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- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Audie Murphy became a national hero during World War II as the most decorated combat soldier of the war. Among his 33 awards was the Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery that a soldier can receive. In addition, he was also decorated for bravery by the governments of France and Belgium, and was credited with killing over 240 German soldiers and wounding and capturing many more.
Audie Leon Murphy was born in Kingston, Hunt County, Texas, to Josie Bell (Killian) and Emmett Berry Murphy, poor sharecroppers of Irish descent. After the death of his mother and the outbreak of WWII, Murphy enlisted in the army on his 17th birthday in June 1942 after being turned down by the Navy and the Marines. His eldest sister had provided a false affidavit that he was a year older (18) than his actual age.
After undergoing basic military training, he was sent first to North Africa. However, the Allies drove the German army from Tunisia, their last foothold in North Africa, before Murphy's unit could be sent into battle. His first engagement with Axis forces came when his unit was sent to Europe. First landing on the island of Sicily, next mainland Italy, and finally France, he fought in seven major campaigns over three years and rose from the rank of private to a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant.
Part of Murphy's appeal to many people was that he did't fit the "image" most had of a war hero. He was a slight, almost fragile-looking, shy and soft-spoken young man, whose boyish appearance often shocked people when they learned, for example, that during one battle he leaped on top of a burning tank--which was loaded with fuel and ammunition and could have exploded at any second--and used its machine gun to hold off waves of attacking German troops, killing dozens of them and saving his own unit from certain destruction and the entire line from being overrun.
In September 1945, Murphy was released from active duty, promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and assigned to inactive status. His story caught the interest of superstar James Cagney, who invited Murphy to Hollywood.
Cagney Productions paid for acting and dancing lessons but was reluctantly forced to admit that Murphy -- at least at that point in his career -- didn't have what it took to become a movie star. For the next several years he struggled to make it as an actor, but jobs were few --specifically just two bit parts in Beyond Glory (1948) and Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948). He finally got a lead role in Bad Boy (1949), and starred in the trouble-plagued production of MGM's The Red Badge of Courage (1951), directed by John Huston. While this film is now considered a minor classic, the politics behind the production sparked an irreparable fissure within the ranks of the studio's upper management.
Murphy proved adequate as an actor, but the film, with virtually no female presence (or appeal), bombed badly at the box office. Murphy, however, had already signed with Universal-International Pictures, which was putting him in a string of modestly budgeted Westerns, a genre that suited his easygoing image and Texas drawl. He starred in the film version of his autobiography, To Hell and Back (1955), which was a huge hit, setting a box-office record for Universal that wasn't broken for 20 years until it was finally surpassed by Jaws (1975)). One of his better pictures was Night Passage (1957), a Western in which he played the kid brother of James Stewart. He worked with Huston again on The Unforgiven (1960).
Meanwhile, the studio system that Murphy grew into as an actor crumbled. Universal's new owners, MCA, dumped its "International" tag in 1962 and turned the studio's focus toward the more lucrative television industry. For theatrical productions, it dropped its roster of contract players and hired actors on a per-picture basis only. That cheap Westerns on the big screen were becoming a thing of the past bode no good for Murphy, either. The Texican (1966), his lone attempt at a new, European form of inexpensive horse opera, to become known as "the Spaghetti Western", was unsuccessful. His star was falling fast.
In addition to his acting career -- he made a total of 44 films -- Murphy was a rancher and businessman. He bred and raised thoroughbred horses and owned several ranches in Texas, Arizona and California. He was also a songwriter, and penned hits for such singers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride, and many others.
During his postwar life, he suffered from what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but was then called "combat fatigue", and was known to have a hair-trigger temper. He woke up screaming at night and slept with a loaded M1911 .45 semi-automatic pistol nearby. He was acquitted of attempted murder charges brought about by injuries he inflicted on a man in a bar fight. Director Don Siegel said in an interview that Murphy often carried a pistol on the set of The Gun Runners (1958) and many of the cast and crew were afraid of him.
He had a short-lived and turbulent marriage to Wanda Hendrix, and in the 1960s his increasing bouts of insomnia and depression resulted in his becoming addicted to a particularly powerful sleeping pill called Placidyl, an addiction he eventually broke. He ran into a streak of bad financial luck and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1968. Admirably, he campaigned vigorously for the government to spend more time and money on taking care of returning Vietnam War veterans, as he knew, more than most, what kinds of problems they were going to have.
On May 18, 1971, Murphy was aboard a private plane on his way to a business meeting when it ran into thick fog over Craig County, Virginia, near Roanoke, and crashed into the side of a mountain, killing all six aboard. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. According to cemetery records, the only gravesite visited by more people than that of Murphy is that of assassinated President John F. Kennedy.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Stuart Margolin, the Emmy Award-winning actor and director, was born in Davenport, Iowa. He won two Best Supporting Actor Emmies playing James Garner's former cell-mate "Angel" Martin in The Rockford Files (1974).
Margolin made his debut in The Gertrude Berg Show (1961) before becoming a series regular on Ensign O'Toole (1962) the following year. His acting career has now spanned more than 50 years.
Most of Margolin's work has been on television, where he also has worked as a director since he helmed an episode of Love, American Style (1969) in 1973. He has been directing episodic TV and made-for-TV movies for 37 years. He has been nominated twice for directing Emmies: in 1987 for a Prime Time Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Variety or Music Program for The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) and in 1999 and a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special for The Sweetest Gift (1998).- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Victoria Racimo was an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer and actress. She wrote, directed and produced the recently released documentary, One Day (2015), for which she won Best Director in the Equus Film Festival in NYC. The film is narrated by Josh Charles. She wrote two animation specials: "A Toucan Can" (starring Jason Alexander) and "Pirate Jack" (starring Alice Cooper). With Alicia Keys, she co-wrote the book and app "Blue Moon" based on a story by Keys.
She was Executive Producer on the HBO comedy film, Casi casi (2006). Victoria was commissioned by the State of Virginia to write and direct the original drama "Journey of Destiny" in celebration of America's 400th Anniversary at Jamestown, which aired on CBS. She also co-wrote the Regnery published book "All the King's Horses: The Equestrian Life of Elvis Presley". Victoria is an avid supporter of equine welfare. She died on November 29, 2020.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Rob Garrison was born on 23 January 1960 in Wheeling, West Virginia, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and Iron Eagle (1986). He died on 27 September 2019 in Wheeling, West Virginia, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jimmy Dean, the musician, actor and entrepreneur, was instrumental in the mainstreaming of country music, a genre that now enjoys popularity in some regions of the United States but which, back in the 1960s, was accorded little respect by mass media. Jimmy Dean had a #1 hit in the US and England with his song "Big Bad John," which established his fame, fame that continues to this day due to his long stint as a spokesman for "Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage," a company he founded and then sold to Consolidated Foods in 1984. He continued as the pitchman for the eponymous brand for 20 years.
Jimmy Dean, a distant cousin of the actor James Dean, was born Jimmy Ray Dean on August 10, 1928 in Plainview, Texas. He took to the life of a professional singer after serving in the U.S. Air Force during the late 1940s. Dean began building his reputation as a musician touring with his band, The Texas Wildcats, which featured Roy Clark as lead guitarist. In 1953, he scored his first hit, "Bummin' Around."
Dean landed a gig as the host of a TV program in the Washington D.C. market, "Town and Country Time." (The District of Columbia has in many ways always been a Southern town.) Dean was a promoter of rising country acts, and such top country singers as Clark and Patsy Cline got their starts with Dean. (He eventually fired Clark but later promoted his career.) Dean subsequently moved to New York after signing with Columbia Records, where he hosted a TV variety show for the CBS network.
In 1961, his song "Big Bad John" went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts and won him the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. Several of his subsequent songs charted in the Top 40, and he scored a Top 10 hit in 1962 with a song commemorating President John F. Kennedy's patrol torpedo boat, "PT 109." Because of his affability and his burgeoning popularity, he occasionally was booked to guest-host "The Tonight Show." ABC offered him a variety show in the mid-1960s, and Dean used it as a forum to present country music on his terms, as a mainstream entertainment. His show offered the first major TV exposure to a number of country singers, including George Jones, Charlie Rich, and Buck Owens. His show also introduced the first Muppet, Jim Henson's Rowlf the Dog.
Aside from a featured part as a Howard Hughes-like billionaire in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971) (Dean said he was offered the role on the basis of his having had a #1 hit with "Big John" in Britain, which surprised him as it had been a decade before), Dean has mostly stuck to his music and the business he founded in 1969, "Jimmy Dean Pure Pork Sausage." The TV commercials featuring the very likable Dean were the best advertising the new brand could have had, and it became #1 in its product category.
In the fall of 2004, Jimmy Dean published his autobiography, "30 Years of Sausage, 50 Years of Ham." He semi-retired and lived with his second wife, the former singer Donna Meade Dean until his death in 2010.- Actress
- Writer
Elizabeth James was born on 23 December 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Born Losers (1967), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) and Love from a Stranger (1958). She died on 10 February 2007 in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA.- Joel Beeson was born on 13 September 1966 in Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for Death Becomes Her (1992), Ballistic (1995) and The Favor (1994). He died on 18 October 2017 in Twin County Regional Hospital, Galax Virginia, USA.
