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Interrupted Melody
''Interrupted Melody'' is a 1955 biographical musical film, filmed in CinemaScope and Eastman Color, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Glenn Ford, Eleanor Parker, Roger Moore, and Cecil Kellaway. The film was produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Jack Cummings from a screenplay by Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence, Sonya Levien, and William Ludwig. It tells the story of Lawrence's rise to fame as an opera singer and her subsequent triumph over polio, with her husband's help. The operatic sequences were staged by Vladimir Rosing, and Eileen Farrell provided the singing voice for Parker. Plot The story traces Marjorie's (Eleanor Parker) long, hard road to the top, her success on two continents, and her turbulent marriage to American doctor Thomas King (Glenn Ford). While touring South America in 1941, Lawrence is stricken with polio, which not only abruptly stops her career but briefly robs her of the will to live. With her husband's help, she makes a triumphant return ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curtis Bernhardt
Curtis Bernhardt (15 April 1899 – 22 February 1981) was a Jewish film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt. He trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in 1924, with ''Nameless Heroes (film), Nameless Heroes''. Other films include ''A Stolen Life (1946 film), A Stolen Life'' (1946) and ''Sirocco (film), Sirocco'' (1951). Bernhardt made films in Germany from 1925 until 1933, when he was forced to flee the Third Reich — who briefly had him arrested — because he was Jews, Jewish. Bernhardt directed films in France and England before moving on to Cinema of the United States, Hollywood to work for Warner Brothers in 1940. He produced and directed his last Hollywood picture, ''Kisses for My President'' (1964), about the nation's first female Chief Executive starring Polly Bergen and Fred MacMurray. He is interred at Glendale, California, Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), Forest Lawn Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe symptoms develop such as headache, neck stiffness, and paresthesia. These symptoms usually pass within one or two weeks. A less common symptom is permanent paralysis, and possible death in extreme cases.. Years after recovery, post-polio syndrome may occur, with a slow development of muscle weakness similar to that which the person had during the initial infection. Polio occurs naturally only in humans. It is highly infectious, and is spread from person to person either through fecal-oral transmission (e.g. poor hygiene, or by ingestion of food or water contaminated by human feces), or via the oral-oral route. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present. The disease may be diagnosed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Jane Trimmer CBE (30 September 192116 October 2007), known professionally as Deborah Kerr (), was a British actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress. During her international film career, Kerr won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Anna Leonowens in the musical film ''The King and I'' (1956). Her other major and best known films and performances are ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), ''Black Narcissus'' (1947), ''Quo Vadis'' (1951), ''From Here to Eternity'' (1953), '' Tea and Sympathy'' (1956), ''An Affair to Remember'' (1957), '' Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison'' (1957), '' Bonjour Tristesse'' (1958), ''Separate Tables'' (1958), '' The Sundowners'' (1960), '' The Innocents'' (1961), ''The Grass Is Greener'' (1960), and ''The Night of the Iguana'' (1964). In 1994, having already received honorary awards from the Cannes Film Festival and BAFTA, Kerr received an Academy Honorary Award with a citation recognizing her as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson (born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick; February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010) was an American actress and coloratura soprano.Ronald Berganbr>Obituary '' London Guardian'', February 19, 2010. From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals. After several supporting roles, she was a lead performer in such films as ''Thousands Cheer'' (1943), ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945) with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and ''Show Boat'' (1951) and ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953), both with Howard Keel. When film musical production declined, she worked in theatre, appearing in ''Camelot'' (1962–1964). Later in the decade she performed in several operas, including ''La bohème'', ''Madama Butterfly'', ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''La traviata''. Early life Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick was born on February 9, 1922, in Winston-Salem, Nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Great Caruso
''The Great Caruso'' is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Mario Lanza as Enrico Caruso. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig. The original music was by Johnny Green and the cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg. Costume design was by Helen Rose and Gile Steele. The film is a highly fictionalized biography of the life of Caruso. Cast The Opera Montage are Metropolitan Opera stars, notably sopranos Teresa Celli, Lucine Amara and Marina Koshetz, mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom, baritone Giuseppe Valdengo and bass Nicola Moscona. Factual discrepancies Although the film follows the basic facts of Caruso's life, several of the characters and most of the incidents portrayed in the movie are entirely fictional. Members of the Caruso family in Italy successfully sued MGM for damages because of this. Here are a few of the many factual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greer Garson
Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was an English-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront; listed by the ''Motion Picture Herald'' as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946. The fourth most-nominated woman for the Best Actress Oscar, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record-tying (with Bette Davis) five consecutive nominations (1941–1945) in the actress category, winning for her performance in the title role of the 1942 film ''Mrs. Miniver''. Early life Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904Troyan, p. 8. in Manor Park, East Ham (then in Essex, now part of Greater London), the only child of Nancy Sophia "Nina" (née Greer; 1880–1958) and George Garson (1865–1906), a commercial clerk in a London importing business. Her father was born in London to Scottish pare ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Bekassy
Stephen Bekassy (born István Békássy; February 10, 1907 – October 30, 1995) was a Hungarian-born American film actor. Career Bekassy's American stage debut came in ''Errand for Berenice'' in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1944. His American film debut was in '' A Song to Remember'' (1945). He appeared in films such as '' Hell and High Water'' and ''Prisoner of War'' in 1954. On television he made two guest appearances on ''Perry Mason''. In 1958 he played art expert Laslo Kovac in "The Case of the Purple Woman," and in 1959 he played murder victim Rick Stassi in "The Case of the Bartered Bikini." In 1958, he guest-starred as Count Razil in the episode "Command Performance" of the CBS situation comedy '' Mr. Adams and Eve''. Personal life Bekassy was born in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. He married Teri Fejes in 1931, but divorced in 1933. In 1936 he married Lívia Neufeld, but as well divorced soon in 1938. He emigrated to the United States and eventually married Beverly Violet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cécile Gilly
Cécile Gilly (known on the stage as Cecile Roma, born approximately 1891) was a French mezzo-soprano and singing teacher. A well-known pedagogue in the 1920s and 1930s, she is known primarily as being the voice teacher of soprano Marjorie Lawrence. Biography Cécile Marie Puyo was the daughter of Armand Crosper Puyo and Guerite Lydie Legall. She married the baritone Dinh Gilly on 20 July 1902. On the manifest for Cécile and Dinh Gilly's voyage to New York (to prepare for their debuts at the Metropolitan Opera), the manifest states that they were living in Paris on Villa Reine-Henriette Colombe. Singing career Cécile and Dinh Gilly arrived in New York on 23 October 1909. Under the stage name Cecile Roma, Cécile made her Met Opera company debut on December 14, 1909 in the role of Amarante of Charles Lecocq's ''La fille de Madame Angot'', the company appearing at the New Theatre. Other roles with the company included the Priestess in ''Aida'' and Lola in ''Cavalleria Rusticana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Codee
Ann Codee (born Anna Marie Vannuefflin, 5 March 1890 – 18 May 1961) was a Belgian actress with numerous hit films on her résumé, such as '' Can-Can'', ''Kiss Me Kate'', and ''Interrupted Melody''. Born in Antwerp, Belgium, her name was sometimes found in newspapers as Anna Cody. Biography Codee was born in Antwerp. She married actor Frank Orth around 1911. She and her husband toured American vaudeville in the 1910s and 1920s as the comedy act "Codee and Orth". The team made its film debut in 1929, appearing in a series of multilingual movie shorts. Thereafter, both Codee and Orth flourished as Hollywood character actors. Codee was seen in dozens of films as florists, music teachers, landladies, governesses and grandmothers. She played a variety of ethnic types, from the very French Mme. Poullard in ''Jezebel'' (1938) to the Gallic Tante Berthe in ''The Mummy's Curse'' (1941). Codee's last film appearance was as a tight-corseted committeewoman in '' Can-Can'' (1960). Her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Baldwin
Walter Smith Baldwin Jr. (January 2, 1889 − January 27, 1977) was an American character actor whose career spanned five decades and 150 film and television roles, and numerous stage performances. Baldwin was born in Lima, Ohio, into a theatrical family: his father Walter S. Baldwin Sr. and mother Pearl Melville (a sister of Rose Melville) were both actors. He joined his parents' stock company, and in 1915 married fellow actor Geraldine Blair. He was probably best known for playing the father of the disabled sailor in ''The Best Years of Our Lives''. He was the first actor to portray "Floyd the Barber" on ''The Andy Griffith Show''. Prior to his first film roles in 1939, Baldwin had appeared in more than a dozen Broadway plays. He played Whit in the first Broadway production of ''Of Mice and Men'', and also appeared in the original ''Grand Hotel'' in a small role, as well as serving as the production's stage manager. He originated the role of Bensinger, the prissy Chicago Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evelyn Ellis
Evelyn Ellis (February 2, 1894 – June 5, 1958) was an American character actress of stage and film. Devoting herself to the theatre, her film roles were few, but she appeared in films including ''The Joe Louis Story'' and ''The Lady from Shanghai''. Toward the end of her career, Miss Ellis, as she was referred to in the press also directed a few theater plays, including an all-black Broadway production of ''Tobacco Road''. The ''Baltimore Afro American'' newspaper in its issue in October 26, 1929, described her as a “quiet and unassuming young lady with a very charming personality". Early life Evelyn Ellis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1894. Not much is known about her early life and introduction to acting, but she became a prominent actor within the black community starting in 1919 until 1955. Ellis made her theatrical debut at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem in a production of ''Othello'' in 1919. She then moved to Broadway, making her debut in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Leeds
Peter Leeds (May 30, 1917 – November 12, 1996) was an American actor who appeared on television more than 8,000 times and also had many film, Broadway, and radio credits. The majority of his work took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Working with many well-known comedians, he became popular as a straight man to their antics. Beyond situation comedies, Peter Leeds was also a dramatic actor, a Broadway performer, and a regular on many variety shows. He made three guest appearances on ''Perry Mason''. Peter Leeds was also a popular voice-over artist, being heard on over 3,000 radio shows. Early life A native of Bayonne, New Jersey, Leeds received his training at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his film debut with a bit part in ''Public Enemies'' (1941). He received a scholarship from the John Marshall Law School, which he attended for one year. He also attended The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. Leeds was noticed by the Group Theater of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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