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1-19 of 19
- Elaine Devry was born on 10 January 1930 in Compton, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Atomic Kid (1954), Bless the Beasts & Children (1971) and With Six You Get Eggroll (1968). She was married to Will J. White, Mickey Rooney and Dan Danilo Ducich. She died on 20 September 2023 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.
- Kevin Hagen is the son of professional ballroom dancers, Haakon Olaf Hagen and Marvel Lucile Wadsworth. His father abandoned the family when Kevin was five. He was raised by his mother, grandmother, and two aunts, with some help from his uncle, a physician.
The family moved to Portland, Oregon, when Kevin was a teenager. He played baseball and football at Jefferson High School. He attended Oregon State University before enlisting in the U.S. Navy after World War II; he served in San Diego.
Hagen, married four times, was a single parent for two decades to his son, Christopher Hagen, a Special Education teacher and high school baseball coach in Bakersfield, California. - Producer
- Additional Crew
Film producer Michael Todd was one of the major contributors to technical innovation in the film industry in the 1950s. Having worked with Fred Waller and Cinerama, he got tired of the three-panel format, left the company and tried to find the process for making "Cinerama coming from one hole". He joined forces with the American Optical Co. and developed a system using 65mm cine cameras at 30 fps and wide angle-photography (approx 150 degrees). The system was named Todd-AO after its inventors and was by far the best big-screen system ever seen, when it was introduced with Oklahoma! (1955). The Todd-AO prints used 70mm film with a 2.2:1 ratio. Sound was six-track magnetic only, with five channels behind the screen and one surround channel, with Perspecta coding (a switch stereo device) The 70mm Todd-AO productions were premiered through Magna Theatre Corp., which also co-produced the pictures. Due to the non-standard speed, the first two Todd-AO pictures (the other was Around the World in 80 Days (1956)) were parallel-shot in 35mm CinemaScope with 24 fps for general release, but for the third production, South Pacific (1958), the Todd-AO pictures were all shot in 24 fps. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958, but his system lived on, adopted as the wide super format of 20th Century-Fox, which used it all through the 1960s. During that period a number of alternate processes developed, of which Super Panavision became the most used.- Actor
- Writer
Steve Raines was born on 17 June 1916 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Rawhide (1959), The High Chaparral (1967) and Sheriff of Wichita (1949). He was married to Sally Jean Durkus. He died on 4 January 1996 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.- Will J. White was born on 9 May 1925 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Westworld (1973), Zero Hour! (1957) and Maverick (1957). He was married to Elaine Devry. He died on 23 April 1992 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.
- Writer
- Animation Department
As the creator of 'Scrooge McDuck', Carl Barks did more than any other comic book artist to widen the popularity of Donald Duck, bringing in the process a vast array of memorable supporting characters into the Disney universe, among them Uncle Scrooge himself, Gladstone Gander, Gyro Gearloose (and his Little Helper), the Beagle Boys, and the Junior Woodchucks.
Unlike many other artists working (all anonymously) for the Disney company, Barks did not mindlessly churn out condescending, forgettable stories of a childish nature during his 24-year stint on the Disney Ducks. He consistently produced delightful top-quality material, both in his scripts and in his art as well as in his dialogues, which echoed with deep human resonance. "I polished and polished on the scripts and drawings until I had done the best I could in the time available", he said. In both types of stories -- the 10-page comedies and the longer adventure stories -- he produced between 1942 and 1966, he managed to convey the intricacies and subtleties of the full scope of human emotions (from envy and cynicism and alarm and desperation to joy and scorn and triumph and smugness) while capturing the essence of exotic locations from the four corners of the world (from scorching deserts and primal forests to humid jungles and freezing snow-clad mountains through the urban setting of Duckburg).
His mastery at this is witnessed to by, among others, Newsweek's homage to his artistry and by Time's conclusion that "Scrooge and his creator Carl Barks belong in the great mainstream of American Folklore." Beyond that is the plain fact that he was known to his readers simply as "the good artist" (a descriptor necessary during a time when the Disney company didn't identify any of its cartoonists). His publishers tried in the early '50s to replace him on the 10-page comedies in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories so that he could concentrate on the longer adventure epics in Donald Duck and Uncle $crooge (these were the three titles that contained the bulk of Barks' output through the years); they were promptly flooded with a barrage of pleading and irate letters from readers demanding that "the good artist" be brought back.
