My Fair Lady

Rex Harrison (Actor) .. Henry Higgins

Born: March 05, 1908
Died: June 02, 1990
Birthplace: Huyton, Lancashire, England

Trivia: Debonair and distinguished British star of stage and screen for more than 50 years, Sir Rex Harrison is best remembered for playing charming, slyly mischievous characters. Born Reginald Carey in 1908, he made his theatrical debut at age 16 with the Liverpool Repertory Theater, remaining with that group for three years. Making his British stage and film debut in 1930, Harrison made the first of many appearances on Broadway in Sweet Aloes in 1936. He became a bona fide British star that same year when he appeared in the theatrical production French Without Tears, in which he showed himself to be very skilled in black-tie comedy. He served as a flight lieutenant in the RAF during World War II, although this interruption in his career was quickly followed by several British films. Harrison moved to Hollywood in 1945, where his career continued to prosper. Among his many roles was that of the king in the 1946 production of Anna and the King of Siam. Harrison was perhaps best known for his performance as Professor Henry Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady, a character he played on Broadway from 1956-1958 (winning a Tony award in 1957) and again in its 1981 revival, as well as for a year in London in the late '50s; in 1964, he won an Oscar for his onscreen version of the role. He had previously received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963). Harrison continued to act on both the stage and screen in the 1970s and into the '80s. He published his autobiography, Rex, in 1975, and, four years later, edited and published an anthology of poetry If Love Be Love. Knighted in 1989, he was starring in the Broadway revival of Somerset Maugham's The Circle (with Stewart Granger and Glynis Johns) until one month before he died of pancreatic cancer in 1990. Three of Harrison's six marriages were to actressesLilli Palmer, Kay Kendall, and Rachel Roberts.

Audrey Hepburn (Actor) .. Eliza Doolittle

Born: May 04, 1929
Died: January 20, 1993
Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium

Trivia: Magical screen presence, fashion arbiter, shrine to good taste, and tireless crusader for children's rights, Audrey Hepburn has become one of the most enduring screen icons of the twentieth century. Best-known for her film roles in Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady, Roman Holiday and Charade, Hepburn epitomized a waif-like glamour, combining charm, effervescence, and grace. When she died of colon cancer in 1993, the actress was the subject of endless tributes which mourned the passing of one who left an indelible imprint on the world, both on and off screen.Born into relative prosperity and influence on May 4, 1929, Hepburn was the daughter of a Dutch baroness and a wealthy British banker. Although she was born in Brussels, Belgium, her early years were spent traveling between England, Belgium, and the Netherlands because of her father's job. At the age of five, Hepburn was sent to England for boarding school; a year later, her father abandoned the family, something that would have a profound effect on the actress for the rest of her life. More upheaval followed in 1939, when her mother moved her and two sons from a previous marriage to the neutral Netherlands: the following year the country was invaded by the Nazis and Hepburn and her family were forced to endure the resulting hardships. During the German occupation, Hepburn suffered from malnutrition (which would permanently affect her weight), witnessed various acts of Nazi brutality, and at one point was forced into hiding with her family. One thing that helped her through the war years was her love of dance: trained in ballet since the age of five, Hepburn continued to study, often giving classes out of her mother's home.It was her love of dance that ultimately led Hepburn to her film career. After the war, her family relocated to Amsterdam, where the actress continued to train as a ballerina and modeled for extra money. Hepburn's work led to a 1948 screen test and a subsequent small role in the 1948 Dutch film Nederlands in Zeven Lessen (Dutch in Seven Lessons). The same year, she and her mother moved to London, where Hepburn had been given a dance school scholarship. Continuing to model on the side, she decided that because of her height and lack of training, her future was not in dance. She tried out for and won a part in the chorus line of the stage show High Button Shoes and was soon working regularly on the stage. An offer from the British Pictures Corporation led to a few small roles, including one in 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob. A major supporting role in the 1952 film The Secret People led to Monte Carlo, Baby (1953), and it was during the filming of that movie that fate struck for the young actress in the form of a chance encounter with Colette. The famed novelist and screenwriter decided that Hepburn would be perfect for the title role in Gigi, and Hepburn was soon off to New York to star in the Broadway show. It was at this time that the actress won her first major screen role in William Wyler's 1953 Roman Holiday. After much rehearsal and patience from Wyler (from whom, Hepburn remarked, she "learned everything"), Hepburn garnered acclaim for her portrayal of an incognito European princess, winning an Academy Award as Best Actress and spawning what became known as the Audrey Hepburn "look." More success came the following year with Billy Wilder's Sabrina. Hepburn won a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in the title role, and continued to be a fashion inspiration, thanks to the first of many collaborations with the designer Givenchy, who designed the actress' gowns for the film.Hepburn also began another collaboration that year, this time with actor/writer/producer Mel Ferrer. After starring with him in the Broadway production of Ondine (and winning a Tony in the process), Hepburn married Ferrer, and their sometimes tumultuous partnership would last for the better part of the next fifteen years. She went on to star in a series of successful films during the remainder of the decade, including War and Peace (1956), 1957's Funny Face, and The Nun's Story (1959), for which she won another Oscar nomination.Following lukewarm reception for Green Mansions (1959) and The Unforgiven (1960), Hepburn won another Oscar nomination and a certain dose of icon status for her role as enigmatic party girl Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). The role, and its accompanying air of cosmopolitan chic, would be associated with Hepburn for the rest of her life, and indeed beyond. However, the actress next took on an entirely different role with William Wyler's The Children's Hour (1961), a melodrama in which she played a girls' school manager suspected of having an "unnatural relationship" with her best friend (Shirley MacLaine).In 1963, Hepburn returned to the realm of enthusiastic celluloid heterosexuality with Charade. The film was a huge success, thanks in part to a flawlessly photogenic pairing with Cary Grant (who had previously turned down the opportunity to work with Hepburn because of their age difference). The actress then went on to make My Fair Lady in 1964, starring opposite Rex Harrison as a cockney flower girl. The film provided another success for Hepburn, winning a score of Oscars and a place in motion picture history. After another Wyler collaboration, 1965's How to Steal a Million, as well as Two for the Road (1967) and the highly acclaimed Wait Until Dark (1967)--for which she won her fifth Oscar nomination playing a blind woman--Hepburn went into semi-retirement to raise her two young sons. Her marriage to Ferrer had ended, and she had married again, this time to Italian doctor Andrea Dotti. She came out of retirement briefly in 1975 to star opposite Sean Connery in Robin and Marian, but her subsequent roles were intermittent and in films of varying quality. Aside from appearances in 1979's Bloodline and Peter Bogdanovich's 1980 They All Laughed, Hepburn stayed away from film, choosing instead to concentrate on her work with starving children. After divorcing Dotti in the early 1980s, she took up with Robert Wolders; the two spent much of their time travelling the world as part of Hepburn's goodwill work. In 1987, the actress was officially appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador; the same year she made her final television appearance in Love Among Thieves, which netted poor reviews. Two years later, she had her final film appearance as an angel in Steven Spielberg's Always.Hepburn devoted the last years of her life to her UNICEF work, travelling to war-torn places like Somalia to visit starving children. In 1992, already suffering from colon cancer, she was awarded the Screen Actors' Guild Achievement Award. She died the next year, succumbing to her illness on January 20 at her home in Switzerland. The same year, she was posthumously awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Stanley Holloway (Actor) .. Alfred Doolittle

