Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Van Johnson & Anne Baxter

Who was born on this date:

Singer/ actor Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was born on Hoboken, New Jersey. He began his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity. He followed that with a nomination for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm, and critical acclaim for his performance in The Manchurian Candidate. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. He was married four times, most notably to actresses Ava Gardner (1951–1957) and Mia Farrow (1966–1968). Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime. Sinatra began to show signs of dementia in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering another heart attack, he died on May 14, 1998 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

Actor Edward G. Robinson was born on December 12, 1893 in Bucharest. He began his acting career in 1913 and made his Broadway debut in 1915. He made his film debut in a minor and uncredited role in 1916. Robinson was popular in the 1930s and 1940s and was able to avoid many flops during a 50-year career that included 101 films. An acclaimed performance as the gangster Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello in Little (1931) led to him being typecast as a "tough guy" for much of his early career in works such as Five Star Final (1931), Smart Money (1931), Tiger Shark (1932), Kid Galahad (1937),  Larceny Inc. (1942), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1945), Scarlet Street (1945) and The Stranger (1946). As a memorable tribute to his past gangster roles, he appeared as 'Johnny Rocco' in Key Largo (1948). He also appeared in numerous 'B' movies such as Vice Squad (1953), Tank Battalion (1958).Director Cecil B. DeMille cast him as Dathan in The Ten Commandments in 1956. Robinson's acting career was later bolstered by notable roles in 1959's A Hole in the Head and the Cincinnati Kid (1965). Robinson's last film was Soylent Green (1973). Edward G. Robinson died from cancer on January 26, 1973 and was buried at Beth-El Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Who died on this date:

On December 12, 2008, actor Van Johnson died. He 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.

On December 12, 1985, actress Anne Baxter died. The multi-talented Academy Award winning actress was born on May 7, 1923 in Michigan City, Indiana but grew up in Bronxville, New York. In 1936, at the age of thirteen, Baxter made her Broadway theater debut in Seen but not Heard, garnering rave reviews but she yearned for Hollywood’s bright lights. An initial foray into film in 1937 was unsuccessful and Baxter returned to Broadway. Then in 1940, at age seventeen, she was given another chance and was given a screen test at 20th Century Fox Studios, and was offered a seven year movie contract. Before she could make a movie for Fox, she was loaned out to MGM where she appeared in 20 Mule Team (1940). Her early film career was filled great success and roles that other actresses would have had to work for years to attain. She was an actress who relied on her charm rather than great beauty and would star in over fifty motion pictures and numerous television series from 1940 to 1985, her film credits include: The Pied Piper (1942), The North Star (1943), Angel on My Shoulder (1946), The Walls of Jericho (1948), Follow the Sun (1951), and Cimarron (1960). She won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1947 for The Razor’s Edge (1946) and was nominated in 1951 for All About Eve (1950). Perhaps her most famous role is that of the beautiful and conniving Queen Nefretiri in Cecile B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956).

In 1960, tiring of the bright lights and glamour of Hollywood, she retired from film and settled with her second husband Randolph Galt on a cattle ranch in Australia. In 1970, after a decade away from show business, she yearned to return to the screen saying, “Acting is not what I do. It’s what I am. It is my permanent, built in cathedral.” She then became a staple of television appearing in numerous programs such as East of Eden (1981) and Hotel (1983). Her last appearance was in the made for television movie, The Masks of Death (1984). On December 8, 1985, while walking along Madison Avenue in Manhattan, she collapsed from a stroke. Baxter was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she lay in a coma for eight days. She died on December 12, 1985, never regaining consciousness. Anne Baxter’s cremated remains are interred at the Lloyd-Jones Cemetery next to the historic Unity Chapel in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Her ashes rest under a small tree memorial which is marked by a non-descript marker. It is near the now empty gravesite of her famous grandfather (Frank Lloyd Wright’s remains were disinterred and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in the mid-1980’s). The cemetery is situated in the valley not far from Wright’s historic Taliesin estate.  

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

Eugene Pallette, June Allyson

Back from a weeks vacation in London...

Who was born on this date:

Actor Eugene Pallette was born on July 8, 1889 in Winfield, Kansas. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946. An overweight man with large stomach and deep, gravelly voice, Pallette is probably best-remembered for comic character roles such as Alexander Bullock, Carole Lombard's father, in My Man Godfrey (1936), his role as Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) starring Errol Flynn and his similar role as Fray Felipe in The Mark of Zorro (1940) starring Tyrone Power. Pallette began his silent movie career as an extra in about 1911.

