Barton MacLane

Barton MacLane was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. Although he has appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, he was known for his recurring role as General Martin Peterson on the 1960s television comedy series I Dream of Jeannie.

MacLane was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he excelled at American football. His first movie role, in The Quarterback, was a result of his ability. He then attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

He made his Broadway stage debut in 1927, playing the assistant district attorney in Bayard Veiller’s The Trial of Mary Dugan. He then performed in the 1928 Broadway production of Gods of the Lighting and was part of the original cast of Subway Express as Officer Mulvaney in 1929. He also appeared in the Marx Brothers’ 1929 film The Cocoanuts.

MacLane made his first credited film appearance in the 1931 romantic drama His Woman. The following year, he wrote the play Rendezvous, which he sold to Arthur Hopkins. The play was performed on Broadway, with MacLane in a featured role.

Basil Rathbone

Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was a South African-born British actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films. He frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters, such as Murdstone in David Copperfield and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood. His most famous role, however, was heroic—that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. His later career included Broadway and television work; he was awarded a Best Actor Tony Award in 1948.

He was born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone in Johannesburg, South African Republic, to English parents Edgar Philip Rathbone, a mining engineer and scion of the Liverpool Rathbone family, and Anna Barbara née George, a violinist. He had two younger siblings, Beatrice and John. The Rathbones fled to England when Basil was three years old after his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy near the onset of the Second Boer War at the end of the 1890s.

Rathbone was educated at Repton School and was engaged with the Liverpool and Globe Insurance Companies. In 1916, he enlisted for the remaining duration of World War I, joining the London Scottish Regiment as a private, serving alongside his future successful acting contemporaries Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, and Ronald Colman. He later transferred with a commission as a lieutenant to the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion, where he served as an intelligence officer and eventually attained the rank of captain. During the war, Rathbone displayed a penchant for disguise, when on one occasion, in order to have better visibility, Rathbone convinced his superiors to allow him to scout enemy positions during daylight hours instead of during the night, as was the usual practice in order to minimize the chance of detection by the enemy. Rathbone completed the mission successfully through his skillful use of camouflage, which allowed him to escape detection by the enemy. In September 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross. His younger brother, John, was killed in action during the war while also serving Britain.

On 22 April 1911, Rathbone made his first appearance on stage at the Theatre Royal, Ipswich, as Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew, with Sir Frank Benson’s No. 2 Company, under the direction of Henry Herbert. In October 1912, he went to America with Benson’s company, playing such parts as Paris in Romeo and Juliet, Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Silvius in As You Like It. Returning to England, he made his first appearance in London at the Savoy Theatre on 9 July 1914, as Finch in The Sin of David. That December, he appeared at the Shaftesbury Theatre as the Dauphin in Henry V. During 1915, he toured with Benson and appeared with him at London’s Court Theatre in December as Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Bea Benaderet

Bea Benaderet was an American actress, born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. She is best remembered for starring in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate Bradley and The Beverly Hillbillies as Jed Clampett’s cousin Pearl Bodine, and as the original voice of Granny of Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes media franchise and Betty Rubble on The Flintstones. Benaderet reached stardom in her late 50s after over 20 years of active work as a supporting player on radio and early television, as well as a career doing voice work for 1940s and 1950s Warner Bros. cartoons.

Benaderet began voicing the character of Granny?the sometimes dimwitted, sometimes assertive owner of Tweety Bird?in the Warner Bros. cartoon series beginning in 1943, and was one of the few female voice artists associated with the studio in the early days. Benaderet continued to play the voice of Granny into the 1950s, before June Foray took over the role in 1955.

Benaderet first received notice for her radio work in the 1940s playing Millicent Carstairs on Fibber McGee & Molly, telephone operator Gertrude Gearshift and many other roles on The Jack Benny Program, school principal Eve Goodwin on the Great Gildersleeve and appeared on several Amos ‘n Andy radio shows, usually as a store clerk trying to assist Andy and Kingfish in a purchase. Benaderet also played Blanche Morton, next door neighbor to George Burns and Gracie Allen, on both radio and television. She also had a regular role in the series “A Day in the Life of Dennis Day” as Mrs. Anderson, Day’s landlord, who was also the mother of Day’s girlfriend on the show. Benaderet also voiced the widow on the Mel Blanc show. She fends off Mel’s uncle Rupert’s money-mad proposals with the phrase, “now Rupert I am in no mood for your nincompoopity.”

She played Lucille Ball’s best friend, Iris Atterbury, on the 1940s radio series My Favorite Husband. When Ball and husband Desi Arnaz decided to create a very similar television series called I Love Lucy, Benaderet was first choice to fill the role of Ethel Mertz but was unavailable to take the role since she had already signed for Burns and Allen’s television adaptation of their radio program. Vivian Vance, an almost unknown character actress and singer, was eventually cast in the part. Benaderet did get to guest on I Love Lucy on January 21, 1952 in a very amusing appearance as Miss Lewis, a love-starved spinster neighbor.

Beatrice Lillie

Bea Lillie was a comic actress. She was born as Beatrice Gladys Lillie in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Following her marriage in 1920 to Sir Robert Peel, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.

She began performing in Toronto and other Ontario towns as part of a family trio with her mother and older sister, Muriel. Eventually, her mother took the two girls to London, England where she made her West End debut in 1914.

She was noted primarily for her stage work in revues, especially those staged by André Charlot, and light comedies, and was frequently paired with Gertrude Lawrence, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. Beatrice Lillie, as she would be known professionally, took advantage of her gift for witty satire that made her a stage success for more than 50 years.

In her revues, she utilized sketches, songs, and parody that won her lavish praise from the New York Times after her 1924 New York debut. In some of her best known bits, she would solemnly parody the flowery performing style of earlier decades, mining such songs as “There are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden” and “Mother Told Me So” for every double entendre, while other numbers showcased her exquisite sense of the absurd. Her performing in such comedy routines as “One Double Dozen Double Damask Dinner Napkins”, earned her the frequently used sobriquet of “Funniest Woman in the World”. Lillie never performed the “Dinner Napkins” routine in Britain, because British audiences had already seen it performed by the Australian-born English revue performer Cicely Courtneidge, for whom it was written.

110922-N-KQ655-020
WASHINGTON (Sept. 22, 2011) C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, left, retired Major League Baseball player Jerry Coleman and actor Beau Bridges are recipients of the 2011 Lone Sailor Award. Bridges also accepted for his brother, Jeff Bridges, and their father, Lloyd Bridges.The recipients were recognized for their achievements following their military service during a dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mikelle'D. Smith/Released)
110922-N-KQ655-020 WASHINGTON (Sept. 22, 2011) C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, left, retired Major League Baseball player Jerry Coleman and actor Beau Bridges are recipients of the 2011 Lone Sailor Award. Bridges also accepted for his brother, Jeff Bridges, and their father, Lloyd Bridges.The recipients were recognized for their achievements following their military service during a dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mikelle'D. Smith/Released)

Beau Bridges

Lloyd VernetBeauBridges III is an American actor.

Bridges was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges. He was nicknamed “Beau” by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes’s son in Gone with the Wind, the book they were reading at the time. He has one younger brother, Jeff–who is an Oscar-winning film actor, and one younger sister, Lucinda. His brother Garrett died in childhood of sudden infant death syndrome on August 3, 1948. He has shared a close relationship with Jeff, to whom he acted as a surrogate father during his earlier life when their father was busy with work. He and his siblings were raised in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. In 1989, he starred opposite his brother in perhaps his best known role, as one of The Fabulous Baker Boys.

In 1949, Bridges played a secondary juvenile role in the movie The Red Pony. Wanting to be a basketball star, however, he played his freshman year at the University of California, Los Angeles, and later transferred to the University of Hawaii. He enlisted in the US Coast Guard in 1959 and also served for eight years in the Coast Guard Reserve.

In the 1962?1963 television season, Bridges, along with his brother, Jeff, appeared on their father’s CBS anthology series, The Lloyd Bridges Show.

Bebe Daniels

Bebe Daniels was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, and later gained fame on radio and television in England. Throughout her life, Bebe Daniels made over 230 films.

Daniels was born Phyllis Virginia Daniels in Dallas, Texas. Her father was a theater manager and her mother a stage actress. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in her childhood and she began her acting career at the age of four in the first version of The Squaw Man. That same year she also went on tour in a stage production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. The following year she participated in productions by Morosooa and David Belasco.

By the age of seven Daniels had her first starring role in film as the young heroine in A Common Enemy. At the age of nine she starred as Dorothy Gale in the 1910 short film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. At the age of fourteen she starred opposite film comedian Harold Lloyd in a series of Lonesome Luke two-reel comedies starting with the 1915 film Giving Them Fits. The two eventually developed a publicized romantic relationship and were known in Hollywood as “The Boy” and “The Girl.”

In 1919, she decided to move to greater dramatic roles and accepted a contract offering from Cecil B. Demille, who gave her secondary roles in such films as Male and Female, Why Change Your Wife?, and The Affairs of Anatol .

Barbara Lawrence

Barbara Jo Lawrence is an American film actress.