- Paxton Whitehead was born on 17 October, 1937 in Kent, England, UK. He trained at London's Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts starting at the age of 17. After attending the academy for two years he went to work in stock companies starting with the "weekly rep", small touring companies that rehearsed and performed a new play each week. He made his professional debut in 1956, and within two years was signed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Whitehead produced with Doric Wilson, directed and starred in "And He Made A Her" (1961), a production at the off-off-Broadway venue Caffe Cino. He made his Broadway debut in "The Affair" (1962) after appearing in Canadian stage and TV productions. Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook and Paxton Whitehead provided vocals on the track "Some Thoughts From Aboard" from the comedy album "Beyond The Fringe '64". He went on to appear with the American Shakespeare Company to direct in regional repertory.
Whitehead was the Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival, the second-largest repertory theatre in North America. The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake began as an amateur summer happening. It developed into a professional, international event, particularly under Paxton Whitehead, its dedicated artistic director from 1966 to 1977. Notable appearances there included Magnus in "The Apple Cart", Cusins in "Major Barbara", "The Philanderer", Sergius in "Arms and the Man", Lord Summerhays in "Misalliance", Fancourt Babberly in "Charley's Aunt", Tempest in the North American premiere of Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" and Hector in "Heartbreak House" with Jessica Tandy and Tony Van Bridge, a role he repeated at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London with Rex Harrison and Diana Rigg. Whitehead was also the Artistic Director for The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company from 1971 to 1973.
Whitehead appeared opposite Carol Channing in "The Bed Before Yesterday" (1976) at the Robert Morris University, Colonial Theatre, Pennsylvania. He received an honourary degree in arts from Trent University in 1978. At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Stage July 11 - July 15, 1978, Whitehead played Leo in "Design for Living". Suzanne Grossman and Paxton Whitehead translated and adapted the plays by Georges Feydeau "The Chemmy Circle" in 1979 and "A Flea in her Ear" in 1982.
Whitehead earned a Tony Award nomination for his appearance in "Camelot" during 1980. He has appeared in numerous Broadway productions including "My Fair Lady", opposite Richard Chamberlain, "The Harlequin Studies" with Bill Irwin, Noël Coward's "Suite in Two Keys", "A Little Hotel on the Side", "Lettice and Lovage" (playing an emotionally shut-down police investigator), "Artist Descending A Staircase", "Run For Your Wife", "The Crucifer of Blood", "Habeas Corpus", "Candida", "Beyond the Fringe" (1964), "The Affair" and "London Suite" (a comedy by Neil Simon). Whitehead appeared in "Noises Off" (September 22 - November 27, 1983) with Linda Thorson, his Marblehead Manor (1987) co-star.
He moved to California in 1980 to rear his children and has been a resident of Irvine, California for many years. The Shaw Festival of Canada debuted at the Annenberg Centre with "Charley's Aunt" starring Paxton Whitehead. Whitehead has also appeared in the Los Angeles productions of "Woman in Mind" with Helen Mirren, "The Rocky Horror Show", "Pirates of Penzance", "How the Other Half Loves" and "Beyond The Fringe", as well as duplicating some of his Broadway roles. Paxton Whitehead directed the Seattle Repertory Theatre production of "The Real Thing" in 1986. He was nominated for Best Lead Performance at the 1988-1989 20th Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for "How the Other Half Loves".
Whitehead appeared in the June 1992 Tiffany Theatre production of "Woman in Mind". In 1996 Whitehead appeared in the Studio Arena Theatre production of "Springtime for Henry". From January 7 to February 15, 1997, Paxton Whitehead starred in Hugh Leonard's play "The Mask of Moriarty" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. Whitehead was the narrator for the February 1999 Tiffany Theater production of "The Rocky Horror Show".
In April 2000, Hayley Mills appeared with Whitehead in "Suite in 2 Keys", "Shadows of the Evening" and "A Song at Twilight". Whitehead played the celebrated British poet and Latin Professor A.E. Housman in "The Invention of Love" at Court Theatre, Chicago, Illinois (September 6 - October 21, 2000). On October 10, 2001, The UCLA Centre for the Performing Arts for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies sponsored "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde, a staged reading by John Lithgow and friends with Lord Augustus Lorton played by Paxton Whitehead. In the Signature Theatre Company production of "The Harlequin Studies" (October 2003) featured Whitehead as Harlequin's master, Pantalone. Performances of Whitehead's are available on audio CDs of "The Doctor's Dilemma" (January 11, 2003), "Thank You, Jeeves" and "The Foreigner" (May 17, 2003) from L.A. Theatre Works.