His first credited appearance was in the one-reel short western/drama, The Fugitive (1913). He worked with D.W. Griffith on such famous films as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). At this time, he had a slim, athletic figure, a far cry from the portly build that would gain him fame later in his career. After gaining a substantial amount of weight, Pallette gained status as a recognizable character actor. In 1927, he signed as a regular for Hal Roach Studios and was a reliable comic foil in several early Laurel and Hardy movies. In later years, Pallette's weight may have topped out at 300 pounds.

Pallette with Errol Flynn in "The Advetures of Robinhood"

The advent of the talkies proved to be the second major career boost for Pallette. His inimitable rasping gravel voice made him one of Hollywood's most sought-after character actors in the 1930s and 1940s. In increasingly ill health by his late 1950s, Pallette made fewer and fewer movies, and for lesser studios. His final movie was Suspense, released in 1946. He died on September 3, 1954 from cancer at his apartment in Los Angeles. His cremated remains are interred in an unmarked grave at Green Lawn Cemetery in Grenola, Kansas.

Who died on this date:

On July 8, 2006, Actress June Allyson died. She was born Eleanor Geisman on October 7, 1917 in the Bronx, New York. Interspersing jobs in the chorus line at the Copacabana Club with acting roles at Vitaphone, red-headed Allyson landed a chorus job in the Broadway show Sing out the News in 1938. The legend is that the choreographer gave her a job and a new name: Allyson, a family name, and June, for the month, although like many aspects of her career resume, the derivation was highly unlikely as she was already dubbing herself as "June Allyson" prior to her Broadway engagement and has even attributed the name to a later director. Allyson subsequently appeared in the chorus in Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II's Very Warm for May (1939). When Vitaphone discontinued New York production in 1940, Allyson returned to the New York stage to take on more chorus roles in Rodgers and Hart's Higher and Higher (1940) and Cole Porter's Panama Hattie (1940). Her dancing and musical talent led to a stint as an understudy for the lead, Betty Hutton, and when Hutton contracted measles, Allyson appeared in five performances of Panama Hattie. Broadway director George Abbott caught one of the nights, and offered Allyson one of the lead roles in his production of Best Foot Forward (1941).

During World War II, after her appearance in the Broadway musical, Allyson was selected for the 1943 film version of Best Foot Forward. When she arrived in Hollywood, the production had not started so MGM "placed her on the payroll" of Girl Crazy (1943). Despite playing a "bit part," Allyson received good reviews as a sidekick to Best Foot Forward's star, Lucille Ball. Another musical, Thousands Cheer (1943) was again a showcase for her singing and dancing, albeit still in a minor role. As a new starlet, although Allyson had already been a performer on stage and screen, she was presented as an "overnight sensation,” with Hollywood press agents attempting to portray her as an ingénue, selectively slicing almost a decade off her true age. Studio bios listed her variously as being born in 1922 and 1923.

Allyson's breakthrough was in Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) where the studio image of the "girl next door" was fostered by her being cast alongside long-time acting chum, Van Johnson, the quintessential "boy next door." As the "sweetheart team," Johnson and Allyson were to appear together in four later films. Allyson's early success as a musical star led to several other postwar musicals, including Two Sisters from Boston (1946) and Good News (1947). Allyson also played straight roles such as Constance in The Three Musketeers (1948), the tomboy Jo March in Little Women (1949), and a nurse in Battle Circus (1953). On her arrival in Hollywood, studio heads attempted to enhance the pairing of Van Johnson and Allyson by sending out the two contracted players on a series of "official dates" which were highly publicized and led to a public perception that a romance had been kindled. Although dating David Rose, Peter Lawford and John F. Kennedy, Allyson was actually being courted by movie heartthrob and powerful Hollywood "player" Dick Powell, who was 13 years her senior and had been previously married to Mildred Maund and Joan Blondell.

Allyson with husband Dick Powell

On August 19, 1945, Allyson caused MGM studio chief, Louis B. Mayer some consternation by marrying Dick Powell. The couple briefly separated in 1961, but reconciled and remained married until his death on January 2, 1963. Powell's wealth made it possible for Allyson to effectively retire from show business after his death, making only occasional appearances on talk and variety shows. Allyson returned to the Broadway stage in 1970 in the play Forty Carats and later toured in a production of No, No Nanette. Following hip-replacement surgery in 2003, Allyson's health began to deteriorate. She died on July 8, 2006 from pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis at her home in Ojai, California. Her cremated remains were given to family and eventual disposition is unknown.

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