Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
Encyclopedia
The Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital is a retirement community
Retirement community
A retirement community, or active adult community, is a very broad, generic term that covers many varieties of housing for retirees and seniors - especially designed or geared for people who no longer work, or restricted to those over a certain age . It differs from a retirement home which is a...

, with individual cottages, and a fully licensed, acute-care hospital, located at 23388 Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive is a street and road in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. It is named after Los Angeles pioneer civil engineer William Mulholland...

 in Woodland Hills, California
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Woodland Hills is a district in the city of Los Angeles, California.Woodland Hills is located in the southwestern area of the San Fernando Valley, east of Calabasas and west of Tarzana, with Warner Center in its northern section...

. It is a service of the Motion Picture & Television Fund
Motion Picture & Television Fund
The Motion Picture & Television Fund is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries with limited or no resources...

, providing services for members of the motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 industry.

History

In 1940, then president of the Motion Picture Relief Fund
Motion Picture & Television Fund
The Motion Picture & Television Fund is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries with limited or no resources...

, Jean Hersholt
Jean Hersholt
Jean Pierre Hersholt was a Danish-born actor who lived in the United States, where he was a leading film and radio talent, best known for his 17 years starring on radio in Dr. Christian and for playing Shirley Temple's grandfather in Heidi...

, found 48 acres (194,000 m²) of walnut and orange groves in the southwest end of the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...

 that was selling for US$850 an acre ($0.21/m²). The Board purchased the property for the Motion Picture Country House. To offset the costs for the first buildings, which were designed by architect William Pereira
William Pereira
William Leonard Pereira was an American architect from Chicago, Illinois, of Portuguese ancestry who was noted for his futuristic designs of landmark buildings such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco...

, seven acres (28,000 m²) were sold. Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

 and Jean Hersholt broke the first ground. The dedication was on September 27, 1942.

The Motion Picture Hospital was dedicated on the grounds of the Country House in 1948. In attendance were Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

, Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...

, and Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...

, among other stars
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...

. Services were later extended to those working in the television industry as well, and the name was altered to reflect the change.

Scores of movie notables spent their last years here; so have far less famous people from behind the scenes of the industry. Those with money paid their own way, while others, who had no money, paid nothing. Fees are based solely on the "ability to pay."

Individuals in movies, TV, and other aspects of the industry, are accepted, from actors, artists, backlot
Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction....

 men, cameramen, directors, extras, producers, security guards and stars. To qualify for a cottage, applicants (or their spouses) must have reached a minimum age seventy, working steadily for at least twenty years in entertainment industry production. The waiting time is usually a few months, with no preference given to celebrities or those who can pay their own way, officials of the fund have said.

The facility has an annual budget of $120 million.

In 1993, the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation was established with Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...

 as Founding Chairman. The Foundation continues to exist as the conduit to marshal the vision of its donors and their philanthropy to the growing human needs of the entertainment community it serves. MPTF Foundation puts on annual events that help raise millions of dollars in funds to continue to assist those entertainment industry members in need. These events include Michael Douglas and Friends Golf Tournament, The Night Before and The Evening Before.

In 1998, the Woodland Hills campus was renamed The Wasserman Campus of the Motion Picture & Television Fund in honor of the long-time commitment and support of Mr. & Mrs. Lew Wasserman
Lew Wasserman
Lewis Robert "Lew" Wasserman was an American talent agent and studio executive, sometimes credited with creating and later taking apart the studio system in a career spanning more than six decades...

.

In February 2000, William Haug resigned as MPTF CEO. The position was filled by Dr. David Tillman on May 16, 2000. who was one of the highest paid CEOs of a health care center, with a current annual salary which includes perks and bonuses of approximately $750,000.

In 2006, the groundbreaking for the Saban Center for Health and Wellness featuring the Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....

 Aquatic Pavilion was held on The Wasserman Campus. The center was named after donors Haim Saban
Haim Saban
Haim Saban is an Egyptian born Israeli-American television and media proprietor. With an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 104th richest person in America.-Biography:...

 and his wife Dr. Cheryl Saban. It opened its doors on July 18, 2007 and features aquatic and land-based therapies as well as MPTF’s Center on Aging.

