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1-10 of 10
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
For more than three decades, Henry King was the most versatile and reliable (not to mention hard-working) contract director on the 20th Century-Fox lot. His tenure lasted from 1930 to 1961, spanning most of Hollywood's "golden" era. King was renowned as a specialist in literary adaptations (A Bell for Adano (1945), The Sun Also Rises (1957)) and for his nostalgic depictions of rural or small-town America (Margie (1946)). Much of his work was characterized by an uncomplicated approach and a vivid visual style rather than cinematic tricks or technical individuality. For the most part it was his meticulous attention to detail, and his reliance on superior plots and good acting, that got the job done. King was, above all, an astute judge of talent. He introduced Ronald Colman to American audiences in The White Sister (1923), drawing a mustache on the actor's clean-shaven face with a retouching pencil--the real thing later becoming a Colman trademark. King discovered Gary Cooper and cast him in a leading dramatic role in his outdoor western The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), over the initial objections of producer Samuel Goldwyn who thought Coop was just another "damn cowboy". Goldwyn quickly changed his mind after seeing the rushes. Other King discoveries included the lovely Jean Peters (in Captain from Castile (1947)) and Tyrone Power, whom he actively promoted to the point of badgering studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck to star him in Lloyd's of London (1936). Power subsequently became one of Fox's most popular stars.
All in all, not bad for a guy who had left school at 15 to work for the Norfolk & Western Railroad. After enduring the machine shops for a few years, King found more suitable employment as an apprentice actor with the touring Empire Stock Company, where he often performed song-and-dance routines in blackface. During his travels he befriended comedy actress Pearl White. While accompanying her on a visit to the Lubin film studio in Philadelphia in 1913, he was somehow talked into trying out as an actor. Before long King found himself cast as assorted western villains in scores of one-reelers. Moving to California the following year, he graduated to romantic leads in full-length feature films with the Balboa Amusement Company, often co-starring opposite popular child actress Marie Osborne. King's directing career began in 1915 and gathered momentum after he joined The American Film Manufacturing Company, and, subsequently, Thomas H. Ince. His first success was the army comedy 23 1/2 Hours' Leave (1919). By 1921 King fronted his own production company, Inspiration Pictures, releasing through First National. The rustic southern drama Tol'able David (1921) was his next critically acclaimed picture, but not until joining Goldwyn at United Artists (1925-30) did he manage to turn out a consistent string of hits, including The White Sister (1923) and Romola (1924)--both shot on location in Italy--and the archetypal tearjerker Stella Dallas (1925). For King, the transition to sound pictures was a mere formality.
In 1930 King qualified for his pilot's license and began busily scouting locations from the air, earning him the sobriquet "The Flying Director". When not airborne or on the golf course (his other passion), he demonstrated his amazing versatility with box-office hits across a wide variety of genres: striking and colorful swashbucklers (The Black Swan (1942)); romantic or religious melodramas--their sentimentality well-tempered so they never seemed maudlin--such as (The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)); epics (In Old Chicago (1938), with its splendid recreation of the 1871 great fire, the entire enterprise filmed at a staggering cost of $1.8 million); popular musicals (Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Carousel (1956)); psychological war drama (Twelve O'Clock High (1949)); and uncompromisingly tough, offbeat westerns (The Gunfighter (1950) and the underrated The Bravados (1958)). The latter three all starred King's preferred leading actor, Gregory Peck. Peck was also on hand for The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), reputedly Ernest Hemingway's favorite among all his filmed adaptations. Of course, King also had his occasional failures. Topping that list was Zanuck's pet project, the biopic Wilson (1944). Overly serious to the point of being dour, its pacifist message was lost to an audience in the middle of a world war. King's other notable dud, near the end of his career, was Beloved Infidel (1959). Badly miscast, the film chronicling the affair between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham was played out, inaccurately, as a genteel and overly glossy romance.
Though nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director, King failed to snag the coveted trophy. However, he did win a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America in 1956. More importantly, perhaps, he seems to have enjoyed his work, stating in a 1978 interview, "I've had more fun directing pictures than most people have playing games" (New York Times, July 1 1982).- Actor
- Stunts
Michael Brennan was born on 25 September 1912 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Thunderball (1965), The Onedin Line (1971) and Johnny Nobody (1961). He was married to Mary Hignett. He died on 29 June 1982 in Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK.- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Pierre Balmain was born on 17 May 1914 in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, France. He was a costume designer, known for Riff Raff Girls (1959), Paris Holiday (1958) and One Step to Eternity (1954). He died on 29 June 1982 in Paris, France.- Actor
- Director
Martin Gregor was born on 14 November 1906 in Trnava, Uhry, Austria-Hungary [now Slovakia]. He was an actor and director, known for The Shop on Main Street (1965), Ivanov (1964) and Dny zrady (1973). He died on 29 June 1982 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia [now Slovakia].- Visual Effects
- Special Effects
Jack Shaw was born on 16 September 1906 in Kansas, USA. He is known for Suspense (1946) and Badmen of Tombstone (1949). He died on 29 June 1982 in Orange, California, USA.- Heino Otto was born on 9 January 1915. He was an actor, known for The Rumyantsev Case (1956), Mehed ei nuta (1968) and Kui saabub õhtu (1955). He died on 29 June 1982.
- Champion Japanese freestyle swimmer Masaharu Taguchi was born on January 6, 1916 in Kyoto, Japan. Masaharu graduated from Rikkyo University in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan. Taguchi won the gold medal in the men's 4 x 200 meters freestyle relay at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Moreover, Masaharu also worked at a Daimaru department store and was a swimming coach at a local Daimaru swimming club. In addition, Taguchi was recruited in 1961 to prepare the national swimming team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Masaharu died at age 66 on June 29, 1982.
- Bernhard Rogge was born in Germany in 1899, in 1915 during WWI he joined the imperial German navy (the Kaiserliche Marine) served in WWI and won the Iron Cross in second and first class, after the war he served in various cruisers.
From the mid 30es until 1939 he commanded the German Navy's sail training ship "Albert Leo Schlageter", in September 1939 he was assigned to the Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser) "Atlantis", the "Atlantis" capture or sink 21 ships, in one of those ships captured Rogge found top-secret documents about the defenses of the port of Singapore and pass it to the Japanese for those action he won the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and a samurai sword from the emperor of Japan, after the sinking of the "Atlantis" in 22 November 1941 Rogge spend the rest of the war in Germany and by the end of it he achieved the rank of Vizeadmiral.
In 1957 he joined the West German navy the Bundesmarine as a Konteradmiral and retire from it in 1962, he died in 1982 in Germany. - Konstantin Gubenko was born on 14 January 1909 in Gruny, Poltavskaya gubernaya, Ukraina. He was an actor, known for Zdravstvuy i proshchay (1973), Ozareniye (1971) and Koleso istorii (1981). He died on 29 June 1982 in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR.
- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
William B. Dover was born on 4 August 1901 in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada. He was a writer and producer, known for The Green Hornet (1974), You Said a Mouthful (1932) and Top of the World (1955). He died on 29 June 1982 in Laguna Beach, California, USA.