House of Strangers

Edward G. Robinson (Actor) .. Gino Monetti

Born: December 12, 1893
Died: January 26, 1973
Birthplace: Bucharest, Romania

Trivia: Born Emmanuel Goldenberg, Edward G. Robinson was a stocky, forceful, zesty star of Hollywood films who was best known for his gangsters roles in the '30s. A "little giant" of the screen with a pug-dog face, drawling nasal voice, and a snarling expression, he was considered the quintessential tough-guy actor. Having emigrated with his family to the U.S. when he was ten, Robinson planned to be a rabbi or a lawyer, but decided on an acting career while a student at City College, where he was elected to the Elizabethan Society. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship, and, in 1913, began appearing in summer stock after changing his name to "Edward G." (for Goldenberg). Robinson debuted on Broadway in 1915, and, over the next 15 years, became a noted stage character actor, even co-writing one of his plays, The Kibitzer (1929). He appeared in one silent film, The Bright Shawl (1923), but not until the sound era did he begin working regularly in films, making his talkie debut in The Hole in the Wall (1929) with Claudette Colbert. It was a later sound film, 1930's Little Caesar, that brought him to the attention of American audiences; portraying gangster boss Rico Bandello, he established a prototype for a number of gangster roles he played in the ensuing years. After being typecast as a gangster he gradually expanded the scope of his roles, and, in the '40s, gave memorable "good guy" performances as in a number of psychological dramas; he played federal agents, scientists, Biblical characters, business men, bank clerks, among other characters. The actor experienced a number of personal problems during the '50s. He was falsely linked to communist organizations and called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (eventually being cleared of all suspicion). Having owned one of the world's largest private art collections, he was forced to sell it in 1956 as part of a divorce settlement with his wife of 29 years, actress Gladys Lloyd. Robinson continued his career, however, which now included television work, and he remained a busy actor until shortly before his death from cancer in 1973. His final film was Soylent Green (1973), a science fiction shocker with Charlton Heston. Two months after his death, Robinson was awarded an honorary Oscar "for his outstanding contribution to motion pictures," having been notified of the honor before he died. He was also the author of a posthumously published autobiography, All My Yesterdays (1973).

Susan Hayward (Actor) .. Irene Bennett

Born: June 30, 1918
Died: March 14, 1975
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States

Trivia: Energetic red-haired leading lady Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrener) specialized in portraying gutsy women who rebound from adversity. She began working as a photographer's model while still in high school, and when open auditions were held in 1937 for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, she arrived in Hollywood with scores of other actresses. Unlike most of the others, however, she managed to become a contract player. Her roles were initially discouragingly small, although she gradually work her way up to stardom. For her role in Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947) -- the first in which she played a strong-willed, courageous woman -- Hayward received the first of her five Oscar nominations; the others were for performances in My Foolish Heart (1950), With a Song in My Heart (1952), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1956), and I Want to Live (1958), winning for the latter. Although the actress maintained her star status through the late '50s, the early '60s saw her in several unmemorable tearjerkers, and although she formally retired from films in 1964, that retirement was not a permanent one - as she later returned to the screen for a few more roles including parts in a couple of telemovies and one theatrical feature during the early 1970s. Her ten-year marriage to actor Jess Barker ended in 1954 with a bitter child-custody battle, and she died in 1975 after a two-year struggle with a brain tumor, one of several cast and crew members from 1956's The Conqueror to be stricken with cancer later in life.