Besides offering temporary financial assistance and operating the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, MPTF's services operate six outpatient health centers throughout the greater Los Angeles area as well as the Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...

 Foundation Children’s Center.

In October 2008, MPTF's Corporate Board of Directors voted unanimously to close its acute-care hospital and long-term care facility by October 2009. In December 2008 the MPTF Board of Trustees voted unanimously to support the October decision of the Corporate Board. This vote was done without the knowledge of residents or families that would have been affected by the closure. As late as November 2008, after the October 2008 vote to close the acute-care hospital and long-term care facility, residents were admitted to the Long Term Care center under the impression that they would be there 'for the rest of their lives', only to learn a few months later that the LTC unit would be closing.

Announced closure

On January 14, 2009, residents and families of the long term care unit (LTCU) were notified by mail of the closure and imminent re-location of elderly and handicapped residents under the care of the MPTF. In a meeting held by former CEO Dr. David Tillman with concerned family members, it was revealed that the LTCU and Acute Care Center would be closing. The meeting became extremely contentious as it became known that the reasons for closure had been simmering for five years without the knowledge of residents who had been admitted to the facility under the false promise of having a 'home for the rest of their lives'. The main reason given to the families was that the LTCU was losing $10 million dollars per year, and that this would ultimately bankrupt the fund. It was noted by actors John Schneider
John Schneider
John Schneider is the name of:*John Schneider , American football player*John Schneider , Seattle Seahawks executive...

 and the late David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradine was an American actor and martial artist, best known for his role as a warrior monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series, Kung Fu, which later had a 1990s sequel series, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues...

, who attended the meeting in support of the families, that the MPTF was indeed not living up to their credo of "taking care of their own" and had failed to notify the families and the entertainment industry of the closures in a proper, humane way.

At the time of the announcement, 138 individuals were receiving long term care at the facility. Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American film producer and CEO of DreamWorks Animation. He is perhaps most famous for his period as chairman of The Walt Disney Company's film division, and for producing DreamWorks animated films such as Shrek, Antz, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Chicken...

, current chairman of the MPTF Foundation Board, said the fund realized they had no choice but to close the facility, stating "the acute-care hospital and long-term-care facility are generating operating deficits that could bankrupt MPTF in a very few years."

There were over 500 hospital admissions and approximately 100 long-term residents alone in 2008. The Fund administrators projected their shortfall would only grow as a result of the deteriorating economy.

Primary sources of funding for long term care and the hospital are Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...

 and Medi-Cal
Medi-Cal
The California Medical Assistance Program is the name of the California Medicaid program serving low-income families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in foster care, pregnant women, and certain low-income adults...

. The facility claims it receives approximately $20 million a year in reimbursements, though operating costs were $30 million a year. The MPTF receives approximately $10,500 per patient, per month from Medi-Cal. The California Healthcare Foundation found that the MPTF receives 80% of its patient funding from Medi-Cal.

Soon thereafter, a grass-roots organization Saving The Lives of Our Own (STLOOO) was created to organize residents, family members, and supporters to fight the closure of the LTCU. A Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 group was generated that quickly became 3500+ strong, to also support those residents and families who were facing eviction by the MPTF. Soon thereafter, the law firm of Girardi + Keese came aboard to represent residents and family members who held a guardian ad litum for their elderly family members.

In the ensuing months, the MPTF had to deal with a barrage of claims that revealed inaccuracies in claims of the fund's alleged financial peril, and the absence of any exposure of the elderly residents to transfer trauma. According to a STLOOO member, the daughter-in-law of one resident reached out to him over the Internet stating that her mother had refused to eat on the second day in her new residence. Two weeks later the woman had died following complications due to pneumonia. Claims of bullying by social service workers and more deaths that could be attributed to transfer trauma were reported to family members by other family members. Additionally, in an act that could allege intentional infliction of emotional distress, the MPTF placed a fake studio prop cop car that was painted to resemble an Los Angeles Police Dept. cruiser in the parking lot that had an intimidating effect on the elderly residents who knew they were facing 'eviction' from the property. Again, Ken Scherer in an interview was quoted as saying the idea of the prop police car was 'wrong', his admission surprising families.

