In The Spotlight Redux

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: TERESA WRIGHT

A natural and lovely talent she was born Muriel Teresa Wright in Harlem, New York City on October 27, 1918 and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey.
During her years at Columbia High School, she became seriously interested in acting and spent her summers working in Provincetown theater productions. Following her high school graduation in 1938, she returned to New York and was hired to understudy the role of Emily (played by Dorothy McGuire and later Martha Scott) in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town". She took over the role when Martha Scott went to Hollywood to make the film version of the play.

In the fall of 1939, she appeared in the stage play "Life with Father", playing the role of Mary Skinner for two years. It was there that she was discovered by a talent scout hired by Samuel Goldwyn to find a young actress for the role of Bette Davis' daughter in the 1941 adaptation of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes". She was immediately signed to a five-year Hollywood contract but asserted her seriousness as an actress.

Wright was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her screen debut in "The Little Foxes" (1941). The following year, she was nominated again, this time for Best Actress for "The Pride of the Yankees", in which she played opposite Gary Cooper as the wife of Lou Gehrig; that same year, she won Best Supporting Actress as the daughter-in-law of Greer Garson's character in "Mrs. Miniver". No actor has ever duplicated her feat of receiving an Oscar nomination for each of her first three films.



Teresa Wright in "Mrs. Miniver" with Richard Ney (above) and Walter Pidgeon & Greer Garson (below).


In 1943, Wright was loaned out by Goldwyn for the Universal film "Shadow of a Doubt", directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She played an innocent young woman who discovers that her beloved uncle, played by Joseph Cotten, is a serial murderer.

Other notable films include "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), an award-winning film about the adjustments of servicemen returning home after World War II, and "The Men" (1950) opposite Marlon Brando.


Above, with co-stars Dana Andrews, Fredric March and Myrna Loy.

With co-star Dana Andrews (below) in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946)


In "The Men" with her co-star Marlon Brando in his first movie.


Wright rebelled against the studio system of the time. When Samuel Goldwyn fired her, citing her refusal to publicize the film "Enchantment" (1948), she expressed no regret about losing her $5,000 per week contract. She said, "The type of contract between players and producers is, I feel, antiquated in form and abstract in concept... We have no privacies which producers cannot invade, they trade us like cattle, boss us like children."

However, before a March 2006 screening of "Enchantment" on Turner Classic Movies, host Robert Osborne said that Wright later regretted leaving Goldwyn, since her salary per film went from $125,000 under Goldwyn to about $25,000 per film afterwards.

Other films included, "Casanova Brown", "Pursued", "The Trouble with Women" with Ray Milland, "The Capture" with Lew Ayres, "The Steel Trap", "The Actress", "Track of the cat", "The Happy Ending", etc.
Her husband, Niven Busch, originally penned "Duel in the Sun" (1946) for her to play the lead, as a departure from her girl-next-door roles. But pregnancy forced her to drop out, and Jennifer Jones got the lead.

The "Golden Age" of TV was her salvation during the lean film years in which she appeared in fine form in a number of dramatic showcases.

After 1959, she worked mainly in television and on the stage. She was nominated for Emmy Awards in 1957 for "The Miracle Worker" and in 1960 for "The Margaret Bourke-White Story". She was in the 1975 Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman" and the 1980 revival of "Morning's at Seven", for which she won a Drama Desk Award as a member of the Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

Her more recent movie appearances included a major role in "Somewhere in Time" (1980) and the role of Miss Birdie in John Grisham's "The Rainmaker" (1997).

I recall that she appeared on both Academy Award shows in 1998 and in 2003 honoring past Oscar winners. She sat last in line alphabetically, a small figure of a woman, yet ever so gracious.


Teresa Wright in her later years.

Wright was married to writer Niven Busch from 1942 to 1952; they had two children. She married playwright Robert Anderson in 1959; they later divorced, but maintained a close relationship until the end of her life.

She died of a heart attack at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut at the age of 86.

In honor of her heartfelt performance in "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942), when Teresa Wright died in 2005, when the roll call of former Yankees who had passed on was announced, her name was read out among all the ballplayers.

She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television.

