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Without Reservations
''Without Reservations'' is a 1946 RKO Radio Pictures American comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claudette Colbert, John Wayne and Don DeFore. The film was adapted by Andrew P. Solt, Andrew Solt from the novel ''Thanks, God! I'll Take It From Here'' by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston. Plot Successful author Christopher "Kit" Madden is traveling to Los Angeles to work on the film adaptation of her bestselling book ''Here is Tomorrow'', which was supposed to star Cary Grant as the United States Army Air Forces, Army Air Forces pilot hero Mark Winston. But she receives word that Grant has withdrawn and the producer now wants an unknown actor to play Winston opposite Lana Turner. Kit, on the train to Hollywood, is writing the producer that she'll accept nobody but Grant to star as Winston when she meets two Marine pilots, captain "Rusty" Thomas and first lieutenant "Dink" Watson, and instantly considers Rusty the best choice to play Winston. But he is dismissive of her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Bros., Warner Brothers studios, the other being his colleague Michael Curtiz. LeRoy's most acclaimed films of his tenure at Warners include ''Little Caesar (film), Little Caesar'' (1931), ''I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang'' (1932), ''Gold Diggers of 1933'' (1933) and ''They Won't Forget'' (1937). LeRoy left Warners and moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in 1939 to serve as both director and producer. He is best known for the 1939 film ''The Wizard of Oz''. Early life LeRoy was born on October 15, 1900, in San Francisco, California, the only child of Edna (née Armer) and Harry LeRoy, a well-to-do department store owner. Both his parents' families had fully Jewish assimilation, assimilated, residing in the Bay Area for several generations. LeRoy described his rela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid American actresses, and one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM's biggest stars, with her films earning approximately one billion dollars in 2024 currency for the studio during her 18-year contract with them. Turner is frequently cited as a popular culture icon due to her glamour (presentation), glamorous persona, and a screen legend of the classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She was nominated for Lana Turner performances and awards, numerous awards. Born to working-class parents in Idaho, Turner spent her childhood there before her family relocated to California. In 1936, at the age of 15, she was discovered by a talent scout, while shopping at the Top Hat Soda shop, malt shop in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor who had a lengthy Hollywood film career and portrayed the title roles in the television dramas '' Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''. Burr's early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television, and film, usually as the villain. He portrayed the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller ''Rear Window'' (1954), and he also had a role in the 1956 film ''Godzilla, King of the Monsters!'', which he reprised in the 1985 film '' Godzilla 1985''. He won Emmy Awards for acting in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons (1957–1966) and reprised in a series of 26 ''Perry Mason'' TV movies (1985–1993). His second TV series, '' Ironside,'' earned him six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations. Burr died due to liver cancer in 1993, and his personal life came into question, as many details of his biography appeared to be unverifiable. He was ranked num ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolores Moran
Dolores Jean Moran (January 27, 1926 – February 5, 1982) was an American film actress and model. Early years Moran was born named Jaqueline in Stockton, California, the daughter of James G. Moran and his wife, Esther Moran and attended elementary and secondary schools there. She won the Northern California Oratorical Contest and starred in school plays. Film career In 1942, aged 16, Moran, was signed by Warner Bros. to a seven-year contract, with her parents' permission. Moran's brief career as a film actress began with uncredited roles in such films as ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942) as "the Pippirino" (with whom George blows off a date to go out with Mary). By 1943, she had become a pin-up girl appearing on the cover of such magazines as ''Yank''. She was given supporting roles in films, such as ''Old Acquaintance'' (1943) with Bette Davis. Warner Bros. attempted to increase interest in her, promoting her along with Lauren Bacall as a new screen personality when Baca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky; February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success as a violinist on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with a highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film. He was known for his comic timing and the ability to cause laughter with a long pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated summation "''Well!''" His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny portrayed himself as a miser who obliviously played his violin badly and claimed perpetually to be 39 years of age. Early life Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky () on February 14, 1894 in Chicago, and grew up in nearby Waukegan. He was the son of Jewish immigrants Meyer Kubelsky and Naomi Emma ( Sachs). Meyer was a saloon owner and later a haberdasher who had emigrated to the United Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisa Golm
Lisa Golm ( Luise Schmertzler, ; 10 April 1891 – 6 January 1964) was a German actress who emigrated to America and appeared in a number of Hollywood films as a character actress. Golm made her first screen appearance in the 1939 film ''Confessions of a Nazi Spy''. She also featured on American television, appearing on shows such as ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'', ''The Third Man'' and ''The Twilight Zone''. Biography On 6 November 1918, she married Ernest Otto Ferdinand Golm in Berlin, Germany and later entered the United States at New York City on 3 December 1937. She was naturalized as an American citizen on 24 September 1943, when a resident of Los Angeles. Death Golm died on 6 January 1964, aged 72, in Tel Aviv, Israel. She was buried in the Haifa Cemetery in Israel. She was survived by her sister, Jennie Schmertzler. Selected filmography * ''Confessions of a Nazi Spy'' (1939) as Mrs. Anna Westphal (uncredited) * '' Escape'' (1940) as Anna * '' So Ends Our Night'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam McDaniel
Samuel Rufus McDaniel (January 28, 1886September 24, 1962)Tanner, Beccy (November 7, 1991)"McDaniel Opened Doors; 'Gone With the Wind' Was Actress' Most Famous Film" ''The Wichita Eagle''. Retrieved January 3, 2021. was an American actor who appeared in over 210 television shows and films between 1929 and 1950. He was the older brother of actresses Etta McDaniel and Hattie McDaniel. Early life Born in Wichita, Kansas, to former slaves, McDaniel was one of 13 children.Bogle, Donald (2019)''Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers'' New York: Perseus Books. p. 199. . His father Henry McDaniel fought in the Civil War with the 122nd USCT and his mother, Susan Holbert, was a singer of gospel music. In 1900, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Fort Collins and then in Denver where he grew up and graduated from Denver East High School. The children of the McDaniel family had a traveling minstrel show. After the death of brother Otis in 1916, the troupe bega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Wilcox
Frank Reppy Wilcox (March 13, 1907 – March 3, 1974) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films and television series, as well as Broadway plays. Background Wilcox was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger V. Wilcox. He was born in De Soto, Missouri, but the family moved to Atchison, Kansas. Wilcox worked in Kansas City as an oil company's sales manager. Acting career Wilcox joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse. By December 1924, he headed the Frank Wilcox Company, which produced plays in venues that included the Lyceum in Baltimore. In 1927, he became a member of The Lambs Club. Wilcox became a contract player for Warner Bros., beginning with the 1939 short film ''The Monroe Doctrine'', in which he was chosen to portray the American statesman Henry Clay during the early 1820s. He played Abraham Lincoln as a militia captain in another 1939 film short ''Old Hickory'', based on key events in the public career of President Andrew Jackson. During World War II Wilcox se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louella Parsons
Louella Rose Oettinger, (August 6, 1881 – December 9, 1972) known by the pen name Louella Parsons, was an American gossip columnist and a screenwriter. At her peak, her columns were read by 20 million people in 700 newspapers worldwide. She was the first writer of a dedicated column on motion pictures in the United States, writing one in 1914 for the '' Chicago Record-Herald''. She later started a similar column for the '' New York Morning Telegraph'', being lured away by William Randolph Hearst's ''New York American'' in 1924 because she had championed Hearst's mistress Marion Davies. She subsequently became an influential figure in Hollywood and remained the unchallenged "Queen of Hollywood gossip" until the arrival of the flamboyant Hedda Hopper, with whom she feuded for years. Early life Parsons was born Louella Rose Oettinger in Freeport, Illinois, the daughter of Helen (née Stine) and Joshua Oettinger. Her father was of German Jewish descent, as was her maternal grand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Arnt
Charles E. Arnt (August 20, 1906 – August 6, 1990) was an American film actor from 1933 to 1962. Arnt appeared as a character actor in more than 200 films. Arnt was born in Michigan City, Indiana, the son of a banker. He graduated from Phillips Academy and Princeton University. While at Princeton, he helped to found the University Players and was president of the Princeton Triangle Club theatrical troupe. He became a banker after he graduated from college. In the early 1930s, Arnt acted with the University Repertory Theater in Maryland. On Broadway, he appeared in ''Carry Nation'' (1932), ''Three Waltzes'' (1937), and ''Knickerbocker Holiday'' (1938). In 1962, Arnt retired from acting and began to import and breed Charolais cattle on a ranch in Washington state. Arnt died in Orcas Island, Washington. Selected filmography * '' Roman Scandals'' (1933) – Caius, the Food Taster (uncredited) * '' Ladies Should Listen'' (1934) – Albert, the manservant * '' Ready for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dona Drake
Dona Drake ( ; November 15, 1914 – June 20, 1989) was an American singer, dancer, and film actress in the 1930s and 1940s. She was typically cast in ethnic roles including Latin American and Middle Easterners. Drake often presented herself as Mexican and went by the names Una Novella and Rita Novella. As Rita Rio, she led a touring all-girl orchestra in the early 1940s, also known as "Dona Drake and her Girl Band", among other names for her musical and dance acts. Early life Drake was born Eunice Westmoreland in Miami, Florida on November 15, 1914 to Joseph Andrew Westmoreland, Sr. and Novella (née Smith). She had four siblings. Ethnicity The 1910 United States census, taken in Florida, lists her father as black and her mother, taken in Alabama, as black. The 1920 United States census, taken in Florida, records her and her parents as being mulatto. The 1930 United States census, taken in Pennsylvania, records her and her parents as being negro. The 1950 United States ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thurston Hall
Ernest Thurston Hall (May 10, 1882 – February 20, 1958) was an American film, stage and television actor.Aylesworth, Thomas G. and Bowman, John S. (1987). ''The World Almanac Who's Who of Film''. World Almanac. . Pp. 186-187. Career Stage Hall toured with various New England stage companies during his teens, then went on to London, where he formed a small stage troupe. He also toured New Zealand and South Africa."Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. . P. 526. At 22 in 1904, Hall was in the first stage production of ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch''. His Broadway theatre, Broadway credits include ''The Only Girl (musical), The Only Girl'' (1914), ''Have a Heart'' (1917), ''Civilian Clothes'' (1919), ''The French Doll'' (1922), ''Still Waters'' (1926), ''Buy, Buy, Baby'' (1926), ''Mixed Doubles'' (1927), ''Behold the Bridegroom'' (1927), ''The Common Sin'' (1928), ''Sign of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
