East of the River

John Garfield (Actor)

Born: March 04, 1913
Died: May 21, 1952
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States

Trivia: American actor John Garfield, when judged by looks and attitude alone, seemed more the pugnacious, defiant urban thug than one of Hollywood's most respected dramatic actors of the '30s and '40s. As evidence of his popularity, despite the fact that many insiders considered Garfield's personal ways and beliefs a bit radical, the attendance at his funeral in 1952 broke the records set at Rudolph Valentino's funeral. He was born Julius Garfinkle, the son of poor Jewish immigrants from New York's Lower-East-Side ghettos. Poverty was the norm there, and life was tough. Young Garfield's juvenile delinquent tendencies landed him in a special school for problem children. Still, it was almost inevitable that he would get involved with neighborhood street gangs. He may have remained on those streets struggling to survive, had Garfield not had a special gift for debate, a talent that won him a state-wide contest sponsored by the New York Times. The ensuing scholarship gained him entrance into the Ouspenskaya Drama School and an apprenticeship in repertory theater. Afterward, Garfield hit the road and became a freight-train-hopping hobo and transient worker, but by the late 1930s he returned home to join the Group Theater.Following a role in Odet's production of Golden Boy, Garfield landed a contract with Warners and made his film debut in the melodramatic tragedy Four Daughters (1938). He played a cynical, embittered piano prodigy who finds redemption through a young woman's love, and for her well-being he makes the ultimate sacrifice. It was a powerful multi-textured performance that led to his receiving a nomination for "Best Supporting Actor." Following that success, he appeared in a brief series based on the film and then continued playing assorted angry young men and ill-fated outsiders in such films as Dust Be My Destiny. Though his appearance and demeanor locked him into playing tough outsiders and anti-heroes, Garfield was a versatile actor who unsuccessfully fought with studio heads to play different kinds of roles to demonstrate his true range. Glimpses of it can be seen in such powerful films as Pride of the Marines (1945) in which he plays a real-life war hero who must cope with his battle-caused blindness back home.Beginning with MGM's classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Garfield began to establish himself in film noir. He is still considered one of the best actors in that genre, with one of his best films being Force of Evil in which he played a corrupt attorney. Following the end of his Warner's contract, Garfield founded Enterprise Productions and began free-lancing. His distinctly leftist views and staunch support of the working class lead to his being labeled a communist sympathizer by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He did not cooperate at the official hearings and suddenly found it difficult to find work. Though he returned briefly to the theater, Garfield did not flourish. At the age of 39, he died of coronary thrombosis, a condition that some have attributed to the stress the Committee placed upon him. His two surviving children, Julie Garfield and David Patton Garfield (aka John David Garfield or John Garfield Jr.), both became actors during the 1960s.

Brenda Marshall (Actor)

Born: September 29, 1915
Died: July 30, 1992

Trivia: Brenda Marshall wanted to be a film actress, all right; it's just that she didn't want to be Brenda Marshall. Throughout her years in Hollywood, she insisted that her friends and co-workers address her not by her studio-fabricated cognomen, but by her given name of Ardis Anderson Gaines. A Warner Bros. contractee of the early 1940s, Anderson/Marshall did her best work opposite Errol Flynn in The Sea Hawk (1940) and Footsteps in the Dark (1941). From 1941 through 1973, Brenda Marshall was married to actor William Holden, a curious union that evidently soured early on (Holden's friends blamed Marshall, and vice versa), and was distinguished by extended separations and numerous extracurricular romances.

William Lundigan (Actor)

Born: June 12, 1914
Died: December 20, 1975

Trivia: American actor William Lundigan launched his show business career working as an adolescent announcer for a Syracuse radio station, which was housed in a building owned by his father. Abandoning a planned law career, Lundigan spent thirteen years as an announcer before being discovered by a Universal film executive in 1937. Appearing as a lightweight leading man in such films as Armored Car (1937) and Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1938), and in featured roles in the bigger-budgeted Dodge City and The Old Maid (both 1939), Lundigan worked steadily in the major studios before being drafted into the Marines for World War II service in 1942. Like many other second-echelon Hollywood actors, Lundigan found the going rough after the war, though as a Fox contractee he managed to land occasional good parts in such pictures as Pinky (1949) and I'll Get By (1950). When prospects dried up for Lundigan in the mid-1950s, he returned to announcing as the host of the popular CBS dramatic anthology Climax. Science fiction fans will remember Lundigan for his role in Riders to the Stars (1954), and for his portrayal of TV's first true astronaut, Col. MacCauley, in the 1959 weekly adventure series Men Into Space.

