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The U.S. Steel Hour
''The United States Steel Hour'' is an anthology series which brought hour long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation (U. S. Steel). ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' The series originated on radio in the 1940s as ''Theatre Guild on the Air''. Organized in 1919 to improve the quality of American theater, the Theatre Guild first experimented with radio productions in ''Theatre Guild Dramas'', a CBS series which ran from December 6, 1943, to February 29, 1944. Actress-playwright Armina Marshall (1895–1991), a co-administrator of the Theatre Guild, headed the Guild's newly created Radio Department, and in 1945, ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' embarked on its ambitious plan to bring Broadway theater to radio with leading actors in major productions. It premiered September 9, 1945, on ABC with Burgess Meredith, Henry Daniell and Cecil Humphreys in ''Wings Over Europe'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ''The Twilight Zone''. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues, including censorship, racism, and war. Early life Serling was born on December 25, 1924, in Syracuse, New York, to a Jewish family. He was the second of two sons born to Esther (née Cooper, 1893–1958), a homemaker, and Samuel Lawrence Serling (1892–1945). Serling's father had worked as a secretary and amateur inventor before his children were born but took on his father-in-law's profession as a grocer to earn a steady income. Sam Serling later became a butcher after the Great Depr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then immigrating to the United States and having a successful Hollywood film career. He was most popular during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. He received Oscar nominations for ''Bulldog Drummond'' (1929), ''Condemned'' (1929) and ''Random Harvest'' (1942). Colman starred in several classic films, including ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1935), ''Lost Horizon'' (1937) and ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937). He also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic '' Kismet'' (1944), with Marlene Dietrich, which was nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1947, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the film '' A Double Life''. Colman was an inaugural recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures. He was awarded a second star for his television work. Early ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire (June 14, 1916 – September 13, 2001) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress for '' Friendly Persuasion'' (1956).Dorothy McGuire Actress who was often cast as a mother and had the talent, but not the will, for stardom The Daily Telegraph 18 Sep 2001: 29. She starred as the eponymous mother in the popular film '' Swiss Family Robinson'' (1960). Life and career Early years Born in Omaha, Nebraska,Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. . pp. 755–756. McGuire was the only child of Isabelle Flaherty McGuire and Thomas Johnson McGuire. She made her stage debut at age 13 at the local community playhouse in Barrie's ''A Kiss for Cinderella''. Her co-star was Henry Fonda, who was also born in Nebraska and was making a ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother. ''Hamlet'' is considered among the "most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others". There are many works that have been pointed to as possible sources for Shakespeare's play—from ancient Greek tragedies to Elizabethan plays. The editors of the Arden Shakespeare question the idea of "source hunting", pointing out that it presupposes that authors always require ideas from other works for their own, and suggests that no author can have an original idea or be an originator. When ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End theatre, West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare in 1929–31. During the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway theatre, Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. He began a parallel career as a director, and set up his own company at the Sondheim Theatre, Queen's Theatre, London. He was regarded by many as the finest Prince Hamlet, Hamlet of his era, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Sinclair
Mary Sinclair (born Ella Delores Cook; November 15, 1922 – November 5, 2000) was an American television, film and stage actress and “a familiar face to television viewers in the 1950s” as a performer in numerous plays produced and broadcast live during the early days of television. Sinclair was also a painter and had in her youth been a Conover model. Her husband, for a time, was Broadway producer and director, George Abbott. Early life and modelling Sinclair was born Ella Delores Cook and raised in San Diego, California. As a young woman she began modelling in Los Angeles, and in 1944, she left Hollywood for Manhattan, where she modelled for the Conover agency and acted in summer stock. "I was the arty type," she recalled in a 1951 interview with ''The New York Times''. "I wanted to go to New York and be a real actress.” Acting career In New York City, she became friends with theater producer Hal Prince and theater producer, playwright and director George Abbott, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films. Rathbone frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters, such as Mr. Murdstone in ''David Copperfield'' (1935), Tybalt in '' Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938). His most famous role was that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. His later career included roles on Broadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. He received a Tony Award in 1948 as Best Actor in a Play. He was also nominated for two Academy Awards and was honoured with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was the recipient of such accolades as a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards. She is best known for her role as Endora on the television series ''Bewitched'', but she also had notable roles in films, including ''Citizen Kane'', ''Dark Passage'', ''All That Heaven Allows'', and ''Show Boat''. She is also known for the radioplay ''Sorry, Wrong Number'' (1943) and its several subsequent re-recordings for '' Suspense''. Moorehead garnered four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her performances in: ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1942), ''Mrs. Parkington'' (1944), '' Johnny Belinda'' (1948), and '' Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte'' (1964). Early life Agnes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Levene
Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and drama theatrical stage productions and acted in over 50 films across the United States and abroad. Early life Levene was born as Scholem Lewin in Russia, the youngest of five children by a dozen years. He immigrated to the United States when he was two years old. He grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Avenue D and 8th Street and attended Public School 64. Levene, who would have been a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in 1923, dropped out. He also failed to qualify for the school's dramatic society. Since he had been in the class of Broadway for over five decades, the illustrious dropout was given a special award, his Stuyvesant High School diploma, in a 1976 ceremony held at the New York's Princeton Club. Levene's father, who an ... [...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] |
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] |
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. Raised in Connecticut by wealthy, progressive parents, Hepburn began to act while at Bryn Mawr College. Favorable reviews of her work on Broadway brought her to the attention of Hollywood. Her early years in film brought her international fame, including an Academy Award for Best Actress for her thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
