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The Wolf Man (franchise)
''The Wolf Man'' is the title of several horror film series centered on Larry Talbot, a man who upon being bitten by a werewolf becomes one himself, and his subsequent attempts to cure himself of his murderous condition. The franchise was created by Curt Siodmak. Universal Classic Monsters film series (1941–1948) The original series of films consisted of seven installments, all of which starred iconic horror actor Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot. The series of films is part of the larger Universal Classic Monsters series. * ''The Wolf Man'' (1941) When his brother dies, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns to Wales and reconciles with his father (Claude Rains). While there, he visits an antique shop and, hoping to impress Gwen (Evelyn Ankers), the attractive shopkeeper, buys a silver walking cane. That same night he kills a wolf with it, only to later learn that he actually killed a man (Bela Lugosi). A gypsy (Maria Ouspenskaya) explains that it was her son, a werewolf, tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horror Film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Cinematic techniques used in horror films have been shown to provoke psychological reactions in an audience. Horror films have existed for more than a century. Early inspirations from before the development of film include folklore, religious beliefs and superstitions of different cultures, and the Gothic and horror literature of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley. From origins in silent films and German Expressionism, horror only became a codified genre after the release of ''Dracula'' (1931). Many sub-genres emerged in subsequent decades, including body horror, comedy horror, slasher films, supernatural horror and psychological horror. The genre has been produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya (russian: Мария Алексеевна Успенская; 29 July 1876 – 3 December 1949) was a Russian actress and acting teacher.Nissen, Axel. 2006. ''Actresses of a Certain Character: Forty Familiar Hollywood Faces from the Thirties to the Fifties.'' Illustrated ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.; , p. 141. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.Obituary for Maria Ouspenskaya, ''Variety'', 7 December 1949; page 63. Life and career Ouspenskaya was born in Tula, Tsarist Russia. She studied singing in Warsaw and acting in Moscow. She was a founding member of the First Studio, a theatre studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. There she was trained by Konstantin Stanislavsky and his assistant Leopold Sulerzhitsky. The Moscow Art Theatre traveled widely throughout Europe, and when it arrived in New York City in 1922, Ouspenskaya decided to stay there. She performed regularly on Bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Waggner
George Waggner (September 7, 1894 – December 11, 1984) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He is best known for producing and directing the 1941 film '' The Wolf Man''. For some unknown reason, Waggner sometimes configured his name in mostly lowercase letters but with his surname's two Gs capitalized ("waGGner"), including in the credits of some of the productions he directed. Career Born in New York City, he trained as a chemist and served in World War I before coming to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actor. He made his film debut as an actor portraying Yousayef in '' The Sheik'' (1921). He later acted in Western films. The first film he directed was ''Western Trails'' (1938). During his career as a film director, he worked with John Wayne (''The Fighting Kentuckian''), Lon Chaney Jr. (''Man Made Monster'' and his most famous film, ''The Wolf Man''), Brian Donlevy and Broderick Crawford (''South of Tahiti''), Randolph Scott ('' Gunfighters'') and Boris Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Abbott
William Alexander "Bud" Abbott (October 2, 1897 – April 24, 1974) was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known as the straight man half of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. Early life Abbott was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey on October 2, 1897, into a show business family.The year of birth has been reported as 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898 in different sources. The 1895 date was perpetuated by sources copying from earlier sources. His birth certificate and World War I draft card both use "October 2, 1897". His parents, Rae Fisher and Harry Abbott, had met while working for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. She was a bareback rider of German Jewish background and he was a concessionaire and forage agent. Bud was the third of the couple's four children. When Bud was a toddler, the family relocated to Harlem, then to the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, and his father became a longtime advance man for the Columbia Burlesque Wheel. During the summer, when burles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Ferguson
Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1906 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish merchant, and his American wife Annie Boynton. He grew up in his native Ferndale. He graduated from Ferndale Union High School in 1927. He earned a bachelor's degree in speech and drama at the University of California and a master's degree from Cornell University. He also taught at UCLA and Cornell. As a young man, he became connected with Gilmor Brown, the founder and director of the Pasadena Community Playhouse, and became one of its first directors. He directed as well as acted in many plays there. He also taught at the Playhouse. He made his film debut in 1939 in ''Gambling on the High Seas'' (released in 1940), and appeared in nearly 200 feature films and hundreds of TV episodes subsequently. Career Ferguson's best known role was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Costello
Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), professionally known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with straight man Bud Abbott and their routine "Who's on First?". Abbott and Costello, who teamed in burlesque in 1936, were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. During a national tour in 1942, they sold $85 million in war bonds in 35 days. By 1955, their popularity waned from overexposure, and their film and television contracts lapsed. Their partnership ended in 1957. Early life Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Helen Rege and Sebastiano Cristillo, a silk weaver and insurance sales agent. His father was Italian, from CasertaCostello, Chris and Raymond Strait."Lou's On First." New York: St. Martin's Press. in Campania, Italy, and his mother was an American of Italian, French and Irish ancestry (he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1948 In Film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1948 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events * May 3 – The Supreme Court of the United States decide in ''United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.'' holding that the practice of block booking and ownership of theater chains by film studios constituted anti-competitive and monopolistic trade practices. * Laurence Olivier's ''Hamlet'' becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture. Awards Top ten money making stars Notable films released in 1948 United States unless stated # *''3 Godfathers'', starring John Wayne A *''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'', starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello *''Act of Violence'', starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh *''Adventures of Don Juan'', starring Errol Flynn *''Albuquerque'', starring Randolph Scott and Barbara Britton *''The Amazing Mr. X'', starring Tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Onslow Stevens
Onslow Stevens (born Onslow Ford Stevenson; March 29, 1902 – January 5, 1977) was an American stage, television and film actor. Early years Born in Los Angeles, California, Stevens was the son of British-born character actor Houseley Stevenson. Career Stevens became involved in performing in 1926 at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where his entire family worked as performers, directors and teachers. His Broadway debut came in ''Stage Door'' (1936). He performed in over 80 films, at first as the lead actor, but mostly in character roles later in his career. Death He spent the last years of his life in a nursing home in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, where, according to his wife, he was abused by his fellow residents and that his death was neither from natural causes nor an accident. He died of pneumonia after suffering a broken hip in 1977, at the age of 74. His interment was in an unmarked grave located at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1945 In Film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1945 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events * January 26 – The film ''National Velvet'', starring Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Donald Crisp and Anne Revere, is released nationally in the United States. The film is an instant critical and commercial success, propelling 12-year-old Taylor to stardom and earning Revere the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. * January 30 – Restricted release of '' Kolberg'', an historical epic which is one of the last Nazi Germany propaganda pieces, in war-torn Berlin. Given its cast of 187,000, probably fewer people view it than appear in it. * April 20 – Release of ''Son of Lassie'', the 2nd Lassie film and the first film ever to be filmed using the Technicolor Monobook method, where a single magazine of film is used to record all of the primary colors. Prior to this method, the most popular record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Carradine
John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theater. In the later decades of his career, he starred mostly in low-budget B-movies. In total, he holds 351 film and television credits, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking actors of all time. Carradine was married four times, had five children, and was the patriarch of the Carradine family, including four sons and four grandchildren who are or were also actors. Early life Carradine was born in New York City, the son of William Reed Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press, and his wife, Genevieve Winnifred Richmond, a surgeon.Krebs, Albin. "John Carradine, Actor, Dies; appeared in Numerous Roles", ''New York Times,'' Nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glenn Strange
George Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973) was an American actor who mostly appeared in Western films and was billed as Glenn Strange. He is best remembered for playing Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films during the 1940s and for his role as Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's ''Gunsmoke'' television series. Early life Strange was born in Weed, New Mexico Territory,Raw, Laurence (2012)"Glenn Strange" ''Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films, 1930–1960'' (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012), p. 175. Retrieved October 29, 2017. 13 years prior to New Mexico gaining statehood. Strange grew up in the West Texas town of Cross Cut. His father was a bartender and later a rancher. Strange learned by ear how to play the fiddle and guitar. By the time he was 12, he was performing at cowboy dances. By 1928, he was on radio in El Paso, Texas. He was a young rancher, but in 1930, he came to Hollywood as a member of the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established him as a horror icon, and he reprised the role for the sequels ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935) and ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in ''The Mummy'' (1932), and voiced the Grinch in, as well as narrating, the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (1966), which won him a Grammy Award. Aside from his numerous film roles (174 films), Karloff acted in many live stage plays and appeared on dozens of radio and television programs as well. For his contribution to film and television, Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 8 February 1960. Early life Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on 23 November 1887, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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