Marjorie Rambeau (Actor)

Born: July 15, 1889
Died: July 07, 1970

Trivia: At age 12 she began performing in stage productions. She was a major Broadway star in the '10s and '20s and appeared in a dozen or so silent films, most of them released in 1917. She moved to Hollywood in her early 40s, playing a wide variety of major character roles and some leads between 1930-57; she tended to portray aging harlots and fallen women, and could be raucous, vicious, heartbreaking, or commanding in her portrayals. For her work in Primrose Path (1940) she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, and was again nominated in that category for Torch Song (1953). She married and divorced Willard Mack, an actor, playwright, and screenwriter.

George Tobias (Actor) .. Tony

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

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

Moroni Olsen (Actor) .. Judge R.D. Davis

Born: July 27, 1889
Died: November 22, 1954

Trivia: Born and educated in Utah, tall, piercing-eyed actor Moroni Olsen learned how to entertain an audience as a Chautaqua tent-show performer. In the 1920s, he organized the Moroni Olsen Players, one of the most prestigious touring stock companies in the business. After several successful seasons on Broadway, Olsen came to films in the role of Porthos in the 1935 version of The Three Musketeers. Though many of his subsequent roles were not on this plateau, Olsen nearly always transcended his material: In the otherwise middling Wheeler and Woolsey comedy Mummy's Boys (1936), for example, Olsen all but ignites the screen with his terrifying portrayal of a lunatic. Thanks to his aristocratic bearing and classically trained voice, Olsen was often called upon to play famous historical personages: he was Buffalo Bill in Annie Oakley (1935), Robert E. Lee in Santa Fe Trail (1940), and Sam Houston in Lone Star (1952). Throughout his Hollywood career, Moroni Olsen was active as a director and performer with the Pasadena Playhouse, and was the guiding creative force behind Hollywood's annual Pilgrimage Play.

Douglas Fowley (Actor) .. Cy Turner

Born: May 30, 1911
Died: May 21, 1998

Trivia: Born and raised in the Greenwich Village section of New York, Douglas Fowley did his first acting while attending St. Francis Xavier Military Academy. A stage actor and night club singer/dancer during the regular theatrical seasons, Fowley took such jobs as athletic coach and shipping clerk during summer layoff. He made his first film, The Mad Game, in 1933. Thanks to his somewhat foreboding facial features, Fowley was usually cast as a gangster, especially in the Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto and Laurel and Hardy "B" films churned out by 20th Century-Fox in the late 1930s and early 1940s. One of his few romantic leading roles could be found in the 1942 Hal Roach "streamliner" The Devil with Hitler. While at MGM in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fowley essayed many roles both large and small, the best of which was the terminally neurotic movie director in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Fowley actually did sit in the director's chair for one best-forgotten programmer, 1960's Macumba Love, which he also produced. On television, Fowley made sporadic appearances as Doc Holliday in the weekly series Wyatt Earp (1955-61). In the mid-1960s, Fowley grew his whiskers long and switched to portraying Gabby Hayes-style old codgers in TV shows like Pistols and Petticoats and Detective School: One Flight Up, and movies like Homebodies (1974) and North Avenue Irregulars (1979); during this period, the actor changed his on-screen billing to Douglas V. Fowley.

