25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Marion Davies

October 25, 2019

Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career.

Davies was born Marion Cecilia Douras on January 3, 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five children born to Bernard J. Douras, a lawyer and judge in New York City; and Rose Reilly. Her father performed the civil marriage of Gloria Gould Bishop. Her elder siblings included Rose, Reine, and Ethel. A brother, Charles, drowned at the age of 15 in 1906. His name was subsequently given to Marion’s favorite nephew, the screenwriter Charles Lederer, the son of Marion’s sister Reine Davies.

The Douras family lived near Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The sisters changed their surname to Davies, which one of them spotted on a real estate agent’s sign in the neighborhood. Even at a time when New York was the melting pot for new immigrants, having a British surname greatly helped one’s prospects ? the name Davies has Welsh origins. She was educated in a convent.

The sisters all hit the Great White Way, and Marion was signed on as a Ziegfeld girl in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1916.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Marion Martin

October 25, 2019

Marion Martin was an American movie and stage actress.

Martin was born, Marion Suplee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She became an actress after her family fortune was lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and appeared in the Broadway productions Lombardi Ltd. and Sweet Adeline. She made her film debut in She’s My Lillie, I’m Her Willie and subsequently played minor roles, often as showgirls. Several of her early roles were in musicals and she achieved some success as a singer.

By the end of the decade she had played leading female roles in several “B” pictures, playing one of her most notable roles in James Whale’s Sinners in Paradise. Despite her success she was often cast in minor roles in more widely seen films such as His Girl Friday. The majority of her roles were in comedies but she also appeared in dramas such as Boomtown in which she played a dance hall singer who is briefly romanced by Clark Gable. She played secondary roles in a three Lupe Velez “Mexican Spitfire” films in the early 1940s, and was the comic foil for the Marx Brothers in The Big Store, where the back of her skirt is cut away by Harpo. She played a ghost in Gildersleeves Ghost, and was the subject of a legendary fistfight between Gildersleeve star Harold Peary and Warner Bros studio mogul Bud Stevens at the Mocambo nightclub in 1943. Her more substantial roles included Alice Angel, a dizzy showgirl, in the murder mystery Lady of Burlesque with Barbara Stanwyck and Angel on My Shoulder. She also appeared in The Big Street with Lucille Ball.

By the late 1940s, her roles were often minor. Three Stooges fans will remember her as western cowgirl Gladys in Merry Mavericks. Shortly afterward, she made her final film appearance in 1952. Married to a physicist, Martin retired, and although she expressed the desire to return to show business, suitable roles were not offered to her.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Television Permalink

Marion Ross

October 25, 2019

Marion Ross is an American actress, best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on the TV series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.

Born Marian Ross in Watertown, Minnesota, she lived in Waconia and then moved to Willmar and eventually to Albert Lea, Minnesota. At the age of 13, she changed the spelling of her name from "Marian" to "Marion" because she thought it would look better on a marquee. After completing her sophomore year in high school, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and worked as an au pair while studying drama at the MacPhail Center for the Arts, and attending Southwest High School. A year later, her family moved to San Diego, California. She graduated from Point Loma High School in San Diego.

Ross enrolled in San Diego State University, where she was named the school's most outstanding actress. After graduation in 1950, she performed in summer theater in La Jolla, California. The director was impressed by her talent, and recommended that she try for work in films.

Ross made her 1953 film debut in Forever Female, starring Ginger Rogers and William Holden. She found steady work in film, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story, Sabrina, Teacher's Pet, and Operation Petticoat .

25 Oct 2019
Recording, Television Permalink

Marjorie Lord

October 25, 2019

Marjorie Lord is an American television actress. She played Kathy “Clancy” Williams opposite Danny Thomas on Make Room for Daddy and later Make Room for Granddaddy.

In 1934, at the age of sixteen, Lord made her Broadway debut in The Old Maid with Judith Anderson. The following year, she was signed with RKO Radio Pictures. While appearing in Springtime for Henry with Edward Everett Horton, director Henry Koster approached her and signed her to a contract with Universal Studios. She appeared in six feature films for Universal.

Her film work includes a number of wartime pictures, including the 1943 mystery Sherlock Holmes in Washington, starring Basil Rathbone in the title role. She appeared in the 1951 episode “The Return of Trigger Dawson” in Bill Williams’s syndicated western television series The Adventures of Kit Carson.

In 1956, while she was appearing in Anniversary Waltz, Lord caught the attention of Danny Thomas, who asked her to replace Jean Hagen as his television wife on Make Room for Daddy. Hagen had played Thomas’ wife since the series’ inception, but she quit in 1956 and was written out of the script. Lord accepted, and played the role until the show was cancelled in 1964.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Marjorie Rambeau

October 25, 2019

Marjorie Rambeau was an American film and stage actress.

Rambeau was born in San Francisco, California. She began performing on the stage at the age of 12.

In her youth she was a Broadway leading lady. In 1921, Dorothy Parker memorialized her in verse:

Her few silent film roles such as Mary Moreland, The Dazzling Miss Davison, The Mirror, The Debt, Motherhood and The Greater Woman were not major successes. By the time talkies came along she was in her early forties and she began to take on character roles in films such as Min and Bill, The Secret Six, Laughing Sinners, Grand Canary, Palooka, and Primrose Path, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

25 Oct 2019
Radio, Television Permalink

Marjorie Reynolds

October 25, 2019

Marjorie Reynolds was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 70 films.

Born Marjorie Goodspeed, in Buhl, Idaho, as her parents made the cross-country trip from Maine to settle in California, she was featured as a child actress

in silent films such as Scaramouche. Her first speaking role was in Murder in Greenwich Village. She also appeared in bit parts in many A-pictures including Gone with the Wind. A stand-out role for Reynolds was as the waitress and loyal girlfriend opposite wrongly-accused Richard Cromwell in Universal Pictures’s anti-Nazi action drama entitled, Enemy Agent. That same year, in The Fatal Hour, Reynolds appeared for Monogram Pictures as a reporter on the trail of Boris Karloff’s detective James Lee Wong, and opposite Grant Withers as a cop. Her later films included Holiday Inn, Fritz Lang’s Ministry of Fear and Up in Mabel’s Room. Her career progression was hindered by the premature death of her mentor, Mark Sandrich.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures, Radio Permalink

Mark & Brian

October 25, 2019

The Mark & Brian Show is an American radio talk show hosted by Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps, known on the air as “Mark & Brian.” The syndicated program originates weekday mornings from KLOS-FM in Los Angeles, California, and blends comedy sketches, listener phone calls, interviews with in-studio guests, and the occasional road trip.

In 1985, Thompson was working as a disc jockey when he was introduced to Phelps, whose background was in improvisational comedy. Their first joint on-air appearance was on WAPI-FM in Birmingham, Alabama. An offer to move west and take over the morning slot at KLOS culminated in the premiere of The Mark & Brian Show in September 1987.

Mark & Brian are two-time winners of the Billboard Magazine “Air Personalities of the Year” award, and received a 1991 National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award as “Air Personalities of the Year.” They have also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Mark & Brian Show includes various sketches and annual events. Popular sketches include “The Red Carpet Minute” with Edward Gordon, “Miniature Theater”, and other celebrity-based sketches. In 2006, they conducted a reality TV-based contest called “Two Strangers and a Wedding,” in which single women auditioned to be the bride, then chose from five male finalists to marry–without ever meeting prior to the wedding. In 2007, the concept was modified to “Three Strangers and a Wedding,” in which the bride chose two of the five male finalists to come to the wedding. Upon meeting the bride at the wedding, the grooms had the option of proposing to the bride, who could then accept either proposal or decline them both. Both resulting marriages were brief, and ended in divorce.

25 Oct 2019
Television Permalink

Mark Burnett

October 25, 2019

Mark Burnett was honored with the 2,387th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO and a Co-Founder and Director of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Roma Downey and Della Reese

6664 Hollywood Boulevard on July 8, 2009.

BIOGRAPHY

Mark Burnett has produced more than 1,100 hours of television programming which regularly airs in excess of 70 countries worldwide. He revolutionized television with such "reality" hits as Survivor (now ordered through its 20th season, making it America's longest- running reality franchise), The Apprentice (9 seasons), The Contender (4 seasons), and the smash hit Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (3 seasons]. He also produces the daytime syndicated hit Martha (5 seasons) and is currently filming 160 episodes of the syndicated version of 5th grader [Twentieth Television]

Burnett's newest television projects include Shark Tank (ABC), Star Maker(MTV), Wedding Day(TNT), Bully Beatdown (MTV), How'd You Get So Rich?(TV Land), and Expedition(History),

In May 2009, Mr. Burnett served as again as executive producer for the MTV Movie Awards [3 years] and is a published author with two books about Survivor, and two others: Dare to Succeed and Jump In!

Burnett has won two Emmy Awards and his company has received 55 nominations. He also has garnered four People's Choice Awards. TIME magazine named him one of the Most Influential People in the World, and TV Guide recognized him as the number one Most Valuable Player. Burnett has also won BRANDWEEK'S Marketer of the Year Award, the prestigious ROSE D'OR FRAPA Format Award and the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award.

In 2007, Burnett was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. He serves on the board of directors for the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation and is a major supporter of Operation Smile. He has also served two terms on the board of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Mr. Burnett is a veteran of the famed British Army's Parachute Regiment with whom he served in the Falklands War.

25 Oct 2019
Motion Pictures Permalink

Marie Doro

October 25, 2019

Marie Doro was an American stage and film actress of the early silent film era.

Marie Doro was born as Marie Katherine Steward in Duncannon, Pennsylvania and began her career as a theater actress before progressing to motion pictures in 1915, under contract with film producer Adolph Zukor.

She was briefly married to the vaudeville and silent screen actor Elliott Dexter; the marriage soon ended in divorce. The marriage produced no children and Doro never remarried. Her name was linked over the years to much older William Gillette, of Sherlock Holmes fame, who was probably infatuated with her.

Doro’s film debut for Zukor’s Famous Players studio was the starring role in the now lost short film The Morals of Marcus in 1915.