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Kenneth Thomson (actor)
Charles Kenneth Thomson (January 7, 1899 – January 26, 1967) was an American character actor active on stage and on film during the silent and early sound film eras. Early years Born in Pittsburgh, Thomson was the son of Edith Taylor Thomson, a concert manager, who raised him alone after his father died when Kenneth was seven years old. As a youth, he worked as a copy boy at the ''Pittsburgh Leader'' and helped to distribute publicity material for concerts that his mother arranged. Later, he worked for a steel company and an insurance company During World War I, Thomson was in the United States Marine Corps, with his service including being a gunner on the U. S. Frederick cruiser. At the war's end, he went to the Norfolk Navy Yard until he was discharged. After returning to Pittsburgh, he re-enrolled at Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT), He acted in plays at the institute and graduated from CIT's Drama School, Career After graduation from CIT, Thomson worked as an extra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania behind Philadelphia, and the List of United States cities by population, 68th-largest city in the U.S. with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania; its population of 2.37 million is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the Pennsylvania metropolitan areas, second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 27th-largest in the U.S. It is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–New Castle–Weirton combined statistical area that extends into Ohio and West Virginia. Pitts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bebe Daniels
Phyllis Virginia "Bebe" Daniels (January 14, 1901 – March 16, 1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer, and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent film era as a child actress, became a star in musicals such as '' Rio Rita'', and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain. Over the course of her 50-year career, Daniels appeared in 230 films. Early life and career Daniels was born Phyllis Virginia Daniels (Bebe was a childhood nickname) in Dallas, Texas. Her father was a travelling theater manager, Scottish-born Melville Daniel MacNeal, who changed his name to Danny Daniels after a disagreement with his own father over his ambition to change from the medical profession to show business. Her mother was Phyllis de Forest Griffin, born in Colombia of an American father and a Colombian mother, a stage actress who was in Danny's travelling stock company when their child was born. At the age of ten weeks her father proudly carried ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary '' Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film comedians of the silent film era, Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and " talkies", between 1914 and 1947. His bespectacled "Glass" character was a resourceful, ambitious go-getter who matched the zeitgeist of the 1920s-era United States. His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street (dangerous, but risk exaggerated by camera angles) in '' Safety Last!'' (1923) is considered one of the most enduring images in cinema. Lloyd performed lesser stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Boyd (actor)
William Lawrence Boyd (June 5, 1895 – September 12, 1972) was an American film actor who is known for portraying the cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy. Biography Boyd was born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, and reared in Cambridge, Ohio and Tulsa, Oklahoma, living in Tulsa from 1909 to 1913. He was the son of a day laborer, Charles William Boyd, and his wife, the former Lida Wilkens (aka Lyda). Following his father's death, he moved to California and worked as an orange picker, surveyor, tool dresser and auto salesman. In Hollywood, he found work as an extra in '' Why Change Your Wife?'' and other films. During World War I, he enlisted in the army but was exempt from military service because of a "weak heart". More prominent film roles followed, including his breakout role as Jack Moreland in Cecil B. DeMille's '' The Road to Yesterday'' (1925) which starred also Joseph Schildkraut, Jetta Goudal, and Vera Reynolds. Boyd's performance in the film was praised by critics, while movie-g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hop-Along Cassidy
''Hop-Along Cassidy'' (reissued as ''Hopalong Cassidy Enters'') is a 1935 American Western film that features the character '' Hop-Along Cassidy'' created by writer Clarence E. Mulford. This is the first of 66 ''Hopalong Cassidy'' films produced between 1935 and 1948 and all starring William Boyd in the title role. William Boyd was originally offered the role of Buck Peters, the ranch foreman, but he decided to take the role of Hop-Along instead. Plot A ranch foreman tries to start a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other whilst helping a gang rustle their cattle. Each of the cattlemen blames the other for stealing their cattle. Hop-Along Cassidy, played by William Boyd, having been shot in an earlier gunfight, (which results in his trademark ''hop''), uses an altered cowhide brand to discover the real rustlers. The cattlemen join forces with Hop-Along to bring the rustlers to justice. Cast * William Boyd - Bill "Hop-Along" Cassidy * James Ellison - Johnny Nels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Astor
Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese Falcon'' (1941). Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s. When talkies arrived, her voice was initially considered too masculine and she was off the screen for a year. After she appeared in a play with friend Florence Eldridge, film offers returned, and she resumed her career in sound pictures. In 1936, Astor's career was nearly destroyed by scandal. She had an affair with playwright George S. Kaufman and was branded an adulterous wife by her ex-husband during a custody fight over their daughter. Overcoming these stumbling blocks in her private life, she went on to greater film success, eventually winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of concert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward G
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Saxon England, but the rule of the Norman and Plantagenet dynasties had effectively ended its use amongst the upper classes. The popularity of the name was revived when Henry III named his firstborn son, the future Edward I, as part of his efforts to promote a cult around Edward the Confessor, for whom Henry had a deep admiration. Variant forms The name has been adopted in the Iberian peninsula since the 15th century, due to Edward, King of Portugal, whose mother was English. The Spanish/Portuguese forms of the name are Eduardo and Duarte. Other variant forms include French Édouard, Italian Edoardo and Odoardo, German, Dutch, Czech and Romanian Eduard and Scandinavian Edvard. Short forms include Ed, Eddy, Eddie, Ted, Teddy an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little Giant (1933 Film)
''The Little Giant'' is a 1933 American pre-Code crime comedy romance. It follows the attempts of an ex-gangster to make his way into high society. The film was directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Edward G. Robinson and Mary Astor. It was produced and distributed through Warner Bros. The Library of Congress has preserved a print of this film.''Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress'' (<-book title) p.104 c.1978 by The American Film Institute Plot Mobster Jim (Bugs) Ahearn, , realizing that the end of prohibition is only months away, decides to quit the bootlegging racket and work to elevate his culture and status by reading books and investing in art, and ultimately by leaving Chicago for Santa Barbara, where he attempt ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kay Francis
Kay Francis (born Katharine Edwina Gibbs; January 13, 1905 – August 26, 1968) was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star and highest-paid actress at Warner Bros. studio. She adopted her mother's maiden name (Francis) as her professional surname. Early life Kay Francis was born as Katharine Edwina Gibbs in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Territory (present-day Oklahoma), in 1905, the only child of Katharine Clinton ( Francis), an actress, and Joseph Sprague Gibbs. Her parents wed in 1903. In 1909, Kay's mother left her alcoholic husband, taking their daughter. Kay apparently inherited her 5-foot 9 inch height from her 6 feet 4 inch father, and is believed to have been Hollywood's tallest 1930s female lead actress. Her mother had been born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and was a moderately successful actress and singer on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films. Rathbone frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters, such as Mr. Murdstone in '' David Copperfield'' (1935), Tybalt in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in '' The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938). His most famous role was that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. His later career included roles on Broadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. He received a Tony Award in 1948 as Best Actor in a Play. He was also nominated for two Academy Awards and was honoured with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, Sout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billie Dove
Lillian Bohny (born Bertha Eugenie Bohny; May 14, 1903 – December 31, 1997), known professionally as Billie Dove, was an American actress. Early life and career Dove was born Bertha Eugenie Bohny in New York City in 1903 to Charles and Bertha (née Kagl) Bohny, both immigrants from Switzerland. She had a younger brother, Charles Reinhardt Bohny (1906-1963). As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired as a teenager by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld Follies Revue. She legally changed her name to Lillian Bohny in the early 1920s and moved to Hollywood, where she began appearing in silent films. She soon became one of the more popular actresses of the 1920s, appearing in Douglas Fairbanks' smash hit Technicolor film '' The Black Pirate'' (1926), as Rodeo West in ''The Painted Angel'' (1929), and ''The American Beauty'' (1927). She married Irvin Willat, the director of her seventh film, in 1923. The two divorced in 1929. Dove had a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Notorious Affair
''A Notorious Affair'' is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film, produced and released by First National Pictures. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon, starred Billie Dove, and featured Basil Rathbone and Kay Francis. The film was adapted from the play ''Fame'', which was written by Audrey and Waverly Carter. Plot Lady Patricia (Billie Dove), a London socialite engaged to another aristocrat, shocks her father and social class by marrying the poor Italian violinist Paul Gherardi (Basil Rathbone). Countess Olga Balakireff (Kay Francis), a vamp who likes to fool around with men below her station, takes an interest in Gherardi, as well. Unbeknownst to Patricia, Balakireff uses her influence to make Paul famous and, in return, ensnares him in an affair. The double strain of fame and deceit causes Paul to suffer a collapse at Balakireff's house. Dr. Pomeroy ( Kenneth Thompson) is sent for; he happens to be one of Patricia's former lovers. Pomeroy has Paul taken home, where Patricia qui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
