television. Appearing in episodes such as "Miami Vice" and "Tales from the Darkside," she was a supporting regular on the short-lived series Hometown (1985). Other film work came her way as well with A Fine Romance (1989) in which she starred as a bickering wife (opposite the late Christopher Cazenove) and the soap-opera spoof Good & Evil (1991), where she played against type as the "good girl", opposite the more wicked-minded Teri Garr. She also appeared in the short-lived comedy series Cutters (1993). As for made-for-television movies, she is best known for her portrayal of the tough-as-nails attorney Leslie Abramson in Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (1994). Her last film roles were in the films The Man Without a Face (1993), Major League II (1994) and Trial by Jury (1994).
Returning to Broadway, Margaret appeared in "And the Apple Doesn't Fall..." (1995) and in the original, award-winning musical "Marlene" (1999), the story of legendary Marlene Dietrich that starred Siân Phillips. She has also made a name for herself as a theater director. Her directing credits include Marina Carr's "Portia Coughlin" (1996) and "By the Bog of Cats" (1998), and The Public Theater's production of "Dirty Tricks" (2004), starring Judith Ivey as Martha Mitchell.
Whitton was President of independent film producer Tashtego Films, and directed A Bird of the Air (2011), starring Rachel Nichols and Jackson Hurst. The film was executive produced by her second husband Warren Spector. 67-year-old Margaret died of cancer on December 4, 2016.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sally Ann Howes grew up in a show business family led by her father, famous English comedian/actor Bobby Howes, her mother Patricia Malone and grandfather, Broadway director Capt. J.A.E. Malone. She had her first screen test offer on her 12th birthday and went on to star in several films before she turned 20, including Anna Karenina (1948) with Vivien Leigh.
At 20, she received her first starring stage role in Glasgow in the Sandy Wilson musical Caprice. This led to other musicals including an 18-month run of Paint Your Wagon opposite her father Bobby Howes at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket in 1953. This was followed by the plays Romance by Candlelight, A Hatful of Rain (non-musical) and 148 performances of the musical Summer Song. She continued to make the occasional film during the 1950's but the stage was her main focus. In 1958 she accepted the role of Eliza Doolittle in Broadway's My Fair Lady, taking over from Julie Andrews. The role had been offered to her three times previously, but film and stage commitments kept her from assuming the part that would skyrocket her fame in America.
Just before taking on My Fair Lady, she married composer Richard Adler, and he wrote the musical Gift of the Magi for her. It aired on CBS TV in December of 1958. Adler later wrote Kwamina for her, which she performed after her run in My Fair Lady. It was a short-lived run of the musical, and she went on to perform on Broadway in "Brigadoon", which earned her a Tony nomination in 1963. Afterwards she starred in the critically acclaimed musical, "What Makes Sammy Run" opposite Steven Lawrence. Soon after she landed the TV version of Brigadoon (1966) co-starring Robert Goulet and Peter Falk which went on to win seven Emmy Awards.
After she and Adler divorced in 1966, she began filming the movie that would become a mega-hit, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Despite her large volume of work before and after the movie, she will always be most fondly remembered and loved around the world for her portrayal as the very lovely Truly Scrumptious. Producer Albert R. Broccoli wrote of her: "We wanted a typical English beauty. And to me, Sally Ann represents that ideal. She is also one of the finest musical comedy stars today, a rare combination of the right kind of beauty and the right kind of talent." Dick Van Dyke said of her in his documentary "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang": "They couldn't have picked a better Truly Scrumptious than Sally. They came up with Sally Ann and I heard her voice, and it was the richest contralto. She auditioned with the Lovely Lonely Man, and I thought, my God, this girl is great and then she was stunningly beautiful. She loved those kids and they loved her, which I think comes across on the screen. They just thought a great deal of her, and she spent a lot of time with them, you know, between shots... telling stories and playing games during all those long waiting periods."
Filming took place in England, France and Bavaria over 14 months. Critics were mixed about the film, but children were fanatical about it. The movie spawned a mass marketing phenomenon with everything from Truly Scrumptious Barbie dolls, to Jemima dress patterns, lunch-boxes, countless toys, and many other things all of which still enjoy a thriving collectible life on the secondary market. The Truly Scrumptious costumes in the film even sparked a mini-revival in Edwardian fashions, especially reflected by designer Laura Ashley.
Unfortunately, the movie came out at a time when musicals were beginning to be box office dead weight, including Julie Andrews ' Star! (1968) and Darling Lili (1970), which nearly sank Paramount. This nailed the lid shut on filmed musicals for a long time, leaving no filmed musical outlet for performers like Howes. Her film roles became very sporadic after Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). She was a frequent and popular guest panelist on many game shows throughout the 1960s, and even up until the early 1980s, and she made several guest appearances on television series during the early 1970s. However, the theatre called her back, and with the exception of a few films, she has devoted her career almost entirely to the musical stage. Her last appearance was in 1992. She remains very active in musical theatre even today and is considered one of the grand dames of the American and British musical stage.
Other musicals and plays she has starred in Camelot; Blossom Time; The Sound of Music; King and I; Robert and Elizabeth; Man and Superman; I Do, I Do; Hans Anderson; A Little Night Music; Cinderella; Where's Charley?; James Joyce's The Dead.
She has sung at the White House for three US Presidents - Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
She is a naturalized U.S. citizen and resides in New York. She has been married for over 30 years to Douglas Rae.- Arkie Whiteley was born on 6 November 1964 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), The Killing of Angel Street (1981) and A Town Like Alice (1981). She was married to Jim Elliott and Christopher Kuhn. She died on 19 December 2001 in Palm Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
At 14, Ron Palillo (born Ronald Gabriel Paolillo) started his own summer theater in Cheshire, Connecticut. His parents, Gabriel and Carmel Paolillo, were surprised when the summer theater actually made money. After graduating from high school, Ron went to the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he majored in drama. He appeared in many school plays in college. After graduation, Ron got a job with a touring company which performed in Shakespearean plays. He claimed to have received invaluable drama training during that tour, acting in Shakespearean masterpieces like "Macbeth", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
After his Shakespearean tour, Ron became a member of a repertory company in Miami, Florida. Shortly after arriving in New York, Ron got a role in the off-Broadway success "Hot l Baltimore." He stayed with the show for over a year. Because of his work in "Hot L Baltimore". Ron was given a lead role in a musical special, "The Last Sweet Days of Isaac", on television. After Isaac, he once again went on tour and appeared with Mickey Rooney in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and with Jan Sterling in a serious play, "Summer Brave". He has two brothers and a sister. His elder brother, Richard Paolillo, is an eye surgeon, his brother Robert Paolillo, is a salesman and his sister Ann, became a teacher.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
After giving up college, George Murphy decided to become a dancer. Starting in 1927, he worked with his wife and partner Julie Johnson on Broadway. In 1934, after his wife retired from show business, he worked with Shirley Temple, in Hollywood, as well as Eleanor Powell, Fred Astaire, and Ronald Reagan. A Republican since 1939, in 1945 he became president of the Screen Actors Guild. He retired from the silver screen in 1952, became a TV producer and in 1964 was elected as Senator of California.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Barrie Ingham was born on 10 February 1932 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Day of the Jackal (1973) and Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965). He was married to Tarne Phillips. He died on 23 January 2015 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lili Damita was a French-American actress, best remembered today for whom she married than for the movies in which she appeared. When the sound revolution arrived in Hollywood, all of the studio's scrambled to find actors who could speak lines and record well. It was at this time Lili burst onto the scene. While her accent would always be quite noticeable, the novelty of sound overcame the quality of lines uttered. In the MGM movie The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929), she played against Ernest Torrence as his love interest. In 1931, she was cast with Gary Cooper in the early western Fighting Caravans (1931). After that, her career was almost over as she continued to make only a few other movies over the next few years. In 1935, she married a hell raiser by the name of Errol Flynn. This rocky tempestuous union lasted until 1942.- George Keymas was born on 18 November 1925 in Springfield, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Twilight Zone (1959), Apache Warrior (1957) and Playhouse 90 (1956). He was married to Karen A Keymas. He died on 17 January 2008 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- Brett King was born on 29 December 1920 in Ocean Beach, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Battleground (1949), The Racket (1951) and Yancy Derringer (1958). He died on 14 January 1999 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Rick Van Nutter was born in Pomona, California and entered film work as a location manager/assistant director while living in the Hawaian Islands. Later he traveled to Africa as a production manager and stopped off in Rome on his way home and decided to stay for awhile. The following year while working as a location manager for a film company he was asked to take a part in the film and caught the acting bug and from then on spent the rest of his life in front of the cameras- Actor
- Soundtrack
Mike Douglas was born on 11 August 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Cinderella (1950), The Mike Douglas Show (1961) and Bugsy (1991). He was married to Genevieve Purnell. He died on 11 August 2006 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA.- "...And who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!" Remember that familiar voice on TV's Adventures of Superman (1952)? That belonged to Bill Kennedy.
Kennedy's moneymaker was in his rich, resonant voice. One of the more prolific radio and (later) TV announcers to hit the airwaves, his career ran nearly five decades. Unlike others who established themselves and stayed comfortably behind a microphone, Bill gamely attempted a 1940s movie career with a big studio (Warner Bros.). And although he failed to make a strong impression visually, his face still is a familiar one thanks to the dozen or so "B" westerns he did for the smaller studios in post-war years.
Born Willard A. Kennedy in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on June 27, 1908, he became interested in radio speaking early on and, as a teen, diligently practiced strengthening and shaping his voice so it would be suitable for the medium. He studied at Assumption College, in Ontario, Canada for a couple of years before leaving to find on-hands work. Hired by WTAM in 1934 as a staff announcer, he eventually relocated to WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.
A strong interest in acting propelled Bill to take a position as staff announcer in Los Angeles with KHJ. Hal B. Wallis caught his broadcasts and arranged for a Warner Bros. screen test. A genial and darkly handsome presence, the wavy-haired brunet was signed to a seven-year contract and groomed in minor, unbilled bits for the first couple of years in such classy fare as Now, Voyager (1942) and Air Force (1943). More visible roles came with the films Truck Busters (1943) and Mr. Skeffington (1944) but Bill's physical appearance proved to be less commanding on celluloid than his voice. The studio wound up using him increasingly in bit parts as announcers, reporters, and newsmen in such movies as Flying Fortress (1942), The Hard Way (1943), Mission to Moscow (1943) and This Is the Army (1943), to name a few.
The studio let Bill go after a couple of tryouts featured parts in Escape in the Desert (1945) and Night and Day. Undaunted, he proceeded to freelance and earned his first leading role as Corporal Decker in the Universal 13-part cliffhanger The Royal Mounted Rides Again (1945). Other occasional post-war leads came his way from the smaller studios with The People's Choice (1946) and Web of Danger (1947), but he still failed to register strongly. Bill found himself trapped in minor/secondary parts as in Don't Gamble with Strangers (1946), The Bachelor's Daughters (1946), the Bowery Boys entry News Hounds (1947), and I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948). Within a few years, however, Bill fell into a comfortable niche as a featured "good guy" or "bad guy" in westerns -- Shadows of the West (1949), Gunslingers (1950), Law of the West (1949), Trail of the Yukon (1949), Storm Over Wyoming (1950), I Shot Billy the Kid (1950), Abilene Trail (1951) and Nevada Badmen (1951), among others.
When film work waned, Bill found guest parts on the small screen in episodes of "Boston Blackie," "The Public Defender," "Burns & Allen," "I Married Joan" and in several episodes of the western series "The Cisco Kid," Death Valley Days" and "The Gene Autry Show". In 1952, he was handed his most famous voiceover as Adventures of Superman (1952)'s opening credits announcer, while also finding work in the same vein in commercials.
