Dorothy Patrick

On May 31, 1987, actress Dorothy Patrick died. She was born on June 3, 1921 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada of Scot-English heritage from a family of farmers, ranchers and Canadian National Railway workers. Having the poise and beauty older than her years, as a teen Dorothy was a photogenic model for young ladies' fashions in Creed's, Hudson's Bay and Sears department store catalogues popular in Canada. After growing up in Winnipeg, in 1938 at age 17, she and her mother immigrated to the United States. Settling in New York City, Patrick became a fashion model with the famous John Robert Powers agency. During her early career she was billed under her birth name, Dorothea Davis until she married New York Rangers hockey star, Lynn Patrick, and became Dorothy Patrick.

While appearing at dinner-club showcases in Jersey City, Patrick won Samuel Goldwyn's talent-search contest, MGM's coveted, "Gateway to Hollywood." With a movie contract in hand, she moved to Hollywood and young son to live in Culver City and study and work at nearby MGM studios. She first appeared as a Goldwyn Girl in Danny Kaye's movie Up in Arms (1944). Her most noted MGM appearance was opposite Robert Walker in the Jerome Kern musical showcase and Technicolor dazzler, Till the Clouds Roll By (1946). As a "Queen of the Bs," she continued to appear in films produced in the 1940s and 1950s including, High Wall (1947) with Robert Taylor; New Orleans (1947) with Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday (the only film-record of Holiday singing); The Mighty McGurk (1947) with Wallace Beery; Follow Me Quietly (1949) with William Lundingan; the Fritz Lang-directed House by the River (1950).

In the early days of Hollywood television, Patrick made guest appearances on the locally-produced show, Mike Stokey's Pantomime Quiz. The Korean War-era saw her at celebrity appearances for USO and was Miss Naval Air Force Recruiting 1951. At Columbia, Patrick co-starred with Preston Foster and Wayne Morris in the oil wild-catting yarn, The Big Gusher (1951); in the modern-day western, Outlaw Stallion (1954) opposite Billy Gray with Phil (Philip) Carey. She co-starred or was supporting actress in a series of Republic programmers. The studio was best known releasing Saturday Matinee serials, westerns, mysteries and crime dramas. Her films included the noir classic, 711 Ocean Drive (1950) with Edmond O'Brien, Joanne Dru and Otto Kruger (caps with a slam-bang gun-chase scene at Hoover [Boulder] Dam); the "true life" crime drama, Lonely Hearts Bandits (1950) with John Eldredge; genre westerns, Thunder Pass (1954) with Dane Clark, John Carradine and Andy Devine; "Gringos go south-of-the-border" comedy, Belle of Old Mexico (1950) with Latina comedienne, Estelita Rodriguez, and Robert Rockwell, Florence Bates.

Patrick's roles in the 1950s also included walk-ons in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Singin' in the Rain (1952). She continued playing small, supporting roles on summer-stock stage, screen and TV until 1956. Her last movies, at 20th Century Fox, were Violent Saturday as the wife of Victor Mature (1955) and View from Pompey's Head (1955) with Robert Egan and Dana Wynter. A working SAG (Screen Actors Guild) actress, Dorothy appeared in 35 films. She made a quiet return to the stage in the late 1960’s acting in productions at the Leonivitch Theatre in West Hollywood. Dorothy Patrick died on May 31, 1987 and is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, West Los Angeles, California.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Claude Rains

On May 30, 1967, actor Claude Rains died. He stage and film career spanned 47 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Mr. Dryden in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and, perhaps his most notable performance, as Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942). He was born William Claude Rains in Camberwell, London and his father was English stage actor Frederick Rains. The young Rains made his stage debut at 11 in Nell of Old Drury. Rains served in the First World War in the London Scottish Regiment, with fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and Herbert Marshall. He was involved in a gas attack that left him nearly blind in one eye for the rest of his life. However, the war did aid his social advancement and, by its end, he had risen from the rank of Private to Captain.

Rains began his career in the London theatre, having a success in the title role of John Drinkwater's play Ulysses S. Grant, the follow-up to the playwright's major hit Abraham Lincoln, and traveled to Broadway in the late 1920’s to act in leading roles in such plays as Shaw's The Apple Cart and in the dramatizations of The Constant Nymph, and Pearl S. Buck's novel The Good Earth, as a Chinese farmer. Rains came relatively late to film acting and his first screen test was a failure, but his distinctive voice won him the title role in James Whale's The Invisible Man (1933) when someone accidentally overheard his screen test being played in the next room.

Following The Invisible Man, Universal Studios tried to typecast him in horror films, but he broke free, starting with the gleefully evil role of Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), then with his Academy Award-nominated performance as the conflicted corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and followed with probably his most famous role, the flexible French police Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942). In 1943, Rains played the title character in Universal's full-color remake of Phantom of the Opera. Bette Davis named him her favorite co-star, and they made four films together, including Mr. Skeffington and Now, Voyager. Rains became the first actor to receive a million dollar salary, playing Julius Caesar in Gabriel Pascal's lavish and unsuccessful version of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), made in Britain. In 1946, he played a refugee Nazi agent opposite Cary Grant and Casablanca co-star Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. In 1949, he appeared in David Lean's The Passionate Friends.

Rains remained a popular character actor in the 1950’s and 1960’s, appearing in many films. Two of his well-known later screen roles were as Dryden, a cynical British diplomat in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and King Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). The latter was his final film role. Rains made several audio recordings, narrating a few Bible stories for children on Capitol Records, and reciting Richard Strauss's setting for narrator and piano of Tennyson's poem Enoch Arden, with the piano solos played by Glenn Gould. This recording was made by Columbia Masterworks Records. Rains became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939. He married six times, the first five of which ended in divorce: Isabel Jeans (1913–1915); Marie Hemingway (1920, for less than a year); Beatrix Thomson (1924 – April 8, 1935); Frances Proper (April 9, 1935–1956); and to classic pianist Agi Jambor (November 4, 1959–1960). He married Rosemary Clark Schrode in 1960, and stayed with her until her death on December 31, 1964. Claude Rains died from an abdominal hemorrhage in Laconia, New Hampshire on May 30, 1967 at the age of 77. He is buried at the Red Hill Cemetery, Moultonborough, New Hampshire.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Mary Pickford & John Barrymore

Mary Pickford was “America’s Sweetheart” of the silent film era and arguably cinemas first real movie star. She was born Gladys Louise Smith on April 8, 1892 in Toronto, Canada. Her legendary career in show business began on stage at the age of five. In 1909, she appeared in her first motion picture at D.W. Griffith’s film studio. Pickford’s storied movie career was a relatively short twenty-four years (1909-1933). In film, she became the symbol of feminine virtue and her long curly locks were a trademark. During her prolific film career, Pickford appeared in over two hundred and forty feature films, which most notably include; The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Daddy Long Legs (1919), Pollyanna (1920), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), Rosita (1923), and My Best Girl (1927). Pickford was a bankable film star of the silent era and was also a shrewd businesswoman. In 1920, Pickford along with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and her future husband, Douglas Fairbanks, established the United Artists production company. She was also one the original thirty-six founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She won her first and only best actress Academy Award in 1930 for her role as Norma Besant in Coquette (1929). She survived damning reviews thanks to the multitudes of fans that had flocked to theaters to hear Pickford speak on film for the first time. She had appeared to have proven the critics wrong by successfully transitioning from silent films to talkies. Controversy followed the award ceremony, when it became evident that Pickford had won her award by openly campaigning for the Oscar. She had shamelessly plied voting members with lavish dinners and gifts. This prompted the academy to make changes to voting procedures, disallowing open campaigning for awards and allowing only one vote per member. Pickford greatly underestimated the value of talking pictures, and the public failed to respond to her “talking” picture screen roles. America’s love affair with Mary Pickford was at an end. She would appear in only four more films following her Oscar win in Coquette. In 1934, she retired from on-screen performing but continued to be a force behind the camera as a producer. In 1976, she was awarded an honorary Academy Award for life time achievement but was unable to attend the ceremony in person and instead sent a videotaped message of thanks.

