The Mask of Dimitrios

Zachary Scott (Actor) .. Dimitrios Makropoulos

Born: February 24, 1914
Died: October 03, 1965

Trivia: After one year of college he dropped out and moved to England, where he acted in provincial theaters. He returned to the U.S. and worked his way up from stock to Broadway, leading to a film contract with Warners; he debuted onscreen in the ruthless title role of The Mask of Dimitrios (1944). Afterwards he was often typecast as a well-dressed, sleek cad, and in most of his later films he portrayed smooth scoundrels; occasionally, however, he played sympathetic leads. In the late '50s he quit making films, focussing instead on TV and the stage. He appeared in several films in the early '60s before dying of a brain tumor at 51. He was married to stage actress Ruth Ford.

Peter Lorre (Actor) .. Cornelius Leyden

Born: June 26, 1904
Died: March 23, 1964
Birthplace: Rozsahegy, Austria-Hungary

Trivia: With the possible exception of Edward G. Robinson, no actor has so often been the target of impressionists as the inimitable, Hungarian-born Peter Lorre. Leaving his family home at the age of 17, Lorre sought out work as an actor, toiling as a bank clerk during down periods. He went the starving-artist route in Switzerland and Austria before settling in Germany, where he became a favorite of playwright Bertolt Brecht. For most of his first seven years as a professional actor, Lorre employed his familiar repertoire of wide eyes, toothy grin, and nasal voice to invoke laughs rather than shudders. In fact, he was appearing in a stage comedy at the same time that he was filming his breakthrough picture M (1931), in which he was cast as a sniveling child murderer. When Hitler ascended to power in 1933, Lorre fled to Paris, and then to London, where he appeared in his first English-language film, Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Although the monolingual Lorre had to learn his lines phonetically for Hitchcock, he picked up English fairly rapidly, and, by 1935, was well equipped both vocally and psychologically to take on Hollywood. On the strength of M, Lorre was initially cast in roles calling for varying degrees of madness, such as the love-obsessed surgeon in Mad Love (1935) and the existentialist killer in Crime and Punishment (1935). Signed to a 20th Century Fox contract in 1936, Lorre asked for and received a chance to play a good guy for a change. He starred in eight installments of the Mr. Moto series, playing an ever-polite (albeit well versed in karate) Japanese detective. When the series folded in 1939, Lorre freelanced in villainous roles at several studios. While under contract to Warner Bros., Lorre played effeminate thief Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon (1941), launching an unofficial series of Warner films in which Lorre was teamed with his Falcon co-star Sidney Greenstreet. During this period, Lorre's co-workers either adored or reviled him for his wicked sense of humor and bizarre on-set behavior. As far as director Jean Negulesco was concerned, Lorre was the finest actor in Hollywood; Negulesco fought bitterly with the studio brass for permission to cast Lorre as the sympathetic leading man in The Mask of Dimitrios (1946), in which the diminutive actor gave one of his finest and subtlest performances. In 1951, Lorre briefly returned to Germany, where he directed and starred in the intriguing (if not wholly successful) postwar psychological drama The Lost One. The '50s were a particularly busy time for Lorre; he performed frequently on such live television anthologies as Climax; guested on comedy and variety shows; and continued to appear in character parts in films. He remained a popular commodity into the '60s, especially after co-starring with the likes of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Basil Rathbone in a series of tongue-in-cheek Edgar Allan Poe adaptations for filmmaker Roger Corman. Lorre's last film, completed just a few months before his fatal heart attack in 1964, was Jerry Lewis' The Patsy, in which, ironically, the dourly demonic Lorre played a director of comedy films.