Born: October 01, 1890
Died: January 30, 1982

Trivia: British entertainer Stanley Holloway tried to make a go of his first job as a clerk in a Billingsgate fish market, but the call of the theatre was loud and strong. Originally planning an operatic career, Holloway studied singing in Milan, but this came to an end when World War One began. Finishing up his service with the infantry, Holloway headed for the stage again, making his London premiere in 1919's Kissing Time. His first film was The Rotters (1921), and the first time the public outside the theatres heard his robust voice was on radio in 1923. Holloway toured the music hall-revue circuit with his comic monologues, usually centered around his self-invented characters "Sam Small" and "The Ramsbottoms." Holloway's entree into talking pictures was with a 1930 film version of his stage success, The Co-Optimist. The British film industry of the '30s was more concerned in turning out "quota quickies" so that Hollywood would send over an equal number of American films, but Holloway was able to survive in these cheap pictures, occasionally rising to the heights of such productions as Squibs (1935) and The Vicar of Bray (1937). In 1941, Holloway was cast in one of the prestige films of the season, George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara; this led to top-drawer film appearances throughout the war years, notably This Happy Breed (1944), The Way to the Stars (1945) and Brief Encounter (1947). Though he'd had minimal Shakespearian experience, Holloway was selected by Laurence Olivier to play the Gravedigger in Olivier's filmization of Hamlet (1947), a role he'd forever be associated with and one he'd gently parody in 1969's Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Gaining an American audience through repeated showings of his films on early-'50s TV, Holloway took New York by storm as Alfred P. Doolittle in the stage smash My Fair Lady - a role he'd repeat in the 1964 film version (after James Cagney had turned it down), and win an Oscar in the bargain. Continuing his activities in all aspects of British show business -- including a 1960 one-man show, Laughs and Other Events -- Holloway decided he'd take a whack at American TV as the butler protagonist of the 1962 sitcom Our Man Higgins. It's difficult to ascertain the quality of this series, since it had the miserable luck of being scheduled opposite the ratings-grabbing Beverly Hillbillies. Stanley Holloway perservered with stage, movie, and TV appearances into the '70s; in honor of one of his two My Fair Lady songs, he titled his 1981 autobiography Wiv a Little Bit of Luck.

Wilfrid Hyde-white (Actor) .. Col. Hugh Pickering

Born: May 12, 1903
Died: May 06, 1991

Trivia: British actor Wilfred Hyde-White entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art upon graduation from Marlborough College. After some stage work, he made his first film in 1934 and became a stalwart in British movies like Rembrandt (1936) and The Demi-Paradise (1943), often billed as merely "Hyde White" and specializing in benign but stuffy upper-class types. Hyde-White received a somewhat larger role than usual in The Third Man (1949), principally because his character was an amalgam of two characters who were originally written for the erstwhile British comedy team Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne. Working both sides of the continent, Hyde-White appeared in such American productions as In Search of the Castaways (1962) and Gaily, Gaily (1969). His best-loved role was as Colonel Pickering in the 1964 Oscar-winner My Fair Lady, wherein he participated in two musical numbers, "The Rain in Spain" and "You Did It." Remaining in films until 1983, Hyde-White was still inducing audience chuckles in such films as The Cat and the Canary (1979), in which he appeared "posthumously" in a pre-filmed last will and testament.