On May 25, 1979, while at her home (Pick-Fair), she became disoriented and was rushed to Santa Monica Hospital. Her condition quickly deteriorated and she slipped into a coma. Mary Pickford died on Tuesday, May 29, 1979. There was no autopsy performed but the cause of death was noted as a cerebral hemorrhage. Her simple funeral service was held at the Wee Kirk O’ the Heather Chapel at Forest Lawn Glendale. In attendance were long time friend and fellow actress Lillian Gish, step son Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and many other entertainment dignitaries but few of her contemporaries were still alive to mourn her passing. In his eulogy, film producer John Mantley (Mary’s cousin) stated “I don’t know what to say of a legend, it has all been said before...she was a real live vibrant human being whom the world loved…she was the essence of everything that was good and fine in the human spirit.” Pickford’s cremated remains are interred in the family plot at Forest Lawn Glendale. The plot is found in the Garden of Memory, the large white marble memorial is hard to miss and is topped with ornate sculpture, her epitaph reads; “Mary Pickford Rogers, America’s Sweetheart.”

On May 29, 1942, actor John Barrymore died. He was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia. His parents were Maurice Barrymore and Georgie Drew Barrymore. His maternal grandmother was Louisa Lane Drew (aka Mrs Drew), a prominent and well-respected 19th-century actress and theater manager, who instilled in him and his siblings the ways of acting and theatre life. His uncles were John Drew, Jr. and Sidney Drew. Barrymore studied to be an artist and worked on New York newspapers before deciding to go into the family business as an actor.

He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedies, then drama which culminated in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III. His success continued with motion pictures in various genres in both the silent and sound eras. Barrymore's personal life has been the subject of much writing before and since his passing. Today, John Barrymore is mostly known for his roles in movies like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1920), Grand Hotel (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Twentieth Century (1934), and Don Juan (1926), the first ever movie to use a Vitaphone soundtrack.

A member of a multi-generation theatrical dynasty, he was the brother of Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore, and was the paternal grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore. Barrymore delivered some of the most critically acclaimed performances in theatre and film history and was widely regarded as the screen's greatest performer during a movie career spanning 25 years and more than 60 films. In 1929, Barrymore collapsed on his boat the Mariner, off the coast of Mexico while on honeymoon with wife Dolores, requiring doctor's care. Much of his newly occurring health problems most likely stemmed from consumption of illegal alcohol.

In the late 1930s, Barrymore began to lose his ability to remember his lines and from then on, he insisted on reading dialogue from cue cards. He gave one last great performance in MGM's 1936 Romeo and Juliet. He continued to give creditable performances in lesser pictures, for example as Inspector Nielson in Paramount Pictures' Bulldog Drummond mysteries, and RKO's 1939 feature The Great Man Votes. After that, his screen roles were caricatures of himself.

On May 29, 1942, Barrymore collapsed while appearing on Rudy Vallee's radio show and later died.
Allegedly, his dying words were "Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him." Gene Fowler attributes different dying words to Barrymore in his biography Good Night, Sweet Prince. According to Fowler, Barrymore roused as if to say something to his brother Lionel; who asked him to repeat himself, and he simply replied, "You heard me, Mike."

According to Errol Flynn's memoirs, film director Raoul Walsh "borrowed" Barrymore's body before burial, and left his corpse propped in a chair for a drunken Flynn to discover when he returned home from a night of revelry. However, Barrymore's friend Gene Fowler denied the story, stating that he and his son held vigil over the body at the mortuary until the funeral and burial. Barrymore was first buried at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles but years later, his son John had the body reinterred at Philadelphia's Mount Vernon Cemetery.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Marguerite Courtot & Walter Connolly

On May 28, 1986, silent film actress Marguerite Courtot died. She was born on August 20, 1897 in Summit, New Jersey. She became a child model and in June 1912, while not yet fifteen years old, joined the Kalem Company, appearing in 1913's "The Riddle of the Tin Soldier" with Alice Joyce and Harry F. Millarde who was making his film debut. Between 1912 and 1916 Courtot made thirty-seven films for Kalem including the starring role in "The Ventures of Marguerite," a sixteen episode action/adventure serial. Following the Kalem Company's merger with Vitagraph Studios, Courtot starred in the Gaumont Pictures production of "The Dead Alive," directed by Henri J. Vernot. After several films with Jesse L. Lasky's Famous Players Film Company and several smaller independents studios, she took some time off from filming. In 1919, she returned to film, primarily in supporting roles such as in the 1921 serials The Sky Ranger, starring June Caprice and The Yellow Arm starring Juanita Hansen. In 1922, while working on "Down to the Sea in Ships," the film that became her most important feature-length work, Marguerite Courtot began a relationship with co-star Raymond McKee. They married on April 23, 1923, and after completing two more films, she left Hollywood forever to raise a family. Their marriage lasted more than sixty years. Marguerite Courtot died on May 28, 1986 in Long Beach, California and is buried at the Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California.

On May 28, 1940, actor Walter Connolly died. He was a character actor who appeared in almost fifty films between 1914 and 1939. Connolly was a successful stage actor who appeared in twenty-two Broadway productions between 1916 and 1935, notably revivals of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author and Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. His first film appearances came in two silent films, The Marked Woman (1914) and A Soldier's Oath (1915), and a talkie in 1930, Many Happy Returns, but his Hollywood film career really began in 1932, when he appeared in four films. His trademark role was that of the exasperated business tycoon or newspaperman, often as the father of the female lead character, as in It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; Broadway Bill (1934), supporting Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy; and Libeled Lady (1936) with William Powell and Loy again. Other notable roles included the worthless uncle of Paul Muni's character in The Good Earth (1937) and one of the two con men encountered by Mickey Rooney's Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). Connolly starred as General Yen's American advisor in The Bitter Tea of General Yen.

Connolly mostly played supporting roles, but starred occasionally, as Nero Wolfe in The League of Frightened Men (1937); in RKO's 1939 5th Ave Girl, opposite Ginger Rogers; and as the title character in The Great Victor Herbert (1939), his last film. On radio, Connolly starred as the title character in The Adventures of Charlie Chan on NBC Radio from 1932 to 1938. He was married to actress Nedda Harrigan from 1923 until his death from a stroke on May 28, 1940. He is buried at the St. Joseph New Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Jeffrey Hunter & Ruth McDevitt

On May 27, 1969, actor Jeffrey Hunter died. He was born on November 25, 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The handsome leading man began acting in local theater and radio in his early teens. In 1950, while a graduate student in radio at the University of California, Los Angeles and appearing in a college play, he was spotted by talent scouts who offered him a contract at 20th Century-Fox. He made his Hollywood debut in “Julius Caesar” (1950) and by 1952 achieved top billing in “Red Skies of Montana” (1952), then in “Sailor of the King” (1953). He co-starred with John Wayne in “The Searchers” (1956). He made two additional films with director John Ford; “The Last Hurrah” (1958) and “Sergeant Rutledge” (1960). Ford also recommended Hunter to director Nicholas Ray for the role of Jesus in the Biblical film “King of Kings” (1961), a difficult part met by critical reaction that ranged from praise to ridicule. He appeared in the all-star cast in “The Longest Day” (1960), a World War II battle epic.

