Living Stars of Classic TV - as of May 2016
by BWRocks | created - 22 May 2016 | updated - 22 Oct 2021 | PublicThis list includes the living stars of classic TV, from the standardization of broadcast television in the '40s up until the cusp of modern television in the mid '60s.
1. Joyce Randolph
Actress | The Honeymooners
Lovely, sweet-natured Joyce Randolph will forever be etched in the minds of "Golden Age" television viewers as the Bowery-like fourth party of the classic husband/wife quartet on the enduring TV family comedy The Honeymooners (1955) starring Jackie Gleason as the irrepressible hothead bus driver ...
2. Mary Kay Stearns
Writer | Mary Kay and Johnny
Mary Kay Stearns was born on October 27, 1925 in Glendale, California, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Mary Kay and Johnny (1947), Kraft Theatre (1947) and Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950). She was married to John Stearns. She died on November 17, 2018 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
3. Kevin O'Morrison
Actor | Sleepless in Seattle
Kevin O'Morrison was born on May 25, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Funny Farm (1988) and Dear Ruth (1947). He was married to Linda Soma. He died on December 11, 2016 in Lynnwood, Washington, USA.
4. Carl Reiner
Writer | The Dick Van Dyke Show
Carl Reiner is a legend of American comedy, who achieved great success as a comic actor, a director, producer and recording artist. He won nine Emmy Awards, three as an actor, four as a writer and two as a producer. He also won a Grammy Award for his album "The 2,000 Year Old Man", based on his ...
5. Bob Newhart
Actor | Elf
Bob Newhart is an American actor and stand-up comedian. His comedic style involves deadpan delivery of dialogue, a slight stammer when talking, and comedic monologues. He has cited earlier comedians George Gobel (1919-1991), Ray Goulding (1922-1990), and Bob Elliott (1923-2016) as his main ...
6. Gloria Henry
Actress | Air Hostess
New Orleans-born actress Gloria Henry was born Gloria Eileen McEniry on April 2, 1923, and lived on the edge of the Garden District growing up. Educated at the Worcester Art Museum School, she moved to Los Angeles in her very late teens and worked on a number of radio shows and commercials using ...
7. Rose Marie
Actress | The Dick Van Dyke Show
Rose Marie was a legend of show business, with a career stretching 90 years, since her debut as her self in a Vitaphone musical short that appeared on the bill with The Jazz Singer (1927) at its premiere in 1927. According to Rose Marie, when she approached Al Jolson at the Winter Garden Theater in...
8. Dick Van Dyke
Actor | Mary Poppins
Dick Van Dyke was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, to Hazel Victoria (McCord), a stenographer, and Loren Wayne Van Dyke, a salesman. His younger brother was entertainer Jerry Van Dyke. His ancestry includes English, Dutch, Scottish, German and Swiss-German. Although he had ...
9. Mary Tyler Moore
Actress | Ordinary People
Mary Tyler Moore was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on December 29, 1936. Moore's family relocated to California when she was eight. Her childhood was troubled, due in part to her mother's alcoholism. The eldest of three siblings, she attended a Catholic high school and married upon her graduation, in...
10. Betty White
Actress | The Proposal
Betty White was born in Oak Park, Illinois, to Christine Tess (Cachikis), a homemaker, and Horace Logan White, a lighting company executive for the Crouse-Hinds Electric Company. She was of Danish, Greek, English, and Welsh descent.
Although she was best known as the devious Sue Ann Nivens on the ...
11. Nanette Fabray
Actress | The Band Wagon
A sparkling, entertaining, highly energetic presence ever since her early days (from age 4) as a singing and tap dancing child vaudevillian, Nanette Fabray was once billed as "Baby Nanette".
She was born in Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, then moved to the United States, to Louisiana-born parents, Lily ...
12. Tina Louise
Actress | Gilligan's Island
Born in New York City, Tina was still in her teens when she burst upon the national scene by starring on Broadway in the critically acclaimed box-office success "Li'l Abner", based on the famous comic strip character created by Al Capp. Stellar reviews caught the attention of Hollywood and Tina ...
13. Dawn Wells
Actress | Gilligan's Island
A wholesome beauty with comedic appeal, Dawn Elberta Wells was born on October 18, 1938 in Reno, Nevada. Wells' childhood was a happy and healthy one. She and her mother grew their own fruits and vegetables in their gardens and Dawn rode horses. In her high school years, she was the class treasurer...
