A Double Life (1947 Film)
''A Double Life'' is a 1947 American film noir which tells the story of an actor whose mind becomes affected by the character he portrays. It stars Ronald Colman and Signe Hasso. It is directed by George Cukor, with screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Ronald Colman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in this film. Plot Celebrated stage actor Anthony "Tony" John, riding high on the success of his current comedy "A Gentleman's Gentleman", is offered the lead in a new production of Shakespeare's Othello by theatrical producer Max Lasker. Lasker also wants Tony's ex-wife, Brita, to co-star as Desdemona. Tony initially declines the offer to the relief of director Victor Donlan, who knows that Tony becomes overly involved in his roles. Brita agrees with Donlan and warns press agent Bill Friend that although Tony's mood is delightful when appearing in a comedy, he is terrifying when appearing in a drama. She warns Friend that Tony becomes so immersed in roles ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head of Production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including ''What Price Hollywood?'' (1932), '' A Bill of Divorcement'' (1932), ''Our Betters'' (1933), and '' Little Women'' (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed '' Dinner at Eight'' (1933) and ''David Copperfield'' (1935) for Selznick, and ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) and '' Camille'' (1936) for Irving Thalberg. He was replaced as one of the directors of ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), but he went on to direct '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1940), ''Gaslight'' (1944), ''Adam's Rib'' (1949), '' Born Yesterday'' (1950), '' A Star Is Born'' (1954), ''Bhowani Junction'' (1956), and won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ray Collins (actor)
Ray Bidwell Collins (December 10, 1889 – July 11, 1965) was an American character actor in stock and Broadway theatre, radio, films, and television. With 900 stage roles to his credit, he became one of the most successful actors in the developing field of radio drama. A friend and associate of Orson Welles for many years, Collins went to Hollywood with the Mercury Theatre company and made his feature-film debut in '' Citizen Kane'' (1941), as Kane's ruthless political rival. Collins appeared in more than 75 films and had one of his best-remembered roles on television, as Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg in the CBS-TV series ''Perry Mason''. Life and career Ray Bidwell Collins was born December 10, 1889, in Sacramento, California, to Lillie Bidwell and William Calderwood Collins. His father was a newspaper reporter and dramatic editor on '' The Sacramento Bee''. His mother was the niece of John Bidwell, pioneer, statesman, and founder of society ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fay Kanin
Fay Kanin (née Mitchell; May 9, 1917March 27, 2013) was an American screenwriter, playwright and producer. Kanin was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1979 to 1983. Biography Born Fay Mitchell in New York City to David and Bessie (née Kaiser) Mitchell, she was raised in Elmira, New York, where she won the New York State Spelling Championship at twelve and was presented with a silver cup by then Governor Franklin Roosevelt. She was encouraged to write for money by supplying small items to the ''Elmira Star Gazette''.Lefcourt. 2000. She was Jewish. In high school she wrote and produced a children's radio show; then on full scholarship, she attended the private, all-female Elmira College where she divided her studies between writing and acting as well as editing the yearbook. Fay's mother took her daughter to visit her grandmother in the Bronx, and it was there that she became devoted to the theater when she saw a matinée of '' Idiot's Delight'' s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guy Bates Post
Guy Bates Post (September 22, 1875 – January 16, 1968) was an American character actor who appeared in at least twenty-one Broadway plays and twenty-five Hollywood films over a career that spanned more than fifty years. He was perhaps best remembered in the role of Omar Khayyám in the 1914 stage and 1922 film productions of Richard Walton Tully's '' Omar the Tentmaker'' and for his over fifteen hundred performances in John Hunter Booth's 1917 play '' The Masquerader''. Early life Guy Bates Post was born in Seattle, Washington, the first of two sons and a daughter (actress Madeline Post) raised by John J. Post and Mary Annette Ostrander. His father, a Canadian of English descent, was a partner in the Seattle lumber firm Stetson and Post. His mother was born in Wisconsin into a family that had originally come west from New York. Post received his education at schools in Seattle and later San Francisco before dropping out of college to embark on a career in theatre.Guy Bates Pos ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marjorie Woodworth
Marjorie Woodworth (June 5, 1919 – August 23, 2000) was an American actress. Born in Inglewood, California, she was a drum majorette at the University of Southern California. Woodworth appeared in the films ''Dance, Girl, Dance'', '' Road Show'', ''Broadway Limited'', ''Niagara Falls'', '' All-American Co-Ed'', ''Brooklyn Orchid'', ''Flying with Music'', '' The McGuerins from Brooklyn'', ''Prairie Chickens'', ''Yanks Ahoy'', '' A Wave, a WAC and a Marine'', ''Salty O'Rourke'', ''You Came Along'', '' In Fast Company'' and ''Decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lu ...''. References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodworth, Marjorie 1919 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American actresses American film actresses Actresses from Los Angeles ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Betsy Blair