Having guest-starred on television dramas since the mid-1950s, Hunter was now offered a two-year contract by Warner Brothers that included starring as circuit-riding Texas lawyer Temple Lea Houston, the youngest son of Sam Houston, in the NBC series Temple Houston (1963–64), which Hunter's production company co-produced. Although Temple Houston did not survive its first season, Hunter accepted the lead role of Captain Christopher Pike in "The Cage,” the first pilot episode of Star Trek. In 1965, Hunter declined to film a second Star Trek pilot as requested by NBC, and instead decided to concentrate on motion pictures such as “Brainstorm” (1965). With the demise of the studio contract system in the early 1960’s and the outsourcing of much feature production, Hunter, like many other leading men of the 1950s, had to find work in B movies produced in Europe, Hong Kong, and Mexico, with the occasional television guest part in Hollywood.

Hunter's first marriage was to actress Barbara Rush (1950–1955) with whom he had a son, Christopher, in 1952. From 1957 to 1967, he was married to model Dusty Bartlett. He adopted her son, Steele, and the couple had two other children, Todd and Scott. In February 1969, he married actress Emily McLaughlin. In early 1969, Hunter suffered a stroke while flying back to the U.S. from Spain after filming “Viva America” and while recovering at his home, he suffered another stroke, causing him to fall down a flight of stairs. He sustained a skull fracture and died from a cerebral hemorrhage on May 27, 1969. Hunter is buried at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Sylmar, California.

On May 27, 1976, actresses Ruth McDevitt died. She was born on September 13, 1895 in Coldwater, Michigan. After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she married Patrick McDevitt and decided to devote her time to her marriage. After her husband's death in 1934, she returned to acting. She performed on Broadway, in particular understudying and succeeding Josephine Hull in Arsenic and Old Lace and The Solid Gold Cadillac.

McDevitt was a familiar face on television during the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s. She played "Mom Peepers" in the 1950s sitcom Mr. Peepers. She was a regular with Ann Sheridan, Douglas Fowley, and Gary Vinson in CBS's Pistols 'n' Petticoats, a 1966-67 satire of the Old West. The series attracted a good audience, but was cancelled two months after Sheridan's 1967 death from cancer. From 1974-75, McDevitt also had a regular role as Emily Cowles on Kolchak: the Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin. She also guest starred in such series as Suspense, Cosmopolitan Theatre, Decoy, Westinghouse Studio One, The United States Steel Hour, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Mayberry R.F.D., I Dream of Jeannie, Here's Lucy, Bewitched, Love, American Style, Room 222, Mannix, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., All in the Family, and The Streets of San Francisco. She died on May 27, 1976 at age 80, in Hollywood, California. She is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

George Brent & Eddie Albert

On May 26, 1979, actor George Brent died. He was an Irish film and television actor who was born on March 15, 1899 in Shannonbridge, Ireland into a family with a history of British Army service. However, during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), Brent was an active participant in the IRA and because of this had to flee Ireland with a bounty on his head.In later years he claimed only to have been a courier for IRA leader, Michael Collins.

Brent eventually moved to Hollywood where he made his first film in 1930. Signed to a contract with Warner Brothers, Brent carved out a successful career as a leading man. He was highly regarded by Bette Davis, and appeared with her in thirteen films, including Front Page Woman (1935), Special Agent (1935), The Golden Arrow (1936), Jezebel (1938), The Old Maid (1939), Dark Victory (1939) and The Great Lie (1941). Brent also played opposite Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street (1933), Greta Garbo in The Painted Veil (1934), Madeleine Carroll in The Case Against Mrs. Ames (1936), Jean Arthur in More Than a Secretary (1936), Myrna Loy in Stamboul Quest (1934) and The Rains Came (1939), Merle Oberon in 'Til We Meet Again (1940), Ann Sheridan in Honeymoon for Three (1941), Joan Fontaine in The Affairs of Susan (1945), Barbara Stanwyck in The Purchase Price (1932), The Gay Sisters (1942) and My Reputation (1946), Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (1946), Lucille Ball in Lover Come Back (1946) and Yvonne De Carlo in Slave Girl (1947). He drifted into "B" pictures in the late 1940s and retired from film in 1953. He continued to appear on television until 1960, starring in the series Wire Service in 1956. In 1978, he made one last film, the made-for-television production Born Again.

Known as a womanizer in Hollywood, Brent reputedly carried on a lengthy relationship with his frequent co-star Bette Davis. He was married four times, three times to actresses: Ruth Chatterton (1932–1934), Constance Worth (1937) and Ann Sheridan (1942–1943). Chatterton and Sheridan were both fellow Warner Brothers players. His final marriage to Janet Michaels, a former model and dress designer, lasted 27 years until her death in 1974. They had two children together, a son and a daughter.

Bette Davis in her last meeting with Brent expressed great remorse at his ill health (he was suffering from emphysema) and was deeply saddened that such a virile and attractive man could have deteriorated so dramatically. He died on May 26, 1979 in Solana Beach, California, at the age of 80 and his remains were cremated and scattered.

On May 26, 2005, actor Eddie Albert died. He was born on April 22, 1906 in Rock Island, Illinois, the oldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger. He moved to New York City in 1933, where he co-hosted a radio show, The Honeymooners - Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years. At the show's end, he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros. In the 1930s, Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936. He had lead roles in Room Service (1937–1938) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938–1939). In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in RCA's first television broadcast, a promotion for their New York City radio stations. Performing regularly on early television, Albert wrote and performed in the first teleplay, "The Love Nest", written for television.

In 1938, he made his feature film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards. The next year, he starred in On Your Toes, adapted for the screen from the Broadway smash by Rodgers and Hart. His contract with Warner Bros. was abruptly terminated in 1941, purportedly because of an affair he was having with studio head Jack L. Warner's wife. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!, and the corrupt prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television situation comedy Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, opposite Jane Wyman.

Eddie Albert suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his last years and died of pneumonia on May 26, 2005 at the age of 99 at his home in Pacific Palisades. He is buried at Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, next to his wife Margo and his Green Acres co-star Eva Gabor.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Donald Crisp

On May 25, 1974, actor Donald Crisp died. He was an accomplished, director and character actor was born George William Crisp on July 27, 1882 in Abnerfeldy, Scotland (some sources show his birth place as London, England). He began his career in show business on stage but quickly moved to motion pictures as a director and as an actor. His earliest foray into film as an actor came in The French Maid (1908) and his directorial debut was Her Father’s Silent Partner (1914). He played primarily father type characters and his slight brogue speech pattern added to a tender quality that made for some very memorable film roles. In his award winning film career, he directed over seventy films (primarily during the silent era, 1914-1930) and as an actor appeared in over one hundred and seventy (1908-1963). Crisp’s most famous film credits include: Birth of a Nation (1915), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), The Dawn Patrol (1938), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), Knute Rockne, All-American (1940), Lassie Come Home (1943), National Velvet (1944), and Prince Valiant (1954).


He won his first and only Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1942 for How Green Was My Valley (1941). After his wife, Jane Murfin’s death in 1957, Crisp went into semi-retirement but returned to the screen shortly stating, “Idleness can ruin men.” He made a few films, none of which were very memorable. His last on-screen performance was in Spencer’s Mountain (1963), co-starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara.