Sydney Greenstreet (Actor) .. Mr. Peters

Born: December 27, 1879
Died: January 18, 1954
Birthplace: Sandwich, Kent, England

Trivia: Sydney Greenstreet ranked among Hollywood's consummate character actors, a classic rogue whose villainous turns in motion pictures like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon remain among the most memorable and enigmatic depictions of evil ever captured on film. Born December 27, 1879, in Sandwich, England, Greenstreet's initial ambition was to make his fortune as a tea planter, and toward that aim he moved to Sri Lanka at the age of 18. A drought left him penniless, however, and he soon returned to England, where he worked a variety of odd jobs while studying acting in the evening under Ben Greet. In 1902, he made his theatrical debut portraying a murderer in Sherlock Holmes, and two years later he traveled with Greet to the United States. After making his Broadway debut in Everyman, Greenstreet's American residency continued for the rest of his life.Greenstreet remained exclusively a theatrical performer for over three decades. He shifted easily from musical comedy to Shakespeare, and in 1933 he joined the Lunts in Idiot's Delight, performing with their Theatre Guild for the duration of the decade. While appearing in Los Angeles in a touring production of There Shall Be No Night in 1940, Greenstreet met John Huston, who requested he play the ruthless Guttman in his 1941 film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. A heavy, imposing man, Greenstreet was perfectly cast as the massive yet strangely effete Guttman, a dignified dandy who was in truth the very essence of malevolence. Making his film debut at the age of 62, he appeared alongside the two actors with whom he would be forever connected, star Humphrey Bogart and fellow character actor Peter Lorre. The acclaim afforded Greenstreet for The Maltese Falcon earned him a long-term contract with Warner Bros., where, after appearing in They Died With Their Boots On, he again played opposite Bogart in 1942's Across the Pacific. In 1942, he appeared briefly in Casablanca, another reunion with Bogart as well as Lorre. When Greenstreet and Lorre again reteamed in 1943's Background in Danger, their fate was sealed, and they appeared together numerous other times including 1944's Passage to Marseilles (again with Bogart), The Mask of Dimitrios, The Conspirators, and Hollywood Canteen, in which they portrayed themselves. Yearning to play comedy, Greenstreet got his wish in 1945's Pillow to Post, which cast him alongside Ida Lupino. He also appeared opposite Bogart again in the drama Conflict and with Barbara Stanwyck in Christmas in Connecticut. In 1952, he announced his retirement, and died two years later on January 18, 1954.

Faye Emerson (Actor) .. Irana Preveza

Born: July 08, 1917
Died: August 09, 1983

Trivia: Born in Louisiana and raised in California, actress Faye Emerson was signed to a Warner Bros. contract in 1941. During her years at Warners, Emerson was seemingly assigned all the roles that had been turned down by such A-list players as Anne Sheridan. Though hardly an Oscar prospect, she was most effective playing women such as the tawdry nightclub entertainer in Between Two Worlds (1944) and Zachary Scott's discarded mistress in The Mask of Dimitrios (1944). The advent of television brought Emerson her greatest fame; as the star of CBS' Faye Emerson Show and several similar follow-ups, she won the hearts of male viewers with her charm, beauty, sophistication, and especially her legendary low-cut gowns. So popular was Emerson during the early '50s that the TV industry's Emmy Awards were reportedly named in her honor. After leaving television, Emerson made a handful of Broadway appearances and briefly wrote a newspaper column. The most famous of her husbands were Elliot Roosevelt, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and bandleader Skitch Henderson. Though she actively sought out the spotlight during her career, Faye Emerson spent her last years as a wealthy recluse.

George Tobias (Actor) .. Fedor Muishkin

Born: July 14, 1901
Died: February 27, 1980

Trivia: Average in looks but above average in talent, New York native George Tobias launched his acting career at his hometown's Pasadena Playhouse. He then spent several years with the Provincetown Players before moving on to Broadway and, ultimately, Hollywood. Entering films in 1939, Tobias' career shifted into first when he was signed by Warner Bros., where he played everything from good-hearted truck drivers to shifty-eyed bandits. Tobias achieved international fame in the 1960s by virtue of his weekly appearances as long-suffering neighbor Abner Kravitz on the TV sitcom Bewitched; he'd previously been a regular on the obscure Canadian adventure series Hudson's Bay. Though he frequently portrayed browbeaten husbands, George Tobias was a lifelong bachelor.

