1.
John M. Stahl
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John Malcolm Stahl was an American film director and producer. He was born Jacob Morris Strelitsky in Baku to an eastern European Jewish family, when he was a child, his family left the Russian Empire and moved to the United States, settling in New York City. At a young age, Strelitsky began working in the citys growing motion picture industry and he took the name John Malcolm Stahl and in the early 1920s, signed on with Louis B. Mayer Pictures in Hollywood. In 1924 he was part of the Mayer team that founded MGM Studios, in 1927, Stahl was one of the thirty-six founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With the industrys transition to talkies and feature-length films, Stahl successfully made the adjustment, from 1927 through 1930 Stahl was an executive at the short-lived independent studio Tiffany Pictures, and renamed the company Tiffany-Stahl Productions. For Universal Pictures, he directed the 1934 film Imitation of Life, the following year, he directed Magnificent Obsession, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor. John Stahl continued to produce and direct major productions as well as filler shorts up to the time of his death. Some of his notable directorial work was for The Keys of the Kingdom in 1944 and the 1945 film noir, Leave Her to Heaven starring Gene Tierney. Stahl died in Hollywood in 1950 of an attack, aged 63. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, on February 8,1960, for his contributions to the motion pictures industry, Stahl received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6546 Hollywood Boulevard
2.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
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Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and he won the Academy Award for both Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve. Joseph Mankiewicz was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Franz Mankiewicz and Johanna Blumenau and he had a sister, Erna Mankiewicz, and a brother, Herman J. Mankiewicz, who became a screenwriter. Herman also won an Oscar for co-writing Citizen Kane, at age four, Mankiewicz moved with his family to New York City, graduating in 1924 from Stuyvesant High School. In 1928, he obtained a degree from Columbia University. At 19, he was sent by his professor father to Berlin where he was to study German drama at the University of Berlin. Instead, Mankiewicz got work at the UFA film studio translating film intertitles from German to English, Mankiewicz worked for seventeen years as a screenwriter for Paramount and as a producer for MGM before getting a chance to direct at Twentieth Century-Fox. During his long career in Hollywood, Mankiewicz wrote forty-eight screenplays and he also produced more than twenty films including The Philadelphia Story which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941. However, he is best known for the films he directed, in 1944, he produced The Keys of the Kingdom, which starred Gregory Peck, and featured Mankiewiczs then-wife, Rose Stradner, in a supporting role as a nun. In 1951 Mankiewicz left Fox and moved to New York, intending to write for the Broadway stage, in 1953 he directed Julius Caesar for MGM, an adaptation of Shakespeares play. The film serves as the record of Marlon Brando in a Shakespearean role, he played Mark Antony. In 1958 Mankiewicz directed The Quiet American, an adaptation of Graham Greenes 1955 novel about the seed of American military involvement in what would become the Vietnam War. A cautionary tale about Americas blind support for anti-Communists was turned into, according to Greene, Mankiewicz made more films, however, garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Direction in 1972 for Sleuth, his final directing effort, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. In 1983, he was a member of the jury at the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival, the Academy Film Archive preserved his films All About Eve and Sleuth. He was the brother of Herman J. Mankiewicz. His sons are Eric Reynal, the late writer/director Tom Mankiewicz and he also has a daughter, Alex Mankiewicz. His great-nephew is radio and television personality Ben Mankiewicz, who currently can be seen on TCM and he also was the uncle of Frank Mankiewicz, a well-known political campaign manager who officially announced the death of the assassinated presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968. He was not related to the similar-sounding British screenwriter, Wolf Mankowitz, Mankiewicz died of a heart attack on February 5,1993, six days before his 84th birthday
3.
The Keys of the Kingdom
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The Keys of the Kingdom is a 1941 novel by A. J. Cronin. Spanning six decades, it tells the story of Father Francis Chisholm, beset by tragedy in his youth, as a missionary Chisholm endures many years of hardship, punctuated by famine, plague and war in the Chinese province to which he is assigned. Through a life guided by compassion and tolerance, Chisholm earns the respect of the Chinese—and of fellow clergy who would mistrust him—with his kindly, high-minded, the novel has six parts, the first taking place in Scotland in 1938. Father Francis Chisholm is an old man, living with a housekeeper, due to his unconventional views, he is being investigated by Monsignor Sleeth. The second section, focuses on Chisholms youth and his father a Catholic and his mother a non-denominational Protestant. After the father is beaten by an mob, Chisholms mother tries to lead him home to safety. Initially, his kindly Aunt Polly wishes to him, but his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Glennie, intervenes and adopts him. Franciss maternal grandfather, a baker by trade, is also a preacher of his own branch of Christianity focused on universal tolerance, while his grandfather is kind, Mrs. Glennie and her son Malcolm are resentful and exploitative. Francis is forced to quit school and work in a shipyard, things take a turn for the better when Francis befriends Willie Tulloch and his family. Tullochs father is the doctor and the family are the towns free-thinkers. Willie aids Francis in his attempt to run away, when the attempt fails, Willies father contacts Aunt Polly, who takes Francis home to live with her and her daughter, Nora. Francis falls in love with Nora, but is afraid to act on it, Nora later has a child out of wedlock, and rather than marry a man she doesnt love, commits suicide. The third section focuses on Father Chisholms first two assignments and his struggles to do what he feels is right in the face of bureaucracy, tradition, Francis is shunned for doubting the girls claims but is vindicated when it is discovered that she had lied. Franciss faith is rewarded when he finds a gravely ill boy who is cured by the spring water, in the fourth section, Father Chisholm takes a position at a mission in Pai-tan, China. When he arrives, the mission is in ruins and no converts are to be found, much of this section deals with the superficial and detrimental aspects of the mission systems, which focus only on official numbers and not on improving spiritual lives. With supplies from Willie Tulloch, Father Chisholm opens a free clinic and he saves the life of a wealthy locals son, who builds him a new mission and gives him land. Willie Tulloch comes to help, and is among the last to perish from the disease and he learns that Noras daughter Judy died in childbirth, and sends money for the care of her son, Andrew. The mission is caught in a battle between two warlords and Father Chisholm is forced out of his pacifism, decades later, the warlord he worked against kidnapped Chisholm, one of his mission workers, and two Methodist missionaries
4.
A. J. Cronin
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Archibald Joseph Cronin, MBChB, MD, DPH, MRCP was a Scottish novelist and physician. His best-known novel was The Citadel, about a doctor in a Welsh mining village who quickly moves up the ladder in London. Cronin had observed this scene closely as a Medical Inspector of Mines and this book promoted controversial new ideas about medical ethics which largely inspired the launch of the National Health Service. Another popular mining novel, set in the North East of England, was The Stars Look Down, both these novels were adapted for film, as were Hatters Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years. His novella Country Doctor was adapted for a long-running BBC radio and TV series Dr Finlays Casebook and his paternal grandparents emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland and were glass and china merchants in Alexandria. Owen Cronin, his grandfather, had his surname changed from Cronague in 1870 and his maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, was a hatter who owned a shop in Dumbarton. After their marriage, Cronins parents moved to Helensburgh, where he attended Grant Street School, when he was seven years old, his father, an insurance agent and commercial traveler, died from tuberculosis. From an early age, he was a golfer, a sport he enjoyed throughout his life. The family later moved to Yorkhill, Glasgow, where he attended St Aloysius College in the Garnethill area of the city and he played football for the First XI there, an experience he included in one of his last novels, The Minstrel Boy. A family decision that he should study for either the church or medicine was settled by Cronin himself and he won a Carnegie scholarship to study medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1914. He was absent during the 1916–1917 session for naval service, in 1919 he graduated with highest honours, with the degree of MBChB. Later that year he made a trip to India as ships surgeon on a liner, Cronin went on to earn additional degrees, including a Diploma in Public Health and his MRCP. In 1925, he was awarded an M. D. from the University of Glasgow for his dissertation, during World War I, Cronin served as a Surgeon Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before graduating from medical school. After the war, he trained at various hospitals including Bellahouston and Lightburn Hospitals in Glasgow and he undertook general practice work in a small village on the Clyde, Garelochhead, as well as in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. He was involved in the disaster at Ystfad Colliery in Pengelly, where miners were drowned. He subsequently moved to London, where he practised in Harley Street before opening his own thriving medical practice in Notting Hill, Cronin was also the medical officer for Whiteleys at this time and was becoming increasingly interested in ophthalmology. In 1930, after being diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. At Dalchenna Farm by Loch Fyne, he was able to indulge his lifelong desire to write a novel, having previously written nothing but prescriptions
5.
Gregory Peck
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Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor who was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck continued to major film roles until the late 1980s. His performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor and he had also been nominated for an Oscar for the same category for The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentlemans Agreement and Twelve OClock High. Other notable films he appeared in include Spellbound, Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear, How the West Was Won, The Omen, President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema and he was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1983. His father was of English and Irish heritage and his mother of English and she converted to her husbands religion, Roman Catholicism, when she married his father, and Peck was raised as a Catholic. Pecks parents divorced when he was five and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother, at the age of 10 he was sent to a Catholic military school, St. Johns Military Academy in Los Angeles. While he was a student there, his grandmother died, at 14, he moved back to San Diego to live with his father, attended San Diego High School, and after graduating enrolled for one year at San Diego State Teachers College. While there he joined the team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses. Peck however had ambitions to be a doctor and the following year gained admission to the University of California, Berkeley, as an English major, standing 6 ft 3 in, he rowed on the university crew. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay, at Berkeley, encouraged by the acting coach, who saw in him perfect material for university theatre, Peck became more and more interested in acting. He was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the universitys Little Theater, Peck would later say about Berkeley that, it was a very special experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It woke me up and made me a human being, in 1997, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, the renowned Ky Ebright. He was often broke and sometimes slept in Central Park and he worked at the 1939 Worlds Fair and as a tour guide for NBCs television broadcasting. In 1940, Peck learned more of the craft, working in exchange for food, at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, appearing in five plays including Family Portrait. His stage career began in 1941 when he played the secretary in a Katharine Cornell production of George Bernard Shaws play The Doctors Dilemma, unfortunately, the play opened in San Francisco just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams The Morning Star in 1942 and his second Broadway performance that year was in The Willow and I with Edward Pawley. Twentieth Century Fox claimed he had injured his back while rowing at university, ive been trying to straighten out that story for years
6.
Thomas Mitchell (actor)
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Thomas John Mitchell was an American actor. Mitchell was the first male actor to win an Oscar, an Emmy, nominated twice for an Oscar, first for The Hurricane, he won the Best Supporting Actor award for Stagecoach, later, he would be nominated three times for an Emmy Award. He was nominated twice, in 1952 and 1953, for his role in the medical drama The Doctor, nominated again in 1955, for an appearance on a weekly anthology series, he did not win. In addition to being an actor, he was also a director, playwright, Mitchell was born to Irish immigrants in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came from a family of journalists and civic leaders, both his father and brother were newspaper reporters, and his nephew, James P. Mitchell, later served as Dwight Eisenhowers Secretary of Labor. The younger Mitchell also became a reporter after graduating from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth. However, Mitchell soon found that he enjoyed writing comic theatrical skits much more than chasing late-breaking scoops, in 1927 Mitchell joined The Lambs. He became an actor in 1913, at one point touring with Charles Coburns Shakespeare Company, even while playing leading roles on Broadway into the 1920s Mitchell would continue to write. One of the plays he co-authored, Little Accident, was made into a film by Hollywood. Mitchells first credited role was in the 1923 film Six Cylinder Love. Mitchells breakthrough role was as the embezzler in Frank Capras film Lost Horizon, following this performance, he was much in demand in Hollywood. That same year, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in The Hurricane, over the next few years, Mitchell appeared in many significant films. Forty-three of the films in which he acted, were made in the 10-year period from 1936-1946. In 1939 alone he had key roles in Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Only Angels Have Wings, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in his acceptance speech, he quipped, I didnt know I was that good. He is probably best known to audiences today for his role as sad sack Uncle Billy in Capras Christmas classic Its a Wonderful Life with James Stewart, in 1954, he starred in the television version of the radio program, Mayor of the Town. In 1955, he played Kris Kringle in The 20th Century-Fox Hour version of The Miracle on 34th Street opposite Teresa Wright, in 1959, he starred in thirty-nine episodes of the syndicated television series, Glencannon, which had aired two years earlier in the United Kingdom. In the early 1960s, Mitchell originated the stage role Columbo, later made famous on NBC and ABC television by Peter Falk, Mitchell died at age 70 from peritoneal mesothelioma in Beverly Hills, California. In 1953, Mitchell became the first person to win the crown of acting awards
7.
Vincent Price
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Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films. His career spanned other genres, including film noir, drama, mystery, thriller and he appeared on stage, television, radio, and more than one hundred films. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures, and one for television, born and raised in the Saint Louis, Missouri area, he has a star on the Saint Louis Walk of Fame. Price was an art collector and consultant, with a degree in art history and he lectured and wrote books on the subject. He was the founder of the Vincent Price Art Museum in California and he was also a noted gourmet cook. Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of the four children of Vincent Leonard Price, Sr. president of the National Candy Company and his grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented Dr. Prices Baking Powder, the first cream of tartar-based baking powder, Price was of English descent and was a descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in Colonial Massachusetts, being born on the Mayflower while it was in the harbor of Massachusetts. Price had some Welsh ancestry as well, Price attended St. Louis Country Day School. In 1933, he graduated with a degree in art history from Yale University, after teaching for a year, he entered the University of London, intending to study for a masters degree in fine arts. Instead, he was drawn to the theater, first appearing on stage professionally in 1934 and his acting career began in London in 1935, performing with Orson Welless Mercury Theatre. In 1936, Price appeared as Prince Albert in the American production of Laurence Housmans play, Victoria Regina, Price started out in films as a character actor. He made his debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe and established himself in the film Laura, opposite Gene Tierney. His first venture into the genre, for which he became famous, was in the 1939 Boris Karloff film Tower of London. The following year Price portrayed the character in The Invisible Man Returns. In 1946, Price reunited with Tierney in two films, Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. There were also many villainous roles in film noir thrillers like The Web, The Long Night, Rogues Regiment and The Bribe, with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and his first starring role was as conman James Addison Reavis in the 1950 biopic The Baron of Arizona. He also did a comedic turn as the tycoon Burnbridge Waters, co-starring with Ronald Colman in Champagne for Caesar and he was active in radio, portraying the Robin Hood-inspired crime-fighter Simon Templar in The Saint, which ran from 1947-51. In the 1950s, Price moved into films, with a role in House of Wax
8.
Rose Stradner
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Rose Stradner was an Austrian stage and film actress. She was married to the film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, at the age of 45, she committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. Wedding at Lake Wolfgang So Ended a Great Love Hundred Days Dinner Is Served City of Anatol The Postman from Longjumeau The Last Gangster Blind Alley The Keys of the Kingdom Barton, hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in Film. Lion Of Hollywood, The Life And Legend Of Louis B, Rose Stradner at the Internet Movie Database Rose Stradner at Find a Grave
9.
Edmund Gwenn
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Edmund Gwenn was an English actor. He received a second Golden Globe and another Academy Award nomination for the comedy film Mister 880. As a stage actor in the West End and on Broadway, he was associated with a range of works by modern playwrights, including Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy. After the Second World War, he lived in the United States where he had a career in Hollywood. Gwenn was born Edmund John Kellaway in Wandsworth, London and his brother was the actor Arthur Chesney and his cousin, Cecil Kellaway. Gwenn was educated at St. Olaves School and later at Kings College London and he began his acting career in the theatre in 1895, and learnt his craft as a member of Willie Edouins company, playing brash comic roles. In 1901 he married Minnie Terry, niece of the famous actress Ellen Terry, in the same year he went to Australia and acted there for three years with the J. C. Williamson company. His wife accompanied him and when Gwenn was in a production of Ben Hur that was a disastrous failure and he also appeared in plays by Granville-Barker, John Galsworthy and other contemporaries. In Barries What Every Woman Knows in the role of the over-enthusiastic James Wylie he impressed the producer Charles Frohman, in 1912 Gwenn went into management in partnership with Hilda Trevelyan. His career was interrupted by his service during the First World War. During the war Gwenns marriage broke up and was dissolved and his ex-wife remarried but remained on affectionate terms with him. Gwenn began his career in 1916. A notable early role was a recreation of his stage character Hornblower in a silent fim of The Skin Game and his debut in a talking picture was in an adaptation of Shaws How He Lied to Her Husband, made at Elstree in 1931. His final British film role, as a capitalist trying to take over a brewery in Cheer Boys Cheer is credited with being the first authentic Ealing comedy. Gwenn appeared in more than eighty films, including Pride and Prejudice, Cheers for Miss Bishop, Of Human Bondage, george Cukors Sylvia Scarlett was his first appearance in a Hollywood film, as Katharine Hepburns father. He settled in Hollywood in 1940 and became part of its British colony and he had a small role as a Cockney assassin in a Hitchcock film, Foreign Correspondent in 1940. For his Father Christmas role in Miracle on 34th Street he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and he received a second Oscar nomination for his role in Mister 880. Near the end of his career he played one of the roles in Hitchcocks The Trouble with Harry