Jack LaRue (Actor) .. `Frisco' Scarfi

Born: May 03, 1902
Died: January 11, 1984

Trivia: American actor Jack LaRue is frequently mistaken for Humphrey Bogart by casual fans. In both his facial features and his choice of roles, LaRue did indeed resemble Bogart, in every respect but one; Bogart became a star, while LaRue remained in the supporting ranks. After stage work in his native New York, LaRue came to Hollywood for his first film, The Mouthpiece, in 1932. For the next few years he played secondary hoodlums (for example, the hot-head hit man in the closing sequences of Night World [1932]) and unsavory lead villains -- never more unsavory than as the sex-obsessed kidnapper in The Story of Temple Drake (1933). LaRue decided to shift gears and try romantic leading roles, but this "new" LaRue disappeared after the Mayfair Studios cheapie, The Fighting Rookie (1934). He was at his most benign as "himself", trading gentle quips with Alice Faye at an outdoor carnival in the MGM all-star short Cinema Circus (1935). Otherwise, it was back to gangsters and thugs, with a few exceptions like his sympathetic role in A Gentleman from Dixie (1941). By the 1940s, LaRue had spent most of his movie savings and was compelled to seek out any work available. Awaiting his cue to appear in a small role on one movie set, LaRue was pointed out to up-and-coming Anne Shirley on a movie set as an example of what happens when a Hollywood luminary doesn't provide for possible future career reverses. Things improved a bit when LaRue moved to England in the late 1940s to play American villains in British pictures. His most memorable appearance during this period was as Slim Grissom in the notorious No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948) -- a virtual reprisal of his part in The Story of Temple Drake. LaRue worked often in television during the last two decades of his career; in the early 1950s, he was the eerily-lit host of the spooky TV anthology Lights Out.

Jack Carr (Actor) .. `No Neck' Griswold

Paul Guilfoyle (Actor) .. Balmy

Born: July 14, 1902
Died: June 27, 1961

Trivia: American actor Paul Guilfoyle was a familiar Broadway presence in the years 1928 through 1934, most often seen in musicals and comedies. Switching his activities to filmmaking in 1935, Guilfoyle continued playing comedy relief roles, often as the best friend and severest critic of the hero. In the 1940s, Guilfoyle began settling into villainy; his furtive features made him the "perfect" gangland hanger-on or snivelling stoolie. In this latter characterization, Guilfoyle was most memorable as the prison informer who is "ventilated" by James Cagney in White Heat (1949) and as the communist party flunkey who is deep-sixed by cell leader Thomas Gomez in I Married a Communist (1949). In the 1950s, Guilfoyle turned to directing, helming such programmers as Captain Scarface (1953) and Tess of the Storm Country (1961). Paul Guilfoyle's son, also named Paul, went on to become an actor, as well.

Russell Hicks (Actor) .. Warden

Born: June 04, 1895
Died: June 01, 1957

Trivia: Trained in prep school for a career as a businessman, Baltimore-born Russell Hicks chucked his predestined lifestyle for a theatrical career, over the protests of his family. As an actor, Hicks came full circle, spending the bulk of his career playing businessmen! Though he claimed to have appeared in D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), Hicks' earliest recorded Hollywood job occured in 1920, when he was hired as an assistant casting director for Famous Players (later Paramount). Making his stage debut in It Pays to Smile, Hicks acted in stock companies and on Broadway before his official film bow in 1934's Happiness Ahead. The embodiment of the small-town business booster or chairman of the board, the tall, authoritative Hicks frequently used his dignified persona to throw the audience off guard in crooked or villainous roles. He was glib confidence man J. Frothingham Waterbury in W.C. Fields' The Bank Dick (1940) ("I want to be honest with you in the worst way!"), and more than once he was cast as the surprise killer in murder mysteries. Because of his robust, athletic physique, Hicks could also be seen as middle-aged adventurers, such as one of The Three Musketeers in the 1939 version of that classic tale, and as the aging Robin Hood in 1946's Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946). Russell Hicks continued accepting film assignments until 1956's Seventh Cavalry.

Charles Foy (Actor) .. Customer

Ralph Volkie (Actor) .. Henchman

Born: January 01, 1910
Died: January 01, 1987

Jimmy O'Gatty (Actor) .. Henchman

Born: January 01, 1898
Died: January 01, 1966

Robert E. Homans (Actor) .. Patrolman Shanahan

Born: January 01, 1875
Died: July 28, 1947

Trivia: Actor Robert Emmett Homans seemingly had the map of Ireland stamped on his craggy face. As a result, Homans spent the better part of his film career playing law enforcement officers of all varieties, from humble patrolmen to detective chiefs. After a lengthy stage career, Homans entered films in 1923. A break from his usual microscopic film assignments occured in Public Enemy (1931), where Homans is given an opportunity to deliver reams of exposition (with a pronounced brogue) during a funeral sequence. And in the 1942 Universal horror programmer Night Monster, Robert Emmett Homans is alotted a sizeable role as the ulcerated detective investigating the supernatural goings-on at the home of seemingly helpless invalid Ralph Morgan.

