25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Donald Cook

October 25, 2019

Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.

Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work. He started screen work in “shorts” before going on to films.

Cook was known for his portrayal of Mike Powers in the film The Public Enemy. He also was one of the first film actors to portray Ellery Queen, in The Spanish Cape Mystery. He played opposite Helen Morgan in the 1936 film adaptation of Show Boat was one of the suspects in the Philo Vance mystery The Casino Murder Case, starred as an heroic immigration inspector in Ellis Island. Other film credits include The Man Who Played God and Our Very Own.

Cook made his Broadway debut in 1926 as Donn Cook, and his New York theatrical career continued until 1959. His credits included a 1948 revival of Private Lives.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Donald Crisp

October 25, 2019

Donald Crisp was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley.

Donald Crisp was born as George William Crisp in Bow, London, England, at the family home in Bow on July 27, 1882. Some sources say he was born in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland in 1880, but U.S. Census records indicate the London birthplace and date are correct. He was one of eight children born to James and Elizabeth Crisp. He was educated at the University of Oxford and allegedly at Eton College, though the Eton archivist denies this.

Crisp, who always claimed to be of Scottish descent, served as a trooper in the 10th Hussars in the Boer War. This experience, among other things, allowed him to cross paths with a young Winston Churchill just at the start of Churchill’s long political career. According to family memories, Crisp’s brother-in-law James Needham provided him with the fare to travel to America in 1906.

While traveling on the ship to America in 1906, Crisp’s singing talents during a ship’s concert caught the attention of opera impresario John C. Fisher, who immediately offered him a job with his company. He spent his first year in New York in Grand Opera and the following year as a stage director. It was while touring with the company in the United States and Cuba that Crisp first became interested in pursuing a career in the theatre. By 1910, Crisp, now using the name Donald, was working as a stage manager for the renowned entertainer, composer, playwright, and director George M. Cohan. It was during this time he met and befriended film director D. W. Griffith. When Griffith ventured west, to seek his fortune in Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Donald Duck

October 25, 2019

Donald Fauntleroy Duck is an American cartoon character from The Walt Disney Company. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red bow tie, but no trousers. Donald’s most famous personality trait is his easily provoked and explosive temper. Donald Duck has been officially honored as the third most popular cartoon character of all time with Bugs Bunny of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies at number two and fellow Disney creation Mickey Mouse who is number one.

According to the Disney canon, particularly in the 1942 short Donald Gets Drafted Donald’s birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film, The Wise Little Hen, was released. However, in The Three Caballeros, his birthday is given as simply “Friday the 13th”, which is in reference to the bad luck he experiences in almost all his cartoon appearances. Donald’s Happy Birthday gives his birthday as March 13. The 1942 short “Donald Gets Drafted”, as well as the Quack Pack episode “All Hands on Duck”, also reveals his full name to be Donald Fauntleroy Duck. Donald Duck is a well-known and very popular character especially in Scandinavian countries. Donald’s 1942 short film, Der Fuehrer’s Face, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

Donald’s voice, one of the most identifiable voices in all of animation, was performed by voice actor Clarence “Ducky” Nash up to his death in 1985. It was largely this semi-intelligible speech that would cement Donald’s image into audiences’ minds and help fuel both Donald’s and Nash’s rise to stardom. In 1969, Disney On Parade which toured all over the United States and Canada, hired Ellard Davis as the live voice of Donald Duck. Mr. Davis did the voice for 3 years. Since 1985, Donald has been voiced by Tony Anselmo, who was trained by Nash for the role.

According to Leonard Maltin in his introduction to The Chronological Donald – Volume 1, Donald was created by Walt Disney when he heard Clarence Nash doing his “duck” voice while reciting “Mary had a little lamb”. Mickey Mouse had lost some of his edge since becoming a role model for children and Disney wanted a character that could portray some of the more negative character traits he could no longer bestow on Mickey.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Donald Meek

October 25, 2019

Donald Meek was a Scottish-born American character actor. He first worked as a stage actor in Scotland and, when coming to the United States, he appeared in several films, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Little Miss Broadway. At eighteen, before becoming an actor, he fought in the Spanish-American War and contracted yellow fever which caused him to lose his hair. As a consequence, he became a successful character actor.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Donald O’Connor

October 25, 2019

Donald David Dixon Ronald O?Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule. Perhaps his most famous performance was as Gene Kelly's friend and colleague in Singin' in the Rain. Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his home town, O?Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Irish American vaudeville entertainers. When O'Connor was only a few years old, he and his sister Arlene were in a car crash outside a theater in Hartford, Connecticut; O'Connor survived, but his sister was killed. Several weeks later, his father died of a heart attack while dancing on stage in Brockton, Massachusetts. O'Connor at the time was being held in the arms of the theater manager Mr. Maurice Sims.

O'Connor began performing in movies in 1937. He appeared opposite Bing Crosby in Sing, You Sinners, and at age 12 showed excellent comedic timing. Paramount Pictures used him in both A and B films, including Tom Sawyer, Detective and Beau Geste. In 1940, when he had outgrown child roles, he returned to vaudeville.

In 1942 O'Connor joined Universal Pictures. He played roles in four of the Gloria Jean musicals, and achieved stardom with Mister Big .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Donald Trump

October 25, 2019

Donald John Trump is the 45th President of USA, an American business magnate, socialite, author and television personality. He is the Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organization, a US-based real-estate developer. Trump is also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which operates numerous casinos and hotels across the world. Trump's extravagant lifestyle and outspoken manner have made him a celebrity for years, a status amplified by the success of the shows he produced,  the Miss Universe Pageants and the NBC show The Apprentice. Donald was the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer based in New York City. Donald was strongly influenced by his father in his eventual goals to make a career in real estate development, and upon his graduation from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, Donald Trump joined his father's company, The Trump Organization.

Starting with the renovation of the Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt with the Pritzker family, he continued with Trump Tower in New York City and several other residential projects. Trump would later expand into the airline industry, and Atlantic City casino business, including buying the Taj Mahal Casino from the Crosby family, then taking it into bankruptcy. This expansion, both personal and business, led to mounting debt. Much of the news about him in the early 1990s involved his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples, and the resulting divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump.

The late 1990s saw a resurgence in his financial situation and fame. In 2001, he completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters. Also, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump owns commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use tower on Columbus Circle. Trump currently owns several million square feet of prime Manhattan real estate, and remains a major figure in the field of real estate in the United States and a celebrity for his prominent media exposures.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Donald Woods

October 25, 2019

Donald Woods was a Canadian-born American film and television actor whose career spanned six decades.

Born Ralph L. Zink in Brandon, Manitoba, Woods moved with his family to California and was raised in Burbank. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and made his film debut in 1928. His screen career was spent mostly in B movies, although he occasionally scored a role in a prestige feature film like Anthony Adverse, Watch on the Rhine, and The Bridge of San Luis Rey. In the early days of television, Woods appeared in Craig Kennedy, Criminologist, and such anthology series as The Philco Television Playhouse, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, The United States Steel Hour, and General Electric Theater. He later was a regular on the short-lived series Tammy and made guest appearances on Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, Ben Casey, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Stoney Burke, Bonanza, Coronet Blue, Ironside, Alias Smith and Jones, and Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, among many others.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Donna Reed

October 25, 2019

Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.

She received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Lorene, a prostitute, in From Here to Eternity, and received the 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star – Female for her performance as Donna Stone, an American middle class wife and mother, in The Donna Reed Show. In 1984, she replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie in the television melodrama, Dallas, and sued the production company for breach of contract when she was abruptly fired upon Bel Geddes’s decision to return to the show.

Reed was married three times and the mother of four children. She died of pancreatic cancer.

Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane Shives and William Richard Mullenger. The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist. After graduating from Denison High School, Reed planned to become a teacher, but was unable to pay for college. She decided to move to California to attend Los Angeles City College on the advice of her aunt. While attending college, she performed in various stage productions but had no plans to become an actress. After receiving several offers to screen test for studios, Reed eventually signed with MGM, but insisted on finishing her education first.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Donna Summer

October 25, 2019

LaDonna Adrian Gaines, known by her stage name, Donna Summer is an American singer who gained prominence and notoriety during the “disco” era of the seventies with the majority of her early work produced by the team of Giorgio Moroder and Pete Belotte.

Summer’s number of hits, in the late seventies included “Love to Love You Baby”, “I Feel Love”, “Last Dance”, “Hot Stuff” and “Bad Girls”. These hits helped the singer earn the title “The Queen of Disco”. Following her split from Casablanca Records in the early 1980s and following a backlash against disco, Summer continued to have hits in various genres including “She Works Hard for the Money” and “This Time I Know It’s for Real”.

Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums hit number one on the US Billboard chart and was also the first female artist to have four number-one singles in a thirteen-month period. Summer has sold more than 130 million records worldwide.

Born on New Year’s Eve 1948 in the multi-racial Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Summer was one of seven children raised by devout Christian parents. Influenced by Mahalia Jackson, Summer began singing in the church at a young age. While singing her first solo at church, Summer said she received an epiphany from God to use this voice to become a star and to not ever misuse her voice. In her teens, Summer formed several groups, including one with her sister and a cousin, imitating Motown girl groups such as The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Television Permalink

Don Wilson

October 25, 2019

Don Wilson was an American announcer and occasional actor in radio and television, with a Falstaffian vocal presence, remembered best as the rotund announcer and comic foil to the star of The Jack Benny Program.

Wilson began his radio career as a singer over Denver radio station KFEL in 1923. By 1929, he was working at KFI in Los Angeles.

Though best known for his comedy work with Benny, Wilson had a background as a sportscaster, covering the opening of the 1932 Summer Olympics. Wilson first worked with Benny on the broadcast of April 6, 1934, concurrent with a short stint as announcer on George Gershwin’s series, Music by Gershwin. At and over, Wilson possessed a resonant voice, a deep belly laugh, and a plump figure, all of which would become important parts of his character with Benny. Though Wilson’s primary function as announcer was to read the opening and the commercial pitches — notably for Jell-O, Grape-Nuts, and Lucky Strikes — his importance to the program was as both feed and foil to Jack and other cast members. A recurring goal was his effort to get the Sportsman’s Quartet singing commercial approved by Benny.

On radio in particular, Wilson’s girth could be exploited, both in jokes by Benny and in audio gags, such as the amount of time it took an railroad porter to brush the soot off of Don following a train trip, or to measure charging him by the pound.