Richard Conte (Actor) .. Max Monetti

Born: March 24, 1910
Died: April 15, 1975

Trivia: The son of a barber, Richard Conte held down jobs ranging from truck driver, to Wall Street clerk before finding his place as an actor. In 1935, Conte became a waiter/entertainer in a Connecticut resort, which led to stage work when he was spotted by Group Theatre's Elia Kazan and John Garfield. Through Kazan's help, Conte earned a scholarship to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. His first Broadway appearance was in the fast-flop Moon Over Mulberry Street. In 1939, still billed as Nicholas Conte, the actor made his first film, 20th Century-Fox's Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence (1939). It was Fox which would build up the intense, brooding Conte as the "New John Garfield" upon signing him to a contract in 1943. His best parts during his Fox years included the wrongly imprisoned man who is exonerated by crusading reporter James Stewart in Call Northside 777 (1947), and the lead role as a wildcat trucker in Thieves' Highway (1949). Among Conte's many TV assignments was a co-starring stint with Dan Dailey, Jack Hawkins and Vittorio De Sica on the 1959 syndicated series The Four Just Men. Appearing primarily in European films in his last years, Conte directed the Yugoslavian-filmed Operation Cross Eagles. Richard Conte's most important Hollywood role in the 1970s was as rival Mafia Don Barzini in the Oscar-winning The Godfather (1972).

Luther Adler (Actor) .. Joe Monetti

Born: January 01, 1903
Died: December 01, 1984

Trivia: Born in New York City on May 4, 1903, Luther Adler was the product of a well-known Yiddish theatre family. His stage debut came at the age of five when he appeared in Schmendrick. Although primarily a stage actor, Adler's film credits contain character portrayals that are both potent and noteworthy, as evidenced in the 1951 film The Magic Face, where he plays an impersonator who murders Hitler and then takes his place. Here Adler shines in what would otherwise be an average picture. His first movie role came in 1937 with Lancer Spy and continued over the next four decades, with credits in some two dozen films. His sister Stella is well-known as an acting teacher, and his brother Jay starred in occasional films until his death in 1978. Adler was married to Sylvia Sidney from 1938 to 1947. Other memorable films include: D.O.A. (1950); The Desert Fox (1951); The Last Angry Man (1959); Voyage of the Damned (1976).

Paul Valentine (Actor) .. Pietro Monetti

Born: March 23, 1919

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Actor) .. Tony

Born: November 30, 1918
Died: May 02, 2014
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States

Trivia: The son of world-famous violinist Efrem Zimbalist and opera star Alma Gluck, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. received an expensive prep-school education in New England, and at age 16 he briefly studied at Yale University. He became a page at the NBC radio studios in New York City, then took acting lessons at Neighborhood Playhouse. Just before serving in World War II (in which he earned a Purple Heart), Zimbalist married another aspiring performer, Emily McNair. After the war, he began toting up Broadway acting credits, and in 1949 made his film debut as Richard Conte's brutish brother in House of Strangers (1949). After his wife died of cancer in 1950, Zimbalist briefly retired from acting, moving with his two children to Philadelphia; there he became a researcher at the Curtis Institute of Music, where his father was director. Shortly after returning to acting in 1954 with a recurring role on the TV soap opera Concerning Miss Marlowe, Zimbalist married East Coast socialite Stephanie Spaulding; the union produced a daughter, also named Stephanie, who grew up to become a popular actress in her own right (Zimbalist's son, Efrem III, has likewise earned a place in "Who's Who" as a publishing company executive). Signed to a long-term Warner Bros. contract, Zimbalist achieved full stardom in the role of suave private detective Stuart Bailey on the weekly TV series 77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964). He went on to another popular Warners series in 1965, playing inspector Lew Erskine in the long-running (nine seasons) The FBI. His later TV roles included Charles Cabot in the 1986 episodes of Hotel, Don Alejandro de la Vega in the first-season installment of the Family Channel's Zorro (1990-1992), and silver-tongued con artist Daniel Chalmers on his daughter Stephanie's weekly series Remington Steele (1982-1987). Generally cast in sophisticated or serious roles, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. has on occasion been permitted to display his flair for zany comedy, as witness his villainous portrayal in the 1990 action-flick satire Hot Shots! In his later years, he voiced a number of animated characters, such as Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man and Alfred Pennyworth in The New Batman Adventures and Justice League. Zimbalist's final acting role was in the 2008 short film The Delivery. He died in 2014 at age 95.