Among his many fans were George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, who were inspired by the adventure comic books. One South American adventure in particular ("The Prize of Pizarro", Uncle $crooge nr 26, June-August 1959) inspired sequences in all three Indiana Jones films (the booby traps both in the lost temple in the opening pre-credits sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and in the final scenes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as the flood through the mines of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)). In an homage printed in Uncle Scrooge: His Life & Times (edited by Edward Summer and published by Gary Kurtz), Lucas writes that when he discovered the McDuck character as a kid, he liked him "so much that I immediately went out and bought all the Uncle $crooge comics I could find on the newsstand. My greatest source of enjoyment in Carl Barks' comics is in the imagination of his stories .... The stories are also very cinematic .... these comics are a priceless part of our literary heritage." Indeed, the titles of his adventures (many of which were inspired by the National Geographic) duly resonate with exoticism and adventure: "The Mummy's Ring", "Terror of the River", "Mystery of the Swamp", "Ghost of the Grotto", "Lost in the Andes", "Sheriff of Bullet Valley", "Trail of the Unicorn", "The Golden Helmet", "The Seven Cities of Cibola", etc...
His stories were constantly reproduced in Disney comics across the globe, after his retirement in 1966 (the same year that Walt Disney, who was born nine months after Barks, died). And soon his 6,371 comics pages (according to one count) from some 450 comic books were being reprinted (by then computer-colored) in impressive coffee-table volumes and hand-sewn hardback tomes, not just in the United States, but throughout the western world (Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, etc...).
Certainly the most widely read comic book artist of all time, Barks is also in all probability, what with Disney being the world's largest publisher of children's magazines and books (every year over two billion people around the globe read a Disney book or magazine, the company claims), the most widely-read author of any type of reading material of the 20th century.
Born to a homesteading family in Oregon on March 27, 1901, Carl Barks left school at 15 and spent the next two decades "in grim and demanding jobs" (to quote Michael Barrier's "Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book". These included rancher, logger, railroad repairman and printer. During the Depression, he went on to become an illustrator for a humor magazine, eventually becoming its most productive member. He joined the Disney studio in 1935, where he became a story man on the animated cartoons of a character created a year earlier (a duck by the name of Donald) and worked with such people as Harry Reeves, Chuck Couch, Jack Hannah, Homer Brightman and Nick George. Health problems eventually forced Barks to leave the Burbank studio during World War II for the dry air of the California desert, where he made the transition to comic books.
And so, it was after the age of 40, in an era when most people had little more than a third of their lives in front of them, that Carl Barks made the fateful jump of his life, the one that would leave his name an immortal one in the annals of what the French call "le neuvième art" (the ninth art form). And yet, it would not be until after his retirement that his name would, slowly but surely, become known to the mainstream public. It was during the 1960s that persistent fans (among them his official biographer, Michael Barrier) finally managed to identify "the good artist" (also dubbed the Duckman and the comic book king), become his correspondents, and proceed to make his name known to the outside world.
Despite having retired (and as his name was slowly becoming famous), "Unca Carl" did not remain inactive. He turned to painting, specifically signed oil paintings of his Disney Ducks, paintings that today easily fetch thousands of dollars and whose prices have occasionally topped $100,000. Indeed, it is easy to forget that Barks' retirement years lasted far longer than his comic book career and he spent many more years before the canvas than he did over the drawing board. In fact, Barks lived to the ripe old age of 99, and it is somewhat amazing to realize how vast an amount of time this actually means. His life spans such an extensive amount of time that his date of birth is further removed from that of his death than it is to the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the untamed wilderness west of the Mississippi (including Oregon, the region where the Barks family would eventually settle).
He was sprightly and active until the very last. People half his age reported that he could remember events they had long forgotten. His pace was such that during his 1994 trip to Europe (his first outside North America) to celebrate Donald's 60th birthday, young Disney handlers and PR staff (imagine yuppies in their 30s) at Paris' Euro Disneyland had to quicken their pace to keep up with the then-93-year-old man. His philosophy could be summarized in these words: "I worked hard at trying to make something as good as I could possibly make it... I always tried to write a story I wouldn't mind buying myself."- Actor
- Additional Crew
Charles Southwood was born on 30 August 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (1970), Make the Sign of the Cross, Stranger! (1968) and I Protect Myself Against My Enemies (1968). He died on 8 April 2009 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.- Roy Masters was born on 2 April 1928 in England, UK. He died on 22 April 2021 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.
