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Bonanza
''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on American network television (behind CBS's '' Gunsmoke''), and one of the longest-running, live-action American series. The show continues to air in syndication. The show is set in the 1860s and centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the vicinity of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series initially starred Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and Michael Landon and later featured (at various times) Guy Williams, David Canary, Mitch Vogel and Tim Matheson. The show is known for presenting pressing moral dilemmas. The title "Bonanza" is a term used by miners in regard to a large vein or deposit of silver ore, from Spanish ''bonanza'' (rich ore body) and commonly refers to the 1859 revelation o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pernell Roberts
Pernell Elven Roberts Jr. (May 18, 1928 – January 24, 2010) was an American stage, film, and television actor, activist, and singer. In addition to guest-starring in over 60 television series, he was best known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son Adam Cartwright on the Western television series ''Bonanza'' (1959–1965), and as chief surgeon John McIntyre, the title character on '' Trapper John, M.D.'' (1979–1986). Roberts was also known for his lifelong activism, which included participation in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and pressuring NBC to refrain from hiring White people to portray minority characters. Early life Roberts was born on May 18, 1928 in Waycross, Georgia, the only child of Pernell Elven Roberts Sr., a Dr Pepper salesman, and Minnie (Betty) Myrtle Morgan Roberts. During his high-school years, Pernell played the horn, acted in school and church plays, and sang in local USO shows. He attended, but did not graduate from, Georgia Tech. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Landon
Michael Landon Sr. (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz; October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991) was an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in ''Bonanza'' (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in ''Little House on the Prairie'' (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in '' Highway to Heaven'' (1984–1989). Landon appeared on the cover of ''TV Guide'' 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball. Early life Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz on October 31, 1936, in Forest Hills, a neighborhood of Queens, New York. His parents were Kathleen "Peggy" (née O'Neill; a dancer and comedian) and Eli Maurice Orowitz. His father was Jewish, and his mother was Roman Catholic. Eugene was the Orowitz family's second child; their daughter, Evelyn, had been born three years earlier in 1933. In 1941, when Eugene was four, he and his family moved to the borough of Collingswood, New Jersey. He celebrated his ''bar mitzvah'' at Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill. His family ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dan Blocker
Bobby Dan Davis Blocker (December 10, 1928 – May 13, 1972) was an American television actor and Korean War veteran, who played Hoss Cartwright in the NBC Western fiction, Western television series ''Bonanza''. Biography Early life Blocker was born in De Kalb, Texas to Ora "Shack" Blocker and Mary Arizona (Davis) Blocker. As a boy, Blocker attended Texas Military Institute. He enrolled in a San Antonio school in 1940. He went to Hardin-Simmons University and Sul Ross State University, where he earned a degree in speech and drama. In 1946, Blocker played football at Southern Baptist-affiliated Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. In 1947, he transferred to Sul Ross State University, Sul Ross State Teacher's College in Alpine, Texas, where he was a star football player, and graduated in 1950. After two years of military service, he earned a master's degree in the dramatic arts. Blocker worked as a rodeo performer and a Bouncer (doorman), bouncer in a bar while a stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ponderosa Ranch
The Ponderosa Ranch was a theme park based on the television western ''Bonanza'', which housed the land, timber and livestock-rich Cartwright family. The amusement park operated in Incline Village, Nevada, Incline Village, Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, from 1968 until 2004. Portions of the last five seasons of the TV series and three television films were also filmed at that location. Origins TV origins of the fictional Ponderosa Ranch The Ponderosa was the fictional setting for ''Bonanza''. According to the 9th episode ("Mr. Henry Comstock") in the first season, it was a thousand-square mile (640,000 acre or 2,600 km2) ranch (land), ranch on the shores of Lake Tahoe, nestled high in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, with a large ranch house in the center of it. Ben Cartwright (character), Ben Cartwright was said to have built the original, smaller homestead after moving from New Orleans with his pregnant third wife Marie and his two sons, Adam CartwAdam and Hoss CartwHoss. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Canary
David Hoyt Canary (August25, 1938November16, 2015) was an American actor. Canary is best known for his roles as ranch foreman Candy Canaday in the NBC Western drama ''Bonanza'', and as Adam Chandler in the television soap opera ''All My Children'', for which he received 16 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and won five times. Early life Canary was born in Elwood, Indiana, and grew up in Massillon, Ohio. He was the middle son of Hilary Canary and Lorena Heal. His brothers were actor John Canary, who once had a role in ''All My Children'', and writer Hilary Glenn Canary. The brothers were purportedly great-great-nephews of Martha Jane Canary, Calamity Jane. Football Canary starred as an end on both offense and defense on the football team at Massillon Washington High School, where he graduated in 1956. The school honored him as a Distinguished Citizen 35 years later in 1991. He earned a football scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, where he was a three-year letterman from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorne Greene
Lorne Hyman Greene (born Lyon Himan Green; February 12, 1915 – September 11, 1987) was a Canadian actor, singer, and radio personality. His notable television roles include Ben Cartwright on the Western ''Bonanza'' and Commander Adama in the original science-fiction television series '' Battlestar Galactica'' and '' Galactica 1980''. He also worked on the Canadian television nature documentary series '' Lorne Greene's New Wilderness'' and in television commercials. Early life and career in Canada Greene was born Lyon Himan Green on February 12, 1915, in Ottawa, Ontario, to Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, Dora (née Grinovsky) and Daniel Green, a shoemaker. He was called "Chaim" by his mother, and his name is shown as "Hyman" on his school report cards. In a biography of him, written by his daughter, she wrote that it was unknown when he began using the name Lorne, nor when he added an "e" to Green. Greene was the drama instructor at Camp Arowhon, a summer ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter best known for being a half of a composing-songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, specializing himself in writing lyrics for film songs. On music Livingston composed, Evans wrote the lyrics.Ray Evans papers, 1921-2012 Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, university of Pennsylvania. Biography Early life and family Ray Evans was born on February 4, 1915 to a family in Salamanca ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitch Vogel
Mitchel L. "Mitch" Vogel (born January 17, 1956) is an American former child actor, musician and director. As of 2023, he is one of two surviving main cast members from ''Bonanza'', next to Tim Matheson. Having begun his professional acting career at age 10, Vogel is widely known for his role as the red-headed orphan, Jamie Hunter-Cartwright on the NBC western series ''Bonanza'', as well as for his feature film roles: as Tommy North in '' Yours, Mine and Ours'' and as Lucius McCaslin in ''The Reivers''. Biography Early life and career Born in Alhambra, California, Vogel began acting at ten, appearing in stage productions of '' Tom Sawyer'', ''Heidi'', ''Peter Pan'' and '' The Wizard of Oz''. As his acting career progressed, he attended Heinz Kaiser Junior High School in Costa Mesa, California, from 1969 to 1970 and later attended Jordan Junior High School in Burbank, California. Acting career Vogel made his feature film debut at the age of 12, appearing in the 1968 comedy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Dortort
David Dortort (born David Solomon Katz; October 23, 1916 – September 5, 2010) was a Hollywood screenwriter and producer, widely known for his role as producer in two successful NBC television series: ''Bonanza'' (1959–73) and '' The High Chaparral'' (1967–71). Dortort's focus shifted in the late 1960s to the newer series, leaving the production of ''Bonanza'' largely to his associates during its last five and a half years (1967–1973). From 1954–55, Dortort was involved in directing and writing for '' The Public Defender''. He produced '' The Restless Gun'' (1957–59), ''The Cowboys'' television version (1974), and a prequel series featuring younger versions of the ''Bonanza'' characters called '' Ponderosa'' (2001), which was produced with Beth Sullivan. In 1979–1980, he created the 13-week CBS miniseries, '' The Chisholms''. Michael Landon appeared in a supporting role in the pilot for ''The Restless Gun'', starring John Payne, aired on March 19, 1957, as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Sen Yung
Victor Sen Yung (born Victor Cheung Young or Sen Yew Cheung; ; October 18, 1915 – body discovered November 9, 1980) was an American character actor, best known for playing Jimmy Chan in the Charlie Chan films and Hop Sing in the western series ''Bonanza''. Early life Sen Yung was born in San Francisco, California to Gum Yung Sen and his first wife, both immigrants from China. When his mother died during the flu epidemic of 1919, his father placed Victor and his younger sister, Rosemary, in a children's shelter, and returned to his homeland to seek another wife. He returned in 1922 with his new wife, Lovi Shee, once again forming a household with his two children. Career Charlie Chan films and military service Sen Yung made his first significant acting debut in the 1938 film '' Charlie Chan in Honolulu'', as the Chinese detective's "number two son", Jimmy Chan. In this movie, Sidney Toler replaced the recently deceased Warner Oland as Charlie Chan and Sen Yung replaced Ola ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after American miner Henry Comstock. After the discovery was made public in 1859, it sparked a silver rush of prospectors to the area, scrambling to stake their claims. The discovery caused considerable excitement in California and throughout the United States, the greatest since the California Gold Rush in 1849. Mining camps soon thrived in the vicinity, which became bustling commercial centers, including Virginia City and Gold Hill. The Comstock Lode is notable not just for the immense fortunes it generated and the large role those fortunes had in the growth of Nevada and San Francisco, but also for the advances in mining technology that it spurred, such as square set timbering and the Washoe process for ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Teal
Ray Elgin Teal (January 12, 1902The book ''Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory'' gives Teal's birth date as January 12, 1908. – April 2, 1976) was an American actor. His most famous role was as Sheriff Roy Coffee on the television series ''Bonanza'' (1959–1972), which was only one of dozens of sheriffs on television and in movies that he played during his long and prolific career stretching from 1937 to 1970. He appeared in pictures such as '' Western Jamboree'' (1938) with Gene Autry, ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946) with Fredric March and Myrna Loy, '' The Black Arrow'' (1948), Billy Wilder's '' Ace in the Hole'' (1951) and '' Judgment at Nuremberg'' (1961) with Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster. Early life Teal was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A saxophone player, he worked his way through the University of California, Los Angeles as a bandleader before becoming an actor. Musical career In the early 1930s Teal and his orchestra, the Floridians, play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