Gladys Cooper (Actor) .. Mrs. Higgins

Born: December 18, 1888
Died: November 17, 1971

Trivia: Widely acclaimed as one of the great beauties of the stage, British actress Gladys Cooper had the added advantage of great talent. Daughter of a London magazine editor, she made her stage bow at age 17 in a Colchester production of Bluebell in Fairyland; at 19, she was a member of the "Gaiety Girls," a famous and famously attractive chorus-girl line. Graduating to leading roles, Cooper was particularly popular with young stage door johnnies; during World War I, she was the British troops' most popular "pin-up." Switching from light comedy to deep drama in the 1920s, Cooper retained her following, even when leaving England for extended American appearances after her 1934 Broadway debut in The Shining Hour. She made subsequent New York appearances in Shakespearean roles, thereafter achieving nationwide fame with her many Hollywood film appearances (she'd first acted before the cameras way back in 1911 in a British one-reeler, Eleventh Commandment). Now past fifty but still strikingly attractive, Cooper was often cast as aristocratic ladies whose sharp-tongued cattiness was couched in feigned politeness; her film parts ranged from Bette Davis' overbearing mother in Now Voyager (1941) to the hidden murderess in a Universal "B" horror, The Black Cat (1941). Returning to the London stage in 1947, Cooper remained there for several years before returning to Broadway in The Chalk Garden(1955). New York was again regaled by her in 1962 when she played Mrs. Moore in A Passage to India (the role which won Peggy Ashcroft an Oscar when Passage was filmed over 20 years later). The years 1960-1964 were particularly busy for Cooper on TV and in films; she won her third Oscar nomination for her role as Prof. Henry Higgins' mother in My Fair Lady (1964), starred as the matriarch of a family of genteel swindlers on the TV series The Rogues (1964), and even found time to co-star with a very young Robert Redford on a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone. Made a Dame Commander of the O.B.E. in 1967, Cooper had no plans for slowing down in her eighties, even though she was appalled by the "let it all hang out" theatre offerings of the era. Cooper was planning to tour in a Canadian revival of Chalk Garden in 1971 when she contracted pneumonia and died in November of that year.

Jeremy Brett (Actor) .. Freddie Eynsford-Hill

Born: November 03, 1933
Died: September 12, 1995
Birthplace: Berkswell Grange, Warwickshire

Trivia: Jeremy Brett was a gifted yet ultimately underappreciated Thespian whose symbiotic relationship with the character Sherlock Holmes has earned him a permanent place in the livelihood of the fictitious legend as well as Baker Street Irregulars and the like. (His portrayal of the character is, arguably, the most authentic and revered today.) Born Jeremy Peter William Huggins in Berkswell, Warwickshire, England, in 1933, Brett was the son of Henry and Elizabeth Huggins along with his three brothers, John, Patrick, and Michael. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army and did not want the family name associated with the dubious world of the theatrical, so young Brett plucked his stage name from the tag in his first suit, Brett & Co. He made his professional stage debut in Manchester, England, in the company of the Library Theatre in 1954. Brett's early work on the stage included everything from the classic to the avant-garde in nature; he was a diverse and multifaceted performer, who even worked alongside the likes of Charlton Heston (playing Dr. Watson oddly enough). He was still a fledgling at London's Central School of Speech and Drama when he made his first uncredited feature-film appearance in Svengali.Brett's photograph in a British actors publication caught the eye of American filmmaker King Vidor, who subsequently cast him as Nicholai Rostov in his adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace (1956); the film marked his first encounter with future co-star Audrey Hepburn. After a stint in film, Brett returned to the London stage and joined the Old Vic theater company touring England and Canada, and it finally landed him right on Broadway in the U.S. Brett made his first U.S. television appearance on March 4, 1957, as Paris in an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. He continued to act in London plays and sing in musicals into his late twenties, including an important role as Hamlet in 1961. He married fellow Thespian Anna Massey in 1958; however, the marriage was short-lived. The couple had one son, David, for whom they continued to care for adequately in the aftermath of their divorce.The early '60s found Brett collaborating with renowned British actor/director Laurence Olivier, who offered him supporting roles in his productions of Othello and Hamlet. Brett would have been more inclined to focus on these stage roles if he hadn't been distracted by the filming of My Fair Lady, in which he sang alongside Audrey Hepburn as Freddy Eynesford-Hill. Olivier did his best to get Brett to stay in London, but Hollywood and the West Coast were too alluring for the adventurous young man, who was always up for an adventure. After the filming of My Fair Lady finally ended, Brett partook in a number of theatrical pieces including Rolf Hochhuth's The Deputy and Turgenev's A Month in the Country. Taking a nod from director Olivier and other patrons of London's National Theatre, Brett finally made his debut with the prestigious company in 1967 as Orlando in Shakespeare's As You Like It, which premiered with mixed reviews. He also appeared with the company in MacRune's Guevara (as Che Guavara, reportedly spending time hitchhiking around South America to fully understand his character), The Merchant of Venice, and Hedda Gabler, directed by Ingmar Bergman. The '70s attracted Brett more to television and radio with a few small intermissions on the stage; he was a player in the 1976 Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. Television, however, brought him together with his second wife, producer Joan Sullivan (aka Joan Wilson), on the set of Rebecca. The two claim it was love at first sight, and they were married in November of 1977 until her untimely death from cancer in 1985. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes had begun filming that year, thanks to producer and Brett-enthusiast Michael Cox; Brett continued to work through his period of grief, performing in Aren't We All through the end of July and then showed up to start filming The Return of Sherlock Holmes in August of that same year. As he fought to belie his inward grief through continuous working, his emotions finally caught up with him, and he had a breakdown of sorts after finishing the first few episodes of the Return series in 1986. It was at this point that Brett was officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a sickness which had gone mostly undocumented throughout his life and was played off as indiosyncracies of an impulsive actor amongst his friends and associates.Aside from his loss and psychological demons at bay, Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the Granada series was to be his most poignant work, partly due to the emotive energy he channeled into it from his personal standpoint. He approached the role with utter seriousness and respect for the detective; Brett was a staunch critic in keeping true to the historical and literary keynotes from the stories, which resulted in a stylish, witty, and sophisticated interpretation of the singular friendship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. At the same time, Brett articulated facets of Holmes that went beyond the stories, creating a fresh and more vibrant (and sometimes more comical) Holmes than had been seen before. The Granada anthology includes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; four feature films were also produced from the short novels -- A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Master Blackmailer (adapted from Doyle's The Valley of Fear). Brett was not only manic depressive, but he also had a continually failing heart; his condition was further compromised by heavy smoking, a grueling work schedule, and an already weakened heart from a spout with rheumatic fever as a child. He had become compulsive and brooding like the Holmes he portrayed in The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, a centennial commemorative play written by his good friend, Jeremy Paul, the man who also wrote a number of Holmes episodes for Granada. The Secret ran a rigorous year in the U.K. and finally came to a close in late 1989. By then, Brett's health was waning; his last appearances were on the set of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes at 221b Baker Street. He passed away on September 12, 1995, in his sleep at his home in Clapham Common. His career legacy is still treasured to many, and his portraiture of the famous detective hero will always remain in the hearts of Sherlockians everywhere.

