Cafe Metropole

Tyrone Power (Actor) .. Alexis

Born: May 05, 1914
Died: November 15, 1958
Birthplace: Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Trivia: The son and grandson of actors, Tyrone Power made his stage debut at age seven, appearing with his father in a stage production at San Gabriel Mission. After turning professional, Power supported himself between engagements working as a theater usher and other such odd jobs. Though in films as a bit actor since 1932, Power was not regarded as having star potential until appearing in Katherine Cornell's theatrical company in 1935. Signed by 20th Century Fox in 1936, Power was cast in a supporting role in the Simone Simon vehicle Girl's Dormitory; reaction from preview audiences to Fox's new contractee was so enthusiastic that Darryl F. Zanuck ordered that Power's part be expanded for the final release version. As Fox's biggest male star, Power was cast in practically every major production turned out by the studio from 1936 through 1940; though his acting skills were secondary to his drop-dead good looks, Power was a much better actor than he was given credit for at the time. He also handled his celebrity like an old pro; he was well liked by his co-stars and crew, and from all reports was an able and respected leader of men while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II. After the war, Power despaired at the thought of returning to pretty-boy roles, endeavoring to toughen his screen image with unsympathetic portrayals in such films as Nightmare Alley (1947) and Witness for the Prosecution. Though Power's popularity waned in the 1950s, he remained in demand for both stage and screen assignments. Like his father before him, Tyrone Power died "in harness," succumbing to a heart attack on the set of Solomon and Sheba (1958).

Loretta Young (Actor) .. Laura Ridgeway

Born: January 16, 1913
Died: August 12, 2000
Birthplace: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Trivia: Born Gretchen Young, her family moved to Hollywood and she began appearing (at age four) as a child extra in movies, as did her sisters (one of whom later became known as actress Sally Blane). At 14, she got a small supporting role in Naughty but Nice (1927), which led to a screen contract. She moved quickly from teenager to ingénue to leading lady roles, appearing in many films and successfully making the transition to the sound era. By the mid-'30s, she was an established star, usually cast in decorative roles in routine programmers. For her work in The Farmer's Daughter (1947) she won the Best Actress Oscar, and was nominated again for Come to the Stable (1949). After a consistently busy screen career of 25 years, she retired from films in 1953 to host the TV series The Loretta Young Show, a weekly half-hour teleplay; she appeared in about half of the show's episodes, winning three Emmy Awards. Since the early '60s, she has devoted most of her energies to Catholic charities. She has been married twice. In 1930, she made headlines when, at age 17, she eloped with actor Grant Withers. However, the marriage was annulled after a year. She later married producer and writer Thomas Lewis, from whom she eventually separated. She authored the memoir The Things I Had to Learn (1961). After NBC unlawfully broadcast her TV shows abroad, she sued the network in 1972 and won 600,000 dollars.

Adolphe Menjou (Actor) .. Monsieur Victor

Charles Winninger (Actor) .. Joseph Ridgeway

Born: May 26, 1884
Died: January 27, 1969

Trivia: Born with show business in his blood, Charles Winninger was nine years old when he joined his parents' vaudeville act, the Winninger Family Novelty Company. The troupe appeared at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, then spent the next sixteen years touring the provinces. Going out as a "single" in 1909, Winninger trod the boards as a monologist, dialectician, singer, dancer, dramatic actor and master of ceremonies. He made his Broadway debut as a German comic in 1912's Yankee Girl Company. Three years later, he launched his film career at the L-KO comedy studios. The character-actor phase of his Hollywood years began in 1924, though at the time he was still more committed to the stage than film. In 1927, he scored one of his biggest Broadway successes as Cap'n Andy in Showboat, a role he repeated with gusto in the 1936 film version. Except for occasional Dutch-comic turns in such films as Soup to Nuts (1930) and Friendly Enemies (1945) Winninger was generally seen in talkies in "foxy papa" or roguish-reprobate roles. His own favorite screen part was Deanna Durbin's roving-eyed millionaire father in Three Smart Girls (1936) and its three sequels. Winninger's performance as the drink-sodden, grudge-bearing general practitioner in Nothing Sacred (1937) is perhaps his finest cinematic hour, with his portrayal of Iowa farmer Abel Frake in State Fair (1945) running a close second. Usually billed at the top of the supporting cast list, Winninger was afforded a rare starring role as Judge Priest in John Ford's wonderful The Sun Shines Bright (1953). On TV, Winninger co-starred in the 1956 sitcom The Charles Farrell Show as Farrell's dad, and guested as Fred Mertz' down-and-out vaudeville partner in the "Mertz and Kurtz" episode of I Love Lucy. Charles Winninger was at one time married to Broadway favorite Blanche Ring, meaning that he was briefly the brother-in-law of silent screen star Thomas Meighan and comedienne Charlotte Greenwood.

