25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Charley Pride

October 25, 2019

Charley Pride is an American country music singer and baseball player.

Pride’s smooth baritone voice was featured on thirty-six number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. His chart success and recordings since the late 1980s have been sporadic, but Pride continued touring successfully.

Pride is one of the few African-American country musicians to have had considerable success in the largely white country music industry and the only one to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

Pride was born in Sledge, Mississippi, one of eleven children of poor sharecroppers. His father named him “Charl Frank Pride,” but because of an error on his birth certificate, his legal name is Charley Frank Pride. In his early teens, Pride began playing guitar.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Charles Chaplin

October 25, 2019

See the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony announcement
 

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor and film director of the silent film era. He became one of the best-known film stars in the world before the end of the First World War. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing, and from 1918 composing the music. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent movie comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the Music Hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin's identification with the left ultimately forced him to resettle in Europe during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male screen legend of all time. In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book , wrote: "Chaplin was not just 'big', he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst onto a war-torn world bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and relief while it was tearing itself apart through World War I. Over the next 25 years, through the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler, he stayed on the job.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Charlie Murray

October 25, 2019

 

A comedian and an actor. A natural born comedian who made ‘em laugh for four decades. He was the "Murray" half of the "Murray and Mack" vaudeville team. He joined Biograph Studios in New York in 1912, then moved to "Hollywood Woods" (as he called the place). Films include Soldiers of Misfortune (1914), and The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble (1933) in which he portrayed Mr. Kelly in this series.

In 1924 he wrote: “A Letter from One Irishman to Another: I cannot advise you to adopt the movies as a mode of living. There are enough movie actors out here now to supply all demands. I would advise you to learn a trade and stick to it, and save yourself a lot of grief. I’ve been working in pictures now for twelve years and the nearest I ever got to being a star was when I played a policeman, and had to wear one. But if you can’t find anything do to, you might come here and give the pictures a try. Everybody is doing it, and who knows, you may turn lucky. Must make this message short and send a wreath to my boot-legger; who passed out of my life last Tuesday. He drank some of the oil he had reserved for me. Don’t call it fate. It was just bad liquor.”

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Charlie Sheen

October 25, 2019

Carlos Irwin Estévez, known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. His character roles in films have included Chris Taylor in the 1986 Vietnam War drama Platoon, Jake Kesey in the 1986 film The Wraith, and Bud Fox in 1987 film Wall Street. His career also included more comedic films, such as Major League, the Hot Shots! films, and Scary Movie 3 and 4. On television, Sheen is known for his roles on two , and as Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men.

Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estévez in New York City, the youngest son and third of four children born to actor Martin Sheen and artist Janet Templeton. Martin adopted his stage name in honor of the Catholic archbishop and theologian, Fulton J. Sheen, with Charlie also taking this stage name. His parents moved to Malibu, California after Martin Sheen's Broadway turn in The Subject Was Roses. Sheen has two brothers and one sister, all of whom are actors: Emilio Estevez, Ramon Estevez, and Renée Estevez. Sheen attended Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, where he was a star pitcher and shortstop for the baseball team. He also showed an early interest in acting, making several Super-8 films with his brother Emilio, schoolmates Rob and Chad Lowe, and early friend Chris Penn. Just a few weeks before graduation, Sheen was expelled from the school for poor grades and bad attendance.

Sheen started acting in 1974 at the age of nine, appearing in a small role alongside his father in the television movie The Execution of Private Slovik. Sheen's film career began in 1984 with a role in the Cold War teen drama Red Dawn with Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer Grey. Sheen and Grey reunited in a small scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He also appeared in an episode of the anthology series Amazing Stories. Sheen had his first major role in the Vietnam War drama Platoon. In 1987, he starred with his father in Wall Street. Both Wall Street and Platoon were directed by Oliver Stone; however, in 1988, Stone approached Sheen about starring in his new film Born on the Fourth of July, only to later re-cast Tom Cruise in place of Sheen. Sheen was never notified by Stone, and only found out when he heard the news from his brother Emilio. Sheen did not take a lead role in Stone's subsequent films, although he does have a cameo role in Stone's sequel to Wall Street.