Theodore Bikel (Actor) .. Zoltan Karpathy

Born: May 02, 1924
Died: July 21, 2015

Trivia: Though he has logged many impressive credits as an actor, Vienna-born Theodore Bikel preferred to think of himself -- and bill himself -- as a folksinger. Emigrating to Palestine in the 1930s, Bikel supported himself with his music, and also acted with Tel Aviv's Habimah Theatre in Sholem Alecheim's Tevye the Milkman. A quick study in several languages, Bikel honed his acting skills with Britain's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Three years after his London stage debut, Bikel made his first film, playing a German naval officer (the first of many villainous roles) in The African Queen (1951). In 1958, he was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting appearance in The Defiant Ones. One year later, he costarred with Mary Martin on Broadway, originating the role of Captain Von Trapp in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. Active in many political causes ranging from Jewish relief to the Democratic Party, Bikel served as president of Actor's Equity from 1973 until 1982. In a mid-1980s interview, Theodore Bikel noted with amusement that, in spite of his many stage and screen appearances, many fans remembered him best for his brief unsympathetic appearance as a Russian officer in the otherwise forgettable 1957 film Fraulein. Bikel continued working well into his advanced years, both on screen and on stage. He died in 2015, at age 91.

Mona Washbourne (Actor) .. Mrs. Pearce

Born: November 27, 1903
Died: November 15, 1988

Trivia: Mona Washbourne was trained as a concert pianist at the Birmingham School of Music. After performing in the "Modern Follies Concert Party" of 1924, she found acting, singing and clowning more to her liking. She launched her musical-comedy career in the touring musical revue Fol De Rols, remaining in this line of work until switching to straight dramatic acting in the 1937 West End production of Mourning Becomes Electra. In 1948, Washbourne inaugurated her film career, contributing sparkling characterizations to such films as Doctor in the House (1954), The Good Companions (1957), Billy Liar (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964, as Henry Higgins's housekeeper Mrs. Pearce). She played her patented dithering, doddering mannerisms opposite two humorless "psychos" in the space of a single year when she appeared in Night Must Fall (1964) and The Collector (1965). She went on to essay several distinct characterizations in O Lucky Man (1973), and to win the British Film Academy Award for her portrayal of the "lion mother" in Stevie (1978). Having appeared in experimental television broadcasts as early as 1929, Mona Washbourne returned to the small screen to close out her career as Nanny Hawkins in Brideshead Revisited (1982).

Isobel Elsom (Actor) .. Mrs. Eynsford-Hill

Born: March 16, 1893
Died: January 12, 1981

Trivia: A stage actress of long standing in her native England, aristocratic leading lady Isobel Elsom made her first Broadway appearance in 1926. Her biggest stage hit was in the role of the wealthy murder victim in 1939's Ladies in Retirement, a role she repeated (after a two-year, nonstop theatrical run) in the 1941 film version. Nearly always cast as a stately lady of fine breeding, Elsom played everything from Gary Cooper's soon-to-be mother-in-law in Casanova Brown (1946) to a movie studio executive in Jerry Lewis' The Errand Boy (1962). She was also seen as Mrs. Eynesford-Hill in the 1964 movie adaptation of My Fair Lady. At one time married to director Maurice Elvey, Isobel Elsom was sometimes billed under the last name of another husband, appearing as Isobel Harbold.

John Holland (Actor) .. Butler

Born: May 16, 1908

Veronica Rothschild (Actor) .. Queen of Transylvania

Henry Daniell (Actor) .. Prince of Transylvania

Born: March 05, 1894
Died: October 31, 1963

Trivia: With his haughty demeanor and near-satanic features, British actor Henry Daniell was the perfect screen "gentleman villain" in such major films of the 1930s and 1940s as Camille (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). An actor since the age of 18, Daniell worked in London until coming to America in an Ethel Barrymore play. He co-starred with Ruth Gordon in the 1929 Broadway production Serena Blandish, in which he won critical plaudits in the role of Lord Iver Cream. Making his movie debut in Jealousy (1929)--which co-starred another stage legend, Jeanne Eagels--Daniell stayed in Hollywood for the remainder of his career, most often playing cold-blooded aristocrats in period costume. He was less at home in action roles; he flat-out refused to participate in the climactic dueling scene in The Sea Hawk (1940), compelling star Errol Flynn to cross swords with a none too convincing stunt double. Daniell became something of a regular in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films made at Universal in the 1940s--he was in three entries, playing Professor Moriarty in The Woman in Green (1945). Though seldom in pure horror films, Daniell nonetheless excelled in the leading role of The Body Snatcher (1945). When the sort of larger-than-life film fare in which Daniell specialized began disappearing in the 1950s, the actor nonetheless continued to prosper in both films (Man in the Grey Flannel Suit [1956], Witness for the Prosecution [1957]) and television (Thriller, The Hour of St. Francis, and many other programs). While portraying Prince Gregor of Transylvania in My Fair Lady (1964), under the direction of his old friend George Cukor, Daniell died suddenly; his few completed scenes remained in the film, though his name was removed from the cast credits.

Alan Napier (Actor) .. Ambassador

Born: January 07, 1903
Died: August 08, 1988

Trivia: Though no one in his family had ever pursued a theatrical career (one of his more illustrious relatives was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain), Alan Napier was stagestruck from childhood. After graduating from Clifton College, the tall, booming-voiced Napier studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then was engaged by the Oxford Players, where he worked with such raw young talent as John Gielgud and Robert Morley. He continued working with the cream of Britain's acting crop during his ten years (1929-1939) on the West End stages. Napier came to New York in 1940 to co-star with Gladys George in Lady in Waiting. Though his film career had begun in England in the 1930s, Napier had very little success before the cameras until he arrived in Hollywood in 1941. He essayed dignified, sometimes waspish roles of all sizes in such films as Cat People (1942), The Uninvited (1943), and House of Horror (1946); among his off-the-beaten-track assignments were the bizarre High Priest in Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948) and a most elegant Captain Kidd in the 1950 Donald O'Connor vehicle Double Crossbones. In 1966, Alan Napier was cast as Bruce Wayne's faithful butler, Alfred, on the smash-hit TV series Batman, a role he played until the series' cancellation in 1968. Alan Napier's career extended into the 1980s, with TV roles in such miniseries as QB VII and such weeklies as The Paper Chase.

Jack Greening (Actor) .. George

Moyna Macgill (Actor) .. Lady Boxington

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: January 01, 1975

John Alderson (Actor) .. Jamie

Born: April 10, 1916

Trivia: Character actor, onscreen from 1952.

John Mcliam (Actor) .. Harry

Born: January 01, 1920
Died: April 16, 1994

Trivia: He was born John Williams, but there already was a John Williams in show business (several of them, in fact), so the Canadian-born actor selected John McLiam as his professional moniker. McLiam's man-on-the-street countenance could be molded into a vast array of characterizations, ranging from a cockney low-life (My Fair Lady) to a Southern redneck (Cool Hand Luke). The actor's bland normality was a key factor in his being cast as real-life murder victim Herbert Clutter in 1967's In Cold Blood. John McLiam accepted more TV guest-star assignments than can possibly be listed here; he was also a regular on the weekly series Men From Shiloh (1970) and Two Marriages (1983).

Ben Wrigley (Actor) .. Costermonger

Born: March 12, 1903

Clive Halliday (Actor) .. Costermonger

Born: May 05, 1900

Richard Peel (Actor) .. Costermonger

Born: July 17, 1920
Died: October 11, 1988

Eric Heath (Actor) .. Costermonger

James O'hara (Actor) .. Costermonger

Born: September 11, 1927

Kendrick Huxham (Actor) .. Elegant Bystander

Frank Baker (Actor) .. Elegant Bystander

Born: October 11, 1892
Died: December 30, 1980

Trivia: Onscreen from 1912, Australian-born Frank Baker was the brother of that country's foremost silent-screen action hero, Snowy Baker. Like Snowy, Frank settled in Hollywood in the 1920s and embarked on a long career as a stuntman and bit player. Rarely onscreen for more than minutes, Baker later portrayed Major Martling in the 1935 serial The New Adventures of Tarzan, George Davis in Clark Gable's Parnell (1937), Lord Dunstable in That Forsyte Woman (1949), and even General Robert E. Lee in Run of the Arrow (1957). Retiring in the mid-'60s, Frank Baker spent his final years at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital. He died in 1980 at the age of 88.

Walter Burke (Actor) .. Main Bystander

Born: January 01, 1909
Died: August 09, 1984

Trivia: Diminutive Irish-American character actor Walter Burke kicked off his film career in 1948. Burke's weaselly, cigarette-dangling-from-lips characterization of political flunky Sugar Boy in the Oscar-winning All the King's Men (1949) set the tone for most of his later roles. Though often afforded meaty roles on television -- he was one of several actors who subbed for William Talman during the 1960-1961 season of Perry Mason -- Burke had no objection to accepting tiny but memorable bits, such as the cockney who warns Eliza Doolittle, "There's a bloke be'ind that pillar, takin' down every word that you're sayin'!" in the opening scene of My Fair Lady (1964). In another unbilled assignment, Burke convincingly voice-doubled for narrator Walter Winchell in a handful of early-'60s episodes of The Untouchables. Closing out his film career in the early '70s, Walter Burke moved to Pennsylvania, where he became an acting teacher.

Queenie Leonard (Actor) .. Cockney Bystander

Born: January 01, 1905
Died: January 17, 2002

Trivia: British music-hall performer Queenie Leonard made her film bow in 1937's The Show Goes On. Possessed of a wicked wit and boundless energy, Leonard quickly became a "pet" of Hollywood's British colony when she moved to the U.S. in 1940. With the exception of The Lodger (1944), few of her film appearances captured her natural effervescence; for the most part, she was cast as humorless domestics in such films as And Then There Were None (1944) and Life with Father (1947). In the 1950s and 1960s, she provided delightful voiceovers for such Disney cartoon features as Peter Pan (1953) and 101 Dalmatians (1961). Queenie Leonard was married twice, to actor Tom Conway and to art director Lawrence Paul Williams.

Laurie Main (Actor) .. Hoxton Man

Born: November 29, 1922
Died: February 08, 2012

Maurice Dallimore (Actor) .. Selsey Man

Born: January 01, 1912
Died: January 01, 1973

Owen McGiveney (Actor) .. Man at Coffee Stand

Born: January 01, 1883
Died: January 01, 1967

Marjorie Bennett (Actor) .. Cockney With Pipe

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: June 14, 1982

Trivia: Australian actress Marjorie Bennett made her first film appearances in the pre-World War I years at the suggestion of her sister, silent film star Enid Bennett. Marjorie wasn't yet under the spell of the acting bug, so she abandoned performing for several years, re-emerging as a stage rather than screen actress. She returned to films in the late 1940s as a character player, notably in Charles Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). A prolific film and TV performer of the 1950s and 1960s, Marjorie Bennett was usually cast as huffy society matrons and haughty domestics; her massive bulk and easily outraged demeanor made her a perfect straight woman for such iconoclastic comedians as Red Skelton and the Three Stooges.

