Actresses

Bella Darvi (October 23, 1928 – September 11, 1971) was a Polish-born French actress. Biography Darvi was born Bayla Wegier to Chaym Wegier, a baker, and his wife, Chaya. She had three brothers, Robert, Jacques Wegier, Jean-Isidore, and a sister, Sura. Robert died in a concentration camp. Jailed by the Nazis during World War II, she was released in 1943. She married a businessman, Alban Cavalcade, on October 7, 1950 and traveled with him to Monaco. She was discovered in Paris by the wife of mogul Darryl Zanuck. In 1952, she divorced Cavalcade, and moved into the Zanuck home. In August 1953, she signed a contract with Zanuck, who changed her name to Bella Darvi, Darvi a…

Barbara Britton (September 26, 1919 – January 17, 1980) was an American film and television actress. She was the first actress to play Laura Petrie on television on the pilot program, Head of the Family, which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore. The California native signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures in 1941. Her first two films were that same year, first in the William Boyd western Secret of the Wasteland, followed by Louisiana Purchase starring Bob Hope. Her first big film appearance was a small role in the 1942 John Wayne film Reap the Wild Wind. During the 1940s she starred in three films that, to…

Mari Blanchard (April 13, 1927 – May 10, 1970) was an American actress, known for her roles as a B movie femme fatale in American films of the 1950s and early 1960s. Career In the late 1940s, Blanchard was a successful print model and film extra. Blanchard began appearing in films after she was seen by a producer in an advertisement for bubble bath in 1950. Blanchard soon found success as an actress. From 1951 to 1952, she took small roles in a number of films at MGM, RKO, and Paramount, until she was signed by Universal-International in 1952. Her first film at the studio was Back at the Front (1952). One of her most memorable roles was the Venusian queen, Allura, in t…

Martine Beswick (born 26 September 1941) is a British actress and model, best known for her roles in two James Bond movies. Biography Beswick was born on 26 September 1941 in Port Antonio, Jamaica to British parents. Beswick is best known for her two appearances in the James Bond film series. Although she auditioned for the first Bond film Dr. No, she was cast in the second film From Russia with Love as the fiery gypsy girl, Zora. She engaged in the famous "catfight" scene with her rival Vida (played by former Miss Israel Aliza Gur). She was incorrectly billed as "Martin Beswick" in the title sequence. Beswick then appeared as the ill-fated Paula Caplan in Thunderball…

Whitney Blake (February 20, 1926 — September 28, 2002) was an American film and television actress, director and producer. Blake was born as Nancy Ann Whitney in 1926 in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, the first child of Martha Mae Wilkensen and Harry Whitney. She appeared on a number of television programs, including the syndicated Johnny Midnight, Sheriff of Cochise, and twice on Rod Cameron's State Trooper. Blake is best remembered for having portrayed Dorothy Baxter, an interior designer and the wife of George Baxter (Don DeFore), a lawyer, on the NBC sitcom Hazel (1961), starring Shirley Booth in the title role. Before Hazel, she guest-starred on Mike Connors…

Lynn Bari (December 18, 1913 – November 20, 1989), born Margaret Schuyler Fisher, was a movie actress (usually in B-movies) who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in over one hundred 20th Century Fox films from the early 1930s through the 1940s. Career Born in Roanoke, Virginia, most of her early films, before getting supporting parts, were uncredited roles usually playing receptionists or chorus girls. Bari's rare leading roles include China Girl (1942), Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943), and The Spiritualist (1948). However, in the B movies she was in, Lynn was usually cast as a villainess. Some examples include the films Shock and Nocturne (both 1946).…

Date of Birth 1943, Germany Mini Biography Thordis Brandt was born in West Germany of Norwegian and German parents. She moved to Canada as a young girl and was raised there. After school, where she completed a University degree in nursing, she moved to Santa Monica, California. As she pursued acting and dancing as careers, she continued to practice her nursing in private duty. One of her jobs in private duty was serving actress Patricia Neal. Ms. Neal recommended Thordis to other actors and actresses and Thordis became known as the "actor's nurse". After retiring from acting, she continued nursing in Beverly Hills. Trivia Son Christopher Brandt born 1982. Although …

Barbara Bates (August 6, 1925 – March 18, 1969) was an American actress best known for her role as Phoebe in the 1950 drama, All About Eve. Early life The eldest of three daughters, Bates was born in Denver, Colorado. While growing up in Denver, she studied ballet and worked as a teen fashion model. The shy teen was persuaded to enter a local beauty contest and won, receiving two round-trip train tickets to Hollywood, California. Two days before returning to Denver, Bates met Cecil Coan, a United Artists publicist, who would ultimately change the course of her life. Career In September 1944, Bates signed a contract with Universal Pictures after Cecil Coan introduced h…

Date of Birth 19 August 1965, New York City, New York, USA Birth Name Kyra Minturn Sedgwick Nickname Kiko Height 5' 5" (1.65 m) Mini Biography Kyra was born in New York and attended private schools. She made her professional acting debut at 16 on the soap opera "Another World" (1964). A graduate of USC, Kyra has pursued a career that includes stage, screen and television. Kyra's reason for becoming an actor is that it gives her the ability to be compassionate and to walk around in the shoes of others. Her first brush with stardom came in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) as "Donna", the high school sweetheart of Tom Cruise. Two of her roles led to Golden Glob…

Barrie Chase (born October 20, 1933) is an American actress and dancer originally from Long Island, New York.. When Barrie was six her father moved the family to California so he could start his screen-writing career. She grew up in Encino, and studied ballet. She abandoned her dream of being a ballerina in New York to stay in Los Angeles and help support her mother after her parents' bitter divorce. She worked in the chorus of many Hollywood musicals including, Hans Christian Andersen, Brigadoon, Deep in My Heart, Kismet, Les Girls, Pal Joey, and two Fred Astaire films, Daddy Long Legs and Silk Stockings. She danced on such live TV programs as "The Colgate Comedy Hour" a…

Elena Maureen Bertolini, known as Marina Berti, (29 September 1924 – 29 October 2002) was an Italian film actress. Her first screen appearance was in the Anna Magnani film, La Fuggitiva in 1941. She appeared mainly in small roles and in the occasional leading role in nearly 100 films both Italian and American. Her appearances include Quo Vadis (1951), Abdulla the Great (1955), Ben Hur (1959), Madame Sans-Gêne (1962), Cleopatra (1963), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Moses the Lawgiver (1975), Jesus of Nazareth (1977) (mini-series). Her last film appearance was in the Costa-Gavras film Amen. in 2002. She was married to the Italian actor Claudio Gora from 19…

Date of Birth 3 February 1934, Jamestown, New York, USA Date of Death 5 August 1955, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer) Birth Name Susan Ball Nickname Suzie Height 5' 7" (1.70 m) Mini Biography Suzan Ball, a second cousin of Lucille Ball, was born on March 3, 1934, in Jamestown, New York. She came to Hollywood with her family in 1941. She sang with the Mel Baker Orchestra from 1948-1953. Her first part in Hollywood was as a harem girl in Aladdin and His Lamp (1952) at Monogram. She got an interview with the talent department of Universal-International and signed a contract. In 1952 she was proclaimed "The New Cinderella Girl of 1952". She…

According to imdb - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001771/ A native of Hot Coffee, Mississippi, Stella was married at 15, a mother at 16 and divorced at 17. While attending Memphis State College, Stella became interested in acting and modeling. Her film debut was a bit part in Say One for Me, but her appearance in Li'l Abner as Appassionata Von Climax is the one that got her noticed... Born: Estelle Caro Eggleston October 1, 1936 in Yazoo City, Mississippi, USA ACTING CAREER Stevens was first under contract to 20th Century Fox, then dropped after six months. After winning the role of "Appassionata Von Climax" for the musical Li'l Abner (1959), she signed a contract with…

Gail O'Grady Date of Birth: 23 Jan 1963 Place of Birth: Detroit,Michigan,USA Height: 1.60 cm First Movie: 1982 All Movie: 77 -CSI: Crime Scene Investigation -NYPD Blue -In the Heat of the Night -Two and a HalfMen -Monk -Las Vegas -Desperate Housewives -Ghost Whisperer

Barbara Hale (born April 18, 1922) is an American actress best known for her role as Della Street on the long running Perry Mason show. Acting career Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, to Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and his wife Wilma Colvin. She is of mainly Scottish and Irish ancestry. Hale graduated from high school in Rockford, Illinois, and then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to become an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago when she started modeling to pay for her education. She moved to Hollywood in 1943, and made her first screen appearances playing small parts (often uncredited). Hale was under contract to RKO Radio P…

Beverly Garland (October 17, 1926 – December 5, 2008) was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, "Barbara Harper Douglas", in the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons (a role she played from 1969 until the series ended in 1972). In the 1980s, she co-starred as Kate Jackson's widowed mother, "Dotty West", in the television series Scarecrow and Mrs. King, on CBS. She also had a recurring role as Ginger Jackson on The WB Television Network series 7th Heaven. Biography Early life & career Garland was born Beverly Lucy Fessenden in Santa Cruz, California, the daughter of Amel…

Betsy Palmer (born November 1, 1926) is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th. Life and career Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, Indiana, the daughter of Marie, who headed the Chicago Business College, and Vincent R. Hrunek, an industrial chemist who was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. She graduated from DePaul University. Palmer married Dr. Vincent J. Merendino on May 8, 1954; the couple had one daughter, Missy (b. 1962). They divorced in 1971. Palmer got her first acting job in 1951 when she joined the cast of …

Barbara Lang (March 2, 1928 – July 22, 1982) was an American actress and singer. Early life She worked a number of jobs prior to breaking into the entertainment industry. She sold jewelry in a Los Angeles department store and was a part-time fashion Model (person) at the age of seventeen. She was also a pianist and singer for a time in a cocktail lounge. Illness Lang suffered an attack of poliomyelitis in late 1953. She spent three weeks in the polio ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. Another eight months were required to convalesce. Lang was told that she might never walk again. She turned to the Bible during this time and reportedly credited faith for performing …

Barbara Nichols (December 30, 1928 – October 5, 1976) was an American actress who often played brassy comic roles in a number of films in the 1950s and 1960s. Early life Nichols was born as Barbara Marie Nickerauer in Queens, New York. She began modeling for pinup magazines in the early-1950s. In the mid-1950s, she moved to Hollywood and began regularly appearing in second leads in a number of films including Miracle in the Rain (1956), The King and Four Queens (1956), The Naked and the Dead (1957), The Pajama Game (1957), Pal Joey (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), That Kind of Woman (1958), Where the Boys Are (1960). On Broadway, she appeared in the 1952 revival …

Betty Hutton (February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007)[1] was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer. Early life Hutton was born as Elizabeth June Thornburg, a daughter of railroad foreman Percy E. Thornburg (1896–1939) and his wife, the former Mabel Lum (1901–1967). Her father abandoned the family for another woman and they did not hear from or see him again until they received a telegram, in 1939, informing them of his death from suicide. Along with her older sister Marion, Betty was raised by her mother, who took the surname Hutton and was later billed as the actress Sissy Jones. The three started singing in the family's speakeasy when Be…

Elizabeth Mary Furness (3 January 1916 – 2 April 1994) was an American actress, consumer advocate and current affairs commentator. Early years Born in New York, New York, Furness began her professional career as a model before being signed to a film contract by RKO Studios. Her first film role was as the "Thirteenth Woman" in the 1932 film Thirteen Women but her scenes were deleted before the film's release.[citation needed] Over the next few years she appeared in several RKO films, and became a popular actress. Among her film successes were Magnificent Obsession (1935) and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Swing Time (1936). By the end of the decade she had appea…

Born on December 27, 1928 or 1929 in Bronx, New York, to Denzil and Catherine Michaels, one of six children 1937 begins a career as a fashion model at age 9 1939 wins a newspaper photographic contest at age 11 1943 becomes a showgirl at 16 and starts working at the famous Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe. Afterwards, she works in other well-known nightclubs. 1946 makes her stage debut in a play in Boston, Massachussets, with Jane Withers. The play later goes to Broadway, but closes soon after its first night. May 1946 she and fellow showgirl Kay Crespi feud with the rest of the girls at the Diamond Horseshoe 1949 meets Russian-born MGM producer Voldemar Vetluguin whil…

Zoe Swicord Kazan (born September 9, 1983) is an American actress and playwright. Kazan was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and actress/producer/writer/director Robin Swicord, and the granddaughter of film and theatre director Elia Kazan. Kazan has stated that she did not know her grandfather was famous until she was thirteen. She was educated at the private Windward School in Mar Vista and Yale University, from which she graduated in 2005. Her first professional stage credit was the 2006 off-Broadway revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie starring Cynthia Nixon. She followed this with the Playwrights Horizons production of 100 Saints …

Betta St. John (born November 26, 1929, Hawthorne, California) is an American actress, singer and dancer. Born as Betty Jean Striegler, St. John made her film debut at the age of ten in Destry Rides Again (1939) and as an orphan in Jane Eyre (1944). She was discovered by Rodgers and Hammerstein and played a small role in the Broadway musical, Carousel in 1945. By 1953, she created the role of Liat in the musical South Pacific and followed the production to London. On film, she appeared in The Robe (1953), Dream Wife (1953), All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953), and The Student Prince (1954). St. John appeared in two Tarzan films and ended her career as the heroine of Hor…

Mary Beth Hughes (November 13, 1919 – August 27, 1995) was an American film, television, and stage actress best known for her roles in B movies. Early life and career Born Mary Elizabeth Hughes in Alton, Illinois, Hughes' parents divorced in 1923. After the divorce, Hughes' mother, Mary Frances Hughes, moved with her only child to Washington, D.C. As a child, Hughes began acting in stage productions. While acting in a school play in the early 1930s, her performance caught the attention of Clifford Brown, a repertory theater company owner, who offered her a part in a touring production of Alice in Wonderland. While touring with another production in Brown's company, she …