Quoted: "I only ever wanted to be an actress, not a star." Lucky for us, she was both.

[jdb1]

Wow, Mongo, that's very interesting to me, about The Margaret Bourke-White Story. I remember seeing it and it made quite an impression on me as a girl, but I categorically do not remember B-W being played by Teresa Wright.

Maybe I didn't really know who Wright was at the time. In my adult years, I'd have to say that she isn't one of my favorites - that little sob in the voice - don't like. But reading your post, I had to do a little look-up to see if maybe there was another Margaret Bourke-White story out there somewhere and no, that seems to be the one - I remember the show centered on the brain surgery B-W had to combat Parkinson's.

I hope to see it again some time to reassess my feelings toward Teresa Wright. Thanks. JDB

[mrsl]

There was a biography on Ms. Bourke-White made for TV in 1989 starring Farrah Fawcett which centered mainly on her years as a war correspondent which was the only knowledge I ever had of her. Perhaps that's what you're thinking about jdb.

Anne

[jdb1]

There was a biography on Ms. Bourke-White made for TV in 1989 starring Farrah Fawcett which centered mainly on her years as a war correspondent which was the only knowledge I ever had of her. Perhaps that's what you're thinking about jdb.

Anne

No, Anne, actually I've never seen that one. I'm remembering something I saw as a girl (which was way before 1989), and I remember a big deal over her surgery, which I think was something radically new at the time she had it.

I've also remembered that when I was even younger, there was a woman in my neighborhood with a very bad palsy, and that may be why this show had such resonance for me. This woman used to ask us kids to help her with things she couldn't keep her hands steady for. I remember she once asked me to put her change purse back into her coat pocket, and I was so nervous about approaching her, because I was afraid I'd knock her over (I didn't).

[mongoII]

Judith, regarding your take on Teresa Wright and "- that little sob in the voice - don't like", just happens to be what I like about her.
Not to mention at least five exceptional film roles that she created.

Perhaps if you get to see "The Margaret Bourke-White Story" (1960) once again you'll appreciate the versatility of her performance.
I've seen her in some TV drama's as she aged and she has lost the little sob.

[jdb1]

I have no trouble with Teresa Wright's acting skills, Mongo. I simply don't like listening to women who talk that way. I feel the same about a latter-day Teresa Wright sobber, Mary Steenburgen, except I like her a whole lot less than I like Ms. Wright.

In real life I avoid having to deal with any women who talk in that manner; it sets my teeth on edge. To each her own.

[mrsl]

I'm with you guys on the 'sob sisters'. Unfortunately you phrase it more nicely than I did when I talked about how Jean Arthurs' voice drove me nuts. To this day, that woman makes me cringe when she talks in movies.

Anne

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: JUANO HERNANDEZ

The screen's first "new style" black screen actor was Born Huano G. Hernandez July 19, 1896 (some sources indicate 1901) in the capital of Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican fisherman and a Brazilian mother. His father died soon after Hernandez's birth and his mother moved back to Brazil. His mother died when he was still a child and he had to spend most of his youth in the streets of Rio de Janeiro singing for food.

Hernandez did not receive any formal education, however, he taught himself the basics of reading and writing. He was hired by a circus and became a performer (acrobat & juggler) and later he lived in the Caribbean and worked as a professional boxer under the name Kid Curley.
Hernandez enjoyed performing in front of the public and decided that he wanted a career in the field of entertainment. He moved to the United States to accomplish his goals.

In New York City, he worked in vaudeville and minstrel shows. During his spare time he perfected his diction by studying Shakespeare thus, enabling himself to work in radio. He co-starred in radio's first all-black soap opera "We Love and Learn", among others.

He became a household name after his participation in "The Cavalcade of America", a series which promoted American history and inventiveness. His participation in the chorus of the 1927 Broadway musical production "Showboat", and in the successful play "Strage Fruit", opened the "doors" to his career as a film actor.