Joe Conti (Actor) .. Joe As A Boy

O'Neill Nolan (Actor) .. Nick As A Boy

Frank Faylen (Actor) .. Tour Guide

Born: December 08, 1907
Died: August 02, 1985

Trivia: American actor Frank Faylen was born into a vaudeville act; as an infant, he was carried on stage by his parents, the song-and-dance team Ruf and Clark. Traveling with his parents from one engagement to another, Faylen somehow managed to complete his education at St. Joseph's Prep School in Kirkwood, Missouri. Turning pro at age 18, Faylen worked on stage until getting a Hollywood screen test in 1936. For the next nine years, Faylen played a succession of bit and minor roles, mostly for Warner Bros.; of these minuscule parts he would later say, "If you sneezed, you missed me." Better parts came his way during a brief stay at Hal Roach Studios in 1942 and 1943, but Faylen's breakthrough came at Paramount in 1945, where he was cast as Bim, the chillingly cynical male nurse at Bellevue's alcoholic ward in the Oscar-winning The Lost Weekend. Though the part lasted all of four minutes' screen time, Faylen was so effective in this unpleasant role that he became entrenched as a sadistic bully or cool villain in his subsequent films. TV fans remember Faylen best for his more benign but still snarly role as grocery store proprietor Herbert T. Gillis on the 1959 sitcom Dobie Gillis. For the next four years, Faylen gained nationwide fame for such catch-phrases as "I was in World War II--the big one--with the good conduct medal!", and, in reference to his screen son Dobie Gillis, "I gotta kill that boy someday. I just gotta." Faylen worked sporadically in TV and films after Dobie Gillis was canceled in 1963, receiving critical plaudits for his small role as an Irish stage manager in the 1968 Barbra Streisand starrer Funny Girl. The actor also made an encore appearance as Herbert T. Gillis in a Dobie Gillis TV special of the 1970s, where his "good conduct medal" line received an ovation from the studio audience. Faylen was married to Carol Hughes, an actress best-recalled for her role as Dale Arden in the 1939 serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, and was the father of another actress, also named Carol.

Edward Fielding (Actor) .. College President

Born: March 19, 1875
Died: January 10, 1945

Trivia: A distinguished actor who had made his stage debut in London, tall, dignified Edward Fielding was especially known for his roles in the works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Although he appeared in the occasional silent film, including as Watson opposite William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes (1916), Fielding did not turn to the screen full-time until the late '30s, when he became a special favorite of British director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast him as the butler Frith in Rebecca (1940), the antique store owner in Suspicion (1941), the doctor on the train in Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and Dr. Edwardes in Spellbound (1945).

William Pawley (Actor) .. Dave Carter

Born: June 21, 1905
Died: June 15, 1952

Trivia: Stage actor William Pawley made his movie bow in 1931's Over the Hill. Especially busy in crime melodramas, Pawley essayed tough-guy roles in such films as I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), Bullets or Ballots (1936), San Quentin (1937), and a handful of two-reelers in MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series. He occasionally forsook double-breasted suits and snap-brim hats for the garb of a hillbilly (1934's Kentucky Kernels) or cowboy (he played a stage actor impersonating the recently deceased Jesse James in 1941's The Return of the Frank James). Active until 1942, William Pawley worked steadily for 20th Century Fox during the last months of his screen career.

Charley Foy (Actor) .. Customer

John Kelly (Actor) .. The Dope

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).

George Humbert (Actor) .. Peddler

Born: January 01, 1881
Died: May 08, 1963

Trivia: Immense, sad-eyed character actor George Humbert made his first film appearance in 1921. Humbert almost always played an Italian restaurateur, waiter, chef or street vendor. His screen characters usually answered to such names as Tony, Luigi, Mario, and Giueseppi. A rare digression from this pattern was his portrayal of "Pancho" in Fiesta (1947). George Humbert made his last appearance as Pop Mangiacavallo (his name was longer than his part!) in The Rose Tattoo (1955).

