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Les Girls
''Les Girls'' (also known as ''Cole Porter's Les Girls'') is a 1957 American CinemaScope musical comedy film directed by George Cukor and produced by Sol C. Siegel, with Saul Chaplin as associate producer. The screenplay by John Patrick was based on a story by Vera Caspary. The music and lyrics were by Cole Porter. It stars Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg, and the cast also includes Jacques Bergerac, Leslie Phillips, Henry Daniell, and Patrick Macnee. Premise After writing a tell-all book about her days in the dance troupe "Barry Nichols and Les Girls", Sybil Wren (Kay Kendall) is sued for libeling her fellow dancer Angele (Taina Elg). A ''Rashomon''-style narrative presents the story from three points of view. Sybil accuses Angele of having an affair with Barry (Gene Kelly). Angele insists that it was actually Sybil who was having the affair. Finally, Barry gives his side of the story. Cast * Gene Kelly as Barry Nichols * Mitzi Gaynor as Joy Henderson * Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Saul Chaplin
Saul Chaplin (February 19, 1912 – November 15, 1997) was an American composer and musical director. He was born Saul Kaplan in Brooklyn, New York. He had worked on stage, screen and television since the days of Tin Pan Alley. In film, he won three Oscars for collaborating on the scores and orchestrations of ''An American in Paris'' (1951), ''Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' (1954) and ''West Side Story'' (1961). Biography Born to a Jewish family, Chaplin graduated with a B.A. in accounting from New York University's School of Commerce. After school, Chaplin joined the ASCAP and started out penning tunes for the theatre, vaudeville and for New York's famous songwriting district, Tin Pan Alley. While in New York, Chaplin teamed with Sammy Cahn to compose original songs for Vitaphone movie shorts, filmed in Brooklyn by Warner Brothers. During this period the team was sometimes billed only by surname ("Cahn and Chaplin"), in the manner of Rodgers and Hart or Gilbert and Sullivan. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Haney
Carol Haney (born Carolyn Haney; December 24, 1924 – May 10, 1964) was an American dancer and actress. After assisting Gene Kelly in choreographing films, Haney won a Tony Award for her role in Broadway's ''The Pajama Game'', while later work as a stage choreographer earned her three Tony nominations. Life and career Haney was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to Norman Vincent Haney (1899-1990), a bank teller, and his Danish-born wife, Ellen ( Christensen) Haney (1900-1952).1930 United States Federal Census She had an older sister, Mrs. Miriam Woodcock (1922-1961). She began to dance at age five and opened a dancing school in her teens. After high school, Haney left her home town for Hollywood and landed bit parts in movies until she was spotted by dancer/choreographer Jack Cole, becoming his dance partner and assistant from 1946 to 1948. In 1949, Haney was hired by Gene Kelly to be his assistant choreographer on several M-G-M musical films, and she aided Kelly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Simmons
Jean Merilyn Simmons, (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Great Britain during and after World War II, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards. Simmons was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''Hamlet'' (1948), and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for ''Guys and Dolls'' (1955). Her other film appearances include ''Young Bess'' (1953), ''The Robe'' (1953), ''The Big Country'' (1958), ''Elmer Gantry'' (1960), ''Spartacus'' (1960), and the 1969 film ''The Happy Ending'', for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won an Emmy Award for the miniseries ''The Thorn Birds'' (1983). Biography Early life Simmons was born on 31 January 1929, in Islington, London, to Charles Simmons, a bronze medalist in gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics, and his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyd Charisse
Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea; March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American actress and dancer. After recovering from polio as a child and studying ballet, Charisse entered films in the 1940s. Her roles usually featured her abilities as a dancer, and she was paired with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; her films include ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), ''The Band Wagon'' (1953), ''Brigadoon'' with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson (1954) and '' Silk Stockings'' (1957). She stopped dancing in films in the late 1950s, but continued acting in film and television, and in 1991 made her Broadway debut. In her later years, she discussed the history of the Hollywood musical in documentaries, and was featured in ''That's Entertainment! III'' in 1994. She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 2006. Early life Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Lela (née Norwood) and Ernest Enos Finklea Sr., who was a jeweler. Her nick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leslie Caron
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron (; born 1 July 1931) is a French-American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. She is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Caron began her career as a ballerina. She made her film debut in the musical ''An American in Paris'' (1951), followed by roles in ''The Man with a Cloak'' (1951), ''Glory Alley'' (1952) and ''The Story of Three Loves'' (1953), before her role of an orphan in ''Lili'' (also 1953), which earned her the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and garnered nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. As a leading lady, Caron starred in films such as '' The Glass Slipper'' (1955), '' Daddy Long Legs'' (1955), '' Gigi'' (1958), '' Fanny'' (1961), both of which earned her Golden Globe nominations, ''Guns of Darkness'' (1962), ''The L-Shaped Room'' (1962), '' Fathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, as ''The Atlantic Monthly'', a literary and cultural magazine that published leading writers' commentary on education, the abolition of slavery, and other major political issues of that time. Its founders included Francis H. Underwood and prominent writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Greenleaf Whittier. James Russell Lowell was its first editor. In addition, ''The Atlantic Monthly Almanac'' was an annual almanac published for ''Atlantic Monthly'' readers during the 19th and 20th centuries. A change of name was not officially announced when the format first changed from a strict monthly (appearing 12 times a year) to a slightly lower frequency. It was a mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrie Chase
Barrie Chase (born October 20, 1933) is an American actress and dancer. Early life Born in Kings Point, New York, Chase began formal dance lessons at age three, studying with the New York City Opera's ballet mistress. She studied ballet, first with Adolph Bolm and later with Maria Bekefi. She abandoned her intention to become a ballerina in New York to stay in Los Angeles and help support her mother, pianist Lee Keith, after her parents' divorce. She is the daughter of writer Borden Chase ('' Red River'') and sister of screenwriter/actor Frank Chase. Performing career During the early 1950s, Chase danced on live television programs such as ''The Colgate Comedy Hour'' and ''The Chrysler Shower of Stars''. While working as Jack Cole's assistant choreographer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she was asked by Fred Astaire to be his dancing partner on '' An Evening with Fred Astaire''. She made four appearances as Astaire's partner in his television specials between 1958 and 1968. The two d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Tonge
Philip Asheton Tonge (26 April 1897 – 28 January 1959) was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he was a child actor, making his stage debut at the age of five. Among the stars with whom he performed while he was a boy were Henry Irving, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Ellen Terry and Johnston Forbes-Robertson. His colleagues as child actors included Hermione Gingold, Mary Glynne, Esmé Wynne-Tyson and Noël Coward. Tonge's adult acting career was in the US, where he and his parents settled after the First World War. He made numerous appearances in Broadway productions, including nine Coward plays. Among his films were ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), ''Hans Christian Andersen'' (1952) and ''Witness for the Prosecution'' (1957). Life and career Early years Tonge was born in Hampstead, London, the son of the actor H. Asheton Tonge and his wife Lillian, ''née'' Brennard, an actressParker, p. 919–920 He made his first appearance on the stage at His Majesty's Theatre in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Wand
Betty Wand was an American singer and author, best known as the singing voice dubbed in for various actresses in musical films, including Leslie Caron in '' Gigi'' and some of Rita Moreno's part in ''West Side Story''.Crosby Day. "Showtime will air 'West Side Story,'" ''The Wichita Eagle'', (KS), February 1, 1993, page 9A. In 1990, she wrote ''Secrets for Women in Their Prime'', an advice book for older women on fashion, nutrition, and travel.Jacquelyn Gray. "A woman 'in her prime' shares her beauty secrets with readers," ''The Milwaukee Journal'', September 22, 1991, Life/Style section, page 5.Frances Halpern. "Booksmarks: Senior circuit goes prime time with literary adventures," ''The Daily News of Los Angeles'' (CA), September 2, 1990, page L29. Wand began her career in the 1940s during the Big Band era, singing with the orchestras of Xavier Cugat, Horace Heidt, and Ray Conniff. She had two sons. See also *Ghost singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rashomon
is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura as various people who describe how a samurai was murdered in a forest, the plot and characters are based upon Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story "In a Grove", with the title and framing story being based on "Rashōmon (short story), Rashōmon", another short story by Akutagawa. Every element is largely identical, from the murdered samurai speaking through a miko, Shinto psychic to the bandit in the forest, the monk, the assault of the wife and the dishonest retelling of the events in which everyone shows his or her ideal self by lying. The film is known for a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident. ''Rashomon'' was the first cinema of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Macnee
Daniel Patrick Macnee (6 February 1922 – 25 June 2015) was a British film and television actor. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, he began his acting career in Canada. Despite having some small film roles, Macnee spent much of his early career in playing small roles in American and Canadian television shows. In 1961, he landed the role of secret agent John Steed in the British television series '' The Avengers''. The show was a success running for eight seasons from 1961 to 1969 and was revived in 1976 as ''The New Avengers''. The show was a major breakthrough for Macnee and led to his roles in many films including '' This Is Spinal Tap'' and ''A View to a Kill'' as well as continuing to appear in both British and US television shows up until 2001. Early life and career The elder of two sons, Macnee was born in Paddington, London, England, on 6 February 1922; [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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