25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Ricardo Cortez

October 25, 2019

Ricardo Cortez was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era.

Born Jacob Krantz in New York City into a Jewish family, he worked on Wall Street in a broker’s office and as a boxer before his looks got him into the film business. Hollywood executives changed his name to Cortez to appeal to film-goers as a “Latin lover” to compete with such highly popular actors of the era as Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro and Antonio Moreno. When rumour began to circulate that Cortez was not actually Spanish, the studios tried to pass him off as a different type of Latin, French, before they finally admitted his Viennese origin.

Cortez appeared in over 100 films. He played opposite Joan Crawford in Montana Moon in 1930, played Sam Spade in the original The Maltese Falcon in 1931, co-starred with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis in The Big Shakedown and Wonder Bar in 1934. He also played Perry Mason in the 1936 film The Case of the Black Cat. Although he began his career playing romantic leads with actresses like Greta Garbo, when sound cinema arrived, his powerful delivery and New York accent made him an ideal villain and conman, and he switched from sex symbol to character actor.

Cortez was married to silent film actress Alma Rubens until her death of pneumonia in 1931.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Rhonda Fleming

October 25, 2019

Rhonda Fleming, is an American film and television actress.

She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day. She was nicknamed the “Queen of Technicolor” because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor.

Fleming began working as a film actor while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she was graduated in 1941. After appearing uncredited in a several films, she received her first substantial role in the thriller Spellbound, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She followed this with supporting roles in another thriller, The Spiral Staircase, directed by Robert Siodmak, the Randolph Scott western Abilene Town, and the film noir classic Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum. Her first leading role came in Adventure Island, a low-budget action film made in the two-color Cinecolor process and co-starring Rory Calhoun.

The actress then co-starred with Bing Crosby in her first Technicolor film, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a musical loosely based on the story by Mark Twain. Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on ?Once and For Always? and soloing with ?When Is Sometime.? She and Crosby recorded these songs for a 78 rpm Decca soundtrack album. She also sang on NBC’s Colgate Comedy Hour during the same live telecast that featured Errol Flynn, on September 30, 1951, from the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Rex Ingram

October 25, 2019

Rex Ingram was a film director, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director Erich von Stroheim once called him “the world’s greatest director.”

Born Reginald Ingram Montgomery Hitchcock in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Saint Columba’s College, near Rathfarnam, County Dublin. He spent most of his adolescent life living in the Old Rectory, Kinnity, Birr, County Offaly where his father was the Church of Ireland rector. He emigrated to the United States in 1911. His brother Francis Clere Hitchcock went on to join the British army and fought during World War I where he was awarded the Military Cross and rose to the rank of Colonel.

Ingram studied sculpture at the Yale University School of Art, but soon moved into film, first taking acting work from 1913 and then writing, producing and directing. His first work as producer-director was in 1916 on the romantic drama The Great Problem. He worked for Edison Studios, Fox Film Corporation, Vitagraph Studios, and then MGM, directing mainly action or supernatural films. In 1920 he moved to Metro, where he was under supervision of executive June Mathis. Mathis and Ingram would go on to make 4 films together, “Hearts are Trump”, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, “The Conquering Power”, and “Turn to the Right”. It is believed the two held a romantic relationship which ended when Ingram eloped with Alice Terry in 1921. Ingram and Mathis had begun to grow distant when her new find, Rudolph Valentino began to overshadow his own fame.

He married twice, first to actress Doris Pawn in 1917; this ended in divorce in 1920. He then married Alice Terry in 1921 with whom he remained for the rest of his life. In 1925, Ingram and Fred Niblo directed the hugely successful epic Ben-Hur, filming parts of it in Italy. He and his wife decided to move to the French Riviera. They formed a small studio in Nice and made several films on location in North Africa, Spain, and Italy for MGM and others.

25 Oct 2019
Recording Permalink

Reba McEntire

October 25, 2019

Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist. She began her career in the music industry singing with her siblings on local radio shows and rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma City, which caught the attention of country artist Red Steagall. He brought her to Nashville, Tennessee, where she eventually signed a contract with Mercury Records in 1975. She released her first solo album in 1977 and released five additional studio albums under the label until 1983.

Signing with MCA Nashville Records, McEntire took creative control over her second MCA album, My Kind of Country, which had a more traditional country sound and produced two number one singles: “How Blue” and “Somebody Should Leave”. The album brought her breakthrough success, bringing her a series of successful albums and number one singles in the 1980s and 1990s. McEntire has since released 25 studio albums, acquired 34 #1 singles, and 28 albums have been certified Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America. Her album For My Broken Heart broke ground for female artists in country music, as it was the first album recorded by a female in country music to be certified double-platinum by the RIAA.

In the early 1990s, McEntire branched into film starting with 1990’s Tremors. She has since starred in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun and starred in her television sitcom, Reba for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series?Musical or Comedy. She has sometimes been referred to as “The Queen of Country”, having sold 41 million records in the United States and more than 56 million worldwide. In the United States, she ranks as the seventh best-selling female artist in all genres and is the second best-selling female country artist of all time.

Reba Nell McEntire was born on March 28, 1955, outside of Kiowa, Oklahoma to Jacqueline Smith and Clark Vincent McEntire. Her father and grandfather were champion steer ropers and her father was a World Champion Steer Roper three times. Her mother originally had plans to become a country music artist but decided not to pursue that professionally and worked as a schoolteacher. Instead, McEntire’s mother taught her children how to sing. On car rides home from her father’s rodeo trips, the McEntire siblings were taught songs and learned their own harmonies, eventually forming a vocal group called the “Singing McEntires”. Consisting of her brother, Pake, and her younger sister, Susie, the group sang at rodeos and recorded “The Ballad of John McEntire” together. Released on an Indie label, Boss, the song pressed one thousand copies. In 1974, McEntire attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University and intended on becoming an elementary school teacher. While not attending school, she also continued to sing locally. That same year she was also invited to perform the national anthem at an Oklahoma City rodeo. At the rodeo, country artist Red Steagall was impressed by her vocal ability and offered his help in making McEntire a country artist in Nashville, Tennessee. After recording a demo tape, she eventually signed a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1975.

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Red Buttons

October 25, 2019

Red Buttons was an American comedian and actor.

Red Buttons was born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919 in New York City to Jewish immigrants. At sixteen years old, Chwatt got a job as an entertaining bellhop at Ryan’s Tavern in City Island, Bronx. The combination of his red hair and the shiny buttoned bellhop uniform inspired orchestra leader Charles “Dinty” Moore to call him Red Buttons, the name under which he would later perform.

Later that same summer, Buttons worked on the Borscht Belt; his straight man was Robert Alda. In 1939, Buttons started working for Minsky’s Burlesque; in 1941, José Ferrer chose Buttons to appear in a Broadway show The Admiral Had a Wife. The show was a farce set in Pearl Harbor, and it was due to open on December 8, 1941. It never did, as it was deemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack. In later years, Buttons would joke that the Japanese only attacked Pearl Harbor to keep him off Broadway.

In September 1942, Buttons at last got his Broadway debut in Vickie with Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Later that year, he appeared in the Minsky’s show Wine, Women and Song; this was the last Burlesque show in New York City history, as the Mayor La Guardia administration closed it down. Buttons was on stage when the show was raided.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording, Television Permalink

Red Foley

October 25, 2019

Clyde Julian Foley, better known as Red Foley, was an American singer, musician, and radio and TV personality who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II.

For more than two decades, Foley was one of the biggest stars of the genre, selling more than 25 million records. His 1951 hit, “Peace in the Valley”, was among the first million-selling gospel records. A Grand Ole Opry veteran until his death, Foley also hosted the first popular country music series on network television, Ozark Jubilee.

He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, which called him “one of the most versatile and moving performers of all time” and “a giant influence during the formative years of contemporary Country music.”

Foley was born June 17, 1910 on a 24-acre farm in Blue Lick, Kentucky, grew up in nearby Berea, and gained the nickname Red for his hair color. He was born into a musical family; and by the time he was nine, was giving impromptu concerts at his father’s general store, playing French harp, piano, banjo, trombone, harmonica and guitar. At 17, he won first prize in a statewide talent show. He graduated from Berea High School, and later worked as a $2-a-show usher and singer at a theater in Covington, Kentucky.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio, Television Permalink

Red Skelton

October 25, 2019

Red Skelton was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton’s show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing another career as a painter.

Born in Vincennes, Indiana, Richard Skelton was the son of Joseph E. Skelton, who died in 1913 shortly before the birth of his son, and Ida Skelton. In Skelton’s lifetime there was some dispute about the year of his birth. Biographer Arthur Marx reported that Skelton may have been born as early as 1906, and the year 1910 was sometimes cited as the year of his birth. In a People Magazine article in 1979, Skelton admitted that he fudged about his age, and was quoted as saying he was “in his seventies.”

Skelton got one of his earliest tastes of show business with the circus as a teenager. Before that, he caught the show business bug at 10 years of age from entertainer Ed Wynn, who spotted him selling newspapers in front of the Pantheon Theatre, in Vincennes. After buying every newspaper Skelton had, Wynn took him backstage and introduced him to members of the show with which he was traveling. By age 15, Skelton had hit the road full-time as an entertainer, working everywhere from medicine shows and vaudeville to burlesque, showboats, minstrel shows and circuses. While performing in Kansas City, in 1930, Skelton met and married his first wife, Edna Stillwell. The couple divorced 13 years later, but Stillwell remained one of his chief writers.

Skelton caught his big break into two media at once: radio and film. In 1938 he made his film debut for RKO Radio Pictures in the supporting role of a camp counselor in Having Wonderful Time. Two short subjects followed for Vitaphone, in 1939: Seeing Red and The Bashful Buckaroo.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Reed Hadley

October 25, 2019

Reed Hadley was an American movie, television and radio actor.

Reed Hadley was born Reed Herring in Petrolia, Texas to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie; Reed had one sister, Bess Brenner, and grew up in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Bennett High School in Buffalo and was involved in local theater with the Studio Arena Theater. Hadley was married to Helen and had one son Dale. Before moving to Hollywood he acted in Hamlet on stage in New York City.

Throughout his thirty-five-year career in film, Hadley was cast as both a villain and a hero of the law, in such movies as The Baron of Arizona, The Half-Breed, Highway Dragnet and Big House, USA. With his bass voice, he narrated a number of documentaries. He starred in two television shows: Racket Squad as Captain Braddock, and Public Defender as Bart Matthews. Hadley worked on the Red Ryder radio show during the 1940s, being the first actor to portray the title character. In films,among other things, he starred as Zorro in the 1939 serial Zorro’s Fighting Legion. He is immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his television work.

He was the voice of cowboy hero Red Ryder on radio and the narrator of several Department of Defense films: “Operation Ivy”, about the first hydrogen bomb test, Ivy Mike, “Military Participation on Tumbler/Snapper”; “Military Participation on Buster Jangle”; and “Operation Upshot-Knothole” all of which were produced by Lookout Mountain studios. The films were originally intended for internal military use, but have been “sanitized”, edited, and de-classified, and are now available to the public. During the period he narrated these films, Hadley held a Top Secret security clearance.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Regis Toomey

October 25, 2019

John Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey and attended Peabody High School. He initially pondered a law career, but acting won out and he established himself as a musical stage performer.

Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother of Sigma Chi, Toomey began as a stock actor and eventually made it to Broadway. Toomey was a singer on stage until throat problems while touring in Europe stopped that aspect of his career. In 1929, Toomey first began appearing in films. He initially started out as a leading man, but found more success as a character actor. Toomey appeared in over 180 films, including classics such as The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart. In 1956, he appeared as a judge, with Chuck Connors as “Andy”, in the third episode, “The Nevada Nightingale”, of the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. Toomey thereafter appeared in another anthology series too as the character “Harry” in the 1960 episode “The Doctor and the Redhead”, with Dick Powell and Felicia Farr, of CBS’s The DuPont Show with June Allyson. In the 1961?1962 television season, he appeared in a supporting role with George Nader in the syndicated crime drama Shannon about insurance investigators. From 1963?1966, Toomey was one of the stars of the ABC crime drama, Burke’s Law, starring Gene Barry. He played Sergeant Les Hart, one of the detectives assisting the murder investigations of the millionaire police captain Amos Burke. He also guest-starred on dozens of television programs, including the “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” episode of Maverick.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Renée Zellweger

October 25, 2019

Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire, and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary, its sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Cold Mountain. She has won three Golden Globe Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, was named Hasty Pudding's Woman of the Year in 2009, and has established herself as one of the highest-paid Hollywood actresses in recent years.

Zellweger was born in Katy, Texas, a western suburb of Houston. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is from Au, St. Gallen in Switzerland, and is a mechanical and electrical engineer who worked in the oil refining business. Her mother, Kjellfried Irene, is Norwegian-born and of Sami origin, and is a nurse and midwife who moved to the United States in order to work as a governess for a Norwegian family in Texas. Zellweger has described herself as being raised in a family of "lazy Catholics and Episcopalians". She has an older brother, Andrew.

In junior high school, Zellweger actively took part in several sports, including soccer, basketball, baseball and football. She attended Katy High School, where she was a cheerleader, a gymnast, a member of speech team, and a drama club member. Zellweger acted in several school plays and was voted the "Best Looking" of her class before graduating from high school in 1987. After high school, she went to the University of Texas at Austin to major in English language.