- William J. Fisher was born on 8 May 1948 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Young Guns II (1990), The Young Riders (1989) and The Vagrant (1992). He died on 20 December 2004 in Fort Grant, Arizona, USA.
- Charles M. Runyon was born on 10 August 1922 in San Diego, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Chucko the Clown (1954), Chucko the Clown (1962) and Hollywood Christmas Lane Parade of the Stars (1960). He was married to Mildred Runyon. He died on 11 October 2008 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.
- Actress
Virginia Ruth Ellis grew up in southern California and was introduced to music (and specifically the violin) at a very young age, becoming a member of the Hollywood Baby Orchestra at age 4. Soon after, she joined the Peter Meremblum California Junior Symphony, a popular training orchestra in the area for children and teenagers. Under the tutelage of Maestro Meremblum, Ellis's skills matured significantly.
In 1938, the Meremblum Orchestra was hired to perform in "They Shall Have Music", a Samuel Goldwyn movie designed to showcase virtuoso violinist Jascha Heifetz. The storyline of the movie was for Heifetz to save a struggling music school for children. Because the cute Ellis looked younger than her 13 years, she was given the role of Concertmaster (or Concertmistress if you prefer the old-fashioned term) in the movie (the actual position was jointly held during Ellis's tenure with the orchestra by Tom Facey and Reta Robbins and later by Shirley Cornell and Dorothy Wade). Ellis went on to appear in three other movies as a member of the orchestra: "There's Magic in Music", "Song of Russia", and "California Junior Symphony", the latter being a one-reeler about the orchestra itself.
After her schooling was finished, Ellis went on to become a member of various symphonies and chamber groups, as well as appearing as a soloist. While living in Sacramento, she frequently played in show orchestras at Lake Tahoe in support of various entertainers.
Ellis was married to Paul Beaver for most of her adult life. She passed away on December 8, 2008 from natural causes.- Additional Crew
- Location Management
- Production Manager
Carl started his career at Paramount Pictures in 1937 in the mail room where he delivered fan mail to the stars of the period. He advanced to the timekeeping department until he was drafted into the US Army on February 17, 1943 where he served a combat role in the European Theater until his discharge in November, 1945 . He received four Decorations and Citations for his service during active duty. Upon returning to Paramount he became payroll supervisor and and eventually to a position as a production/location auditor. One of his best friends was Jack Elam (IMDB), who he met over a payroll dispute and remained friends with until his death. Carl and Marian had three children. Dennis, David and Anita.- Bob Christie was born on 4 April 1924 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA. He died on 1 June 2009 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.
- Sound Department
Bruce Mamer was born on 30 March 1952 in Champaign, Illinois, USA. He is known for Foreclosure (1982). He was married to Mary Gates and Ellen. He died on 9 August 2022 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Editor
Dan Gomez was born on 16 November 1947 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA. Dan was a director and assistant director, known for Unsolved Mysteries (1987) and Mrs. Peabody's Beach (1972). Dan was married to Virginia. Dan died on 3 April 2024 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.- Camera and Electrical Department
Guy Polzel Jr. grew up the oldest of 4 children. He was very hard working many all his life. He never graduated from high school but did serve his country in the Air force. He married a lady named Jackie and had 2 children with her, a son named Richard and a daughter named Debbie. After their divorce he married Kathleen Zimmerman and went on to have 3 more children: Kathy, Terry, and Margaret. He worked in the movie industry tell the early 1990s. After he retired he moved his wife, daughter Margaret, her 2 children Louise and Krystal to Grants Pass, Oregon. Five days after his 65th birthday his family said their good-byes. He died of cancer, having been an avid smoker. He wasn't around for his children while they grew up as he was working all the time, but he was here for his grandchildren.
He loved NASCAR - Ricky Rudd was his driver. He would get up every Sunday morning just to watch a race. He also loved Bald eagles, he had statues and pictures around his house. People who worked with him loved him. He helped his son-in-law get in to the business, and he's still in it to this day.- Agnes Baker Pilgrim was born on 11 September 1924 in Lodgson, Oregon, USA. She was married to Grant Pilgrim. She died on 27 November 2019 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.
- Christopher Paquin was an actor, known for Tout est parfait (2008). He died on 26 October 2015 in Grants, New Mexico, USA.
- Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Grancell was born on 18 September 1905 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for The Unearthly (1957). He died on 14 February 1994 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.