Gregory Ratoff (Actor) .. Paul

Born: April 20, 1897
Died: December 14, 1960

Trivia: Born in Russia during the last days of the Romanoffs, Gregory Ratoff studied law at the University of St. Petersburg and acting and directing at the St. Petersburg Dramatic School. After service in the Czar's army (if his "official" birthdate is to be believed, he must have been a teenager at the time), Ratoff performed with the Moscow Art Theatre. Fleeing his homeland during the Bolshevik revolution, Ratoff resettled in France. It was while he was performing in the 1922 Paris production Revue Russe that Ratoff was brought to the U.S. by Broadway impresario Lee Shubert. After nearly a decade in Shubert productions and Yiddish Theatre presentations, Ratoff made his talking picture bow in RKO's Symphony of Six Million (1932). Though occasionally seen as a villain, Ratoff's most frequent screen characterization was a stereotypical fractured-English theatrical or movie producer, spouting out expletives like "stupendous" and "colossal" in a Borscht-thick accent. While it was professionally expedient for Ratoff to perpetuate the myth that he habitually mangled the English language, the actor could be as articulate as the next fellow when he chose to be -- especially when directing films. Beginning with the 1936 potboiler Sins of the Man, Ratoff became one of Hollywood's busiest directors, tackling everything from delicate romances like Intermezzo (1939) to garish musicals like Carnival in Costa Rica (1947). Ratoff seemed to have lost his touch with his 1956 "vanity" production Abdullah's Harem, but he was back on target with his next (and last) directorial assignment, Oscar Wilde (1960). Gregory Ratoff was married to Stansilavskian actress Eugene Leontovich.

Christian Rub (Actor) .. Leroy

Born: April 13, 1887
Died: April 14, 1956

Trivia: Wispy-looking, soft-spoken Austrian character actor Christian Rub made his first Hollywood film appearance in 1932. For the next 20 years, Rub played a variety of functional roles (innkeepers, peasant farmers, musicians, janitors) in a variety of accents (usually German or Swedish). Many of his roles were small but memorable, such as his brief turn as the melodic coachman who inspires Johann Strauss (Fernand Gravet) to compose Tales From the Vienna Woods in The Great Waltz (1938). Christian Rub's most lasting contribution to cinema was as the voice and physical inspiration for Geppetto in the 1940 Disney cartoon feature Pinocchio.

Helen Westley (Actor) .. Margaret Ridgeway

Born: March 28, 1875
Died: December 12, 1942

Trivia: A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Helen Westley was a stage star before the turn of the century. In the teen years, she co-founded both the Greenwich Square Players and the Theatre Guild. She began her film career in 1934, spending the next eight years playing the grandest of grande dames. Westley was seen as the indomitable Granny Mingott in the 1934 version of The Age of Innocence, the couturier title character in Roberta (1935), and the shrill, shrewish Parthy Hawkes in Show Boat (1936). She was also effective as a stern authority figure opposite such sunny-dispositioned juveniles as Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables) and Shirley Temple (Heidi, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm). Helen Westley remained active right up to her death at age 67.

Georges Renavent (Actor) .. Maitre d'Hotel

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

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

Ferdinand Gottschalk (Actor) .. Monnett

Born: January 01, 1869
Died: November 17, 1944

Trivia: After nearly four decades on the stage, the diminutive, bald-domed Ferdinand Gottschalk made his film bow as the Duke de Brissac in Zaza (1923). He flourished in the talkie era, playing small but memorable roles in such films as Grand Hotel (1932) and Les Miserables (1935). Cecil B. DeMille thought enough of the actor's talents to cast him in the same role--a dissipated Roman nobleman named Glabrio--in two separate films, Sign of the Cross (1932) and Cleopatra (1934). One of Gottschalk's best screen showings was the Universal mystery Secret of the Chateau (1934), in which he stole the show as crafty French police inspector Marotte. Ferdinand Gottschalk retired in 1938, returning to his native England.

Hal K. Dawson (Actor) .. Thorndyke

Born: January 01, 1896
Died: February 17, 1987

Trivia: Sad-eyed, mustachioed actor Hal K. Dawson appeared in several Broadway productions of the 1920s. During the run of Machinal, Dawson was the roommate of fellow actor Clark Gable; throughout his later Hollywood career, Gable saw to it that Dawson was given parts in such films as Libeled Lady (1936) and To Please a Lady (1951). Even without Gable's help, Dawson enjoyed a long and productive movie and TV career, usually playing long-suffering personal secretaries and officious desk clerks. Hal K. Dawson was a lifelong member of the Masquers Club, and, in the twilight of his life, was made an honorary member of the Pioneers of Radio Club.