14. Ann Baker
Actress | Meet Corliss Archer
Ann Baker was born on July 23, 1930 in Sedalia, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Meet Corliss Archer (1954), Lux Video Theatre (1950) and Crossroads (1955). She was married to William Earl Long. She died on March 2, 2017 in Torrance, California, USA.
15. June Lockhart
Actress | Lost in Space
Born in New York City on June 25, 1925, the daughter of actors Gene Lockhart and Kathleen Lockhart, June Lockhart made her professional debut at age eight in a Metropolitan Opera production of "Peter Ibbetson", playing Mimsey in the dream sequence. In the mid-1930s, the Lockharts relocated to ...
16. Cloris Leachman
Actress | The Last Picture Show
The legendary actress set a record when at age 82, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005). Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926 in Des Moines, Iowa to Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and the former Cloris Wallace. Her father's family owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. She ...
17. Jon Shepodd
Actor | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Jon Shepodd was born on December 19, 1925 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Power of the Resurrection (1958) and Lassie (1954). He died on August 16, 2017 in London, England, UK.
18. Harry Belafonte
Actor | Bobby
Harold George Belafonte was born on March 1, 1927 in New York City. He was educated at the New York Dramatic Workshop. He grew up in Jamaica, British West Indies, and did folk-singing in nightclubs and theaters, and on television and records. His debut was at the Village Vanguard in New York. Also,...
19. Jed Allan
Actor | General Hospital
Jed Allan was born on March 1, 1935 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for General Hospital (1963), Days of Our Lives (1965) and Port Charles (1997). He was married to Janice Toby Druger. He died on March 9, 2019 in Palm Desert, California, USA.
20. Ray Fulmer
Actor | Hazel
Ray Fulmer was born on February 17, 1933 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Hazel (1961), Combat! (1962) and Guiding Light (1952). He was married to Sharon Young and Betty Lou. He died on June 2, 2013 in the USA.
21. John Astin
Actor | The Frighteners
Dark-haired, usually-mustachioed American actor with a cheeky grin, who achieved pop culture status through his portrayal of the kooky patriarch "Gomez Addams" in the hit TV series The Addams Family (1964), John Astin was born on March 30, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied mathematics at ...
22. Jerry Lewis
Actor | The Nutty Professor
Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926 - August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team ...
23. Don Hastings
Actor | As the World Turns
Actor and writer, best known as "The Video Ranger", "Jack Lane", and "Dr. Bob Hughes" on television. The youngest son of Hazel and Charles Hastings, he lived in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area until he was six, attending Our Lady of Victory parochial school for one year. The family then moved to...
24. Pat Boone
Soundtrack | Journey to the Center of the Earth
Actor, singer, author and songwriter ("Exodus") Pat Boone was educated at David Lipscombe College, North Texas State College and Columbia University (from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958). His career in entertainment began when he emceed a teenage talent show on radio and ...
25. Linda Henning
Actress | Petticoat Junction
The daughter of veteran writer and TV producer Paul Henning and Ruth Henning, Linda originally studied to be a dancer before going into acting. After appearing in an uncredited role as one of the dancers in Bye Bye Birdie (1963), she landed the role of Betty Jo on Petticoat Junction (1963), on ...
26. Jeannine Riley
Actress | Electra Glide in Blue
Blonde bombshell Jeannine Brooke Riley was born in Madera, California on October 1, 1940 and started her movie and TV career in 1962 with an unbilled movie part in the Rosalind Russell drama Five Finger Exercise (1962) and roles on the TV shows "Father of the Bride" and "Route 66," not to mention ...
27. Gunilla Hutton
Actress | Fantasy Island
Gunilla Hutton was born on May 15, 1944 in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden. She is an actress, known for Fantasy Island (1977), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Burke's Law (1963).
28. Lori Saunders
Actress | Petticoat Junction
Striking brunette Lori Saunders managed to capitalize on her sunny, daisy-fresh appeal during CBS-TV's famous 1960s "rural age," an era in which the network churned out a connected trio of bucolic hit shows -- The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Green Acres (1965). As the ...
