George O'Brien was an American actor, popular during the silent film era and into the talkie era of the 1930s, best known today as the lead actor in F. W. Murnau's 1927 film .

Born in San Francisco, California, O'Brien was the oldest son of Daniel J. and Margaret L. O'Brien; O'Brien's father later became the Chief of Police for the City of San Francisco. After his retirement from that office, Dan was the Director of Penology for the State of California.

In 1917 O'Brien enlisted in the United States Navy to fight in World War I, serving on a Submarine chaser. He volunteered to act as a stretcher bearer for wounded Marines and was decorated for bravery. Right after the war O'Brien became Light Heavyweight champion of the Pacific Fleet.

O'Brien came to Hollywood in his early twenties hoping to become a cameraman and did work as an assistant cameraman for a while, for both Tom Mix and Buck Jones. He began his acting career in bit parts and as a stuntman. One of his earliest roles was in the 1922 George Melford-directed drama Moran of the Lady Letty, most notable for starring Rudolph Valentino. In 1924 O'Brien received his first starring role in the drama The Man Who Came Back opposite the English actress Dorothy Mackaill. That same year he was chosen by the famed movie director John Ford to star in The Iron Horse opposite actress Madge Bellamy. The film was an immense success at the box-office and O'Brien made nine more films for Ford. In 1927 he starred in the F. W. Murnau-directed Sunrise opposite Janet Gaynor, which won three Academy Awards.

George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood?, A Bill of Divorcement, Dinner at Eight, Little Women, David Copperfield, Romeo and Juliet and Camille. He was replaced as the director of Gone with the Wind, but he went on to direct The Philadelphia Story, Adam’s Rib, Born Yesterday, A Star Is Born and My Fair Lady. He continued to work into the 1980s.

He was born on the Lower East Side of New York City, the younger child and only son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants Victor, an assistant district attorney, and Helen Ilona Cukor. His parents selected his middle name in honor of Spanish?American War hero George Dewey. The family was not particularly religious; Yiddish was not spoken in the home, pork was a staple on the dinner table, and when he started attending temple as a boy, Cukor learned Hebrew phonetically, with no real understanding of the meaning of the words or what they represented. As a result, he was ambivalent about his faith and dismissive of old world traditions from childhood, and as an adult he embraced Anglophilia to remove himself even further from his roots.

As a child, Cukor appeared in several amateur plays and took dance lessons, and at the age of seven he performed in a recital with David O. Selznick, who in later years would become a mentor and friend. As a teenager, Cukor frequently was taken to the New York Hippodrome by his uncle. Infatuated with theatre, he often cut classes at DeWitt Clinton High School to attend afternoon matinees. During his senior year, he worked as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, earning 50¢ per appearance, and $1 if he was required to perform in blackface.

George E. Stone was a character actor in movies, radio, and television.

Stone’s slight build and very expressive face first attracted attention in 1927, in the popular silent-film romance Seventh Heaven. Originally billed as Georgie Stone, he made a successful transition to talking pictures in Warner Bros.’ Tenderloin, speaking in a pleasant, slightly nasal tenor. Stone was then typecast in streetwise roles, often playing a Runyonesque mobster or a gangland boss’s assistant. He was best known as Rico Bandello’s right-hand man Otero in the gangster classic Little Caesar. He adopted a dapper pencil moustache for these screen roles. One of his most famous appearances was in the classic musical 42nd Street, in which wiseguy Stone assesses a promiscuous chorus girl: “She only said no once, and then she didn’t hear the question!” His one starring film was Universal Pictures’ gangster comedy The Big Brain.

In 1939 comedy producer Hal Roach hired Stone for his film The Housekeeper’s Daughter. It was a difficult role: Stone had to play a mentally retarded murderer in a sweet, sympathetic manner. Stone went clean-shaven, emphasizing a boyish, innocent look, and played the part so sensitively that Roach often cast him in other films. In 1942 Stone burlesqued Hirohito in Roach’s wartime comedy The Devil with Hitler.

George E. Stone’s most familiar role was “The Runt,” loyal sidekick to adventurous ex-criminal Boston Blackie in Columbia Pictures’ action-comedies. Stone was supposed to co-star with Chester Morris in the first film of the series, Meet Boston Blackie, but was sidelined by a virus. Actor Charles Wagenheim filled in for him, and Stone joined the series in the second entry, Confessions of Boston Blackie. Stone’s performances in the Blackies were well received, and he enthusiastically played scenes for laughs. Both Chester Morris and George E. Stone reprised their screen roles for one year in the Boston Blackie radio series.