Hollywood Actors Archives - Page 44 of 108

Anjanette Comer

Anjanette Comer was born in Dawson, Texas in 1939. She hadsome major roles in Hollywood movies of the 1960’s. Her credits include “The Loved One” in 1965, “The Apaloosa” opposite Marlon Brando and “Guns for San Sebastian” opposite Anthony Quinn.

TCM overview:

A pretty, dark-haired actress who often played roles of women not in control of the fraught environment around them, Anjanette Comer broke into feature films in the 1960s, added TV-movies to her repertoire in the 70s, took a sojourn from the cameras in the 80s and returned in supporting parts in the 90s.

Comer’s first feature was the comedy “Quick Before It Melts” (1965), in which she played a woman brought to an Antarctica research station. That same year, she was the ditzy beauty Robert Morse lusts after in Tony Richardson’s “The Loved One”. She had another good shot as Marlon Brando’s cohort in “The Appaloosa” (1966), but her follow-up in “Banning” (1967), was a barren sturm und drang that did nothing to promote her career. Comer was burdened by a ridiculous script in “Guns for San Sebastian” (1968), in which she supported the zealous Anthony Quinn. In 1970, she played the semi-pro hooker who lures former athlete James Caan from his family in the dull “Run, Rabbit”. Feature roles came less regularly in the 70s. Comer was wife to Public Enemy Number One “Lepke” (1975), played by Tony Curtis and was in the disastrous “Fire Sale” (1977). She appeared in the direct-to-video fantasy “Netherworld” (1992) and returned to the big screen as Peter Gallagher’s mother in Steven Soderbergh’s noirish “The Underneath” (1995).

While Comer had some TV experience in the 60s, and guest starred on the 1969 pilot for the ABC series “The Young Lawyers”, her work on the small screen began in earnest with a burst of TV-movies in the 70s. Her first was “Firechasers” (1970), and in 1971, she played one of the women on a resort island stalked by an escapee from a mental institution in “Five Desperate Women” (ABC). She was also in jeopardy in “The Deadly Hunt” (CBS, 1971), in which Comer was in the grips of two paid assassins and stuck in the center of a forest fire at the same time. She was the wife of Joseph Campanella stuck above a fire in a skyscraper in “Terror on the 40th Floor” (NBC, 1974) and the abducted wife of Vincent Edwards in “Death Stalk” (NBC, 1975). Comer was a woman in jeopardy long before than genre became a mainstay of TV longforms. After “The Long Summer of George Adams” (NBC, 1982), Comer was little seen on either TV or in the movies, and then reappeared on the two-part season opener of “Jake and the Fat Man” (CBS, 1991). She has since resumed her work in TV longforms in supporting roles. She played Beulah, in the miniseries “Larry McMurtry’s Streets of Laredo” (CBS, 1995) and was featured in “Deadly Family Secrets” (NBC, 1995).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Race Gentry was born in 1934 in Los Angeles. He made his film debut in the Western, “The Lawless Breed” in 1953. Other credits include “Rails Into Laramie”, “Black Horse Canyon” and “There’s Always To-Morrow”.

John Lone

John LoneJohn Lone was born in 1952 in Hong Kong. He trained at the Peking Opera. He continued his studies in the performing arts in California

TCM overview:

A strikingly handsome, lithe and somewhat androgynous Hong Kong-born actor of film and stage, John Lone became established on stage initially via several collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang. On film, he is probably best recalled for his portrayal of Emperor Pu Yi in Bernardo Bertolucci’s lavish, Oscar-winning epic “The Last Emperor” (1987). Orphaned as a young boy, Lone began rigorously training as an actor at the Chin Ciu Academy of the Peking Opera in Hong Kong at age 10. He resided at the school for eight years, undergoing all day training in acting, singing, dance, mime, poetry, weaponry, acrobatics, and martial arts.

At age 18, Lone moved to America and settled in Los Angeles where he quickly snared small roles on film and TV, as well as joined the East-West Players. After earning attention for his performance in David Henry Hwang’s “F.O.B.” in L.A., he headed to NYC to recreate the role Off-Broadway in 1981, netting an OBIE Award. The playwright then wrote “Dance and the Railroad” specifically for Lone who starred in, directed, choreographed and scored the production at the Public Theatre.

The movies soon beckoned and Lone made an impact with an impressive nonverbal performance as a defrosted caveman in “Iceman” (1984), following up with “Year of the Dragon” (1985), playing a ruthless Chinese Mafia boss. Here, without mounds of obscuring makeup, he displayed his glamorous movie-star looks to the American public for the first time.

Lone has not had a prolific feature career, apparently by choice. He shifts back-and-forth from stage to screen, directing to acting. He has a successful pop singing career in Asia as well as and his own lines of cosmetics and apparel. The actor has made quirky film choices opting for roles in foreign and small independent films (e.g., Alan Rudolph’s “The Moderns” 1988) rather than standard commercial Hollywood fare. Lone continued in this vein with David Cronenberg’s film version of Hwang’s “M. Butterfly” (1993), where he played the Asian object of desire of a French diplomat (Jeremy Irons). Subsequent high profile feature roles have cast the handsome player as nefarious types. In 1994’s “The Shadow”, Lone was the descendent of Genghis Khan battling Alec Baldwin’s Lamont Cranston, while “The Hunted” (1995) saw him portray a cold-blooded assassin. After a long absence, Lone graced US audiences with his charismatic presence playing yet another suave ganglord in “Rush Hour 2” (2001).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Cathy O’Donnell was born in 1923 in Alabama. Although she did not make many movies, she has an unusually high number of great calibre of film among her credts – “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1946, “They Live By Night” and “Side Street”, both opposite Farley Granger, “Detective Story” , “The Man From Laramie” with James Stewart and “Ben-Hur” in 1959. She died at the age of 46 in 1970.

IMDB entry:

She was in Alabama until age 12, Ann Steely attended high school and college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then worked as a stenographer to finance a trip to Hollywood, where fortune favored her with a contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under Samuel Goldwyn. Recognizing her talent and appeal through a thick Southern accent, Goldwyn arranged rigorous voice & theatrical training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and elsewhere, gave her an Irish-sounding stage name & cast her in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). This film’s success boded well for Cathy’s career, and soon she was starred in the now-classic They Live by Night (1948). However, her rise in films was checked when, on Sunday, April 11th, 1948, at age 23, she married 48-year-old Robert Wyler, older brother of famous M-G-M director, William Wyler, with whom Goldwyn was feuding. The irate Goldwyn abruptly canceled her contract; thereafter she had no lasting association with any studio or producer. Her most memorable roles of the 1950s were in classic film-noir such as Detective Story (1951), which typifies her sincere, believable performances as a sweet girl-next-door whose radiant inner beauty shone through an exterior not quite fitting the Hollywood glamor mold. Her last film and most famous, wasBen-Hur (1959), and then she worked in TV until 1961. Belying Goldwyn’s opinion, her marriage to Wyler proved happy though childless. Her death on their 22nd wedding anniversary, on Saturday, April 11th, 1970 followed a long struggle with cancer.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Sharon Hugueny.

Sharon Hugheny was a beautiful young actress who starred in a few movies in the early 1960’s. At 17 she starred with Troy Donahue in “Parrish” and went on to star in “The Young Lovers” with Peter Fonda and “The Caretakers” in 1963 with Joan Crawford. She died in 1996 at the age of 52.

IMDB entry:

Sharon Elizabeth Hugueny was a leap-year baby, born February 29, 1944, in Los Angeles, California. She was an intelligent, introspective, and sensitive child that preferred serious reading, writing, and music to the “more frivolous” interests of her peers. Sharon’s parents – a World War II Navy veteran and his wife – were loving-but notoriously strict with their three children (Sharon, a younger brother, born in 1950, and a sister born, in 1957). Any boy interested in dating teen-aged Sharon was reportedly required to pass two interviews plus a car inspection before being allowed to take her out. However, when famous talent-scout, Warner Bros.’ Solly Biano, spotted Sharon in a theatrical production of “Blue Denim” when she was fifteen, her parents did allow her to meet producer/director Delmer Daves and to accept the contract offered to her by Mr. Jack Warner. Sharon signed that seven-year contract on her 16th birthday. Under Warner’s personal guidance, she quickly began a performing guest-star on appearances in all of Warners’ television programs, such as “Lawman” (1958), and “Maverick”(1957), where she received her first on-screen-kiss from star Roger Moore (and off-screen kisses from Peter Brown of Lawman, and Wilderness Family’s Robert Logan}.

While filming Parrish in 1961, actor (later, Producer-and-President of Paramount, Mr. Robert Evans) visited her set and was immediately bedazzled by breathtaking Sharon, whose dark beauty earned frequent comparisons by Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons to Elizabeth Taylor. Evans’ feeling for Sharon was reciprocated; and so, seventeen-year-old Sharon began dating the thirty-one-year-old Evans, much to the dismay of her parents, friends, and studio. Within weeks the two became engaged and then, on May 28, 1961, married. Unfortunately, their union was doomed from the start. Sharon was, by all accounts, extremely mature for her age; yet Evans seemed to regard her as a child, not as a wife. Their relationship deteriorated. At one time, Mr. Evans abandoned California for his clothing business, Evan Picone, located in New York, which effectively broke her motion picture- and -television contract with Warner’s. This uprooting had taken Sharon thousands of miles from her family, work, and friends; furthermore, Warner Brothers placed her on suspension. (Evans later said that “taking Sharon to New York was like forcing a Persian cat into the Amazon.”) In Mexico, less than six months after they married, he arranged for a quick, no alimony, divorce, which confused his naive wife.

Sharon’s career, unfortunately, never recovered. She would become one of many fine actresses of the 1960s that possessed great beauty and tremendous talent but were not provided with good-quality material to showcase their assets. From 1965 to the mid 1970s, Sharon virtually disappeared from public view, other than for a number of television guest-starring spots, such as “Mannix.”

There followed a marriage to photographer Raymond Ross in 1968 to his death in 1974), a divorced, and a child. By 1976 she was under new management and married to Gordon Cornell Layne, founder of Mid America Pictures.

Sharon was en route to ABC to sign two contracts when a new tragedy intervened: Sharon was struck by careering police car doing 90 mph in pursuit of a fleeing drug addict. Not only did this end Sharon’s career, it very nearly ended her life. Still seeking recovery, she and Mr. Layne left Santa Monica for Lake Arrowhead, in 1987. After nineteen years under Gordon’s personal around-the-clock care, on July 3,1996, Sharon Elizabeth Hugueny Layne died at home, from misdiagnosed cancer. The “Sharon Elizabeth Hugueny Performance Arts Scholarship” has been projected to honor her memory.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Jennifer E. Williams <JenVLO123@aol.com> and Gordon Cornell Layne (her loving husband)

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Joanna Shimkus.

Joanna Shimkus is a retired Canadian actress. She is the wife of Bahamian-American actor and diplomat Sir Sidney Poitier, and mother of actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

Shimkus was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to a Lithuanian-Jewish fatherand a mother of Irish descent.

Her father worked for the Royal Canadian Navy.^[5] She attended a convent schoo and was brought up in Montreal, Quebec.

She went to Paris at age nineteen, where she worked as a fashion model and soon attracted the attention of movie people on the lookout for new talent.

She made her debut in 1964, in Jean Aurel‘s film De l’amour. She was then noticed by film director Robert Enrico, who selected her to appear in three of his films; Les aventuriers (1967), opposite Alain Delon and Lino Ventura, Tante Zita (1968) and Ho! (1968).

She also appeared in Joseph Losey‘s film Boom! (1968), opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and The Lost Man (1969), opposite Sidney Poitier. Her film career continued until the early 1970s, including roles in L’Invitée (1969), The Virgin and the Gypsy(1970), The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971) and A Time for Loving (1972).