29. Jimmy Hawkins
Actor | It's a Wonderful Life
Jimmy Hawkins ... Portrayed the son of some of Hollywood's most popular movie stars of the 1940s (Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Greer Garson, Lana Turner & Jessica Tandy). Jimmy also has the distinction of playing Jimmy Stewart & Donna Reed's son, Tommy Bailey, in the Frank Capra film classic ....
30. Jonathan Daly
Actor | CPO Sharkey
Jonathan Daly was born on January 14, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for CPO Sharkey (1976), Adams of Eagle Lake (1975) and The Jimmy Stewart Show (1971).
31. Beverley Owen
Actress | Bullet for a Badman
Beverley Owen was born Beverley Ogg in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Thursday, May 13th, 1937. In high school and college, she was always doing television, theatre, and radio programs. She then moved to New York to pursue an acting career after graduating from the University of Michigan. She was fired many a ...
32. Pat Priest
Actress | The Munsters
This sweet, wholesome, porcelain-skinned beauty was your typical bouffant blonde of the early-to-mid 1960s. She was picture perfect, whether romping along the coast of Malibu Beach in a bikini or peering over a white picket fence as the girl-next-door. Pat Priest was born Patricia Ann Priest on ...
33. Clint Walker
Actor | The Dirty Dozen
Clint Walker was born Norman Eugene Walker in Hartford, southwestern Illinois, to Gladys Huldah (Schwanda), a Czech immigrant, and Paul Arnold Walker, who was from Arkansas. Walker almost single-handedly started the western craze on TV in the 1950s as Cheyenne Bodie in Cheyenne (1955). Growing up ...
34. Jim Nabors
Actor | Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Tall, spade-jawed, hopelessly genial balladeer/actor Jim Nabors was born in James Thurston Nabors on June 12, 1930 in Sylacauga, Alabama and raised there, graduating from the University of Alabama. A typing clerk at the United Nations in his salad days, he eventually moved to Los Angeles, ...
35. Adam West
Actor | Batman
Adam West was born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington, to parents Otto West Anderson, a farmer, and his wife Audrey V. (Speer), an opera singer. At age 10, in 1938, West had a cache of comic books; and starting in 1939, Batman, who appeared in Detective Comics, ...
36. Max Baer Jr.
Actor | The Beverly Hillbillies
The son of former heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, Max Baer Jr. is a classic (except probably to him) example of Hollywood typecasting. Known around the world as "Jethro Bodine" in the smash TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Baer did not find work as an actor in Hollywood for three ...
37. Burt Reynolds
Actor | Boogie Nights
Enduring, strong-featured, and genial star of US cinema, Burt Reynolds started off in T.V. westerns in the 1960s and then carved his name into 1970s/1980s popular culture, as a sex symbol (posing nearly naked for "Cosmopolitan" magazine), and on-screen as both a rugged action figure and then as a ...
38. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...
39. Roger Ewing
Actor | None But the Brave
Roger Ewing was born January 12, 1942 in Los Angeles, California. His acting career entailed several guest shots on TV shows, sitcoms and movies but he is best known for his role of a part-time deputy marshal and handy man, Clayton Thaddeus "Thad" Greenwood in thirty-six episodes (October 2, 1965 -...
40. Barbara Eden
Actress | I Dream of Jeannie
Barbara Eden, born Barbara Jean Morehead in Tucson, Arizona, became one of America's most endearing and enduring actresses. A graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, California, Eden would go on to study at San Francisco's City College as well as the San Francisco Conservatory of ...
41. Kelo Henderson
Actor | 26 Men
Kelo Henderson was born on August 8, 1923 in Pueblo, Colorado, USA. He was an actor, known for 26 Men (1957), Treasure of the Aztecs (1965) and Pyramid of the Sun God (1965). He died on December 10, 2019 in California, USA.
42. James Drury
Actor | The Virginian
Laconic, dark and handsome were the essential attributes for Hollywood western leading men in the 50s and 60s. James Drury fit the bill, keeping in mind that his most famous screen persona - that of the stalwart Shiloh estate ranch foreman known only as 'the Virginian' - took a while to properly ...
43. Clu Gulager
Actor | The Return of the Living Dead
Clu Gulager was born William Martin Gulager in Holdenville, Hughes County, Oklahoma. His nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time Clu was born. He grew up on his uncle's ranch ...