Eddy Chandler (Actor) .. Watchman

Born: March 12, 1894
Died: March 23, 1948

Trivia: Stocky character actor Eddy Chandler's movie career stretched from 1915 to 1947. In 1930, Chandler was afforded a large (if uncredited) role as Blondell, partner in crime of villain Ralf Harolde, in the RKO musical extravaganza Dixiana. Thereafter, he made do with bit parts, usually playing cops or military officers. His brief appearance in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night as the bus driver who begins singing "The Man on a Flying Trapeze"--and plows his bus into a ditch as a result--assured him choice cameos in all future Capra productions. Chandler can also be seen as the Hospital Sergeant in 1939's Gone with the Wind. One of Eddy Chandler's few billed roles was Lewis in Monogram's Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944).

Al Herman (Actor) .. Hotdog Vendor

Born: February 22, 1887

Edwin Stanley (Actor) .. Commencement Speaker

Born: January 01, 1880
Died: December 24, 1944

Trivia: Following his film debut in the 1916 adaptation of King Lear, actor Edwin Stanley returned to his first love, the stage. Stanley's next appearance was a featured role in the 1932 Columbia "special" Virtue. He spent the next 14 years playing military officers, theatrical producers, and other dignified take-charge characters. A familiar figure on the serial scene, Edwin Stanley played such chapter-play roles as Odette in Dick Tracy (1937), General Rankin in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), Dr. Mallory in The Phantom Creeps (1939), and Colonel Bevans in The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1940).

William Marshall (Actor) .. Usher

Born: October 02, 1915
Died: June 08, 1994

Trivia: Chicago-born William Marshall worked as a vocalist for orchestra leader Fred Waring before forming his own band in 1937. Marshall came to Hollywood as an actor in 1940; during his Tinseltown years, he was married to actresses Michèle Morgan and Ginger Rogers respectively. In 1950, he became a producer through the auspices of Errol Flynn, with whom he'd acted in Santa Fe Trail. Marshall and Flynn's newly formed Silver Productions came forth with Hello God, a 64-minute semi-documentary starring Flynn and produced, directed, written and narrated by Marshall. While looking for a distributor for Hello God (they never found one), the Flynn-Marshall team commenced work on the 1951 costume drama The Adventures of Captain Fabian; Robert Florey was slated to direct, but he dropped out of the project, obliging Marshall to finish the direction himself. Silver Productions was dissolved during an acrimonious legal battle, and Marshall was not heard from professionally for several years. William Marshall re-emerged in 1961 as director of the undistinguished sci-fier Phantom Planet.

Jerry Mandy (Actor) .. Mr. Lomardo

Born: June 05, 1892
Died: May 01, 1945

Trivia: A minor comedian with Hal Roach in the 1920s, New York-born Jerry Mandy played the Limburger soldier in Behind the Front (1926) and supported the likes of Laurel and Hardy and James Finlayson. Sound film revealed his aptitude for dialects and Mandy spent the next decade and a half playing Italian or French cooks, chefs, and maîtres d'hôtel. He died of a heart attack in his Hollywood home in 1945.

Richard Clayton (Actor) .. Delivery Boy

Died: September 29, 2008

Arch Hendricks (Actor) .. Captain McNamara

Howard Mitchell (Actor) .. Detective

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).

Murray Alper (Actor) .. Dink Rogers

Born: January 01, 1904

Trivia: Supporting actor Murray Alper's earliest screen credit was 1930's The Royal Family of Broadway. For the next 35 years, Alper was an inescapable movie presence, playing dozens of cab drivers, bookies, cops and GIs. One of his few credited appearances in an "A" picture was in The Maltese Falcon; he plays the friendly cabbie who drives Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) on a mid-film wild goose chase. Frequently seen in comedies, Alper showed up in eight Bowery Boys farces of the 1940s and 1950s, and was prominently featured in the Three Stooges' Trick Dicks (1953) and The Outlaws is Coming (1965, as Chief Crazy Horse!). One of Murray Alper's least characteristic roles was the judo instructor in Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor (1963).

