|
Congo Bill (serial)
''Congo Bill'' (1948) is a Columbia movie serial based on the DC Comics character Congo Bill, later named Congorilla. Plot A girl is about to inherit a fortune, but she is missing in Africa. Only then, family charges Congo Bill, an adventurer, to find her, and bring her back to civilization. He follows a legend about a mysterious White Queen, but his path is full of difficulties, by an inhospitable jungle, and the man who will lose the fortune if the girl is found alive... Cast * Don McGuire as Congo Bill, famed hunter and animal trainer * Cleo Moore as Queen Lureen / Ruth Culver, white ruler of a forbidden valley in Africa and the missing heiress to the Culver fortune * Jack Ingram as Cameron, mysterious trader * I. Stanford Jolley as Bernie McGraw, villainous trustee of the Culver fortune * Leonard Penn as Andre Bocar, owner of the seedy African bar The Green Parrot Inn, in Bernie McGraw's pay and working for his own ends * Nelson Leigh as Dr Greenway * Charles King as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Gordon Bennet
Spencer Gordon Bennet (January 5, 1893 – October 8, 1987) was an American film producer and director. Known as the "King of Serial Directors", he directed more film serials than any other director. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bennet first entered show business as a stunt man, when he answered a newspaper ad to jump from the Palisades of the Hudson River while wearing a suit for the serial film ''Hurricane Hutch'' (1921). The gig at that time paid $1 per foot he had to fall. He made his directorial debut in 1921's ''Behold the Man'' but made his serial directorial debut in 1925 with ''Sunken Silver''. He would keep making serials, as well as B-Western features, until the very end of the genre, directing the last two serials made in the United States, ''Blazing the Overland Trail'' (1956) and ''Perils of the Wilderness'' (1956). After the serials ended he directed a handful of features, his final directorial credit being 1965's ''The Bounty Killer'', which was also th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beneficiary
A beneficiary (also, in trust law, '' cestui que use'') in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example, the beneficiary of a life insurance policy is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured. Most beneficiaries may be designed to designate where the assets will go when the owner(s) dies. However, if the primary beneficiary or beneficiaries are not alive or do not qualify under the restrictions, the assets will probably pass to the ''contingent beneficiaries''. Other restrictions such as being married or more creative ones can be used by a benefactor to attempt to control the behavior of the beneficiaries. Some situations such as retirement accounts do not allow any restrictions beyond death of the primary beneficiaries, but trusts allow any restrictions that are not illegal or for an illegal purpose. The concept of a "beneficiary" will also fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Katzman
Sam Katzman (July 7, 1901 – August 4, 1973) was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers. Early career Sam was born to a Jewish family; his father Abe Katzman was a violinist. He and Sam's mother Rebecca (née Sugarman) were from Kishinev, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (now Chisinău, Moldova). Katzman went to work as a stage laborer at the age of 13 in the fledgling East Coast film industry and moved from prop boy to assistant director at Fox Films. He would learn all aspects of filmmaking and was a Hollywood producer for more than 40 years. Katzman worked as an assistant to Norman Taurog and got married on the set of ''The Diplomats'' in 1928 at Fox. In October 1927 he signed with comic Joe Russo to make a series of two-reel comedies. Screencraft Pictures Katzman was a production supervisor at Showmen's Pictures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Price
Stanley Price (December 31, 1892July 13, 1955) was an American film supporting actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1922 and 1956. He was a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild. Career Price was an actor whose artistic career spanned four different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color. He debuted in the silent movie '' Your Best Friend'' (William Nigh, 1922), sharing starring duties with Vera Gordon and Harry Benham. After that, he became a familiar figure, wearing either cowboy rustler outfits or gangster nice suits, particularly in the cliffhanger serials of the 1930s through the early 1950s. Usually, he served as the assistant or second-in-command for the '' brains heavy''. He usually wore workmanlike duds, did the physical labor, and often had more brawn than morality. Thus, Price went from one chapter to the next trying desperately to kill the hero with fists, knives, guns, bombs or whatever else happened to be handy at the time. Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Parker (actor)
Eddie Parker (December 12, 1900 – January 20, 1960) was an American stuntman and actor who appeared in many classic films, mostly westerns and horror films. Some of his more famous films and serials include the 1943 '' "Batman"'' (as Lewis Wilson's stunt double), '' The Crimson Ghost'', ''Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy'' (as the Mummy), and ''Rear Window'' for Alfred Hitchcock as well as many classic Universal horror films. He appeared three times in the early television series, ''Tales of the Texas Rangers'', and also performed stunts for that program. Parker died of a heart attack in 1960. Selected filmography * '' The Ghost Rider'' (1935) * ''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' (1943) * ''Days of Old Cheyenne'' (1943) * '' Trigger Fingers'' (1946) * ''Raiders of the South'' (1947) * ''Trailing Danger'' (1947) * '' Valley of Fear'' (1947) * '' The Fighting Ranger'' (1948) * ''Law of the West'' (1949) * '' Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' (1953) * ''Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank O'Connor (actor)
Frank O'Connor (April 11, 1881 – November 22, 1959) was an American character actor and director, whose career spanned five decades and included appearances in over 600 films and television shows. Early in his career he was also billed as Frank A. Connor and Frank L.A. O'Connor. During the silent film era, he directed or was the assistant director on numerous films; he also penned several screenplays in both the silent and sound film eras. He is sometimes erroneously identified with the Frank O'Connor who was married to author Ayn Rand. Life and career Born on April 11, 1881, in New York City, O'Connor would begin his film career with a starring role in the 1915 silent film, ''The Voice in the Fog'', which also starred Donald Brian and Adda Gleason. He starred or had featured roles in six more films between 1917 and 1920, before focusing on work behind the camera. During the remainder of the silent film era, he would write and/or direct over two dozen films, May McAvoy (sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knox Manning