Articles published in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, the Daily News
Los Angeles Daily News
The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....

and online by The Wrap.com and Nikki Finke's Hollywood Daily continually hammered the Motion Picture and Television Fund with new found facts, reporting of resident deaths, and other facts that flew in the face of what the MPTF was claiming.

The Screen Actor's Guild and The Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....

 local chapter came to the aid of the residents of the LTCU by decrying the closure and standing with the residents and families at several rallies held in the Los Angeles area.

In October 2009, when it was originally set to close down the LTCU, the MPTF renewed their operating license of the LTCU and Acute Care Unit for another year.

CEO David Tillman has since resigned, and in his stead the MPTF board has seated Bob Beitcher, former ousted CEO of Panavision
Panavision
Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...

.

Famous residents

  • Bud Abbott
    Bud Abbott
    William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.-Early life:...

    *
  • Mary Alden
    Mary Alden
    Mary Maguire Alden was an American motion picture and stage actress. She was one of the first Broadway actresses to work in Hollywood.-Career:Born in New York City, Alden began her career on the Broadway stage...

    *
  • Eddie Anderson
    Eddie Anderson (comedian)
    Edmund Lincoln Anderson , also known as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, was an American comedian and actor. His most famous role was that of Rochester van Jones, valet of Jack Benny, on his radio and television shows.-Early life:Anderson was born in Oakland, California...

    *
  • Richard Angarola
  • Gilbert M. Anderson*
  • Johnny Arthur
    Johnny Arthur
    Johnny Arthur was an American stage and motion picture actor.-Early years:Born John Lennox Arthur Williams in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Arthur was a veteran of twenty-five years on stage before he made his screen debut in 1923's The Unknown Purple...

    *
  • Iris Ashton*, actress, wife of writer Arthur St. Claire
    Arthur St. Claire (writer)
    Arthur Frederic St. Claire Evens was a screenwriter who wrote the script for the Frank Buck adventure thriller Tiger Fangs.-Early years:...

  • Mary Astor
    Mary Astor
    Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...

    *
  • Donna Atwood
    Donna Atwood
    Donna Atwood was an American figure skater. She competed in pair skating and won the gold medal at the 1941 United States Figure Skating Championships with partner Eugene Turner. In 1949, she married John H. Harris, the first owner of the Ice Capades, with whom she had two children...

    *
  • Jeanne Bates
    Jeanne Bates
    Jeanne Bates was an American radio, film and television actress. She signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1942 which began her career in films both in bit parts and larger roles.-Career:...

    *
  • Monta Bell
    Monta Bell
    Monta Bell was an American film director, film producer and film editor.-Biography:Starting as a journalist in Washington DC, Bell later played on stage and entered films in 1923 as an actor. Charlie Chaplin employed Bell as a film editor and assistant director and in 1924, he became a...

    *
  • Sally Benson
    Sally Benson
    Sally Benson was an American screenwriter, who was also a prolific short story author, best known for her semi-autobiographical stories collected in Junior Miss and Meet Me in St...

    *
  • Willie Best
    Willie Best
    William "Willie" Best sometimes known as Sleep n' Eat was an American television and film actor....

    *
  • Helen Beverley
    Helen Beverley
    Helen Beverley, sometimes credited as Helen Beverly, was an American film and stage actress, who began her career in Yiddish theater and films....

    *
  • Betty Blythe
    Betty Blythe
    Betty Blythe was an American actress best known for her dramatic roles in exotic silent films such as The Queen of Sheba .-Career:...

    *
  • DeWitt Bodeen
    DeWitt Bodeen
    DeWitt Bodeen was a film screenwriter who today is probably best remembered for writing Cat People .-Life:...

    *
  • Evelyn Brent
    Evelyn Brent
    Evelyn Brent was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Born Mary Elizabeth Riggs in Tampa, Florida and known as Betty, she was a child of 10 when her mother Eleanor died, leaving her father Arthur to raise her alone...

