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His Majesty O'Keefe
''His Majesty O'Keefe'' is a 1954 American adventure film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Burt Lancaster. The cast also included Joan Rice, André Morell, Abraham Sofaer, Archie Savage, and Benson Fong. The screenplay by Borden Chase and James Hill was based on the novel of the same name by Laurence Klingman and Gerald Green (1952). Plot summary Captain David O'Keefe, seeking his fortune in the 19th century South Pacific, decides to enlist island natives to harvest copra, but runs into a wall of cultural problems. Backed by a Chinese dentist, he obtains a ship and sets about harvesting copra while fending off cantankerous native chieftains and ambitious German empire-builders. The natives, happy with their existence, see no reason to work hard to obtain copra, either for a German trading company or for O'Keefe. He finally motivates them by showing them how to produce large quantities of Rai stones, the stone money of Yap, their valued coinage. Cast Historical ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byron Haskin
Byron Conrad Haskin (April 22, 1899 – April 16, 1984) was an American film and television director, special effects creator and cinematographer. He is best known for directing '' The War of the Worlds'' (1953), one of many films where he teamed with producer George Pal. Career Haskin was born in Portland, Oregon, where his father was employed as a schoolteacher. Both Haskins' mother and father were natives of California. Haskin was raised primarily in San Francisco. He graduated from the University of California. He went out to Hollywood in 1917 and became the apprentice of cameraman H. Lyman Broening. He was hired as the cinematographer in 1922 for '' Hurricane's Gal''. In his early career, he was also a special effects artist, with a number of credits on Warner Bros. films, eventually becoming the head of the studio's special effects department (1937–1945). During his tenure there, he earned four Oscar nominations for his effects work, all shared with Natha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benson Fong
Benson Fong ( Chinese: ; October 10, 1916 – August 1, 1987) was an American character actor. Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family of Chinese extraction. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, he studied briefly in China before returning to Sacramento and opening a grocery store with a cousin. Career His acting career resulted from a chance meeting with a Hollywood talent scout. In 1943, while having dinner with some friends in Sacramento, he was approached by a man from Paramount Pictures, who asked if he would like to be in a movie. Fong ended up with a role in a film called ''China'' starring Loretta Young and Alan Ladd. He was also offered a 10-week contract for $250 a week. "It looked like a tremendous fortune and I accepted quickly, afraid they might think twice and back out," he told an interviewer. "I couldn't read lines too well, but World War II was under way and all the studios were looking for actors with Oriental feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Ahn
Philip Ahn (born Pillip Ahn (), March 29, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was an American actor and activist of Korean descent. With over 180 film and television credits between 1935 and 1978, he was one of the most recognizable and prolific Asian-American character actors of his time. He is widely regarded as the first Korean American film actor in Hollywood. The son of Korean independence activist Ahn Changho, Ahn was a longtime advocate for his father's legacy and the Korean-American community, helping to establish memorials to his father in his native Seoul and later arranging for his remains to be buried there. Early life and education Ahn was born in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on March 29, 1905. His given name Philip was an Anglicized version of the Korean name Pil Lip (). His parents, Ahn Changho (도산 안창호) and Yi Hyeryon (이혜련), were both Korean emigrants who had moved to the United States in 1902, making him the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muriel Steinbeck
Muriel Myee Steinbeck (21 July 1913 – 20 July 1982) was an Australian actress who worked extensively in radio, theatre, television and film. She is best known for her performance as the wife of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in '' Smithy'' (1946) and for playing the lead role in '' Autumn Affair'' (1958–59), Australia's first television serial. ''Filmink'' magazine later said "Steinbeck’s appeal was a little like that of Greer Garson in Hollywood – a regal, lady-like figure. That’s an over-simplification – she played all sorts of roles – but she was, overall, a classy dame. Her beauty meant that her photo often appeared in trade publications and she was particularly popular on radio soaps and at the Minerva Theatre in Sydney." Biography Early life The youngest of the four children of William Martin Steinbeck and Lily Clarissa (née Batten), Muriel Steinbeck was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, where her father was working as a headmaster. Her family left Broken ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvey Adams
Harvey Adams (1889, Warrington, England – 1960, Australia) was an English actor and director who worked extensively in film, stage and radio. He moved to Australia in 1924 for work after a long career, played leading man for Muriel Starr from 1925 to 1930, in later years also serving as producer for many of her shows, and for other companies after she left in 1930, earning a reputation for meticulous attention to detail. He remained in Australia for most of the rest of his life. Filmography References External links *Harvey Adams Australian theatre creditsat AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up un ... 20th-century English male actors English directors English male film actors 1889 births 1960 deaths English emigrants to Australia {{England-actor-st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tessa Prendergast
Marie Therese "Tessa" Prendergast (17 October 1928 – 9 July 2001), also known as Tessa Welborn, was a Jamaican actress, fashion designer, businesswoman, and socialite. A renowned beauty and movie starlet in the 1950s, she is best-remembered today as the designer of the taboo-breaking white bikini worn by Ursula Andress in the 1962 film '' Dr. No''. Life and career Prendergast was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 17 October 1928. Her father, Louis Prendergast, was a wealthy plantation owner who died while Tessa was in her infancy. Her mother later married Noel Nethersole, an Oxford-educated economist and star cricketer who, along with future Prime Minister Norman Manley, established the People's National Party. Her step-father served as Jamaica's minister of finance from 1955 to 1959, and founded the Bank of Jamaica. Several years after his death in 1959, his image appeared on the Jamaican $20 banknote. Prendergast was raised in London, England. Although she would spend most of h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guy Doleman
Guy Doleman (22 November 1923 – 30 January 1996) was a New Zealand born actor, active in Australia, Britain and the United States. Early life Doleman was born in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand, later moving to Australia. Career During the 1940s and '50s, Doleman was one of the busiest actors in Australia, appearing in the majority of films made there at the time, and being busy on radio, particularly in the drama ''Hagen's Circus'', which made him a radio star in Australia. Radio historian Peter Philp grouped Doleman with Peter Finch, Grant Taylor, Rod Taylor and Lloyd Berrell as part of "a wild but very colourful group of actors... who in their own way helped forge a wonderful ambience which was unique to Sydney radio." In 1952 he won a £300 Actor's Choice Award for his performance in the radio drama ''The Coward''. He used this money to go to Hollywood for a film in September 1953, where he tested for some films. He was cast in ''Long John Silver'' (1954) but passed on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Taylor (actor)
Ronald Grant Taylor (6 December 1917 – 1971) was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series '' UFO'' and for his lead role in ''Forty Thousand Horsemen'' (1940). Early life Taylor was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in England, but moved to Australia with his parents as a child. For a time he worked as a professional boxer in Melbourne under the name of Lance Matheson. According to a later newspaper report, he had 70 bouts, lost eight and drew 11. He reportedly also served in the merchant marine. Acting debut Cinesound Productions were looking for someone with wrestling skills to play the part of a gorilla in '' Gone to the Dogs'' (1939), so Taylor auditioned. He did not get the part but met Alec Kellaway who persuaded him to join Cinesound's Talent School. Ken G. Hall said that one of the problems of the Australian industry of this time was they "were consistently short of trained juveniles and ingenu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lloyd Berrell
Lloyd Berrell (13 February 1926 – 30 December 1957) was a New Zealand actor who played Reuben "Roo" Webber in the original Sydney production of '' Summer of the Seventeenth Doll''. He worked extensively in Australian radio and theatre, appearing in a large portion of the films being shot locally at that time. He also starred in the original stage production of Sumner Locke Elliott's ''Rusty Bugles'' as well as numerous productions for the Mercury Theatre. Biography Berrell was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and was an only child while his father was a doctor. His family moved to Australia when Berrell was a child, and he began acting on radio, appearing on ''The Youth Show''. In this role, he performed a variety of acts and often worked as a compère. Berrell received acclaim for playing the title role in the radio play ''Ned Kelly'' in 1942. In 1944 Berrell was questioned by police for his role in disturbances in a strike by Actors Equity. During World War II, he served i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bully Hayes
William Henry "Bully" Hayes (1827 or 1829 – 31 March 1877) was a notorious American ship's captain who engaged in blackbirding in the 1860s and 1870s.James A. Michener & A. Grove Day, ''Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer'', in ''Rascals in Paradise'', London: Secker & Warburg 1957 Hayes operated across the breadth of the Pacific Ocean from the 1850s until his murder on 31 March 1877. He has been described as a South Sea pirate and " the last of the buccaneers". However, in their account of his life, James A. Michener and A. Grove Day warn that it is almost impossible to separate fact from legend regarding Hayes; they described him as "a cheap swindler, a bully, a minor confidence man, a thief, a ready bigamist" and commented that there is no evidence that he ever took a ship by force in the tradition of a pirate or privateer. Hayes was a large man who used intimidation against his crew, although he could reportedly be very charming if he chose to be. Early career He was born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Tetens
Alfred Tetens (1 July 1835, in Wilster – 13 January 1903, in Hamburg) was a German captain, South Seas explorer and Senator of Hamburg. Life Tetens was the son of a ''Justizrat'' (senior counsel) and senator in Danish services. For many years he captained sailing boats on Hamburg's two lakes, the '' Binnenalster'' and the '' Außenalster,'' but in the middle of the 1860s he went to Micronesia on behalf of Hamburg shipping owner and merchant Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, then seeking material for Museum Godeffroy The Museum Godeffroy was a museum in Hamburg, Germany, which existed from 1861 to 1885. The collection was founded by Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, who became a wealthy shipping magnate a few years after the expansion of the trade towards Aust ... which exhibited (and sold) ethnographic and natural history material. In 1869 Tetens established the first permanent trading post of ''J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn.'' This was on Yap and the enterprise became particula ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rai Stones
A rai stone ( yap, raay), or fei stone, is one of many large artifacts that were manufactured and treasured by the native inhabitants of the Yap islands in Micronesia. They are also known as Yapese stone money or similar names. The typical rai stone is carved out of crystalline limestone and is shaped as a disk with a hole in the center. The smallest may be in diameter. The largest extant stone is located on Rumung island, near the Riy village; it is in diameter and thick, and weighs . Rai stones were quarried on several of the Micronesian islands, mainly Palau, but briefly on Guam as well. The practice stopped in the early 20th century. Today there are around 6,000 large rai stones outstanding in the island, and several can be seen in museums around the world. The stones were highly valued by the Yapese, and used for important ceremonial gifts. The ownership of a large stone, which would be too difficult to move, was established by its history as recorded in oral trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