Britannia Beatey (Actor) .. Daughter of Elegant Bystander

Beatrice Greenough (Actor) .. Grand Lady

Hilda Plowright (Actor) .. Bystander

Born: January 01, 1890
Died: January 01, 1973

Dinah Anne Rogers (Actor) .. Maid

Lois Battle (Actor) .. Maid

Jacqueline Squire (Actor) .. Parlor Maid

Gwendolyn Watts (Actor) .. Cook

Born: September 23, 1937

Trivia: British actress Gwendolyn Watts has played character roles on stage and screen. She left films in the early '70s to raise her children, but returned to acting a few years later. She was typically cast as a working-class woman. Her sister, Sally Watts, is also an actress.

Eugene Hoffman (Actor) .. Juggler

Kai Farrelli (Actor) .. Juggler

Raymond Foster (Actor) .. Cockney

Joe Evans (Actor) .. Cockney

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1973

Marie Busch (Actor) .. Cockney

Mary Alexander (Actor) .. Cockney

William Linkie (Actor) .. Cockney

Henry Sweetman (Actor) .. Cockney

Andrew Brown (Actor) .. Cockney

Samuel Holmes (Actor) .. Cockney

Thomas Dick (Actor) .. Cockney

William Taylor (Actor) .. Cockney

James Wood (Actor) .. Cockney

Goldie Kleban (Actor) .. Cockney

Elizabeth Aimers (Actor) .. Cockney

Joy Tierney (Actor) .. Cockney

Lenore Miller (Actor) .. Cockney

Donna Day (Actor) .. Cockney

Corinne Ross (Actor) .. Cockney

David Robel (Actor) .. Cockney

Iris Bristol (Actor) .. Flower Girl

Alma Lawton (Actor) .. Flower Girl

Born: August 17, 1896

Gigi Michel (Actor) .. Toff

Sandy Steffens (Actor) .. Toff

Sandy Edmundson (Actor) .. Toff

Marlene Marrow (Actor) .. Toff

Carol Merrill (Actor) .. Toff

Sue Bronson (Actor) .. Toff

Lea Genovese (Actor) .. Toff

Ron Whelan (Actor) .. Algernon/Bartender

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: January 01, 1965

Roy Dean (Actor) .. Footman

Charles Fredericks (Actor) .. King

Born: January 01, 1918
Died: January 01, 1970

Lillian Kemble-Cooper (Actor) .. Lady Ambassador

Born: March 21, 1892

Barbara Pepper (Actor) .. Doolittle's Dance Partner

Born: May 31, 1915
Died: July 18, 1969

Trivia: A specialist in hard-boiled dame roles, Barbara Pepper made her first film appearances as a Goldwyn Girl; she was prominent among the nubile slaves who were garbed only in floor-length blonde wigs in Goldwyn's Roman Scandals (1933). Pepper's one shot at stardom came in King Vidor's Our Daily Bread, in which she played the sluttish vamp who led hero Tom Keene astray; unfortunately, the film was not successful enough, nor her performance convincing enough, to lead to larger parts. She spent the next 30 years in supporting roles and bits, most often playing brassy goodtime girls. A radical weight gain in the 1950s compelled Pepper to alter her screen image; she quickly became adept at portraying obnoxious middle-aged tourists, snoopy next-door neighbors, belligerent landladies, and the like. Pepper's best friend in Hollywood was Lucille Ball, another alumna of the Goldwyn Girl ranks. At one point in 1951,Pepper was a candidate for the role of Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy. In her last decade, Barbara Pepper gained a whole new crop of fans thanks to her recurring appearances as Doris Ziffel on the TV sitcom Green Acres.

Ayllene Gibbons (Actor) .. Fat Woman at Pub

Born: February 23, 1906

Baroness Rothschild (Actor) .. Queen of Transylvania

Ben Wright (Actor) .. Footman at Ball

Born: May 05, 1915
Died: July 02, 1989

Trivia: More familiar for his radio work than his film appearances, American actor Ben Wright was active professionally from the early '40s. Dialects were a specialty with Wright, as witness his two-year hitch as Chinese bellhop Hey Boy on the radio version of Have Gun Will Travel. Most of Wright's film roles were supporting or bit appearances in such productions as A Man Called Peter (1955), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Fortune Cookie (1964). On TV, Wright was one of Jack Webb's stock company (including fellow radio veterans Virginia Gregg, Stacy Harris, and Vic Perrin) on the '60s version of Dragnet. Ben Wright's most frequently seen film appearance was as the humorless Nazi functionary Herr Zeller in the 1965 megahit The Sound of Music.

Oscar Beregi Jr. (Actor) .. Greek Ambassador

Born: May 12, 1918

Buddy Bryan (Actor) .. Prince

Grady Sutton (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Born: April 05, 1908
Died: September 17, 1995

Trivia: While visiting a high school pal in Los Angeles in 1924, roly-poly Grady Sutton made the acquaintance of his friend's brother, director William A. Seiter. Quite taken by Sutton's bucolic appearance and comic potential, Seiter invited Sutton to appear in his next film, The Mad Whirl. Sutton enjoyed himself in his bit role, and decided to remain in Hollywood, where he spent the next 47 years playing countless minor roles as dimwitted Southerners and country bumpkins. Usually appearing in comedies, Sutton supported such master clowns as Laurel and Hardy and W.C. Fields (the latter reportedly refused to star in 1940's The Bank Dick unless Sutton was given a good part); he also headlined in two short-subjects series, Hal Roach's The Boy Friends and RKO's The Blondes and the Redheads. Through the auspices of Blondes and the Redheads director George Stevens, Sutton was cast as Katharine Hepburn's cloddish dancing partner in Alice Adams (1935), the first of many similar roles. Sutton kept his hand in movies until 1971, and co-starred on the 1966 Phyllis Diller TV sitcom The Pruitts of Southampton. A willing interview subject of the the 1960s and 1970s, Grady Sutton went into virtual seclusion after the death of his close friend, director George Cukor.

