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The Tall Target
''The Tall Target'' is a 1951 American historical crime film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Dick Powell, Paula Raymond and Adolphe Menjou. Powell stars as a police sergeant who tries to stop the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at a train stop as Lincoln travels to his inauguration. It is based on the alleged Baltimore Plot. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Eddie Imazu and Cedric Gibbons. Plot New York Police Sergeant John Kennedy once guarded Abraham Lincoln for 48 hours while he was campaigning for President of the United States, and came away deeply impressed by the man. Kennedy has infiltrated a cabal and discovered that an assassination attempt will be made as the president-elect makes his way by train via Baltimore to Washington, DC. His boss, Superintendent Simon G. Stroud, dismisses the threat as "hogwash", as does Caleb Jeffers, a militia colonel with whom Stroud is meeting. Kennedy resigns on the spot to try to foil the conspirators on his own. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann (born Emil Anton Bundsmann; June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American film director and stage actor. Mann initially started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where he worked as a talent scout and casting director. He then became an assistant director, most notably working for Preston Sturges. His directorial debut was ''Dr. Broadway'' (1942). He directed several feature films for numerous production companies, including RKO Pictures, Eagle-Lion Films, Universal Pictures, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first major success was ''T-Men'' (1947), garnering notable recognition for producing several films in the ''film noir'' genre through modest budgets and short shooting schedules. As a director, he often collaborated with cinematographer John Alton. During the 1950s, Mann shifted to directing Western films starring several major stars of the era, including James Stewart. He directed Stewart in eight film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of The United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The power of the presidency has grown substantially since the first president, George Washington, took office in 1789. While presidential power has ebbed and flowed over time, the presidency has played an increasingly strong role in American political life since the beginning of the 20th century, with a notable expansion during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In contemporary times, the president is also looked upon as one of the world's most powerful political figures as the leader of the only remaining global superpower. As the leader of the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP, the president possesses significant domestic and international hard and soft power. Article II of the Constitution establ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regis Toomey
John Francis Regis Toomey (August 13, 1898October 12, 1991) was an American film and television actor. Early life Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of four children of Francis X. and Mary Ellen Toomey, and attended Peabody High School. He initially pondered a law career, but acting won out and he established himself as a musical stage performer. Career Educated in dramatics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became a brother of Sigma Chi, Toomey began as a stock actor and eventually made it to Broadway. Toomey was a singer on stage until throat problems (acute laryngitis) while touring in Europe stopped that aspect of his career. In 1929, he appeared in his first films, starting out as a leading man, but finding more success as a character actor, ''sans'' his toupee. In 1941, Toomey appeared in ''You're in the Army Now'', in which Jane Wyman and he had the longest screen kiss in cinema history: 3 minutes and 5 seconds. In 1956, Toomey was cast as the Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katherine Warren
Katherine Warren (July 12, 1905 – July 17, 1965) was an American film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in the 1949 film ''All the King's Men'', the 1951 film '' The Prowler'', and the 1954 film ''The Caine Mutiny''. Career Prior to her career in films and TV, she was a stage actress on and off Broadway, in Summer Stock, and many theatrical venues throughout the US. Her signature role was as Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac opposite Walter Hampden in the title role. She married Vernon (aka Clark) Tharp Chesney in 1938. The couple had a son, David, in 1947. In 1948, due to her husband's illness, the family moved from New York City to Los Angeles where she began her movie and TV career. Clark Chesney died on January 4, 1951, at the City of Hope in Duarte, California. She appeared under her maiden name (Katharine Warren, which she spelled as shown here) in over 30 films and dozens of television programs including the TV series ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Powers
Thomas McCreery Powers (July 7, 1890 – November 9, 1955) was an American actor in theatre, films, radio and television. A veteran of the Broadway stage, notably in plays by George Bernard Shaw, he created the role of Charles Marsden in Eugene O'Neill's ''Strange Interlude''. He succeeded Orson Welles in the role of Brutus in the Mercury Theatre's debut production, ''Caesar''. In films, he was a star of Vitagraph Pictures and later became best known for his role as the victim of scheming wife Barbara Stanwyck and crooked insurance salesman Fred MacMurray in the film noir classic, ''Double Indemnity'' (1944). Career Thomas McCreery Powers was born in 1890 in Owensboro, Kentucky. His father, Colonel Joshua D. Powers, was a banker; his uncle was sculptor Hiram Powers. Tom Powers' mother loved the theatre and enrolled him at ballet school at age three. He entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at age 16, and he studied drama, wrote and produced plays, and practiced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence Bates
Florence Bates ( Rabe; April 15, 1888 - January 31, 1954), was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles. Life and career Bates was the second child born to Jewish immigrant parents, in San Antonio, Texas, where her father was the owner of an antique store. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in mathematics, after which she taught school. In 1909, she met and married her first husband, Joseph Ramer, and gave up her career to raise their daughter. When the marriage ended in divorce, she began to study law and, in 1914 at the age of 26, passed the bar examination. She was one of the first female lawyers in her home state and practiced law for four years in San Antonio. After the death of her parents, Bates left the legal profession to help her sister operate their father's antique business. She became a bilingual (English—Spanish) radio commentator whose program was designed to fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will Geer
Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In California he befriended rising singer Woody Guthrie. They both lived in New York for a time in the 1940s. He was blacklisted in the 1950s by Hollywood after refusing, in testimony before Congress, to name persons who had joined the Communist Party. In his later years, he was well known for his role as the grandfather figure Zebulon Walton in the TV series ''The Waltons'' until his death. Early life Geer was born in Frankfort, Indiana, the son of Katherine (née Aughe), a teacher, and Roy Aaron Ghere, a postal worker. His father left the family when he was 11 years old. He was deeply influenced by his grandfather, who taught him the botanical names of the plants in his native state. Geer started out to become a botanist, studying the subje ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leif Erickson (actor)
Leif Erickson (born William Wycliffe Anderson; October 27, 1911 – January 29, 1986) was an American stage, film, and television actor. Early life Erickson was born in Alameda, California, near San Francisco. He worked as a soloist in a band as vocalist and trombone player, performed in Max Reinhardt's productions, and then gained a small amount of stage experience in a comedy vaudeville act. Initially billed by Paramount Pictures as Glenn Erickson, he began his screen career as a leading man in Westerns. Military service Erickson enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II. Rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, he served as a military photographer, shooting film in combat zones, and as an instructor. He was shot down twice in the Pacific, and received two Purple Hearts. Erickson was in the unit that filmed and photographed the Japanese surrender aboard the in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Over four years service, he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rober
Richard Rober (born Richard Steven Rauber; May 14, 1906 – May 26, 1952) was an American stage and film actor. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s he featured in numerous theatre productions, including being part of the original cast of '' Born Yesterday'' in Chicago, and the long-running ''Oklahoma!''. In 1947 he moved to Hollywood and appeared in dozens of B-movies and film noir-type films, including ''Call Northside 777'' (1948), '' Sierra'' (1950), and ''The Well'' (1951). He died in an automobile accident in 1952 at the age of 46. Early life and family Richard Steven Rauber was born in Rochester, New York, on May 14, 1906. He was the son of Frederick S. Rauber, an attorney, and Elizabeth Ford. Career Rober began his career as a stage actor in the mid-1930s under his real name, Richard Rauber. Penniless and looking for work after his graduation from the University of Rochester, he landed a small part in a play by the Lyceum Players starring Louis Calhern. He went on to ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of ''A Raisin in the Sun'' (1961). Her other notable film roles include ''The Jackie Robinson Story'' (1950) and ''Do the Right Thing'' (1989). Dee was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed until his death in 2005. For her performance as Mama Lucas in '' American Gangster'' (2007), Dee was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Female Actor in a Supporting Role. Dee was a Grammy, Emmy, Obie and Drama Desk winner. She was also a National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient. Early life Dee was born on October 27, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marshall Thompson
James Marshall Thompson (November 27, 1925 – May 18, 1992) was an American film and television actor. Early years Thompson was born in Peoria, Illinois. He and his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Laurence B. Thompson, moved to California when he was a year old. He attended University High School where he was a classmate of Norma Jean Baker, later to be known worldwide as Marilyn Monroe. Thompson enrolled at Occidental College with plans to become a dentist, but he switched to divinity studies. 1940s In 1943, Thompson, known for his boy-next-door good looks, was signed by Universal Pictures. He played quiet, thoughtful teens in Universal's feature films, including a lead opposite singing star Gloria Jean in ''Reckless Age'', earning $350 weekly. During 1946, Universal discharged most of its contract players, so that same year Thompson moved over to MGM. His film roles steadily increased and improved with appearances in '' The Clock'', the lead in '' Gallant Bess'', MGM's first film sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allan Pinkerton
Allan J. Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a Scottish cooper, abolitionist, detective, and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the United States and his claim to have foiled a plot in 1861 to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, he provided the Union Army – specifically General George B. McClellan of the Army of the Potomac – with military intelligence, including extremely inaccurate enemy troop strength numbers.Sears (2017), p.104 After the war, his agents played a significant role as strikebreakers – in particular during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 – a role that Pinkerton men would continue to play after the death of their founder. Early life Allan J. Pinkerton was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow on August 25, 1819, the son of Isobel McQueen and William Pinkerton. He left school at the age of 10 after his father's death. Pinkerton read voraciously and was largely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
