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1-39 of 39
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Anna Nicole Smith was born on 28 November 1967 in Houston, Texas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), Be Cool (2005) and Illegal Aliens (2007). She was married to J. Howard Marshall II and Billy Smith. She died on 8 February 2007 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Joe DiMaggio was simply the greatest all-around baseball player of his era. As a New York baseball legend, "The Yankee Clipper" succeeded superstars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and preceded Mickey Mantle. In his 13 year career from 1936 to 1951 (which was interrupted by three years spent in the Army during World War Two from 1943-45), DiMaggio won three Most Valuable Player awards and was named to the All-Star team thirteen times.
His 1936 Yankees team won the World Series his freshman year, as it did in 1937, '38 and '39. The four straight wins was a record that would be surpassed by the Yankees team of 1949-53, of which "Joltin' Joe was a member for their first three World Championships, retiring after the 1951 season due to incredible pain that he had stoically endured. Ultimately, he played in 10 World Series, of which the Yankees won an incredible nine. (Only Yogi Berra, his teammate from 1946-51, appeared on more world champions, winning 10 rings in 14 World Series.)
DiMaggio is the possessor of what many consider the one batting record that will never be breached: consecutive games hitting. From May 15 to July 17, 1941, he hit in 56 straight games. DiMaggio beat out the great Ted Williams of the Red Sox for the MVP award that year, even though Ted hit .406. DiMaggio also beat Williams for the MVP in 1947, when "The Slendid Splinter" won his second Triple Crown the year after he had led the Red Sox to their first World Series since Babe Ruth was a pitcher and utility outfielder for the BoSox in 1918. It was the tightest MVP contest in history not ending in a tie: DiMaggio racked up 202 points with eight first place votes while "Teddy Ballgame" collected 201 points with three first place votes. Such was the respect for DiMaggio, whose team won the pennant and the World Series, that he won over a Triple Crown winner! DiMaggio was a flawless outfielder, and considered the major cog that made the Yankees winners. He was the consummate team player in an era (the Depression and World War II) in which cooperation was emphasized to beat the economic doldrums and global fascism. Williams, in contrast, was fabled as a non-conformist and individualist derided for "playing for himself", playing to boost his statistics rather than "taking one for the team". He would not shake the negative associations of not being a "team player" and not winning a World Series until after the Youth Revolution of the 1960s made conformity passé and nonconformity the norm.
In the 1940s, he was easily the most popular man in what was then justifiably called "America's National Pastime". His popularity was so great that the U.S. Army would not let him go overseas during the war, lest he be killed or captured, and thus damage American morale. In 1949, DiMaggio signed with the first six-figure contract in the history of Major League Baseball, when the Yankees signed him for $100,000 per year. That year he was hampered by the bone spurs that would end his career prematurely. Despite excruciating pain, an injured DiMaggio came back from the disabled list to face the Red Sox, who had nearly won the pennant the year previously (losing in a one-game playoff to the Cleveland Indians) and were up by one game with two games left to play against the Yankees.
His injuries would limit him to 76 games that year, but he came back for the series. The torrid hitting of DiMaggio led the Yankees over the BoSox in both games, capturing the pennant (and the first of a record five straight World Series titles) for rookie Yankees manager Casey Stengel. In an era of genuine heroes, DiMaggio was the epitome of the genre. Such was his unique status that he retired after a mediocre 1951 season, in which he hit only .263 with 12 homers and 71 RBIs in 113 games (after hitting .301 with 32 homers and 122 RBIs in 139 games the previous year). Joe DiMaggio did not want to become an average player, playing out his string. He wanted to go out a champion, and he did.
DiMaggio played his entire career in Yankee Stadium, the "House that Ruth Built", so called not only due to the Babe's great popularity, but also because the park was tailored to his left-handed power. DiMaggio was a right-handed hitter in a park that was death to righties: left-center field at Yankee Stadium in 1937 was 457 feet deep (whereas now, it is 399 feet deep). As DiMaggio and Ted Williams aged, it became dogma that while Williams was the better hitter, DiMaggio was the better all-around player. However, it is interesting to note that outside of their home ballparks, DiMaggio out-hit Williams.
