1.
William Dieterle
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William Dieterle was a German actor and film director, who worked in Hollywood for much of his career. His best known films include The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Story of Louis Pasteur and his 1937 film The Life of Emile Zola won the Academy Award for Best Picture. He was born Wilhelm Dieterle in Ludwigshafen, the youngest child of nine, to Jacob, as a child, he lived in considerable poverty and earned money by various means including carpentry and as a scrap dealer. He became interested in early and would stage productions in the family barn for friends. At the age of sixteen he had joined a theater company as a handy-man, scene shifter. His striking good looks and ambition soon paved the way as a romantic actor in theater productions. In 1919, he attracted the attention of Max Reinhardt in Berlin who hired him as an actor for his productions until 1924 and he started acting in German films in 1921 to make more money and quickly became a popular character actor. He usually portrayed country yokels or simpletons with great gusto and popularity, in 1921 Dieterle married Charlotte Hagenbruch, an actress and later screenwriter. In 1923 Dieterle used his own money to make his first film, based on a Leo Tolstoy short story, the film co-starred a young Marlene Dietrich. Years later Dieterle said of the film we were just four or five young, enthusiastic. We brought it out, it didnt make any money, but was shown, in 1924 Dieterle left Reinhardts company and formed his own theater company in Berlin, although it was unsuccessful and short lived. He also returned to acting for several years and appeared in such notable German films as Das Wachsfigurenkabinett. In 1927, Dieterle and his wife formed their own company, Charrha-Film. In 1930, the political and economic situations in Germany worsened and, like many from the German film industry, Dieterle had said It was a running joke in Berlin. if the phone rang at a restaurant they said it must be Hollywood. Well, one night my wife and I were dining out, Dieterle was offered a job at First National to make dubbed versions of Hollywood films in German, as the studios were afraid of losing foreign business with the advent of sound films. After the four films were completed, Warner Brothers Vice President of Production Hal B, wallis was so impressed that he invited Dieterle to stay in Hollywood. He became a US citizen in 1937 and he adapted quickly to Hollywood filmmaking with his first film, The Last Flight. The film depicts four American fighter pilots who roam around Paris after World War I trying to put their lives back together and it starred Richard Barthelmess and Helen Chandler and was compared to the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald
2.
Jack L. Warner
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Jack Leonard J. L. Warner, born Jacob Warner, in London, Ontario, was a Canadian-American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Warners career spanned some forty-five years, its duration surpassing that of any other of the seminal Hollywood studio moguls, as co-head of production at Warner Bros. Studios, he worked with his brother, Sam Warner, to procure the technology for the industrys first talking picture. After Sams death, Jack clashed with his older brothers, Harry. Although Warner was feared by many of his employees and inspired ridicule with his attempts at humor, he earned respect for his shrewd instincts. He recruited many of Warner Bros. top stars and promoted the social dramas for which the studio became known. Given to decisiveness, Warner once commented, If Im right fifty-one percent of the time, Throughout his career, he was viewed as a contradictory and enigmatic figure. Although he was a staunch Republican, Warner encouraged film projects that promoted the agenda of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal and he opposed European fascism and criticized Nazi Germany well before Americas involvement in World War II. Despite his controversial image, Warner remained a force in the motion picture industry until his retirement in the early 1970s. Jack Warner was born in London, Ontario, in 1892 and his parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland who spoke mainly Yiddish. Jack was the surviving son of Benjamin Warner a cobbler from Krasnosielc, Poland, and his wife. Following their marriage in 1876, the couple had three children in Poland, one of whom died at a young age, one of the surviving children was Jacks eldest brother, Hirsch. The Warner family had occupied a hostile world, where the night-riding of cossacks, the burning of houses, and the raping of women were part of lifes burden for the Jews of the shtetl. In 1888, in search of a future for his family and himself, Benjamin made his way to Hamburg, Germany. Pearl Warner and the two children joined him in Baltimore, Maryland, less than a year later. In Baltimore, the couple had five children, including Abraham and Sam Warner. Benjamin Warners decision to move to Canada in the early 1890s was inspired by a friends advice that he could make an excellent living bartering tin wares with trappers in exchange for furs and their sons Jack and David were born in Ontario. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and Pearl Warner returned to Baltimore, bringing along their growing family, two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there
3.