In 1932, Hernandez was cast in his first role, that of "Gomez" a drug lord, in the film titled "The Girl from Chicago". Hernandez participated in 23 films throughout his career which included, "Young Man with a Horn" as Kirk Douglas' mentor, "Stars in My Crown", "The Breaking Point" with John Garfield, "Kiss Me Deadly", "Trial", "Ransom!" with Glenn Ford, "Something of Value", "St. Louis Blues", "Sergeant Rutledge", "The Pawnbroker", "The Reivers" with Steve McQueen, etc.


Hernandez as Art Hazzard in "Young Man With a Horn"

It was in 1949, he got the role of a lifetime in a film based on William Faulkner's novel entitled "Intruder in the Dust". He played the role of "Lucas Beauchamp", a poor southern sharecropper unjustly accused of murder.

Juano Hernandez in "Intruder in the Dust"(above).

The film earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for "New Star of the Year". Many critics felt that he should have been granted an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.


Juano Hernandez with John Garfield in "The Breaking Point"

From the New York Times Review of "The Breaking Point":
Juano Hernandez is quietly magnificent as John Garfield's helper and friend. As a matter of fact, the suggestion of comradeship and trust that is achieved through the character played by Mr. Hernandez, and the pathos created by his death, is not only a fine evidence of racial feeling, but it is one of the most moving factors in the film.


Juano Hernandez as a sympathetic butler and Bobby Clark as the lad who is "snatched" are the two bright, believable individuals in this well-meaning but far-fetched picture show" - New York Times (1956)


Juano Hernandez has dignity and authority as a Negro judge - New York Times Review of "Trial" (1955)


Hernandez with Sidney Poitier in his final completed role in "They Call Me Mr. Tibbs"(1970)


His last project was a film about the life of Sixto Escobar, whose script he wrote in collaboration with Julio Torregrosa. He tried to get funding in Puerto Rico but was not successful, so he translated it into English, sent it to several companies in Hollywood and had it almost sold when sadly a stroke cost him his life.

Juano Hernandez was one of the first Puerto Ricans of African descent to become a major star in the United States and one of the first "new style" black screen actors, who neither sang nor danced but played regular characters.

He died in San Juan on July 17, 1970 at age 73 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was laid to rest at Cementerio Buxeda Memorial Park, Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico.

Mr. Hernandez played masculine, sensitive, individualistic men. After getting a number of solid roles, he was obliged to accept lesser roles in most of the films he made from the late '50s on. He continued acting until shortly before his death, working in both films and on TV. Lucky for us.

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: SYLVIA SIDNEY

The sad-eyed beauty with a heart-shaped face, an only child, was born Sophia Kosow in The Bronx, New York on August 8, 1910 to Rebecca, a Romanian Jew, and Victor Kosow, a Russian Jewish immigrant. They divorced not long after her birth. Her mother subsequently remarried and Sylvia was adopted by her stepfather, Sigmund Sidney.
Sidney became an actress at the age of 15 as a way of overcoming shyness, using her stepfather's surname as her professional surname. As a student of the Theater Guild's School for Acting, Sidney appeared in several of their productions during the 1920s and earned praise from theater critics.
In 1926, she was seen by a Hollywood talent scout and made her first film appearance later that year.

During the Depression, Sidney appeared in a string of films, often playing the girlfriend or the sister of a gangster. She appeared opposite such heavyweight screen idols as Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Fredric March, George Raft (a frequent screen partner), and Cary Grant.




Quoted: "Fredric March had the reputation of being a ladies man. We made two pictures together, "Merrily We Go to Hell" (1932) and "Good Dame" (1934). But he never laid a hand on me, never made a pass at me! Freddie was happily married. He'd tease me by saying, 'Look at those boobs!' or 'Look at that toosh!'. But it was all in fun."


Among her films from this period were: "An American Tragedy", "City Streets" and "Street Scene" all in 1931, Alfred Hitchcock's "Sabotage" and Fritz Lang's "Fury" both in 1936, "You Only Live Once" and "Dead End" in 1937. Although Sidney had an arresting, slightly Eurasian face and a lovely figure, these assets were often obscured for the sake of the stark, gritty plots of her films. She was also prominent on the Broadway stage.


A publicity glamour shot


Her career diminished somewhat during the 1940s. In 1952, she played the role of Fantine in "Les Misérables", and her performance was widely praised and allowed her opportunities to develop as a character actress.

Sidney as Cho-Cho San in "Madame Butterfly"


Other roles included, "Ladies of the Big House", "Merrily We Go to Hell", "Madame Butterfly", "Good Dame", "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine", "One Third of a Nation", "The Wagons Roll at Night", "Blood on the Sun" with Cagney, "Mr. Ace", "Violent Saturday", "Damien: Omen II", etc. She turned down the 'casbah girl' lead in "Algiers" (1938) opposite 'Charles Boyer'. Hedy Lamarr went on to fame in the role.



With Robert Young in "The Searching Wind" (1946).

She received a Golden Globe nomination and an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams" (1973), and was visibly furious at losing to the 10-year-old Tatum O'Neal. During the filming of "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams", costar Joanne Woodward remarked how she and her husband, Paul Newman, had a difficult time remembering their anniversary date. Later, Sidney surprised Woodward with a gift of a handmade pillow with the inscription "Paul and Joanne" and their anniversary date.

Sidney in her Oscar nominated role as Mrs.Pritchett in "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams" (1973)

She also wrote a few books on needlepoint, in which she excelled.
As an elderly woman Sidney continued to play supporting screen roles, and was identifiable by her husky voice, the result of a lifetime cigarette smoking habit.
She was the formidable Miss Coral in the film version of "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and later was cast as Aidan Quinn's grandmother in the television production of "An Early Frost" (about AIDS) for which she won a Golden Globe Award.
Sidney also played key roles in "Beetlejuice" (directed by longtime Sidney fan Tim Burton) and "Used People" (which co-starred Jessica Tandy, Marcello Mastroianni, Marcia Gay Harden, Kathy Bates and Shirley MacLaine).
Her final role was in another film by Burton, "Mars Attacks!", in which she played a senile grandmother whose beloved Slim Whitman records stop an alien invasion from Mars when played over a louspeaker.

Sidney was married three times, she married publisher Bennet Cerf on 1 October 1935, but the couple were divorced shortly after on April 9, 1936. She then was married to actor and acting teacher Luther Adler from 1938 until 1947, by whom she had a son Jacob who predeceased her and a daughter Jody. Her son contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) at age 32. The actress has been a tireless volunteer for the National ALS Foundation ever since.
On March 5,1947 she married radio producer and announcer Carlton Alsop. They were divorced on March 22, 1951.

An antique farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut was Miss Sidney's home for decades, before moving to suburban Danbury, Connecticut the last several years of her life.
She died from throat cancer in New York City at the age of 88, after a career spanning more than 70 years.

Sidney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures.

Quoted: "What did Hitchcock teach me? To be a puppet and not try to be creative."

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: ROBERT WALKER

The charming, boyish actor was born Robert Hudson Walker on October 13, 1918 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Zella and Horace Walker, he was the youngest of four sons.
He attended the San Diego Army and Navy Military Academy and developed an interest in acting which led to his maternal aunt to offer to pay for his enrollment at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1937.

It was at the academy that Walker met fellow aspiring actress Phyllis Isley (better known as Jennifer Jones). After a brief courtship the two were married on January 2, 1939 and moved to Hollywood to find work in films.
Their prospects proved to be meager however and they soon returned to New York where Walker found work in radio and Phyllis gave birth to two sons in quick succession, actor Robert Walker, Jr., born April 15, 1940, and Michael Walker, born March 13, 1941.
Phyllis then returned to auditioning where her luck changed when she was discovered by producer David O. Selznick who changed her name to Jennifer Jones and groomed her for stardom.
During their initial meetings Selznick was highly attracted to Jones and they quietly began an affair. She eventually landed the plum role of Bernadette Soubirous in the Twentieth Century Fox production "The Song of Bernadette" (1943). Many speculate that her film success was the result of her affair with Selznick who managed every aspect of her life and furthered her career.


Walker with Greer Garson in "Madame Curie"(1943).


Walker in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944).



Walker starred with Donna Reed in this 1944 production.