Victor Francen (Actor) .. Wladislaw Grodek

Born: August 05, 1888
Died: January 01, 1977

Trivia: Silver-haired Belgian leading man Victor Francen was the son of a police commissioner. Upon embarking on an acting career, Francen toured the provinces of Europe, Russia, Canada and South America before joining the Comedie Francaise. After a stop-and-go silent film career, in 1931, Francen established himself as a leading man of French films. Some of his best work was under the direction of innovative filmmaker Abel Gance, who inspired Francen to expand his emotional range to the breaking point in such films as The End of the World (1931) and J'Accuse (1937). When the Nazis marched into Paris in 1940, Francen moved to the United States. He found himself much in demand as a worldly continental type in Hollywood, often as a villain, spy or schemer; in keeping with the tenor of his roles, Francen's acting style became heavier (as did the actor himself). Victor Francen closed off the Hollywood phase of his career with 1961's Fanny, making one final film appearance in the French La Grande Frousse before retiring in 1964.

Steven Geray (Actor) .. Bulic

Born: November 10, 1899
Died: December 26, 1973

Trivia: Czech character actor Steven Geray was for many years a member in good standing of the Hungarian National Theater. He launched his English-speaking film career in Britain in 1935, then moved to the U.S. in 1941. His roles ranged from sinister to sympathetic, from "A" productions like Gilda (1946) to potboilers like El Paso (1949). He flourished during the war years, enjoying top billing in the moody little romantic melodrama So Dark the Night (1946), and also attracting critical praise for his portrayal of Dirk Stroeve in The Moon and Sixpence (1942). Many of Geray's film appearances in the 1950s were unbilled; when he was given screen credit, it was usually as "Steve Geray." Geray's busy career in film and television continued into the 1960s. Steven Geray worked until he had obviously depleted his physical strength; it was somewhat sad to watch the ailing Geray struggle through the western horror pic Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1965).

Florence Bates (Actor) .. Mme. Chavez

Born: April 15, 1888
Died: January 31, 1954

Trivia: American actress Florence Bates had been a moderately successful lawyer for two decades when, as a lark, she started acting at California's Pasadena Playhouse in the mid 1930s. After playing a small role in the 1937 film Man In Blue (1937), Bates was "officially" discovered by Hollywood when she was cast as vainglorious dowager Mrs. Van Hopper in Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning Rebecca (1940). From that point onward, Bates became one of Hollywood's favorite "society dragons," most effectively cast in comedies like Heaven Can Wait (1943), as one of Don Ameche's hell-bound old flames, and in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1948), as Danny Kaye's terrifying future mother-in-law. Her most significant "straight" part was in I Remember Mama (1948), as the forbiddingly famous author Florence Dana Morehead, whom Irene Dunne, as Mama, timidly approaches on behalf of Dunne's aspiring-writer daughter. Though in fragile health, Florence Bates entered television with the same forcefulness as she'd invaded movies, providing a welcome touch of professionalism to the otherwise atrocious early 1950s situation comedy The Hank McCune Show.

