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Herb Ellis (actor)
Herbert Ellis (born Herbert Siegel; January 17, 1921 – December 26, 2018) was an American character actor and writer. He was best known for his collaborations with Jack Webb, and he frequently portrayed law enforcement officers in film and television.Beck, Ken (March 16, 2003). Sgt. Friday had six sidekicks in 'Dragnet' web. ''The Tennessean'' Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ellis began his career in Hollywood in the late 1940s. Ellis and Webb together devised the name and concept for '' Dragnet'' after collaborating on an unsuccessful project titled ''Joe Friday, Room Five''.Buntin, John (2009). ''L.A. noir: the struggle for the soul of America's most seductive city.'' Random House, Inc., He played Officer Frank Smith in eight episodes of the original ''Dragnet'' series. He played Frank La Valle in 23 episodes of '' The D.A.'s Man'', and he played Beat bistro owner, painter and sculptor Wilbur in five episodes of ''Peter Gunn''. Ellis and Webb later worked together on '' Dragn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Character Actor
A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to be almost unrecognizable from part to part, and yet play many, many roles convincingly and memorably. .." The term, often contrasted with that of leading actor, is somewhat abstract and open to interpretation. In a literal sense, all actors can be considered character actors since they all play "characters", but the term more commonly refers to an actor who frequently plays a distinctive and important supporting role. Character actors are generally well-known and recognizable by the audience (by appearance if not by name), even if they play different types of roles in different movies. A character actor may play characters who are very different from the actor's off-screen real-life personality, while in another sense a character actor may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragnet (1954 Film)
''Dragnet'' is a 1954 American crime film directed by Jack Webb and written by Richard L. Breen. The film stars Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg and Vic Perrin. The film was adapted from the radio series of the same name, and is part of the wider ''Dragnet'' media franchise. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 4, 1954. Plot The film uses the inverted detective story format. Los Angeles police detective Sergeant Joe Friday hunts down the killer of a mobster, Miller Starkie, focusing on West Coast mafia second-in-command Max Troy (played by Harris). The film depicts illegal police harassment against a suspect cleared by a grand jury. The vendetta between Friday and Troy becomes increasingly bitter and personal as the film proceeds, leading to a brawl at a private card game between Friday, Frank Smith, and several of Troy's henchmen. A policewoman (Robinson) infiltrates Troy's nightclub and is able to obtain vital i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hang 'Em High
''Hang 'Em High'' is a 1968 American DeLuxe Color revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper; and Pat Hingle as the federal judge who hires him as a Deputy U.S. Marshal. ''Hang 'Em High'' was the first production of The Malpaso Company, Eastwood's production company. Hingle portrays a fictional judge who mirrors Judge Isaac Parker, labeled the "Hanging Judge" due to the large number of men he sentenced to be executed during his service, during the late 1800s, as District Judge of the United States District Court of the Western District of Arkansas. The film also depicts the dangers of serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshal during that period, as many federal marshals were killed while serving under Parker. The fictional Fort Grant, base for operations for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Party (1968 Film)
''The Party'' is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents.Champlin, Charles (March 15, 1968). An open invitation to play it off the cuff. ''Time'' Based on a fish-out-of-water premise, the film is about a bungling actor from India, Hrundi V. Bakshi (portrayed by Sellers), who accidentally gets invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner party and "makes terrible mistakes based upon ignorance of Western ways". The protagonist Hrundi Bakshi was influenced by two of Sellers' earlier characters: the Indian doctor Ahmed el Kabir in ''The Millionairess'' (1960) and Inspector Clouseau in ''The Pink Panther'' series. In turn, the character Hrundi Bakshi went on to be influential, inspiring several later popular characters, including Amitabh Bachchan's character Arjun Singh in the 1982 Bollywood blockbus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fortune Cookie
''The Fortune Cookie'' (alternative UK title: ''Meet Whiplash Willie'') is a 1966 American black comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder. It was the first film in which Jack Lemmon collaborated with Walter Matthau. Matthau won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. Plot CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle is injured, when football player Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson of the Cleveland Browns runs into him during a home game at Municipal Stadium. Harry's injuries are minor, but his conniving lawyer brother-in-law William H. "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich convinces him to pretend that his leg and hand have been partially paralyzed, so they can receive a huge indemnity from the insurance company. Harry reluctantly goes along with the scheme because he is still in love with his ex-wife, Sandy, and being injured might bring her back. The insurance company's lawyers at O'Brien, Thompson and Kincaid suspect that the paralysis is a fake, but all but one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?
