My Gal Sal

Rita Hayworth (Actor) .. Sally Elliott

Born: October 17, 1918
Died: May 14, 1987
Birthplace: New York City (Brooklyn), New York

Trivia: The definitive femme fatale of the 1940s, Rita Hayworth was the Brooklyn-born daughter of Spanish dancer Eduardo Cansino and Ziegfeld Follies showgirl Volga Haworth. She joined the family dancing act in her early teens and made a few '30s films under her real name, Margarita Cansino, and with her real hair color (black), including Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) and Meet Nero Wolfe (1936). Over the next few years -- at the urging of Columbia Studios and her first husband -- she reshaped her hairline with electrolysis, dyed her hair auburn, and adopted the name Rita Hayworth. Following her performance in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), she became a major leading lady to most of the big stars, including Tyrone Power, Fred Astaire, Charles Boyer, Gene Kelly, and her second and soon to be ex-husband Orson Welles in The Lady From Shanghai (1948). Hayworth then became involved in a tempestuous romance with married playboy Aly Khan, son of the Pakistani Muslim leader Aga Khan III, and they married in 1949. Following their divorce two years later, she was married to singer Dick Haymes from 1953 to 1955, and then for three years to James Hill, the producer of her film Separate Tables (1958). Her career had slowed down in the '50s and came to a virtual standstill in the '60s, when rumors of her supposed erratic and drunken behavior began to circulate. In reality, Hayworth was suffering from the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. For years, she would be cared for by her daughter Princess Yasmin Khan, and her death from the disease in 1987 gave it public attention that led to increased funding for medical research to find a cure.

Victor Mature (Actor) .. Paul Dresser

Born: January 29, 1915
Died: August 04, 1999

Trivia: The first male film star to be officially labelled a "hunk," Victor Mature was the son of Swiss immigrants. When he arrived in California to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, Mature was so broke that he lived in a pup tent in a vacant lot and subsisted on canned sardines and chocolate bars. There was speculation amongst his fellow students that Mature's spartan lifestyle was deliberately engineered to draw publicity to himself; if so, the ploy worked, and by 1938 he'd been signed to a contract by producer Hal Roach. Mature's first starring film role was as Tumack the caveman in Roach's One Million BC (1940), which enabled the fledgling actor to display his physique without being unduly encumbered by dialogue. While still under contract to Roach, Mature made his Broadway debut in the Moss Hart/Kurt Weill musical Lady in the Dark, playing a musclebound male model. In 1941, Mature was signed by 20th Century-Fox as the "beefcake" counterpart to the studio's "cheesecake" star Betty Grable; the two attractive stars were frequently cast together in Fox musicals, where a lack of clothes was de rigeur. Apparently because of his too-handsome features, the press and fan magazines went out of their way to make Mature look ridiculous and untalented. In truth, he had more good film performances to his credit than one might think: he was excellent as the tubercular Doc Holliday in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1948), and also registered well in Kiss of Death (1947), Cry of the City (1948), The Egyptian (1954), Betrayed (1954), and Chief Crazy Horse (1955). As the slave Demetrius in The Robe (1953), Mature is more understated and credible than the film's "distinguished" but hopelessly hammy star Richard Burton. Nonetheless, and thanks to such cinematic folderol as Samson and Delilah (1949), Mature was still widely regarded as a lousy actor who survived on the basis of his looks. Rather than fight this ongoing perception, Mature tended to denigrate his own histrionic ability in interviews; later in his career, he hilariously parodied his screen image in such films as After the Fox (1966) and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). Semi-retired from acting in the late 1970s, Victor Mature ran a successful television retail shop in Hollywood, although in 1984 he did appear in a TV remake of Samson and Delilah, effectively portraying Samson's father.

Carole Landis (Actor) .. Mae Collins

Born: January 01, 1919
Died: July 05, 1948

Trivia: Of Polish and Norwegian descent, Carole Landis moved with her mother and siblings from Wisconsin to California, where at age seven she made her inauspicious stage debut in an amateur talent show. Within five years, Carole began winning beauty contests. In high school, she was only interested in athletics, organizing a girl's football team which was dissolved by the principal on the grounds that it was "unladylike." Married at 15 and separated a few weeks later, Carole dropped out of school to pursue an acting career. She was principal singer and star hula dancer at the Royal Hawaiian club in San Francisco. Entering films in 1937 as a bit actress, Carole played a thankless leading role in the 1939 serial Daredevils of the Red Circle. Later that year, she was selected to play the prehistoric heroine of Hal Roach's One Million BC; according to Roach, she won the role on the basis of her athletic prowess and running ability. Signed at Roach, Carole was dubbed "The Ping Girl" in the studio's publicity, appearing in comedy leads in Turnabout, Road Show, and Topper Returns (all 1941). In 1941, half of Carole's Roach contract was purchased by 20th Century-Fox. She received good reviews for her performances in such Fox films as I Wake Up Screaming (1941), Orchestra Wives (1942) and My Gal Sal (1942). In 1942, Carole joined Martha Raye, Kay Francis and Mitzi Mayfair for a Hollywood Victory Committee tour of the British isles. She wrote a book on the subject of this tour, Four Jills in A Jeep, which in 1944 was filmed by Fox with the four actresses starring. Carole was one of the most tireless performers on the USO circuit, at one point contracting malaria but insisting upon maintaining her hectic schedule. On the home front, she was a principal fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. After briefly appearing in a 1945 Broadway musical, Carole returned to films, but her star had eclipsed and she had to make do with B pictures. In 1948, Carole Landis committed suicide.