44. Gary Clarke
Writer | Greenbriar
American actor Gary Clarke was born Clarke Frederic L'Amoreaux of French and Mexican ancestry. Raised in the predominantly Chicano neighbourhood of East Los Angeles, he was determined to become an actor by the time he attended high school. His first performing engagements were in community theatre ...
45. Randy Boone
Actor | The Virginian
Singer/actor Randy Boone reached the summit of his career in the mid-60s when he became popular as the guitar-playing and singing ranch hand Randy Benton in The Virginian (1962). A former mathematics major at North Carolina State College, Boone had 'dropped out' to hitchhike across the United ...
46. Carol Burnett
Soundtrack | The Carol Burnett Show
The entertainment world has enjoyed a six-decade love affair with comedienne/singer Carol Burnett. A peerless sketch performer and delightful, self-effacing personality who rightfully succeeded Lucille Ball as the carrot-topped "Queen of Television Comedy," it was Burnett's traumatic childhood that...
47. Larry Storch
Actor | F Troop
As a kid in the 1930s growing up in a tough New York neighborhood, kinetic wiseguy Larry Storch took in the multi-ethnic flavor of his surroundings and started blurting out various accents as a juvenile to provoke laughs and earn attention. Little did he know that this early talent would take him ...
48. Ken Berry
Actor | Mama's Family
Dancing and the military were a large part of Ken Berry's life. When he was 13 he attended a carnival at his grade school; the dancers impressed him so much that he decided that's what he wanted to do with his life. His parents were supportive, and his dad even booked Ken into variety type shows. ...
49. James Hampton
Actor | Teen Wolf
Raised in Dallas, Texas, James Hampton attended John H. Reagan Elementary, N.R. Crozier Technical High School and the University of North Texas (Theatre Arts Major). He studied acting with Michael Howard in New York and Leonard Nimoy in Los Angeles. He worked with Baruch Lumet at Knox Street ...
50. Robert Clary
Actor | The Bold and the Beautiful
Born in France, Robert Clary early suffered the pangs of war, being interned in a Nazi concentration camp as a child. After WWII he became a singing star in France, and in 1949 came to the United States to promote his career. He appeared on The Ed Wynn Show (1949); still learning English he ...
51. Connie Stevens
Actress | Hawaiian Eye
Lovely, indefatigable Connie Stevens added sparkle to a number of films and TV shows in the late 50s and 60s Hollywood. Brooklyn born Concetta Rosalie Ann Ingolia is of Italian/Sicilian and Irish descent, the daughter of Eleanor McGinley and Teddy Stevens (born Peter Ingolia). She was subsequently ...
52. Mark Goddard
Actor | Lost in Space
Born Charles Harvey Goddard, Mark Goddard was best known for his role as the feisty, combative Major Don West in the cult TV series Lost in Space (1965). The youngest of five siblings, he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, but grew up in Scituate, raised as a Catholic. Though excelling in sports, ...
53. Marta Kristen
Actress | Lost in Space
Marta Kristen was born Birgit Annalisa Rusanen, on February 26, 1945, in Oslo, Norway, to a Finnish mother and a German soldier who was killed towards the end of World War II in Europe. Marta was only two months old when she was left in an orphanage. In 1949, Dr. and Mrs. Harold Soderquist of ...
54. Jerry Van Dyke
Actor | Coach
He had that same genuine likability factor, owned that same trademark lantern jaw and was just as appealing and gifted as his older brother, Dick Van Dyke, but, for decades, Jerry Van Dyke bore the brunt of his brother's overwhelming shadow.
Six years younger than brother Dick, the comic actor was ...
55. Sally Field
Actress | Forrest Gump
Sally Margaret Field was born November 6, 1946 in Pasadena, California, to actress Margaret Field (née Morlan) and salesman Richard Dryden Field. Her parents divorced in 1950 and her mother then married stuntman Jock Mahoney, and they had a daughter, Princess O'Mahoney. She also has a brother, ...
56. Marlo Thomas
Actress | That Girl
Many well known and highly identifiable actresses have tried and failed to make the arduous crossover from fizzy TV sitcom star to mature, dramatic artist. Usually it was their hardcore fans who refused to accept them in any other light. Sally Field and Elizabeth Montgomery come first to mind as ...