Orville Sherman (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Born: January 18, 1916

Harvey Dunn (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Born: January 01, 1894
Died: January 01, 1968

Trivia: Harvey B. Dunn led a long and successful performing career as a radio announcer and stage, television, and movie character actor; although he appeared in small roles in a variety of mainstream films, he achieved a peculiar form of screen stardom and immortality in the larger parts that he portrayed in several notoriously bad (but fascinating) films directed by Edward D. Wood Jr. and Tom Graeff. A southerner by birth, Dunn's earliest professional engagements were as an announcer on WALB radio in Albany, GA, and WFLB in Fayetteville, NC. Later based in Chicago, his theatrical work included roles in The Front Page, The Late Christopher Bean (with Zazu Pitts), The Barker (with James Dunn), and Present Laughter (with Edward Everett Horton). He played in stock across the country and appeared as a dramatic actor on Colgate Theater on early television. In between was a lot of other work -- his own professional bio claimed experience in every area of theater "except medicine shows and grand opera." His earliest credited screen role was in MGM's 1951 Vengeance Valley, which was sort of that studio's answer to Universal's Winchester '73 released the prior year and he also had a small part in Billy Wilder's Sabrina in 1954. Starring roles beckoned Dunn, not from the likes of Wilder or anyone at MGM, but from director/producer Edward D. Wood Jr., who cast the avuncular actor as the police captain in Bride of the Monster (1956) -- Dunn gave what was probably the straightest performance in the film, with some odd little character touches that seemed natural and pleasing in their bizarre way (typical of a Wood script), such as his character's fascination with feeding his pet bird in the office. He also had a role in Wood's final film as a director, The Sinister Urge which was not widely distributed and in-between played the role of the genial grandfather in Tom Graeff's bizarre, low-budget sci-fi thriller Teenagers From Outer Space. He continued working in movies and on television into the early '60s in small parts, but never got the kind of screen time that Wood and Graeff had afforded this likable character actor, whose round face and genial manner recalled both Lloyd Corrigan and Hal Smith.

Barbara Morrison (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Born: October 01, 1907

Natalie Core (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Born: February 21, 1919

Helen Albrecht (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Diana Bourbon (Actor) .. Ascot Type

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: January 01, 1978

Colin Campbell (Actor) .. Ascot Gavotte

Born: March 20, 1883
Died: March 25, 1966

Trivia: Of the many movie-industryites bearing the name "Colin Campbell," the best known was the Scots-born silent film director listed below. Emigrating to the U.S. at the turn of the century, Campbell barnstormed as a stage actor and director before settling at the Selig studios in 1911. The best-remembered of his Selig directorial efforts was 1914's The Spoilers, a crude but ruggedly realistic Alaskan adventure film climaxed by a brutal fistfight. It was during his Selig years that Campbell helped to nurture the talents of future western star Tom Mix. Considered an "old-timer" and has-been by the early 1920s, Colin Campbell ended his career with such plodding time-fillers as Pagan Passions (1924) and The Bowery Bishop (1924).

Marjory Hawtrey (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Ascot

Paulle Clark (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Ascot

Allyson Daniell (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Ascot

Betty Blythe (Actor) .. Ad Lib at Ball

Born: September 01, 1893
Died: April 07, 1972

Trivia: Formerly an art student at USC, Betty Blythe began her stage work in such tried-and-true theatrical pieces as So Long Letty and The Peacock Princess. After touring Europe and the States, Betty entered films in 1918 at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, then was brought to Hollywood's Fox Studios as a replacement for screen vamp Theda Bara. As famous for her revealing costumes as for her dramatic skills, Betty became a star in such exotic vehicles as The Queen of Sheba (1921) and She (1925). Her stage training served her well during the transition to talkies, but Ms. Blythe's facial features had matured rather quickly, and soon she was consigned to supporting roles. She spent most of the 1940s in touring companies of Broadway hits like The Man Who Came to Dinner and Wallflower, supplementing her income by giving acting and diction lessons. Betty Blythe's final screen appearance was a one-line bit in the Embassy Ball sequence in My Fair Lady (1964), in which she was lovingly photographed by her favorite cameraman from the silent days, Harry Stradling.

Nick Navarro (Actor) .. Dancer

Tom Cound (Actor) .. Footman

William Beckley (Actor) .. Footman

Born: January 15, 1930

Geoffrey Steele (Actor) .. Taxi Driver

Born: June 27, 1914
Died: January 01, 1987

Jennifer Crier (Actor) .. Mrs. Higgins' Maid

Patrick O'Moore (Actor) .. Man

Born: April 08, 1909

Victor Rogers (Actor) .. Policeman

Michael St. Clair (Actor) .. Bartender

Born: December 20, 1922

Trivia: Australian actor Michael St. Clair played supporting roles in feature films and on television. A former middleweight boxing champion and acrobat, he also worked as a ventriloquist and comedy host.

Brendan Dillon (Actor) .. Leaning Man

Born: October 24, 1918

Olive Reeves-Smith (Actor) .. Mrs. Hopkins

Miriam Schiller (Actor) .. Landlady

Elzada Wilson (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Jeanne Carson (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Buddy Shea (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Jack Goldie (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Sid Marion (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: January 01, 1965

Stanley Fraser (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

George Pelling (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Born: October 25, 1914

Colin Kenny (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Born: January 01, 1888
Died: December 02, 1968

Trivia: Irish actor Colin Kenny was in films from 1917. Kenny was seen as Cecil Greystoke, Tarzan's romantic rival, in Tarzan of the Apes (1918) and its sequel The Romance of Tarzan (1918). In talkies, Kenny was consigned to such single-scene roles as the Talking Clock in Alice in Wonderland (1933) and Sir Baldwin in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938); he also showed up as British-India military officers and Scotland Yard operatives. Colin Kenny kept working until 1964, when he and dozens of his fellow British expatriates appeared in My Fair Lady (1964).