Debra Paget (Actor) .. Maria Domenico

Born: August 19, 1933

Trivia: She may have hailed from Denver, but actress Debra Paget had the sensual, exotic demeanor of an Arabian Nights princess -- which indeed she played on a few occasions. Signed by 20th Century Fox in 1949, the fresh-out-of-high-school Paget made her cinematic mark in the role of James Stewart's ill-fated Native American wife in Broken Arrow (1950). Most of her subsequent roles were merely decorative, though she was a more than adequate Cosette in the 1952 version of Les Miserables. In 1959, Paget was cast in Fritz Lang's sumptuous international production Journey to the Lost City, gaining extensive publicity coverage for her blood pressure-raising belly dance. After two failed marriages, one to director Budd Boetticher (for whom she had acted in 1955's Seven Men From Now), Debra Paget wed a wealthy Chinese-American oil executive in 1964, the same year that she retired from films.

Hope Emerson (Actor) .. Helena Domenico

Born: October 27, 1897
Died: April 25, 1960

Trivia: When the call went out for an actress to play a circus strongwoman capable of lifting both a chair and Spencer Tracy in 1949's Adam's Rib, there was but one performer who could logically fit the bill: character actress Hope Emerson, who scraped the ceiling at 6' 2" and weighed in at 230 pounds. Emerson made her Broadway debut as the leader of the Amazons in Lysistrata. Her performance in the Fred Stone musical Smiling Faces led to her screen bow in the 1932 filmization of that property. During the 1940s, Emerson gained fame as the radio voice of Borden's Elsie the Cow. After years in vaudeville and the legitimate stage, Emerson returned to films as a homicidal masseuse in the New York-filmed Cry of the City (1948). She went on to play the feuding Mrs. Hatfield in Goldwyn's Roseanna McCoy (1948), and the implicitly lesbian prison matron in Caged (1950), an assignment which earned her an Oscar nomination. In 1958, Emerson was cast as Mother, owner of the nightclub where the beauteous Lola Albright was featured songstress, on the popular TV private eye series Peter Gunn. She left this series in 1959 to take a larger role as a housekeeper named "Sarge" on the weekly sitcom The Dennis O'Keefe Show. Shortly after filming the last O'Keefe episode, Hope Emerson died of a liver ailment at the reported age of 51.

Esther Minciotti (Actor) .. Theresa Monetti

Born: January 01, 1883
Died: January 01, 1962

Diana Douglas (Actor) .. Elaine Monetti

Born: January 22, 1923

Trivia: The daughter of the Attorney General of Bermuda, Diana Dill came to New York in the late '30s to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She left a burgeoning stage career behind when signed to a Hollywood contract in 1942, but before long she was back in New York, thoroughly disillusioned with movies. In 1943 she married one of her fellow AADA student, aspiring actor Kirk Douglas. For the next several years, she divided her time between her stage career and raising her sons, and was also persuaded to make a handful of film appearances, notably as Elaine Monetti in House of Strangers (1949). Though divorced from Douglas by the early '50s, she remained on good terms with her ex-husband, even appearing in his first film directorial effort, The Indian Fighter. Extremely active in television, Diana Douglas was a regular on the 1974 series The Cowboys, and made dozens of guest appearances in such programs as Streets of San Francisco (1972-1978), which co-starred her actor/producer son Michael Douglas.

Tito Vuolo (Actor) .. Lucca

Born: March 22, 1873
Died: September 14, 1962

Trivia: Very few people remember Tito Vuolo's name, but in more than 40 movies and dozens of television shows -- ranging from comedy to film noir -- the Italian-born actor graced audiences with his presence. With his thick accent, short stature, and open, honest features, Vuolo was for many years the epitome of the ethnically identifiable, usually genial Italian, at a time when such portrayals were routine and encouraged in cinema. He could play excitable or nervous in a way that stole a scene, or move through a scene so smoothly that you scarcely noticed him. Vuolo's movie career began in 1946 with an uncredited appearance as a waiter in Shadow of the Thin Man, and he quickly chalked up roles in two further crime movies, the film noir classics Michael Gordon's The Web and Henry Hathaway's Kiss of Death. He was also part of the cast of Dudley Nichols' Mourning Becomes Electra, RKO's disastrous attempt to bring serious theater to the screen, but much of Vuolo's work turned up in films of a grittier nature, such as Anthony Mann's T-Men and The Enforcer, directed by Bretaigne Windust and Raoul Walsh -- the latter film afforded Vuolo one of his most prominent roles in a plot, as the hapless cab driver whose witnessing (with his little girl) of a murder sets in motion a series of events that brings about a dozen murders and ultimately destroys an entire criminal organization. Vuolo's short, squat appearance could also be used to comical effect in a specifically non-ethnic context, as in King Vidor's The Fountainhead, when he turns up at the home of Dominique Francon (Patricia Neal), in place of the expected arrival of tall, lean Howard Roarke (Gary Cooper), in response to her calculated request for repairs to the stone-work in her home. And sometimes he just stole a scene with his finely nuanced use of his accent and an agitated manner, as in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House -- his character goes into an excruciatingly funny explanation to Cary Grant about why he has to blast part of the proposed building site ("Thas-a no rock -- thas-a ledge"). Baby boomers may also remember Vuolo from his role in the 1953 Adventures of Superman episode "My Friend Superman," in which he portrayed a well-meaning luncheonette owner whose claim that Superman is a personal friend of his sets in motion a plot to kidnap Lois Lane. Vuolo's final film appearance was in the Ray Harryhausen science fiction thriller 20 Million Miles to Earth, playing the police commissioner. The beloved character actor died of cancer in 1962. Published dates of birth on Vuolo vary by as much as 19 years (1873 or 1892), so he was either 70 years old or 89 years old at the time of his death.

Alberto Morin (Actor) .. Victoro

Born: January 01, 1912
Died: January 01, 1989

Trivia: Born in Puerto Rico, actor Alberto Morin received his education in France. While in that country he worked briefly for Pathe Freres, a major film distribution firm, then studied theatre at the Escuela de Mimica in Mexico. Upon the advent of talking pictures, Morin was signed by Fox Pictures to make Spanish-language films for the South American market. He remained in Hollywood as a character actor, seldom getting much of a part but nearly always making an impression in his few seconds of screen time. Morin also worked steadily in radio and on such TV weeklies as Dobie Gillis and Mr. Roberts, sometimes billed as Albert Morin. During his five decades in Hollywood, Alberto Morin contributed uncredited performances in several of Tinseltown's most laudable achievements: he played Rene Picard in the Bazaar sequence in Gone With the Wind (1939), was a French military officer at Rick's Cafe Americain in Casablanca (1942), and showed up as a boat skipper in Key Largo (1947).

Sid Tomack (Actor) .. Waiter

Born: January 01, 1906
Died: January 01, 1962

Thomas Browne Henry (Actor) .. Judge

Born: November 07, 1907
Died: June 30, 1980

David Wolfe (Actor) .. Prosecutor

Born: January 01, 1917
Died: January 01, 1973

John Kellogg (Actor) .. Danny

Born: June 03, 1916
Died: February 22, 2000

Trivia: After stock experience in New England and a starring role in a Broadway flop, American actor John Kellogg was selected to play the lead in the road company of the long-running service comedy Brother Rat. He continued working steadily on stage until interrupted by World War II service. After a smattering of movie exposure at other studios, Kellogg signed a Columbia contract in 1946. Good-looking and dependable enough for secondary roles but not quite star material, Kellogg was seen in such films as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1943), A Walk in the Sun (1945), Johnny O'Clock (1947) and 12 O'Clock High (1949).

Ann Morrison (Actor) .. Woman Juror

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1978

Dolores Parker (Actor) .. Nightclub Singer

Mario Siletti (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1903
Died: January 01, 1964

Tommy Garland (Actor) .. Man

Maurice Samuels (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1884
Died: January 01, 1964

Frank Jaquet (Actor) .. Man

Born: March 16, 1885
Died: May 11, 1958

Trivia: Actor Frank Jaquet's screen career extended from 1934 to the mid-1950s. Seldom playing a major role, Jaquet essayed dozens of bit parts as senators, judges, doctors, and politicians. As a pompous small-town mayor, he served as a "human punch line" in the 1938 "Our Gang" comedy Party Fever. Among his larger assignments was the part of murder suspect Paul Hawlin in the 1944 Charlie Chan entry Black Magic. One of Frank Jaquet's last roles was the kindly butcher in the "Gift of the Magi" sequence in O. Henry's Full House (1952).