Eduardo Ciannelli (Actor) .. Marukakis

Born: August 30, 1889
Died: October 08, 1969

Trivia: Italian-born actor Eduardo Ciannelli was mostly known for his sinister gangster roles, but he first rose to fame as an opera singer and musical comedy star! The son of a doctor who operated a health spa, Ciannelli was expected to follow his father's footsteps into the medical profession, and to that end studied at the University of Naples. Launching his career in grand opera as a baritone, Ciannelli came to the U.S. after World War I, where he was headlined in such Broadway productions as Rose Marie and Lady Billy. He switched to straight acting with the Theatre Guild in the late 1920s, co-starring with luminaries like the Lunts and Katherine Cornell. Cianelli's resemblance to racketeer Lucky Luciano led to his being cast as the eloquent but deadly gangster Trock Estrella in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset, the role that brought him to Hollywood on a permanent basis (after a couple of false starts) in 1936. He followed up the film version of Winterset with a Luciano-like role in the Bette Davis vehicle Marked Women (1937), then did his best to avoid being typed as a gangster. After inducing goosebumps in Gunga Din (1939) as the evil Indian cult leader ("Kill for the love of Kali!"), Ciannelli did an about-face as the lovable, effusive Italian speakeasy owner in Kitty Foyle (1940)--and was nominated for an Oscar in the process. During the war, the actor billed himself briefly as Edward Ciannelli, and in this "guise" brought a measure of dignity to his title role in the Republic serial The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1945). He returned to Italy in the 1950s to appear in European films and stage productions, occasionally popping up in Hollywood films as ageing Mafia bosses and self-made millionaires. In 1959, he was seen regularly as a nightclub owner on the TV detective series Johnny Staccato. Had he lived, Eduardo Ciannelli would have been ideal for the starring role in 1972's The Godfather, as he proved in a similar assignment in the 1968 Mafia drama The Brotherhood.

Kurt Katch (Actor) .. Col. Haki

Born: January 28, 1896
Died: August 14, 1958

Trivia: Foreboding, shaven-headed Polish actor Kurt Katch studied acting and directing with the fabled Viennese impresario Max Reinhardt. Katch went on to organize Berlin's Kulturbund Deutschen Juden Theater and a Yiddish-speaking troupe in Warsaw. When Hitler rose to power, the Jewish Katch saw the handwriting on the wall and came to the U.S. in 1937. He established himself as a movie villain in the 1940s, most often cast as a smirking, monocled Nazi. In films until 1958's The Young Lions, Kurt Katch is best remembered by boys of all ages as the unspeakable Hulagu Khan in that ultimate escapist adventure yarn Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944).

Marjorie Hoshelle (Actor) .. Anna Bulic

Born: January 01, 1917
Died: January 01, 1989

Trivia: Actress Marjorie Hoshelle, born Marjorie Grossel, appeared in films of the '40s. Following her 1946 marriage to Jeff Chandler, she retired from films. Later she became a professor of drama at Harbor Community College in California.

George Metaxa (Actor) .. Hans Werner

John Abbott (Actor) .. Mr. Pappas

Born: June 05, 1905
Died: May 24, 1996

Trivia: While studying art in his native London, John Abbott relaxed between classes by watching rehearsals of a student play. When one of the actors fell ill, Abbott was invited to replace him, and at that point he switched majors. He became a professional actor in 1934, joined the Old Vic in 1936, and made his first film, Mademoiselle Docteur, in 1937; later that same year he made his first BBC television appearance. Turned down for military service during World War II, Abbott joined the Foreign Office, working as a decoder in the British Embassy in Stockholm and working in similar capacities in Russia and Canada. In 1941, he took a vacation in New York, leaving his resumé and photo with various producers, just in case something turned up. On the very last day of his vacation, he was hired for a small role in Josef von Sternberg's The Shanghai Gesture (1941), thus launching the Hollywood phase of his career. Generally cast as a fussy eccentric, Abbott was seen at his very best as whining hypochondriac Frederick Fairlie in Warner Bros.' The Woman in White (1948). He also received at least one bona fide starring role in the 1943 quickie London Blackout Murders. In the late '40s, Abbott began amassing some impressive Broadway credits in such productions as He Who Gets Slapped, Monserrat, and Waltz of the Toreadors. He also appeared in 1950's Auto da Fe, which was specifically written for him by Tennessee Williams. Though still active in films and TV into the 1980s (he played Dr. Frankenstein in the ill-fated 1984 cinemadaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick), John Abbott spent most of his twilight years as an acting teacher. Abbott died in a Los Angeles hospital on May 24, 1996, after a prolonged illness.

Monte Blue (Actor) .. Dhris Abdul

Born: January 11, 1890
Died: February 19, 1963

Trivia: A product of the Indiana orphanage system, the part-Cherokee-Indian Monte Blue held down jobs ranging from stevedore to reporter before offering his services as a movie-studio handyman in the early 1910s. Pressed into service as an extra and stunt man, Blue graduated to featured parts in D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915). Thanks to his work with Griffith and (especially) Cecil B. DeMille, Blue became a dependable box-office attraction of the 1920s, playing everything from lawyers to baseball players. He was a mainstay of the fledgling Warner Bros. studios, where the profits from his films frequently compensated for the expensive failures starring John Barrymore. In 1928 he was cast in his finest silent role, as the drink-sodden doctor in White Shadows on the South Seas. After making a successful transition to talkies, Blue decided to retire from filmmaking, taking a tour around the world to celebrate his freedom. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1931, Blue found that he had lost his fortune through bad investments, and that the public at large had forgotten him. By now too heavy-set to play romantic leads, Blue rebuilt his career from the bottom up, playing bits in "A" pictures and supporting roles in "B"s. He was busiest in the bread-and-butter westerns produced by such minor studios as Republic, Monogram and PRC; he also showed up in several serials, notably as "Ming the Merciless" clone Unga Khan in 1936's Undersea Kingdom. Movie mogul Jack Warner, out of gratitude for Blue's moneymaking vehicles of the 1920s, saw to it that Monte was steadily employed at Warner Bros., and that his name would appear prominently in the studio's advertising copy. While many of his talkie roles at Warners were bits, Blue was given choice supporting roles in such films as Across the Pacific (1942), Mask of Dimitrios (1944) and especially Key Largo (1948). Extending his activities into TV, Blue continued accepting character roles until retiring from acting in 1954. During the last years of his life, Monte Blue was the advance man for the Hamid-Morton Shrine Circus; it was while making his annual appearance in this capacity in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that Blue suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 73.

David Hoffman (Actor) .. Konrad

Born: February 02, 1904
Died: June 19, 1961

Trivia: A thin, weasel-like Russian stage actor, David Hoffman made his mark in Hollywood films of the 1940s, chiefly at Universal where, as the spirit, he opened the first five Inner Sanctum films: Calling Dr. Death (1943), Weird Woman (1944), Dead Man's Eyes (1944), The Frozen Ghost (1945), and Strange Confession (1945). Hoffman was also an effective Hawaiian-based Nazi spy in a couple of chapters of the 1943 serial The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943) and portrayed yet another furtive Axis agent in the Marx Brothers comedy A Night in Casablanca (1946). Often unbilled, Hoffman continued in films until the late '50s. He should not be confused with the later director of the same name.

Philip Rock (Actor) .. Person on Beach

Rita Holland (Actor) .. Person on Beach

Rola Stewart (Actor) .. Person on Beach

Georges Renavent (Actor) .. Fisherman

Born: April 23, 1894
Died: January 02, 1969

Trivia: French stage actor Georges Renavent made his first American film appearance in 1915's Seven Sisters. Fourteen years later, Renavent made an impressive talking-picture bow as the villainous Kinkajou in RKO's musical spectacular Rio Rita. He spent the rest of his Hollywood career playing roles of varying sizes, usually foreign ambassadors and international gigolos. An apparent favorite of producer Hal Roach, Renavent enjoyed a lengthy role in Roach's Turnabout (1940) as Mr. Ram, the ancient Indian god who performs a gender-switch on stars John Hubbard and Carole Landis. Sporadically during the 1930s and 1940s, Renavent managed his own touring Grand Guignol theatrical troupe. Georges Renavent was married to actress Selena Royle.

Peter Helmers (Actor) .. Reporter

Born: February 16, 1901
Died: January 02, 1976

Trivia: A tough-looking Austrian bit player, in Hollywood during World War II, Peter Helmers played Victor Francen's secretary in the Warner Bros. melodrama In Our Time (1944) and one of Tala Birell's henchmen in the Universal action serial Jungle Queen (1945). Most of his appearances were unbilled.

Lal Chand Mehra (Actor) .. Servant

Born: August 14, 1897
Died: October 21, 1980

Trivia: Hollywood's favorite Hindu, Lal Chand Mehra began his long screen career writing Hindi subtitles for Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings. A former English teacher in India's Punjap province, Mehra would appear in all the legendary Empire films, from The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) to Gunga Din (1939) to King of the Khyber Riffles (1953), playing High Priests, customs officers, waiters, and others.

Jules Molnar (Actor) .. Servant

Walter Palm (Actor) .. Servant

Pedro Regas (Actor) .. Morgue Attendant

Born: January 01, 1891
Died: January 01, 1974

Trivia: Supporting actor Pedro Regas appeared in Hollywood features for over 50 years. A native of Greece, he got his start on the stage. In film, he usually played foreigners. His brother, George Regas, is also an actor.

Nino Pipitone (Actor) .. Hotel Clerk

Edward Hyans (Actor) .. Man

Antonio Filauri (Actor) .. Man

Born: March 09, 1889
Died: January 18, 1964

Trivia: Italian-born Antonio Filauri became a fixture in Hollywood films from 1932 to 1953, lending his jolly visage to scores of bit parts, playing barbers, waiters, priests (often Mexican), monks, chefs, and even ambassadors. Late in life, Filauri played Papa Riccardo in Mario Lanza's The Great Caruso (1951).

Alfred Paix (Actor) .. Man

Saul Gorss (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1907
Died: September 10, 1966

Trivia: Also billed as Saul Gorse and Sol Gorss, this busy character actor/stunt man entered films in 1933. Gorss spent the better part of his career at Warner Bros., playing muscular utility roles and doubling for the studio's male stars. He forsook Hollywood for war service in 1943, then returned to films, once more cast in minor roles in westerns and crime pictures. One of Saul Gorss' most distinguished credits of the 1950s was The Thing, in which he was one of the stunt performers and coordinators.

Frank Lackteen (Actor) .. Officer in Smyrna

Born: August 29, 1894
Died: July 08, 1968

Trivia: Of Russian heritage, actor Frank Lackteen was born in the area of the world now known as Lebanon. In American films from 1916, the slight, hollow-cheeked, scar-faced Lackteen trafficked in a uniquely maleficent brand of screen villainy. When talkies arrived, his indeterminately foreign accent enhanced his disreputable image. For four decades, he played assassins, smugglers, cult leaders, poisoners, insurrectionists, kidnappers and two-bit hoodlums. He was seen as sinister Arabs, sinister East Indians, sinister Native Americans and sinister South Sea Islanders. A fixture of weekly movie serials since 1916's The Yellow Menace, he played parts of all variety in such chapter plays as Tarzan the Fearless (1933), Wild Bill Hickock (1938), Don Winslow of the Navy (1941), Jungle Girl (1941), Black Widow (1947), Superman (1948). On a lighter note, Frank Lackteen was a regular in Columbia's comedy 2-reelers, menacing everyone from Charley Chase to the Three Stooges.

Roman Bohnen (Actor)

Born: November 24, 1894
Died: February 24, 1949

Trivia: Roman Bohnen studied at the prestigious Munich Business School, then completed his education in his home state at the University of Minnesota. Rechannelled into an acting career, Bohnen worked in many a Broadway and Theatre Guild production before being brought to films by producer Walter Wanger in 1938. Generally cast as rheumy-eyed, defeated old men, Bohnen was brilliant as the pathetic Candy in Of Mice and Men (1939) and the disastrously well-intentioned prison warden in Brute Force (1947). His other screen roles included the title character's father in Song of Bernadette (1943), Captain Ernst Roehm in The Hitler Gang (1944) and Pat Denny in The Best Years of Our Lives. A co-founder of the politically controversial Actors Lab, Roman Bohnen died on stage while appearing in the Lab's production Distant Isle.