Charles Knox Manning (January 17, 1904 – August 26, 1980) was an American film actor. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. He and Annette North Manning are interred at Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura, California. Motion pictures A former radio newscaster at KNX and announcer, Manning entered the motion picture field in 1939 as an offscreen narrator. His distinctive voice and phrasing were noticed by other studios, and he quickly became one of the movies' busiest voice artists. Very often he was the trademark voice of several concurrent series. From 1940 to 1954 he was the narrator of Columbia Pictures' popular adventure serials, reading the sometimes tongue-in-cheek scripts with enthusiasm. (The voice-overs in the ''Batman'' TV series of the 1960s owe much of their style to Knox Manning's breezy but urgent narrations of the 1940s, including his work in the two ''Batman'' movie serials.) Away from Columbia, he was the co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Fawcett (actor)
William Fawcett Thompson (September 8, 1894 – January 25, 1974) was an American character actor who appeared in hundreds of films and television episodes. Because there were other actors named William Thompson he used his first and middle name when seeking acting roles. He was best known for playing Pete Wilkey in the television series '' Fury'' which ran from 1955 to 1960. Early life Fawcett's father was a Methodist minister, and after Fawcett attended Hamline University he became licensed to preach in 1916. During World War I, he joined the United States Army, serving as an ambulance driver. The French government honored him with the Legion of Honour for his care of the wounded. After his military service, Fawcett became a teacher of English and literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and, after earning a Ph.D. degree in Elizabethan drama from the University of Nebraska, he became a professor of theatre arts at Michigan State University. In 1925 he married Helen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Warde
Anthony Warde (born Benjamin Schwartz; January 1, 1909 – January 8, 1975) was a noted American actor who appeared in over 150 films between 1937 and 1964. Early years Born as Benjamin Schwartz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on New Year's Day 1909, Warde was raised in Danbury, Connecticut. Stage Warde gained early acting experience at the Pasadena Playhouse and performed with the Federal Theatre Project. In 1940, he toured with the Eighteen Actors dramatic group, which included Victor Jory and Morris Ankrum, among others. In 1953, he worked in summer stock theatre. Film Warde started his Hollywood career in ''Escape by Night'', appearing in a handful of undistinguished feature films before gaining popularity as one of the hardest working henchmen in the 1930s and 1940s serials. Warde first appeared in his first film bow in 1936, but he spent most of his time bothering serials heroes as a vicious bodyguard, underground leader or infamous rustler, but also was satisfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rusty Wescoatt
Norman "Rusty" Wescoatt (August 2, 1911 – September 3, 1987) was an American supporting actor who appeared in over 80 films between 1947 and 1965. Early life The son of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Wescoatt, he was born on August 2, 1911, in Maui, Hawaii, U.S. He played football at McKinley High School and at the University of Hawaii. Wescoatt spoke Hawaiian, Chinese, and Japanese. Athletics On July 4, 1933, Wescoatt won his initial match as a professional wrestler, debuting in Honolulu, Hawaii. He went on to wrestle in New York, Boston, and other eastern cities, amassing a total of nearly 200 matches, 90 percent of which he won, by September 1936. Also in September 1936, he signed a contract with a new manager to move up to "a tour of some of the larger wrestling centers." On Easter Sunday 1935, he set a record by swimming across the San Francisco Bay in two hours, 5 minutes. Acting Wescoatt began his acting career with ''The Vigilante'' in 1947 as Garrity (uncredited). His next ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Graham (actor)
Fred Graham (October 26, 1908 – October 10, 1979) was an American actor and stuntman who performed in films from the 1930s to the 1970s. Graham was a semiprofessional baseball player. Graham entered the film business in 1928. He was a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild. He appeared in ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935)."Obituaries". ''Variety''. Nov 7, 1979. 297, 1; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. Pg. 98. Via Proquest. He broke his ankle while working as Basil Rathbone's stunt double on ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938). Graham coordinated stunts of John Wayne, with whom he made 26 films; Errol Flynn; and Ward Bond. He played small roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, notably ''Vertigo'', as the Police Officer who falls to his death in its famous opening scene while trying to help James Stewart. He continued working in films until the 1970s. Graham moved to Arizona in 1963. He was in charge of the Arizona Governor's Office for Motion Picture D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neyle Morrow
Francis Neyle Marx Jr. (October 28, 1914 – September 30, 2006) was an American film and television actor. Morrow was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He began his screen career in 1940, appearing in the film '' Drums of the Desert''. In the same year he appeared in the films ''Meet the Wildcat'' and ''Three Men from Texas''. In 1941, Morrow starred in the film ''The Phantom Cowboy'', and appeared in the film ''Raiders of the Desert''. He regularly appeared in films made by film director Samuel Fuller. Later film appearances include ''Danger in the Pacific'' (1942), '' Where Are Your Children?'' (1943), ''The Cisco Kid Returns'' (1945) and ''Spoilers of the North'' (1947), '' The Big Sombrero'' (1949), ''Harbor of Missing Men'' (1950), ''Let's Go Navy!'' (1951), '' The Raiders'' (1952), '' Hell and High Water'' (1954), ''Run of the Arrow'' (1957), ''The Crimson Kimono'' (1959), and ''Shock Corridor'' (1963). His final film credit was for the 1964 film ''The Naked Kiss''. Morrow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |