Fredric March, Richard Basehart, John Ford, Billy Laughlin, Marguerite Chapman, Sally Rand

Who was born on this date:

Actor Fredric March was a two-time Academy Award winning actor and was born Fredrick McIntyre Bickel on August 31, 1897 in Racine, Wisconsin. His film career began inauspiciously in 1920 as a film extra, but by 1926 he had become a full fledged star of the Broadway stage. He was a well respected actor who appeared in eighty-four films and television programs in a film career that spanned five decades (1920 to 1973). March was known primarily as the suave, romantic leading man in many of his films, he broke tradition for his first Academy Award winning role, (he shared the award with fellow actor Wallace Beery) playing the diabolical Mr.Hyde in 1932’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He would go on to win another best acting Oscar in 1947 for the film, The Best Years of Our Lives. He was nominated for three additional best acting Oscar’s in 1930, 1938, and 1952 but lost each time. March’s other notable film credits include; The Royal Family of Broadway (1930), All of Me (1934), Death Takes a Holiday (1934), Anna Karenina (1935), A Star is Born (1937), The Buccaneer (1938), Death of a Salesman (1951), The Bridges of Toko-Ri (1954), and Inherit the Wind (1960). He was also the recipient of two Tony Awards for best acting in 1947 and 1957. Fredric March died on April 14, 1975 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles from prostate cancer. He is buried at his family estate in New Milford, Connecticut.

Actor Richard Basehart was born on August 31, 1914 in Zanesville, Ohio. He is best known for starring in the 1960s television drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. One of his most notable film roles was in the acclaimed Italian film La Strada directed by Federico Fellini. He also appeared as the killer in the film noir classic He Walked by Night (1948), as a psychotic member of the Hatfield clan in Roseanna McCoy (1949), as Ishmael in Moby Dick (1956), and in the drama Decision Before Dawn (1951). Basehart was also noted for his deep, distinctive voice and was prolific as a narrator of many television and movie projects ranging from features to documentaries. He was married to Italian Academy Award-nominated actress Valentina Cortese. Basehart died on September 17, 1984 from a stroke and was buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Who died on this date: 

On August 31, 1973, director John Ford died. He is considered by many to be America’s greatest film director, he was born John Martin Feeney on February 1, 1894 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He was known as “Pappy” to his closest friends and his storied and award winning directorial film career spanned nearly five decades from 1917 to 1966 and included one hundred and forty-four motion pictures. The hardnosed director was best known for his numerous Westerns starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Henry Fonda. He is credited with discovering John Wayne and giving him his first big break in motion pictures (Stagecoach, 1939). Wayne and Ford made numerous films together and the pair remained very close friends all their lives. Ford’s major film credits include: Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Battle of Midway (1942, he won a best documentary Oscar), They Were Expendable (1945), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), Mister Roberts (1955), The Searchers (1956), The Horse Soldiers (1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and How the West was Won (1962). 

During his legendary film career Ford was nominated for five best director Academy Awards, winning four times and include: The Informer (1935, won), Stagecoach (1939, nominated), The Grapes of Wrath (1940, won), How Green is My Valley (1941, won), and The Quiet Man (1952, won). The award winning director died on August 31, 1973 at his home in Palm Desert, California from cancer. His funeral was held at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Hollywood and in attendance were over 1,400 mourners, counted among them were numerous members of Hollywood’s elite. He was eulogized as “the incomparable mater of his trade” by both John Wayne and Cardinal Timothy Manning. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles, lawn M, lot 304, space 5.    

On August 31, 1948, child actor Billy Laughlin died. He was born on July 5, 1932 in San Gabriel, California. He is best known for playing the character Froggy in the Our Gang short films from 1940 to 1944. Laughlin rose to fame at the age of eight when he appeared in his first Our Gang film, The New Pupil. His character was known for his strange, Popeye like voice, which was reminiscent of a frog's croak. When Our Gang stopped production in 1944, Laughlin voluntarily moved away from show business and enjoyed relatively peaceful teenage years. Laughlin died on August 31, 1948, when a bus hit him from behind while he was delivering newspapers and riding a motor scooter in La Puente, California. He and his friend, who was also delivering newspapers, were killed instantly.

On August 31, 1999, actress Marguerite Chapman died. She was born on March 9, 1918 in Chatam, New York. She was working as a telephone switchboard operator, when her good looks brought about the opportunity to pursue a career in modeling. Signed by the prestigious John Robert Powers Agency in New York City, the publicity she earned modeling brought an offer from 20^th Century Fox studios. She made her film debut in 1940, working for the next two years in small roles. In 1942, her big break came with Republic Pictures when she was cast in the leading female role in the twelve-part adventure serial Spy Smasher, a production that is considered by many as one of the best serials ever made. As a result, Chapman soon began receiving offers for more leading roles.  During the 1950s Chapman continued to perform mostly in secondary film roles, notably in Marilyn Monroe's 1955 hit The Seven Year Itch. However, with the advent of television she kept busy into the early 1960s with guest appearances in numerous T.V. shows. She died on August 31, 1999 in Burbank, California and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

On August 31, 1979, actress Sally Rand died. She was born Helen Harriet Beck on April 3, 1904 in Hickory Country, Missouri. She is best known as a burlesque dancer, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance but also appeared a few films in the late 1920s and 1930s. During the 1920s, she acted on stage and appeared in silent films. Cecil B. DeMille gave her the name Sally Rand, inspired by a Rand McNally atlas. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1927. After the introduction of sound film, she became a dancer, known for the fan dance, which she popularized starting at the Paramount Club. Her most famous appearance was at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. She had been arrested four times in a single day during the fair due to perceived indecent exposure while riding a white horse down the streets of Chicago, but the nudity was only an illusion. She also conceived and developed the bubble dance, in part to cope with wind while performing outdoors. She performed the fan dance on film in Bolero, released in 1934. Other notable film credits include Heroes in Blue (1927), Crashing Through (1928), The Sign of the Cross (1932), and Sunset Murder Case (1938). She died on August 31, 1979 in Glendora, California from undisclosed causes and was buried at the Oakdale Memorial Park.

