1.
William A. Seiter
–
William A. Seiter was an American film director. Seiter was born in New York City, after attending Hudson River Military Academy, Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Sennetts Keystone Studios, doubling a cowboy. He graduated to director in 1918, at Universal Studios in the mid-1920s, Seiter was principal director of the popular Reginald Denny vehicles, most of which co-starred Seiters then wife Laura La Plante. This period also included The Beautiful and Damned and The Family Secret, in the early talkie era, Seiter helped nurture the talents of RKOs comedy duo Wheeler & Woolsey in such rollicking features as Caught Plastered and Diplomaniacs. He also directed the Laurel and Hardy feature Sons of the Desert, on his final four films, before he retired in 1954, Seiter functioned as both producer and director. These films included The Lady Wants Mink, a satire of the then topical raise your own coat craze. He died in Beverly Hills, California, of a heart attack, Seiter was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His grandson, with Nixon, is screenwriter Ted Griffin, most of the films Seiter directed with the Wheeler/Woolsey duo have been released on two DVDs by Warner Archive. Works by or about William A. Seiter at Internet Archive William A. Seiter at the Internet Movie Database
2.
Frank Wead
–
Frank Wilbur Spig Wead was a U. S. Navy aviator who helped promote United States Naval aviation from its inception through World War II. Commander Wead was an authority on early aviation. Following a crippling spinal injury in 1926, Wead was placed on the retired list, in the 1930s, he became a screenwriter, becoming involved in over 30 movies. He also published books, short stories and magazine articles. During World War II, he returned to active duty and he initially worked in a planning role, but later undertook sea duty in the Pacific, where he saw action against the Japanese in 1943–44 before being placed on the retired list in mid-1945. Frank Wilbur Wead was born to Samuel De Forest Wead and Grace Wead on 24 October 1895, in Ward No.5 of Peoria Township, Peoria, Frank graduated from Peoria High School. The Wead family had a background of service to the American nation. The Connecticut Weads were also patriots of the American Revolutionary War, on 16 July 1912, Frank Wilbur Wead was admitted into the United States Naval Academy as a member of the Class of 1916. His classmates included John D. Price, Ralph Eugene Davison, the Class of 1916 graduated on 29 May 1916. Following graduation from the Naval Academy and leave, Wead reported to his first sea-duty assignment and he was a line officer with a date of rank as an ensign of 3 June 1916 and a precedence of 17 within his group of running mates. Wead was next assigned to USS Pittsburgh on a cruise from San Francisco, the ship reached Rio de Janeiro where, with several other officers, he departed Pittsburgh on 21 September. Wead was granted a promotion to lieutenant on 15 October 1917. He was booked for passage to the Port of New York aboard SS Zeelandia, Wead reported to the Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department, for sea duty orders. Wead reported aboard USS Shawmut to assist in preparing the vessel for war, USS Shawmut departed New York Harbor in June 1918, and for the remaining months of the war operated in the area of the North Sea Mine Barrage. Following the armistice with Germany, Wead returned stateside aboard Shawmut, arriving at the Boston Navy Yard, in February 1919, a kite-balloon division of six balloons was assigned to Shawmut and other ships. The ships participated in exercises and, after seven weeks. Wead received a permanent promotion to lieutenant on 3 June 1919, in the late summer of 1919, Wead requested naval aviation flight training at Aeronautic Station Pensacola, Florida. His request was approved and he was assigned to Class 1, Wead reported to Pensacola and was billeted in a two-man room with Lieutenant Ralph Eugene Davison, a classmate at the Naval Academy
3.
Edward G. Robinson
–
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star on stage and screen during Hollywoods Golden Age, he appeared in 40 Broadway plays and he is best remembered for his tough-guy roles as a gangster, such as his star-making film Little Caesar and Key Largo. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was a public critic of fascism and Nazism. His activism included contributing over $250,000 to more than 850 organizations involved in war relief, along with cultural, educational, during the 1950s, he was called to testify at the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare, but was cleared of any Communist involvement. Robinson received an Honorary Academy Award for his work in the film industry and he is ranked #24 in the American Film Institutes list of the 25 greatest male stars of Classic American cinema. Robinson was born as Emanuel Goldenberg to a Yiddish-speaking Romanian Jewish family in Bucharest, the son of Sarah and Morris Goldenberg, after one of his brothers was attacked by an antisemitic mob, the family decided to emigrate to the United States. Robinson arrived in New York City on February 14,1903, at Ellis Island I was born again, he wrote. Life for me began when I was 10 years old, an interest in acting and performing in front of people led to him winning an American Academy of Dramatic Arts scholarship, after which he changed his name to Edward G. Robinson. He served in the US Navy during World War I, but was never sent overseas and he began his acting career in the Yiddish Theater District in 1913 and made his Broadway debut in 1915. In 1923 made his debut as E. G. Robinson in the silent film. He played a gangster in the 1927 Broadway police/crime drama The Racket. Robinson went on to make a total of 101 films in his 50-year career. In 1939, at the time World War II broke out in Europe, he played an FBI agent in Confessions of a Nazi Spy, the first American film which showed Nazism as a threat to the United States. He volunteered for service in June 1942 but was disqualified due to his age at 48, although he became an active. The following year he played Paul Ehrlich in Dr. Ehrlichs Magic Bullet and Paul Julius Reuter in A Dispatch from Reuters and his career rehabilitation received a boost in 1954, when noted anti-communist director Cecil B. DeMille cast him as the traitorous Dathan in The Ten Commandments, the film was released in 1956, as was his psychological thriller Nightmare. As it turned out, Robinson died only days later. He had been notified of the honor, but died two months before the ceremony, so the award was accepted by his widow, Jane Robinson
4.
Glenn Ford
–
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Glenn Ford was a Canadian actor who held dual Canadian and American citizenship. His career lasted more than 50 years, although he played many different roles, Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances. He was most prominent during Hollywoods Golden Age, gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford was born on May 1,1916 in Sainte-Christine-dAuvergne, Quebec, the son of Hannah Wood and Newton Ford, a railway man. Through his father, Ford was a great-nephew of Canadas first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, in 1924, at the age of eight, Ford moved to Santa Monica, California with his family. He became a citizen of the United States in 1939. After Ford graduated from Santa Monica High School, he working in small theatre groups. While in high school, he took odd jobs, including working for Will Rogers, who taught him horsemanship. Ford later commented that his railroad executive father had no objection to his growing interest in acting, be able to take a car apart and put it together. Be able to build a house, every bit of it, Ford heeded the advice and during the 1950s, when he was one of Hollywoods most popular actors, he regularly worked on plumbing, wiring, and air conditioning at home. At times, he worked as a roofer and installer of plate-glass windows, Ford acted in West Coast stage companies before joining Columbia Pictures in 1939. His stage name came from his fathers hometown of Glenford, Alberta and his first major movie part was in the 1939 film, Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence. The starstruck youngster was invited to Roosevelts annual Birthday Ball and he returned to Los Angeles and promptly registered as a Democrat, a fervent FDR supporter. It always held a place of honor in my home. After 35 interviews and glowing reviews for him personally, Glenn Ford had young female fans begging for his autograph and his next picture, Texas, was his first Western, a genre with which he would be associated for the rest of his life. Set after the Civil War, it paired him with young male star under contract, Bill Holden. More routine films followed, none of them memorable, but lucrative enough to allow Ford to buy his mother and he began his training in September,1941, driving three nights a week to his unit in San Pedro and spending most weekends there. Ten months after Fords portrait of a young anti-Nazi exile, the United States entered World War II, after playing a young pilot in his 11th Columbia film, Flight Lieutenant, Ford went on a cross-country 12-city tour to sell war bonds for Army and Navy Relief. In the midst of the many stars also donating their time – from Bob Hope to Cary Grant to Claudette Colbert – he met the popular dancing star, the two soon fell in love, they attended the official opening of the Hollywood USO together in October
5.
Marguerite Chapman
–
Marguerite Chapman was an American actress. Born in Chatham, New York, she was working as a switchboard operator in White Plains. Signed by the John Robert Powers Agency in New York City, she was discovered by Howard Hughes. Persuaded to go to Hollywood in late 1939, she signed briefly with 20th Century Fox, was under contract to Warner Brothers in 1941 and she made her film debut in 1940, working for the next two years in small roles. Chapman soon began receiving more leading roles and appeared opposite important stars such as Edward G. Robinson, with Americas entry in World War II, she entertained the troops, worked for the War bond drive and at the Hollywood Canteen. She also starred in the famous war film Counter-Attack, released in 1945. During the 1950s Chapman continued to perform mostly in film roles. However, with the advent of television she kept busy into the early 1960s with guest appearances in a number different shows including Rawhide, Perry Mason, and Four Star Playhouse. Chapman was reportedly asked to audition for the role of Old Rose Dawson-Calvert in the 1997 James Cameron epic Titanic but was prevented by poor health, for her contribution on television, Marguerite Chapman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6284 Hollywood Boulevard. Marguerite Chapman died August 31,1999, aged 81, and was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, Marguerite Chapman at the Internet Movie Database Marguerite Chapman at Find a Grave Photographs and literature Photos of Marguerite Chapman in 1940s films by Ned Scott
6.
Edgar Buchanan
–
As Uncle Joe, he took over as proprietor of the Shady Rest Hotel following the 1968 real-life death of Bea Benaderet, who had played Kate Bradley. In 1969, in the episode Kathy Jos First Birthday Party, he appeared with his real-life son, william Edgar Buchanan, born in Humansville, Missouri, moved with his family to Oregon when he was seven. Buchanan earned a DDS degree from North Pacific College School of Dentistry, like his father before him, he was a successful dentist. He and his wife Mildred, classmates in school, were married in 1928. They had one child, a son named Buck, in 1939, they moved from Eugene, Oregon, to Altadena, California, where they moved their dental practice. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse as an actor and he appeared in his first film in 1939, at the age of 36, after which he turned his dentistry practice over to his wife. He was a member of Theta Chi Fraternity and a Freemason, with John Wayne, Move Over, Darling with Doris Day and James Garner, and Benji. In 1956, Buchanan portrayed the lead in the 39-episode syndicated Western television series, Judge Roy Bean, set in Langtry, Texas, and filmed in color in California. The series popularized Beans claim to having been The Only Law West of the Pecos, from 1960 to 1962, he appeared four times on the NBC Western series Laramie, with John Smith and Robert Fuller. Buchanan made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, in 1958 as a coroner in The Case of the Perjured Parrot. Buchanan and another star from Petticoat Junction appeared together in the movie Benji, the star was Higgins, the unnamed dog from the sitcom. Higgins had been found in a shelter and trained by Frank Inn, who also trained Arnold Ziffel and the other animals used on The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction. Buchanan died from a stroke complicated by pneumonia in Palm Desert, California, Edgar Buchanan at the Internet Movie Database Edgar Buchanan at the TCM Movie Database Edgar Buchanan at AllMovie Edgar Buchanan at Find a Grave