The couple returned to Hollywood and Selznick's connections helped Walker secure a contract with MGM where he started work on the war drama "Bataan" (1943). Walker's charming demeanor and boyish good looks caught on with audiences and he worked steadily playing "boy-next-door" roles in films such as "See Here, Private Hargrove" (1944) and "Her Highness and the Bellboy" with Hedy Lamarr (1945). He also appeared in Selznick's "Since You Went Away" (1944) in which he and his wife gave poignant performances as doomed young lovers. By that time Walker had found out about her affair with Selznick and the filming of loves scenes was torturous for the actor; Selznick was especially cruel by having him perform take after take of each love scene with Jones.




Walker and Jones were divorced after the end of filming and although he continued to work steadily in Hollywood, he was distraught by the divorce and prone to drinking and emotional outbursts.

In 1946 he starred in "'Till the Clouds Roll By", where he played the lead as the song writer Jerome Kern in a role that required him to age from a young man to an old man. Walker starred as composer Johannes Brahms in "Song of Love" (1947), which co-starred Katharine Hepburn and Paul Henreid.

He subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and spent time at the Menninger Clinic in 1949. Following his release from the Menninger Clinic, Walker was hired by director Alfred Hitchcock for "Strangers on a Train" (1951). His performance as the evil yet oddly sympathetic Bruno Anthony was highly lauded and considered to be his finest role.
His emotional problems largely behind him, and his career in an upswing following his latest acclaimed performance, he spent a lot of time with his sons, and was considering the possibility of remarrying. (He had married Barbara Ford the daughter of director John Ford in 1948 but the marriage was annulled six weeks later).

During his 15 year movie career, he made 24 films which included, "Madame Curie", "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", "The Clock" with Judy Garland, "The Sailor Takes a Wife", "The Beginning or the End", "The Sea of Grass", "One Touch of Venus" with Ava Gardner, "Please Believe Me", "Vengeance Valley", etc.

While filming "My Son John" with Helen Hayes in 1951, Walker died suddenly. Suffering a severe panic attack in the early evening, he was administered an injection of sodium amytal under cloudy circumstances by two psychiatrists who had appeared at his home. Unused footage from "Strangers on a Train" in addition to a body double were used to complete "My Son John".
Walker was 32 years old and was buried at Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah.

The circumstances surrounding Walker's death have never been fully explained. Conflicting stories surfaced from those who were present the night he died.

The heartbroken actor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: GLADYS COOPER

Essential character actress Gladys Constance Cooper was born on December 18, 1888 in Lewisham, London, one of the three daughters of Charles William Frederick Cooper by his marriage to Mabel Barnett.

The lady made her stage début in 1905 touring with Seymour Hicks in his musical "Bluebell in Fairyland", among many others. The young beauty also was a popular photographic model, and in 1913 she appeared in her first film, "The Eleventh Commandment".

It was not until 1922, however, that she found major critical success in the stage play "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray". She also appeared in Maugham's The Letter in 1927.

Cooper found success in Hollywood in a variety of character roles and was most frequently cast as a disapproving, aristocratic society woman. She was first noticed in Hitchcock's "Rebecca" followed by "Kitty Foyle", "That Hamilton Woman", "This Above All", "Mr. Lucky", "The White Cliffs of Dover", "Mrs. Parkington", "The Valley of Decision", "Love Letters", "The Green Years", "Green Dolphin Street", "The Bishop's Wife", "The Pirate" with Judy Garland, "The Secret Garden", "Madame Bovary", "Separate Tables", etc.

With Nigel Bruce and Joan Fontaine in "Rebecca"

She was nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performances. These include Bette Davis's pathologically repressive mother in "Now, Voyager", a skeptical nun in The "Song of Bernadette", and Rex Harrison's mother, Mrs. Higgins, in "My Fair Lady".


As the tyrannical mother in "Now, Voyager"

With Jennifer Jones in "Song of Bernadette"



In "Love Letters" with Jennifer Jones.


With the late Deborah Kerr in "Separate Tables"


Cooper with Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in "My Fair Lady"

Among many other appearances, she starred in the 1960s TV series "The Rogues" with David Niven, Charles Boyer and Gig Young. For this she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1965.
She also appeared in three episodes of "The Twilight Zone", notably "Nothing in the Dark", in 1962. In this episode she plays an old lady who refuses to leave her apartment for fear of meeting Death with Robert Redford.

As the anguished recluse trying to elude Death (Robert Redford) in "The Twilight Zone."

Her second appearance on "The Twilight Zone" was in 1964, in an episode entitled, "Night Call". Here she plays an old lady who is besieged by late night phone calls from the ghost of her long-dead fiancée.

Her last major success on the stage was in the role of Mrs. St. Maugham in "The Chalk Garden", a role she created in London and on Broadway. In 1967 at nearly 80 years of age, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of British Empire . She continued to act past her 80th birthday, including a memorable performance in 1971 in a revival of "The Chalk Garden".

She was married three times including to Captain Herbert Buckmaster (two children, including a daughter, Joan Buckmaster who married the actor Robert Morley), English baronet Sir Neville Pearson; (one daughter), and to English actor Philip Merivale.
She lived for many years in Santa Monica, California, as a permanent resident alien with her third husband (Merivale), until his death in 1946 at 59 from a heart ailment.

She herself eventually returned to the United Kingdom for her final years. She appeared with Wendy Hiller and Leo Genn in Somerset Maugham's "The Sacred Flame" in London in 1967.

She died in 1971 from pneumonia at the age of 82 in Henley-on-Thames, England. A grand Dame indeed.


Gladys Cooper: Stage, screen and Television star

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: EDMUND GWENN

The endearing character actor was born Edmund Kellaway in Wandsworth, London, England on September 26, 1877. His father was a severe British civil servant who turned him out of the house at 17 for expressing a desire to become an actor. In spite or because of this, he went on the stage in 1895. Playwright George Bernard Shaw was impressed with his acting, and cast him in the first production of "Man and Superman", and subsequently in five more of his plays.

Gwenn's career was interrupted by his military service during World War I. Returning to the stage after the war, he eventually started making films, first in England and then almost exclusively in America.He and character actor Cecil Kellaway were cousins.

The plump, crinkly-eyed, elfin character actor who played both saints and villains appeared in more than eighty films during his career, including the 1940 version of "Pride and Prejudice", "Cheers for Miss Bishop", "Of Human Bondage" (1946), and "The Keys of the Kingdom".
He has a small but hugely memorable role as a Cockney assassin in another Hitchcock film, "Foreign Correspondent" (1940).

Gwenn as Rowley, the Cockney assassin, played one of his rare villains in the Hitchcock film.

Some of his other films include, "Sylvia Scarlett", "The Walking Dead" with Karloff, "Anthony Adverse", "A Yank at Oxford", "The Devil and Miss Jones", "Lassie Come Home", "Between Two Worlds", "Undercurrent", "Life with Father", "Green Dolphin Street", "For Heaven's Sake", "Something for the Birds", "The Student Prince", etc.


Gwenn (below) taking direction from Michael Curtiz, with whom he made 3 films, "Anthony Adverse" (1936), "The Walking Dead" (1936), and "Life with Father (1947).



He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in "Miracle on 34th Street", for which he won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

As Kris Kringle in his Oscar winning role with Natalie Wood.


With John Payne, Maureen O'Hara and Natalie in "Miracle on 34th St."
Upon receiving his Oscar, he said "Now I know there is a Santa Claus!"

He received a second Oscar nomination for his role in "Mister 880" and won the Golden Globe Award.

As the lovable counterfeiter in "Mr. 880"


Gwenn with Spring Byington in "Louisa" (1950)



Gwenn appeared with Patricia Neal and Victor Mature in the Washington comedy about lobbyists, "Something for the Birds"(1952)


In 1954, Gwenn played Dr. Harold Medford in the classic science fiction film "Them!" (about the giant ants) with James Arness and James Whitmore. In a magazine interview in 1998, actress Joan Weldon revealed that during the shoot of "Them!" the temperature reached 110°F and both she and Gwenn were wearing wool clothing. It was even more insufferable for Gwenn, who struggled with advanced arthritis. Although unnoticeable to audiences, he was in pain and was helped off set by his valet, Ernest.

Near the end of his career he played one of the main roles in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry" (1955).

With Mildred Natwick in the darkly humorous Hitchcock movie, "The Trouble with Harry"
The gent was married and divorced within hours in 1901, and remained a bachelor. He died September 6, 1959 at age 81 from pneumonia after suffering a stroke, in Woodland Hills, California. He was cremated and his ashes are stored in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.

Edmund Gwenn has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street for his contribution to motion pictures. He certainly deserved it.

[mongoII]

In the Spotlight: JULIE ADAMS

The lovely actress was born Betty May Adams on October 17, 1926 in Waterloo, Iowa and although born in the Hawkeye State, she grew up in Arkansas, making her acting debut in a third grade play, "Hansel and Gretel".
Deciding to become an actress, she moved to California, where she worked three days a week as a secretary (to support herself) and spent the remainder of her time taking speech lessons and making the rounds at the various studios' casting departments.

Her first movie role was playing a starlet, appropriately enough, in Paramount's "Red, Hot and Blue" with Betty Hutton (1949), followed by a leading role in the Lippert Studios western "The Dalton Gang" (1949). Over a period of five weeks, she appeared in six more quickie Lippert westerns.

Adams' first big show business break was at Universal, when she appeared in a screen test opposite All-American footballer Leon Hart, a Detroit Lions end. It was Hart who was being considered by the studio, but the gridiron star flopped while Universal execs flipped over Adams.

She used her real name, Betty Adams, until 1949 when she began working for Universal Pictures. She then became Julia and eventually Julie Adams. Adams is probably best remembered as the bathing beauty in 1954's "Creature From the Black Lagoon".


Julie on the set with the Gill Man.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


With Charlton Heston in "The Private War of Major Benson"


Julie with George Nader in "Four Girls in Town" (1957)


Julie with Rock Hudson in "One Desire"

Universal publicity in the 50s claimed that her legs won an award as "the most perfectly symmetrical in the world" and that they were insured for $125,000 dollars.


Julie with two Hollywood legends, Jimmy Stewart in "Bend of the River" (above) and with Tyrone Power in "Mississippi Gambler"(below), in German language poster for the latter movie.



Some of her other films included, "Bright Victory", "Bend of he River", "The Mississippi Gambler" with Tyrone Power, "Six Bridges to Cross" with Tony Curtis, "The Looters", "The Private War of Major Benson", "One Desire", "Away All Boats", "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", "Tarawa Beachhead", "Tickle Me" with Elvis, etc.

Julie with Elvis in "Tickle Me".
Later in her career, she worked in television in numerous guest starring roles, including appearances in a few soaps, "Maverick", "The Doris Day Show", "The Jimmy Stewart Show", and as real estate agent Eve Simpson on "Murder, She Wrote".

Adams was married just once, to the late actor/director Ray Danton (1954 - 1981), and they had two sons together.

Julie (below) in a scene from "Psychic Killer" directed by husband Ray Danton (1975).



Julie Adams speaking at a recent nostalgia convention.

She is spry and looking good at age 81, and continues to make appearances at nostalgia events. Last on TVs "CSI:NY" in 2007.

Quoted: No matter what you do, you can act your heart out, but people will always say, "Oh, Julie Adams - Creature from the Black Lagoon."

[mrsl]

I remember Julie Adams from all the Warner Bros. TV shows she was on, and I swear she was on every one of them, from 77 Sunset Strip to Bourbon Street Beat to Cheyenne She was lovely, and still was on Murder She Wrote a few years ago. It's a shame she didn't get offered some true 'leading' roles.

Anne

[jdb1]

I remember Julie Adams from all the Warner Bros. TV shows she was on, and I swear she was on every one of them, from 77 Sunset Strip to Bourbon Street Beat to Cheyenne She was lovely, and still was on Murder She Wrote a few years ago. It's a shame she didn't get offered some true 'leading' roles.

Anne

Yes, I was a fan of hers as well. When I was a little girl, she was one of the women, along with Dana Wynter, Suzie Parker and Dorothy Dandridge that I thought were Hollywood's most beautiful women. I longed to be just like them. Still trying.