Betsy Blair (born Elizabeth Winifred Boger; December 11, 1923March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London. Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's ''Diamond Horseshoe'' in 1940. There she met Gene Kelly; they were married the following year, when she was age 17 and divorced sixteen years later in 1957. After work in the theatre, Blair began her film career playing supporting roles in films such as '' A Double Life'' (1947) and ''Another Part of the Forest'' (1948). Her interest in Marxism led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Blair was blacklisted for some time, but resumed her career with a critically acclaimed performance in '' Marty'' (1955) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued her career with reg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Claire Carleton
Claire Carleton (September 28, 1913 – December 11, 1979) was an American actress whose career spanned four decades from the 1930s through the 1960s. She appeared in over 100 films, the majority of them features, and on numerous television shows, including several recurring roles. In addition to her screen acting, she had a successful stage career. Early life Carleton was born in New York City. She began acting on the stage, eventually making it to Broadway, where she made her debut as Lucy in the short-lived play, ''Blue Monday'' in June, 1932. Career Although she made her film debut in a small role in a 1933 film short, ''Seasoned Greetings'', and continued to occasionally make shorts for the remainder of the decade, she concentrated on her stage career during the 1930s. She made her first appearance in a feature film in 1940's ''Millionaire Playboy'', starring Joe Penner, Linda Hayes, and Russ Brown. During her film career she was often cast as the "other woman", or i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harlan Briggs
Harlan Briggs (August 17, 1879 – January 26, 1952) was an American actor and Vaudeville performer who was active from the 1930s until his death in 1952. During the course of his career he appeared on Broadway, in over 100 films, as well as appearing on television once towards the end of his career. Early life Briggs was born on August 17, 1879 in Blissfield, Michigan. Although he was a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, he chose to go into acting rather than pursue a career in law. Career His acting career began in Vaudeville at around the beginning of the 20th century. He would make his Broadway debut in 1926, in the drama ''Up the Line''. He worked steadily on Broadway through 1935. On August 6, 1929 he began a successful run in the featured role of G. A. Appleby in ''It's a Wise Child'' at the Belasco Theatre. In 1934 he had another featured role in the successful play, '' Dodsworth'', as Tubby Pearson. The show opened at the Shubert Theatre on Februa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wilton Graff
Wilton Graff (born Wilton Calvert Ratcliffe; August 13, 1903 – January 13, 1969) was an American actor. Early years The son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Graff, he was born Wilton Calvert Ratcliffe in St. Louis, Missouri, US. He graduated from West Hartford High School in 1921. Career Before he became an actor, Graff worked for newspapers, including ''The Hartford Times'', '' The Springfield Republican'', and the ''Paris Herald''. Graff debuted on Broadway in ''Fantasia'' (1933). His last Broadway appearance was in ''Gabrielle'' (1941). He began working in movies in the 1940s and eventually appeared in dozens, usually as a professional man or an authority figure, such as a military officer. He starred in only one film, ''Bloodlust!'', playing against type as an obvious, deranged villain. Most of his work in the last 10 years of his career was on television. In 1956, he guest starred on James Arness’s TV Western Series ''Gunsmoke'', as “Troy Carver”, in the episod ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Art Smith (actor)
Arthur Gordon Smith (March 23, 1899 – February 24, 1973) was an American stage, film, and television actor, best known for playing supporting roles in Hollywood productions of the 1940s. Life and career Born in Chicago, he was a member of the Group Theatre and performed in many of their productions, including '' Rocket to the Moon'', ''Awake and Sing!'', '' Golden Boy'' and ''Waiting for Lefty'', all by Clifford Odets; ''House of Connelly'' by Paul Green; and Sidney Kingsley's '' Men in White.'' The gray-haired actor usually played studious and dignified types in films, such as doctors or butlers. Smith appeared in many noirish films, including '' Body and Soul'' (1947) and ''In a Lonely Place'' (1950). He had a key role as a federal agent in 1947's ''Ride the Pink Horse'', starring and directed by Robert Montgomery. Two of these films, ''In a Lonely Place'' and ''Ride a Pink Horse'', were based on novels by Dorothy B. Hughes. Smith was one of the victims of the Hollyw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Whit Bissell
Whitner Nutting Bissell (October 25, 1909 – March 5, 1996) was an American character actor. Early life Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell and Helen Nutting Bissell. He was educated at the Allen-Stevenson School and the Dalton School in New York City. He was related to Daniel Bissell, who was awarded the Badge of Military Merit, the predecessor of the Purple Heart, by George Washington. He trained with the Carolina Playmakers, a theatrical organization associated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in drama and English. Career Bissell had a number of roles in Broadway theatre, including the Air Force show ''Winged Victory'', when he was an airman serving in the United States Army Air Forces. In a film career that began with '' Holy Matrimony'' (1943), Bissell appeared in hundreds of films and television episodes as a prominent character actor. Regularly cast in low-budget science fiction and h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |