Jan Clayton
Jan Clayton was a film, musical theatre, and television actress.
None of her film roles were notable, except for an unbilled role as a singing inmate in The Snake Pit, but in 1945, she was selected to play Julie Jordan in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic, Carousel. She left the show to star in the 1946 Broadway revival of Show Boat, as Magnolia, while Carousel was still continuing its Broadway run.
The 1946 production of Show Boat was the longest-running revival of a stage musical up to that time – 416 performances. Ms. Clayton can be heard on the original cast recordings of both Carousel and Show Boat. The Show Boat album was the first American production of the show to be recorded with its original cast.
Clayton later played Jeff Miller’s ‘s mother on Lassie on television. She played herself in an appearance on Peter Lawford’s short-lived NBC sitcom, Dear Phoebe.
Jan Murray
Jan Murray was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and game show host who made his name on the Borscht Belt.
Murray was born Murray Janofsky in The Bronx, New York City. His interest in comedy began during his childhood, when he would often act out comedy routines he’d seen at the local theatre for his bedridden mother.
Murray began performing on the vaudeville stage at the age of 18, then later at the Catskills resorts popular with Jewish vacationers. In the early 50’s he became a Las Vegas marquee performer. He then segued into TV, going on to host a number of game shows such as Blind Date, Dollar a Second, his creation Treasure Hunt, Charge Account, and Chain Letter. He was later a frequent panelist on The Hollywood Squares and co-hosted the annual West Coast Chabad Lubavitch telethon for many years.
Murray’s film appearances included A Man Called Dagger, Thunder Alley, Tarzan and the Great River, Which Way to the Front?, and History of the World, Part I. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and was a guest host of The Tonight Show on many occasions.
Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce.
Jan Peerce’s parents, Louis and Henya Perelmuth, came from the Russian village of Horodetz. Their first child, a daughter, died in an epidemic. In 1903 they emigrated to America along with second child, a boy named Mottel. A year later, on June 3, 1904, their third child, a boy named Jacob Pincus was born, in a cold water flat in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York. He was nicknamed “Pinky” by his neighborhood friends. When he was three years old, his older brother Mottel was killed in an accident as he hitched a ride on an ice wagon. Jan remained on the Lower East Side until his 1930 marriage to Alice Kalmanovitz, a childhood friend. He attended De Witt Clinton High School and Columbia University. At his mother’s urging he took violin lessons, and gave public performances, including dance band work as Jack “Pinky” Pearl. Sometimes he also sang and it was soon discovered he was an exceptional lyric tenor.
In 1932 he was hired as a tenor soloist with the Radio City Music Hall company by the impresario Roxy, who renamed him John Pierce. They soon compromised on the spelling Jan Peerce, which the singer felt better reflected his ethnicity. Thanks to radio broadcasts and stage programs, Peerce soon had a nationwide following. The legendary maestro Arturo Toscanini heard him singing Wagner on the radio and was able to contact Peerce through a mutual friend to see if he would like to audition for him. Toscanini found him to be the tenor he had sought to sing operatic and choral works with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The recordings made during, or following, the NBC broadcasts are among the outstanding musical legacies of the mid-20th century. Toscanini was reportedly pleased with Peerce’s professionalism, as well as his extraordinary musical talents; many have said that Peerce may have been Toscanini’s “favorite tenor” during the Maestro’s 17 years at NBC. Peerce recalled that Toscanini never lost his temper the way he famously did with other musicians even though Peerce believed he had the right to, on a few occasions. Peerce first sang with Toscanini on February 6, 1938, in Carnegie Hall in a broadcast performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; the soloists also included soprano Vina Bovy, mezzo soprano Kerstin Thorborg, and bass Ezio Pinza.
Peerce joined the roster of principal tenors at the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company in 1938. He made his professional opera debut with the company on December 10 of that year as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Robert Weede in the title role and Fritz Mahler conducting. He also sang Alfredo in La traviata with Annunciata Garrotto as Violetta and Weede as Germont during the company’s 1938-1939 season. Peerce sang in several more performance with the PLSOC through 1941, singing Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Elda Ercole as Cio-cio-san, and reprising the roles of the Duke and Alfredo a number of times.
Jan Sterling
Jan Sterling was an American actress. Most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same performance. Her career declined during the 1960s, however she continued to play occasional roles for television and theatre.
Sterling was born Jane Sterling Adriance in New York City, into a well-to-do family. She was educated in private schools before heading to Europe with her family. She was schooled by private tutors in London and Paris, and was enrolled in Fay Compton’s dramatic school in London.
As a teenager she returned to Manhattan, and using variations of her given name, such as Jane Adriance and Jane Sterling, began her career by making a Broadway appearance in Bachelor Born, and went on to appear in such major stage works as Panama Hattie, Over 21 and Present Laughter. In 1947, she made her film debut in Tycoon, billed as Jane Darian. Ruth Gordon reportedly insisted she change her stage name and they agreed upon Jan Sterling.
She played a prominent supporting role in Johnny Belinda. Alternating between films and television, Sterling appeared in several television anthology series during the 1950s, and played film roles in Caged, Mystery Street, The Mating Season, Ace in the Hole, Flesh and Fury, The Human Jungle, and Female on the Beach .
James Nederlander
James M. Nederlander or “Jimmy”, Chairman of The Nederlander Organization, is the visionary theatrical impresario who built one of the largest private live entertainment companies in the world that now encompasses venue ownership and management, theatrical producing and concert presentation, merchandising, concessions and patron services.
Jimmy started working in the theatre at age 7, sweeping floors for his father David Tobias (D.T.) Nederlander in Detroit, Michigan. During a career that spans 70 years, Jimmy has amassed a network of premier legitimate theatres including nine on Broadway: the Brooks Atkinson, Gershwin, Lunt-Fontanne, Marquis, Minskoff, Nederlander, Neil Simon, Richard Rodgers, and the world-renowned Palace; Chicago: Auditorium and Bank of America Theatres, Broadway Playhouse, Cadillac Palace and Oriental Theatres; in Los Angeles, the magnificent Pantages Theatre; and in London, the Adelphi, Aldwych, and Dominion Theatres.
He has produced over one hundred of the most acclaimed Broadway musicals and plays of all time including Annie, Applause, La Cage aux Folles, Me and My Girl, Nine, Noises Off, Peter Pan, Sweet Charity, The Will Rogers Follies, Woman of the Year, and too many others to mention.
Jimmy Nederlander’s name is forever linked to the some of the world’s most distinguished performing companies whose work he produced and presented on Broadway including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s acclaimed productions of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Cyrano and Sherlock Holmes; Rudolf Nureyev and Friends, The Bolshoi Ballet, and the Virsky’s Ukranian State Dance Company.
Jimmy is credited with developing the outdoor amphitheatre concept as the developer of several premier venues including the New Jersey Garden State Arts Center, Pine Knob Music Theatre, the Merriweather Post Pavilion, the Pacific Amphitheatre, and as the decades-long operator of the Greek Theatre where he has presented headline artists including Tony Bennett, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Jackie Mason, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, and a legion of others.
“Generous,” “loyal” and “trusted” are just a few of the accolades Jimmy’s numerous friends use to describe him—many of whom have enjoyed a life-long personal and business relationship. In 1972, Jimmy and pals Earl Blackwell, Gerard Oestricher and Arnold Weissberg founded the Theatre Hall of Fame, which is still housed in the lobby of the Gershwin Theatre. In 1973, he partnered with George Steinbrenner to purchase the New Yankee Baseball Club. To this day, the sun reflects off his championship ring as he watches the season open every spring.
Beloved by the industry, Jimmy is the recipient of many distinguished honors including the United Nations Foundation Champion Award (2012), The Broadway League’s Schoenfeld Vision for Arts Education Award (2011), the New York Pop’s Man of the Year (2008), the Tony Award® Special Tony Award for Life Time Achievement (2004), The Actors’ Fund Medal of Honor (2002), United Jewish Appeal-New York Federations’ Bernard B. Jacobs Excellence in the Theatre Award (1997) and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located outside the Pantages Theatre at 6233 Hollywood Blvd. In 2009, The National High School Musical Theater Award was established and named The Jimmy® to celebrate his career-long dedication to supporting young talent.
Jimmy received an Honorary Doctorate of FIne Arts at the Forty-third Commencement exercises at The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine and Graduate School on Monday, May 12, 2014.
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest film actors of the 20th century, Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes. Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, to John and Mabel Mason; his father was a wealthy merchant. Mason had no formal training as an actor and initially embarked upon it for fun. He was educated at Marlborough College, and earned a first in architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge where he became involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time. After Cambridge he joined the Old Vic theatre in London under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie and Alexander Korda, who gave Mason a small film role in 1933 but fired him a few days into shooting.
From 1935 to 1948 he starred in many British quota quickies. A conscientious objector during World War II, he became immensely popular for his brooding anti-heroes in the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady. He also starred with Deborah Kerr and Robert Newton in Hatter’s Castle. Mason starred in the critically acclaimed and immensely popular The Seventh Veil that set box office records in postwar Britain and raised him to international stardom. He followed it with a mortally wounded Irish revolutionary in Odd Man Out and Caught, his first Hollywood film.
Mason’s distinctive voice enabled him to play a menacing villain as greatly as his good looks assisted him as a leading man. His roles include Brutus in Julius Caesar, General Erwin Rommel in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel and The Desert Rats, the amoral valet turned spy in Joseph Mankiewicz’s 5 Fingers, the declining actor in the first remake of A Star Is Born, Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a small town school teacher driven insane by the effects of Cortisone in Bigger Than Life, a suave master spy in North by Northwest, a determined explorer in Journey to the Center of the Earth, Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita, a hired assassin sent to kill Peter O’Toole’s character in Lord Jim, the vampire’s servant, Richard Straker, in Salem’s Lot, and a surreal pirate captain in Yellowbeard. One of his last roles, that of corrupt lawyer Ed Concannon in The Verdict, earned him his third and final Oscar nomination.
James Melton
James Melton, was a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s who later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932-1935. His singing talent was similar to that of Richard Crooks, John Charles Thomas or Nelson Eddy.
Melton usually catered to what has been described as a "musically middlebrow audience," emitting romantic derrieres and popular ballads with sugary precision. He was born in Moultrie, Georgia but was raised in Citra, Florida, where his parents grew melons and handled hogs.
In 1920, he graduated from high school in Ocala, Florida and then attended college at the University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Georgia. He received vocal instruction from Gaetano de Luca in Nashville from 1923 to 1927 before moving to New York where he studied with Beniamino Gigli's teacher, Enrico Rosati. Melton also worked in dance bands, playing saxophone in a college jazz ensemble and performing with Francis Craig's Orchestra in Atlanta in 1926.
The following year, he began singing on New York radio for no pay. He joined "Roxy's Gang", a cabaret group led by Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who worked with the Sieberling Singers. He made records for Victor Records, singing as one of the tenors with The Revelers and for Columbia Records with the same group under the pseudonym of The Singing Sophomores.
James Stewart
James Maitland “Jimmy” Stewart was an American film and stage actor. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. He was a major MGM contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Throughout his seven decades in Hollywood, Stewart cultivated a versatile career and recognized screen image in such classics as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, It’s a Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He is the most represented leading actor on the AFI’s 100 Years?100 Movies and AFI’s 10 Top 10 lists. He is also the most represented leading actor on the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time list presented by Entertainment Weekly. As of 2007, ten of his films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry.
Stewart left his mark on a wide range of film genres, including westerns, suspense thrillers, family films, biographies and screwball comedies. He worked for a number of renowned directors later in his career, most notably Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra, George Cukor, and Anthony Mann. He won many of the industry’s highest honors and earned Lifetime Achievement awards from every major film organization. He died at age 89, leaving behind a legacy of classic performances, and is considered one of the finest actors of the “Golden Age of Hollywood”. He was named the third Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of Elizabeth Ruth and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. Stewart’s parents were of Scottish Presbyterian origin. His Jackson ancestors served in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The eldest of three children, he was expected to continue his father’s business, which had been in the family for three generations.
James Wallington
James “Jimmy” Wallington was an American radio personality.
After playing small roles in a few Hollywood films, he was the announcer for several popular radio shows in the 1940s and 1950s.
For his work on radio, Wallington has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6660 Hollywood Blvd.
James Wallington was born in Rochester, New York on September 15, 1907.