Al Rhein (Actor) .. Dealer

Born: March 15, 1892
Died: September 06, 1966

Trivia: A tough-looking bit player onscreen from the late '30s, Al Rhein (real name: Alexander Rhein) often played professional gamblers, croupiers, and various thugs.

George Lloyd (Actor) .. Charlie, Bartender

Born: January 01, 1897

Trivia: Australian-born actor George Lloyd spoke without a trace of accent of any kind in his hundreds of movie appearances. Lloyd's mashed-in mug and caterpillar eyebrows were put to best use in roles calling for roughneck sarcasm. He was often seen as second-string gangsters, escape-prone convicts, acerbic garage mechanics and (especially) temperamental moving men. George Lloyd's film career began in the mid-1930s and petered out by the beginning of the TV era.

Demetris Emanuel (Actor) .. Manuel

Hector Sarno (Actor) .. Pop Fiaschetti

John Sheehan (Actor) .. Bartender

Born: October 22, 1890
Died: February 15, 1952

Trivia: Stage and vaudeville alumnus John Sheehan joined the American Film Company in 1914. After a handful of starring roles, Sheehan went back to the stage, returning to films in 1930. For the next 20 years, he played scores of minor roles, usually as raffish tuxedoed types in speakeasy and gambling-parlor scenes. As a loyal member of the Masquers' Club, a theatrical fraternity, John Sheehan starred in the Masquers' two-reel comedy Stout Hearts and Willing Hands (1931), then went on to appear in support of such short-subject stars as Charley Chase and Clark McCullough.

Ann Edmonds (Actor) .. Marie Carmine

Armand 'Curly' Wright (Actor) .. Bruno

Born: June 05, 1886
Died: March 28, 1965

Trivia: A busy presence in Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, Sicilian-born Armand "Curly" Wright's hairdo resembled that of Larry Fine. Rarely billed, Wright (born Rao) seems to have been called in whenever a producer needed an excitable fruit peddler, hot dog or news vendor, or Italian barber. Onscreen in America from around 1932, Wright seems to have retired in the late '40s.

Creighton Hale (Actor) .. Houseman

Born: May 14, 1882
Died: August 09, 1965

Trivia: Silent-film leading man Creighton Hale was brought to America from his native Ireland via a theatrical touring company. While starring in Charles Frohman's Broadway production of Indian Summer, Hale was spotted by a representative of the Pathe film company and invited to appear before the cameras. His first film was the Pearl White serial The Exploits of Elaine, after which he rose to stardom in a series of adventure films and romantic dramas. Director D.W. Griffith used Hale as comedy relief in his films Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1922)--possibly Hale's least effective screen appearances, in that neither he nor Griffith were comedy experts. Despite his comparative failure in these films, Hale remained a popular leading man throughout the 1920s. When talking pictures arrived, Hale's star plummeted; though he had a pleasant, well-modulated voice, he was rapidly approaching fifty, and looked it. Most of Hale's talkie roles were unbilled bits, or guest cameos in films that spotlighted other silent movie veterans (e.g. Hollywood Boulevard and The Perils of Pauline). During the 1940s, Hale showed up in such Warner Bros. productions as Larceny Inc (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1943); this was due to the largess of studio head Jack Warner, who kept such faded silent favorites as Hale, Monte Blue and Leo White on permanent call. Creighton Hale's final appearance was in Warners' Beyond the Forest (1949).

Charles Sherlock (Actor) .. Houseman

Trivia: American actor Charles Sherlock made his first film in 1935 and his last in 1952. Limited to bit roles, Sherlock showed up as reporters, photographers, longshoremen, cabbies, and doctors. Befitting his name, he also appeared as cops in such films as My Buddy (1944), In Society (1944), and The Turning Point (1952). Charles Sherlock enjoyed a rare credited role, again as a cop, in the 1945 Charlie Chan entry The Scarlet Clue.