Nick Thompson (Actor) .. Porter

Born: January 01, 1889
Died: January 01, 1980

Hella Crossley (Actor) .. Hostess

Carmen D'Antonio (Actor) .. Nightclub Dancer

Born: November 28, 1911

Fred Essler (Actor) .. Bostoff

Born: January 01, 1895
Died: January 01, 1973

John Bleifer (Actor) .. Coach Driver

Born: July 26, 1901
Died: January 24, 1992

Trivia: Polish-born actor John Bleifer was often seen as skulking, sinister European types in the prewar films of 20th Century Fox. Bleifer had no trouble impersonating an Ivan in Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937), a Ludwig in Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1938), and a Pedro in The Mark of Zorro (1940), utilizing essentially the same accent in all three roles. During the war, Bleifer alternated between fascist villains and hapless refugees. Active until the early '80s, John Bleifer essayed such fleeting roles as Ben-Dan in QB VII (1974) and a rabbi in The Frisco Kid (1979).

Albert Van Antwerp (Actor) .. Landlord

Born: January 01, 1897
Died: January 01, 1946

Edgar Licho (Actor) .. Cafe Proprietor

Born: January 01, 1875
Died: January 01, 1944

Michael Visaroff (Actor) .. Policeman

Born: November 18, 1892
Died: February 27, 1951

Trivia: Burly Russian actor Michael Visaroff launched his film career in 1925. Like many of his fellow Russian expatriates, Visaroff claimed to be of noble lineage, which enabled him to land such roles as Count Bosrinov in Disraeli (1929). From the early '30s until his death, he was usually cast as innkeepers, most memorably in Universal's first two Dracula films and in Laurel and Hardy's The Flying Deuces (1939). Michael Visaroff's funniest film appearance was as the homicidal maniac ("She's the first wife I ever killed!") who shares a jail cell with W.C. Fields in Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935).

Louis Mercier (Actor) .. Policeman

Born: March 07, 1901

Trivia: French character actor Louis Mercier was in American films from 1929's Tiger Rose until well into the 1970s. Mercier was particularly busy at 20th Century-Fox's "B"-picture unit in the 1930s and 1940s, usually cast as detectives and magistrates. He can be seen fleetingly in Casablanca (1942) as a smuggler in the first "Rick's Café Americain" sequence. Louis Mercier's later credits include An Affair to Remember (1957, in which he was given a character name--a rarity for him), The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961) and Darling Lili (1970).

Felix Basch (Actor) .. Vaxoff

Born: January 01, 1888
Died: January 01, 1944

Leonid Snegoff (Actor) .. Stambulisky

Born: January 01, 1883
Died: January 01, 1974

Gregory Golubeff (Actor) .. Doorkeeper

Born: January 01, 1891
Died: January 01, 1958

Carl Neubert (Actor) .. Secretary

Lotte Palfi (Actor) .. Receptionist

John Mylong (Actor) .. Druhar

Born: September 27, 1892
Died: September 07, 1975

Trivia: A distinguished stage and screen actor from Austria (born Johan Mylong-Münz), John Mylong was one in a score of European actors cast as Middle European types in Hollywood wartime melodramas. In the U.S. from 1941, when he starred in the New York Theatre Guild's production of Somewhere in France, Mylong later played Colonel Duval in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), the duplicitous General Halder in The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler (1943), Von Bülow in Hotel Berlin (1945), and Kaiser Wilhelm in Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Equally busy on television, Mylong played the casino manager in the "Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo" episode of I Love Lucy and also appeared on Black Saddle and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Mary Landa (Actor) .. Flower Girl

Alphonse Martell (Actor) .. Croupier

Born: March 27, 1890
Died: March 18, 1976

Trivia: In films from 1926, former vaudevillian and stage actor/playwright Alphonse Martell was one of Hollywood's favorite Frenchmen. While he sometimes enjoyed a large role, Martell could usually be found playing bits as maitre d's, concierges, gendarmes, duelists, and, during WW II, French resistance fighters. In 1933, he directed the poverty-row quickie Gigolettes of Paris. Alphonse Martell remained active into the 1960s, guest-starring on such TV programs as Mission: Impossible.

Ray De Ravenne (Actor) .. Taxi Driver

Marek Windheim (Actor) .. Hotel Clerk

Born: January 01, 1895
Died: December 01, 1960

Trivia: A former operatic tenor, diminutive (about five feet tall) Polish-born character comedian Marek Windheim usually portrayed excitable characters, such as headwaiters and hotel clerks, often sporting a fake French accent. Making his Hollywood debut as the ballet master in Shall We Dance? (1937), Windheim popped up in countless, usually unbilled bit parts until at least 1946.

Charles Andre (Actor) .. Conductor

Born: April 26, 1901

Vince Barnett (Actor) .. Cafe Customer

Born: July 04, 1902
Died: August 10, 1977

Trivia: Vince Barnett was the son of Luke Barnett, a well-known comedian who specialized in insulting and pulling practical jokes on his audiences (Luke's professional nickname was "Old Man Ribber"). Vince remained in the family business by hiring himself out to Hollywood parties, where he would insult the guests in a thick German accent, spill the soup and drop the trays--all to the great delight of hosts who enjoyed watching their friends squirm and mutter "Who hired that jerk?" The diminutive, chrome-domed Barnett also appeared in the 1926 edition of Earl Carroll's Vanities. He began appearing in films in 1930, playing hundreds of comedy bits and supporting parts until retiring in 1975. Among Vince Barnett's more sizeable screen roles was the moronic, illiterate gangster "secretary" in Scarface (1931).

Jean Negulesco (Actor)

Born: February 26, 1900
Died: July 18, 1993

Trivia: Jean Negulseco ran away to Vienna, Austria in 1915, and by 1919 had established himself as a painter in Bucharest, Romania. He later worked as a stage decorator in Paris. He came to New York for an exhibition of his paintings in 1927 and stayed. He entered the movie industry in 1934 as an assistant producer and later became a second unit director on pictures such as Captain Blood and A Farewell To Arms. He spent much of the middle and late 1930s as an associate director and screenwriter (including the original story for the Laurel and Hardy musical comedy Swiss Miss). He made two-reel shorts at Warner Bros., and was given his abortive feature directorial debut in 1941's Singapore Woman, from which he was removed but retained credit as director. In the early days of 1942, he took over direction (including the denouement) of Across The Pacific from John Huston when Huston was called up for military service. The Mask of Dimetrios (1944) was Negulesco's formal debut, and proved successful as an offbeat thriller based on an Eric Ambler mystery novel. He later made Johnny Belinda (1948), a groundbreaking drama about a deaf-mute girl who is the victim of rape, which won Jane Wyman an Oscar as Best Actress, and the fact-based prisoner-of-war drama Three Came Home (1950), starring Claudette Colbert. During the 1950s, Negulesco moved comfortably into slicker entertainment, including the comedy How To Marry A Millionaire (1953), the first film shot in CinemaScope, and Three Coins In the Fountain (1954), as well as Fred Astaire's first wide-screen feature, Daddy Long Legs (1954). He retired from filmmaking after many years of declining work in features, and was one of the most honored of Hollywood's elder statesmen for the last two decades of his life. Although never a noted director, Negulesco, in his early prime, showed unusual sensitivity in his choice of subjects and actors.

2:10 pm - 4:15 pm, Today on WZDS Movies! (5.3)