In 1969, a poll conducted to coincide with the centennial of major league baseball ranked him as baseball's greatest living player. The great Joe DiMaggio, whom many believe was the most perfect and most complete ballplayer of all time, would continue to be legendary, even if he had not married Marilyn Monroe.- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
The famed composer ("One O'Clock Jump", "Two O'Clock Jump", "Jumpin' at the Woodside"), pianist, songwriter and bandleader began as an accompanist to vaudeville acts. He joined the Bennie Moten orchestra in Kansas City, later organizing his own orchestra and performing on radio. In 1936 he came to New York, appearing in hotels, night clubs, theatres and jazz festivals. He toured the US, and also, in 1954, Europe. He was elected to the Down Beat Magazine's Hall of Fame in 1958, and has made many records. Joining ASCAP in 1943, his chief musical collaborators included Mack David, Jerry Livingston, James Rushing, Andy Gibson, Eddie Durham, and Lester Young. His songs and instrumentals also include "Good Morning Blues"; "Every Tub"; "John's Idea"; "Basie Boogie"; "Blue and Sentimental"; "Gone With the Wind"; "I Ain't Mad at You"; "Futile Frustration"; "Good Bait"; "Don't You Miss Your Baby?"; "Miss Thing" "Riff Interlude"; "Panassie Stomp: "Shorty George"; "Out the Window"; "Hollywood Jump: "Nobody Knows"; "Swinging at the Daisy Chain"; and "I Left My Baby".- Émile Genest was born on 27 July 1921 in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), The Plouffe Family (1981) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He was married to Anita Gwendolyn Kugel and Suzanne Begin. He died on 19 March 2003 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Ottis Elwood Toole was a self-confessed serial killer and cannibal who admitted to many murders and was the suspect in many more unsolved murders, some of which he committed with his friend Henry Lee Lucas. Toole was convicted of murder twice and confessed to four more murders, for which he was convicted by a court of law. Toole admitted to the killing of Adam Walsh, the young son of John Walsh, the creator and host of the television program America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988). Although never proven, Walsh believed that Toole was the murderer of his son.
Toole was raised in Jacksonville, Florida in a broken home. His father ran away when he was a child; his mother was a religious fanatic, and his grandmother was a satanist. While his sister dressed the young boy in girl's clothes to play with him, Toole's satanic granny allegedly involved him in various occult practices, including robbing graves for body parts to be used in her fiendish rituals. Grandma dubbed Ottis "the devil's child," an epithet he would live up to while still in his teens. Understandably, the young Toole repeatedly ran away from home.
Toole claimed to have begun his career as an amateur arsonist, beginning with the burning of abandoned homes, while still a youngster. He allegedly claimed his first murder victim at the age of 14, when he killed a traveling salesman who propositioned him for sex by running over him with his own car after they had trysted in the woods. The murder has never verified.
First arrested as an adult in 1964 on a charge of loitering, Toole had an IQ of 75, which is considered border-line retarded, though the low score might be the result of his being virtually illiterate. No charmer, Toole did manage to get himself married for a short-time, but his wife left him in a huff after realizing he was homosexual. A drifter, Toole would support himself as a male prostitute.
Fatefully, Toole met the one-eyed bisexual Henry Lee Lucas in a Florida soup kitchen in late 1976, when he was 29 years old and Lucas was 40. The two hit it off, becoming lovers and boon traveling companions; whether they actually were serial killers together is still clouded in mystery, though it likely is true.
In 1978, Toole and Lucas moved in with Toole's mother and sister in Jacksonville. Lucas fell in love with Toole's 10-year old female cousin, Frieda "Becky" Powell, whom he eventually adopted and lived with as husband and wife. But that lay in the future. Toole and Lucas went to work for a local roofing company, but they often missed work as they frequently went back on the road, two men born to ramble, spreading their version of hell along the highways and by-ways of America.
After Lucas had been arrested, he implicated Toole, who was serving time on a Florida arson charge, in mass murder. Toole then offered confessions of his own. By October 1983, police were sure that Toole and Lucas had committed at least 69 killings, which they announced at a press conference. The number was increased to 81 at a January 1984 press conference, and by March 1985, 90 murders had been attributed to Lucas in 20 states, and he and Toole were credited with a further 108 killings. Police would eventually claim over 200 murders were solved due to Lucas' confessions, as Lucas was taken to various states and had his memory prodded about unsolved killings.
Toole, now on Florida's Death Row for murder, corroborated much of Lucas' confession, including his claims to have committed hundreds of murders, singly and as a duo.
In 1983, Toole claimed to have committed the 1981 abduction and murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh. Since he knew the store from whence the child was kidnapped, a fact that had been withheld from the public, and had claimed to have injured Adam in a way consistent with the physical evidence, Adam's father, John Walsh, believes to this day that Toole was the culprit. The negligence of the local police, who impounded Toole's car but lost the blood-stained carpeting that could have provided a forensic link to the murder, stymied any attempt to positively attribute the heinous murder to Toole. Cruelly, the cold-hearted Toole offered to take Walsh to the body of his dead son for a fee, but was turned down. Toole later recanted this confession, but Henry Lee Lucas insisted that Toole had killed the boy.
