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 294
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dabbs Greer was a very familiar face in films and especially on TV. He was a sort of "everyman" in his roles and played merchants, preachers, businessmen, and other "pillars of the community" types as well as assorted villains. With his plain looking face, wavy hair and mellow, distinctive voice he was a solid supporting actor.
He was born on April 2, 1917, in Fairview, Missouri, to Randall Alexander Greer and Bernice Irene Dabbs. Reared in Anderson, Missouri, he was the only child of a pharmacist father and a speech therapist mother. His first acting experience was on stage in a children's theatre production when he was eight years old. He attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, where he earned a BA and headed the drama department and Little Theatre in Mountain Grove, Missouri, from 1940-43. He then moved on to the famed Pasadena Playhouse in California as actor, instructor and administrator from 1943-50. He made his film debut in Reign of Terror (1949) (aka "The Black Book") in an uncredited bit part and went on to appear in many parts during the next 50 years. He is probably best remembered for his role as Rev. Alden on Little House on the Prairie (1974) but he was also a regular on the TV series Gunsmoke (1955) as a merchant, Mr. Jonas; Hank (1965) as Coach Ossie Weiss and Picket Fences (1992) as Rev. Henry Novotny. He also appeared in made-for-TV movies and guest-starred on such series as Adventures of Superman (1952); The Rifleman (1958); Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958); Trackdown (1957); Perry Mason (1957); Bonanza (1959); The Fugitive (1963) and The Brady Bunch (1969). He died in 2007, aged 90. He never married, had no children, and left no immediate relatives.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Robert Reed was an American actor, mostly known for television roles. His most famous role was that of pater familias Michael Paul "Mike" Brady in the popular sitcom "The Brady Bunch" (1969-1979). He returned to this role in several of the sitcom's sequels and spin-offs.
Reed was born under the name "John Robert Rietz Jr. " in 1932. His birthplace was Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His parents were government worker John Robert Rietz Sr. and homemaker Helen Teaverbaugh. The couple were childhood sweethearts and married each other at age 18. Reed was their only child.
Due to his father's career transfers, Reed moved often as a child. He spend part of his childhood in Navasota, Texas and Shawnee, Oklahoma. The senior Reitz eventually retired from his government positions, and started a new life as a cattle farmer in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Reitz family moved to a farm there.
As a youth, Reed joined the 4-H agricultural club, and demonstrated calves in agricultural shows. He was already fascinated with acting and music, and started performing as a theatrical and singer before he graduated high school. He had a side career as a radio announcer for local radio stations, and also helped produce radio dramas.
Reed graduated from Muskogeee's Central High School in 1950. He soon enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied drama. His mentor was acting coach Alvina Krause (1893-1981). During his university years, Reed played the leading role in 8 different plays. Following his graduation, Reed studied abroad at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
With the completion of his studies, Reed started a career as a theatrical actor. He appeared in summer stock productions in Pennsylvania, and joined the off-Broadway theatre group "The Shakespearewrights" which (as their name suggested) specialized in Shakespearean plays. Reed had leading roles in the group's productions of "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He left the group to join the Chicago-based Studebaker Theatre company.
By the late 1950s, Reed remained a relatively obscure theatrical actor. He moved to Los Angeles in hope of finding higher-profile roles in film or television. In 1959, Reed made his television debut in a guest star role in the sitcom "Father Knows Best". He next had guest star roles in the science fiction series "Men into Space" (1959-1960), and the Western series "Lawman" (1958-1962). His film debut was the horror film "Bloodlust!" (1961), playing the human prey of a sadistic hunter. The film was a loose adaptation of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" (1924) by Richard Connell (1893-1949).
Reed had his first major role in television as lawyer Kenneth Preston in the courtroom drama series "The Defenders" (1961-1965). Reed played the son and junior partner of lawyer Lawrence Preston (played by E. G. Marshall), in a series featuring a father-son legal team. The series lasted for 132 episodes, and was a ratings hit. The series earned a total of 22 Primetime Emmy Award nominations during its run.
Following the cancellation of "The Defenders", Reed was mostly reduced to supporting roles in television. He appeared in (among others) "Family Affair"," Ironside", "The Mod Squad", and "Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre". In 1968, Reed signed a contract to play a lead role in the television adaptation of the play "Barefoot in the Park" (1963) by Neil Simon. When it was decided that the television adaptation would feature a mostly African-American cast, Reed was offered a leading role in "The Brady Bunch" as a consolation prize.
"The Brady Bunch" lasted for 117 episodes, though it never was among the highest-rated shows on television. It found a larger audience in syndication after its cancellation, and has remained a cult favorite. Reed was not happy with the often silly scripts of the sitcom, and had regular arguments about suggested re-writes with the show's producer Sherwood Schwartz (1916-2011). On the other hand, Reed formed long-lasting friendships with most members of the series' main cast.
Reed refused to appear in the fifth season finale of "The Brady Bunch", because he felt its script was unacceptable. He was fired from the series, and the production team considered replacing him with a new actor for the series' sixth season. However, the fifth season turned out to be the final one, with network ABC deciding to cancel the series.
While "The Brady Bunch" was still ongoing, Reed had the recurring role of Lt. Adam Tobias in the detective series "Mannix". He played the role for 22 episodes, running from 1968 to 1975. With the series' cancellation in 1975, Reed was left with no regular roles for the first time since the late 1960s.
Reed's next notable role was that of transgender Dr. Pat Caddison in the two-part episode "The Fourth Sex" (1975) of the medical drama Medical Center". The role was critically well-received, and Reed was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series". The award was instead won by rival actor Ed Asner (1929-).
Reed had a regular role as Teddy Boylan in the dramatic miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976), and a prominent guest appearance as Dr. William Reynolds in the miniseries "Roots" (1977). For the first role, Reed was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The Award was instead won by rival actor Anthony Zerbe (1936-). For the second role, Reed was nominated again for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. The award was instead again won by rival actor Ed Asner.
Reed reunited with his friends from the Brady Bunch in the sequel series "The Brady Bunch Hour" (1976-1977), which only lasted for 9 episodes. He next played Mike Brady in the television film "The Brady Girls Get Married" (1981), the television film "A Very Brady Christmas" (1988), and the short-lived sequel series "The Bradys" (1990). The attempts to turn the popular sitcom into a dramatic series were not met with success.
Reed had another lead role in television as Dr. Adam Rose on the medical drama "Nurse" (1981-1982). The series only lasted for 25 episodes. Otherwise, Reed was reduced to mostly playing guest star roles again. His last guest star role appeared in 1992 episode of the crime drama "Jake and the Fatman".
In November 1991, Reed was diagnosed with colon cancer. As his health deteriorated, Reed increasingly isolated himself. He only allowed visits from his daughter Karen Rietz and close friend Anne Haney (1934-2001). In May 1992, he died at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. He was 59-years-old. He was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois.
Following his death, his death certificate revealed that Reed was HIV positive. While he was not suffering from AIDS, doctors were unable to determine whether HIV contributed to the deterioration of his health and his eventual death. How and when Reed contracted HIV remains unknown. Reed had managed to avoid having information about his personal life leaking to the press during his career, and also avoided sharing details about it even with his friends.
Reed is still fondly remembered for his television work, while his theatrical career has largely faded from memory.- Actor
- Soundtrack
John McIntire possessed the requisite grit, craggy features and crusty, steely-eyed countenance to make for one of television and film's most durable supporting players in western settings and film noir. Born in Spokane, Washington in 1907 and the son of a lawyer, he grew up in Montana where he learned to raise and ride broncos on the family homestead. After two years at USC, he spent some time out at sea before turning his attentions to entertainment and the stage. As a radio announcer, he gained quite a following announcing on the "March of Time" broadcasts.
In the late 1940s, John migrated west and found a niche for himself in rugged oaters and crimers. Normally the politicians, ranchers and lawmen he portrayed could be counted on for their integrity, maturity and worldly wise, no-nonsense approach to life such as in Black Bart (1948), Down to the Sea in Ships (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Scene of the Crime (1949) Ambush (1950) Saddle Tramp (1950) and The World in His Arms (1952). However, director Anthony Mann tapped his versatility and gave him a few shadier, more interesting villains to play in two of his top-notch western films: Winchester '73 (1950) and The Far Country (1954) and a kindhearted role in The Tin Star (1957). Television helped John gain an even stronger foothold in late 1950s Hollywood. Although his character departed the first season of the Naked City (1958) program, he became a familiar face in two other classic western series. He won the role of Christopher Hale in 1961 after Wagon Train (1957) series' star Ward Bond died, and then succeeded the late Charles Bickford in The Virginian (1962) in 1967 playing Bickford's brother, Clay Grainger, for three years.
John's deep, dusty, resonant voice was utilized often for narratives and documentaries. In the ensuing years, he and his longtime wife, actress Jeanette Nolan, became the Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee of the sagebrush set, appearing together as the quintessential frontier couple for decades and decades. They were married for 56 years until John's death of emphysema in 1991. They both outlived their son, Tim McIntire, a strapping, imposing actor himself, who died in 1986 of heart problems.- Born in Boston of Irish ancestry and raised in Dallas, Jack Nance traveled throughout the country doing children's theater. For eight years, he performed with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Later, he became involved with avant-garde theater. He first met David Lynch in the early 1970s in Philadelphia while he was performing in a local theater, and Lynch decided to cast him as the lead in Eraserhead (1977). Originally, it was to be a six-week shooting project, but due to budget restrictions and technical complications, the production and filming took nearly five years to complete. Nance relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, where he appeared in unusual and widely praised films that were not always considered mainstream Hollywood. He has appeared in almost every movie by Lynch, including the television series Twin Peaks (1990), usually playing secondary characters or quirky supporting parts. Nance died suddenly and unexpectedly on December 30, 1996 from an apparent internal head injury the morning after getting into a physical brawl at a donut shop with some rowdy patrons.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
William Christopher was born on 20 October 1932 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for M*A*S*H (1972), The Fortune Cookie (1966) and Team Knight Rider (1997). He was married to Barbara Christopher. He died on 31 December 2016 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Stephen J. Cannell was raised in Pasadena, California. His father ran an interior design firm. From an early age, Stephen suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia, which made it nearly impossible from him to do well in school, he either flunked or was held back many times. Even though one of the courses he had trouble with was English, he wrote in one of his yearbooks that it was his ambition to be an author. After a lot of work, he managed to graduate from high school and attend the University of Oregon. He worked for his father's design firm while he wrote television scripts and story ideas after work. He sold his first story ideas to Mission: Impossible (1966) and his first script to It Takes a Thief (1968). His first steady job in television was as a story editor on Adam-12 (1968). He created a character named Jim Rockford for a script he wrote for the series Toma (1973), a show he was producing at the time. That script was rejected by ABC, so it was rewritten and eventually became the pilot for the classic NBC series, The Rockford Files (1974). From there, it becomes nearly impossible to list all of his work. He has either written or co-written over 300 television scripts, created or co-created over two dozen television series, formed a successful production company, wrote best-selling police novels and even acted in his own and other producers' shows. He has won an Emmy, two Writer's Guild Awards, two Edgar Award Nominations and has a star on the Hollywood Blvd. Walk of Fame. Despite his many accolades, his first love continued to be writing. A co-worker of his on "Rockford", writer and The Sopranos (1999) creator David Chase, was once quoted as saying no person he ever met seemed to love writing as much as Stephen J. Cannell.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Kellye Nakahara was born on 16 January 1948 in Oahu, Hawaii, USA. She was an actress, known for Clue (1985), M*A*S*H (1972) and Doctor Dolittle (1998). She was married to David Wallett. She died on 16 February 2020 in Pasadena, California, USA.- He was a highly successful black actor/director in the 1950s and 1960s who - because of his light-skinned appearance - transcended race and ethnicity in his performances. In motion pictures, Frank Silvera was cast as black, Latino, Polynesian and "white"/racially indeterminate (due to black + white film stock's lack of discernment when rendering light-skinned African-Americans).
He was actively engaged in the Civil Rights Struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and called on all of his associates in the theater and film world to support the efforts of Black Americans during this watershed in American history. The Frank Silvera Writers' Workshop Foundation, Inc. was founded by actor/ director Morgan Freeman, playwright/director Garland Lee Thompson Garland Thompson, director/ actress Billie Allen and journalist Clayton Riley in 1973. - Sweet-voiced California native Vanessa Marquez had a passion for acting from an early age and wanted to be a child actress like young starlets she admired, such as Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, and Bessie Love. She sent letters to producers and agents hoping to be noticed, and as they went unanswered she still never lost sight of her dream. She finally got her big break in 1987 as the adorable and academically-adept Ana Delgado in the inspiring teacher drama Stand and Deliver (1988). As the script stated, Ana was a flower ready to bloom; so was Vanessa. Her success with Stand and Deliver led to a full-fledged film and television career: she had roles in films like the gangster epic Blood In, Blood Out (1993) and the thought-provoking independent flick Twenty Bucks (1993). Her television work includes guest spots on popular programs including Seinfeld (1989) and Melrose Place (1992) and recurring roles on ER (1994) and Malcolm & Eddie (1996). Also a talented vocalist, she lent her voice to the 2000 thriller Under Suspicion (2000).
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Vivacious brunette singer and actress Lina Romay was born in New York in January 1919, the daughter of Mexican L.A. consulate attaché Porfirio A. Romay, of European descent. In her teens, she was adept at swimming and diving. Moreover, she had an excellent voice and could sing equally well in English and in Spanish. Her show business career took off, when she joined the flamboyant bandleader Xavier Cugat as his leading female vocalist in 1940.
Cugat thought so highly of her, that he built a chorus of five men and four women to blend with her singing. He also wrote ballads specifically for her. Lina was featured with the orchestra in the classic musicals You Were Never Lovelier (1942) and Bathing Beauty (1944), respectively for Columbia and MGM. She also danced in the movie Stage Door Canteen (1943). Her most popular numbers included "Alma Llanera", "Babalu" (pre-Desi Arnaz) and "Guadalajara". In 1945, Lina appeared on the cover of "Yank", the weekly army publication. Inevitably, the studio scouts were soon out in force and she was signed as an MGM starlet that same year.
Until the end of her relatively short Hollywood career just eight years later, she was cast as second fiddle to the main female lead in films like Adventure (1945) (opposite Clark Gable and Honeymoon (1947), or -- more typically -- as night club singers (The Big Wheel (1949), The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949)). Embraceable You (1948), at least, gave her a few good wisecracking lines. Lina's voice was also brought to nationwide audiences via USO broadcasts and regularly spotted on the popular radio shows of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Jack Benny.
She retired from public life in 1953, but resurfaced in the late 1970s to work as Spanish-language radio announcer for Hollywood Park horse races. Her last performance on stage was for a benefit show in Los Angeles in March 1973, under her married name -- Elena Romay Gould.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
William Claude Dukenfield was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. For a while he lived in a hole in the ground, depending on stolen food and clothing. He was often beaten and spent nights in jail. His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler. It was then, at an amusement park in Norristown PA, that he was first hired as an entertainer. There he developed the technique of pretending to lose the things he was juggling. In 1893 he was employed as a juggler at Fortescue's Pier, Atlantic City. When business was slow he pretended to drown in the ocean (management thought his fake rescue would draw customers). By nineteen he was billed as "The Distinguished Comedian" and began opening bank accounts in every city he played. At age twenty-three he opened at the Palace in London and played with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace. He starred at the Folies-Bergere (young Charles Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier were on the program).
He was in each of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 through 1921. He played for a year in the highly praised musical "Poppy" which opened in New York in 1923. In 1925 D.W. Griffith made a movie of the play, renamed Sally of the Sawdust (1925), starring Fields. Pool Sharks (1915), Fields' first movie, was made when he was thirty-five. He settled into a mansion near Burbank, California and made most of his thirty-seven movies for Paramount. He appeared in mostly spontaneous dialogs on Charlie McCarthy's radio shows. In 1939 he switched to Universal where he made films written mainly by and for himself. He died after several serious illnesses, including bouts of pneumonia.- Actor
- Director
A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Law, Morris Ankrum was an attorney and an economics professor before switching careers and joining the theater. He was a veteran stage actor by the time he entered the film industry in the 1930s. His film career spanned 1933-64, during which time he played in 279 films and TV shows. Ankrum spent much time in westerns, playing everything from Indian chiefs to crooked bankers. Among his best remembered parts are his numerous villainous roles in Paramount's highly popular Hopalong Cassidy film series. The Hoppy films in which he appears include North of the Rio Grande (1937), Hills of Old Wyoming (1937), Pirates on Horseback (1941), Three Men from Texas (1940), Borderland (1937), and Hopalong Cassidy Returns (1936), among others.
He was cast in many other films throughout the '30s, '40s, and '50s, varying from small appearances to co-starring roles. He can be seen in low-budget "B" pictures and big-budget blockbusters alike. It was in the 1950s, though, that he hit his stride in the science-fiction genre, where his gruff, no-nonsense demeanor and authoritative voice perfectly fit the role of the military officer helping scientists fight off outer-space menaces, most memorably as Col. Fielding in the classic Invaders from Mars (1953).
Later in his career he did much TV work, in such series as Bonanza (1959), The Rifleman (1958), Rawhide (1959), Cheyenne (1955), Gunsmoke (1955), The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955), Maverick (1957), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Sea Hunt (1958), and over a dozen more. At the end of his career from 1957-64, he had a recurring role as a judge in 22 episodes on the Perry Mason (1957) TV series.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Spouse: James Lincoln Blake (1 Child)
During World War II, she and her husband, James Lincoln Blake, worked in Utah on construction of the detonator for the atomic bomb and performed such jobs as testing equipment destined for the Manhattan Project. The couple received a citation for their work from the U.S. government.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Stanley Clements realized he wanted a show-business career while he was in grammar school, and when he graduated he toured in vaudeville for two years. He then joined the touring company of Edward Bowes' (aka Major Bowes) Amateur Hour. In 1941 he was signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox and appeared in several B films for the studio. After a short stint with the East Side Kids, he set out on his own again, this time landing roles in more prestigious pictures than he had been getting. His career was interrupted by military service in World War II, and when he returned in 1945, he began appearing in lower-budgeted films. He starred in a series of action/detective pictures at Allied Artists for producer Ben Schwalb and director Edward Bernds, and when they were looking for a replacement for Leo Gorcey in the Bowery Boys series, they asked Clements to step in. The series finally ended in 1958, and Clements went on to a steady career of supporting roles in film and TV until his death from emphysema in 1981.- Sound Department
Alan Decker was born on 14 September 1961. He is known for Homeland (2011), Outlander (2014) and The Living Edens (1997). He died on 14 December 2020 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Maudie Prickett was born on 25 October 1914 in Portland, Oregon, USA. She was an actress, known for Hazel (1961), The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955) and The Andy Griffith Show (1960). She was married to Cyril Bernard Cooper, Eakle W. Cartwright and Charles Fillmore Prickett II. She died on 14 April 1976 in Pasadena, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
A Columbia University grad with an economics degree, Richard Ney was sidetracked into stage and films. For his movie debut, Ney was cast as Greer Garson's eldest son in the Oscar-winning Mrs. Miniver (1942). He later married Garson, twelve years his senior and drawing criticism during their 1947 divorce proceedings, when it was alleged that he had derided her for being old. One does not malign an icon like Greer Garson, and Ney suffered for the divorce with a series of inferior films made both in Hollywood and Europe, the nadir being 1953's horrendous Babes in Bagdad (1952). Ney forsook acting for good in 1961 to become a prominent stock market analyst and financial consultant. He gained nationwide fame in 1962 for accurately predicting the stock market crash of that year. He also wrote several best-selling books on the subject of Wall Street, and was a frequent talk-show guest and financial-advice show host.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Samuel S. Hinds, a Harvard graduate, was a lawyer in Hollywood until the stock market crash of 1929, in which he lost most of his money. Hinds, who had an interest in theater acting, decided to embark on a career in acting, albeit it age 54. The tall, dignified-looking Hinds appeared in over 200 films, often cast as kindly authoritarian figures--doctors, judges, military officers, politicians, and such. His two most notable appearances were in Destry Rides Again (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). In addition to his film work, he kept busy appearing on stage, and continued working up until his death in 1948.- Actress
- Producer
Andrea Evans was born on 18 June 1957 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for One Life to Live (1968), Passions (1999) and DeVanity (2011). She was married to Stephen Rodriguez and Wayne Massey. She died on 9 July 2023 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Frances Gifford had a somewhat unorthodox introduction to the movie business. Born and raised in Long Beach, California, she had no ambition to be an actress, and in fact had applied to UCLA when, at age 16, she and a friend got to visit the Samuel Goldwyn Studios, where they watched a movie being shot. A studio exec saw her and asked if she would take a screen test. She did, the studio was impressed with the result and put her under contract. Nothing much came of it, however, other than bit parts, and she moved to RKO. Nothing much happened there, either. She had married actor James Dunn and decided to retire, which she did, in 1938. Off the screen for almost two years, she got a small part in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and her career began to revive. She was signed by Paramount, which soon loaned her to Republic, where she made the film she is probably most remembered for: the serial Jungle Girl (1941), based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs story.
Unfortunately, her career never really took off, and she bounced around among several studios. In 1948 she was involved in an auto accident in which she received severe head injuries. Although she seemed to recover physically, her career took a nosedive, and she made her last film in 1953. In 1958 newspaper stories reported that as a result of the injuries sustained in the accident, she was admitted to a California state mental hospital. Nothing further was heard from her or about her until 1983, when a writer for a film magazine found her in Pasadena. She had apparently fully overcome her physical and mental problems and was working for the city library. She died of emphysema in Pasadena in 1994. - Writer
- Producer
- Director
Emmy Award-winning producer/writer and director Hector Manuel Coto was born in Havana, Cuba, one of four siblings of Spanish-Galician ancestry. His parents, Manuel (a doctor) and Norma (a teacher), were refugees from the Castro regime who settled near Orlando, Florida. Coto developed an early interest in films as a teen, making amateur videos with his father's Super8 camera. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue further studies, eventually graduating from the American Film Institute. An avid fan of horror and science fiction, he penned his first screenplay in 1988 for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985). Four years later, he co-wrote and directed the horror movie Dr. Giggles (1992), which has since attained some cult status.
His work on two scripts for a revival of The Outer Limits (1995) led to Coto being commissioned by Showtime to write and create his own sci-fi series, Odyssey 5 (2002). Produced in Toronto, Canada, it was cancelled (much to Coto's chagrin) after just one season and 19 episodes. It starred the actor Peter Weller, who would later feature on Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), 24 (2001) and Dexter (2006). From 2003, Coto worked on 14 episodes of Enterprise and was promoted by series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga to the position of showrunner during Season 4. A self-confessed 'Trekkie', he declared during a 2014 interview "...I wanted to tell more sweeping tales that tied into The Original Series because Enterprise was a prequel and I felt that, at a certain point, the show should begin to tack towards things that we remembered from The Original Series. I thought it would be nice and fun and tremendously rich to explore facets of The Original Series and of the Star Trek universe that were there but had not been fleshed out." Coto's influence was instrumental in filling in several hitherto unexplored gaps in the Star Trek lore.
In the wake of Enterprise, Coto worked as executive producer on the last five seasons of 24 before joining the crew of Dexter in the same capacity (and as occasional scriptwriter) from 2010 to 2013. From 2018, he was executive producer, as well as a prolific writer for American Horror Story (2011) and American Horror Stories (2021).
In 2006, Coto won a Primetime Emmy for his work on 24. He died from pancreatic cancer on July 8 2023, aged 62. He had been married to visual effects supervisor Robin Trickett, whom he had met on the set of Odyssey5.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a stage entertainer, New York-born actress Genevieve Tobin started treading the boards as a child and appeared in the role of Little Eva in the silent short Uncle Tom's Cabin (1910). Her older brother George Tobin and younger sister Vivian Tobin also became stage and film actors. By her teens Genevieve was appearing as a sparkling blonde ingénue on 20s Broadway, steadily gaining notice with her chic looks and vivacious personality. Considered a medium-weight talent, she nevertheless tackled such roles as Cordelia in "King Lear" (1923) in addition to her usual frothy comedies and musicals such as "Polly Preferred" (1923). Following her New York performance in Cole Porter's musical "Fifty Million Frenchmen" in 1929 in which she introduced the song "You Do Something to Me," Genevieve started focusing squarely on films, particularly screwball farce, starting with a couple of glamorous leading lady roles in the early talkies A Lady Surrenders (1930) and Free Love (1930), one a heavy drama and the other a lighter comedy both co-starring Conrad Nagel. Genevieve moved into second leads as the 1930s flew by, however, often playing the arch or self-involved 'other woman' role. She appeared in fine form as the problematic third wheel in One Hour with You (1932) with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald; Goodbye Again (1933) co-starring Warren William and Joan Blondell; Kiss and Make-Up (1934) with Cary Grant and Helen Mack; The Goose and the Gander (1935) with Kay Francis and George Brent; and, her last, No Time for Comedy (1940) which paired up James Stewart with Rosalind Russell, and was also directed by her husband (and former stage actor) William Keighley. Genevieve abandoned her career for high society after marrying Keighley and never looked back -- her marriage lasting 46 years until his death in 1984 at age 90+. Genevieve herself would live to become a nonagenarian, dying of natural causes in 1995 in Pasadena, California.- Tyler MacDuff was born on 12 September 1925 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Cyborg 2087 (1966), Fury at Showdown (1957) and Stories of the Century (1954). He was married to Beverlie Mae Anderson. He died on 23 December 2007 in Pasadena, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Max Rosenbloom was 5'11" and weighed 165-170 lb. during the peak of his professional boxing years (which included 289 fights). In later years the larger-than-life "Slapsie Maxie" would parlay his sports fame into a Hollywood career playing a series of Runyonesque-type thugs and pugs.
Born Max Everitt Rosenbloom on September 6, 1904, in Connecticut, the son of an impoverished Russian-Jewish shoemaker and his wife, Maxie was a truant and upstart from the beginning. An older brother, who fought under the name Leonard Rose, helped straighten him out and influenced him to try jabbing away at his own career. The lackluster amateur once called the "Harlem Harlequin" lost most of his matches, working odd jobs as a railroad worker, lifeguard and elevator operator to support himself. Everything turned around for Maxie after he became managed by the seasoned Frank Bachman and turned pro in 1923 as a welterweight. He won all of his first 36 professional fights in various weight divisions. He reached his peak from 1930, after winning the light heavyweight belt in a decision against Jimmy Slattery, to 1932, when he earned international recognition as champion in a decision against Lou Suozzo.
Dubiously nicknamed "Slapsie Maxie" by sportswriter Damon Runyon who disapproved of Maxie's less-than-classy style of slapping opponents with open gloves, he is considered the most active champion in contemporary boxing history with a fighting total of 106 while champion (only eight, however, were for the title). Outside the ring, Maxie eased easily into the nightlife and became infamous for his gambling and womanizing. Though he married psychologist Muriel Faider in 1937, the marriage was childless and lasted but 8 years.
Hollywood opened its doors to Maxie the celebrity after he permanently hung up his gloves. He would go on play in more than a hundred films, his better known being Nothing Sacred (1937), The Kid Comes Back (1937), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944). A colorful character with cauliflower ears, fat lips and punch-drunk mug, he was usually only called upon to play various extensions of his own flashy persona. After opening the Hollywood nightclub "Slapsie Maxie's" in 1943, he partnered with another former boxing champion, Max Baer, in a nightclub act and in a few films following WWII. On TV in 1955, he was a regular as Clyde on The Joe Palooka Story (1954).
On stage he was ideally suited to the role of Big Jules in a 1961 revival of "Guys and Dolls". Three years earlier he had published his autobiography titled "Fifty Years at Ringside." Maxie's health deteriorated with age, and he suffered from pugilistic dementia (better known as Paget's disease) as a result of the continuous head blows he endured as a boxer. He died on March 6, 1976, at age 71 in South Pasadena, California.- Paul Comi was born on 11 February 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Howard the Duck (1986), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). He was married to Eva Mae Stiles. He died on 26 August 2016 in Pasadena, California, USA.