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1-8 of 8
- Green-eyed blonde bombshell Belinda Lee was born in Devon, England to florist Stella Mary Graham and hotel owner Robert Esmond Lee on June 15, 1935. Nicknamed "Billie," she was an incredible beauty while still a teen attending the Rookesbury Park Prep School in Hampshire and St. Margaret's boarding school in Devon. Expressing an avid interest in acting, she focused on dramatics at the Tudor Arts Academy at Surrey (1947), then gained entry via a scholarship to London's RADA, at which she made her stage debut in "Point of Departure."
Sharp-faced Belinda was noticed by Rank Studio director Val Guest while performing at the Nottingham Playhouse. She was artificially groomed in starlet parts, the first being The Runaway Bus (1954), until Guest helped her obtain a movie contract with Rank and introduced her to one of Rank's prime still photographers, Cornel Lucas. That year she married the much-older Lucas, who helped promote her as a sex goddess with thousands of glamorous photographs.
Belinda was promoted as a docile young beauty, but her parts grew sexier. She worked intently in films but became frustrated with being stereotyped as a buxom peroxide blonde. Boxed in as a second-string Diana Dors, she played a sensuous foil to Benny Hill in Who Done It? (1956) and was served up as sexy window-dressing opposite both John Gregson in Miracle in Soho (1957) and Louis Jourdan in Dangerous Exile (1957).
Now estranged from Lucas, Belinda headed off to Italy for a change of pace and atmosphere but only found more of the temptress roles she tried to avoid--Aphrodite, Messalina, and Lucrezia Borgia--in low-budget spectacles. She also became preoccupied with married men, one being Prince Filippo Orsini, whose position with the Vatican led to a major scandal. This particular turbulent romance and a dissipating relationship with the Rank Studio (her last picture for the studio was Elephant Gun (1958) with Michael Craig) triggered a near-fatal suicide attempt with pills in January 1958. She later divorced Lucas and continued her torrid affair with Prince Orsini, then others.
It all ended much too soon for the 25-year-old when she decided to join her current love, the much-older Italian playboy/journalist/film producer Gualtiero Jacopetti, on a trip to Las Vegas, where he was working on a documentary (Women of the World (1963). While she, Jacopetti, and co-producer Paolo Cavara were auto passengers on their way to Los Angeles from Vegas, their driver lost control of their speeding car and flipped. The 25-year-old actress was thrown from the car and died of a fractured skull and broken neck. The other three escaped with fairly minor injuries. She was cremated in the States and her ashes were eventually returned to Rome and placed in the Campo Cestio Cemetery. - Hedwig Wangel was born on 23 September 1875 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Ohm Krüger (1941), Mathilde Möhring (1950) and Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst...? (1931). She was married to Carl Stabernack, Ernst von Wrangel and Herr Lange. She died on 12 March 1961 in Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Songwriter ("The US Air Force" ["The Army Air Corps]), composer, conductor, author, teacher and singer, educated at Princeton University, the Fontainebleau Conservatory in France (on scholarship), Juilliard (on scholarship), and a student of Francis Rogers. He directed the Princeton Glee Club, and conducted the orchestra there. Later, he taught at Juilliard, and directed the Music Foundation in Newark, New Jersey and the Bach Cantata Club in 1931. He was a soloist for ten years at the St. Thomas Church in New York. In New Jersey, he conducted the Contemporary Choral in Maplewood, and the Aeolian Choir in Trenton. He was the summer conductor for the Newark Symphony Orchestra, and soloist for the Rochester and Worcester (NY) Festivals of the Chautauqua Opera, the Oratorio Society of New York and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In World War II, he was a major in the ATC, and afterwards, an associate professor at the University of Miami. Joining ASCAP in 1941, his other song compositions include "Pagan Prayer", "To Everyman", "Behold What Manner of Love", "Mechs of the Air Corps, "Cadets of the Air Corps" and "Born to the Sky" (the official ATC song).- Bill Bocket was born on 16 March 1892 in Tinchebray, Orne, France. He was an actor, known for The Threepenny Opera (1931), Le diable en bouteille (1935) and Three Musketeers (1932). He died on 12 March 1961 in Paris, France.
- Mignon O'Doherty was born on 30 January 1890 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She was an actress, known for The Good Companions (1933), Autumn Crocus (1934) and Faithful Hearts (1932). She was married to Tom Nesbitt. She died on 12 March 1961 in London, England, UK.
- Ruth Maitland was born on 3 February 1880 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Faithful Heart (1922), The Farmer's Wife (1928) and The Only Girl (1933). She was married to James Seafield Grant. She died on 12 March 1961 in Dorking, Surrey, England, UK.
- Tadeusz Bialkowski was born on 17 January 1888 in Solotwina, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Solotvyn, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Kalosze szczescia (1958). He died on 12 March 1961 in Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland.
- Shizu Moriya was an actress, known for Suspense (1949) and Camera Three (1955). She was married to Chester L. O'Brien. She died on 12 March 1961 in New York City, New York, USA.