Fred Graham (Actor) .. Cop

Born: January 01, 1918
Died: October 10, 1979

Trivia: In films from the early 1930s, Fred Graham was one of Hollywood's busiest stunt men and stunt coordinators. A fixture of the Republic serial unit in the 1940s and 1950s, Graham was occasionally afforded a speaking part, usually as a bearded villain. His baseball expertise landed him roles in films like Death on the Diamond (1934), Angels in the Outfield (1951) and The Pride of St. Louis (1952). He was also prominently featured in several John Wayne vehicles, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), The Horse Soldiers (1959) and The Alamo (1960). After retiring from films, Fred Graham served as director of the Arizona Motion Pictures Development Office.

Ralph Sanford (Actor) .. Cop

Born: May 21, 1899
Died: June 20, 1963

Trivia: Hearty character actor Ralph Sanford made his first screen appearances at the Flatbush studios of Vitaphone Pictures. From 1933 to 1937, Sanford was Vitaphone's resident Edgar Kennedy type, menacing such two-reel stars as Shemp Howard, Roscoe Ates, and even Bob Hope. He moved to Hollywood in 1937, where, after playing several bit roles, he became a semi-regular with Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit with meaty supporting roles in such films as Wildcat (1942) and The Wrecking Crew (1943). He also continued playing featured roles at other studios, usually as a dimwitted gangster or flustered desk sergeant. One of his largest assignments was in Laurel and Hardy's The Bullfighters (1945), in which he plays vengeance-seeking Richard K. Muldoon, who threatens at every opportunity to (literally) skin Stan and Ollie alive; curiously, he receives no screen credit, despite the fact that his character motivates the entire plot line. Busy throughout the 1950s, Ralph Sanford was a familiar presence on TV, playing one-shot roles on such series as Superman and Leave It to Beaver and essaying the semi-regular part of Jim "Dog" Kelly on the weekly Western Wyatt Earp (1955-1961).

Pat O'Malley (Actor) .. Cop

Born: September 03, 1891
Died: March 21, 1966

Trivia: Vaudeville and stage performer Pat O'Malley was a mere lad of seventeen (or thereabouts) when he inaugurated his film career at the Edison company in 1907. A dependable "collar-ad" leading man possessed of an athlete's physique, O'Malley rose to stardom at the Kalem Studios during the teens. From 1918 to 1927, O'Malley hopscotched around Hollywood, appearing at Universal, First National, Vitagraph and Paramount; he starred in war films (Heart of Humanity [1918]), westerns (The Virginian [1922]) and adaptations of bestsellers (Brothers Under the Skin [1922]). His talkie debut in 1929's Alibi would seem to have heralded a thriving sound career, but O'Malley had aged rather suddenly, and could no longer pass as a romantic lead. He worked in some 400 films in bits and supporting roles, frequently showing up in "reunion" films in the company of his fellow silent screen veterans (Hollywood Boulevard [1936], and A Little Bit of Heaven [1941]). O'Malley remained "on call" into the early '60s for such TV shows as The Twilight Zone and such films as The Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Pat O'Malley's film credits are often confused with those of Irish comedian/dialectian J. Pat O'Malley (1901-1985) and Australian performer John P. O'Malley (1916-1959).

Roy Barcroft (Actor) .. Cop

Born: September 07, 1902
Died: November 28, 1969
Birthplace: Crab Orchard, Nebraska, United States

Trivia: The son of an itinerant sharecropper, Roy Barcroft harbored dreams of becoming an army officer, and to that end lied about his age to enter the service during World War I. Discouraged from pursuing a military career by his wartime experiences, Barcroft spent the 1920s in a succession of jobs, ranging from fireman to radio musician. In the 1930s he and his wife settled in California where he became a salesman. It was while appearing in an amateur theatrical production that Barcroft found his true calling in life. He eked out a living as a movie bit player until finally being signed to a long contract by Republic Pictures in 1943. For the next decade, Barcroft was Republic's Number One villain, growling and glowering at such cowboy stars as Don "Red" Barry, Wild Bill Elliot, Sunset Carson, Allan Lane, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. His best screen moments occurred in Republic's serial output; his favorite chapter-play roles were Captain Mephisto in Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945) and the invading Martian in The Purple Monster Strikes (1945). In the 1948 serial G-Men Never Forget, Barcroft played a dual role--an honest police commissioner and his less-than-honest look-alike--ending the film by shooting "himself." In contrast to his on-screen villainy, Barcroft was one of the nicest fellows on the Republic lot, well-liked and highly respected by everyone with whom he worked. When the "B"-picture market disappeared in the mid-1950s, Barcroft began accepting character roles in such A-pictures as Oklahoma (1955), The Way West (1967), Gaily Gaily (1969) and Monte Walsh (1970). Heavier and more jovial-looking than in his Republic heyday, Roy Barcroft also showed up in dozens of TV westerns, playing recurring roles on Walt Disney's Spin and Marty and the long-running CBS nighttimer Gunsmoke.