  • Vanessa Brown
    Vanessa Brown
    Vanessa Brown was an Austrian-American actress who was successful in radio, film, theater, and television.-Early life:...

    *
  • Carol Bruce
    Carol Bruce
    Carol Bruce was an American band singer, Broadway star, and film and television actress.Bruce was born Shirley Levy in Great Neck, New York, the daughter of Beatrice and Harry Levy. She began her career as a singer in the late 1930s with Larry Clinton and his band...

    *
  • Virginia Bruce
    Virginia Bruce
    Virginia Bruce was an American actress and singer.-Career:Born Helen Virginia Briggs in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she went with her family to Los Angeles intending to enroll in the University of California when a friendly wager sent her seeking film work. She got it as an extra in Why Bring That...

    *
  • William Campbell
    William Campbell (film actor)
    William Campbell was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions and also starred in several low-budget B-movies, including two cult horror films.-Career:...

    *
  • John Chambers
    John Chambers
    John Chambers may refer to:* John Chambers , British landscape, seascape and portrait painter* John Chambers , last Abbot of Peterborough Abbey and, after the Dissolution, the first Bishop of Peterborough* John B...

    *
  • Mae Clarke
    Mae Clarke
    Mae Clarke was an American actress most noted for playing Frankenstein's bride, chased by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, and having a grapefruit smashed into her face by James Cagney in The Public Enemy, both released in 1931.-Early life and career:Clarke was born Violet Mary Klotz in...

    *
  • Jerry Colonna*
  • Chester Conklin
    Chester Conklin
    Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.-Early life:...

  • Joe Connelly
    Joe Connelly (producer)
    Joe Connelly was a television and radio scriptwriter born in New York City. He was best known for his work on Amos and Andy, Meet Mr...

    *
  • Ellen Corby
    Ellen Corby
    Ellen Corby was an American actress. She is most widely remembered for the role of "Grandma Esther Walton" on the CBS television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards...

    *
  • Wendell Corey
    Wendell Corey
    Wendell Reid Corey was an American actor and politician.He was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, the son of Milton Rothwell Corey and Julia Etta McKenney . His father was a Congregationalist clergyman...

    *
  • Maurice Costello
    Maurice Costello
    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....

  • Robert Cummings
    Robert Cummings
    Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....

    *
  • Jane Darwell*
  • Dorothy Davenport
    Dorothy Davenport
    Dorothy Davenport was an American actress, screenwriter, film director, and producer who appeared in silent film for Biograph Studios under the direction of D.W. Griffith.-Early career:...

    *
  • Yvonne De Carlo
    Yvonne De Carlo
    Yvonne De Carlo was a Canadian-born American actress of film and television. During her six-decade career, her most frequent appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s and included her best-known film roles, such as of Anna Marie in Salome Where She Danced ; Anna in Criss Cross ; Sephora the...

    *
  • Fred de Cordova
    Frederick de Cordova
    Frederick "Fred" Timmins de Cordova was an American stage, motion picture and television director and producer. He is best known for his work on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.-Early life:...

    *
  • Joe DeRita*
  • Brian Donlevy
    Brian Donlevy
    Brian Donlevy was an Irish-born American film actor, noted for playing tough guys from the 1930s to the 1960s. He usually appeared in supporting roles. Among his best known films are Beau Geste and The Great McGinty...

    *
  • Billie Dove
    Billie Dove
    Billie Dove was an American actress.-Early life and career:She was born as Bertha Bohny in New York City to Charles and Bertha Bohny who were Swiss immigrants. As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired at the age of 15 by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld...

    *
  • Andrew Durkus
  • Herb Edelman
    Herb Edelman
    Herbert "Herb" Edelman was an American actor of stage, film and television. He was twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his television work. One of his best remembered roles was as Stanley Zbornak, the ex-husband of Dorothy Zbornak on the long-running situation comedy, The Golden Girls...

    *
  • Cliff Edwards
    Cliff Edwards
    Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

  • Tom Ewell
    Tom Ewell
    Tom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....