Mona Maris (Actor) .. Countess Rossini

Born: November 07, 1903
Died: March 23, 1991

Trivia: Born to a wealthy Argentine family, actress Mona Maris was educated in France, then made her first screen appearances in Britain and Germany. Maris came to Hollywood in 1929, where she starred in Spanish-language versions of popular American films. Her subsequent stateside screen career was more limited than her work elsewhere: for the most part, she was confined to the usual Hispanic stereotypes. She returned to South America in 1950, closing out her film work with 1952's La Mujer des Camilias. Previously wed to film director Clarence Brown, Mona Maris retired to Peru after her marriage to a Dutch millionaire.

John Sutton (Actor) .. Fred Haviland

Born: October 22, 1908

James Gleason (Actor) .. Pat Hawley

Born: May 23, 1886
Died: April 12, 1959

Trivia: Character actor James Gleason usually played tough-talking, world-weary guys with a secret heart-of-gold. He is easily recognized for his tendency to talk out of the side of his mouth. Gleason's parents were actors, and after serving in the Spanish-American War, Gleason joined their stock company in Oakland, California. His career was interrupted by service in World War I, following which he began to appear on Broadway. He debuted onscreen in 1922, but didn't begin to appear regularly in films until 1928. Meanwhile, during the '20s he also wrote a number of plays and musicals, several of which were later made into films. In the early sound era, Gleason collaborated on numerous scripts as a screenwriter or dialogue specialist; he also directed one film, Hot Tip (1935). As an actor, he appeared in character roles in over 150 films, playing a wide range of hard-boiled (and often semi-comic) urban characters, including detectives, reporters, marine sergeants, gamblers, fight managers, and heroes' pals. In a series of films in the '30s, he had a recurring lead role as slow-witted police inspector Oscar Piper. James Gleason was married to actress Lucille Webster Gleason; their son was actor Russell Gleason.

Phil Silvers (Actor) .. Wiley

Born: May 11, 1912
Died: November 01, 1985
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States

Trivia: Growing up in the squalid Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Phil Silvers used his excellent tenor voice and facility for cracking jokes to escape a life of poverty. He was discovered as a young teen by vaudevillian Gus Edwards who hired him to perform in his schoolroom act. Silvers' singing career ended when his voice changed at 16, whereupon he took acting jobs in various touring vaudeville sketches. During his subsequent years in burlesque, he befriended fellow comic Herbie Faye, with whom he would work off and on for the rest of his career. While headlining in burlesque, Silvers was signed to star in the 1939 Broadway musical comedy Yokel Boy. This led to film work, first in minor roles, then as comedy relief in such splashy 1940s musicals as Coney Island (1943) and Cover Girl (1944). Silvers became popular if not world famous with his trademark shifty grin, horn-rimmed glasses, balding pate, and catchphrases like "Gladda see ya!" He returned to Broadway in 1947, where he starred as a turn-of-the-century con man in the Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn musical High Button Shoes. In 1950, he scored another stage success as a Milton Berle-like TV comedian in Top Banana, which won him the Tony and Donaldson Awards. From 1955 through 1959, Silvers starred as the wheeling-dealing Sgt. Ernie Bilko on the hit TV series You'll Never Get Rich, for which he collected five Emmy awards. Upon the demise of this series, Silvers stepped into another success, the 1960 Styne-Comden-Green Broadway musical Do Re Mi. The failure of his 1963 sitcom The New Phil Silvers Show marked a low point in his career, but the ever scrappy Silvers bounced back again to appear in films and TV specials. In 1971, he starred in a revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (nine years after turning down the original 1962 production because he felt the show "wouldn't go anywhere."). He collected yet another Tony for his efforts -- then suffered a severe stroke in August of 1972. While convalescing, Silvers wrote his very candid autobiography, The Laugh Is on Me. He recovered to the extent that he could still perform, but his speech was slurred and his timing was gone. Still, Silvers was beloved by practically everyone in show business, so he never lacked for work. Phil Silvers was the father of actress Cathy Silvers, best known for her supporting work on the TV series Happy Days.