''What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?'' is a 1966 comedy DeLuxe Color film written by William Peter Blatty and directed by Blake Edwards for the Mirisch Company in Panavision. It stars James Coburn and Dick Shawn. Filming was at Lake Sherwood Ranch in Thousand Oaks, northwest of Hollywood. In what had been a cow pasture, designer Fernando Carrere fabricated a storybook Sicilian village which added $800,000 to the production's already elevated $5.5 million budget. Plot During the Allied invasion of Sicily, an outfit of U.S. soldiers is assigned to capture the small town of "Valerno", but upon arrival, they discover that the Italian Army garrison led by Captain Fausto Oppo (Sergio Fantoni) have been expecting them. They will willingly surrender and turn themselves over to the Americans' rule, provided they are permitted to complete a soccer match and a wine festival. Romance and frivolity ensue, as a reluctant, by-the-book Capt. Cash (Dick Shawn) is persuaded by easy-going Lt. Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Patty Duke Show
''The Patty Duke Show'' is an American television sitcom created by Sidney Sheldon and William Asher. The series ran on ABC from September 18, 1963, to April 27, 1966. The series was developed as a vehicle for teenage star Patty Duke, who had won an Academy Award the previous year. Duke starred in dual roles of "twin cousins" Patty and Cathy Lane. The series co-starred William Schallert, Jean Byron, Paul O'Keefe, and Eddie Applegate. A total of 104 black-and-white episodes, plus an unaired pilot, were produced by United Artists Television. ABC abruptly cancelled the series after three seasons. Premise Patty Lane (Duke) is a normal, chatty, rambunctious teenager who (according to the theme song lyrics) lives in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City (although the setting and characters resemble the more simple and wholesome Middle America). Her father, Martin Lane (William Schallert), is the managing editor of the ''New York Daily Chronicle''; Patty affectionately addres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Favorite Martian
''My Favorite Martian'' is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966, for 107 episodes. The show stars Ray Walston as "Uncle Martin" (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara. The first two seasons, totaling 75 episodes, were in black and white, and the 32 episodes of the third and final season were filmed in color. John L. Greene created the central characters and developed the core format of the series, which was produced by Jack Chertok. Premise A human-appearing extraterrestrial in a one-man spaceship nearly collides at high altitude with the U.S. Air Force's rocket plane, the North American X-15. The spaceship's pilot is a 450-year-old anthropologist from Mars. Tim O'Hara, a young newspaper reporter for ''The Los Angeles Sun'', is on his way home from Edwards Air Force Base, where he had gone to report on the flight of the X-15. Returning home to Los Angeles, O'Hara spots the same silver spaceship coming down quickly, after which it cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Andy Griffith Show
''The Andy Griffith Show '' is an American situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color. The series originated partly from an episode of ''The Danny Thomas Show.'' The show stars Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor, the widowed sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, a fictional community of roughly 2,000–5,000 people. Other major characters include Andy's cousin, the well-meaning and enthusiastic deputy, Barney Fife ( Don Knotts); Andy's aunt and housekeeper, Bee Taylor (Frances Bavier); and Andy's young son, Opie (Ron Howard). Eccentric townspeople and, periodically, Andy's girlfriends complete the cast. Regarding the tone of the show, Griffith said that despite a contemporary setting, the show evoked nostalgia, saying in a ''Today'' interview, "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Too Much, Too Soon
''Too Much, Too Soon'' is a 1958 biographical film about Diana Barrymore produced by Warner Bros. It was directed by Art Napoleon and produced by Henry Blanke from a screenplay by Art Napoleon and Jo Napoleon, based on the autobiography by Diana Barrymore and Gerold Frank. The music score was by Ernest Gold and the cinematography by both Nicholas Musuraca and Carl E. Guthrie. Diana died in 1960, two years after the release of this film. The film stars Dorothy Malone and Errol Flynn (playing his real-life friend and mentor John Barrymore), with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Ray Danton, Neva Patterson, Murray Hamilton, and Martin Milner. Plot Fourteen-year-old Diana Barrymore is being raised by her domineering mother, a poet. Her father, the famed actor John Barrymore, has not laid eyes on Diana for 10 years, but they share an evening on his boat before John abandons her again. At 18, Diana has become an actress and has a steady boyfriend, Lincoln Forrester. When a Hollywood contract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paths Of Glory
''Paths of Glory'' is a 1957 American anti-war film co-written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb. Set during World War I, the film stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, the commanding officer of French soldiers who refuse to continue a suicidal attack, after which Dax attempts to defend them against charges of cowardice in a court-martial. The film was co-produced through Douglas's film production company, Bryna Productions, and a joint venture between Stanley Kubrick and James B. Harris, Harris-Kubrick Pictures. In 1992, the film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Plot The film begins with a voiceover describing the trench warfare situation of World War I up to 1916. In a château, General Georges Broulard, a member of the French General Staff, asks his subordinate, the ambitious General Mireau, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Killing (film)
''The Killing'' is a 1956 American film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and produced by James B. Harris. It was written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson and based on Lionel White's novel ''Clean Break''. It stars Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, and Vince Edwards, and features Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen and Timothy Carey. Plot Johnny Clay is a veteran criminal planning one last heist before settling down and marrying Fay. He plans to steal $2 million from the money-counting room of a racetrack during a featured race. Johnny assembles a team consisting of a corrupt cop, a betting window teller to gain access to the backroom, a sharpshooter to shoot the favorite horse during the race to distract the crowd and keep the winnings from being paid out, a wrestler to provide another distraction by provoking a fight at the track bar, and a track bartender. George Peatty, the teller, tells his wife, Sherry, about the impending robbery. Sherry is bitter at George for not del ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