    *
  • Franklyn Farnum
    Franklyn Farnum
    William Smith , better known by his screen name, Franklyn Farnum, was an American character actor and Hollywood extra who appeared in 433 productions between the years 1916 and 1961....

    *
  • Norman Fell
    Norman Fell
    Norman Fell , born Norman Noah Feld, was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.-Early life:...

    *
  • Edith Fellows
    Edith Fellows
    Edith Marilyn Fellows was an American actress who began her professional career at age 6.-Personal life:When she was a year old, she and her father and grandmother moved to Charlotte, North Carolina...

    *
  • Stepin Fetchit
    Stepin Fetchit
    Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry....

    *
  • Larry Fine
    Larry Fine
    Louis Feinberg , known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American comedian and actor, who is best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.-Early life:...

    *
  • Max Fleischer
    Max Fleischer
    Max Fleischer was an American animator. He was a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios...

    *
  • Richard Fleischer
    Richard Fleischer
    -Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...

    *
  • Harrison Ford
    Harrison Ford (silent film actor)
    Harrison Ford was an American stage and film actor. He was a leading Broadway theatre performer and a star of the silent film era.-Career:...

    * (silent film actor)
  • Douglas Fowley
    Douglas Fowley
    Douglas Fowley was an American movie and television actor.Fowley was born Daniel Vincent Fowley in The Bronx, New York. The 5'11" actor is probably best remembered for his role as the movie director Roscoe Dexter in Singin' in the Rain . The actor appeared in over 240 films and later in dozens of...

    *
  • Anita Garvin
    Anita Garvin
    Anita Garvin was an American actress and comedienne who appeared in both silent and sound films. She is best known for her work with comedians Laurel and Hardy and Charley Chase....

    *
  • Hoot Gibson
    Hoot Gibson
    Hoot Gibson was an American rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, director and producer.-Early life and career:...

    *
  • James Gleason
    James Gleason
    James Austin Gleason was an American actor born in New York City. He was also a playwright and screenwriter.-Career:...

    *
  • Lita Grey
    Lita Grey
    Lita Grey was an American actress and the second wife of Charlie Chaplin. She was born in Hollywood, California, in 1908, to a Mexican-born mother and a father of Irish heritage and christened Lillita Louise MacMurray.-Personal life:Grey married four times...

  • Adam Hambüger-Hatt*
  • Julius Harris
    Julius Harris
    Julius W. Harris was an American actor who appeared in more than 70 movies and numerous television series in a career that spanned four decades.-Early life and career:...

    *
  • Del Henderson*

  • Curly Howard
    Curly Howard
    Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...

  • Gareth Hughes
    Gareth Hughes
    Gareth Hughes was a Welsh stage and silent screen actor. Usually cast as a callow, sensitive hero in Hollywood silent films, Hughes got his start on stage during childhood and continued to play youthful leads on Broadway....

    *
  • Frieda Inescort
    Frieda Inescort
    Frieda Inescort was a Scottish-born actress best known for creating the role of Sorel Bliss in Noel Coward's play Hay Fever....

    *
  • Richard Jaeckel
    Richard Jaeckel
    Richard Hanley Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television.-Life and career:Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, New York. A short, but tough guy, he played a variety of characters during his fifty years in movies & television and became one of Hollywood's best known character actors...

    *
  • I. Stanford Jolley
    I. Stanford Jolley
    Isaac Stanford Jolley, Sr., known as I. Stanford Jolley was a prolific American character actor of film and television, primarily in western roles as cowboys, law-enforcement officers, or villains...

    *
  • Allyn Joslyn
    Allyn Joslyn
    Allyn Joslyn was an American stage, film and television actor.-Biography:Allyn Joslyn was born in Milford, Pennsylvania, the son of a mining engineer...

    *
  • Edgar Kennedy
    Edgar Kennedy
    Edgar Livingston Kennedy was an American comedic film actor, known as "the king of the slow burn". A slow burn is an exasperated facial expression, performed very deliberately; Kennedy embellished this by rubbing his hand over his bald head and across his face, in an attempt to hold his temper...