Walter Catlett (Actor) .. Col. Truckee

Born: February 04, 1889
Died: November 14, 1960

Trivia: Walter Catlett began his acting career in stock companies in his hometown of San Francisco. After attending St. Ignacious College, he reached New York in 1911 in the musical The Prince of Pilsen. Catlett's dithering comic gestures and air of perpetual confusion won him a legion of fans and admirers when he starred in several editions of The Ziegfeld Follies, and in the Ziegfeld-produced musical comedy Sally, in which he appeared for three years. Catlett made a handful of silent film appearances, but didn't catch on until the advent of talking pictures allowed moviegoers to see and hear his full comic repertoire. Usually sporting horn-rimmed spectacles or a slightly askew pince-nez, Catlett played dozens of bumbling petty crooks, pompous politicians and sleep-benumbed justices of the peace. Hired for a few days' work in Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938), Catlett proved so hilarious in his portrayal of an easily befuddled small-town sheriff that his role was expanded, and he was retained off-screen to offer advice about comic timing to the film's star, Katharine Hepburn. In addition to his supporting appearances, Catlett starred in several 2-reel comedies, and was co-starred with his lifelong friend Raymond Walburn in the low-budget "Henry" series at Monogram. Busy until a few short years before his death, Walter Catlett appeared in such 1950s features as Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956), Friendly Persuasion (1956) and Beau James (1957) (as New York governor Al Smith).

Frank Orth (Actor) .. McGuinness

Born: February 21, 1880
Died: March 17, 1962

Trivia: Moonfaced American actor Frank Orth came to films from vaudeville, where he was usually co-billed with wife Ann Codee. Orth and Codee continued appearing together in a series of two-reel comedies in the early '30s, before he graduated to features with 1935's The Unwelcome Stranger. From that point until his retirement in 1959, Orth usually found himself behind a counter in his film appearances, playing scores of pharmacists, grocery clerks and bartenders. He had a semi-recurring role as Mike Ryan in MGM's Dr. Kildare series, and was featured as a long-suffering small town cop in Warners' Nancy Drew films. Orth was an apparent favorite of the casting department at 20th Century-Fox, where he received many of his credited screen roles. From 1951 through 1953, Frank Orth was costarred as Lieutenant Farraday on the Boston Blackie TV series.

Stanley Andrews (Actor) .. Mr. Dreiser

Born: August 28, 1891
Died: June 23, 1969

Trivia: Actor Stanley Andrews moved from the stage to the movies in the mid 1930s, where at first he was typed in steadfast, authoritative roles. The tall, mustachioed Adrews became familiar to regular moviegoers in a string of performances as ship's captains, doctors, executives, military officials and construction supervisors. By the early 1950s, Andrews had broadened his range to include grizzled old western prospectors and ageing sheriffs. This led to his most lasting contribution to the entertainment world: the role of the Old Ranger on the long-running syndicated TV series Death Valley Days. Beginning in 1952, Andrews introduced each DVD episode, doing double duty as commercial pitchman for 20 Mule Team Borax; he also became a goodwill ambassador for the program and its sponsor, showing up at county fairs, supermarket openings and charity telethons. Stanley Andrews continued to portray the Old Ranger until 1963, when the US Borax company decided to alter its corporate image with a younger spokesperson -- a 51-year-old "sprout" named Ronald Reagan.

Margaret Moffat (Actor) .. Mrs. Dreiser

Born: January 01, 1883
Died: January 01, 1942

Libby Taylor (Actor) .. Ida

Born: April 20, 1902

John Kelly (Actor) .. John L. Sullivan

Born: June 29, 1901
Died: December 04, 1947

Trivia: Of many "John Kellys" in films, this John Kelly was the most prolific. Actor John Kelly was usually cast as boxers, cabbies, sailors and street cops. He made his first film in 1927, and his last in 1946. John Kelly's parts ranged from microscopic--he has one line as Captain Sidney Toler's first mate in Our Relations (1936)--to meaty; many will no doubt remember him best as dim-witted deputy sheriff Elmer in Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (1938).

Curt Bois (Actor) .. De Rochemont

Born: April 05, 1901
Died: December 25, 1991

Trivia: German actor Curt Bois took to the stage at age seven. After experience as a cabaret performer, Bois worked with the legendary impresario Max Reinhardt and appeared in 25 German films. He left Germany to escape Hitler in 1933, then re-established himself on the Broadway stage. His first film, in which he was seen in his standard characterization of a slick, self-important European, was 1937's Tovarich. Bois' best-known film appearance was brief: he played the obsequious pickpocket ("There are vultures everywhere) in the 1942 classic Casablanca. As a result, he spent many of his last years being interviewed on the subject of that film, his stories improving with each telling. Bois went on to work with such directors as Lubitsch and Ophuls before returning to Germany in 1950. Here he continued to appear in films, and in 1955 directed the feature Ein Polterabend. One of Curt Bois' last performances was as the wizened historian who endlessly wanders Berlin in hopes of properly capturing the city on paper in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1988).

Gregory Gaye (Actor) .. Mons. Garnier

Born: October 10, 1900
Died: January 01, 1993

Trivia: Russian-born actor Gregory Gaye came to the U.S. after the 1917 revolution. Gaye flourished in films of the 1930s, playing a variety of ethnic types. He was Italian opera star Barelli in Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), an exiled Russian nobleman in Tovarich (1937), an indignant German banker in Casablanca (1942), a Latin named Ravez in the 1945 "Sherlock Holmes" effort Pursuit to Algiers (1946) a minor-league crook of indeterminate origin in the Republic serial Tiger Woman (1945) and the villainous interplanetary leader in the weekly TV sci-fi series Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1945). Gregory Gaye was active in films until 1979, when he showed up briefly as a Russian Premier in the disaster epic Meteor.

