Don Abney (1923-2000) [Pete Kelly's Blues (1955); Cindy (1978) (TV)] was born in Baltimore, Maryland and became a jazz pianist accompanist to Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Thelma Carpenter, and the Billy Williams Quartet



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Jack Weston (1924-1996) [Cactus Flower (1969); Dirty Dancing (1987)] was born in Cleveland and was a Machine Gunner and USO performer in World War II before arriving in New York to start his theater career. In a 40-year career that spanned Broadway, television and movies, the versatile actor played everyone from sleazy villains to terrifying killers to clumsy comics. His bad-guy roles included a stalker who, along with Alan Arkin terrorized a blind Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 cult classic Wait Until Dark (1967).
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David White (1916-1990) [The Lawbreakers (1960); Brewster's Millions (1985)] was an American stage actor who appeared frequently on television and occasionally but impressively in films. A Marine Corps veteran of World War II, he worked on Broadway and on tour in stage productions after the war. In the late 1950s, he became an increasingly familiar face on American television, following a strong performance in the film Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
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O.Z. Whitehead (1911-1998) [The Horse Soldiers (1959); The Lion in Winter (1968)] was an American character actor of rather bizarre range. He was a member of the so-called "John Ford Stock Company." Originally a New York stage actor of some repute, Whitehead entered films in the 1930s. He played a wide variety of character parts, often quite different from his own actual age and type. He is probably most familiar as Al Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath (1940). But twenty-two years later, in his fifth film for Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Whitehead at 51 was playing a lollipop-licking schoolboy! He continued to work predominantly on the stage, appearing now and again in films or on television. He was (later) a devout anti-war pacifist, but nevertheless served during World War II and was discharged as a sergeant, but a curvature of the spine kept him from seeing any combat during his active duty. In his last years, he suffered from cancer and died in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, where he had lived in semi-retirement for many years.
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Stuart Whitman (1928- ) [Ten North Frederick (1958); The Sound and the Fury (1959)] was born in San Francisco, the son of a realtor, he graduated from high school in Los Angeles and spent three years with the Army Corps of Engineers. In the army he won 32 fights as a light-heavyweight boxer. Upon his discharge from service in 1948 he attended L.A. City College where his interest in acting emerged. He studied at the Los Angeles Academy of Dramatic Art and with Michael Chekhov and Ben Bard. He toured the U.S. in a stage company of Here Comes Mr. Jordan and began to get small roles in television and film. Eventually his athleticism, his handsome features, and his talent for portraying either tough or vulnerable characters led him to a level of stardom. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his leading role of a child molester in The Mark (1961), and starred in the television series "Cimarron Strip" (1967). A shrewd investor, he amassed a substantial fortune (1998 est: $100 million) while continuing his career even after its peak in the mid-Sixties. -- [Excerpted from IMDB]

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James Whitmore (1921-2009) [Battleground (1949), The Shawshank Redemption (1994)] was born Oct. 1, 1921 in White Plains, N.Y. and raised in Buffalo, N.Y. He played football at Yale, where one of the assistant coaches was future President Gerald R. Ford. Knee injuries ended his athletic career, and he turned his attention to the university's radio station, hosting a nightly sports program, "Jim Whitmore Speaks".

Whitmore joined the Marine Corps during his senior year at Yale in 1944 and served in the South Pacific. After being discharged in 1946, he used benefits from the GI Bill to study acting at the American Theatre Wing in New York City.


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Richard Widmark (1914-2008) [Panic in the Streets (1950); Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)]. He grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and attended Lake Forest (IL) College, where he first began acting. He taught acting at Lake Forest after graduation until 1938, when he made his radio debut in New York in Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories. Widmark made his Broadway stage debut in 1943 in Kiss and Tell. He had been rejected as unsuitable for military service (WW II) because of a perforated eardrum. In 1947, he got his big break, making film history as Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947), beginning a seven-year contract with 20th Century-Fox. His hand and footprints were cast in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1949.
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Frank Wilcox (1907-1974) [The Monroe Doctrine (1939); The Fighting 69th (1940); The Million Dollar Duck (1971)]. American character actor in scores of films after substantial stage experience. He was born in DeSoto, Missouri, but raised in Atchison, Kansas. The son of a railroad worker and law clerk, he wavered between various careers including oil exploration, but found his way after an introduction to the stage with the Atchison Civic Theatre and Kansas City Civic Theatre. He signed with Warners as a contract player and was thereafter virtually never without work. Wilcox earned five battle stars during World War II.
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Adam Williams (1922-2006) was a film and television actor, born Adam Berg in Wall Lake, Iowa. Williams had a few notable roles including playing Larry, a car bomber, in The Big Heat (1953). In 1952, Williams played the lead role as Los Angeles woman killer in Without Warning! which typed him into playing gunslingers, psychos and menacers. One of his last roles was playing Terrence Milik in the television movie Helter Skelter (1976). He also appeared on dozens of television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. Williams began his acting career after distinguished World War II military service as a U.S. Navy pilot, being awarded the Navy Cross.
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Bill Williams (1915-1992) [Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944); Rio Lobo (1970)], husband (1946-1992) of Barbara Hale (Della Street in TV's Perry Mason (1957-1966)). A solid film and TV player bearing a strong, honest persona for most his career, this innocent-eyed, boyishly handsome blond "B" actor of the 40s and 50s was born in Brooklyn on May 21, 1915, and educated there at the Pratt Institute. A natural athlete, Bill Williams was a professional swimmer who broke into the entertainment business combining his swimming and dancing skills performing in aquatic underwater shows. Gaining experience as a performer in vaudeville and stock shows (both here and England), he started appearing in extra or bit parts in films following U.S. Army duty in World War II.
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Kenneth Williams (1926-1988) [Valley of Song (1953); The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)] was born near Euston station, London, the son of a hairdresser. He was educated at Lyulph Stanley School. His relationship with his parents - he hated his father and adored his mother - was key to the development of his personality. Williams apprenticed as a draughtsman and joined the army age 18. He was part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay when he had his first experience of going on stage with Combined Services Entertainment.
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William Windom (1923- ) [The Angry Breed (1968); TV: My World and Welcome to It (26 episodes, 1969-1970)], New York-born character actor was named after his great-grandfather, Lincolnesque politician William Windom. He attended Williams College and the University of Kentucky, among others, before serving as a paratrooper in the Army during World War II with the 508 PIR of the famous 82nd Airborne Division. After the war he studied at both Fordham U. and Columbia U. in New York City before settling on an acting career. Trained at the American Repertory Theatre (1946-1961), he made his minor Broadway debut with the company in November of 1946 with revolving productions of Henry VIII, What Every Woman Knows, John Gabriel Borkman and Androcles and the Lion. The following year he continued building up his Broadway resume with roles in Yellow Jack and as the White Rabbit in a production of Alice in Wonderland. For the duration of the decade he shifted between stage and TV drama, with stalwart work in such programs as "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "Hallmark Hall of Fame." He enjoyed critical notice as the cartoonist/protagonist in the 1969-1970 mini-hit My World and Welcome to It.
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Jonathan Winters (1925- ) [It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963); Cattle Call (2006)] was born in Dayton, Ohio. His father, also Jonathan, was a banker who became an alcoholic after being crushed in the Great Depression. His parents divorced in 1932. Jonathan and his mother then moved to Springfield to live with his grandmother. There his mother remarried and became a radio personality. Jonathan joined the Marines during his senior year of high school and served during World War II. Upon his discharge, he entered Kenyon College and later transferred to Dayton Art Institute. He met his wife, Eileen Schauder, in 1948 and married a month later. They remain married until her death in January of 2009. They have a son, Jay, who is a contractor, and a daughter, Lucinda, who is a talent scout for movies. Jonathan is an accomplished abstract painter. Personal Quote: "If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it." -- Text excerpted from IMDB
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Billy De Wolfe (1907-1974) was born in Massachusetts as William Andrew Jones, the son of a Welsh-born immigrant and bookbinder. The family returned to Wales almost immediately and did not come back to the States until Billy was nine years old. He began his career in the theater as an usher until he found work as a dancer with a band. He subsequently took his name from a theater manager, William De Wolfe, who actually offered him his name. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy for World War II in 1942 shortly after completing his first movie role as a riverboat conman in Dixie (1943) for Paramount. At war's end, he returned to Paramount and brought hyper comedy relief to a number of films including Miss Susie Slagle's (1946), Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946) and The Perils of Pauline (1947).
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Iggie Wolfington (1920-2004) [Penelope (1966); Herbie Rides Again (1974)]. Served in WW II, earned Purple Heart and Silver Star and a battlefield commission as second lieutenant. West Coast representative of the New York-based Actors' Fund of America. In 1958, he created the role of Marcellus Washburn, the accomplice and best friend of Harold Hill in original production of The Music Man. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance. As an actor, he first won acclaim in the 1952 Broadway production of Mrs. McThing, starring Helen Hayes.
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Sheb Wooley (1921-2003) was an American character actor in many Westerns, he was also a figure in country-western music. Born and raised in Oklahoma, he spent his youth as a cowhand. During World War II, Wooley was turned down for service because of his rodeo injuries. Wooley's musical ability led to radio work and subsequently movies. He played minor supporting roles for a dozen years starting in 1950, including one of the villains of High Noon (1952) [Ben Miller, brother of Frank Miller scheduled to arrive on the noon train.] In 1958, he had a giant hit record with his own song "The Purple People Eater" and he followed it with a string of similar humorous country ditties, often recorded under the name Ben Colder. For a number of years appeared as scout Pete Nolan on the hit TV series Rawhide (1959-1966).
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Hank Worden (1901-1992) [Bandits and Ballads (1939); Red River (1948); The Searchers (1956)] was raised on a cattle ranch in Montana and was Educated at Stanford and the University of Nevada as an engineer. He washed out as an Army pilot and toured the country in rodeos as a saddle bronc rider. He broke his neck in a horsefall in his 20s, but didn't know it until his 40s. He was chosen along with Tex Ritter from a rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York to appear in the Broadway play Green Grow the Lilacs, the play from which the musical Oklahoma was later derived. He drove a cab in New York, then worked on dude ranches as a wrangler and as a guide on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon. He was recommended by Billie Burke to several movie producers and became friends with John Wayne, Howard Hawks, and later John Ford, all of whom provided him with much work.
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Ben Wright (1915-1989) [The Desert Rats (1953); Raid on Rommel (1971)] was born to an English mother and an American father in London, England, UK. At 16 he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where classmates included such future stars as Ida Lupino. Upon graduating, he acted in several West End stage productions. When WWII broke out, he enlisted and served in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He came to America in 1946 to attend a cousin's wedding and settled in Hollywood. He began his American acting career in radio, establishing himself as a master of dialects with such roles as Hey Boy, the Chinese servant, on "Have Gun, Will Travel" with John Dehner. His talent for dialects also kept him busy in the many WWII-related films and TV shows of the 1950s and '60s wherein he played countless Germans and Frenchmen as well as a variety of Englishmen for which he ensured the dialects were accurate depending on which part of England they were from.