Leonid Kinskey (Actor) .. Artist

Born: April 18, 1903
Died: September 09, 1998

Trivia: Forced to flee his native St. Petersburg after the Bolshevik revolution, Russian-born actor Leonid Kinskey arrived in New York in 1921. At that time, he was a member of the Firebird Players, a South American troupe whose act consisted of dance-interpreting famous paintings; since there was little call for this on Broadway, Kinskey was soon pounding the pavements. The only English words he knew were such translation-book phrases as "My good kind sir," but Kinskey was able to improve his vocabulary by working as a waiter in a restaurant. Heading west for performing opportunities following the 1929 Wall Street Crash, Kinskey joined the road tour of the Al Jolson musical Wonder Bar, which led to a role in his first film Trouble in Paradise (1932). His Slavic dialect and lean-and-hungry look making him ideal for anarchist, artist, poet and impresario roles, Kinskey made memorable appearances in such films as Duck Soup (1933), Nothing Sacred (1937) and On Your Toes (1939). His best known appearance was as Sacha, the excitable bartender at Rick's Cafe Americain in Casablanca (1942). The film's star, Humphrey Bogart, was a drinking buddy of Kinskey's, and when the first actor cast as the barkeep proved inadequate, Bogart arranged for Kinskey to be cast in the role. During the Red Scare of the '50s, Kinskey was frequently cast as a Communist spy, either comic or villainous. In 1956 he had a recurring role as a starving artist named Pierre on the Jackie Cooper sitcom The People's Choice. Kinskey cut down on acting in the '60s and '70s, preferring to write and produce, and help Hollywood distribution companies determine which Russian films were worth importing. But whenever a television script (such as the 1965 "tribute" to Stan Laurel) called for a "crazy Russian", Leonid Kinsky was usually filled the bill.

Louis Mercier (Actor) .. Courtroom Attendant

Born: March 07, 1901

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

Albert Conti (Actor) .. Gendarme

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.

Jules Raucourt (Actor) .. Waiter

Born: May 08, 1890
Died: January 30, 1967

Trivia: A dashing screen presence from Belgium, Jules Raucourt was in many ways a forerunner of Rudolph Valentino, starring as Pierrot opposite Marguerite Clark in Prunella (1918) and, that same year, as Mario opposite Pauline Frederick in La Tosca. There were several other important roles, both in Hollywood and in Europe, but Raucourt is perhaps best remembered for playing John Jones, the title character in the highly praised avant-garde presentation Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra. Ironically, Raucourt became a Hollywood extra himself after the changeover to sound.

Albert Pollet (Actor) .. Waiter

Born: February 15, 1889

Gino Corrado (Actor) .. Waiter

Born: February 09, 1893
Died: December 23, 1982

Trivia: Enjoying one of the longer careers in Hollywood history, Gino Corrado is today best remembered as a stocky bit-part player whose pencil-thin mustache made him the perfect screen barber, maître d', or hotel clerk, roles he would play in both major and Poverty Row films that ranged from Citizen Kane (1941) and Casablanca (1942) to serials such as The Lost City (1935) and, perhaps his best-remembered performance, the Three Stooges short Micro Phonies (1945; he was the bombastic Signor Spumoni).A graduate of his native College of Strada, Corrado finished his education at St. Bede College in Peru, IL, and entered films with D.W. Griffith in the early 1910s, later claiming to have played bit parts in both Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). By the mid-1910s, he was essaying the "other man" in scores of melodramas, now billed under the less ethnic-sounding name of Eugene Corey. He became Geno Corrado in the 1920s but would work under his real name in literally hundreds of sound films, a career that lasted well into the 1950s and also included live television appearances. In a case of life imitating art, Corrado reportedly supplemented his income by working as a waiter in between acting assignments.

Armand Kaliz (Actor) .. Hotel Manager

Born: October 23, 1892
Died: February 01, 1941

Trivia: Actor Armand Kaliz was a reasonably successful vaudeville performer when he made his first film appearance in The Temperamental Wife (1919). Kaliz would not return to filmmaking on a full-time basis until 1926. At first, he enjoyed sizeable screen roles: along with most of the cast, he essayed a dual role in Warners' Noah's Ark (1928), and was given featured billing as DeVoss in Little Caesar (1930). Thereafter, Armand Kaliz made do with minor roles, usually playing hotel clerks, tailors and jewelers.

