25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

May McAvoy

October 25, 2019

May McAvoy was an American actress, who worked mainly during the silent film era. She starred in Hollywood’s revolutionary part talking film: The Jazz Singer.

McAvoy made her film debut in 1917. After appearing in more than three dozen films, she co-starred with Ram%C3%B3n Novarro and Francis X. Bushman in director Fred Niblo’s 1925 production of Ben-Hur released by MGM. The feature length film was one of the most lavish and spectacular productions of the silent movie era. She later starred with Al Jolson in the first sound film, The Jazz Singer. Although her voice was not heard in that film, she did speak in several other films, including the second “all-talkie” released by Warner Brothers, The Terror, directed by Roy Del Ruth and co-starring Conrad Nagel.

For years, a false rumor circulated that she retired from the screen at the transition to sound films due to a lisp or speech impediment. In truth, she married the treasurer of United Artists, who asked her not to work. Later, she returned to films and played small roles during the 1940s and 1950s, making her final film appearance in 1957.

She died in of a heart attack in 1984, and is interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Meiklejohn

October 25, 2019

William Meiklejohn ,was a famous Hollywood talent agent and scout in the 1920s through the 1940s. He had his own talent agency called the William Meiklejohn Agency that he sold to MCA in May of 1939. At the time of the sale, his agency had over 100 actors and writers like Hattie McDaniel and Dorothy Parker. He was famous for his self-avowed ?seventh sense? to discover and promote stars such as Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, and in 1937, a young sportscaster in Des Moines, Iowa named Ronald Reagan.

Meiklejohn began his career in 1921 in his native Los Angeles as a booking agent for 80 different vaudeville acts. In 1939 he sold his agency to the Music Corporation of America as it opened in Hollywood and joined them as vice-president in charge of setting up their motion picture division. In 1940, he was loaned to Paramount for two weeks and ended up staying for 20 years as head of talent and casting, and it was at Paramount that he developed his reputation for finding talent. In 1960, he left the studio and once again became an independent agent for the likes of Nat King Cole, Pat O’Brien, and his close friend Ronald Reagan.

Meiklejohn died, aged 78, on April 26, 1981 in Burbank, California from undisclosed causes.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Recording Permalink

Mel Blanc

October 25, 2019

Mel Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros. during the “Golden Age of American animation” as the voice of such well-known characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Woody Woodpecker, Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman, Heathcliff, and hundreds of others. Having earned the nickname ?The Man of a Thousand Voices,? Blanc is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice-acting industry.

Blanc was born Melvin Jerome Blank in San Francisco, California, to Jewish-American parents, Frederick and Eva Blank. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, attending Lincoln High School. He claimed that when he was 16, he changed the spelling from ?Blank? to ?Blanc? because a teacher told him that he would amount to nothing and be, like his name, a ?blank.? Blanc joined The Order of DeMolay as a young man, and was eventually inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Blanc began his radio career in 1927 as a voice actor on the KGW program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and host his Cobweb And Nuts show, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.

Blanc moved to Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, California, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show. Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny?s Maxwell automobile, violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny?s pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer .

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Mel Brooks

October 25, 2019

Mel Brooks was honored with the 2,406th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Robert Osborne, Max Brooks, and Carl Reiner.

6712 Hollywood Boulevard on April 23, 2010.

BIOGRAPHY

Mel Brooks began his distinguished career during television's Golden Age as a writer for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows, the first of many comedy series for which he would write.

In the '60s, Brooks teamed up with Carl Reiner to write and perform The 2000 Year Old Man albums, which became immediate bestsellers and Grammy winners.

Brooks wrote and narrated The Critic, a short satire that received an Academy Award„¥ for Best Animated Short Subject in 1964. In 1965, he teamed up with Buck Henry to create the long-running television series Get Smart. In 1968, he wrote and directed his first feature film, The Producers, which earned him an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay. It later became the basis for the hit Broadway musical and subsequent film version.

Brooks has created a remarkable string of hit comedies: The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, To Be or Not To Be, Spaceballs, Life Stinks, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Like The Producers, Young Frankenstein also made a successful transition to the Broadway musical stage.

Brooks' visionary film company, Brooksfilms Limited, has produced some of America's most distinguished films, among them David Lynch's The Elephant Man and David Cronenberg's The Fly.

For three successive seasons, Brooks won Emmys for his role as Uncle Phil the series Mad About You. Last year, commemorating his lifelong contributions to American culture, Brooks was named among the recipients of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Mel Ferrer

October 25, 2019

Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.

Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Spanish and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer, was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. His American mother, the former Mary Matilda Irene O’Donohue, was a daughter of coffee broker Joseph J. O’Donohue, New York’s City Commissioner of Parks, a founder of the Coffee Exchange, and a founder of the Brooklyn-New York Ferry. An ardent opponent of Prohibition, Irene Ferrer was named, in 1934, the New York State chairman of the Citizens Committee for Sane Liquor Laws.

Ferrer had three siblings. His elder sister was Dr. M. Irené Ferrer, a cardiologist and educator, who helped refine the cardiac catheter and electrocardiogram. His brother, Dr. Jose M. Ferrer, was a surgeon. His other sister, Teresa Ferrer, was the religion editor of The New York Herald Tribune and education editor of Newsweek. The family is not related to actors José or Miguel Ferrer.

His mother’s family, the O’Donohues, were prominent Roman Catholics. Mel Ferrer’s aunt, Marie Louise O’Donohue was named a papal countess, and his mother’s sister, Teresa Riley O’Donohue, a leading figure in American Catholic charities and welfare organizations, was granted permission by Pope Pius XI to install a private chapel in her New York City apartment.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Recording Permalink

Matt Moore

October 25, 2019

Matthew Moore was an Irish-born American actor and director. He appeared in at least 221 motion pictures from 1912 to 1958.

Born in Kells, Ireland, he and his brothers, Tom, Owen, and Joe, emigrated to the United States. They all went on to successful movie careers.

Once his brothers made a name for themselves, Moore made his debut in the role as the minister in the silent short Tangled Relations starring Florence Lawrence and Owen Moore.

Contributing to the ideas behind several of his movies, White Tiger was inspired by a hunting trip in Africa on which Moore wrestled a white tiger. Although sustaining minor injuries, he was able to get the tiger to tap out after locking it up in a full nelson submission hold. The footage was originally in the movie, but was edited out for time purposes.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Maureen O’Sullivan

October 25, 2019

Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was an Irish actress who was considered Ireland's first film star.

O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Roman Catholic parents Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War. She attended a convent school in Dublin, then the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Roehampton in London. One of her classmates there was Vivien Leigh. After attending finishing school in France, O'Sullivan returned to Dublin and began working with the poor.

O'Sullivan's film career began when she met motion picture director Frank Borzage, who was doing location filming on Song o' My Heart for 20th Century Fox. He suggested she take a screen test. She did and won a part in the movie, which starred Irish tenor John McCormack. She then traveled to the United States to complete the movie in Hollywood.

O'Sullivan appeared in six movies at Fox, then made three more at other movie studios. In 1932, she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After several roles there and at other movie studios, she was chosen by Irving Thalberg to appear as Jane Parker in Tarzan the Ape Man opposite co-star Johnny Weissmuller, with whom she had a brief affair during the early 1930s. Besides playing Jane, she was one of the more popular ingenues at MGM throughout the 1930s and appeared in a number of other productions with various stars.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Maurice Chevalier

October 25, 2019

Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, and popular vaudeville entertainer. Chevalier’s signature songs included “Louise”, “Mimi”, “Valentine”, and “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”. His trademark was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with his tuxedo. He was born in Paris to a house painter father and a mother of Belgian descent. He made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age.

He worked in a number of jobs; A carpenter’s apprentice, electrician, printer and even as a doll painter. He started in show business in 1901. He was singing, unpaid, at a café when a member of the theatre saw him and suggested he try for a local musical. He got the part. Chevalier made a name as a mimic and a singer. His act in l’Alcazar in Marseille was so successful, he made a triumphant rearrival in Paris.

In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France, Fréhel. However, due to her alcoholism and drug addiction, their liaison ended in 1911. Chevalier then started a relationship with 36-year-old Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère where he was her 18 year old dance partner; they eventually played out a public romance.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Maurice Costello

October 25, 2019

Maurice Costello was a prominent vaudeville actor of the late 1890s and early 1900s, who later played a principal role in early American films, as both a leading man, supporting player and a director.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants Thomas Costello and Ellen Fitzgerald, Costello appeared in his first motion picture in 1905, in which he had the honour of appearing in the first serious film to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes in the movie Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which Costello played the title role. He continued to work for Vitagraph, being a member of the first motion picture stock company ever formed, playing opposite Florence Turner. Among some of his best known pictures are A Tale of Two Cities, The Man Who Couldn't Beat God and For the Honor of the Family. After an absence of some years he returned to the screen. He was married to actress Mae Costello. His daughters were the actresses Dolores Costello and Helene Costello, grandson John Drew Barrymore, and great granddaughter Drew Barrymore. He was one of the world's first leading men in early American cinema, but sadly, like a lot of other silent screen stars, he found the transition to "talkies" extremely difficult, and his leading man status was over. However, Costello was a trooper, and continued to appear in movies, often in small roles and bit parts, right up until his death in 1950.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Maurice Jarre

October 25, 2019

Maurice-Alexis Jarre was a French composer and conductor.

Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores, and is particularly known for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films since Lawrence of Arabia. Other notable scores of his include The Message, Witness and Ghost. Jarre was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Three of his compositions spent a total of forty-two weeks on the U.K. singles chart chart; the biggest hit was 'Somewhere My Love' by the Michael Sammes Singers, which reached number fourteen in 1966 and spent thirty-eight weeks on the chart.

Jarre was a three time Academy Award winner, for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India, all of which were directed by David Lean. He was Oscar nominated a total of eight times.