Andrew Tombes (Actor) .. Corbin

Born: January 01, 1889
Died: January 01, 1976

Trivia: Excelling in baseball while at Phillips-Exeter academy, American comic actor Andrew Tombes determined he'd make a better living as an actor than as a ballplayer. By the time he became a headliner in the Ziegfeld Follies, Tombes had performed in everything from Shakespeare to musical comedy. He received star billing in five editions of the Follies in the '20s, during which time he befriended fellow Ziegfeldite Will Rogers. It was Rogers who invited Tombes to Hollywood for the 1935 Fox production Doubting Thomas. An endearingly nutty farceur in his stage roles, Tombes' screen persona was that of an eternally befuddled, easily aggravated business executive. The baldheaded, popeyed actor remained at Fox for several years after Doubting Thomas, playing an overabundance of police commissioners, movie executives, college deans, and Broadway "angels." Tombes' problem was that he arrived in talkies too late in the game: most of the larger roles in which he specialized usually went to such long-established character men as Walter Catlett and Berton Churchill, obliging Tombes to settle for parts of diminishing importance in the '40s. Most of his later screen appearances were unbilled, even such sizeable assignments as the would-be musical backer in Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin' (1941) and the royal undertaker's assistant in Hope and Crosby's Road to Morocco (1942). Still, Tombes was given ample opportunity to shine, especially as the secretive, suicidal bartender in the 1944 "film noir" Phantom Lady. Andrew Tombes last picture was How to Be Very Very Popular (1955), which starred a colleague from his busier days at 20th Century-Fox, Betty Grable.

Albert Conti (Actor) .. Henri

Born: January 29, 1887
Died: January 18, 1967

Trivia: Born Albert de Conti Cedassamare, Conti was a career soldier in the Austrian army who came to America after the close of World War I. Like many impoverished postwar Europeans, Conti was obliged to take a series of manual labor jobs. While working in the California oil fields, Conti answered an open call placed by director Erich von Stroheim, who was in search of an Austrian military officer to act as technical advisor for his upcoming film Merry Go Round (1923). A better actor than most of his fellow Hapsburg empire expatriates, Conti was able to secure dignified character roles in several silent and sound films; his credits ranged from Joseph von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) to the early Laurel and Hardy knockabout Slipping Wives (1927). Though he made his last film in 1942, Albert Conti remained in the industry as an employee of the MGM wardrobe department, where he worked until his retirement in 1962.

Charles Arnt (Actor) .. Tailor

Born: August 20, 1908
Died: August 06, 1990

Trivia: Indiana native Charles Arnt attended Princeton University, where he was president of the Triangle Club and where he earned a geological engineering degree. Short, balding and with an air of perpetual suspicion concerning his fellow man, Arnt seemed far older than his 30 years when he was featured in the original Broadway production of Knickerbocker Holiday. In the movies, Arnt was often cast as snoopy clerks, inquisitive next-door neighbors or curious bystanders. Charles Arnt was seen in such films as The Falcon's Brother (1942), The Great Gildersleeve (1943) and That Wonderful Urge (1948); he also played one top-billed lead, as an obsessive art dealer in PRC's Dangerous Intruder (1946).

Chief Thundercloud (Actor) .. Murphy

Born: April 12, 1899
Died: November 30, 1955

Trivia: Though the "Chief" was a purely honorary title, Chief Thundercloud was indeed a Native American. Educated at the University of Arizona, Thundercloud (given name: Victor Daniels) worked at a series of manual-labor and rodeo jobs before trying his luck in Hollywood. In films from 1928 through 1952, Thundercloud is best known for creating the role of Tonto in the 1938 serial The Lone Ranger. He also played the title role in Paramount's Geronimo (1939), though he incredibly received no on-screen credit. Chief Thundercloud should not be confused with another prominent Indian actor, Chief Thunderbird, who appeared as Sitting Bull in 1936's Annie Oakley, nor with film-actor Scott T. Williams, who also billed himself as Chief Thundercloud.

Hermes Pan (Actor) .. Specialty Dancer

Born: December 10, 1909
Died: September 19, 1990

Trivia: His given name was Pangiotopolous, but the Nashville-born dancer/choreographer adopted the mythological cognomen of Hermes Pan when he became a professional chorus boy. Among Pan's earliest Broadway appearances was in the Marx Bros. vehicle Animal Crackers in 1928. From 1933 onward, Pan worked most often in collaboration with Fred Astaire, plotting out the dance routines of the wonderful RKO Astaire/Rogers films. The working method seldom varied: Pan, who resembled Astaire, would map out Astaire's numbers while Astaire watched. Then he would assume Ginger Rogers' part when the dance duets were choreographed -- meaning that Pan had to be just as quick on his feet backwards as forwards. Oddly, Pan's first Academy Award was for Damsel in Distress, in which Astaire appeared without Ginger. Pan appeared onscreen as Betty Grable's partner in Moon Over Miami (1942), and was later paired with Rita Hayworth in My Gal Sal (1942); in both instances, Pan was exclusively a dancer, with nary a line of dialogue nor a character name. He finally did get to act in A Life of Her Own, a 1948 MGM musical drama starring Cyd Charisse. Pan continued his association with Fred Astaire into the television era, accruing an Emmy for the unforgettable 1958 special An Evening With Fred Astaire. In 1970, advertiser/satirist Stan Freberg hired Pan to choreograph a Busby Berkeley takeoff for his legendary "Great American Soups" commercial starring Ann Miller. Long after his retirement, Hermes Pan continued to be honored by a grateful industry: he received the National Film Award in 1980 and a special trophy from the Joffrey ballet in 1986.

Robert Lowery (Actor) .. Sally's Friend

Born: October 17, 1913
Died: December 26, 1971

Trivia: Leading man Robert Lowery came to Hollywood on the strength of his talent as a band vocalist. He was signed to a movie contract in 1937 by 20th Century-Fox, a studio that seemed to take a wicked delight in shuttling its male contractees from bits to second leads to bits again. Freelancing from 1942 onward, Lowery starred in a few low-budget films at Universal and Monogram. In 1949, he portrayed the Caped Crusader in the Columbia serial Batman and Robin. On television, Robert Lowery co-starred as Big Tim Champion on the kiddie series Circus Boy (1956-1958), and played smooth-talking villain Buss Courtney on the Anne Sheridan sitcom Pistols and Petticoats (1967).

Dorothy Dearing (Actor) .. Sally's Friend

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: January 01, 1965

Ted North (Actor) .. Sally's Friend

Roseanne Murray (Actor) .. Sally's Friend

Harry Strang (Actor) .. Bartender

Born: December 13, 1892
Died: April 10, 1972

Trivia: Working in virtual anonymity throughout his film career, the sharp-featured, gangly character actor Harry Strang was seldom seen in a feature film role of consequence. From 1930 through 1959, Strang concentrated on such sidelines characters as soldiers, sentries, beat cops and store clerks. He was given more to do and say in 2-reel comedies, notably in the output of RKO Radio Pictures, where he appeared frequently in the comedies of Leon Errol and Edgar Kennedy. Harry Strang will be remembered by Laurel and Hardy fans for his role as a desk clerk in Block-Heads (1938), in which he was not once but twice clobbered in the face by an errant football.

Milton Kibbee (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 27, 1896

Luke Cosgrave (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1862
Died: January 01, 1949

Ernie Adams (Actor) .. Man

Born: June 18, 1885

Joe Bernard (Actor) .. Man

Born: June 01, 1880

Trivia: American character actor Joe Bernard has worked on stage, screen and television. He has also worked as a drama coach and occasionally directs and writes scripts.

John 'Skins' Miller (Actor) .. Man

Died: January 01, 1968

Trivia: Vaudevillian John "Skins" Miller was a Hollywood habitue from the early 1930s until his retirement in 1951. Miller's biggest screen role was the Comedy Hillbilly in 1934's Stand Up and Cheer; holding Stepin Fetchit at bay with a shotgun, the bearded, barefooted Miller sings a love song to his gargantuan sweetheart Sally, then inexplicably falls flat on his back. During the 1930s, he was briefly under contract to MGM, where one of his duties was to imitate Groucho Marx during rehearsals of such Marx Bros. films as Day at the Races at At the Circus, so that Groucho could decide whether or not the material written for him would "play." Some sources have incorrectly listed John "Skins" Miller as a member of the original Three Stooges, in truth, he appeared in 1934's Gift of Gab as one-third of another team calling themselves the Three Stooges, who never worked together before or since (for the record, Miller's fellow "stooges" were Sid Walker and Jack Harling).

Gus Glassmire (Actor) .. Man

Born: August 29, 1879
Died: July 23, 1946

Trivia: A somber-looking, bit-part player from Philadelphia, Gus Glassmire popped up in scores of high- and low-budget movies from 1938-1945, often playing clerks, storekeepers, hospital doctors, and newspaper editors. Today, Glassmire is probably best remembered as one of the victims of Dr. Daka's (J. Carrol Naish fiendish plot to overthrow the world in the 1943 Columbia serial Batman.

Tom O'Grady (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1900
Died: January 01, 1942

Frank Ferguson (Actor) .. Man

Born: December 25, 1899
Died: September 12, 1978

Trivia: Busy character actor Frank Ferguson was able to parlay his pinched facial features, his fussy little moustache, and his bellows-like voice for a vast array of characterizations. Ferguson was equally effective as a hen-pecked husband, stern military leader, irascible neighbor, merciless employer, crooked sheriff, and barbershop hanger-on. He made his inaugural film appearance in Father is a Prince (1940) and was last seen on the big screen in The Great Sioux Massacre (1965). Ferguson proved himself an above-average actor by successfully pulling off the treacly scene in The Babe Ruth Story (1948) in which Babe (William Bendix) says "Hi, kid" to Ferguson's crippled son--whereupon the boy suddenly stands up and walks! Among Franklin Ferguson's hundreds of TV appearances were regular stints on the children's series My Friend Flicka (1956) and the nighttime soap opera Peyton Place (1964-68).

Iron Eyes Cody (Actor) .. Indian

Born: April 03, 1904
Died: January 04, 1999

Trivia: While maintaining his whole life that he was part Cree and part Cherokee, actor Iron Eyes Cody was in fact born Espera DeCorti, a second generation Italian-American. He started out as a Wild-West-show performer, like his father before him. His earliest recognizable film appearances date back to 1919's Back to God's Country. While his choice of film roles was rather limited in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Cody made himself a valuable Hollywood commodity by offering his services as a technical advisor on Indian lore, customs, costuming and sign language. In between his TV work and personal appearances with the Ringling Bros. Circus and other such touring concerns, Iron Eyes continued accepting supporting roles in Hollywood westerns of the 1950s; he played Chief Crazy Horse twice, in Sitting Bull (1954) and The Great Sioux Massacre (1965). Far more erudite and well-read than most of his screen characters, Iron Eyes has in recent years become a popular interview subject and a fixture at western-movie conventions and film festivals. His famous appearance as the tear-shedding Indian in the "Keep America Beautiful" TV campaign of the 1970s recently enjoyed a "revival" on cable television. In 1982, Cody wrote his enjoyably candid autobiography, in which several high-profile movie stars were given the "emperor has no clothes" treatment. As well as being an actor, Cody owns an enormous collection of Indian artifacts, costumes, books and artwork; has written several books with Indian themes; is a member of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Indian Center, the Southwest Museum and the Los Angeles Library Association; is vice-president of the Little Big Horn Indian Association; is a member of the Verdugo Council of the Boy Scouts of America; and has participated as Grand Marshal of Native American pow-wows throughout the U.S.

Cyril Ring (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1893
Died: July 17, 1967

Trivia: Bostonian Cyril Ring certainly had the pedigree for a successful show business career; he was the brother of stage luminary Blanche Ring and the less famous but equally busy actress Frances Ring. And Cyril certainly had the right connections: he was the brother-in-law of stage comedian Charles Winninger (Blanche's husband) and film star Thomas Meighan (Frances' husband). All Cyril Ring lacked was talent. He managed to coast as actor on his family ties and his rakish good looks, but his range never matured beyond a tiny handful of by-rote mannerisms and facial expressions. In the early '20s, Ring was briefly married to musical comedy star Charlotte Greenwood. Reasonably busy as a silent-film western villain, Ring was cast as the caddish Harvey Yates in the Marx Bros.' 1929 film debut The Cocoanuts. The subsequent reviews bent over backward to condemn Ring's performance as the stiffest and most amateurish of the year -- and thus his fate was sealed. For the rest of his movie career, Ring would be confined to microscopic bit parts and extra roles, with the occasional supporting parts in 2-reel comedies (he's the fugitive crook who demands a shave from W.C. Fields in 1933's The Barber Shop). One of the few features in which he had more than five lines was RKO's 1945 mystery-comedy Having Wonderful Crime; perhaps significantly, his sister Blanche Ring topped the film's supporting cast. Cyril Ring's last recorded credits occured in 1947, after which he dropped from public view until his obituary was published in the trades twenty years later.

Billy Wayne (Actor) .. Delivery Man

Born: February 12, 1897

Trivia: American small-part player Billy Wayne was active from 1935 to 1955. Wayne spent most of his film career at Universal, with a few side trips to Fox and Paramount. He was often cast as a chauffeur, usually an all-knowing or sarcastic one. Billy Wayne also played more than his share of cabbies, sailors, reporters, photographers, and assistant directors (vide W.C. Fields' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break).

Edward McNamara (Actor) .. Policeman

Born: August 14, 1884
Died: November 09, 1944

Trivia: Looking for all the world like a jolly, Irish neighborhood cop, Edward McNamara had once been exactly that in his hometown of Paterson, NJ. His lilting Irish tenor, however, brought him in contact with famed opera diva Ernestine Schumann-Heink who reportedly offered coaching for free. A hit in both vaudeville and on the legitimate stage, McNamara, with his Irish brogue and robust physique, was almost immediately typed for cop roles and would later play policemen onscreen as well in scores of films from 1929 on. McNamara succumbed to a fatal heart attack on a train near Boston, MA. The veteran performer had reportedly been engaged in a lively conversation with longtime friend James Cagney when stricken.

Edgar Dearing (Actor) .. Policeman

Born: May 04, 1893
Died: August 17, 1974

Trivia: Edgar Dearing was a full-time Los Angeles motorcycle cop in the '20s when he began accepting small roles in the 2-reel comedies of Hal Roach. These roles hardly constituted a stretch, since he was often cast as a motorcycle cop, principally because he supplied his own uniform and cycle; the best-remembered of these "performances" was in Laurel and Hardy's Two Tars (1928). Hal Roach cameraman George Stevens liked Dearing's work, and saw to it that the policeman-cum-actor was prominently featured in Stevens' RKO Wheeler & Woolsey features Kentucky Kernels (1934) and The Nitwits (1935). When he moved into acting full-time in the '30s, Dearing was still primarily confined to law-enforcement bit roles, though he achieved fourth billing as a tough drill sergeant in the Spencer Tracy/Franchot Tone feature They Gave Him a Gun (1937). Dearing's performing weight was most effectively felt in the Abbott and Costello features of the '40s, where he provided a formidable authority-figure foe for the simpering antics of Lou Costello (notably in the "Go Ahead and Sing" routine in 1944's In Society). Dearing also showed up in a number of '40s 2-reelers; he was particularly amusing as strong man Hercules Jones (a "Charles Atlas" takeoff) in the 1948 Sterling Holloway short Man or Mouse? Edgar Dearing's last screen assignment was a prominent role as townsman Mr. Gorman in Walt Disney's Pollyanna (1960).

Rosina Galli (Actor) .. Maid

Born: August 10, 1906
Died: January 01, 1969

Larry Wheat (Actor) .. Stage Door Man

Born: October 20, 1876

Eddy Waller (Actor) .. Buggy Driver

Born: January 01, 1889
Died: August 20, 1977

Trivia: Eddy Waller's career moved along the same channels as most western comedy-relief performers: medicine shows, vaudeville, legitimate theatre, movie bit parts (from 1938) and finally the unshaven, grizzled, "by gum" routine. During the '40s, Waller was teamed with virtually everyone at Republic studios. He was amusing with his soup-strainer mustache, dusty duds and double takes, but virtually indistinguishable from such other Republic sagebrush clowns as Olin Howlin and Chubby Johnson. Eddy Waller is most fondly remembered for his 26-week stint as Rusty Lee, sidekick to star Douglas Kennedy on the 1952 TV series Steve Donovan, Western Marshal.

Terry Moore (Actor) .. Carrie

Born: January 07, 1929

Trivia: Terry Moore was born Helen Koford; during her screen career she was billed as Helen Koford, Judy Ford, Jan Ford, and (from 1949) Terry Moore. She debuted onscreen at age 11 in 1940 and went on to play adolescent roles in a number of films. As an adult actress, the well-endowed Moore fell into the late-'40s/early-'50s "sexpot" mold, and was fairly busy onscreen until 1960; after that her screen work was infrequent, though she ultimately appeared in more than a half-dozen additional films. She claimed she was secretly wed to billionaire Howard Hughes in 1949, and that they were never divorced; for years she sued Hughes's estate for part of his will, and finally was given an undisclosed sum in an out-of-court settlement. She wrote a book detailing her secret life with Hughes from 1947-56, The Beauty and the Billionaire, in 1984. For her work in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) she received a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination. She co-produced the film Beverly Hills Brat (1989), in which she also appeared.

Milt Kibbee (Actor) .. Man

Born: January 01, 1896
Died: April 21, 1970

Trivia: Milton Kibbee was the younger brother of prominent stage and screen character actor Guy Kibbee. Looking like a smaller, skinnier edition of his brother, Milton followed Guy's lead and opted for a show business career. The younger Kibbee never reached the professional heights enjoyed by Guy in the '30s and '40s, but he was steadily employed in bit parts and supporting roles throughout the same period. Often cast as desk clerks, doctors and park-bench habitues, Milton Kibbee was most frequently seen as a pencil-wielding reporter, notably (and very briefly) in 1941's Citizen Kane.

Barry Downing (Actor) .. Theodore

Tom Seidel (Actor) .. Usher

Born: March 11, 1917
Died: December 07, 1992

Trivia: A minor actor -- in physical stature as well as importance -- Tom Seidel played scores of bit parts all through the 1940s without making much of a mark. The exception was the 1943 Hopalong Cassidy Western False Colors, in which he played a dual role and did it quite well. Retiring from acting in 1950 to go into the contracting business, Seidel was the husband of MGM star Jean Hagen.

Billy Curtis (Actor) .. Midget Driver

Born: June 27, 1909
Died: November 09, 1988

Trivia: Born to normal-sized parents, American midget actor Billy Curtis avoided the usual onus of freak-show employment as a youth, opting for a mainstream job as a shoe clerk. Encouraged by stock company actress Shirley Booth (later the star of the TV sitcom Hazel) to take a little person role in a stage production, Curtis soon became a professional actor, with numerous Broadway musical productions to his credit. Curtis' big movie season was 1938-39: he was cast as the Mayor of the Munchkin City in The Wizard of Oz (albeit with voice dubbed by Pinto Colvig) and as the cowboy hero of the all-midget western Terror of Tiny Town (1938). This last epic was one of the few instances that Curtis was cast as a good guy; many of his screen characters were ill-tempered and pugnacious, willing to bite a kneecap if unable to punch out an opponent. Seldom accepting a role which demeaned or patronized little people, Curtis played an obnoxious vaudeville performer compelled to sit on Gary Cooper's lap in Meet John Doe (1941), a suspicious circus star willing to turn Robert Cummings over to the cops in Saboteur (1942), and one of the many fair-weather friends of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" in the 1957 film of the same name. Billy Curtis' career thrived into the 1970s, notably with solid parts in the Clint Eastwood western High Plains Drifter (1973) and the crime-caper meller Little Cigars (1973), in which he had second billing as a diminutive criminal mastermind. Billy Curtis retired in the 1980s, except for the occasional interview or Wizard of Oz cast reunion.

Tommy Cotton (Actor) .. Midget Footman

Paul E. Burns (Actor) .. Ferris Wheel Operator

Born: January 26, 1881
Died: May 17, 1967

Trivia: Wizened character actor Paul E. Burns tended to play mousey professional men in contemporary films and unshaven layabouts in period pictures. Bob Hope fans will recall Burns' con brio portrayal of boozy desert rat Ebeneezer Hawkins in Hope's Son of Paleface (1952), perhaps his best screen role. The general run of Burns' screen assignments can be summed up by two roles at both ends of his career spectrum: he played "Loafer" in D.W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln (1930) and "Bum in Park" in Barefoot in the Park (1967).

George Melford (Actor) .. Conductor

Born: January 01, 1899
Died: April 25, 1961

Trivia: A stage actor, Melford began appearing in films in 1909 and was directing by the early teens. Notable among his silent films are the Rudolph Valentino vehicles The Sheik and Moran of the Lady Letty; the standout among his talkies is the Spanish-language version of Dracula, which he shot on the sets of Tod Browning's 1931 film. In the late '30s Melford left directing and returned to acting, and appeared in several major films of the '40s, including the comedy My Little Chickadee with W.C. Fields and Mae West; Preston Sturges' classic farces The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero; and Elia Kazan's debut feature A Tree Grows in Brookly.

Charles Tannen (Actor) .. Hotel Clerk

Born: January 01, 1915
Died: December 28, 1980

Trivia: The son of vaudeville monologist Julius Tannen, Charles Tannen launched his own film career in 1936. For the rest of his movie "life," Tannen was most closely associated with 20th Century Fox, playing minor roles in films both large (John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath) and not so large (Laurel and Hardy's Great Guns). Rarely receiving screen credit, Tannen continued playing utility roles well into the 1960s, showing up in such Fox productions as The Fly (1958) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961). Charles Tannen's older brother, William, was also an active film performer during this period.

Clarence G. Badger (Actor) .. Quartet

Born: June 08, 1880
Died: June 17, 1964

Trivia: American director Clarence Badger was somewhat overqualified compared to his unschooled colleagues at Mack Sennett's Keystone studios; a graduate of Boston Polytech, Badger had been an artist and a newspaper reporter before walking through the Keystone gates in 1915. Nonetheless, he threw himself full-force into the Sennett maelstrom of wild slapstick and frantic farce. Badger preferred situational comedy to slapstick, however, and to that end he developed a series of romantic comedies starring newcomers Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon. The best of these, Teddy at the Throttle (1917), proves that the director never completely abandoned the Keystone brand of humor, but the storyline was better constructed and the characters more clearly defined than was usual for the studio. In 1917, Badger moved to Goldwyn Studios (a fact that Sam Goldwyn trumpetted in big letters in the trade papers), where he directed comedy features with such stars as Mabel Normand and Will Rogers. At Paramount in the mid 1920s, the erudite, even-tempered Badger directed Bebe Daniels, Raymond Griffith, and the up and coming Clara Bow; he also pacified pretentious British authoress Elinor Glyn to the point that he was able to talk "Madame" Glyn into making a guest appearance in Clara Bow's It (1927). Talkies posed no obstacle for Badger: He spent 1929 and 1930 helming such Warner Bros./First National films as No No Nanette and The Hot Heiress. Retiring from the Hollywood scene in 1933, Clarence Badger moved to Australia six years later, where, after directing a brace of comedy features, he retired for good.

Kenneth Rundquist (Actor) .. Quartet

Ernie S. Adams (Actor) .. Man

Born: June 18, 1885
Died: November 26, 1947

Trivia: Scratch a sniveling prison "stoolie" or cowardly henchman and if he were not Paul Guilfoyle or George Chandler, he would be the diminutive Ernie S. Adams, a ubiquitous presence in scores of Hollywood films of the 1930s and '40s. Surprisingly, the weasel-looking Adams had begun his professional career in musical comedy -- appearing on Broadway in such shows as Jerome Kern's Toot Toot (1918) -- prior to entering films around 1919. A list of typical Adams characters basically tells the story: "The Rat" (Jewels of Desire, 1927), "Johnny Behind the 8-Ball" (The Storm, 1930), "Lefty" (Trail's End, 1935), "Jimmy the Weasel" (Stars Over Arizona, 1937), "Snicker Joe" (West of Carson City, 1940), "Willie the Weasel" (Return of the Ape Man, 1944) and, of course "Fink" (San Quentin, 1937). The result, needless to say, is that you didn't quite trust him even when playing a decent guy, as in the 1943 Columbia serial The Phantom. One of the busiest players in the '40s, the sad-faced, little actor worked right up until his death in 1947. His final four films were released posthumously.

Joe Downing (Actor) .. Slip

Delos Jewkes (Actor) .. Quartet

Gene Ramey (Actor) .. Quartet

Born: April 04, 1913
Died: December 08, 1984