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Robert B. Williams (actor)
Robert B. Williams (September 23, 1904 – June 17, 1978) was an American character actor from the 1940s through the 1970s. During his 37-year career, he appeared in over 150 feature films, as well as numerous short film, film shorts, television films, and television shows. He did not break into the film business until he was in his 30s. Career His first big screen appearance was in the film short ''Mixed Policies'' in 1936. After several roles as an extra in films, he made his feature debut in a small role in the 1941 film ''How Green Was My Valley (film), How Green Was My Valley'', starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara. During the 1940s he appeared in some notable films in small supporting roles, including the 1947 film noir, ''Lady in the Lake'', starring Robert Montgomery (actor), Robert Montgomery; Henry Hathaway's ''Call Northside 777'' (1948), starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, and Lee J. Cobb; ''It Happens Every Spring'' (1949), starring Ray Milland, Jean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lady Says No
''The Lady Says No'' is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Frank Ross (producer), Frank Ross, starring Joan Caulfield and David Niven, photographed by James Wong Howe, and featuring sequences filmed at Fort Ord, Pebble Beach, California, Pebble Beach and Carmel, California. The supporting cast features Frances Bavier, who later played "Aunt Bee" on television's ''The Andy Griffith Show''. Director Ross was married to Caulfield, the film's leading lady. Plot Bill Shelby (David Niven) is a globe-trotting author and photographer on assignment from ''Life (magazine), Life'' magazine to do a photo story on Dorinda Hatch (Joan Caulfield), best-selling author of the title book, "The Lady Says 'No'". Rather than finding a dour spinster, as he expects, she is a young blonde woman he finds attractive. Her interactions with him lead her to question her feminist convictions, such as it being unsuitable for a woman to illogically fall in love with someone she also loathes. The unbidden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It Happens Every Spring
''It Happens Every Spring'' is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Ray Milland, Jean Peters and Paul Douglas. Plot A college professor is working on a long-term scientific experiment when a baseball comes through the window, destroying all of his glassware and spilling the fluids that the flasks and test tubes contained. The pooled fluids combine to form the chemical " methylethylpropylbutyl," which then covers a large portion of the baseball. The professor soon discovers that the fluid, along with any object with which it makes contact, is repelled by wood (cf. Alexander Fleming's serendipitous discovery of penicillin). Suddenly, he realizes the possibilities and takes a leave of absence to go to St. Louis to pitch in the big leagues, where he becomes a star and propels his team to the World Series. Cast * Ray Milland as Prof. Vernon K. Simpson / King Kelly (not based on the 19th-century ball player Mike "King" Kelly) * Jean Peters as Deborah Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations. During his career, he appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College, and he later received a scholarship for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. His breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead performance in ''The Last Mile'' caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful film debut in John Ford's ''Up the River'' (in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Father Of The Bride (1950 Film)
''Father of the Bride'' is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli about a man trying to cope with preparations for his daughter's wedding. The film stars Spencer Tracy in the title role, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor, Billie Burke, and Leo G. Carroll. It was adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from the 1949 novel by Edward Streeter. ''Father of the Bride'' was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Picture, and Best Writing, Screenplay. Plot Following the wedding of his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor), Stanley T. Banks (Spencer Tracy), a successful suburban lawyer, recalls the day, three months earlier, when he first learned of Kay's engagement to Buckley Dunstan ( Don Taylor). At the family dinner table, Kay's casual announcement that she is in love with Buckley and has accepted his proposal makes Stanley feel uneasy, but he soon comes to realize that his daughter has grown up and the wedding is inevit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Father's Little Dividend
''Father's Little Dividend'' is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie is the sequel to ''Father of the Bride'' (1950). Plot In this sequel to ''Father of the Bride'', newly married Kay Dunstan (Elizabeth Taylor) announces that she and her husband are going to have a baby, leaving her father, Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy), having to come to grips with becoming a grandfather. Middle-class family man Stanley Banks reminisces on events of the past year: One afternoon, returning from the office feeling happy and energetic, Stanley's routine is interrupted when his wife Ellie (Joan Bennett) tells him that they are having dinner with their daughter Kay and her husband, Buckley Dunstan ( Don Taylor), to hear some important news. Although Stanley is certain that it concerns Buckley's business, the newlyweds reveal that Kay is expecting a baby. Buckley's parents, Doris (Billie Burke) and Herbert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Munshin
Jules Munshin (February 22, 1915 – February 19, 1970) was an American actor, comedian and singer who had made his name on Broadway when he starred in ''Call Me Mister''. His additional Broadway credits include ''The Gay Life'' and ''Barefoot in the Park''. On screen, he is best remembered for '' On the Town'', in which he co-starred with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly as sailors on leave in New York City. Early life Munshin was born in New York City and began in show business shortly after graduating from high school. He worked in Catskill resorts, then vaudeville and was a singer for the George Olsen band. While serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he played in Army shows such as ''The Army Play‐by‐Play'' and ''About Face'', a touring show that featured Joe Louis. Career In 1946 he joined the Broadway show ''Call Me Mister'' which dealt with the issues that servicemen encountered with return to civilian life. It ran to 734 performances. In 1948 he moved fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Miller
Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American retired actress and former dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the Classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early work included roles in Frank Capra's '' You Can't Take It with You'' (1938) and the Marx Bros. film ''Room Service'' (1938). She later starred in the movie musical classics Charles Walters' '' Easter Parade'' (1948), Stanley Donen's '' On the Town'' (1949) and George Sidney's ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953). Her final film role was in David Lynch's ''Mulholland Drive'' (2001). In 1960, Miller received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, ''The Daily Telegraph'' named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Early life Johnnie Lucille Collier (other sources give other birthnames, such as Lucille Collier and Lucy Ann Collier) was born in Chireno, Texas, to Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett (May 23, 1919 – February 12, 2011) was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared in several musical films, then returned to Broadway and made guest appearances on several television series. Garrett later became known for the roles she played in two prominent 1970s sitcoms: Archie Bunker's politically liberal neighbor Irene Lorenzo in ''All in the Family'' and landlady Edna Babish in ''Laverne & Shirley''. In later years, she appeared in television series such as ''The Golden Girls'', ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''Boston Public'' and ''Becker'' as well as in several Broadway plays and revivals. Early life Garrett was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the daughter of Elizabeth Octavia (née Stone) and Curtis Garrett. Shortly after her birth, her parents relocated to Seattle, Washington, where her mother managed the sheet music department at Sherman Cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He is among the List of best-selling music artists, world's best-selling music artists with an estimated 150 million record sales. Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was greatly influenced by the intimate, easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby and began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. He found success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "Bobby soxer (music), bobby soxers". Sinatra released his debut album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra'', in 1946. When his film career stalled in the early 1950s, Sinatra turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best-known concert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessible to the general public, "dance for the common man." He starred in, choreographed, and co-directed with Stanley Donen some of the most well-regarded musical films of the 1940s and 1950s. Kelly is best known for his performances in ''An American in Paris'' (1951), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), which he and Donen directed and choreographed, and other musical films of that era such as ''Cover Girl'' (1944) and ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. '' On the Town'' (1949), which he co-directed with Donen, was his directorial debut. Later in the 1950s, as musicals waned in popularity, he starred in ''Brigadoon'' (1954) and ''It's Always Fair Wea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
On The Town (film)
''On the Town'' is a 1949 Technicolor musical film with music by Leonard Bernstein and Roger Edens and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It is an adaptation of the Broadway stage musical of the same name produced in 1944 (which itself is an adaptation of the Jerome Robbins ballet entitled ''Fancy Free'' which was also produced in 1944), although many changes in script and score were made from the original stage version; for instance, most of Bernstein's score was dropped in favor of new songs by Edens, who disliked the majority of Bernstein's music for being too complex and too operatic for film audiences. This caused Bernstein to boycott the film. The film was directed by Gene Kelly, who also choreographed, and Stanley Donen in their directorial debut, and stars Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller, and features Jules Munshin and Vera-Ellen. It was a product of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM, and is notable for its combination of studio and locat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