During severe career lulls Kennedy would find employment as a door-to-door salesman and truck driver. In 1956, after losing his hosting job with KNXT in Hollywood, he returned to Detroit and eventually hosted the weekday "Bill Kennedy's Showtime" at CKLWf-TV, a station just across the Detroit River in Ontario, Canada, where he showed movies and took calls and reminisced with fans on the air. The show was later moved to WKBD and renamed "Bill Kennedy at the Movies." Bill remained a popular local personality until his retirement in 1983.
The twice married actor with three children spent his last years in Palm Beach, Florida, where he died of emphysema at the age of 88. - Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Ethel Smith graduated from Carnegie Tech, having majored in piano. She got a job as an organist in California, and then went to Rio de Janeiro for a four-week booking. She returned to the United States during WWII, and "Tico Tico" ("Tico Tico no Fubá", the Brazilian title) became a major hit in New York and across the country. She was asked to appear in several films, and made enough money to live well. She eventually concentrated more on acting, appearing in a number of plays. She did not have any children and died following a progressive illness.- Dennis Hoey was born on 30 March 1893 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Terror by Night (1946), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) and The Spider Woman (1943). He was married to Josephine Marta Ricca and Sarah Pearl Lyons (known as Cissie). He died on 25 July 1960 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- Gifted, poetic actor who never fulfilled his potential. The son of an Episcopal minister and the eldest of four, Kinsolving began acting after his first year of college. A Method actor, Kinsolving studied under Mary Welch of the famed Actors Studio in New York.
After a short turn on Broadway, he was signed by agent Richard Clayton, who had brought both James Dean and Tab Hunter to stardom. Soon, Kinsolving was appearing in various East Coast television shows, including the live presentation of Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" with Helen Hayes. In 1959, Kinsolving headed for Hollywood, rooming with actor James Franciscus. After several more TV appearances in such shows as Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Kinsolving landed his first movie role, with Alan Ladd, in 1960's All the Young Men (1960). That same year, he gave a moving performance as "Sammy Golden" in the film adaptation of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960). Kinsolving won raves and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Regrettably, Kinsolving made only one more film, The Explosive Generation (1961), before completing his brief career in TV guest roles. Nonetheless, Kinsolving brought a striking combination of sexuality, pathos and vulnerability to his work (including an outstanding performance in Route 66 (1960)). Kinsolving retired from acting in 1966, due to his personal frustrations with the business. For two years, he owned a hip restaurant-bar, "Toad Hall", in Manhattan.
After brief romances with Tuesday Weld and Candice Bergen, Kinsolving sold his bar and married in mid-1969. Moving to Florida, he managed two art galleries. After divorcing his wife in 1972, Kinsolving, an avid seaman, spent the remainder of his life sailing exotic locales in his private schooner.
Sadly, Kinsolving developed a strange respiratory illness which, without warning, rendered him unconscious. On the afternoon of December 4, 1974, Kinsolving collapsed and died in his Palm Beach apartment. He was 36. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Rush Limbaugh was born on 12 January 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Forget Paris (1995), Hearts Afire (1992) and The Drew Carey Show (1995). He was married to Kathryn Limbaugh, Marta Maranda Fitzgerald, Michelle Sixta Wennerholm and Roxy Maxine McNeely. He died on 17 February 2021 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.- American actress and dancer, born one of four siblings in Dearborn, Michigan, and christened after Tchaikovsky's opera 'Eugene Onegin'. Her ancestry was Russian and her surname at birth (depending on which source you read) has been variously given as Popoff, Popov, Popova or Popoffon. In the mid-50s, a fanciful story circulated which had her descending "from Genghis Khan on her father's side and a tribe of Gypsies on her mother's".