57. Rita Moreno
Actress | West Side Story
Rita Moreno is one of the very few performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy, thus becoming an EGOT. She was born Rosita Dolores Alverío in the hospital in Humacao, Puerto Rico on December 11, 1931 (but raised in nearby, smaller Juncos, which had no hospital), to seamstress Rosa ...
58. Lee Meriwether
Actress | Batman: The Movie
Today, sexy Lee Meriwether is best remembered for her roles in a few science fiction/fantasy cult productions made between 1966 and 1969. Batman: The Movie (1966), Star Trek (1966), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Land of the Giants (1968).
Firstly Batman: The Movie (1966), in which she played both evil ...
59. Kaye Ballard
Actress | Baby Geniuses
Singing funny girl Kaye Ballard was born to perform...and perform she did, in a career spanning eight decades. With a strong comedy background and tunnel mouth to rival Martha Raye, the broad and bouncy trouper drew laughs on the musical stage, in night clubs, in recordings and on TV. As the ...
60. Diahann Carroll
Actress | Julia
One of television's premier African-American series stars, elegant actress, singer and recording artist Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann (or Diahann) Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The first child of John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel Faulk Johnson, a nurse; music ...
61. Carole Cook
Actress | Sixteen Candles
Actress Carole Cook showed a knack for comic timing from early on, so much so that the legendary Lucille Ball took her on as a protégée. Cook would make many appearances on Ball's TV shows The Lucy Show (1962) and Here's Lucy (1968), as well as other shows like Magnum, P.I. (1980), Dynasty (1981), ...
62. Ruta Lee
Actress | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Ruta Lee was born on May 30, 1935 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She is an actress, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Funny Face (1957). She was previously married to Webster Bernard Lowe Jr..
63. Norman Lloyd
Actor | Dead Poets Society
Norman Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter in Jersey City, New Jersey, to Sadie (Horowitz), a housewife and singer, and Max Perlmutter, a furniture store manager. His family was Jewish (from Hungary and Russia). He began his acting career in the theater, first "treading the boards" at Eva Le Gallienne...
64. Jane Withers
Actress | Giant
During the early times of the Depression when life was more famine than feast, child stars became the blue plate special of the day, served up by Hollywood to help nourish a nation besieged with troubles. Following 20th Century-Fox monumental success with Shirley Temple in the early 1930s, every ...
65. Cicely Tyson
Actress | The Help
Cicely Tyson was born in Harlem, New York City, where she was raised by her devoutly religious parents, who had come from the Caribbean island of Nevis. Her mother Theodosia was a domestic worker and her her father William was a carpenter and painter. Tyson was discovered by a fashion editor at ...
66. Bill Dana
Actor | The Nude Bomb
Comedian, author and composer, educated at Emerson College. He served in the US Infantry during World War II. Later, he was part of the team Dana and Wood on television and in supper clubs. As a single, he appeared on television with Martha Raye and Imogene Coca and was a writer for Steve Allen, ...
67. Angela Lansbury
Actress | The Manchurian Candidate
Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar ...
68. Shirley Jones
Actress | The Music Man
Named after child star Shirley Temple, Shirley Jones started singing at the age of six. She started formal training at the age of 12 and would dream of singing with her idol, Gordon MacRae. Upon graduating from high school, Shirley went to New York to audition for the casting director of Rodgers & ...
69. Florence Henderson
Actress | The Brady Bunch
Florence Henderson was considered by protocol executive Jerold Franks, CSA to be "...one of the most generous stars I have ever worked with." Los Angeles, New York and all parts of the country, Florence has helped raise millions of dollars for various charitable organizations.
Jerold Franks, friend ...
70. Marion Ross
Actress | Superhero Movie
The lovely, cheery, continuously upbeat All-American mom from the classic Happy Days (1974) TV sitcom had fervent desires of becoming an actress while growing up in her obscure Minnesota town. Born Marian Ross (with an "a") on October 25, 1928, she grew up in her native state and, at one time, ...
71. Carol Channing
Actress | Thoroughly Modern Millie
Carol Channing was born January 31, 1921, at Seattle, Washington, the daughter of a prominent newspaper editor, who was very active in the Christian Science movement. She attended high school in San Francisco and later worked as a model in Los Angeles. She attended prestigious Bennington College in...