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

Fred MacMurray, Shirley Booth, Raymond Massey, Joan Blondell, Charles Coburn, Vera Ellen, Glenn Ford, Jean Seberg

Who was born on this date:

Actor Fred MacMurray was born on August 30, 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois. He appeared in more than 100 movies and was a successful television star in career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s. MacMurray is well known for his role in the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity. Later in his career, he became better known as the paternal Steve Douglas, the widowed patriarch on My Three Sons, which ran on ABC from 1960–1965 and then on CBS from 1965–1972. 

In his heyday, MacMurray worked with some of Hollywood’s greatest names, including Billy Wilder and actors Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. He played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily. He co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams and with Joan Crawford in Above Suspicion, and with Carole Lombard in four films. Despite being typecast as a "nice guy," MacMurray often said his best roles were when he was cast against this type by Wilder. In 1944, he played the role of Walter Neff, an insurance salesman who plots with a greedy wife to murder her husband in Double Indemnity. Sixteen years later he played Jeff Sheldrake, a two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar winning comedy The Apartment. In another turn in the "not so nice" category, MacMurray played the cynical, duplicitous Lieutenant Thomas Keefer in 1954's The Caine Mutiny. 

MacMurray's career got its second wind beginning in 1959, when he was cast as the father figure in a popular Disney comedy, The Shaggy Dog. In the 1960s, he starred in My Three Sons, which ran for 12 seasons, making it one of America's longest-running television series. Concurrent with My Three Sons, MacMurray stayed busy in films, starring in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's The Absent Minded Professor and in its sequel, Son of Flubber (1964). Later in life he suffered from a variety of illness, first suffering from throat cancer in the late 1970s and then a stroke in 1988. This stroke left his right side paralyzed and his speech affected, although with therapy he was able to make a remarkable recovery. He also suffered from leukemia but died from pneumonia on November 5, 1991. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Actress Shirley Booth was born on August 30, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950. She made her film debut, reprising her role in the 1952 film version for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Despite her successful entry into films, she preferred stage acting, and made only four more films. From 1961 until 1966, she played the title role in the sitcom Hazel, for which she won two Emmy Awards, and was acclaimed for her performance in the 1966 television production of The Glass Menagerie. She retired in 1974 and died on October 16, 1992 after a brief illness at her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She is interred at Mount Hebron Cemetery, Montclair, New Jersey.

Actor Raymond Massey was born on August 30, 1896 in Toronto, Canada. Drawn to the theatre, in 1922, he appeared on the London stage. His first movie role was High Treason in 1927. In 1929 he directed the London premiere of The Silver Tassie. He played Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band in 1931, the first sound film version of the story. In 1934, he starred in The Scarlet Pimpernel and, in 1936, he starred in H. G. Wells's Things to Come. Despite being Canadian, Massey became famous for his quintessential American roles such as abolitionist John Brown in 1940's Santa Fe Trail and again as John Brown in the 1955 low-budget film Seven Angry Men.  

He was nominated for a best acting Oscar in 1940 for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Massey portrayed the character of "Jonathan Brewster" in the film version of Arsenic and Old Lace. Other notable film credits include Possessed (1947) and The Fountainhead (1949).Massey became well-known on television in the 1950s and 1960s, especially as Doctor Gillespie in the popular series Dr. Kildare. He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on July 29, 1983 and was buried at Beaverdale Memorial Park, New Haven, Connecticut.

Actress Joan Blondell was born on August 30, 1906 in Brooklyn, New York. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked upon a film career. Establishing herself as a sexy wisecracking blonde, she appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows. She was most active in films during the 1930s, and was nominated for an Academy Award for best Supporting Actress for her work in The Blue Veil (1951). 

She began to appear in short subjects, and was named as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931. Blondell was paired with James Cagney in such films as Sinners' Holiday (1930), the film version of Penny Arcade and The Public Enemy (1931), and was one half of a gold-digging duo with Gelnda Farrell in nine films. Her stirring rendition of "Remember My Forgotten Man" in the production of Gold Diggers of 1933, in which she co-starred with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, became an anthem for the frustrations of the unemployed and the government's failed economic policies.  

By the end of the decade, she had made nearly fifty films, despite having left Warner Bros. in 1939. Continuing to work regularly for the rest of her life, Blondell was well received in her later films, despite being relegated to character and supporting roles after the mid-1940s. In 1951, she received a nomination for a best supporting actress Oscar in The Blue Veil. She was also featured prominently in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945); Nightmare Alley (1947); The Opposite Sex (1956); Desk set (1957); and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).  

Blondell appeared in numerous appearances in television programs throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s. In her personal life she was married three times; her second husband was actor Dick Powell and third was producer Mike Todd and an often repeated myth is that he "dumped" Blondell for ElizabethTaylor is untrue. Blondell died from leukemia on December 25, 1979 in Santa Monica and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Who died on this date:

On August 30, 1962, actor Charles Coburn died. The venerable character actor who was known for his monocle, aristocratic southern style, and sly sense of humor was born June 19, 1877 in Savannah, Georgia. He began a very successful acting career in the theater at age fourteen. The bright lights of Hollywood did not beckon until 1938; the actor then nearly sixty was a veteran of the Broadway stage but was a new comer to film. From 1937 to 1961, Coburn made over ninety motion pictures and television appearances. In 1944, he won the best supporting actor Academy Award for The More the Merrier (1943), playing the charming and funny, Benjamin Dingle. In his acceptance speech (making fun of his own advanced age) said that he hoped that in another fifty years time, the children and children’s children of the present Academy voters would again honor him and his acting skill with another Oscar statuette. 

In a career in motion pictures that only spanned two decades, Coburn’s most memorable film credits include: Of Human Hearts (1938), Vivacious Lady (1938), The Lady Eve (1941), The Devil and Mrs. Jones (1941), Kings Row (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Green Years (1946), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956).  In his personal life, he had been a widower for twenty-two years, when in 1959, he met and married Winifred Natzka, a young woman half his age. The actor loved life and as his eightieth year approached,  lived it to the fullest, a ball of energy, he would bounce around all day, enjoying lunch with friends, dancing, and stayed up late with old cronies playing poker. On August 30, 1961, while between stage plays, Coburn underwent minor throat surgery at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York City, during this procedure he suffered a fatal heart attack. After his death, controversy erupted as to what to do with the actors cremated remains. In his will he expressly wished not to have a funeral or memorial service and wanted his ashes scattered at several different locations, that included the foot of the Edwin Booth statue in Gramercy Park, the memorial tree to his first wife (also in Gramercy Park), his parent’s grave in Savannah, and along the Mohawk Trail in Albany, New York. Under the laws of New York and Georgia, this was not legally permissible and it is unknown if the executors of Coburn’s estate actually followed through with his final wishes.

On August 30, 1981, actress Vera Ellen died. She was born on February 16, 1921 in Norwood, Ohio. She is best known as a song and dance actress who partnered on film with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye and Donald O’Connor. In 1939 Vera-Ellen made her Broadway debut in the musical Very Warm for May at age 18. She became one of the youngest Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. This led to more roles on Broadway. She was spotted by Samuel Goldwyn, who cast her opposite Danny Kaye in Wonder Man (1945). She danced with Gene Kelly in the Hollywood musicals, Words and Music and On the Town, while also appearing in the last Marx Brothers film, Love Happy. She received top billing alongside Fred Astaire in the MGM musicals, Three Little Words and The Belle of New York (1952). She is most well-known for her performance in Paramount's blockbuster hit, White Christmas (1954). During the 1950s she was known for having the "smallest waist in Hollywood, and is believed to have suffered from anorexia nervosa. She retired from the big screen in 1957 but did appear in several television shows during the 1960s. Vera Ellen died on August 30, 1981 from cancer and is buried at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Sylmar, California.

On August 30, 2006, actor Glenn Ford died. He was born on May 1, 1916 in Quebec, Canada. His break through role in film came in 1946, starring alongside Rita Hayworth in the noir classic Gilda. He went on to be a leading man opposite her in a total of five films. His film career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s and continued into the 1980s with many television roles. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in Pocketful of Miracles. Ford suffered a series of minor strokes which left him in frail health in the years leading up to his death. He died on August 30, 2006 at his home in Beverly Hills and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.

On August 30, 1979, Actress Jean Seberg died. She was born on November 13, 1938 in Marshalltown, Iowa. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and France, including Breathless (1960), Paint Your Wagon (1969) and Airport (1970). In August 1979, she went missing and was found dead eleven days later in the back seat of her car, which was parked close to her Paris apartment. The police report stated that she had taken a massive overdose of pills and alcohol. A suicide note ("Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves.") was found in her hand, and "probable suicide" was ultimately ruled the official cause of death by the French coroner. However, it is often questioned how she could have operated a car with that amount of alcohol in her body, and without the corrective lenses she needed for driving. Seberg was interred in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse in Paris, France.

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

Ingrid Bergman

Born and died on this date:

Actress Ingrid Bergman has the dubious distinction of being born and dying on the same date. The charming and sometimes unaffected actress, who enraptured audiences with her courage though scandal and turmoil, was born August 29, 1915 in Stockholm, Sweden. Bergman decided to become an actress after finishing her formal schooling. She did not have an affinity for the stage, but instead found her true calling in film acting. She was discovered by famed American film producer, David O. Selznick, who signed the Swedish actress to a contract with United Artists studios. Her first American film was a remake of a Swedish motion picture, Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939); in it she successfully reprised the role of Anita Hoffman, she had played while in Sweden. Bergman was about to take took Hollywood by storm and from 1939 to 1982, appeared in over forty feature films. Her most memorable film credits include: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Spell Bound (1945), Notorious (1946), Stromboli (1950), Good Bye Again (1961), and A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970).  

Her film career often mirrored her personal life, early film roles saw her cast as a sweet woman, who was dominated by men, then she took on characters that were of an independent nature, and finally, she evolved into a woman of insight and strength. She was the winner of the three best lead actress Oscars, first in 1945 for Gaslight (1944), 1957 for Anastasia (1956), and 1975 for Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Her Academy Award best actress nominated films were For Whom the Bells Toll (1943), The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), Joan of Arc (1948), and Hostsonaten (1978). These Academy Award winning motion pictures followed the growth of her practiced and personal development. The public could not get enough of the talented actress, enthralled and obsessed with her every move. Bergman will always be remembered as Humphrey Bogart’s love interest, Lisa Lund, in the legendary, Casablanca (1942).  

In 1948, the so called “scandal of the century” hit, Bergman was at the peak of her Hollywood popularity, when she began a torrid love affair with director Roberto Rossellini, while filming, Stromboli in Italy. Bergman became pregnant with Rossellini’s child and bore a son out of wedlock. The problem was that at the time of the affair Bergman was married to another man, Peter Lindstrom. This was a scandal of unbelievable proportions, the media had a field day, and Bergman’s image of the whole some, virtuous woman was all but destroyed. Her marriage to Lindstrom was shattered and ended in divorce. Soon after she married Rossellini but the damage had already been done. Their union would produce two more children. Sadly in 1957, this marriage also ended in divorce.

Bergman’s career was damaged by the scandal but she survived and went on to have other great successes in film, television, and stage. The last role before her death, Bergman played famed Israeli Prime Minster, Golda Meir in the 1982, television mini-series, A Woman Called Golda and for which she was posthumously awarded a best actress, Emmy Award. On August 29, 1982, (her sixty-seventh birthday) Bergman died after a long battle with breast cancer at her London apartment. She had battled the disease for eight years, having undergone mastectomies in 1974 and 1978. At her bedside when she passed was her third husband, Lars Schmidt. Even though the pair had divorced in 1975, they remained close friends. No public funeral was held for Bergman, a small service for family was held at a London area crematory. Per her final wishes, Bergman’s body was cremated, some of her ashes were scattered at sea off the coast of Sweden and the remainder were buried next to her parents at the Northern Cemetery (Norra Begravingsplatsen) in Solna, Sweden. The unassuming grave is found in section Kv 11F, space 228/11573 and her epitaph simply reads, (in script) Ingrid, 1915-1982.   

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

Van Johnson, Paul Muni

Who was born on this date:

Actor Van Johnson was born on August 25, 1916 in Newport, Rhode Island. Johnson was the embodiment of the "boy next door," playing "the red-haired, freckle-faced soldier, sailor or bomber pilot who used to live down the street" in MGM movies during the war years. At the time of his death on December 2008, he was one of the last surviving matinee idols of Hollywood's "golden age." Johnson performed at social clubs in Newport while in high school and moved to New York City after graduating from high school in 1935 to join an off-Broadway revue. He was an understudy to Gene Kelly in the Broadway musical Pal Joey. He was introduced to an MGM casting director by Lucille Ball. This led to a screen test at Columbia Pictures and then Warner Bros. Studios. His all-American good looks and easy demeanor were ill-suited to the gritty movies Warner made at the time, and the studio dropped him at the expiration of his six-month contract. Shortly before leaving Warner, he was cast as a cub reporter opposite Faye Emerson in the 1942 film Murder in the Big House.  

His big break was in A Guy Named Joe (1943) with Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne. Midway through the movie's production, he was involved in a car crash that left him with a metal plate in his forehead and a number of scars on his face that the plastic surgery of the time could not completely correct or conceal; he used heavy makeup to hide them for years. Dunne and Tracy insisted that Johnson not be removed from the cast despite his long absence. With many actors now serving in the armed forces, the accident proved to be a major career break for Johnson. MGM built up his image as the all-American boy in war dramas and musicals, with his most notable starring roles including Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Easy to Wed (1946), In the Good Old Summertime (1949), Battleground (1949), Go For Broke (1951), Remains to Be Seen (1953), and Brigadoon (1954). Johnson was dropped by MGM in 1954, after appearing in The Last Time I Saw Paris with Elizabeth Taylor. He enjoyed critical acclaim for his performance in The Caine Mutiny (1954).  

During the 1950s, Johnson continued to appear in films and also appeared frequently in television guest appearances. In the 1970s, after twice fighting bouts of cancer, Johnson began a second career in summer stock and dinner theater. In 1985, returning to Broadway for the first time since Pal Joey, he was cast in the starring role of the musical La cage aux Folles. Van Johnson lived in a penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper Eastside until 2002, when he moved to an assisted living facility in Nyack, New York. He died there of natural causes on December 12, 2008. He had been ill for the previous year and receiving hospice care. His body was cremated and final disposition is unknown.

 Who died on this date:

On August 25, 1967, actor Paul Muni died. The successful stage and screen actor was born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund on September 22, 1895 in Lemburg, Austria. His parents were actors who toured small cabarets in Europe and immigrated to the United States in 1902. He and his parents toured small vaudeville theaters throughout the Midwest and by 1926, Muni had graduated to the bright lights of Broadway. In 1928, he signed with 20th Century-Fox studios and it was suggested that he change his name from Weisenfruend to Muni. His first film project The Valiant (1929) was not a box office success but it did earn him a best actor nomination in his first screen appearance.                

Muni’s award winning film career spanned thirty years (1929-1962) and included twenty-three motion pictures major film credits include; Scarface (1929), The Good Earth (1937), Juarez (1939), and We Are Not Alone (1939). He was nominated for six best acting Oscars, winning once, his nominated films were The Valiant (1929), I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Black Fury (1935), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), The Last Angry Man (1959), and his only Academy Award win was for portrayal of scientist Louis Pasteur in The Life of Louis Pasteur (1936). In the early 1960’s, Muni tired of the Hollywood life style and retired from film making. He and his wife lived a simple, quiet life in Montecito, California until August 25, 1967, when the former actor died from a heart attack. Funeral services and burial were held at the Hollywood Memorial Park (now called Hollywood Forever Cemetery). Muni’s unassuming grave is found beneath a cypress tree in the center of the Plains of Abraham lawn (formerly section 14), space 57 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

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

Tom London, Jane Greer, Pat Patersen

Who was born on this date:

Character actor Tom London was born on August 24, 1889 in Louisville, Kentucky. According to "The Guinness Book of Movie Records," is credited with appearing in the most movies in the history of Hollywood (over 600). His debut was in 1915 in the Western, Lone Larry, he was a trick rider and roper, and used his trick skills in scores of Westerns. He appeared as the sidekick to Western star Sunset Carson in several films. He appeared in High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper. London made many guest appearances in television shows through the 1950s. His last movie was Underworld USA in 1961. He died on December 5, 1963 in North Hollywood and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale.

