The Red Stallion

Ted Donaldson (Actor) .. Joel Curtis

Born: January 01, 1933

Trivia: Child actor Ted Donaldson was signed to a Columbia Pictures contract in 1944. After a bit in the Edward G. Robinson vehicle Mr. Winkle Goes to War, the 11-year-old Donaldson was spotlighted in the Columbia comedy-fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), sharing star billing with Cary Grant and Janet Blair. On loan to 20th Century-Fox in 1945, Donaldson appeared as Neeley Nolan in the Oscar-nominated A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; at Warners in 1948, he played the title role in The Decision of Christopher Blake. In the late 1940's, Columbia attempted to launch Donaldson in the "Rusty" series, but the films failed to catch on with the public. After playing a brink-of-manhood role in Fox's Phone Call From a Stranger (1952), 19-year-old Ted Donaldson retired from films.

Robert Paige (Actor) .. Andy McBride

Born: December 02, 1910
Died: December 21, 1987

Trivia: Born John Paige, this versatile leading man of many '40s B-movies and musicals attended West Point before dropping out to work as a radio singer and announcer. In 1931 he began appearing in film shorts, billed as David Carlyle. In the mid '30s he began appearing in features, changing his name to Robert Paige in 1938; by the early '40s he was a busy leading man, appearing in every genre of film. He was onscreen infrequently after 1949, but did much work on TV; besides acting in TV productions (he was a regular on the series Run Buddy Run), he also worked as a quiz-show host and Los Angeles newscaster. He finished his career as a public relations executive in Hollywood.

Jane Darwell (Actor) .. Mrs. Curtis

Born: October 15, 1879
Died: August 13, 1967
Birthplace: Palmyra, Missouri, United States

Trivia: American actress Jane Darwell was the daughter of a Missouri railroad executive. Despite her father's disapproval, she spent most of her youth acting in circuses, opera troupes and stock companies, making her film debut in 1912. Even in her early thirties, Darwell specialized in formidable "grande dame" roles, usually society matrons or strict maiden aunts. Making an easy transition to talking pictures, Darwell worked primarily in small character parts (notably as governesses and housekeepers in the films of Shirley Temple) until 1939, when her role as the James Brothers' mother in Jesse James began a new career direction--now she was most often cast as indomitable frontierswomen, unbending in the face of hardship and adversity. It was this quality that led Darwell to be cast in her favorite role as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which she won an Oscar. Darwell continued to work until illness crept upon her in the late 1950s. Even so, Darwell managed to essay a handful of memorable parts on TV and in movies into the 1960s; her last film role was as the "Bird Woman" in Disney's Mary Poppins (1964).

Noreen Nash (Actor) .. Ellen Reynolds

Ray Collins (Actor) .. Barton

Born: December 10, 1889
Died: July 11, 1965

Trivia: A descendant of one of California's pioneer families, American actor Ray Collins' interest in the theatre came naturally. His father was drama critic of the Sacramento Bee. Taking to the stage at age 14, Collins moved to British Columbia, where he briefly headed his own stock company, then went on to Broadway. An established theatre and radio performer by the mid-1930s, Collins began a rewarding association with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. He played the "world's last living radio announcer" in Welles' legendary War of the Worlds broadcast of 1938, then moved to Hollywood with the Mercury troupe in 1939. Collins made his film debut as Boss Jim Gettys in Welles' film classic Citizen Kane (1940). After the Mercury disbanded in the early 1940s, Collins kept busy as a film and stage character actor, usually playing gruff business executives. Collins is most fondly remembered by TV fans of the mid-1950s for his continuing role as the intrepid Lt. Tragg on the weekly series Perry Mason.

Guy Kibbee (Actor) .. Dr. Thompson

Born: March 06, 1882
Died: May 24, 1956

Trivia: It is possible that when actor Guy Kibbee portrayed newspaper editor Webb in the 1940 film version of Our Town, he harked back to his own father's experiences as a news journalist. The cherubic, pop-eyed Kibbee first performed on Mississippi riverboats as a teenager, then matriculated to the legitimate stage. The 1930 Broadway play Torch Song was the production that brought Kibbee the Hollywood offers. From 1931 onward, Kibbee was one of the mainstays of the Warner Bros. stock companies, specializing in dumb politicos (The Dark Horse [1932]), sugar daddies (42nd Street [1933]) and the occasional straight, near-heroic role (Captain Blood [1935]). In 1934, Kibbee enjoyed one of his rare leading roles, essaying the title character in Babbitt (1934), a role he seemed born to play. During the 1940s, Kibbee headlined the Scattergood Baines B-picture series at RKO. He retired in 1949, after completing his scenes in John Ford's Three Godfathers. Kibbee was the brother of small-part play Milton Kibbee, and the father of Charles Kibbee, City University of New York chancellor.

Willie Best (Actor) .. Jackson

Born: May 27, 1916
Died: February 27, 1962

Trivia: African American actor Willie Best made his screen debut in Harold Lloyd's Feet First (1930). When Best, a veteran of a travelling show, came to Hollywood, he immediately fell prey to the stereotyping of the era. Promoted as a "new Stepin Fetchit," Best was transformed into a shuffling, "Yassuh boss" character billed as "Sleep 'N' Eat." Studio press releases of the 1930s made outrageous claims that not only did Best enjoy humiliating himself in "darkie" roles, but that the only compensation he wanted for his screen work was three square meals a day and a warm place to sleep. Despite the demeaning nature of his roles, Best performed them with consummate skill and razor sharp comic timing. Bob Hope, who worked with Best in The Ghost Breakers (1940) and Nothing But the Truth (1941), once referred to Willie as "the finest actor I knew." In the 1950s, Willie Best was a fixture at the Hal Roach Studios, playing supporting roles in such Roach-produced TV series as My Little Margie, The Stu Erwin Show and Mark Saber.

Robert Bice (Actor) .. Ho-Na

Born: March 14, 1914

Pierre Watkin (Actor) .. Richard Moresby

Born: December 29, 1889
Died: February 03, 1960

Trivia: Actor Pierre Watkin looked as though he was born to a family of Chase Manhattan executives. Tall, imposing, imbued with a corporate demeanor and adorned with well-trimmed white mustache, Watkin appeared to be a walking Brooks Brothers ad as he strolled through his many film assignments as bankers, lawyers, judges, generals and doctors. When director Frank Capra cast the actors playing US senators in Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939) using as criteria the average weight, height and age of genuine senators, Watkin fit the physical bill perfectly. Occasionally Watkin could utilize his established screen character for satirical comedy: in W.C. Fields' The Bank Dick, he portrayed Lompoc banker Mr. Skinner, who extended to Fields the coldest and least congenial "hearty handclasp" in movie history. Serial fans know Pierre Watkin as the actor who originated the role of bombastic Daily Planet editor Perry White in Columbia's two Superman chapter plays of the late '40s.

Bill Cartledge (Actor) .. Johnny Stevens

Born: October 04, 1914

04:12 am - 05:31 am, Saturday, January 24 on STARZ ENCORE Westerns (East) ()