Jack Mower (Actor) .. Guard

Born: September 01, 1890
Died: January 06, 1965

Trivia: Silent film leading man Jack Mower was at his most effective when cast in outgoing, athletic roles. Never a great actor, he was competent in displaying such qualities as dependability and honesty. His best known silent role was as the motorcycle cop who is spectacularly killed by reckless driver Leatrice Joy in Cecil B. DeMille's Manslaughter (1922). Talkies reduced Jack Mower to bit parts, but he was frequently given work by directors whom he'd befriended in his days of prominence; Mower's last film was John Ford's The Long Gray Line (1955).

Frank Mayo (Actor) .. Guard

Born: January 01, 1886
Died: July 09, 1963

Trivia: Silent film star Frank Mayo was in movies as early as 1913 when he began a long association with the World Film Company of New Jersey; later he was most closely linked with Universal Pictures. Equally impressive in a dinner jacket or rugged outdoor garb, Mayo was a dependable strong-and-stalwart hero in such Hollywood films as The Brute Breaker (19), Afraid to Fight (22) and Souls for Sale (23). Toward the end of the silent era, Mayo married actress Dagmar Godowsky, whose star began ascending even as her husband's eclipsed; the marriage was annulled in 1928. Confined to bit and extra roles in the 1930s and 1940s, Frank Mayo was frequently hired by producer Jack Warner and director Cecil B. DeMille, both of whom regularly employed the faded stars of the silent years; Mayo's final appearance was in DeMille's Samson and Delilah (49).

Cliff Saum (Actor) .. Guard

Born: December 18, 1882
Died: March 01, 1943

Trivia: A film actor from 1914, Cliff Saum was much in demand during WWI as scurrilous Teutonic types. Saum also served as assistant director for By Whose Hand? (1927) and other silent productions. From 1930 to 1942, he essayed dozens of bits and supporting roles, usually at Warner Bros. Amidst many one-day roles as detectives, truck drivers, and the like, Cliff Saum played a comic Native American named Chief Thunderbird in 1940's Ladies Must Live.

Al Lloyd (Actor) .. Prisoner

Tom Wilson (Actor) .. Prisoner

Born: January 01, 1879
Died: January 01, 1965

Sol Gorss (Actor) .. Prisoner

Jack Wise (Actor) .. Prisoner

Born: January 01, 1902
Died: January 01, 1954

Paul Panzer (Actor) .. Prisoner

Born: November 03, 1872
Died: August 16, 1958

Trivia: German-born stage actor Paul Panzer entered films in 1904 with Vitagraph studios. Panzer appeared in most of Vitagraph's one-reel Shakespearean adaptations of the 1908-1909 season, including Othello (as Cassio), MacBeth (as MacDuff), Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra. Refusing to be typecast, he played in everything from romantic dramas to slapstick comedies. All this ended in 1914 when he was cast as the flamboyantly duplicitous Koerner in the landmark serial The Perils of Pauline; thereafter, he was pigeonholed in villainous roles, nearly all of them based on the eye-rolling, lip-smacking Koerner. In the early talkie era, he co-starred in German-language versions of popular Hollywood films, and thereafter was confined to bit roles until his retirement in the early '50s. One of Paul Panzer's last assignments was a cameo role in the 1947 Pearl White musical biopic The Perils of Pauline -- not as a villain, surprisingly enough, but as a tuxedoed silent-flick leading man.

Don Turner (Actor) .. Prisoner

02:30 am - 03:30 am, Tuesday, May 19 on CPTV HDTV (49.1)