Who died on this date:

On August 24, 2011, actress Jane Greer died. She was born on September 9, 1924 in Washington, D.C. She is best known for her role as femme fatale Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film Out of the Past. She was a beauty-contest winner and professional model during her teens and began her began her show business career as a big band singer. Howard Hughes spotted Greer modeling on the cover of Life Magazine in June of 1942 and sent her to Hollywood to become an actress. She married Rudy Valle, her senior by 22 years, in 1943. Hughes lent out the actress to RKO to star in many films, including Dick Tracy (1945), Out of the Past (1947), They Wont Believe Me (1947), and the comedy/suspense film The Big Steal (1949). Other notable screen appearances included You’re in the Navy Now (1951), The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), Run for the Sun (1956), and The Man of a Thousand Faces (1957). She made numerous television appearances including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. She even got to make fun of Out of the Past in a parody with Robert Mitchum on TV's Saturday Night Live in 1987. Greer joined the casts of Falcon Crest in 1984, and Twin Peaks in 1990, in recurring roles. Greer died from cancer on August 24, 2001 and buried at Westwood Village Memorial Pak in Los Angeles.

On August 24, 1978, actress Pat Paterson died. She was born on April 7, 1910 in Bradford, England. Though she made over 20 films, she is most famous for being the wife of French-born actor Charles Boyer and for the tragic death of their only child, Michael, at his own 21st birthday party. In 1928, although aged only 18 (the legal age of adulthood in the UK at the time was 21) she persuaded her parents to allow her to leave for Hollywood. She arrived in 1929 and was fortunate enough to be signed by Fox Studios as one of their many "starlets", a bit-part journeywoman actress. She was helped by her expressive beauty and by dying her natural auburn-brunette hair golden-blonde instead. Her film credits include The Other Woman (1931), Bitter Sweet (1933), Bottoms Up (1934), Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935), and Idiot’s Delight (1939). Patersen died on August 24, 1978 from a brain tumor, her husband Charles Boyer committed suicide two days later. They are buried together alongside their son at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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

Gene Kelly, Mary Gordon

Who was born on this date:

Actor Gene Kelly was born on August 23, 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks and the likeable characters that he played on screen. Kelly was a dominant force in Hollywood musical films from the mid 1940s until the late 1950s. His many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical film, and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences.  

He began his entertainment career on the Broadway stage in November 1938 as a dancer in Cole Porter’s Leave It to Me!. His first career breakthrough was in the The Time of Your Life, which opened on October 25, 1939, where for the first time on Broadway he danced to his own choreography. In the same year he received his first assignment as a Broadway choreographer, for Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe. Offers from Hollywood began to arrive but Kelly was in no particular hurry to leave New York. Eventually, he signed with David O. Selznick, agreeing to go to Hollywood in October 1941. Selznick sold half of Kelly's contract to MGM and loaned him out for his first motion picture, For Me and My Gal (1942) with Judy Garland. Kelly’s first opportunity to dance to his own choreography came in Thousand Cheers (1943), where he performed a mock-love dance with a mop.

He achieved his breakthrough as a dancer on film, when MGM loaned him out to Columbia to work with Rita hayworth in Cover Girl (1944), where he created a memorable routine dancing to his own reflection. In his next film Anchors Aweigh (1945), MGM virtually gave him a free hand to devise a range of dance routines, including the celebrated and much imitated animated dances with Jerry Mouse, and his duets with co-star Frank Sinatra. Anchors Aweigh became one of the most successful films of 1945 and it garnered Kelly his first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In Ziegfield Follies (1946), Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire. After World War II and his return to Hollywood in the spring of 1946, MGM had nothing lined up and used him in a B-movie, Living in a Big Way. The film was considered so weak that Kelly was asked to design and insert a series of dance routines, and his ability to carry off such assignments was noticed. This led to his next picture with Judy Garland, the film version of Cole Porter's The Pirate, in which Kelly plays the eponymous swashbuckler. Now regarded as a classic, the film was ahead of its time and was not well received.

Although MGM wanted Kelly to return to safer and more commercial vehicles, he ceaselessly fought for an opportunity to direct his own musical film. In the interim, he capitalized on his swashbuckling image in The Three Musketeers and also appeared in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1948). He was due to play the male lead opposite Garland in Easter Parade (1948), but broke his ankle playing volleyball. He withdrew from the film and encouraged Fred Astaire to come out of retirement to replace him. Kelly then appeared in Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), his second film with Sinatra, where Kelly paid tribute to his Irish heritage in The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day routine. It was this musical film which persuaded Arthur Freed to allow Kelly to make On The Town, where he partnered with Frank Sinatra for the third and final time, creating a breakthrough in the musical film genre which has been described as "the most inventive and effervescent musical thus far produced in Hollywood."

Then two musicals secured Kelly's reputation as a major figure in the American musical film, An American in Paris (1951) and probably the most popular and admired of all film musical of all time Singin’ in the Rain (1952). An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and, in the same year, Kelly was presented with an honorary Academy Award for his contribution to film musicals and the art of choreography. Kelly, at the very peak of his creative powers, now made what in retrospect is seen as a serious mistake. In December 1951 he signed a contract with MGM which sent him to Europe for nineteen months so that Kelly could use MGM funds frozen in Europe to make three pictures while personally benefiting from tax exemptions. Only one of these pictures was a musical, Invitation to the dance, a pet project of Kelly's to bring modern ballet to mainstream film audiences. It was beset with delays and technical problems, and flopped when finally released in 1956. When Kelly returned to Hollywood the film musical was already beginning to feel the pressures from television, and MGM cut the budget for his next picture.

Kelly did not return to stage work until his MGM contract ended in 1957, when in 1958 he directed  the musical play Flower Drum Song. He continued to make some film appearances, such as Hornbeck in the 1960 Hollywood production of Inherit the Wind. However, most of his efforts were now concentrated on film production and directing. He made frequent appearances on television during the 1960s, but his one effort at television series, as Father Chuck O'Malley in Going My Way (1962–63) was dropped after thirty episodes. Kelly died in his sleep from a stroke on February 2, 1996 at his Beverley Hills home. His body was cremated, per his instructions there was no funeral or memorial services and his remains were given to family. Final disposition is unknown.

Who died on this date: 

On August 23, 1963, actress Mary Gordon died. She was born on May 16, 1882 in Glasgow, Scotland. She was a character actress who specialized in housekeepers and mothers, most notably the landlady Mrs. Hudson in the Sherlock Holmes series of movies of the Thirties and Forties. She would appear in nearly 300 films between 1925 and 1950. She became good friends with director John Ford while making Hangman’s House (1928) and went on to appear in seven of his films. In 1939, she took on her best remembered role as Sherlock Holmes's landlady and played the role in ten films and numerous radio plays. Film credits include Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Pot O’ Gold (1941) and Fort Apache (1948). She lived out her final years in Pasadena, California with her daughter and grandson and died on August 23, 1963 from a long undisclosed illness. She is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

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

Lois Hall, Elisabeth Bergner, Sebastian Cabot, Charles Stevens

Who was born on this date:

Actress Lois Hall was born on August 22, 1926 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She is best known for her television appearances which included The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Superman, Marcus Welby, M.D., Little House on the Prairie and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also starred in such classic films as Every Girl Should Be Married (1948), Love Happy (1949), My Blue Heaven (1950), Carrie (1952), Night Raiders (1952), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). However, she is perhaps best known for her supporting role as Sister Constance in the acclaimed 1991 drama Dead, Again. Hall died of a heart attack on December 21, 2006 and is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Actress Elisabeth Bergner was born on August 22, 1897 in Drohobycz, Ukraine. She began acting at age 15 in Innsbruck, Vienna and toured Austrian and German provinces with a Shakespearean company. In 1923 she made her film debut in Der Evangelimann. With the rise of Nazism, Bergner moved to London and there she appeared on stage. She made her film debut in 1931’s Arianne, other notable film credits include The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934), As you Like It (1934), Escape Me Never (1935), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and the Duchess of Malfi (1946). Bergner died on May 12, 1986 in London. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at Golders Green Crematorium in Golders Green, England.

Who died on this date: 

On August 22, 1977, actor Sebastian Cabot died. He was born on July 6, 1918 in London, England and is best remembered for his role as the butler in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. His film career credits include Foreign Affaires (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Othello (1946), and The Time Machine (1960). He also did voice parts for animated films such as Disney's Jungle Book (1967) as Bagheera, The Sword and the Stone (1963) as Sir Ector, and the narrator of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) and Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). He lived his final years near Sidney, British Columbia and in 1977 he suffered a stroke, his second in three years. Cabot was taken to a Victoria Hospital, where he died on August 22, 1977. Cabot's cremated remains are buried in the urn garden in Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles and ironically is interred within yards of TV co-star Brian Keith.

On August 22, 1964, actor Charles Stevens died. He was born on May 26, 1893 in Solomonville, Arizona and was the grandson of legendary Apache Chief Geronimo. Stevens appeared in nearly 200 films between 1915 and 1961 and was a close friend of actor Douglas Fairbanks. He began his career during the silent era playing mostly Native American and Mexican parts in Westerns. During the 1930s and 1940s, he had roles in the film serials Wild West Days and Overland Mail. In the 1950s, Stevens guest starred on several television series including The Lone Ranger and Zorro. He made his last onscreen appearance in the 1961 film The Outsider, opposite Tony Curtis. He died on August 22, 1964 and is buried in an unmarked grave at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, California.

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

Marilyn Harris, Groucho Marx, Hermione Baddeley

Who was born on this date:

Child actress Marilyn Harris was born on August 19, 1924 and appeared in several Hollywood productions of the 1930s. She is best remembered for her role as 'Little Maria' in the classic horror film Frankenstein (1931). In arguably the film's most memorable scene, she meets the fugitive monster (played by Boris Karloff) beside a riverbank and charms the monster with her innocence, humanity and friendship, something which he had not experienced with previously hostile, mistrusting adults. A children's game is however tragically misinterpreted by the monster, and he ends up throwing Little Maria into the river, unintentionally drowning her and turning the surrounding village's population into a lynch mob, baying for revenge after the child's body is found. The shot of Maria being thrown into the water was cut from original prints and only restored in the 1980s. Harris later played teenage roles in a handful of films in the 1940s before leaving the profession; she died from cancer and heart failure on December 1, 1999. Her remains were cremated and given to family members, final disposition is unknown.

Who died on this date:

On August 19, 1977, Groucho Marx died. He was born in New York on October 2, 1890. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 26 films, of which 13 were with his siblings Chico, and Harpo. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as the host of the radio and television game show You Bet your life. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudville, included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigars, and a thick grease paint mustache and eyebrows. The Marx Brothers first movie was a silent film made in 1921 that was never released and is believed to have been destroyed at the time. A decade later, the team made some of their Broadway hits into movies, including The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers. Other successful films were Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, and A Night at the Opera.  

In 1947, Marx was chosen to host a radio (later T.V.) quiz program You Bet your Life broadcast by ABC and then CBS, before moving over to NBC radio and television in 1950. Filmed before a live audience, the television show consisted of Marx interviewing the contestants and ad libbing jokes, before playing a brief quiz. Later in life, Groucho would sometimes note to talk-show hosts, not entirely jokingly, that he was unable to actually insult anyone, because the target of his comment assumed it was a Groucho-esque joke and would laugh. Listening in on the show was producer John Guedel, who got a brainstorm. He approached Groucho about doing a quiz show, to which Groucho derisively retorted, "A quiz show? Only actors who are completely washed up resort to a quiz show!" Undeterred, Guedel explained that the quiz would be only a backdrop for Groucho's interviews of people, and the storm of ad-libbing that they would elicit. Groucho said, "Well, I've had no success in radio, and I can't hold on to a sponsor. At this point, I'll try anything!" 

In 1974, Groucho with given an honorary Academy Award, this was his final major public appearance, in which he received a standing ovation. Noticeably frail and sluggish, Groucho took a bow for his deceased brothers, saying, "I wish that Harpo and Chico could be here to share with me this great honor." He also wished that Margaret Dumont could have been present, adding that she was a great straight woman for him and that she never understood any of his jokes. His health was noticeably worsening by the following year and when Gummo died on April 21, 1977, the death of his younger brother was not reported to Groucho because it was thought too detrimental to his health. Groucho maintained his irrepressible sense of humor to the very end, on his deathbed, and as a nurse came around with a thermometer, explaining that she wanted to see if he had a temperature, he responded, "Don't be silly—everybody has a temperature." Marx was hospitalized for pneumonia on June 22, 1977 and died on August 19 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was cremated and the ashes were interred in the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

On August 19, 1986, actress Hermione Baddeley died. She was born on November 13, 1906 in Broseley, England. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1959 for Room at the Top and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a leading Lady for The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1963). 

Baddeley was best known for performances in such films as Mary Poppins (as Ellen, the maid servant), The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Passport to Pimlico, The Pickwick Papers and A Christmas Carol. She had a successful professional relationship with actor Noel Coward, appearing in many of his plays throughout the 1940s and 1950s.  Baddeley continued to work sporadically on episodic television and feature films, until shortly before her death. She died on August 19, 1986 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center from complications of a stroke. She was buried at St. Mary and St. Melor Churchyard in Amesbury, England.

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

Shelley Winters, Andrea Leeds, John Sturges

Who was born on this date:

Actress Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift on August 18, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri. She would appear in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006. A two-time Academy Award winner, she most remembered for her roles in A Place in the Sun, The Big Knife, Lolita, The Night of the Hunter, Alfie, and The Poseidon Adventure. 

Her first movie was What a Woman ! (1943) and throughout the 1940’s, basically worked in bit parts. She achieved stardom with her breakout performance in George Cukor’s, A Double Life (1947). She quickly landed leading roles in The Great Gatsby (1949) and Winchester 73 (1950). But it was her performance in A Place in the Sun (1951), a departure from the sexpot image that earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

Throughout the 1950s, Winters continued in films, including Meet Danny Wilson (1952) and Night of the Hunter (1955). She returned to the stage on various occasions during this time, including a Broadway run in A Hatful of Rain, in 1955-1956. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960, and another award, in the same category, for A Patch of Blue in 1966. Notable later roles include Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966) and Harper (1966). In 1972 she appeared in The Poseidon Adventure (for which she received her final Oscar nomination). 

During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and feminist causes kept her name before the public. She delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything. In late life, she recalled her conquests in her autobiographies. She wrote of a yearly rendezvous she kept with William Holden, as well as her affairs with Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando. She died on January 14, 2006 of heart failure at the Rehabilitation Center of Beverly Hills and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Actress Andrea Leeds was born on August 14, 1914 in Butte, Montana. She was a popular supporting actress of the late 1930s, and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Stage Door (1937). She was progressing to leading roles, when she retired from acting following her marriage in 1939. She began her film career in 1934 playing bit parts but played her first substantial role in the film Come and get it (1936) and achieved another success with her next film It Could Happen to You (1937). Her wholesome quality led to her being cast in The Goldwyn Follies (1938), Youth Takes a Fling (1938) and They Shall Have Music (1939). Her final film was Earthbound (1940). These films were relatively successful and Leeds remained a popular actress. In 1939 she married Robert Stewart Howard, son of California businessman and racehorse owner Charles S. Howard, and decided to leave films to devote herself to raising a family. Her father-in-law owned and raced the legendary Seabiscuit, and with her husband she became a successful horse owner/breeder. Andrea Leeds died from cancer in Palm Springs, California on May 21, 1984 and is buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

Who died on this date:

On August 18, 1992, director John Sturges died. He was born on January 3, 1910 in Oak Park, Illinois. His notable film credits include Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), for which he was nominated for a best director Academy Award, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963) and Ice Station Zebra (1968). He died on August 18, 1992 in San Luis Obispo, California. His remains were cremated and scattered.

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

Mae West, Evelyn Ankers, Richard Barthelmess, Clarence Brown

Who was born on this date:

Actress Mae West was born on August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York. Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. One of the more controversial movie stars of her time, West encountered many problems including censorship. When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television.

Her first starring role on Broadway was in a play she titled Sex, which she also wrote, produced, and directed. Though critics hated the show, ticket sales were good. The notorious production did not go over well with city officials and the theater was raided with West arrested along with the cast. She was prosecuted on morals charges and, on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to ten days for "corrupting the morals of youth." While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife and told reporters that she wore her silk underpants while serving time. She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention about the case enhanced her career.  

In 1932, West was offered a film contract by Paramount Pictures and made her film debut in Night After Night starring George Raft. At first, she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes. In West's first scene, a hat check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds." West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras." Other screen credits include She Done Him Wrong (1933), which was one of Cary Grant’s first major roles. The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film most likely saved Paramount from bankruptcy. Additional films include I’m No Angel (1933), Belle of the Nineties (1934), Goin’ to Town (1935), Klondike Annie (1936), Go West, Young Man (1936), and Every Day’s a Holiday (1937). In 1939, West left Paramount Pictures and was approached by Universal Pictures to appear opposite W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee (1940). Despite their intense mutual dislike, and fights over the screenplay, the film was a box office success.

West's next film was The Heat’s On (1943) for Columbia Pictures. She initially didn't want to do the film but after producer and director Gregory Ratoff pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she didn't, West relented. The film opened to bad reviews and failed at the box office. West would not return to films until 1970. After appearing in The Heat’s On in 1943, West remained active during the ensuing years by appearing on radio, Broadway, and television. After a 26 year absence from motion pictures, West appeared in Myra Breckenridge (1970). The movie was a deliberately campy sex comedy that was both a box office and critical failure. Despite Myra Breckinridge's mainstream failure, it did find an audience on the cult film circuit.

In 1976, she began work on her final film, Sexette (1978), which was adapted from a script written by West, daily revisions and disagreements hampered production from the beginning. Due to the numerous changes, West agreed to have her lines fed to her through a speaker concealed in her wig. Despite the daily problems, West was determined to see the film completed.  In spite of her determination, West sometimes appeared disoriented and forgetful and found it difficult to follow directions. Upon its release, Sextette was a critical and commercial failure. 

In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, West was unable to speak and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She remained in the hospital where, seven days later, she had a diabetic reaction to the formula in her feeding tube. On September 18, she suffered a second stroke which left her right side paralyzed and developed pneumonia. By November, her condition had improved, but the prognosis was not good and she was sent home. She died there on November 22, 1980, at age 87.A private service was held at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills on November 25, 1980, she was buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Actress Evelyn Ankers was born on August 17, 1918 in Chile. She often played cultured young woman in numerous horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941), opposite Lon Chaney, Jr. She was known as "the Queen of the Screamers", her other films include Hold That Ghots (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Captive Wild Woman (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), The Mad Ghoul (1943), Jungle Woman (1944), Weird Woman (1944), The Invisible man’s Revenge (1944) and The Frozen Ghost (1945). Ankers made over fifty films between 1936 and 1950, and then retired from movies to be a housewife. She occasionally played television roles and returned ten years later to make one more film, No Greater Love (1960), with her husband Richard Denning. Ankers died of ovarian cancer August 29, 1985 in Maui, Hawaii. She is buried at the Maui Veterans Cemetery in Makawao.

Who died on this date: 

On August 17, 1963, film star Richard Barthelmess died. He was born on May 9, 1895 and was an Oscar nominated silent film actor and one of the original members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He made his first film appearance in 1916 in the serial Gloria’s Romance as an extra. His next role, in War Brides, attracted the attention of legendary director D.W. Griffith, who offered him several important roles, finally casting him opposite Lillian Gish in Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920). He soon became one of Hollywood’s highest paid performers, starring in such classics as The Patent Leather Kid (1927) and The Noose (1928); he was nominated for Best Actor at the first Academy Awards for his performance in both these films.  

With the advent of the sound era, Barthelmess' fortunes changed. He made several films in the new medium, most notably Son of the Gods (1930), The Dawn Patrol (1930), The Last Flight (1931), The cabin in the Cotton (1932), Central Airport (1933), and Only Angels Have Wings (1939). However, he failed to maintain the stardom of his silent film days and gradually left entertainment. Barthelmess died of cancer on August 17, 1963 and is interred at the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.

On August 17, 1987, film director Clarence Brown died. He was born on May 10, 1890 in Clinton, Massachusetts. After serving in World War I, Brown was given his first co-directing credit for The Great Redeemer (1920). Later that year, he directed a major portion of The Last of the Mohicans. At MGM he was one of the main directors of their female stars, where he directed both Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo six times. Garbo called Brown her favorite director. He not only made the difficult transition from silent cinema to sound cinema, but thrived there, proving himself to be a 'actor's director': listening to his actors', respecting their instincts, and often incorporating their suggestions into scenes. In doing so, Brown created believable, under-played, naturalistic dialogue scenes stripped of melodrama, pulsing with the honest rhythms of real-life conversation. He was nominated five times for a best director Academy Award and once as a producer, but never won an Oscar. Brown's films gained a total of 38 Academy Award nominations and earned nine Oscars. His film credits include Anna Christie (1930), Romance (1930), A Free Soul (1931), The Human Comedy (1943), National Velvet (1944) and The Yearling (1946). Brown died on August 17, 1987 in Santa Monica and is buried at Forest Lawn Glendale.

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