Eugene Borden (Actor) .. Waiter

Born: March 21, 1897
Died: July 21, 1972

Trivia: Many research sources arbitrarily begin the list of French actor Eugene Borden's films in 1936. In fact, Borden first showed up on screen as early as 1917. Seldom afforded billing, the actor was nonetheless instantly recognizable in his many appearances as headwaiters, porters, pursers and coachmen. Along with several other stalwart European character actors, Borden was cast in a sizeable role in the above-average Columbia "B" So Dark the Night (1946). Musical buffs will recall Eugene Borden as Gene Kelly and Oscar Levant's landlord in An American in Paris (1951).

Rolfe Sedan (Actor) .. Flower Clerk

Born: January 21, 1896
Died: September 16, 1982

Trivia: Dapper character actor Rolfe Sedan was nine times out of ten cast as a foreigner, usually a French maître d' or Italian tradesman. In truth, Sedan was born in New York City. He'd planned to study scientific agriculture, but was sidetracked by film and stage work in New York; he then embarked on a vaudeville career as a dialect comic. Sedan began appearing in Hollywood films in the late '20s, frequently cast in support of such major comedy attractions as Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chase, the Marx Brothers, and Harold Lloyd. He was proudest of his work in a handful of films directed by Ernst Lubitsch, notably Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938). Though distressed that he never made it to the top ranks, Sedan remained very much in demand for comedy cameos into the 1980s. Rolfe Sedan's television work included the recurring role of Mr. Beasley the postman on The Burns and Allen Show, and the part of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee in several TV commercials of the mid-'70s.

Alberto Morin (Actor) .. Page Boy

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).

Charles de Ravenne (Actor) .. Page Boy

Leonid Snegoff (Actor) .. Porter

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

Octavio Giraud (Actor) .. Porter

Born: January 01, 1889
Died: January 01, 1958

Fred Cavens (Actor) .. Train Guard

Born: January 01, 1882
Died: January 01, 1962

Jean De Briac (Actor) .. Gendarme

Born: August 15, 1891
Died: October 18, 1970

Trivia: A debonair, mustachioed supporting actor from France, Jean De Briac played prominent roles in the silent era -- Fred Thomson's fisherman brother in Mary Pickford's The Love Light (1921), the notorious "The Knifer" in Clara Bow's Parisian Love (1925), the stage director in Greta Garbo's The Divine Woman (1928) -- but mainly bit parts thereafter. De Briac, whose career continued well into the '50s, even turned up in a 1949 episode of television's The Lone Ranger.

Jean Perry (Actor) .. Gendarme

André Cheron (Actor) .. Croupier

Born: January 01, 1880
Died: January 01, 1952

Jean Masset (Actor) .. Player

Mario Dominici (Actor) .. Player

George Herbert (Actor) .. Player

George Andre Beranger (Actor) .. Hat Clerk

Born: March 27, 1893

Paul Porcasi (Actor) .. Police Official

Born: January 01, 1880
Died: August 08, 1946

Trivia: A former opera singer in his native Sicily, bull-necked, waxed-moustached character actor Paul Porcasi made his screen bow in 1917's Fall of the Romanoffs. Porcasi flourished in the talkie era, playing innumerable speakeasy owners, impresarios, chefs, and restaurateurs. The nationalities of his screen characters ranged from Italian to French to Greek to Spanish; most often, however, he played Greeks with such onomatopoeic monikers as Papapopolous. Porcasi's best-remembered film roles include Nick the Greek in Broadway (1929), the obsequious garment merchant in Devil in the Deep (1932), dour border guard Gonzalez in Eddie Cantor's The Kid From Spain (1932), and the apoplectic apple vendor ("Hey! You steal-a!") in King Kong (1933). Paul Porcasi was also starred in the first three-strip Technicolor short subject, La Cucaracha (1934), wherein his face turned a deep crimson after he ingested one too many hot chili peppers.

Jacques Lory (Actor) .. Elevator Operator

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: January 01, 1947

Fredrik Vogeding (Actor) .. Attendant

Born: March 02, 1887
Died: April 01, 1942

Trivia: A cabaret artist in his native Holland, Frederick (or Fredrik) Vogedink spent the early years of his screen career in Germany. In 1920, he married American actress Florence Roberts (1871-1927) and co-starred with Dorothy Dalton in Behind Masks (1921), a routine crime drama from Paramount. He appeared in a few other silent films in Hollywood, but Vogedink's screen career began in earnest in 1933, when he made an indelible impression as the grim U-boat captain in Below the Sea. With his stern visage, Vogedink later excelled at playing Nazis and was memorable as the nasty Captain Richter in one of the earliest Hollywood films to openly criticize Hitler's Germany, Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939). Vogedink's death was attributed to the aftereffects of a heart attack.

Marcelle Corday (Actor)

Born: January 08, 1890

06:00 am - 07:25 am, Monday, December 22 on FX Movie Channel ()