She married Sir Sidney Poitier in 1976, and they have two daughters: Anika and Sydney Tamiia, who is also an actress. Shimkus has three grandchildren; two from Anika and one from Sydney Tamiia.

One of the better teen idols of the late ’50s and early ’60s, with a voice that many have compared to that of Buddy Holly. He had a sizable string of hits between 1960 and 1967 for Liberty Records, including “Take Good Care of My Baby”, “Run to Him” (both co-written by Carole King), “Rubber Ball”, “Devil or Angel”, “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”, “Stayin’ In”, “More Than I Can Say” and “Come Back When You Grow U

Andrew Dice Clay September 29, 1957) is an American comedian and actor.^[1] He played the lead role in the 1990 film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.Clay has been in several movies and has released a number of stand-up comedy albums. He is the only comedian in history to sell out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row

IMDB entry:

Andrew Dice Clay was born on September 29, 1957 in Brooklyn, New York, USA as Andrew Clay Silverstein. He is an actor and writer, known for Blue Jasmine (2013), The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) and Dice Rules (1991). He has been married to Valerie Silverstein since February 14, 2010. He was previously married to Kathleen Monica and Kathleen Swanson. Hi shows include his catch phrases “Dat’s what I think”, “Unbelievable”, and a sharp “Ooh!”. Begins all of his comedy acts with about a minute of just standing on stage, smoking a cigarette, before starting into his material. Often wears a black leather jacket. For his on-stage act, his jacket is usually covered in gold studs, with the word ‘Dice’ spelled out on across his back.Heavy Brooklyn accent. Often wears large, dark sunglasses Has been managed by his father, Fred Silverstein, for most of his career. Even after he made enormous amounts of money with his “Diceman” act he decided to live in his hometown borough of Brooklyn for a number of years. He now resides somewhere in New Jersey, the hometown of his current wife. His trademark “Ooh!” is sampled in the popular dance club song, “Unbelievable”, by EMF. Biography in: “Who’s Who in Comedy” by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 106-108. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387 Perhaps the only stand-up comic ever to sell out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row.

Fay Spain had a very prolific US television career especially in the major series of the 1950’s and 60’s. Her movies include “Al Capone” in 1959 and “Black Gold” in 1962. She died at the age of 49 in 1983.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

She was your typical B-movie drive-in bad girl – sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette, always bodacious. A tease, a taunter and a temptress throughout most her career, Fay Spain was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1932. She headed to New York where she initially found summer stock work and a bit of television exposure. One of her earliest TV appearances was not as an actress but as a contestant on the TV game show You Bet Your Life (1950) starring Groucho Marx. By 1956, this fetching starlet was winning episodic roles on the more popular shows of the day, including Perry Mason (1957),Cheyenne (1955) and Gunsmoke (1955). She was also gaining notice on the covers of magazines. This cheesecake attention led directly to her juvenile delinquent debut inDragstrip Girl (1957) with John Ashley and Steven Terrell, where she immediately established herself as the party girl boys are willing to race cars and fight over. Other equally cheap-jack films followed with Teenage Doll (1957), The Crooked Circle (1957), and The Abductors (1957). Fay made an aggressive move into higher quality films withErskine Caldwell‘s best-seller God’s Little Acre (1958), where she played “Darlin’ Jill”, another amoral sexpot, and as Rod Steiger‘s moll in Al Capone (1959), but then it was right back to Grade Z level work with The Beat Generation (1959) co-starring Mamie Van Doren, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) in which she tempts Martin Milner with the old forbidden fruit routine, and a 1962 Italian spectacle as an evil queen trying to thwart the actions of Hercules. Although Fay made some efforts to return to TV work, her career was pretty much over by the mid-60s. One of her last roles was a bit part as a mafioso matriarch in The Godfather: Part II (1974). Fay died of cancer at age 49 in 1983.