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Gig Young (1913-1978) [The Three Musketeers (1948); The Hindenburg (1975)]. Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, his parents John and Emma Barr raised him and his older siblings in Washington D.C. He developed a passion for the theater while appearing in HS plays, and after some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. While acting in Pancho, a south-of-the-border play by Lowell Barrington, he and the leading actor in the play, George Reeves, were spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout and both actors were signed to supporting player contracts. His early work was uncredited or as Byron Barr (not to be confused with actor Byron Barr (1917–1966) from Iowa), but after appearing in the 1942 film The Gay Sisters as a character named "Gig Young", the studio decided he should adopt the name professionally. Young appeared in supporting roles in numerous films during the 1940s, and came to be regarded as a popular and likable second lead, playing a brother or friend to the principal character. He took a hiatus from his movie career and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1941 where he served as a pharmacist's mate until the end of World War II. -- [Excerpted from Wikipedia]
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Terence Young (1915-1994) [Directed: One Night with You (1948); The Jigsaw Man (1983)]. Film director best known for his three films in the James Bond series including: Dr. No (1962); From Russia With Love (1963); and Thunderball (1965). During World War II, he was a paratrooper in the British army, and took part in the battle of Arnhem, Holland, where he was wounded. Young was transferred to a Dutch hospital, where he was nursed back to health. One of the volunteer nurses who took care of him was a 16-year-old Dutch girl named Audrey Heenstra - who became better known as Audrey Hepburn. In 1967 he directed her in Wait Until Dark.

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Victor Sen Yung (1915-1980) [Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938); Kung Fu (1972)] was born Sen Yew Cheung in San Francisco of Chinese immigrant parents. To contribute to the family income, young Sen Yung was employed as a houseboy at age 11 and managed to earn his way through college at the University of California at Berkeley with an interest in animal husbandry and receiving a degree in economics. Following a move to Hollywood for some post graduate work at UCLA and USC, Victor gained an entrance into films. Victor enjoyed playing Jimmy, the earnest rookie detective who, to his chagrin, was always under the watchful eye of his famous father [Charlie Chan] while trying to help solve murder cases. His career was interrupted for U.S. Air Force duty as a Captain of Intelligence during World War II. His part in the Chan pictures was taken over by actor Benson Fong.
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Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) [Producer: The Jazz Singer (1927); The Longest Day (1962)]. One of the kingpins of Hollywood's studio system, Zanuck was the offspring of the ill-fated marriage of the alcoholic night clerk in Wahoo, Nebraska's only hotel and the hotel owner's promiscuous daughter. Both parents had abandoned him by the time he was 13. At 15, he joined the U.S. Army, and fought in Belgium in World War I. Mustered out, he kept himself alive with a series of desultory jobs -- steelworker, foreman in a garment factory, professional boxer -- while pursuing a career as a writer. He turned his first published story (for "Physical Culture," a pulp magazine) into a film scenario for William Russell; his next important sale was to Irving Thalberg. In 1933, after the Warners made it clear that Zanuck would never be more than an employee, he quit to form Twentieth Century Films (with backing from Louis B. Mayer and Joseph M. Schenck). In 1935, Twentieth absorbed a bankrupt giant, Fox. Zanuck ruled the combined studio for decades. During World War II he served as supervisor for Signal Corps training films and the photographic record of the North Africa invasion, and was awarded the Legion of Merit.
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Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (1918- ) [House of Strangers (1949); Hot Shots! (1991)] was born in NYC, the son of concert violinist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. and opera singer Alma Gluck. He trained at both the Yale School of Drama and the Neighborhood Playhouse, and was an NBC radio page at the onset. Following World War II service in which he earned a Purple Heart for a severe wound received at Huertgen Forest, director and friend of the family Garson Kanin gave the aspiring actor his first professional role in his Broadway production of The Rugged Path (1945) which starred Spencer Tracy. But the dogged inspector Lewis Erskine on TV's The F.B.I. (1965) would be his ultimate claim to fame.

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