Charles Flynn (Actor) .. Guard

Howard Mitchell (Actor) .. Guard

Born: December 11, 1883
Died: October 09, 1958

Trivia: Howard M. Mitchell's screen acting career got off to a good start with a pair of silent serials, Beloved Adventurer (1914) and The Road of Strife (1915). Mitchell kept busy as a director in the 1920s, returning to acting in 1935. His roles were confined to bits and walk-ons as guards, storekeepers, judges, and especially police chiefs. Howard M. Mitchell closed out his career playing a train conductor in the classic "B" melodrama The Narrow Margin (1952).

Phil Tully (Actor) .. Guard

Joseph Mazzuca (Actor) .. Bat Boy

John Pedrini (Actor) .. Cop

Charles McClelland (Actor) .. Cop

James Little (Actor) .. Cop

Scott Landers (Actor) .. Detective

Fred Hillebrand (Actor) .. Detective

Argentina Brunetti (Actor) .. Woman

Born: January 01, 1907
Died: December 20, 2005

Rhoda Williams (Actor) .. Woman

Born: July 19, 1930
Died: March 08, 2006

Donna La Tour (Actor) .. Chorus Dancer

Maxine Ardell (Actor) .. Chorus Dancer

Sally Yarnell (Actor) .. Chorus Dancer

Born: April 29, 1915
Died: September 30, 1995

Trivia: Actress Sally Yarnell appeared in numerous films of the late '40s through the late '50s, beginning with Winged Victory (1947).

Jeri Jordan (Actor) .. Chorus Dancer

Marjorie Holliday (Actor) .. Chorus Dancer

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

Bob Castro (Actor) .. Preliminary Fighter

Eddie Saenz (Actor) .. Preliminary Fighter

Silvio Minciotti (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1882
Died: January 01, 1961

Herb Vigran (Actor) .. Neighbor

Born: June 05, 1910
Died: November 28, 1986

Trivia: An alumnus of the Indiana University Law School, Herbert Vigran gave up the legal world to become an actor. Making his 1935 film debut in Vagabond Lady, Vigran had a few lean months after his first flurry of Hollywood activity, but began getting stage work in New York on the basis of a portfolio of photos showing him sharing scenes with several well-known movie actors (never mentioning that most of his film roles were bit parts). After his first Broadway success in Having Wonderful Time, Vigran returned to L.A., accepting small parts in movies while keeping busy with plenty of lucrative radio work; among his hundreds of radio assignments was the title character on the wartime sitcom "The Sad Sack." In films, the harsh-voiced, heavily eyebrowed Vigran could usually be seen as brash reporters and Runyon-esque hoodlums; his favorite role was the rumpled private eye in the 1954 Dick Powell/Debbie Reynolds comedy Susan Slept Here. During the 1950s, Vigran was most active in TV, essaying half a dozen bad guy roles on the Superman series and appearing regularly as Monte the Bartender on the Dante's Inferno episodes of the anthology series Four Star Playhouse. In the early '70s, Herb Vigran found time during his hectic movie and voice-over schedule to play the recurring role of Judge Brooker on Gunsmoke.

Mushy Callahan (Actor) .. Referee

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: January 01, 1986

Trivia: Mushy Callahan was the junior welterweight boxing champion during the late 1920s. He joined the film industry as a prop man and grip for Warner Brothers in 1934. He then was promoted to boxing instructor for studio stars and helped stage the fights for films such as Kid Galahad, Gentle Jim, and Rebel Without a Cause. He was helping James Dean train for his upcoming film Somebody Up There Likes Me when Dean died. Callahan also helped stage the ballet movements for a musical number in Oklahoma. Just before retiring, he trained James Earl Jones for The Great White Hope. The former fighter has also had small parts in several films, including Madison Square Garden, and Hello Dolly!

George Spaulding (Actor) .. Doorman

Born: January 01, 1881
Died: January 01, 1959

John Kullers (Actor) .. Taxi Driver

Born: December 30, 1911

Trivia: American actor John Kullers appeared occasionally in films, particularly those of John Cassavetes, but he primarily worked on the New York stage.

3:40 pm - 5:50 pm, Thursday, June 4 on WNYW Movies! (5.2)