Lawrence was born in Carnegie, Oklahoma. She began her career as a photographer’s model at a very young age, and appeared in her first film, Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe, in 1945. She was featured in the 1947 swashbuckler, “Captain from Castile” with Tyrone Power. While finishing her studies at UCLA, she attracted the attention of talent scouts, and Lawrence was soon co-starring in a handful of 20th Century Fox movies, including A Letter to Three Wives, The Street with No Name, Thieves’ Highway and Here Come the Nelsons. In January 1947, aged 18, she married The marriage was kept secret until June 28, 1947, when her mother gave Barbara a church wedding in Beverly Hills, but the marriage ended a year and a half later, in 1948.

Upon moving to MGM, Lawrence starred with Gig Young in the 3D movie, Arena. She then starred in Her Twelve Men with Greer Garson. Lawrence also played the major role of Gertie Cummings in the film version of Oklahoma!, in which she gets into a knockdown fight with Gloria Grahame. In 1957, she starred in Kronos with Jeff Morrow. Although the film was not praised by critics at the time, it eventually attracted a cult following for its imaginative storyline and special effects. After doing a number of television shows in the late 1950s and early 1960s she spent several years in South America.

In 1951 the actress married Johnny Murphy, and the couple had two children together before divorcing in 1957. After marrying Lester R. Nelson in 1961, she had two more children. She made several more television appearances in 1962, then retired from acting altogether. She and Nelson divorced in 1976.

Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After a short stint as a stage actress, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.

Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award four times, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the Motion Picture Academy, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is ranked as the eleventh greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens in Brooklyn, New York on July 16, 1907. She was the fifth and last child of Byron and Catherine McGee Stevens; the couple were working-class natives of Chelsea, Massachusetts and were of English and Irish extraction, respectively. When Ruby was four, her mother was killed when a drunken stranger pushed her off a moving streetcar. Two weeks after the funeral, Byron Stevens joined a work crew digging the Panama canal; and was never seen again. Ruby and her brother Byron were raised by their sister Mildred, who was five years older than Ruby. When Mildred got a job as a John Cort showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes, from which Ruby often ran away. Ruby attended various public schools in Brooklyn, where she received uniformly poor grades and routinely picked fights with the other students.

During the summers of 1916 and 1917, when Ruby was nine and ten years old, she toured with her sister Mildred, and practiced Mildred’s routines backstage. Another influence toward performing was watching the movies of Pearl White, whom Ruby idolized. At age 14, she dropped out of school to take a job wrapping packages at a Brooklyn department store. Soon after she took a job filing cards at the Brooklyn telephone office for a salary of $14 a week, a salary that allowed her to become financially independent. Ruby disliked both jobs; she was interested in show business, but her sister Mildred discouraged the idea, so Ruby next took a job cutting dress patterns for Vogue; customers complained of her poor work and Ruby was fired. Ruby’s next job was as a typist for the Jerome H. Remick Music Company, a job she enjoyed; her true interest, however, was still show business, and her sister gave up dissuading her. In 1923, a few months short of her 16th birthday, Ruby auditioned for a place in the chorus at the Strand Roof, a night club over the Strand Theatre in Times Square. A few months thereafter she obtained a job as a Ziegfeld girl in the 1922 and 1923 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. For the next several years, Ruby worked as a chorus girl, performing from midnight to seven a.m. at nightclubs owned by Texas Guinan; she also occasionally served as a dance instructor at a speakeasy for gays and lesbians owned by Guinan.

Barbara Walters

See the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony announcement
 

Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist and author, who has hosted morning television shows, the television newsmagazine, and co-anchor of the ABC Evening News and correspondent on ABC World News. Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news anchor for over 10 years on NBC's Today, where she worked with Hugh Downs and later hosts Frank McGee and Jim Hartz. Walters later spent 25 years as co-host of ABC's newsmagazine 20/20. She was the first female co-anchor of network evening news, working with Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News and was later a correspondent for ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson.

Walters was born in Boston, MA to Louis "Lou" Walters and his wife, Dena Seletsky, both of whom were Jewish and descendants of refugees from the former Russian Empire, now Eastern Europe. Walters' paternal grandfather, Isaac Abrahams, was from what is now ?ód?, Poland, and first immigrated to England, changing his name to Abraham Walters. Walters' father was born there c. 1896, and moved to the United States with his family in 1900. In 1937, her father opened the New York version of the Latin Quarter; he also was a Broadway producer. Walters' brother, Burton, died in 1932 of pneumonia. Walters' elder sister, Jacqueline, was born developmentally disabled and died of ovarian cancer in 1985.

According to Walters, being surrounded by celebrities when she was young kept her from being "in awe" of them. When he was a young man, Walters' father lost his nightclubs and the family's penthouse on Central Park West. As Walters recalled, "He had a breakdown. He went down to live in our house in Florida, and then the Government took the house, and they took the car, and they took the furniture." Of her mother, she said, "My mother should have married the way her friends did, to a man who was a doctor or who was in the dress business."