72. Don Rickles
Actor | Kelly's Heroes
Donald Jay Rickles was born May 8, 1926 in New York. Following the Golden Era of Hollywood, he remained active until early 2017. He got his start in night clubs, toiling for over 20 years, until 1958, when he made his film debut in Run Silent Run Deep (1958). The movie was a big hit. Afterward, ...
73. Elinor Donahue
Actress | Pretty Woman
Tap dancing at the age of 16 months, pert and pretty Elinor Donahue has been entertaining audiences for six decades. Born Mary Eleanor Donahue in Tacoma, Washington, on April 19, 1937, she appeared as a radio singer and vaudeville dancer while a mere toddler, then was picked up by Universal Studios...
74. Jamie Farr
Actor | M*A*S*H
One of the most prolific character actors of his time starting with his role of Santini in the Blackboard Jungle (1955). Since then has appeared in iconic shows as the Twilight Zone, the Red Skelton Hour, the Dick Van Dyke Show, the Danny Kaye Show, Hazel, My Three Sons, Ben Casey, The Lucy Show, I...
75. Charlotte Rae
Actress | The Facts of Life
Charlotte Rae was born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in 1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the middle daughter of three sisters, between Beverly and Mimi. Her parents, Esther (nee Ottenstein) and Meyer Lubotsky, were Russian Jewish immigrants. Her father owned an automobile tire business. Her mother had been ...
76. Estelle Parsons
Actress | Bonnie and Clyde
The charming, witty, and immeasurably talented Estelle Parsons was born November 20, 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts, to Elinor and Eben Parsons. She attended the Oak Grove School for Girls in Maine, and later graduated from Connecticut College in 1949. She worked as a singer with a band before she ...
77. Gene Wilder
Actor | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
When he was 11, he wanted to be a comedian like Sid Caesar. Then, when he was 15 and saw Lee J. Cobb in 'Death of a Salesman,' he decided he would be a comedy actor and found that Mel Brooks was a great influence on his screen writing. He combined both talents with directing in The World's Greatest...
78. Gigi Perreau
Actress | Shadow on the Wall
A major little talent, this French-American moppet star of the late '40s and early '50s was able to parlay her precocious popularity into a modest young adult career, but then left it for family. She has nevertheless maintained on its fringe for decades.
Gigi Perreau was born on February 6, 1941, in...
79. Jack Collins
Actor | The Towering Inferno
Jack Collins was born on August 24, 1918 in Brooklyn New York. He was an actor, known for The Towering Inferno (1974), The Sting (1973) and Police Story (1973). He died on January 31, 2005 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
80. Abbe Lane
Actress | Twilight Zone: The Movie
Singer and actress Abbe Lane made a splash in the 50s and 60s with revealing costumes and a seductive style of dancing. Far removed from her sultry Latin image, she was born Abigail Francine Lassman in Brooklyn, of Jewish parentage. Abbe began performing on radio from the age of four and first ...
81. Jane Powell
Actress | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Jane Powell was singing and dancing at an early age. She sang on the radio and performed in theaters before her screen debut in 1944. Through the 1940s and 1950s, she had a successful career in movie musicals. However, in 1957, Jane's career in films ended, as she had outgrown her innocent ...
82. Marvin Kaplan
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Marvin Kaplan was born on January 24, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Wild at Heart (1990) and The Great Race (1965). He was married to Rosa Felsenburg. He died on August 25, 2016 in Tarzana, California, USA.
83. Janis Paige
Actress | Silk Stockings
Joyous scene-stealer Janis Paige started out playing rather bland film ingénues, but never seemed to be comfortable in those roles--she had too much snap, crackle and pop to be confined in such a formulaic way.
Born Donna Mae Tjaden in 1922 in Tacoma, Washington, she was singing in public from age 5...
84. Arlene Dahl
Actress | Journey to the Center of the Earth
Elegance and femininity are fitting descriptions for Arlene Dahl. She is considered to be one of the most beautiful actresses to have graced the screen during the postwar period. Audiences were captivated by her breathtaking beauty and the way she used to it to her advantage, progressing from ...
85. Patrick Wayne
Actor | The Searchers
Possessing his father's durable good looks, vigor and charm, this tall, strapping, exceedingly handsome second son of John Wayne had huge boots to fill in trying to escape his legendary father's shadow and corral Hollywood fame on his own terms. But attempt he did and, looking back, he may not have...