Hal B. Wallis
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Harold Brent Hal Wallis was an American film producer. He is best remembered for producing Casablanca and True Grit, along many other major films for Warner Bros. featuring such film stars as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis. Later on, for a period, he was connected with Paramount Pictures and oversaw films featuring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley. Aaron Blum Wolowicz was born October 19,1898 in Chicago, Illinois and his family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros. in 1923. Within a few years, Wallis became involved in the end of the business. In a career spanned more than 50 years, he was involved with the production of more than 400 feature-length movies. Among the more significant movies he produced were Casablanca, Dark Victory, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York and he left Warner Bros. in 1944, after a clash with Jack L. Warner over Warners acceptance of the Best Picture Oscar for Casablanca, to work as an independent producer, the first screenwriters he hired for his new enterprise were Ayn Rand and Lillian Hellman. Among his financial hits were the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies and he produced True Grit, for which John Wayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor of 1969, and its sequel. After moving to Universal Pictures, he produced Mary, Queen of Scots and he received 16 Academy Award producer nominations for Best Picture, winning for Casablanca in 1943. For his consistently high quality of motion picture production, he was honored with the Academy Awards Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also nominated for seven Golden Globe awards, twice winning awards for Best Picture, in 1975, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, in 1980, he published his autobiography, Starmaker, cowritten with Charles Higham. In the 1930s Mr. Wallis used his investment dollars to develop real estate in Sherman Oaks. He named one of the streets after himself using his nickname Hal, halbrent Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA is the street and most of the original homes are still standing today. Its very close to Ventura and Sepulveda Boulevards near the infamous Sherman Oaks Galleria used extensively in the 1982 movie romp Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Wallis was married twice, to actress Louise Fazenda from 1927 until her death in 1962 and he had one son with Fazenda, Brent Harris. Wallis died in 1986 of complications of diabetes in Rancho Mirage, California, news of his passing was not released until after his private memorial service was completed
4.
Reginald Owen
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John Reginald Owen was a British character actor. He was known for his roles in British and American films. The son of Joseph and Frances Owen, Reginald Owen studied at Sir Herbert Trees Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in 1911, he starred in the original production of Where the Rainbow Ends as Saint George which opened to very good reviews on 21 December 1911. He went to the United States in 1920 and worked originally on Broadway in New York, but later moved to Hollywood and he was always a familiar face in many Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer productions. Owen was the first of five actors to play both Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr Watson. Howard Marion Crawford played Holmes in an adaptation of The Speckled Band. Owen first played Watson in the film Sherlock Holmes, and then Holmes himself in A Study in Scarlet, having played Ebenezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. He was featured in the Walt Disney films Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and he had a small role in the 1962 Irwin Allen production of the Jules Verne novel Five Weeks in a Balloon. In August 1964, his Bel-Air mansion was rented out to the Beatles, who were performing at the Hollywood Bowl and he died from a heart attack at age 85 in Boise, Idaho. Owen was buried at the Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise, Reginald Owen at the Internet Broadway Database Reginald Owen at the Internet Movie Database
5.
Victor Jory
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Victor Jory was a Canadian-born American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, like Jonas Wilkerson in Gone with the Wind, later he had a lead role in the 78-episode television police drama Manhunt. Born in Dawson City, Yukon, of American parents, he was the boxing and wrestling champion of the United States Coast Guard during his military service and he toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast as the villain and he made over 150 films and dozens of TV episodes, as well as writing two plays. His long career in radio included starring in the series Dangerously Yours and he also portrayed Oberon in Max Reinhardts 1935 film adaptation of Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream. In 1946 he narrated Tubby the Tuba for children, which was inducted in 2005 in the National Recording Registry, the story tells of a tuba who doesnt fit in. He also narrated Bumpo the Ballerina, whose character is an elephant. From 1959 to 1961, he appeared with Patrick McVey in the 78-episode syndicated television police drama, Jory played the lead role of Detective Lieutenant Howard Finucane. McVey was cast as police reporter Ben Andrews, in 1962, Jory was cast as Deacon Lee in the two-part episode, Policemen Die Alone of Leslie Nielsens ABC crime drama, The New Breed. That same year, Jory guest starred as Mike Dahlback in the episode Ride to a Fall in the NBC modern western series, Empire and he also played Helen Kellers father in The Miracle Worker, for which his costars Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke won Academy Awards. In 1977, near the end of his career, Jory guest starred as an aging Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in James Garners The Rockford Files episode, Jory died on February 12,1982 at the age of 79 from a heart attack in Santa Monica, California. For his contribution to the picture industry, Victor Jory was honored in 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is located at 6605 Hollywood Blvd, Jory had two children, Jon and Jean. Jon Jory headed the Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, for thirty-one years and he left the job in 2000 to become professor of drama at the University of Washington in Seattle. Victor Jory at the Internet Movie Database Victor Jory at AllMovie Victor Jory at the Internet Broadway Database Victor Jory at Find a Grave
6.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
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