1.
Roy Ward Baker
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Roy Ward Baker, born Roy Horace Baker, was an English film director, credited as Roy Baker for much of his career. His best known film is A Night to Remember which won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film in 1959 and his later career included many horror films and television shows. Born in London where his father was a Billingsgate fish merchant, Baker was educated at a Lycée in Rouen, France, from 1934 to 1939, he worked for Gainsborough Pictures, a British film production company based in the Islington district of London. His first jobs were menial, making tea for crew members, for example and he served in the Army during the Second World War, transferring to the Army Kinematograph Unit in 1943 to make better use of his skills as a production manager and director on documentaries. One of his superiors at the time was novelist Eric Ambler, Ambler also adapted Walter Lords A Night to Remember for Bakers 1958 screen version. His next two films, The Weaker Sex and Paper Orchid were popular but overshadowed by the success of Morning Departure, also featuring John Mills. During the early 1950s, Baker worked for three years at Fox where he directed Marilyn Monroe in Dont Bother to Knock and Robert Ryan in the 3-D film noir Inferno and he returned to the UK in 1953 and continued to work on films. He worked for television during the 1960s and early 1970s and he directed episodes of The Avengers, The Saint, The Persuaders. The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk - all of them adventure series created with an eye on the American market and his experience of working with low budgets in television made him well suited to his next career move into cheaply produced but lavish-looking British horror films. He directed, among others, Quatermass and the Pit The Vampire Lovers and Scars of Dracula for Hammer and he also directed Bette Davis in the black comedy The Anniversary. He also co-directed the Hammer-Shaw Brothers Studio collaboration The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, in the latter part of the 1970s he returned to television, and throughout the 1980s continued to work on shows such as Minder. In 2000 Baker published his memoirs, Directors Cut, A Memoir of 60 Years in Film, Roy Ward Baker died on 5 October 2010 aged 93. Jekyll and Sister Hyde Asylum The Vault of Horror The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires The Monster Club Roy Ward Baker Directors Cut, A Memoir of 60 Years in Film and Television. Roy Ward Baker at the British Film Institutes Screenonline Roy Ward Baker at the Internet Movie Database Roy Ward Baker at BFI Film & TV Database Obituary in The Guardian
2.
Robert Ryan
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Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who most often portrayed hardened cops and ruthless villains. Ryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, the first child of Mable Arbutus, a secretary, and Timothy Aloysius Ryan and he was of Irish and English descent. Ryan was raised Catholic and educated at Loyola Academy and he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932, having held the schools heavyweight boxing title all four years of his attendance. After graduation, the 6′4 Ryan found employment as a stoker on a ship, a WPA worker, Ryan attempted to make a career in show business as a playwright, but was forced to start acting in order to support himself. He studied acting in Hollywood and appeared on stage and in small parts during the early 1940s, beginning with The Ghost Breakers and Queen of the Mob. At Camp Pendleton, he befriended writer and future director Richard Brooks, whose novel, The Brick Foxhole, Ryans breakthrough film role was as an anti-Semitic killer in Crossfire, a film noir based on Brookss novel. The role won Ryan his sole career Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, from then on, Ryans specialty was tough/tender roles, finding particular expression in the films of directors such as Nicholas Ray, Jean Renoir, Robert Wise and Samuel Fuller. In Rays On Dangerous Ground he portrayed a city cop finding redemption while solving a rural murder. In Wises The Set-Up, he played a boxer who is brutally punished for refusing to take a dive. He also appeared in several war films, including The Longest Day and Battle of the Bulge. He also played John the Baptist in MGMs Technicolor epic King of Kings and was the villainous Claggart in Peter Ustinovs adaptation of Billy Budd, in his later years, Ryan continued playing significant roles in major films. Among the most notable were The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals, the Iceman Cometh and Executive Action both were released in November 1973, after Ryans death. Ryan also played the characters in Shakespeares Coriolanus and Othello. Ryan made his small screen debut in 1955 as Abraham Lincoln in the Screen Directors Playhouse adaptation of Christopher Morleys story. As he explained to reporters, despite financial considerations, Ryan preferred to steer clear of any TV series commitment, The only money in TV is in the series, and I want to stay out of those. Sure, I might make a million or so in a series, Ryan would remain true to these convictions, appearing in many television series, but always as a guest star. Notable appearances include his portrayal of Franklin Hoppy-Hopp in the 1964 episode Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree. on the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour. Similarly, he guest starred as Lloyd Osment in the 1964 episode Better Than a Dead Lion in the ABC psychiatric series, Breaking Point
3.