Whitehead is an Associate Artist of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. His appearances there include "The Miser", "Richard III", "Sir Peter Teazle", "Sir Anthony Absolute" and "Benedick". In Costa Mesa he has been seen in "Heartbreak House", "How the Other Half Loves" and "The Circle". He has appeared as Lear in Manitoba and several Ray Cooney farces. He has recent regional credits that include "The Voysey Inheritance" (December 13, 2003), W. Somerset Maugham's "The Circle", A.E.H. in the Chicago production of Tom Stoppard's "The Invention of Love" and "Where's Charley?" (Williamstown Theatre Festival, June 19-30, 2002). Whitehead played Clive Champion-Cheney in "The Circle" by W. Somerset Maugham at South Coast Repertory. During the rehearsal of "The Circle" he played Malvolio in The Globe's "Twelfth Night". He appeared with John Lithgow, Melissa Errico, Roger Daltrey and Rosemary Harris and played Col. Pickering in a semi-staged production of Alan Jay Lerner and Enrique Loewe's Classic Musical "My Fair Lady" at the Hollywood Bowl on August 3, 2003. Paxton Whitehead headed the cast of The Huntington Theatre Company presentation of "What the Butler Saw" as Dr. Rance at the Boston University Theatre, March 5-April 4, 2004 for which he received the Norton Awards for Outstanding Actor, Large Company. He is co-author on the books "The Doctor's Dilemma" and "The Voysey Inheritance" published by L.A. Theatre Works. Whitehead appeared in "Don Juan in Hell" at 92nd Street Y on January 28, 2005. - A long long career. 140 roles in films ('I Want to Live', 'The Glory Guys', 'The Cat from Outer Space'...) and on television ('Bachelor Father', 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', 'Lux Video Theatre'...). And many many radio shows ('This Is Your FBI', 'Dangerous Assignment', 'Suspense, 'The Whistler '...). There is no denying Alice Backes was a hard worker. Not to mention the fact that she was a gifted violinist, that she joined the Women's Branch of the Naval Reserve during the War, and that she contributed all her adult life to various charities, including after she retired from acting. Born in 1923, young Alice graduated from high school before attending the University of Utah. After the War, Alice Backes decided to move to Hollywood where she quickly earned small parts in films, TV series and radio programs. From then on - and for nearly five decades - she would work steadily, specializing in character roles. Her rather commonplace physical appearance (though she was tall by Hollywood standards) enabled her to get effortlessly inside everyday life characters such as nurses, doctors, dentists, librarians, waitresses, judges, farmer's wives... Only once in her career did she embody a historical character, and that was Hedda Hopper, in 'Gable and Lombard'. Alice Backes finally retired in 1997 after a last appearance in a 'Columbo' episode, a nice vehicle for a last hurrah. She died ten years later.
- Hersha Parady was born on 25 May 1945, and raised in Ohio, USA. She later became an actress, appearing on television and in the theatre.
Years later, living in California, Hersha often looked after a free-spirited dog she called Lightning, who roamed the streets of Hollywood. That led to Hersha's befriending actress Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor, who looked out for the same dog. MacGregor starred as Harriet Oleson in the television series Little House on the Prairie.
When Hersha starred in a play as Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, MacGregor and her Little House co-star Richard Bull came to see it. They were thoroughly impressed with Hersha's performance, and recommended her to the Little House casting director, as a possible new cast member.
This recommendation led to Hersha being cast as a guest star (playing Michael Landon's sister-in-law) in one episode during the third season, before being cast as a regular player in the role of Merlin Olsen's wife, Alice Garvey, for Seasons 4 - 6.
Ironically, Hersha's own personal favourite Little House episode is "May We Make Them Proud" - the one in which Alice Garvey and her friends' infant son burn to death in the school for the blind. Hersha relished acting in scenes involving real, controlled fire under the supervision of the Los Angeles Fire Department. On her unforgettable death scene, Hersha remarked: "At least I went out with a bang and not a whimper."
Formerly married to Oscar-winning producer John Peverall, with whom she had a son named Jonathan, Hersha moved to Florida and died in 2023. - Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
One of the leading European newspapers, Le Matin of Paris, describes G. Gordon Liddy as "a man of fantastic intelligence and complexity." Educated privately by Benedictines and Jesuits, Liddy earned a B.S. degree from Fordham University and an Ll.D. from the Fordham Law School, graduating as an editor of The Fordham Law Review. After two years service as an Army artillery officer during the Korean War, Liddy entered the FBI as a Special Agent, rapidly earned multiple commendations from the late J. Edgar Hoover and, at age 29, became the youngest Bureau Supervisor at FBI national headquarters in Washington, DC, where he served during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Liddy resigned from the FBI in 1962 to practice international law in Manhattan. Thereafter he served as a prosecutor, ran unsuccessfully for Congress from the 28th district of New York, then in 1968 ran the presidential campaign of Richard Nixon in that district. In the Nixon administration Liddy served first as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, was then appointed Enforcement Legislative Counsel, authored the Explosives Control Act and, in 1971, was sent to the White House as Staff Assistant to the President of the United States. At the White House Liddy had oversight responsibility for Treasury policy on firearms and explosives and authored the memorandum that led to the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Subsequently he was assigned additional special duties as a member of the top-secret White House Special Investigations Group. He resigned his White House post to accept the positions of General Counsel of the 1972 Republican presidential campaign and the campaign finance committee, with additional duties as campaign political intelligence director. The rest is history. For his role in Watergate, and for refusing to testify against co-conspirators, Liddy was sentenced to over 20 years in prison. He served nearly five years, many in maximum security, including 106 days of solitary confinement, before his release by President Jimmy Carter "in the interests of justice". Rated by the Treasury Department as a pistol expert whose draw and hit was timed electronically by the FBI at 60/100 of a second, Liddy was once assigned by the Secret Service to protect President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is an FAA licensed pilot and a life member of the Special Operations Association. Today he is the host of "The G. Gordon Liddy Show", a radio program syndicated to 600+ markets that is now in its 13th year. His books have appeared on the "New York Times" best-seller lists and has written four book reviews for the newspaper, in addition to authoring numerous magazine articles, has lectured extensively, from Berkeley to The Oxford Union, and is an actor in motion pictures and television, including guest-starring roles in Miami Vice (1984), Airwolf (1984), MacGyver (1985), Feds (1997), several "Perry Mason" TV movies and and 18 Wheels of Justice (2000). He is also a frequent guest on Fox Television's Hannity & Colmes (1996) and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews (1997). In 1992 Liddy enrolled at the Israeli Defense Force Paratroop School at Tel Nov, qualified for and was awarded his wings. He has re-qualified and jumped twice more since, and was given the honor of leading the stick out of the aircraft on his jump in January 2003, with the elite IDF parachute regiment. In August 2003 he rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle the full 1,846 miles from Washington, DC, to Sturgis, SD, for the 63rd Annual motorcycle festival. He's also ridden with the Los Angeles chapter of Hell's Angels and is a member of the Honor Legion of the New York City Police Department. Liddy and his wife have three sons and two daughters. Four of the five have served as officers in the military. One son is a lawyer who is a two-war combat veteran reserve Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marine Corps, just returned from Baghdad. Another is a career Commander in the US Navy SEALs who is currently assigned to the Pentagon, holds a masters degree from Johns Hopkins and is a Ph.D. candidate at Tulane. Liddy's lecture audiences have ranged from an association of independent over-the-road truck drivers to the Oxford Union and, according to "The Wall Street Journal", he is "one of the most sought-after speakers in the nation."- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Bryan Forbes was born on July 22, 1926 in Stratford, London, England as John Theobald Clarke. He was an actor, writer, and director, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Whisperers (1967) and Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964). He was married to Nanette Newman and Constance Smith. He died on May 8, 2013 in Virginia Water, Surrey, England.- Laurie Bartram was born on 16 May 1958 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Friday the 13th (1980), Emergency! (1972) and Another World (1964). She was married to Gregory McCauley. She died on 25 May 2007 in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Don Bexley was born on 10 March 1910 in Jamestown, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for Sanford and Son (1972), What's Up, Doc? (1972) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He was married to Patricia Bergeron, Gillian and Ruth. He died on 15 April 1997 in Hampton, Virginia, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Fely Franquelli was born on 11 November 1916 in Manila, Philippines. She was an actress, known for Back to Bataan (1945) and Cry 'Havoc' (1943). She was married to Howard J. Hutter. She died on 8 January 2002 in Arlington, Virginia, USA.- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Producer
Lorissa McComas was born on 26 November 1970 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for The Bare Wench Project (2000), Droid Gunner (1995) and Lap Dancing (1995). She was married to Doug Taylor. She died on 3 November 2009 in Waverly, Virginia, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Veteran entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth had a career spanning eight decades, in which he went from struggling variety performer to Saturday night TV stardom. On the way, he became one of the most recognisable entertainers in the business, driven by what appeared to be inexhaustible energy. He became synonymous with the plethora of game shows that seemed to dominate television light entertainment in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, although he often felt he had become typecast as the genial quizmaster. And at an age when most performers would have put their feet up, his career enjoyed a huge revival with the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing (2004). Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson was born in Edmonton, north London, on 22 February 1928. His father owned a local garage and both his parents were Salvation Army members who sang and played music at home.
Bruce was a direct descendant of William Forsyth, a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society, whose name was given to the plant forsythia. His interest in showbusiness was kindled at the age of eight and he was reportedly found tap-dancing on the flat roof after watching his first Fred Astaire film.
He made his stage debut at the age of 14 as Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom, appearing bottom of the bill at the Theatre Royal, Bilston. Live entertainment was a way of escaping the pressures and dangers of wartime Britain, and there was a huge demand for acts, no matter how bad they were.
But there was to be no fast track to success. For the next 16 years he performed in church halls and theatres across the country, sleeping in train luggage racks and waiting for the big break. It came in 1958, at a time when he had been unemployed for more than three months and was seriously considering giving up on showbusiness. He was asked to present Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1955), a televised variety show, made by Lord Grade's ATV company for the ITV network. He'd finally found the fame he had always craved, appearing not in front of a couple of hundred people in a theatre, but the more than 10 million who regularly tuned in to the show.
Originally booked for two weeks, he stayed five years, by which time he was Britain's highest-paid entertainer, earning £1,000 a week (£18,700 in today's money). But he continued touring with his variety show and the strain of combining this with his Palladium appearances took a toll on his private life. He divorced his first wife, Penny Calvert, a dancer he'd met in the theatre, and she wrote an account of her husband's perpetual absence, called Darling, Your Dinner's in the Dustbin. A popular element in his Palladium show was a feature called Beat the Clock, in which contestants, egged on by Forsyth, had to complete quirky tasks as a huge clock ticked down.
The segment gave a hint of his future television role and he went on to host some of the most popular television game shows of the 1970s and 80s. With his catchphrases of "Nice to see you, to see you nice" and "Didn't he do well?" he reigned supreme at the helm of the BBC's Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game (1971) for six years from 1971, and again at the beginning of the 1990s. At its peak, the programme attracted 20 million viewers, who tuned in to watch Forsyth seemingly having more fun than the competitors, enthusing over the mundane prizes on the conveyor belt. The presenter argued with his BBC managers about the show's early evening timeslot but he eventually accepted his role as the "warm-up man" for Saturday night television.
His co-host on the show, Anthea Redfern, was each week encouraged to "give us a twirl". The couple married in 1973 but divorced six years later. It was on Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game (1971) that he introduced his famous "thinker" pose, appearing in silhouette at the beginning of each show. The idea came from the classic circus strongman pose, something he'd perfected during his days in variety. He repeated his success on ITV's Play Your Cards Right (1980), where the audience joined in the cries of "higher" or "lower" as the contestants tried to guess the value of a series of playing cards.
In 1995, a year after his final Generation Game appearance, he received a lifetime achievement award for variety at the British Comedy Awards and began hosting ITV's The Price is Right (1972). The entertainer was, by this time, a Rolls-Royce-driving multimillionaire and married since 1983 to Wilnelia Merced, a former Miss World. He later claimed that he regretted becoming so associated with game shows and wished he'd done more variety work on TV.
Play Your Cards Right (1980) was axed in 1999 and, with changing tastes in entertainment, his TV career began to slide. He returned to the theatre - but experienced an unexpected revival after his wife watched an edition of the satirical quiz, Have I Got News For You, and suggested he could present the programme. After calling show regular Paul Merton, he landed the gig and offered to be "a little bit deadpan". "But the team said, 'No, be Bruce Forsyth,'" he said. He used the occasion to parody some of his old game shows, much to the ill-disguised disgust of team captain Ian Hislop. But the appearance led to Forsyth, an accomplished tap dancer, being offered the job of hosting Strictly Come Dancing (2004), which began a year later. Viewed with scepticism when it launched, the celebrity dance show became one of the most-watched programmes on TV by the time it reached its fifth series in 2007. He brought his own brand of avuncular good humour to the proceedings - reassuring many of the contestants with the phrase "you're my favourites".
After missing a handful of episodes because of illness, he decided to "step down from the rigours" of presenting Strictly in 2014.
He continued to host the Christmas and charity editions of Strictly until 2014 - all of which were taped, as opposed to live broadcasts. Away from entertainment, Forsyth's biggest passion was golf and he took part in many pro-celebrity tournaments. His house was next to the course at Wentworth, where he played with many of the world's best players, practising in the bunker in his own back garden.
During his career, Forsyth's multiple talents and years of application sparked an enduring appeal. In 2011 he was knighted after years of campaigning by his fans and a parliamentary Early Day Motion signed by 73 MPs. But he suffered from ill health towards the end of his life, and in 2016 his wife revealed he still had "a bit of a problem moving", following major surgery a year earlier. Sir Bruce was one of the last entertainers from the tradition of music hall to be working on British television. In many ways his act barely changed. The same corny gags, the same toothy smile and, above all, the same manic enthusiasm. He is particularly remembered for his ability to transform run-of-the-mill party games into glorious moments of mayhem that enthralled contestants and audiences alike.
He died in August 2017 at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey, England, UK following a period of ill health. He was 89. He was survived by his third wife.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
It's pretty unusual for a mostly unbilled chorus girl to rate a star on Hollywood Boulevard, but Toby Wing was unique. A genuine granddaughter of the Confederacy (on her mother's side at least; her father's family was pure Maine Yankee), she was born Martha Virginia Wing in Amelia Court House, Virginia in 1915, later taking the stage name Toby after a family nickname (for a horse!). Her father Paul Wing was an Army officer and she spent her childhood divided between Virginia and the Panama Canal's American Zone. Toby moved to Hollywood in the 1920s with her father, who, after his discharge, became an assistant director and Paramount Studios mid-level manager. Toby and her sister Pat Wing grew up fantasizing about becoming movie stars and moving to Hollywood in the mid-1920's afforded her to score a small number of juvenile parts in Paramount silents her dad was working on, most notably appearing as 12-year old Nan in The Pony Express (1925).
She retreated from acting to finish her schooling at her parents' insistence. Stories differ, but she struck up a friendship with Jack Oakie who introduced her to Samuel Goldwyn at a party (Paramount studio publicists, always a questionable source of facts, claimed she was discovered by Mack Sennett with her sister, Pat, while walking to the Santa Monica Pier. Either story seems plausible since she soon found herself working for both men). She was the last graduate of the studio's in-house high school in 1933. A natural brunette, she dyed her hair platinum blond and by 1932, at age 16, she landed rather historic place in Hollywood history as one of the original Goldwyn Girls, billed as the girl "with a face like the morning sun" in Eddie Cantor's hit Palmy Days (1931) and then found herself at Paramount working on an early Bing Crosby short. The choreographer on the Eddie Cantor film was Busby Berkeley who would later hire her for a choice, albeit unbilled, role in 42nd Street (1933).
Her remarkable beauty was not just in the movies; off camera, she lured to her door many a celebrated suitor (Maurice Chevalier, Alfred Vanderbilt, Franklin Roosevelt Jr., Jackie Coogan-- to whom she was engaged to during most of 1935, singer Pinky Tomlin -- briefly engaged in late 1937-- and wealthy Toronto playboy Erskine Eaton - to name a few). In 1936, while mourning the untimely death of one of her suitors (army pilot John T. Helms, whom she claimed to be secretly engaged) Wing swore off men - falling in love with them, that is. She announced "I have really given up falling in love with men! Oh, yes! My career is now to be my life." Her numerous engagements became something of a joke around Hollywood.
Career-wise, she was seen to her best benefit while on loan to Warner Bros. in 42nd Street (1933), prominently featuring her in the unbilled part as the so-called "Young and Healthy Girl" (the 17-year old knockout wearing a fox bra being warbled to by Dick Powell with dances staged by Berkeley). Anyone watching the hit film would have assumed she was headed for bigger and better things in Hollywood but it was not meant to be. Toby's career would never show any logical ascent toward stardom. She would be cast in a prominent billed part, only to revert back as uncredited eye candy, with some appearances lasting mere seconds (such as those as the party guest in Torch Singer (1933), Private Detective 62 (1933) -- a 3-second shot as Warren William's supposed girlfriend-- and Baby Face (1933) where she simply glares at Barbara Stanwyck), and a feature appearance would be followed by a short. Initially signed to the financially ailing Paramount, she spent much of her contract there on loan. The 1934 Production Code effectively prevented anything approaching her barely clothed appearances in Come On, Marines! (1934), Murder at the Vanities (1934) and Search for Beauty (1934) from being repeated. In 1935 she made a tantalizingly brief - yet silent - appearance in La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935), an MGM short promoting early 3-strip Technicolor, more notable today for containing the Gumm Sisters' rendition of "La Cucaracha" (sung by 15-year old Judy Garland).
Toby occasionally scored meatier roles in poverty row efforts, receiving star billing in the cheapie Canadian production of Thoroughbred (1936), financed by a suitor, and later in struggling Grand National's Mr. Boggs Steps Out (1938), a low budget Stuart Erwin Jr. vehicle. But in the end her Hollywood career was a frustrating mix of intense publicity with little substance - and summed up, she had a vastly better press agent than a talent agent. On the publicity side, from mid-1933 -early 1938 Toby appeared in a dizzying array of movie magazines, scored numerous endorsement contracts and was easily one of the most photographed starlets in Hollywood. Her personal life also fueled the gossip fires by being pursued by many prominent men -- there are dozens of press photos documenting her at nightclubs surrounded by admiring men well before she was 21 -- and announcing numerous engagements (notably to Jackie Coogan during the period he discovered his mother and stepfather had squandered his childhood acting fortune, resulting in the so-called "Coogan Law").
After appearing in thirty-eight films over five years she ended her movie career where she pretty much began, in an uncredited bit role in the MGM Nelson Eddy-Jeanette MacDonald musical Sweethearts (1938) as a telephone operator (note: her appearance in this film is in dispute and may have been cut from the final print). Remarkably, despite a film resume overloaded with 5-second walk-ons and parts calling for idiotic-yet-sexy squeals in her underwear (she was actually quite intelligent), her stunning beauty guaranteed her lasting appeal. After a typically brief engagement to singer and one-time co-star Pinky Tomlin, she met the man who would be the love of her life, world-record setting Eastern Airlines pilot Dick Merrill, who was more than two decades her senior. They married in June 1938 and went on to share a remarkable 44-year marriage. After her Hollywood career ended she accepted a role on Broadway, co-starring in the troubled Cole Porter musical, "You Never Know" that starred Clifton Webb, Libby Holman and Lupe Velez which flopped after 73 performances.
She happily retired to their home on Di Lido Island to life as a Miami housewife, where her husband flew the Miami-NYC EAL route. Her beauty and the vast number of cheesecake photos she took in the 1930s had her competing in good stead with the likes of Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable as a soldier's favorite pinup girl during WWII. During her heyday, she reputedly received more fan mail than Paramount stars, Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich. She suffered through the loss of her first child in 1940 and like thousands of wives, a long separation from her husband during WW2. He flew "The Hump" for the MTD and endured her father's capture at Bataan (he survived the Death March and subsequent imprisonment). She had a second child, Ricky, in 1941 and involved herself in civic affairs, church and successfully dabbled in real estate in Florida and California.
Toby and her husband were devoutly religious and she taught Sunday school at Miami's All Saints Episcopal Church well into her 80s. She performed in two stage productions in the 1940s : "Father of the Bride" with Pat O'Brien at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, and a benefit production of "The Women" and occasionally made the national press when photographed with her famous husband, who was General Eisenhower's pilot during his 1952 presidential campaign. The couple continued to appear publicly at aviation events throughout the 1960s and 1970s during which time Dick Merrill was actively involved in Sidney Shannon's Air Museum in Virginia. Sadly, the couple also outlived their youngest child, who was involved in large-scale marijuana smuggling and murdered in their Miami home while the Merrills were living in Virginia in 1982. She was widowed soon afterward and spent the remainder of her life actively promoting her husband's rightful legacy as an aviation pioneer. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1980s and was briefly interviewed in TCM's Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof (1998) with her lesser-known chorus girl sister, Pat Wing [Gill]. Toby died peacefully in her home in Mathews, Virginia in 2001, survived by, among others, two granddaughters. Her sister died a year later.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Hugh Wilson was born on 24 August 1943 in Miami, Florida, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Blast from the Past (1999), Frank's Place (1987) and WKRP in Cincinnati (1978). He was married to Charters Smith. He died on 14 January 2018 in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.- James Bell was born on 1 December 1891 in Suffolk, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Spiral Staircase (1946) and Blind Spot (1947). He was married to Joyce Arling. He died on 26 October 1973 in Kents Store, Virginia, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mary Field was born on 10 June 1909 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Ball of Fire (1941), Shadows on the Stairs (1941) and The Prince and the Pauper (1937). She was married to Allan Douglas and James Madison Walters II. She died on 12 June 1996 in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.- Stanja Lowe was born on 5 September 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Man Without a Face (1993), Ben Casey (1961) and Mannix (1967). She was married to John Marley. She died on 4 December 2012 in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
- Kamala Devi was born on 8 October 1933 in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India. She was an actress, known for The Brass Bottle (1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Branded (1965). She was married to Maurie Beaumont, Wallace Guberman and Chuck Connors. She died on 29 November 2010 in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
- Lou Myers was born on 26 September 1935 in Cabin Creek, West Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for The Wedding Planner (2001), Volcano (1997) and Tin Cup (1996). He died on 19 February 2013 in Charleston, West Virginia, USA.
- Carl Gordon was born on 20 January 1932 in Goochland, Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for JAG (1995), Roc (1991) and No Mercy (1986). He was married to Jacqueline Alston and Bernice Frances Nesbit. He died on 20 July 2010 in Jetersville, Virginia, USA.