86. Dolores Rosedale
Actress | The Seven Year Itch
Delores Evelyn Rosedale was born on March 20, 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During her career she also used the professional name Roxanne Rosedale. She studied fashion design and worked as a a dental assistant. Dolores came in second in the 1949 Miss Minneapolis beauty pageant. Then she moved to ...
87. Patty McCormack
Actress | The Master
As a testament to her passion and talent, former 1950s pig-tailed moppet star Patty McCormack has remained a consistent presence on film and TV for over five decades. While the lovely and talented blonde suffered her share of hard knocks and obvious stereotypes in adjusting to an adult career, she ...
88. Tom Smothers
Actor | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Tom Smothers was born on February 2, 1937 in Governors Island, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), Speed Zone (1989) and The Informant! (2009). He was married to Marcy Carriker, Rochelle Ruth Robley and Stephanie R. Shorr. ...
89. Dick Smothers
Actor | Casino
Dick Smothers was born on November 20, 1938 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Casino (1995), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967) and The Informant! (2009). He was previously married to Denby Franklin, Lorraine Wallace and Linda Miller.
90. Vera Miles
Actress | The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Born in Boise City, Oklahoma, Vera Miles attended school in Pratt, Kansas and Wichita, Kansas. The patrician beauty of Miss Miles won her the title of "Miss Kansas" in 1948, leading soon to small roles in Hollywood films and television series. Fame came to the forthright, spirited Miles when she ...
91. Barbara Bain
Actress | Mission: Impossible
Barbara Bain was born in Chicago, graduating from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. She then relocated to New York City where she gained work as a dancer and high-fashion model. Ms. Bain studied with Martha Graham, permanently cementing her love of dance; however, it...
92. Robin Morgan
Actress | Mama
Robin Morgan was born on January 29, 1942 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Mama (1949), The Alcoa Hour (1955) and Kraft Theatre (1947).
93. Cara Williams
Actress | The Defiant Ones
Perky, talented, blue-eyed redhead Cara Williams had acting aspirations from the get-go. She was born in Brooklyn on June 29, 1925, as Bernice Kamiat, to an Austrian Jewish father, Benjamin Kamiat, and a mother of Romanian Jewish descent, Flora (Schwartz). Cara began performing as a child and ...
94. Connie Sawyer
Actress | Dumb and Dumber
Connie Sawyer was born on November 27, 1912 in Pueblo, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Dumb and Dumber (1994), Pineapple Express (2008) and Out of Sight (1998). She was married to Marshall Schacker. She died on January 21, 2018 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
95. Richard Keith
Actor | The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
Keith Thibodeaux, billed as "Richard Keith" in I Love Lucy (1951) episodes, started playing drums at the age of two in Lafayette, Louisiana. He began touring the United States at the tender age of three and ended up in Hollywood, California auditioning for Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's popular ...
96. Orson Bean
Actor | Being John Malkovich
Orson Bean, the American actor, television personality and author, was born Dallas Frederick Burrows on July 22, 1928 in Burlington, Vermont to George Frederick Burrows, a policeman who later went on to become the chief of campus police at Harvard University, and the former Marion Ainsworth Pollard...
97. Bernard Fox
Actor | Titanic
Endearing, bushy-whiskered Welsh character actor whose screen repertoire seemed to consist for the better part of variations on a similar theme, namely stereotypical stiff-upper-lip or bumbling British gents. The son of an actress and an actor-manager and on stage from early childhood, Fox began ...
98. Kathy Garver
Actress | Family Affair
Kathy Garver was born in Long Beach, California Her break-through performance came as one of the young slaves in The Ten Commandments
She is most well known for starring as the teenage niece of Uncle Bill Davis, Cissy Davis on Family Affair (1966). The show was nominated for Emmys in various ...
99. Robert Earle
Self | The General Electric College Bowl
Robert Earle was born on January 5, 1926 in Baldwin, New York, USA. He was married to Marion Hanna. He died on June 5, 2019 in Ithaca, New York, USA.
100. Ann Blyth
Actress | Mildred Pierce
The dark, petulant beauty of this petite American film and musical star worked to her advantage, especially in her early dramatic career. Anne Marie Blythe was born of Irish stock to Harry and Annie (nee Lynch) Blythe on August 16, 1928 in Mt. Kisco, New York. Her parents split while she was young ...
Tell Your Friends