LaWana Backer (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Monika Henreid (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Anne Dore (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Pauline Drake (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Born: July 06, 1905

Shirley Melline (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Wendy Russell (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Meg Brown (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Clyde Howdy (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Born: January 01, 1919
Died: January 01, 1969

Nick Wolcuff (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Martin Eric (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

John Mitchum (Actor) .. Ad Libs at Church

Born: January 01, 1919
Died: November 29, 2001

Trivia: The younger brother of film star Robert Mitchum, American actor John Mitchum shared his family's Depression-era travails before striking out on his own. As brother Robert's star ascended in the mid '40s, John remained his elder sibling's boon companion, severest critic and drinking buddy. In later years, John was a convivial anecdotal source for books and articles about Bob, each reminiscense becoming more colorful as it was repeated for the next interview. After holding down a variety of jobs, John decided to give acting a try as a result of hearing Bob's tales of Hollywood revelry; too heavyset to be a leading man, John became a reliable character actor, usually in military or western roles. He frequently had small parts in his brother's starring films, notably One Minute to Zero (1951) and The Way West (1967). Most of John's movie work was done outside Robert's orbit, however, in such films as Cattle King (1963) and Paint Your Wagon (1970). Perhaps John Mitchum's best screen role was as Goering in the 1962 biopic Hitler; he may have been utterly opposed ideologically to the late German field marshal, but John certainly filled the costume.

Phyllis Kennedy (Actor) .. Cockney/Ad Lib at Church

Born: June 16, 1914

Major Sam Harris (Actor) .. Guest at Ball

Trivia: In his autobiography The Moon's a Balloon, David Niven recalled the kindnesses extended to him by Hollywood's dress extras during Niven's formative acting years. Singled out for special praise was a dignified, frequently bearded gentleman, deferentially referred to as "The Major" by his fellow extras. This worthy could be nobody other than the prolific Major Sam Harris, who worked in films from the dawn of the talkie era until 1964. Almost never afforded billing or even dialogue (a rare exception was his third-billed role in the 1937 John Wayne adventure I Cover the War), Harris was nonetheless instantly recognizable whenever he appeared. His output included several of John Ford's efforts of the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing upon his extensive military experience, Major Sam Harris showed up in most of the "British India" pictures of the 1930s, and served as technical advisor for Warners' Charge of the Light Brigade (1935).

Jack Raine (Actor) .. Extra

Born: May 18, 1897
Died: May 30, 1979

Trivia: Stout, hearty character actor Jack Raine specialized in light comedy and dramatic roles throughout most of his career. He made his first film in 1930 and his last in 1971, seldom rising above the supporting players' ranks but always remaining busy. His better-known screen assignments included Trebonius in Joseph Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar; his Broadway credits included the short-lived 1952 production Sherlock Holmes, in which he played Dr. Watson opposite Basil Rathbone's Holmes. Married three times, Jack Raine's wives included actresses Binnie Hale and Sonia Somers.

Brittania Beatey (Actor) .. Daughter of Elegant Bystander

Walter Bacon (Actor) .. Ball Guest

Al Bain (Actor) .. Cockney

Tex Brodus (Actor) .. Ascot Extra

Bea Marie Busch (Actor) .. Cockney

Jeannie Carson (Actor) .. Ad Lib at Church

Born: May 23, 1928
Died: November 02, 2005

Allison Daniell (Actor) .. Ad Lib at Ascot

Oscar Beregi (Actor) .. Greek Ambassador

Born: May 12, 1918
Died: November 01, 1976

Trivia: The son of celebrated Hungarian stage and screen actor Oscar Beregi Sr., Oscar Beregi Jr. made his American film bow in 1953's Call Me Madam. During the next two decades, the younger Beregi excelled as a movie and TV villain, often playing sadistic Nazis. He could be seen in virtually every major network TV program, making three memorable appearances on The Twilight Zone alone. Though Oscar Beregi's big-screen roles were often small, he made the most of such broadly drawn characters as the scowling U-boat commandant in The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) and the taunting prison guard in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974).

Robert Coote (Actor)

Born: February 04, 1909
Died: November 25, 1982

Trivia: Born in London and educated at Sussex' Hurstpierpont College, actor Robert Coote can be described as Britain's Ralph Bellamy. After making his film debut in the Gracie Fields vehicle Sally in Our Alley (1931) and spending several years on the London stage, the gangly, mustached Coote settled in Hollywood, where in film after film he played stuffed-shirt aristocrats, snooty military officers and clueless young twits who never got the girl. Coote interrupted his film career for World War II service as a squadron leader with the Canadian Air Force, then returned to supporting roles in such films as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) and Forever Amber (1948). In 1956, Coote was cast as Col. Pickering in the long-running Broadway musical My Fair Lady; eight years later he appeared in the weekly TV series The Rogues, generally carrying the series' plotlines when the "official" stars--David Niven, Charles Boyer and Gig Young--were indisposed. Robert Coote's last film appearance was as one of the theatrical critics dispatched by looney Shakespearean actor Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood.

Pat O'Moore (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1908
Died: December 10, 1983

Trivia: Irish stage actor Patrick O'Moore began his film career in 1934, playing a few leads in English films before settling in Hollywood. A close friend of actor Humphrey Bogart, O'Moore was seen to good advantage in such Bogart features as Sahara (1943) and Conflict (1945). Otherwise, most of his film roles were unbilled bits as clerks, constables, government officials, and military men. He kept active into the 1980s, playing small parts in such TV productions as QB VII and theatrical features as The Sword and the Sorcerer. Patrick O'Moore was at one time married to Broadway musical-comedy star Zelma O'Neal.

12:45 pm - 4:00 pm, Monday, November 17 on KRMS Nostalgia Network (32.7)