58 articles
Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Menjou (1890–1963), American actor of the silent and sound eras, famed for suave, elegant cad roles in A Woman of Paris, The Front Page (his lone Oscar nomination), Morocco, and Paths of Glory, and for HUAC anti-communist testimony.
Ann Dvorak
Ann Dvorak (Anna McKim, 1911-1979), American pre-Code film actress famous as Cesca in Scarface (1932) and Three on a Match; known for her Warner Bros. contract rebellion, WWII London ambulance service, and Hawaii retirement.
Broncho Billy Anderson
Broncho Billy Anderson (Gilbert M. Anderson, born Maxwell Henry Aronson, 1880-1971), American silent-film pioneer, first cowboy movie star, and co-founder of Essanay Studios, star of the Broncho Billy western series.
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard (Jane Alice Peters, 1908–1942), American screwball comedy star of Twentieth Century, My Man Godfrey, and To Be or Not to Be, wife of Clark Gable, killed in the 1942 Flight 3 crash after a war bond rally.
Constance Bennett
Constance Bennett (1904-1965), American actress and producer, sister of Joan Bennett, star of What Price Hollywood? (1932) and Topper (1937), briefly Hollywood's highest paid performer in 1931.
Dick Powell
Dick Powell (Richard Ewing Powell, 1904–1963), American singer, actor, producer, and director; Warner Bros. musical star of 42nd Street, film noir lead in Murder, My Sweet, and president of Four Star Television.
Dixie Lee
Dixie Lee, born Wilma Winifred Wyatt, was an American actress, dancer, and singer in early Fox musical films and the first wife of Bing Crosby.
Drew family
Drew family, American theatrical dynasty joined to the Barrymores; founded by John Drew and Louisa Lane Drew of Philadelphia's Arch Street Theatre, its actors run from 18th-century strolling players to Drew Barrymore.
Ed Wynn
Ed Wynn (1886-1966), born Isaiah Edwin Leopold, was an American comedian-actor billed as the Perfect Fool; vaudeville and Broadway headliner, Texaco Fire Chief radio star (1932-35), Emmy-winning 1949 TV variety pioneer, Oscar-nominated for The Diary of Anne Frank, and Disney's Mad Hatter and Uncle Albert.
Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent (Mary Elizabeth Riggs, 1899-1975), American silent-film leading lady, starred as Feathers McCoy in von Sternberg's Underworld (1927) and in The Last Command and Interference; birth year disputed (1895 vs 1899).
Fay Wray
Fay Wray (Vina Fay Wray, 1907-2004), Canadian-born American actress of silent and early sound film; best known as Ann Darrow in King Kong (1933), also Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game, The Wedding March.
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone (Stanislas Pascal Franchot-Tone, 1905–1968), American stage and film actor, Group Theatre founding member and MGM leading man; Oscar-nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935); first husband of Joan Crawford.
Francis X. Bushman
Francis X. Bushman (1883-1966), American silent-film actor and director nicknamed King of the Movies; star of His Friend's Wife (1911) and Messala in Ben-Hur (1925); later radio and TV actor.
George Bancroft (actor)
George Bancroft (1882-1956), American film actor from Philadelphia, Paramount silent-era star of von Sternberg's Underworld and Thunderbolt (Oscar-nominated), later Marshal Curly Wilcox in Stagecoach; retired 1942 as a rancher.
George Raft
George Raft (born George Ranft, 1901 or 1895) was an American actor and dancer famous for coin-flipping gangster roles like Scarface (1932) and Some Like It Hot's Spats Colombo, and for turning down High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.
Glenda Farrell
Glenda Farrell (1904-1971), American actress of Enid, Oklahoma, famous as wisecracking Torchy Blane in seven Warner Bros. B films, inspiration for Lois Lane, 1963 Emmy winner for Ben Casey.
Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart, born Gloria Frances Stewart, was an American actress, painter, and printmaker. She was a 1930s Hollywood leading lady and the oldest Academy Award nominee for Titanic.
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson (1899–1983), American silent-film superstar at Paramount and United Artists producer; Oscar-nominated for Sadie Thompson, The Trespasser, and Sunset Boulevard; founder of Multiprises.
Hal LeSueur
Hal LeSueur, born Hal Hays LeSueur, was an American actor and older brother of Oscar winner Joan Crawford, playing small, largely uncredited MGM roles between 1935 and 1942.
Harry Carey (actor)
Harry Carey (Henry DeWitt Carey II, 1878–1947), American silent-film Western superstar and Cheyenne Harry of the John Ford Universal films; later an Oscar-nominated character actor in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, distinct from his son Harry Carey Jr.
Iron Eyes Cody
Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti, 1904 or 1907–1999) was an Italian American actor who portrayed Native Americans in over 80 Hollywood westerns and starred as the "Crying Indian" in Keep America Beautiful's 1971 anti-pollution PSA; his Sicilian origins were exposed in 1996, which he denied.
Jack Holt (actor)
Jack Holt (Charles John Holt, 1888–1951), American film actor and stuntman-turned-star of silent and sound Westerns; Paramount and Columbia leading man in Capra's Submarine, Flight, Dirigible; father of actors Tim and Jennifer Holt.
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor, professional name of Laura Augusta Gainor, was an American actress who won the first Best Actress Oscar in 1929 and starred in A Star Is Born.
Jerry Maren
Jerry Maren (Gerard Marenghi, 1920–2018), American actor, the Lollipop Guild Munchkin who handed Dorothy the lollipop in The Wizard of Oz (1939); last surviving little-person Munchkin, Little People of America co-founder, Buster Brown and Mayor McCheese commercial performer.
Karen Morley
Karen Morley, born Mildred Linton, was an American actress of the early 1930s whose films included Scarface, Mata Hari, and Dinner at Eight before she was blacklisted.
Kay Francis
Kay Francis (Katharine Edwina Gibbs, 1905-1968), American film actress known as the Queen of Warner Brothers, star of Trouble in Paradise and One Way Passage, highest-paid actress of 1936 with 68 film credits, retired in 1952.
Larry Fine
Larry Fine (Louis Feinberg, 1902–1975) was the middle Stooge of the Three Stooges, a violinist and former boxer from Philadelphia who joined Ted Healy's act in the late 1920s and made 190 Columbia shorts before a 1970 stroke ended his career.
Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth (1910–1980), born Lillian Rutstein, American vaudeville, Broadway, and early-sound-film singer-actress of Animal Crackers and The Love Parade, later famous for her alcoholism memoir I'll Cry Tomorrow and its 1955 Susan Hayward film.
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore (Lionel Blythe, 1878–1954), American actor of the Barrymore acting dynasty; Oscar winner for A Free Soul, MGM star, Dr. Gillespie in the Dr. Kildare films, and Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life.
Mary Astor
Mary Astor (Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke, 1906–1987), American actress from the silent era to 1964; Oscar winner for The Great Lie (1942), famed as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon; also author of five novels and two memoirs.