John Walsh became a crusader for victim's rights and the host of the TV program America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988) after the tragic loss of his son.
In April 1984, Ottis Toole was convicted of murder for a 1982 arson incident in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida that resulted in the death of an elderly man. He was sentenced to death, and received a second conviction and death sentence later that year for the 1983 murder of a 19-year-old girl from Tallahassee, Florida. Both death sentences were reduced to life in prison on appeal. In 1991, Toole pleaded guilty to four more murders and received four more life sentences.
Many officials who doubt the veracity of Henry Lee Lucas' confessions believed that Ottis Toole was a genuine serial killer, and a cannibal. In November 1983, police taped a jail-house telephone call between the two while Lucas was in the midst of his confession spree. Neither had seen or spoken to the other for more than half a year, making it impossible for them to fabricate a joint story congruent with their confessions for the purpose of fooling the authorities. Ottis Elwood Toole died of cirrhosis of the liver, in prison, in September 15, 1996. - Actor
- Writer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Though character actor William Kerwin may be better known for Herschell Gordon Lewis horror movies. He has enjoyed a major stage, film and TV career. At a young age, William was trained on the stage and appeared in several plays and Broadway shows. During his acting career he has worked a lot on the stage with his wife Connie Mason, a former actress, whom he met in the horror movie Blood Feast (1963) and with his brother Harry Kerwin. The two brothers co-founded the San Diego Actor's Theatre in the 1950s and worked together in several movies too.- Adam Walsh was born on 14 November 1974 in Hollywood, Florida, USA. He died on 27 July 1981 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Diosa Costello was born on 23 April 1913 in Guayama, Puerto Rico. She was an actress, known for Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), They Met in Argentina (1941) and The Bullfighters (1945). She was married to Don Casino and Pupi Campo. She died on 20 June 2013 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Bob Moses was born on 23 January 1935 in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. He was an executive. He was married to Janet Jemmott and Dona Richards. He died on 25 July 2021 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Ricardo Lopez was born on 14 January 1975 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was a director, known for The Best of Me.MP4 (1996) and The Dissenter (2018). He died on 12 September 1996 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Music Department
Angelo Ross was born on 12 March 1911. He was an editor, known for Smokey and the Bandit (1977), The Hustler (1961) and Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965). He died on 23 September 1989 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
American bandleader, who formed his first group in Detroit during the late 1930's. Never a particularly swinging outfit, it only lasted a few years until Mooney entered military service at the onset of World War II. In 1945, he organised a proper dance orchestra with a reed section organised along the lines of Glenn Miller, with arrangements by, among others, Neal Hefti, and featuring vocals by Fran Warren. The band played in New York clubs and hotels, as well as being prominently featured on radio. It's theme song was "Sunset to Sunrise". Recording for MGM, Mooney turned out several dud singles, until hitting the big time in 1948 with the corny tune "Im Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover", which was atypical of the band's style up to then. Due to its commercial success, however (over a million records sold), Mooney henceforth insisted on keeping ensemble singing and banjos prominent in his arrangements over the next twelve years, notching up twenty-one Billboard pop hits for MGM in the process. Though his popularity had waned by the early 1960's, he continued to remain in the music business for another two decades.- Bert Sheldon was born on 27 February 1924 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Spring Break (1983), Speaking of the Devil (1991) and Porky's Revenge (1985). He died on 15 April 2007 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Aurora Roche was born on 2 January 1912. She was an actress, known for In Old New Mexico (1945) and Hollywood Varieties (1950). She died on 10 January 1997 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Evelyn West was born on 31 January 1922 in Adair, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for A Night at the Follies (1947). She died on 14 November 2004 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Freddy Laker was born on 6 August 1922 in Canterbury, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Jacqueline Ann Harvey, Patricia LaVerne Gates, Rosemary Belfrage Black and Joan Mavis Smallwood. He died on 9 February 2006 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Casting Director
- Casting Department
- Actress
Beverly McDermott was born on 21 December 1926 in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. She was a casting director and actress, known for Cocoon (1985), Airport '77 (1977) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She was married to Jack McDermott. She died on 19 January 2012 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Writer
- Actor
Rufus King was born on 3 January 1893 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Hidden Hand (1942), Murder at the Vanities (1934) and Secret Beyond the Door... (1947). He died on 13 February 1966 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Scott Snyder was born on 22 November 1976 in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Shooting God (2005), Just Leave (1999) and Dodge University: The Movie (2002). He died on 24 January 2005 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Charles Mcdonald was born on 26 May 1886 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Salvation Nell (1921), The Lucky Devil (1925) and Irish Luck (1925). He died on 29 December 1964 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Nancy Donovan was born on 6 May 1923 in Olean, New York, USA. She died on 14 March 2003 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Roy Jordan was born on 17 August 1916 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 29 May 1998 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Whitey Hart was born in Astoria, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Wild Women of Wongo (1959). He died on 5 September 1984 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Composer
- Music Department
Arnold Holop was born on 12 December 1916. He was a composer, known for Night of Evil (1962). He died on 1 January 1987 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Composer, songwriter ("A Shanty in Old Shanty Town"), conductor, pianist and singer. He came to the USA in his youth, and was educated in pre-med classes at the University of Iowa, where he organized the university band. He toured the country with an orchestra, appearing in hotels, night clubs, and on radio. Joining ASCAP in 1928, he collaborated musically with Tommie Malie, Dick Finch, John Siras, and Joe Young. His other popular-song compositions include "Jealous", "I Promise You" and "You're a Heavenly Thing".- Theodore Saidenberg was born on 8 March 1908 in Maryland, USA. He was an actor. He was married to Eleanore. He died on 24 August 1986 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Madeline Geffen was born on 14 February 1921 in the USA. She was an actress, known for Taking Off (1971). She died on 26 December 2015 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Additional Crew
John Harte was born on 15 November 1951 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He is known for Iron Maiden: Behind the Iron Curtain (1985) and Onward & Upward - Bill Aucoin 10th Anniversary Commemoration (2020). He was married to MaryAnn. He died on 11 February 2022 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- MTK BluHunned was born on 6 April 1988. He was an actor, known for BluHunned: D to the A Freestyle (2018), BluHunned: Zeze Remix (2019) and MTK BluHunned feat. MTK Champ Milli: Smoked Out Exotics (2021). He died on 12 September 2022 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Lee Castle was born on 28 February 1915 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 16 November 1990 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Trevor McNaughton was born on 16 December 1940 in Hanover, Jamaica. He was a composer, known for Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009), Bringing Out the Dead (1999) and Buster's Mal Heart (2016). He was married to Irene. He died on 20 November 2018 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Camera and Electrical Department
Dale Prillaman was born on 26 October 1961 in Miami, Florida, USA. Dale is known for The X Factor (2011). Dale died on 3 January 2024 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Soundtrack
Maurice Spitalny was born on 27 February 1893 in Tetieff, Russia. Maurice died on 28 October 1986 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Claire Barry was born on 17 October 1920 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. She was married to Albert Weinberg and Robert A. Easton. She died on 22 November 2014 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Arthur Lang was born on 22 December 1899 in Carbon, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Americans Come (1930). He was married to Jeanie Lang. He died on 21 August 1986 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.
- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Josh Samman was born on 14 March 1988 in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Housekeeper: Love, Death, & Prizefighting, FightZone Presents (2007) and UFC on Fox (2011). He died on 5 October 2016 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Served in the US Army in the Canal Zone during WWII. He played the clarinet and saxophone in the US Army Band. After the war he graduated from the University of Miami and the Miami School of Law. Harvey was a huge Miami Hurricane and Miani Dolphin fan. He acted in many shows at the Hollywood Little Theatre and served as a County Court Judge in Broward County, Florida from 1977 until his death in 1995.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Composer, author, record executive and publisher Hans Jan Lengsfelder was educated in college in Vienna and the University of Brunn in Czechoslovakia, came to the United States from Austria in 1939, joined ASCAP in 1942 and became a United States citizen in 1944. Often using the pen name of "Harry Lenk", he composed and authored operettas, revues and plays including "Why Do You Lie, Cherie?". He founded and led Your Theatre, Inc. between 1945 and 1948. His chief collaborators included Ervin Drake, Paul McGrane, Irwin Rowan and Joe Darion, and his popular-song compositions and instrumentals included "Red Moon of the Caribbean", "Pound Your Table Polka", "Hayfoot-Strawfoot", "Perdido", "Washington Waltz", "Tyrolean Tango", "If a Man Answers, Hang Up", "There's a Big Blue Cloud Next to Heaven", "God's Green Acres", "BWI Express", and "The Typewriter Concerto".- Joseph W. Martin Jr. was born on 3 November 1884 in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA. He died on 6 March 1968 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.