    *
  • Kathleen Key
    Kathleen Key
    Kathleen Key was an American actress who achieved a brief period of fame during the silent era. She is best remembered for playing Tirzah in the 1925 film Ben-Hur. Key was the great-great granddaughter of Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star Spangled Banner", and a distant cousin of author F...

    *
  • James Kirkwood, Sr.
    James Kirkwood, Sr.
    James Kirkwood, Sr. was an American actor and director....

    *
  • Stanley Kramer
    Stanley Kramer
    Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer. Kramer was responsible for some of Hollywood's most famous "message" movies...

    *
  • Patsy Kelly
    Patsy Kelly
    Patsy Kelly was an American stage and film comedic actress.-Early life and career:Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants, John and Delia Kelly, and made her Broadway debut in 1928...

    *
  • DeForest Kelley
    DeForest Kelley
    Jackson DeForest Kelley was an American actor known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek.-Early life:...

    *
  • Mabel King
    Mabel King
    Mabel King was an American film, stage and television actress.-Early life and career:King was born Donnie Mabel Elizabeth Washington in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Rosalie Washington. She was raised in Harlem where she eventually became a gospel and nightclub singer...

  • Mitchell Leisen
    Mitchell Leisen
    Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.-Film career:He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments...

    *
  • Babe London
    Babe London
    Babe London was an American actress and comedian, most remembered for her onetime-only partnership with Oliver Hardy, in the 1931's Laurel and Hardy's two-reeler Our Wife.-Career:...

    *
  • Edmund Lowe
    Edmund Lowe
    Edmund Dantes Lowe was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. He was born in San Jose, California.-Film career:...

    *
  • Marion Leonard
    Marion Leonard
    Marion Leonard was an American stage actress who became one of first motion picture celebrities in the early years of the silent film era. -Early career:...

    *
  • Ken Maynard
    Ken Maynard
    Ken Maynard was an American motion picture stuntman and actor.-Biography:Born Kenneth Olin Maynard in Vevay, Indiana, he was one of five children. His younger brother, Kermit Maynard, also became a stuntman and actor....

    *
  • Bess Meredyth
    Bess Meredyth
    Bess Meredyth was a film writer and silent film actress. The wife of the Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, Meredyth wrote The Affairs of Cellini and adapted The Unsuspected . She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

    *
  • Karen Morley
    Karen Morley
    -Life and career:Born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa, Morley lived there until she was thirteen years old. When she came to Hollywood, she attended Hollywood High School, and she later graduated from UCLA....

    *
  • Joel McCrea
    Joel McCrea
    Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...

    *
  • Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind ....

    *
  • Mae Murray
    Mae Murray
    Mae Murray was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen"....

    * (a founding trustee)
  • Harry Oliver
    Harry Oliver
    Harold "Pee-Wee" Oliver was a Canadian ice hockey forward who played for the Calgary Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League and the Boston Bruins and New York Americans of the National Hockey League . He was a member of the Tigers' 1924 WCHL championship and won the Stanley Cup with the...

    *
  • Jean Parker
    Jean Parker
    -Career:Born as Lois Mae Green in Deer Lodge, Montana, she appeared in 70 movies from 1932 through 1966. She was discovered by Ida Koverman, secretary to MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, after she saw a poster featuring Parker portraying Father Time. She attended Pasadena schools and graduated from John...

    *
  • Virginia Pearson
    Virginia Pearson
    Virginia Belle Pearson was an American stage and film actress. She made fifty-one films in a career which extended from 1910 until 1932.-Career:...

  • House Peters Jr.*
  • Robert Quarry
    Robert Quarry
    Robert Walter Quarry was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles.Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable and Paul Quarry, a doctor. His films include Count Yorga, Vampire , its sequel The Return of Count Yorga , and Dr...

    *
  • Norman Reilly Raine
    Norman Reilly Raine
    Norman Reilly Raine was the creator of Tugboat Annie and a prolific screenwriter who won an Oscar for the screenplay of The Life of Emile Zola .-Early years:...

    *
  • Jobyna Ralston
    Jobyna Ralston
    Jobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...

    *
  • Anne Ramsey
    Anne Ramsey
    Anne Ramsey was an American stage, television, and film actress. She is probably most famous for her roles as Mama Fratelli in The Goonies and as Mrs...

    *
  • Blossom Rock
    Blossom Rock
    Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald , also known or credited as Blossom Rock, Blossom MacDonald or Marie Blake, was an American actress of stage and television...

     (aka Marie Blake)*
  • Leonard Rosenman
    Leonard Rosenman
    Leonard Rosenman was an American film, television and concert composer.-Life and career:Leonard Rosenman was born in Brooklyn, New York. After service in the Pacific with the Army Air Forces in World War II, he earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of California, Berkeley...

    *
  • Marin Sais
    Marin Sais
    Marin Sais was an American motion picture actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s and 1920s...

    *
  • Theresa Saldana
    Theresa Saldana
    Theresa Saldana is an American actress, known for her work in motion pictures and television. She is perhaps best known for her role as Rachel Scali, the wife of Police Commissioner Tony Scali, in the 1990s television series The Commish, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best...

  • Philip Saltzman
    Philip Saltzman
    Philip Saltzman was an American executive producer and television writer. Saltzman was best known for his work as the executive producer of the 1970s CBS detective series, Barnaby Jones....

    *
  • Dorothy Sebastian
    Dorothy Sebastian
    Dorothy Sebastian was an American film and stage actress.-Early life and career:Sebastian was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In her youth she hoped to be a dancer and later a film actress. Her family frowned on both ambitions, however, so she fled to New York at the age of 15...

    *
  • Mack Sennett
    Mack Sennett
    Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...

    *
  • Truly Shattuck
    Truly Shattuck
    Truly Shattuck was a soubrette star of vaudeville, music halls and Broadway whose career began in tragedy and ended in relative obscurity.-Early Life:...

  • Norma Shearer
    Norma Shearer
    Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...

    *
  • Allan Sherman
    Allan Sherman
    Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...

    *
  • Jay Silverheels
    Jay Silverheels
    Jay Silverheels was a Canadian Mohawk First Nations actor. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the faithful American Indian companion of the Lone Ranger in a long-running American television series. -Early life:...

    *
  • Marguerite Snow
    Marguerite Snow
    Marguerite Snow was an American silent film actress. Her father was a comedian. She was educated in Denver, Colorado at the Loretta Heights Academy.-Silent Film Leading Lady:...

    *
  • Gale Sondergaard
    Gale Sondergaard
    Gale Sondergaard was an American actress.Sondergaard began her acting career in theatre, and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film debut in Anthony Adverse...

    *
  • Jan Sterling
    Jan Sterling
    Jan Sterling was an American actress.Most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty , and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same performance...

    *
  • Madame Sul-Te-Wan
    Madame Sul-Te-Wan
    Madame Sul-Te-Wan was an American actress. The daughter of freed slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the east coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community...

    *
  • Audrey Totter
    Audrey Totter
    Audrey Mary Totter is an American actress and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star of Austrian-Slovene and Swedish descent...

  • Richard Tucker (actor)
    Richard Tucker (actor)
    Richard Tucker was an American actor. He appeared in 266 films between 1911 and 1940.He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was the first official member of the Screen Actors Guild and a founding member of SAG's Board of Directors...

  • Florence Turner
    Florence Turner
    Florence Turner was an American actress, who became known as the "Vitagraph Girl" in early silent films.Born in New York City, she was pushed into appearing on the stage at age three by her ambitious mother...

    *
  • Johnny Weissmuller
    Johnny Weissmuller
    Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...

  • Ben Welden
    Ben Welden
    Ben Welden was an American character actor who played a wide variety of Damon Runyon-type gangsters in various movies and television shows...

    *
  • Clara Kimball Young
    Clara Kimball Young
    Clara Kimball Young was an American film actress, who was highly regarded and publicly popular in the early silent film era.-Early life:...

    *
  • Dick Wilson
    Dick Wilson
    Dick Wilson, born Riccardo DiGuglielmo , was a British-born American character actor who played the role of finicky grocery store manager Mr...

    *


* denotes died while resident at hospital

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK