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The Amazing Mr. Williams
''The Amazing Mr. Williams'' is a 1939 American screwball comedy film produced by Everett Riskin for Columbia Pictures and directed by Alexander Hall. The film stars Melvyn Douglas, Joan Blondell and Clarence Kolb. It was written by Dwight Taylor, Sy Bartlett and Richard Maibaum. The film is about a police lieutenant who is too busy solving crimes to marry his longtime fiancée, who decides to take action and get him to marry her and settle down. The film was released on November 22, 1939. Plot Maxine Carroll, secretary to the mayor, waits impatiently for Kenny Williams, who gets called away by Captain McGovern on police business not long after he arrives. Maxine has enough time to try to talk him into leaving the police force to start a family. Kenny joins Detective Deever and Lieutenant Bixler) in the investigation of the murder of a circus performer, which Kenny solves with the arrest of a jealous knife-thrower. Kenny has another date with Maxine, but this time the captain w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Hall
Alexander Hall (January 11, 1894 – July 30, 1968) was an American film director, film editor and theatre actor. Biography Hall acted in the theatre from the age of four through 1914, when he began to work in silent movies. Following his military service in World War I, he returned to Hollywood and pursued a career in film production. He worked as a film editor and assistant director at Paramount Pictures until 1932, when he directed his first feature film, ''Sinners in the Sun''. From 1937 to 1947, he was a contract director at Columbia Pictures, where he earned a reputation for sophisticated comedies. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' (1941). From 1934 to 1936, Hall was married to actress Lane Sisters, Lola Lane. He was also married to Marjorie Hunter. In 1952 Hall had a home in Palm Springs, California. He was engaged briefly to Lucille Ball, who left him when she met Desi Arnaz. The couple later hired him to direct their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Hale
Jonathan Hale (born Jonathan Hatley; March 21, 1891 – February 28, 1966) was a Canadian-born film and television actor. Life and career Hale was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Before his acting career, Hale worked in the Diplomatic Corps. Hale is most well known as Dagwood Bumstead's boss, Julius Caesar Dithers, in the '' Blondie'' film series in the 1940s. He is also notable for playing Inspector Fernack in various The Saint films by RKO Pictures. In 1950 he made two appearances in ''The Cisco Kid'' as Barry Owens. He also appeared in two different episodes of '' Adventures of Superman'': "The Evil Three", in which he played a murderous "Southern Colonel"-type character, and " Panic in the Sky", one of the most famous episodes, in which he played the lead astronomer at the Metropolis Observatory, actually a California observatory. Among the relatively few television programs on which Hale appeared are the religion anthology series ''Crossroads'', ''The Loretta You ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Middlemass
Robert Middlemass (September 3, 1883 – September 10, 1949) was an American playwright and stage actor, and later character actor with over 100 film appearances, usually playing detectives or policemen.(13 Feb 1937)Mrs. Susan C. Middlemass ''The New York Times'' Biography Middlemass was born in New Britain, Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard University in 1909 and initially went into the insurance business, but soon went on the stage, joining the Castle Square Theatre stock company in Boston. He debuted on Broadway in September 1914 in ''The Bludgeon'' at the Maxine Elliott Theatre.Sexennial Report Class of 1909 Harvard College pp. 201-02 (1915) (self report from Middlemass) His best known play was a one-act melodrama written with |
Lorna Gray
Virginia Pound (July 26, 1917 – April 30, 2017), known professionally as Lorna Gray and (after 1945) Adrian Booth, was an American film actress known for her comic roles, and later as a villainess. She is best known for her roles in Columbia Pictures comedy shorts and Republic Pictures serials. Early years Gray was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After her father's millinery business was a victim of the Great Depression, the family split up. Before appearing in films, Gray sang with a group in Cleveland called Ben Yost's Varsity Coeds, who performed primarily in movie theaters before the movie began. Career Although she had a film test at Universal Studios and a brief contract with Paramount Pictures, she made her first big film for Columbia Pictures. As a Columbia contract player she appeared in the studio's shorts and serials, including ''Flying G-Men'' (starring Robert Paige), ''Pest from the West'' (starring Buster Keaton), and ''You Nazty Spy!'' (starring The Thre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Sale
Virginia Sale (May 20, 1899 – August 23, 1992) was an American character actress whose career spanned six decades, during most of which she played older women, even when she was in her twenties. Over the 46 years she was active as an actress, she worked in films, stage, radio and television. She was famous for her one-woman stage show, ''Americana Sketches'', which she did for more than 1,000 performances during a 15-year span. Married to actor and studio executive Sam Wren, she co-starred with him in one of the first television family comedies, ''Wren's Nest'', in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She gave birth to fraternal twins, Virginia and Christopher, in 1936. Later in her career she worked on television, and in commercials. She died from heart failure at the age of 93 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in 1992. Early life Born on May 20, 1899, in Urbana, Illinois to Frank Orville and Lillie Belle (Partlow) Sale, she attended the University of Illinois for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sally Payne
Sally Payne (September 5, 1912 – May 8, 1999) was an American actress. She featured in several B-Westerns in the 1940s. Career Payne worked as a model for artists before making her first film, ''Hollywood Hobbies'' (1935), where she appeared in the bit part of a tourist. She became a leading actress in B films, usually westerns. She also played in comedy shorts for RKO Radio Pictures (playing the on-screen wives of Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol on several occasions) and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (in a number of Pete Smith subjects).She is most remembered for her performance as Calamity Jane in the Roy Rogers western ''Young Bill Hickok'' (1940), as well as acting the role of Belle Starr in '' Robin Hood of the Pecos'' (1941), where her performing style echoed that of a contemporary, Una Merkel. Just before her association with Rogers ended, her status had enlarged from a supporting-role character to that of first-billed actress. Payne's characters were usually the tomboy type, often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Pepper
Barbara Pepper (born Marion Pepper; May 31, 1915 – July 18, 1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress. She is best known as the first Doris Ziffel on the sitcom ''Green Acres''. Early life and career Marion Pepper was born in New York City, the daughter of actor David Mitchell "Dave" Pepper, and his wife, Harrietta S. Pepper. At age 16 she started life in show business with Goldwyn Girls, a musical stock company where she met Lucille Ball, with whom she would remain friends, during production of Eddie Cantor's ''Roman Scandals'' in 1933. From 1937 to 1943, Pepper was a prolific actress, appearing in 43 movies, mostly in supporting roles or in minor films, with exceptions being main characters in '' The Rogues' Tavern'' and ''Mummy's Boys'', both feature films released in 1936. Among her later film parts were small roles in ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963) and ''My Fair Lady'' (1964). She also performed radio parts. In 1943, she married ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Miller (actor)
Walter Miller (March 9, 1892 – March 30, 1940) was an American actor of the silent era and the early sound era. He appeared in nearly 250 films between 1911 and 1940. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, and died in Hollywood, California, from a heart attack, aged 48. He is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois. Selected filmography * ''A Change of Spirit'' (1912, Short) - The Young Woman's Sweetheart - The Robbery Victim * ''An Unseen Enemy'' (1912, Short) - The Brother's Friend (uncredited) * ''Two Daughters of Eve'' (1912, Short) - Backstage * '' So Near, Yet So Far'' (1912, Short) - Howard * ''A Feud in the Kentucky Hills'' (1912, Short) - A Brother * ''The Painted Lady'' (1912, Short) - At Ice Cream Festival (uncredited) * ''The Musketeers of Pig Alley'' (1912, Short) - The Musician * '' My Baby'' (1912, Short) - Wedding Guest * '' The Informer'' (1912, Short) - The Confederate Captain * '' Brutality'' (1912, Short) - The Young Man * '' A Cry for Help'' (1912, S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Forrest (actor)
William Forrest (October 10, 1902 – January 26, 1989) was an American theatre, film, and television actor. Biography Forest attended Princeton University, where he was a star in athletics. His acting career began in 1938 at the Pasadena Playhouse, and he appeared in more than 250 films between 1939 and 1977. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and died in Santa Monica, California, from heart failure. Partial filmography * ''The Green Hornet Strikes Again'' (1940) * ''The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady'' (1940) *''The Secret Seven'' (1940) * ''The Lone Wolf Takes a Chance'' (1941) * ''Keep 'Em Flying'' (1941) * ''Of Pups and Puzzles'' (1941) (short) * ''Daring Young Man'' (1942) * ''Tarzan's New York Adventure'' (1942) * ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' (1942) as 1st Critic (uncredited) * ''The Masked Marvel'' (1943) * '' Good Morning, Judge'' (1943) * ''The Fighting Seabees'' (1944) * '' Adventures of Kitty O'Day'' (1945) * ''Girls of the Big House'' (1945) * ''Gangs of the Waterfr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Laughton
Eddie Laughton (20 June 190321 March 1952) was an American film actor. Laughton appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1952, and is best known for his work with The Three Stooges. Career Laughton's family immigrated to the United States in 1909 and settled in Detroit. He started in vaudeville and managed a vaudeville theatre where Larry Fine, later of the Stooges trio, once played. The pencil-mustached Laughton was placed under contract by Columbia Pictures in 1935, almost certainly thanks to Fine. Laughton worked at Columbia almost exclusively for 10 years, in features, westerns, short subjects, and serials throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Modern viewers will remember Laughton for his role as "Percy Pomeroy, convict 41144" in the Stooge comedies '' So Long Mr. Chumps'' and '' Beer Barrel Polecats'', or as the happy drunk in '' Loco Boy Makes Good''. Laughton was an excellent utility player, useful in good-guy and bad-guy roles alike. (He and fellow Columbia stock playe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Curtis
Richard Dye (May 11, 1902January 3, 1952), known professionally as Dick Curtis, was an American actor who made over 230 film and television appearances during his career. Early years Curtis was born in Newport, Kentucky, the son of Frank Dye and Elizabeth Faulkner Dye. Career After having limited work in Hollywood, Curtis acted on stage in New York and toured in a variety of productions from 1926 to 1930. Standing at 6' 3", Curtis appeared in films stretching from Charles Starrett to The Three Stooges. In most of his films, he played villains or heavies. He made television appearances on ''The Lone Ranger'' and ''The Range Rider''. He appeared in ''California Gold Rush'', ''Spook Town'', ''The Gene Autry Show'', and many others. Curtis appeared in such Three Stooges films as '' Yes, We Have No Bonanza'', ''You Nazty Spy!'', and '' The Three Troubledoers''. Pioneertown With the help of his friend and actor Russell Hayden, Curtis helped develop Pioneertown, a western movie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Crane (actor)
James Lyon Crane (1889–1968) was an American stage and screen actor. Early years Crane was born in Rantoul, Illinois, and was the son of writer Frank Crane, who left the ministry and became an editorial writer for ''The New York Globe.'' He attended Bowdoin College and Williams College. During summer vacations, he began acting with stock companies in Worcester, Massachusetts. Career Crane's New York debut came in ''The Price'' at the Hudson Theatre, after which he spent three years in stock theater, including having his own troupes in four cities. His Broadway credits included ''The Varying Shore'' (1921), ''Odd Man Out'' (1925), ''All Dressed Up'' (1925), ''Black Cockatoo'' (1926), ''Lost'' (1927), and ''Revelry'' (1927). In 1930, Crane signed with First National to make the film ''One Night at Susie's''. Personal life Crane was married to actress Alice Brady from 1919 to 1922. Together they had a son Donald Crane. He began in films in 1919 with one of his last films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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