In 1987, Sheen was cast to portray Ron in the unreleased , the sequel to the 1976 low budget horror movie Grizzly. In 1988, he starred in the baseball film Eight Men Out as outfielder Happy Felsch. Also in 1988, he appeared opposite his brother Emilio Estevez in Young Guns and again in 1990 in Men at Work. Also in 1990, he starred alongside his father Martin Sheen in Cadence as a rebellious inmate in a military stockade and Clint Eastwood in the buddy cop action film The Rookie. The films were directed by Martin Sheen and Eastwood, respectively. In 1992, he starred in Beyond the Law with Linda Fiorentino and Michael Madsen. In 1997, Sheen wrote his first movie, Discovery Mars, a direct-to-video documentary revolving around the question, "Is There Life on Mars?" The next year, Sheen wrote, produced and starred in the action movie No Code of Conduct''.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Television Permalink

Charlie Tuna

October 25, 2019

Charlie Tuna is a radio personality based in Los Angeles, California currently working at KRTH-FM.

Born Art Ferguson in Kearney, Nebraska, he was given his pseudonym while working at KOMA in Oklahoma City, taking over the moniker from Chuck Riley who had used it for one show the week prior to Charlie's arrival. Ferguson was a high school athlete and sports editor of his school newspaper and at age 16 worked at the town's radio station, KGFW. From Kearney, He went on to work at KLEO in Wichita, Kansas for a year with the air name "Billy O'Day", then worked for KOMA Radio in Oklahoma City in 1966, and on to WMEX in Boston for the first 9 months of 1967.

In late 1967, KHJ in Los Angeles offered Charlie the 9 to noon slot where he debuted on Thanksgiving Day 1967, and Charlie has worked in the L.A. area ever since. On February 9, 1971 at 6:00 a.m. he had just commenced his morning show when the San Fernando Earthquake occurred. In 1972, he became one of the original DJs at KROQ-AM, a new top-40 station. Among the other stations he worked at were KKDJ, KIIS-AM&FM, KTNQ, KHTZ, KRLA, KODJ, KMPC, KIKF, and KLAC.

He most recently worked at KBIG 104.3 where he hosted a show called "Charlie Tuna in the Morning," which aired from 5 to 9 am. His last show aired on September 17, 2007, when the station flipped to a non-rhythmic-based adult contemporary format, as "104.3 My FM". He returned to radio February 9, 2008 when he became the weekend personality and vacation fill-in jock on Los Angeles oldies station "K-Earth 101".

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Charlize Theron

October 25, 2019

Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.

She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules. She received critical acclaim and an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster, for which she became the first African to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country.

Theron was born in Benoni, Transvaal Province, South Africa, the only child of Gerda Jacoba Aletta and Charles Jacobus Theron. Her mother is of German descent and her father was of French and Dutch ancestry; Theron is directly descended from early Huguenot settlers, and Boer War figure Daniel Theron was her great-grandfather's brother. "Theron" is an Occitan surname pronounced in Afrikaans as "Tronn", although she said that the way it is pronounced in South Africa is "Thrown". She changed the pronunciation when she moved to the US.

Although fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans. She grew up on her parents' farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg. She attended Putfontein Primary School. At the age of 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg.

25 Oct 2019
Radio Permalink

Charlotte Greenwood

October 25, 2019

Frances Charlotte Greenwood was an American actress and dancer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Greenwood started in vaudeville, and eventually starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing around six feet tall, she was best known for her long legs and high kicks. She earned the unique praise of being, in her words, the “.only woman in the world who could kick a giraffe in the eye.” She starred with such luminaries as Betty Grable, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Buster Keaton, and Carmen Miranda. Most of Greenwood’s best work was done on the stage, and was lauded by such critics as James Agate, Alexander Woollcott and Claudia Cassidy. One of her most successful roles was that of Juno in Cole Porter’s Out of This World in which she introduced the Porter classic “I Sleep Easier Now.”

Although the role was written with her in mind, film commitments prevented her from playing “Aunt Eller” in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway hit Oklahoma. She got her chance in the 1955 film version, just prior to retiring in 1956.

Charlotte Greenwood died in Los Angeles, California of undisclosed causes, aged 87.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Charlton Heston

October 25, 2019

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television.

Heston is known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, El Cid, and Judah Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Initially a moderate Democrat, he later supported conservative Republican policies and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.

Heston was born John Charles Carter, the only child of Lilla and Russell Whitford Carter, a mill operator. Most sources state that he was born in Evanston, Illinois. Heston’s autobiography, however, and some other sources place his birth in No Man’s Land, Illinois, which usually refers to a then-unincorporated area now part of Wilmette, Illinois, a well-off northern suburb of Chicago. The confusion stems from Heston being born in an Evanston hospital at a time when the family lived in the Wilmette area. Heston said in a 1995 interview that he was not very good at remembering addresses or his early childhood.

Heston was of English and Scottish descent and a member of the Fraser clan.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Chester Conklin

October 25, 2019

Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.

Born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Conklin was one of three children who grew up in a violent household. When he was eight, his mother was found burned to death in the family garden. Although first judged a suicide, his father, a devoutly religious man who hoped his son would be a minister, was eventually charged with murder, but found not guilty at trial.

Conklin won first prize when he gave a recitation at a community festival. A few years later, he ran away from home after vowing to a friend he would never return, a promise he kept. Heading to Des Moines he found employment as a hotel bellhop, but then moved to Omaha, Nebraska where his interest in theatre led to a career in comedic acting. In St. Louis, Missouri, he saw a performance by the vaudeville team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, which prompted Conklin to develop a character based on his boss at the time, a man with a thick accent and a bushy walrus moustache. With this character, Conklin broke into vaudeville, and spent several years touring with various stock companies, doing vaudeville shows, minstrel shows, as well as clown work with a travelling circus.

After seeing several Mack Sennett comedies while in Venice, California during the 1913 winter break, the 27-year-old Conklin went to Keystone Studios, applied for a job and was hired as a Keystone Kop with a salary of $3 a day. Sennett directed him in his first film, a comedy short titled Hubby’s Job.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Chevy Chase

October 25, 2019

Cornelius Crane “Chevy” Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon. He quickly became a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, where his Weekend Update skit soon became a staple of the show. Chase is also well-known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon’s Vacation films, and for his roles in other successful comedies such as Caddyshack, Fletch, and ¡Three Amigos!. He has hosted the Academy Awards twice, briefly had his own late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show, and is currently a regular on the NBC comedy series Community.

Chase was born in Lower Manhattan, New York City. His father, Edward Tinsley “Ned” Chase, was a prominent Manhattan book editor and magazine writer. His mother, Cathalene Parker, a concert pianist and librettist, was the daughter of Miles Browning, who served a critical role at the Battle of Midway in World War II; she was adopted as a child by Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, and took the name Cathalene Crane. Chase’s maternal grandmother was an opera singer who performed several times at Carnegie Hall. Chase is a fourteenth-generation New Yorker, and was listed in the Social Register at an early age. His mother’s ancestors arrived in Manhattan starting in 1624. Among his ancestors are New York City mayors Stephanus Van Cortlandt and John Johnstone; John Morin Scott, General of the New York Militia during the American Revolution; Anne Hutchinson, dissident Puritan preacher and healer; and Mayflower passengers and signers of the Mayflower Compact, John Howland and the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, William Brewster. Chase’s paternal grandfather was artist/illustrator Edward Leigh Chase, and his great-uncle was painter/teacher Frank Swift Chase.

Chase was named for his adoptive grandfather Cornelius. The name Chevy was a nickname bestowed by his grandmother, derived from the medieval English Ballad of Chevy Chase. As a descendant of the Scottish Clan Douglas, the name “Chevy” seemed appropriate to her.

Chase’s parents divorced when he was four; his father remarried into the Folgers coffee family, and his mother was remarried twice. Both his parents died in 2005. Chase has stated that he grew up in an upper middle class environment and that his maternal grandfather did not bequeath any assets to Chase’s mother when he died. Chase has made recent claims that he was abused as a child by his mother and stepfather, John Cederquist.