Eugenia trained as a ballet dancer in New York and made her way to Los Angeles in 1952 while touring with the American Ballet Theatre. Warner Brothers promptly signed her as a dancer to a three-year contract. She went on to acting studies with Michael Chekhov and further ballet lessons under the tutelage of Bronislava Njinska. In 1955, she signed with 20th Century Fox to be cast cast as exotic characters in a couple of low budget films: a B-western (as Liwana, a chief's daughter in Apache Warrior (1957)) and a C-grade zombie flick (as an African native in The Disembodied (1957)). Luckily, she was better served by television as a romantic lead (Señorita Elena Torres) in Walt Disney's Zorro (1957). Unable to shake off typecasting, the parts that came her way for the remainder of the decade were confined to Hispanic or Native American lasses in TV westerns ranging from Death Valley Days (1952) and Broken Arrow (1956) to The Adventures of Jim Bowie (1956). Having (in 1952) married Bob Strauss, heir to the Pep Boys Auto Supply Company fortune, Eugenia called quits in 1960 and left the film business to raise a family. - Actress
- Soundtrack
In 1940, a blonde, sultry-looking model from Fort Worth, Texas (birth name Marilyn Llewelling) calling herself Marilyn Merrick, was cast in two Warner Bros. features and one short. She also had a role in "Dr. Christian Meets the Women (RKO)", and one of the two leading ladies opposite Johnny Mack Brown in in "Ragtime Cowboy Joe(Universal)". The WAMPAS Baby Stars, a yearly selection of 13 promising starlets, was conducted by the Western Association of Motion Pictures Advertisers from the early 1920s through the mid-1930s. Marilyn was a Baby Star but not during the WAMPAS sponsorship. In 1940, the Motion Pictures Publicist Association selected 13 "Baby Stars", who were featured in a Harriet Parsons-produced, Republic Pictures-distributed series called "Meet the Stars" in a 1941 entry called "Baby Stars." No claim was made that the starlets in this shot were WAMPAS selections. The 13 starlets in this short were: Ella Bryan, Lucia Carroll, Peggy Diggins, Lorraine Elliott, Jayne Hazard, Joan Leslie, Kay Leslie, Gay Parkes, Lois Ranson, Shelia Ryan, Patricia Van Clive, Tanya Widrin, and Marilyn Merrick. Two months later, March 3, 1941, Republic Pictures Corporation signed Marilyn Merrick to a Term Players Contract (with six-months options), changed her name to Lynn Merrick, and this 21-year-old actress made 22 films for Republic until her contract expired on March 30, 1943. She was the leading lady in 17 of those films, opposite Don "Red" Barry in 16 of them. Columbia Pictures then used Lynn Merrick in 17 films over the next three years, primarily as a lead or second lead in the majority of them, especially those from 1943 and 1944.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Virginia-born Mary Duncan went to Hollywood after critics praised her acting in the lead in "The Shanghai Gesture" on Broadway. While making Five and Ten (1931), she became friends with the film's lead, Marion Davies. The two women attended a polo match, where Davies introduced Duncan to Stephen "Laddie" Sanford, an international polo star and director of the Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Company. She and Sanford married in 1933, after which she retired from films and moved with him to Palm Beach, Florida. They also maintained three homes in the New York area.
In retirement, she devoted herself to philanthropic works, doing in major fund-raising for several charities. In addition, the Sanfords were socially very prominent, and for many years the former Mary Duncan reigned as the grande dame of Palm Beach society. A neighbor who became a close friend was Rose Kennedy, mother of President John F. Kennedy. Those whom the Sanfords entertained at their mansion included the King and Queen of Jordan and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She continued her charity work until very late in life, and died quietly in her sleep, aged 98.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Roger Eugene Ailes was born in Warren, Ohio, the son of Donna Marie and Robert Eugene Ailes, a factory foreman at a local factory. Later in life, Roger Ailes was inducted into the Warren High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.
Roger Ailes graduated from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio with a BA in 1962. Soon afterwards, Ailes began his television career as a property assistant on The Mike Douglas Show (1961). Working in Cleveland and Philadelphia, Roger Ailes quickly rose to producer in 1965 and executive producer between 1967 and 1968. "The Mike Douglas Show" was also the show that allowed Roger Ailes to be nominated for an Emmy in 1968.
It was during Roger Ailes' work on "The Mike Douglas" show that he engaged in a lively discussion about Television and the role it plays in Politics with then-Presidential candidate Richard Nixon. Nixon, having recognized Roger Ailes talent and foresight, brought him on as media adviser to Nixon's presidential campaign from 1967-1968.
In 1968, Roger Ailes founded Ailes Communication in New York, a media production and consulting firm which consulted for a number of different politicians and businesses. He produced two Broadway plays: "Mother Earth" in 1972 and "Hot-L Baltimore", which premiered in 1973 and ran for three years.
Roger Ailes' exposure and success in his political consulting during the Nixon campaign, allowed him to once again consult for a presidential campaign. This time, for the 1984 campaign of Ronald Reagan. It is widely believed that Ailes' coaching of Reagan was the deciding factor which allowed Reagan to win the second presidential debate with Walter Mondale.
Again in 1987 and 1988, while acting as producer for several television specials, Roger Ailes successfully coached and consulted George Bush to victory in both the Republican primaries and, afterwards, the presidential election beating opponent Michael Dukakis. Roger Ailes announced his withdrawal from political consulting in 1992.
After his successful political consulting efforts, Roger Ailes helped produce a television special called "Television and the Presidency", which was later expanded to be a multi-part series. In 1988, Roger Ailes wrote a book called "You Are the Message: Secrets of the Master Communicators", in which he divulged some of the strategies and philosophies for successful performances in public.
In 1993, Roger Ailes was named president of CNBC. During Ailes' presidency at CNBC, he planned and executed the inception of another CNBC channel, "America's Talking", which debuted in 1994. It was on this channel that Roger Ailes hosted a nightly talk show called "Straight Forward".
Once the decision by Microsoft and NBC to create an online and cable news outlet became clear, and it was decided that "America's Talking" would be abandoned, Roger Ailes left - the newly named - MSNBC. Shortly after his departure from NBC/MSNBC, he was hired by Rupert Murdoch to create the now-famous "Fox News Channel" for Murdoch's News Corporation. Fox News quickly became the most-watched cable news network in the United States, in part due to notable names such as Geraldo Rivera, as well as the memorable tagline - which to this day is still used - "Fair and Balanced". Fox News is also credited with big name stars, such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren.
To this day, he remains chair and CEO of Fox News Channel and also chairs Fox Television Stations, Twentieth Television, MyNetwork TV and Fox Business Network.- Producer
- Director
- Actress
Felicia Taylor was born on 28 August 1964 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. She was a producer and director, known for The Holy Goats (2018), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) and Far from Home (2020). She was married to Peter Gottsegen and Charles Beall Schuster. She died on 8 September 2023 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.- Bhetty Waldron was born on 23 March 1941 in Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Hit Man (1972), Miami Vice (1984) and Police Story (1973). She died on 1 December 2004 in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- Iris Apfel was born on 29 August 1921 in Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was married to Carl Apfel. She died on 1 March 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Harold G. "Hal" Rosson, a cinematographer known for his subtle and imaginative lighting, was born in Genaseo, New York, on August 24, 1895, although some sources cite his birthday as April 6, 1895, or in 1889.
Rosson entered the movie industry in 1908 as an actor at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York. Eventually, he quit acting to become an assistant to director of photography Irvin Willat at the Mark Dintenfass Studios. Moving on to the Famous Players Studio in 1912, he served as a "film johnny," or jack-of-all-trades, working as an assistant, extra and handyman, while simultaneously holding down a job as an office boy in a stock brokerage. By 1914, he was employed by a small theater in Brooklyn, where his duties included being the projectionist and manning the ticket booth.
Rosson finally abandoned New York for California in December 1914 and secured employment at Metro Pictures as assistant to both property man Danny Hogan and director of photography Arthur A. Cadwell. He moved back to New York when Metro relocated there, eventually becoming a director of photography in 1915. His first film has been cited as David Harum (1915) for director Allan Dwan (film credits for cinematographers were not inaugurated until 1919, under the influence of the American Society of Cinematographers, which Rosson joined in 1927). As a cinematographer, he also worked for the Kalem Company, Famous Players and Essanay before his career was interrupted by WWI, during which he served in the army.
After being demobilized, he got a job as assistant to cinematographer H. Lyman Broening on The Dark Star (1919), which starred Marion Davies and was shot in Fort Lee, NJ. He became an employee of Davies' production company, Cosmopolitan Productions, which had been set up for her in 1918 by her lover, William Randolph Hearst. In 1920, Rosson was signed by Mary Pickford to shoot movies starring her brother, Jack Pickford.
He eventually rejoined Metro (which in 1924, merged with Goldwyn Studios and then with Louis B. Mayer Productions to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), where he made his reputation. At MGM he was the lighting cameraman on Red Dust (1932), Red-Headed Woman (1932) and Bombshell (1933), on which his camera work showed off star Jean Harlow's platinum blonde look to maximum advantage. Rosson was married to Harlow for two years, from 1933 to 1935, which was indicative of his high status in the film community. In 1935 he moved to England to work for Alexander Korda's London Film Productions, but eventually he returned to MGM.
Rosson became a noted cinematographer in color, using the skills he had developed shooting in black & white to soften the palette created by the Technicolor process. Due to its need for high light levels, Technicolor often created gaudy images that resembled a child's coloring book. Rosson was able to make the colors more subtle, and was the recipient along with W. Howard Greene of an honorary Academy Award plaque for his color photography on The Garden of Allah (1936) in 1937 (the cinematography category was not split into color and B&W categories until the awards for 1939. The awards for color cinematography made for the 1936, '37, and '38 production years were awarded on the basis of a recommendation of a committee of leading cinematographers that viewed all the color pictures made during the year. For the 1967 awards, the B&W category was eliminated).
Rosson also was hailed for his photography on The Wizard of Oz (1939), for which he received the first of his five Academy Award nominations. When Rosson shot "Oz," he had the aid of two cameramen lent to MGM by Technicolor, and enjoyed the advice of Technicolor consultant Henri Jaffa, whose title was Technicolor Color Director (all early Technicolor films were overseen by a consultant from the company, to ensure that cinematographers and directors didn't use the process in ways Technicolor deemed improper and that violated its aesthetic criteria).
Ironically, four of Rosson's five Oscar nominations for best cinematography were for his B&W work. His B&W cinematography for The Asphalt Jungle (1950), for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination, is noted for creating the stark atmosphere that was central to the story and the overall success of the John Huston picture.
He retired in 1958 after shooting Onionhead (1958) for director Norman Taurog, though he returned to shoot El Dorado (1966) for Howard Hawks. In addition to shooting eight films for Allan Dwan between 1915 and 1929 and The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Red Badge of Courage (1951) for John Huston, Rosson also worked many times with directors Josef von Sternberg, Sam Wood, Cecil B. DeMille, W.S. Van Dyke, Howard Hawks, Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, Fred Zinnemann, and Vincente Minnelli. He shot the "The Trolley Song" number in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) for Minnelli and On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952) for Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. His most famous collaboration was with director Victor Fleming, starting in 1923 with Dark Secrets (1923) and culminating in 1939 with his work on The Wizard of Oz (1939) (in December 1938, under the direction of producer David O. Selznick, Rosson shot the burning of Atlanta sequence for Gone with the Wind (1939), for which Fleming was credited as the director).
Rosson died on September 6, 1988, in Palm Beach, Florida, well into his 90s. His long life was a fitting cap to a long and productive career.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Captain Haggerty was born on 3 December 1931 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Forever (1992), The Last Dragon (1985) and Honeymoon in Vegas (1992). He died on 3 July 2006 in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.