Rhonda Fleming
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Rhonda Fleming is an American film and television actress. She acted in more than forty films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s and she was nicknamed the Queen of Technicolor because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor. Fleming began working as an actress while attending Beverly Hills High School. She was discovered by the well-known Hollywood agent Henry Willson, after appearing uncredited in several films, she received her first substantial role in the thriller Spellbound, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her first leading role came in Adventure Island, an action film made in the two-color Cinecolor process. She co-starred with Bing Crosby in her first Technicolor film, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on “Once and For Always” and soloing with “When Is Sometime”. She and Crosby recorded the songs for a three-disc,78 rpm Decca album, conducted by Victor Young and she sang on NBCs Colgate Comedy Hour during the same live telecast that featured Errol Flynn, on September 30,1951, from the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. In 1953, Fleming portrayed Cleopatra in Serpent of the Nile and that same year she appeared in two films shot in 3-D, Inferno with Robert Ryan and the musical Those Redheads From Seattle with Gene Barry. The following year she starred with Fernando Lamas in Jivaro, her third 3-D release, the rock remains in place today and is part of a section of the former movie ranch known as Garden of the Gods, which has been preserved as public parkland. Tennessees Partner was one of several movies Fleming made as Ronald Reagans co-star, including Tropic Zone, The Last Outpost, corral co-starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and the Irwin Allen/Joseph M. Newman production of The Big Circus, co-starring Victor Mature and Vincent Price. Her most recent film was Waiting for the Wind, on March 4,1962, Fleming appeared in one of the last segments of ABCs Follow the Sun in a role opposite Gary Lockwood, who was nearly 14 years her junior. She played a Marine in the episode Marine of the Month, in 1958, Fleming again displayed her singing talent when she recorded her only LP, entitled simply Rhonda. In this album, which was released by Columbia Records, she blended then current songs like Around The World with standards such as Love Me Or Leave Me, conductor-arranger Frank Comstock provided the musical direction. One of her film appearances to date was a bit-role in the 1980 comedy The Nude Bomb as Edith von Secondburg. Fleming has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 2007, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. Fleming has worked for charities, especially in the field of cancer care. In 1991, she and her husband, Ted Mann. In 1964, Fleming spoke at the Project Prayer rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, joining Fleming and Eisley at the rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Dale Evans, Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson
4.
William Lundigan
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William Lundigan was an American film actor. Growing up in Syracuse, New York, Lundigan was the oldest of four sons and his father, Michael F. Lundigan, owned a shoe store in the same building as a local radio station, WFBL. Becoming fascinated by radio, he was playing roles on radio. A graduate of Nottingham High School, Lundigan studied law at Syracuse University and he graduated and passed the bar examination before events changed his career path. A Universal Pictures production chief heard Lundigans voice, met him, arranged a screen test, moving over to MGM, Lundigans last film before enlisting in the U. S. Marine Corps in World War II was Salute to the Marines. He served as a cameraman in the Battle of Peleliu. Lundigan was host for Climax. and Shower of Stars, from September 30,1959, to September 7,1960, Lundigan portrayed Col. Edward McCauley in the CBS television series, Men into Space. In 1963 and 1964, Lundigan joined fellow actors Walter Brennan, Chill Wills, senator Barry M. Goldwater, the Republican nominee in the campaign against U. S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. He once had a campaign for a seat on the City Council of Los Angeles. Lundigan married Rena Morgan, and they had a daughter, Anastasia, Lundigan died of apparent heart failure on December 20,1975, at Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California. He was survived by his wife and daughter,1951 Screen Guild Players 1952 Stars in the Air William Lundigan at the Internet Movie Database William Lundigan at the TCM Movie Database William Lundigan at Find a Grave
5.
Lucien Ballard
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Lucien Ballard, A. S. C. was an American cinematographer and director of photography. Ballard began working on films at Paramount Studios in 1929 and he later joked in an interview that it was a three-day party at the home of actress Clara Bow that convinced him this is the business for me. He began his career loading trucks at Paramount, and became a camera assistant, von Sternberg allowed him credit for his work on The Devil is a Woman, and the two shared a Venice Film Festival award for Best Cinematography in 1935. He also worked with him on The King Steps Out, based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, on the set of The Lodger, Ballard met and then married actress Merle Oberon, they remained married from 1945 until 1949. Named the Obie, the device benefited Oberon who had sustained facial scarring in the car accident, the Obie would become widely used in the film industry. One film of note is 1941s controversial Howard Hughes film The Outlaw, Hughes cast Jane Russell in the lead, and had numerous camera shots of her ample cleavage. This would get the attention of the Hollywood censors, the film was shot in 1940 and 1941 but would take five years to get to selected theaters. Ballard was the man for the screen tests and did some of the second unit work with both director Howard Hawks and assisted cinematographer Gregg Toland on the first unit crew. In one of his first films, Morocco, directed by von Sternberg and this relationship with Hathaway would come back to benefit Ballard when Hathaway himself became a noted director. They would work together on films, including, Diplomatic Courier, O. Henrys Full House, Prince Valiant, The Sons of Katie Elder, Nevada Smith. The last, because of the beauty of southwestern Colorado. Ballard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The Caretakers and he worked on more than 130 films during his 50-year career. Lucien Ballard died in a car accident at the age of eighty in 1988, Ballard @ the Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers Lucien Ballard at the Internet Movie Database Ballard @ Allmovie
6.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
7.
Film noir
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Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
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