On May 25, 1974, Donald Crisp died from a stroke at the Van Nuys Community Hospital in Van Nuys, California. The actor had suffered several minor strokes in the previous year and was in failing health at the time of his death. His funeral service was held at the Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn, Glendale and is buried in the Wee Kirk Church Yard, lot 2138, space 4 at Forest Lawn, Glendale.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Mitzi Green & George Jessel

On May 24, 1969, actress Mitzi Green died. She was born Elizabeth Keno on October 22, 1920 in the Bronx, New York. Green was a child actress for Paramount and RKO, in the early talkie era and wascast in conventional juvenile parts as Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931) opposite Jackie Coogan and Jackie Searl. She also starred in the title role of Little Orphan Annie. At the age of 14, she also appeared in Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934). This film closed out the first stage of her Hollywood career. She went on to Broadway, where she starred in the original production of Rodgers and Hart's Babes in Arms (1937). Two of Green's numbers in the musical were "My Funny Valentine," which would ultimately become a jazz standard in many cover recordings and performances, and "The Lady is a Tramp.” Green made one more film in 1940, then went back to stage and nightclub work, including Walk With Music by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer and the Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical Billion Dollar Baby.

Green married Broadway (and later movie and TV) director Joseph Pevney and retired to raise a family. In 1951, she returned briefly to the screen opposite Abbott and Costello in Lost in Alaska (1951) and in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952 film) co-starring another Mitzi--Mitzi Gaynor. In 1955, she starred with Virginia Gibson and Gordon Jones in the short-lived TV sitcom So This Is Hollywood, in the role of Queenie Dugan, a high-spirited stuntwoman. After a brief stint on the nightclub circuit, Green retired again, although she did appear in summer stock and dinner theater around the Los Angeles area thereafter, and she appeared occasionally as a guest on talk shows. On May 24, 1969, Green died of cancer at age 48 in Huntington Beach, California. She is buried at Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

On May 24, 1981, George Jessel died. He was a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies. He was widely known by his nickname, the "Toastmaster General of the United States" for his frequent role as the master of ceremonies at political and entertainment gatherings. Jessel was born in the Bronx on April 3, 1898. By age 10, he was appearing in vaudeville and on Broadway. His mother, who worked as a ticket seller at the Imperial Theater, helped him form The Imperial Trio, a harmony group of ushers to entertain patrons of the theater, with Walter Winchell and Jack Wiener, using the stage names Leonard, Lawrence and McKinley, in their early teens. At age 11, he was a partner of Eddie Cantor in a kid sketch and performed with him on stage until he outgrew the role at age 16. He later partnered with Lou Edwards and then began a solo performer. His most famous comedy skit was called "Hello Mama" or "Phone Call from Mama", which portrayed a one-sided telephone conversation. In 1919 he produced his own solo show, "George Jessel's Troubles" and appeared in his first motion picture, the silent movie The Other Man's Wife. He co-wrote the lyrics for a hit tune, "Oh How I Laugh When I Think How I Cried About You", and performed in several successful comedy stage shows in the early 1920s. In 1921 he recorded a hit single, "The Toastmaster.”

In 1924, he appeared in a brief comedy sketch, possibly the telephone sketch described above, in a short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, he emerged as one of the most popular leading men on Broadway with the starring role in the stage production of The Jazz Singer. The success of the show prompted Warner Bros., after their success with Don Juan (1926) with music and sound effects only to adapt the The Jazz Singer as the first "talkie" with dialogue and to cast Jessel in the lead role. However, when the studio refused his salary demands, Jessel turned down the movie role, which was eventually played by Al Jolson.
Jessel was the host of the 1937 Academy Awards ceremony held at the Biltmore Hotel. While passing out awards, he was heard to say, “Please keep your thank-yous short, and remember a fellow gave up the British Empire in two minutes.” This was in reference to the resent abdication of King Edward VIII of England. Jessel made a huge gaffe, when he presented the best actress award to Luise Rainer. That honor was supposed to go to Bette Davis, the previous year’s recipient. A furious Bette Davis found Jessel back stage and berated him on his lack of etiquette.

In the middle 1940s, he began producing musicals for 20th Century Fox, producing 24 films in all in a career that lasted through the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time he became known as a host on the banquet circuit, famous for his good-natured wit aimed at his fellow celebrities. In 1946, he was one of the founding members of the California branch of the Friars Club. He also traveled widely overseas with the USO entertaining troops. As he grew older, he wrote eulogies for many of his contemporaries in Hollywood. He wrote three volumes of memoirs, So Help Me (1943), This Way, Miss (1955), and The World I Lived In (1975).

In the 1930s, his personal life kept him in the public eye as much as his movies. He had notorious affairs with actresses Pola Negri, Helen Morgan and Lupe Vélez (all detailed in his 1975 autobiography The World I Lived In). It was around this time, while emceeing a vaudeville show in Chicago, he decided to introduce a sister act, The Gumm Sisters, to laughs from the audience. When he reintroduced the singing trio as The Garland Sisters (after Carole Lombard's character in the film Twentieth Century) the name stuck. Youngest sister Frances named herself Judy after a popular Rudy Vallee song and became a legendary star. In 1934, Jessel married silent movie star Norma Talmadge, causing a scandal because Talmadge was married at the time that they started their affair. After their divorce in 1939, he caused further scandal by breaking into her house with a pistol and firing shots at her current lover.

In the early 1950s he performed on the radio in The George Jessel Show, which became a television show of the same name from 1953 to 1954. Jessel was the emcee on the short-lived The Comeback Story, a 1954 reality show on ABC in which mostly celebrities shared stories of having overcome adversities in their personal lives. He was replaced as emcee by Arlene Francis, but the program soon folded. Thereafter, Jessel guest starred on NBC's The Jimmy Durante Show. In 1968 he starred in Here Come the Stars, a syndicated variety show. Jessel also appeared as himself in Valley of the Dolls in 1968.

Famous in his youth for his affairs with starlets, he also became known for keeping company with a wide assortment of younger show girls, even into his old age. By the late 1960s he had gained a reputation as being overly self-indulgent in reminiscing about former companions who were little known by younger audiences. Walter Winchell once said of him, "That son of a bitch started to reminisce when he was eight years old." In response, Jessel stated that "I have a funeral speech ready for Winchell. I hope it starts in fifteen minutes." He had achieved a somewhat iconic status, representing a Hollywood of yore, such that he extended his career by playing himself, rather than characters, as in the camp movie version of Valley of the Dolls (1968). His last movie role was in Diary of a Young Comic in 1979. Jessel died of a heart attack on May 24, 1981 at the age of 83 in Los Angeles and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Trudy Marshall & James Burke

Due to travel...I was unable to blog from Thursday, May 19-22.

On May 23, 2004, actress Trudy Marshall died. She was born Gertrude Marshall on February 14, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. A popular magazine cigarette girl during her modeling days for Harry Conover, she was at different times "The Old Gold Girl," "The Chesterfield Girl", and "The Lucky Strike Girl."

Marshall was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1942 and groomed in bit parts. She played a featured role was in the World War II war drama The Fighting Sullivans (1944), the true story of a family that lost all five enlisted sons in the sinking of the USS Juneau off Guadalcanal in November 1942. Marshall played a surviving sister Genevieve who joins the Navy after her brothers' death. Taking roles as a decorative ingénue for a time, Marshall later played the "other woman" in a few features. She played a featured role in The Fuller Brush Man (1948). Semi-retired by the 1960s, she returned very infrequently to Hollywood. She appeared in the movie Once Is Not Enough (1975) which launched the film career of her daughter Deborah Raffin. Marshall was the hostess of her own radio and TV show in the 1980s in which she interviewed stars who attended special Hollywood events. She died on May 23, 2004 in Los Angeles and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City.

On May 23, 1968, actor James Burke died. He was born in New York City on September 24, 1886. Burke made his stage debut in New York around 1912 and went to Hollywood in 1933. He made over 200 film appearances during his career, which ranged from 1932 to 1964. He appeared in The Maltese Falcon, At the Circus, Lone Star, and many others. In the early 1950s, Burke appeared with Tom Conway in the ABC detective drama series then called Inspector Mark Saber -- Homicide Detective, later renamed, reformatted, and switched to NBC under the title Saber of London. From 1960-1961, Burke appeared in the role of Zeke Bonner in seven episodes of the ABC western television series Stagecoach West. Burke suffered from a heart condition, which took his life at the age of eighty-one on May 23, 1968. He is buried in a unmarked grave at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Edwina Booth

On May 18, 1991, actress Edwina Booth died. She was an American leading actress of the early talkie period, she was born Josephine Constance Woodruff, the daughter of a doctor, in Provo, Utah, Booth's brief film career began in 1928 with the Dorothy Arzner-directed Manhattan Cocktail, which also featured Nancy Carroll and Richard Arlen. She was on vacation following a 1927 stage appearance when film director E. Mason Hopper saw her and offered her a part in a Marie Prevost picture. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was impressed with her, and cast Booth in supporting roles. Her chance for stardom came when the studio cast her in its new jungle epic Trader Horn opposite Harry Carey. MGM gave the production a fairly large budget, and sent cast and crew on location in East Africa. Up until 1929, the only films shot in Africa were travelogues, but MGM was hoping that the idea of "location shooting" might increase the film's commercial appeal. The crew was inexperienced and ill-equipped for filming in Africa, a problem exacerbated by MGM's last-minute decision to shoot the film with sound.

During production of the film she contracted an infection (most often referred to as 'jungle fever'). Her role in the film as "The White Goddess" required that she be very scantily clad, likely increasing her susceptibility. Production went on for several months (much longer than average production time in those days), and the film wasn't released until 1931. Despite many problems with the film's production, Trader Horn was a success, securing an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Booth, however, fared much worse; it took her six years to fully recover physically. She sued MGM for over a million dollars, claiming she had been provided with inadequate protection and inadequate clothing during the African shoot. She also claimed she had been forced to sunbathe nude for extended periods during filming. The case received a lot of attention in the tabloids and was eventually settled out of court. According to some sources, the terms were not disclosed.

Booth's acting career never recovered from the MGM debacle. Neither MGM nor the other major studios had any intentions of employing her, which created an opportunity for producer Nat Levine of the low-budget Mascot Pictures. Levine saw a chance to capitalize on the success of Trader Horn by reuniting its stars Harry Carey and Edwina Booth for two adventure serials, The Vanishing Legion and The Last of the Mohicans. The films were successful within their limited market, but failed to propel Edwina Booth's movie career forward. By the time MGM reissued Trader Horn in 1938, Edwina Booth had been forgotten by the movie going public. She spent part of her later years working at the Los Angeles Mormon Temple. She died on May 18, 1991 at 86 in a Los Angeles nursing home. She is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.

www.michaelthomasbarry.com Author of “Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950”

Bobby Hutchins - "Wheezer" from the Our Gang Serial

On May 17, 1945, Bobby Hutchins died. He was a child actor who was a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1926 to 1933. A native of Tacoma, Washington, he was given the nickname of Wheezer after running around the studios on his first day so much that he began to wheeze. Bobby Hutchins was born on March 29, 1925 in Washington state. Hutchins appeared in 58 Our Gang films during his six years in the series. For much of his run, "Wheezer" was portrayed as the perennial tag-along little brother, put off by the older children but always anxious to be part of the action.

Hutchins's tenure in Our Gang took him through both the silent and early sound periods of the series. He appears as the main character of several of the films, including Bouncing Babies, Pups is Pups, Big Ears and Dogs is Dogs. He left the series at the end of 1933 after appearing in Mush and Milk; his only film work outside of Our Gang includes a handful of appearances in three outside features in 1932 and 1933. After the Our Gang series, Wheezer and his family moved back to Tacoma, where he entered public school. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 after graduating high school, served in World War II, and in 1945 enrolled to become an air cadet. On May 17, 1945, he was killed in a mid-air collision, during a training exercise at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California. Hutchins is buried at the Parkland Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, Tacoma, Washington.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/, Author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Margaret Hamilton

On May 16, 1985, actress Margaret Hamilton died. She was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. A former schoolteacher, she worked as a character actor in films for seven years before she was offered the role that defined her public image. In later years, Hamilton made frequent cameo appearances on television sitcoms and commercials. She also gained recognition for her work as an advocate of causes designed to benefit children and animals, and retained a lifelong commitment to public education.

Hamilton's unlikely career as a film actress was driven by the very qualities that placed her in stark contrast to the stereotypical Hollywood glamour girl. Her image was that of a New England spinster, extremely pragmatic and impatient. Hamilton's plain looks helped to bring steady work as a character actress. She made her screen debut in 1933 in Another Language. Hamilton went on to appear in These Three (1936), Saratoga, You Only Live Once, Nothing Sacred (all 1937), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), and My Little Chickadee (1940). She strove to work as much as possible to support herself and her son; she never put herself under contract to any one studio and priced her services at $1000 a week.

In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, opposite Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, creating not only her most famous role, but also one of the screen's most memorable villains. Hamilton was chosen when the more traditionally attractive Gale Sondergaard refused to wear makeup designed to make her appear ugly.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Hamilton had a long running role on the radio series Ethel and Albert in which she played the lovable, scattered Aunt Eva. During the 1960s and 1970s, Hamilton appeared regularly on television. She did a stint as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests on the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program. She reprised the image of Elmira Gulch from The Wizard of Oz for her role as Morticia Addams' mother Hester Frump in The Addams Family.

During the 1960s she was a regular on the CBS soap opera, "The Secret Storm," and in the early 1970s, she joined the cast of another CBS soap, "As the World Turns. She had a small role in the made-for-TV film The Night Strangler (1973) and appeared in Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. She would reprise her role as the Wicked Witch of the West in an episode of Sesame Street, but after complaints from parents of terrified children, it hasn't been seen since 1976. She also appeared as herself in an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and continued acting regularly until 1982. Her last role was a guest appearance as a veteran journalist on an episode of Lou Grant.

She lived in New York City for most of her adult life. Her Gramercy Park apartment building also boasted James Cagney and Jonathan Frid as tenants. She later moved to Millbrook, NY. Hamilton died in her sleep following a heart attack on May 16, 1985, in Salisbury, Connecticut, at the age of 82. There is conflicting information about the exact location where her ashes were scattered one sources states that they were scattered at her home in Amenia, New York, while another source says it is Cape Island, Maine.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/ Author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Albert Bassermann

On May 15, 1952 actor Albert Bassermann died. he was a classically-trained actor, who specialised in Shakespearean roles ('Richard III', 'Hamlet') and was a famous interpreter of the plays of Henrik Ibsen. He made his silver screen debut in a 1913 silent version of 'Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde' ('Der Andere'). Bassermann remained active in motion pictures throughout the 1920's, also frequently appearing on stage in Austria and Switzerland. His wife, Else Bassermann Schiff, was Jewish, and the discrimination shown towards her in his native country so outraged him that he emigrated with her to the United States in 1939.

At the age of 72, he carved out another career in Hollywood as a celebrated character actor. It took him some time to come to terms with the English language, but he was soon cast in a small part in 'Dr.Ehrlich's Magic Bullet' (1940), as Dr.Robert Koch. He also played a sympathetic chemistry professor in 'Knute Rockne, All-American'. That same year, he appeared as Van Meer in Hitchcock's 'Foreign Correspondent' and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. His distinguished-looking countenance and serious demeanour lent itself to being assigned a variety of consular or professorial roles: he was excellent as Consul Magnus Barring in 'A Woman's Face' (1941) with Joan Crawford; Professor Jean Perote in 'Madame Curie' (1944); and a dying German music teacher in 'Rhapsody in Blue' (1945). At the age of 83, he made a triumphant return to the German/Austrian stage in Ibsen plays. Albert Bassermann died of a heart attack en route from New York to Zurich on May 15, 1952 and is buried in Haupfriedhof Cemetery, Mannheim, Germany.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/ author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth & Hugh Griffith

On May 14, 1998, Frank Sinatra died. He was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey and got his first major break in 1935 as part of The Hoboken Four on popular radio show Major Bowes Amateur Hour. In 1939 he signed with Harry James as lead singer of his big band before gaining the attention of Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra with whom he sang the first ever Number 1 song on Billboard, I'll Never Smile Again. That same year he married sweetheart Nancy Barbato with whom he had three children, Nancy, Tina and Frank, Jr. Sinatra's growing popularity led him to leave Dorsey in 1942 and starting in earnest a solo career, instantly finding fame as the number one singing star among teenage music fans of the era, especially the young women and girls known as The Bobbysoxers. Legendary appearances at the New York Paramount were sensational, namely the so-called Columbus Day Riot in 1944, when 35,000 blocked the streets outside the venue waiting to see their idol.

About this time Sinatra's acting career was beginning in earnest and he struck box-office gold with a lead role in the acclaimed Anchors Aweigh (1945) alongside Gene Kelly. The following year Sinatra was awarded a special Oscar for his part in a short film against intolerance called The House I Live In (1946). His career on a high, Sinatra went from strength-to-strength, recording his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, at Columbia and starring in several movies, peaking in 1949 with Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) and On the Town (1949, co-starring in both with Gene Kelly. A torrid public affair with screen siren Ava Gardner broke up Sinatra's marriage and although a second marriage - to Gardner - followed in 1951, record sales began to dwindle and live appearances were failing to sell out, Sinatra's vocal chords hemorrhaging at one point live on stage as years of playing several shows in a single night took their toll. Sinatra continued to act, however, garnering good notice if hardly strong box office in the musical drama Meet Danny Wilson (1951) before fighting for, and winning, the coveted role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953). He won an Oscar for Best Supporting actor and followed this with a scintillating performance as the deranged assassin John Baron in Suddenly (1954) and arguably a career best performance, and Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, in the powerful drama The Man With the Golden Arm (1955). On record Sinatra was also back on a high having signed with Capitol records and riding high on the charts with the album In the Wee Small Hours (1953) and the single Young at Heart (1954), the latter becoming so popular that a recently made film with Doris Day had its name changed to Young at Heart. Known as "One-Take Charlie" for his approach to acting that strove for spontaneity and energy, rather than perfection, he was an instinctive actor who was best at playing parts that mirrored his own personality.

Throughout the 1950’s Sinatra not only recorded a slew of critically and commercially successful albums, his acting career remained on a high as he gave strong and memorable performances in such films as Guys and Dolls (1955), The Joker is Wild (1957), Kings Go Forth (1957) and Some Came Running (1958). He also dabbled with producing in the 1950s, first bringing the western Johnny Concho to the big screen and, along with Frank Capra, A Hole in the Head (1959), in which he co-starred with Edward G. Robinson. Continuing this trend into the 1960s Sinatra produced such lucrative offerings as Ocean's 11 (1960), Sergeants 3 (1963) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) as well as starting his own record label, Reprise Records, in 1961. Many of Sinatra's movie projects of the era were lighter offerings alongside Rat Pack pals Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr., but alternating such projects with more stern offerings resulted in the stellar The Manchurian Candidate (1962), arguably Sinatra's best film. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965 and, in many ways, his career once again peaked, recording the album September of My Years which won the Grammy for album of the year and making his directorial debut with the anti-war film None but the Brave (1965). Von Ryan's Express (1965) was released the same year and was a box office sensation helping secure vast earnings for the floundering 20th Century Fox. In 1967 Sinatra returned to familiar territory in Sidney J. Furie's The Naked Runner (1967), once again playing an assassin in his only film to be shot in the U.K. and one of the few films to be shot inside Centre Point and post-war Leipzig in Berlin. That same year he starred as private investigator Tony Rome (1967), a role he reprised in the sequel Lady in Cement (1968). He also starred with Lee Remick in The Detective (1968) a film daring for its time and a major box office success. After appearing in the comic western Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) Sinatra refrained from acting for a further seven years until producing the made-for-TV movie Contract on Cherry Street (1977), based on the novel by William J. Rosenberg. Sinatra returned to the big screen in The First Deadly Sin (1980) once again playing a New York detective with a moving, understated performance that was a fitting coda to his career as a leading man. He made only one more appearance on the big screen with a cameo in Cannonball Run II (1984).

His final acting performance in 1987 was as a retired detective seeking vengeance on the killers of his granddaughter in an episode of Magnum P.I. entitled Laura. On stage, Sinatra was as prolific as ever, playing both nationally and internationally to sold out crowds in stadiums and arenas. In 1993 Sinatra stepped back into Capitol studios to record his final albums, Duets and Duets II, both of which were highly successful, finding Sinatra an entirely new audience almost 60 years after he first tasted fame. Frank Sinatra passed away on May 14th 1998 from bladder cancer and other ailments. He is buried at Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, California.

On May 14, 1977, actress Rita Hayworth died. She was born Margarita Carmen Cansino in New York on October 17, 1918. Her father, Eduardo was a dancer who had emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita was a trained dancer and joined her family on stage when she was 8 years old. Rita was seen dancing by a Fox executive and was impressed enough to offer her a contract. Rita's film debut was in Cruz Diablo (1934) at the age of 16. She continued to play small bit parts in several films under the name of "Rita Cansino" until she played the second female lead in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) when she played Judy McPherson. By this time, she was at Columbia, where she was getting top billing but it was Warner Bros. studios and the film The Strawberry Blonde (1941) that launched her career into super stardom.

Her natural, raw beauty was showcased later that year in Blood and Sand (1941) and You'll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire. After filming her hit movie Gilda (1946) in which she became a bona fide sex symbol, her film career began to fade. Although she was still making movies, they never approached her earlier works. After a few forgettable films in the 1960s, her movie career was essentially over. Her final film appearance was in The Wrath of God (1972). In the early 1980’s she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and slowly faded from public view, she died on May 14, 1987 in New York City and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

On May 14, 1980, actor Hugh Griffith died. He was born in Anglesey, North Wales on May 30, 1912. He won a scholarship to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated at the top of his class. When World War II broke out he enlisted in the Army, serving with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in India for six years. Following the war, he enjoyed a successful career on the stage, appearing in Shakespearean plays in Stratford-upon-Avon with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was particularly noteworthy as Falstaff and, his favorite role, King Lear, which he played both in English and in his native Welsh. On the other side of the Atlantic, he made his Broadway debut in 1951 and had a hit starring in 'Look Homeward Angel' (1957-59) with Anthony Perkins and Jo Van Fleet. The play earned Griffith a Tony Award nomination for the part W.O. Gant. He later jokingly remarked that, when the producers asked him to play a man from the Deep South, he (Griffith) had understood that to mean a man from the deep south of Wales.

Griffith started his motion picture film career in 1948 with films like “London Belongs to Me,” followed by “Kind Hearts and Coronets” in 1949. A portly, thickly bearded character with bushy eyebrows, ruddy complexion and a resonant bass voice, Griffith made a lasting impression for his many portrayals of eccentric, bucolic and, sometimes, raucous types. In 1959, he won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his Sheikh Ilderim, who supplies Charlton Heston with the chariot race-winning white stallions in “Ben Hur.” He was equally memorable as the lecherous Squire Western in “Tom Jones” (1963), a role for which he was nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA Award as Best British Actor. He later appeared in the critically acclaimed musical version of Oliver (1968), and as a hilarious King Louis in “Start the Revolution Without Me” (1970) and one of Vincent Price's many victims in “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1972). On television, he was a noteworthy rolling-eyed Long John Silver in a 1960 version of “Treasure Island” and roving-eyed funeral director Caradog Lloyd-Evans in the comedy “Grand Slam” (1978). He died on May 14, 1980 in London from a heart attack and his ashes are interred at the Golders Green Columbarium in Golders Green, England.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/ author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"

Gary Cooper, Dan Blocker & Robert Burks

Due to problems with Blogspot yesterday May 12, 2011, there was unfortunately no blog.

On May 13, 1961, actor Gary Cooper died. The legendary leading man who was known for his strong silent type characters was born Frank James Cooper on May 7, 1901 in Helena, Montana. The son of a Montana State Supreme Court justice, Cooper was a true “westerner,” and was raised and worked on the family ranch. Prior to becoming an actor, Cooper aspired to be an artist, attending Grinnell College in Iowa. By the early 1920’s, Cooper was in Los Angles, where he worked in numerous films as an extra and stunt man. It was Nan Collins, an agent and casting director at United Artists Studios that suggested he change his name to Gary Cooper. His big break came in 1926, when MGM cast him in The Winning of Barbara Worth, co-starring Ronald Colman. This film got the attention of Paramount Studios, who quickly signed him to a long-term contract. Cooper was now on a path to super stardom. In a film career that spanned nearly four decades (1923-1961), he appeared in over one hundred and ten motion pictures and portrayed some of the most memorable characters in motion picture history. His film credits include; The Virginian (1929), A Farwell to Arms (1932), The Lives a Bengal Lancer (1935), The Plainsman (1936), The Westerner (1940), Unconquered (1947), Distant Drums (1951), Man of the West (1958), and The Hanging Tree (1959).

He won two best actor Academy Awards, first in 1942 for Sergeant York (1941) in which he portrayed Alvin York, the sympathetic contentious objector, who became America’s most decorated military hero of World War I. He would win a second best acting Oscar in 1953 for his legendary performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (1952). Cooper was nominated for three other best acting awards for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943).

In the Spring of 1960, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and it was found to have spread to his colon. After a brief recovery in which he appeared to be healthy and strong, he returned to film The Naked Edge (1961). Shortly after completion of the film, he returned home and doctors found that the cancer had now spread to his lungs and bones. Cooper took his mortality in stride like the immortal Lou Gehrig, who he played in Pride of the Yankees, Cooper was quoted as saying, “if it’s God will, that’s all right too.” Resigned to his fate, Cooper retired to his Holmby Hills, California estate to wait for the inevitable.

At the Academy Awards ceremony on April 16, 1961, Cooper was honored with a lifetime achievement Oscar; an emotional and tear-filled Jimmy Stewart accepted the award on Cooper’s behalf. He was unable to attend the event because of his failing health. Four weeks later, on May 13, 1961, with his family at his bedside, the legendary actor died. His funeral was held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. In attendance were over four hundred mourners including numerous members of the Hollywood’s elite, among his pallbearers were good friends, Jack Benny and Jimmy Stewart.

To many people, Cooper’s on-screen persona was erroneously perceived to be much like his real life and it was said that Gary Cooper as “himself” became one of Hollywood’s most enduring symbols. But in reality Cooper was an enigma, a study in contrasts, which unlike the wholesome characters he portrayed in his films, his real life was more complicated. It was alleged that throughout his film career he had numerous affairs with many of Hollywood’s most famous leading actresses. Even with this tarnished personal image, Cooper remains one of Hollywood’s legendary good guys and his films have lived on and become some of the classics of all-time.

Cooper was buried for thirteen years at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City in the Grotto section, lot 194, space 5. He lay undisturbed until April 4, 1974, when his widow relocated his remains to Sacred Heart Cemetery, South Hampton, New York (Jesus and Mary section). Cooper’s original burial plot at Holy Cross was vacant until 1976, and is now the final resting place of Mary Alice Hathaway.

On May 13, 1972 actor Dan Blocker died. He was an American actor best remembered for his role as Eric "Hoss" Cartwright in the NBC western television blockbuster Bonanza. He was born Bobby Dan Blocker in De Kalb, Texas, son of Ora Shack Blocker (1900-1960) and his wife Mary (David) Blocker (1901-1998). Soon after Dan's birth, the family moved to O'Donnell south of Lubbock in West Texas, where they operated a store. He attended Texas Military Institute and in 1946 played football at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. He graduated from Sul Ross State Teacher's College in Alpine, where he earned a master's degree in the dramatic arts. Blocker was a high school English and drama teacher in Sonora, Texas, a sixth grade teacher and coach at Eddy Elementary School in Carlsbad, New Mexico and a finally a teacher in California. He had worked as a rodeo performer and as a bouncer in a beer bar while a student.

In 1957, Blocker appeared in a Three Stooges short, Outer Space Jitters, having portrayed the part of "The Goon," billed as Don Blocker. That year he appeared in episodes of The Restless Gun as a blacksmith and as a cattleman planning to take his hard-earned profit to return to his family land in his native Minnesota. Also in 1957, Blocker had a role as a bartender in an episode of the syndicated western-themed crime drama Sheriff of Cochise. In 1958, he played a prison guard and later had a recurring role as Tiny Budinger in the NBC western series Cimarron City. He also was seen in a 1958 episode of Walt Disney's Zorro, "The Señorita Makes a Choice."

In 1959, as Bonanza was beginning, Blocker guest-starred in an episode of the Keenan Wynn and Bob Mathias NBC series The Troubleshooters, an adventure program about unusual events surrounding an international construction company. Blocker played the outgoing "middle son" Hoss on the long-running NBC television series, Bonanza. The actor who played his elder brother Adam, Pernell Roberts, was born a scant seven months before Blocker. Dan Blocker said that he portrayed the Hoss character with a Stephen Grellet excerpt in mind: "We shall pass this way on Earth but once, if there is any kindness we can show, or good act we can do, let us do it now, for we will never pass this way again."

In 1968, Blocker starred with Frank Sinatra in the "Tony Rome" film sequel Lady In Cement. Stanley Kubrick attempted to cast Blocker in his film Dr. Strangelove, after Peter Sellers elected not to add the role of Major T.J. "King" Kong to his multiple other roles, but according to the film's co-writer, Terry Southern, Blocker's agent rejected the script. The role subsequently went to Slim Pickens. In 1970, the actor portrayed a love-shy galoot on, The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County, with Nanette Fabray as a love prospect. Mickey Rooney also starred. Director Robert Altman befriended Blocker while directing episodes of Bonanza. Years later, he cast Blocker as Roger Wade in The Long Goodbye. Unfortunately, Blocker died before filming commenced. The role went to Sterling Hayden and the film was dedicated to Blocker.

Blocker received partial ownership in a successful chain of Ponderosa/Bonanza Steakhouse restaurants in exchange for serving as their commercial spokesman and making personal appearances at franchises. Blocker was drafted into the Army and served in the Korean War as a First Sergeant. He later married the former Dolphia Parker, whom he had met while a student at Sul Ross State. All of their four children's names begin with a 'D': actor Dirk Blocker, producer David Blocker and twin daughters Debra Lee (artist) and Danna Lynn.

On May 13, 1972, in Los Angeles, Blocker died suddenly following gall bladder surgery, of a pulmonary embolism. The cast and crew of Bonanza were shaken by his death, and the writers took the then-unusual step of referencing a major character's death in the show's storyline that autumn. Bonanza lasted another season, but the final season in which Blocker did not appear is the least-requested in reruns. Blocker is buried at the Woodmen Cemetery, DeKalb, although he lived there only briefly. The common grave site is marked by a plain stone with the name "BLOCKER" engraved, and three family members are buried beside him.

On May 13, 1968, cinematographer Robert Burks died. He was an award winning cinematographe and very successful cameraman who started out as a special effects specialist for Warner Studios. He went on to become one of the finest directors of cinematography. Burks worked for both Warner Brothers and Paramount Studious, during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Burks was Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite cameraman, and worked on most of the directors films during this period. In 1956, he won the Academy Award for best cinematography for Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955). Other famous film credits include, Strangers on a Train (nominated for an Academy Award in 1951), Hondo (1953), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (nominated for an Academy Award in 1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), The Music Man (1962), The Birds (1963), and Patch of Blue (nominated for an Academy Award in 1965). On May 13, 1968, Burks and his wife Elizabeth were killed in a house fire at their Newport Beach, California home. Robert Burks is buried in lawn D, lot 1409, space 5. Locate 115 on the west curb of lawn D, eight rows east, under a pine tree is the Burks final resting place.

Michael Thomas Barry is author of "Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950"
http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/

Leigh Snowden, Lex Barker & Robert Fellows

On May 11, 1982, actress Leigh Snowden died. She was a model and TV bit player who first made a splash on a Jack Benny TV show, sashaying across a stage at the San Diego Naval base. Twenty thousand sailors gave the curvy sweater-clad starlet a standing ovation that made headlines in Variety Magazine, and every talent scout in Hollywood was on Snowden's trail the very next morning. Three days later, she was hired to make her film debut in director Robert Aldrich's obtuse crime classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (Aldrich expanded her bit part and gave her featured billing). In January 1955, she signed a seven-year contract with Universal, beginning by playing up her Dixie drawl in their glossy soap opera All That Heaven Allows (1955). She got Universal's usual cheesecake buildup while playing many of her early roles in fantasy or Sci-Fi movies: Francis in the Navy (1955), The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) and I've Lived Before (1956). In September 1956, Snowden married Dick Contino, a singer/accordion player, after which she retired from acting. She died of cancer at age 51 on May 11, 1982. The disposition of her cremated remains is unknown.

On May 11, 1973, Lex Barker died. He was an actor who was best known for playing Tarzan. Born Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr. in Rye, New York, he reportedly was in the direct lineage of Roger Williams, co-founder of the Rhode Island colony, and of Sir Henry Crichlow, governor-general of Barbados. He attended Princeton University for a time, but dropped out in order to join a theatrical stock company, much to the chagrin of his family. Barker made it to Broadway once, in a small role in a short run of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1938. He also had a small role in Orson Welles's disastrous Five Kings, which met with so many problems in Boston and Philadelphia that it never made it into New York. Barker reportedly was spotted by scouts from Twentieth Century Fox and offered a film contract in 1939, but could not convince his parents to sign it (he was underage).

Disowned by his family for his choice of an acting career, he worked in a steel mill and studied engineering at night. In February, 1941, nearly a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barker left his fledgling acting career and enlisted in the U.S. Army. The 6'3", 208-pound soldier rose to the rank of major during the war. He reportedly was wounded in action (in the head and leg) fighting in Sicily. Back in the U.S., Barker recuperated at an Arkansas military hospital, then upon his discharge from service, traveled to Los Angeles. Within a short time, he landed a small role in his first film, Doll Face (1945). A string of small roles followed, the best of which was as Emmett Dalton in the Western, Return of the Bad Men (1948). The next year, Barker found the role that would bring him fame.

In Tarzan's, Magic Fountain (1949), Barker became the tenth official Tarzan of the movies. His handsome and intelligent appearance, as well as his athletic, now 6'4" frame, helped make him popular in the role Johnny Weissmuller had made his own for sixteen years. Barker made only five Tarzan films, but he remains one of the actors best known for the role. His stardom as Tarzan led him to a variety of heroic roles in other films, primarily Westerns, and one interesting (and quite non-heroic) part in a World War II film, Away All Boats (1956). In 1957, finding it harder to get work in American films, Barker moved to Europe, where he found enormous popularity, starring in over forty European films.

In Italy he also had a short but compelling role as Anita Ekberg's fiancé; in Federico Fellini's, La Dolce Vita (1960). It was in Germany where he would have his greatest success. There he starred in two movies based on the Doctor Mabuse-stories (previously filmed by Fritz Lang) and in thirteen movies based on novels by German author Karl May. In 1966 Barker was awarded the "Bambi Award" as "Best Foreign Actor" in Germany.

He returned to the U.S. occasionally and made a handful of guest appearances on American television episodes. But Europe, and especially Germany, was his professional home for the remainder of his life. Barker was married five times. His third wife was actress Lana Turner. According to detailed allegations in a book written by her daughter Cheryl Crane fifteen years after Barker's death, Turner ordered Barker out of their home one night at gunpoint after Cheryl, 13, accused him of molesting her over a long period of time. Divorce followed quickly, though no charges were filed and the couple's 1957 divorce record does not allude to the allegation. On May 11, 1973, three days after his 54th birthday, Barker died of a heart attack while walking down a street in New York City on his way to meet his fiancée, actress Karen Kondazian. His remains were cremated and given to the family and final disposition is unknown.

On May 11, 1969, much-admired movie producer Robert M. Fellows died. He was the producer of numerous films of the 1940’s and 1950’s, movies that starred some of Hollywood’s biggest names such as John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Glen Ford, Bing Crosby, and Ronald Reagan. Celebrated film credits include Virginia City (1940), Knute Rockne; All American (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Back to Bataan (1945), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949), and Big Jim McLain (1952). In 1953, he produced Hondo which starred John Wayne. This film was nominated for two Academy awards, best actress (Geraldine Page) and for writing. The following year 1954, brought Fellows more accolades, when he produced The High and the Mighty, again starring John Wayne. This film garnered six Academy Award nominations, winning one for best musical score. Robert Fellows died of a heart attack on May 11, 1969 in Hollywood, California. His final resting place is located at Merose Abbey in Anaheim, California within the Carnation Urn Garden, lot 160.

http://www.michaelthomasbarry.com/ author of Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950 and Final Resting Places Orange County's Dead & Famous