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Rafaela Ottiano
Rafaela Ottiano (March 4, 1888 – August 14, 1942) was an Italian-American actress. She was best known for her role as Suzette in '' Grand Hotel'' (1932) and as Russian Rita in ''She Done Him Wrong'' (1933). Early life Ottiano was born on March 4, 1888, in Venice, Italy as the second child and daughter of the six children of Maddalena Polcari, a housewife, and Antonio Ottiano, a musician. Maddalena immigrated to United States in 1880, where she met Antonio who came four years after and married him in 1885. Ottiano was named after her paternal grandmother and older sister. Her sisters were Rafaela Bellizia Ottiano, who died in infancy, and Maria Fransesca "Francis" De Stefano, who moved with her to New York City on April 30, 1899. Her brothers were Pasquale "Patsies" and James, both musicians, and Augustino Ottiano. In 1910, she immigrated to the United States with her parents and then was processed at Ellis Island, and resided in Boston with her family. Ottiano worked as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
She Done Him Wrong
''She Done Him Wrong'' is a 1933 pre-Code American crime/comedy film starring Mae West and Cary Grant. The plot includes melodramatic and musical elements, with a supporting cast featuring Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery Sr., Rochelle Hudson, and Louise Beavers. It was directed by Lowell Sherman, and produced by William LeBaron. The film is famous for West's many double entendres and quips, including her best-known (and frequently misquoted), "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" The film was adapted from the successful 1928 Broadway play ''Diamond Lil'' by Mae West. The Hays Code declared the play banned from the screen and repeatedly demanded changes to remove associations with or elements from the play, including suggested titles with the word "diamond". The adaption was finally allowed under the condition that the play not be referred to in publicity or advertising. ''Blonde Venus'' (with Marlene Dietrich) and ''Madame Butterfly'' (with Sylvia Sidney), both p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931), and remains best known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film ''It's a Wonderful Life''. He is also particularly remembered as Ebenezer Scrooge in annual broadcasts of ''A Christmas Carol'' during his last two decades. He is also known for playing Dr. Leonard Gillespie in MGM's nine Dr. Kildare films, a role he reprised in a further six films focusing solely on Gillespie and in a radio series titled ''The Story of Dr. Kildare''. He was a member of the theatrical Barrymore family. Early life Lionel Barrymore was born Lionel Herbert Blythe in Philadelphia, the son of actors Georgiana Drew Barrymore and Maurice Barrymore (born Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe). He was the elder brother of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victory (1940 Film)
''Victory'' is a 1940 American adventure film directed by John Cromwell and starring Fredric March, Cedric Hardwicke and Betty Field. It was based on the popular 1915 novel by Joseph Conrad. On the eve of the American entry into World War II, Conrad's story of a hermit on an island invaded by thugs was refashioned into a call for intervention in the war in Europe at the height of American isolationism. Plot Hendrik Heyst is an intellectual British recluse who has vowed to close himself off from the world and now lives alone on an island in the Dutch East Indies. However, he is forced to break this promise to himself when traveling showgirl Alma, also fleeing from the world, is threatened by three murderous scavengers. The villains are led by Mr. Jones, who has a Cockney sidekick named Martin Ricardo whom Jones treats with sexual sadism. The villains switch their attention from Heyst to Alma when they find that Heyst has untold wealth to plunder. Cast * Fredric March as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding (20 March 1891 – 24 December 1959) was a British screenwriter and film director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 silent film ''Three Live Ghosts'' alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 1920s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray for films directed by her then husband Robert Z. Leonard. Goulding is best remembered for directing cultured dramas such as ''Love'' (1927), ''Grand Hotel'' (1932) with Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford, ''Dark Victory'' (1939) with Bette Davis, and ''The Razor's Edge'' (1946) with Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power. He also directed the classic film noir '' Nightmare Alley'' (1947) with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, and the action drama '' The Dawn Patrol''. He was also a successful songwriter, composer, and producer. Biography Before moving to films, Goulding was an actor, playwright and director on the London stage. Interviewed about his Goulding biography ''Edmund ... [...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] |
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the pre-Code era of American cinema. Often nicknamed the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde", Harlow was popular for her "Laughing Vamp" screen persona. Harlow was in the film industry for only nine years, but she became one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, whose image in the public eye has endured. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Harlow 22 on its greatest female screen legends of classical Hollywood cinema list. Harlow was first signed by business magnate Howard Hughes, who directed her first major role in '' Hell's Angels'' (1930). After a series of critically failed films, and Hughes' loss of interest in her career, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought out Harlow's contract in 1932 and cast her in leading roles in a string ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riffraff (1936 Film)
Riff Raff, Riffraff, or Riff-Raff, a term for the common people but with negative connotations, may refer to: In music * Riff Raff (rapper), from Texas * Riff Raff (band), a UK progressive rock band * Riff Raff, a band formed by Billy Bragg * ''Riff Raff'' (British magazine), a London-based monthly rock magazine * ''Riff Raff'' (album), by Dave Edmunds * "Riff Raff", an organ piece by Giles Swayne * "Riff Raff", a song by the band AC/DC, from their album, ''Powerage'' Films * ''Riffraff'' (1936 film), an American drama starring Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy * ''Riff-Raff'' (1947 film), a black-and-white film noir featuring Pat O'Brien * ''Riff-Raff'' (1991 film), a British film * ''Riff Raff'', a Laurence Fishburne play from which the 2000 film ''Once in the Life ''Once in the Life'' is a 2000 American direct-to-video crime film written , directed and starring Laurence Fishburne. He adapted the script from his own play, ''Riff Raff''. Plot Once you're in the life of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in 1934; her birth year was advanced from 1928 to 1929. Even her baby book was revised to support the 1929 date. She confirmed her true age when she was 21 (Burdick 5; Edwards 23''n'', 43''n''). April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat who was Hollywood's number one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States. Temple began her film career at the age of three in 1931. Two years later, she achieved international fame in '' Bright Eyes'', a feature film produced specially for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 193 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, Hopper named suspected communists and was a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist. Hopper continued to write gossip until the end of her life, her work appearing in many magazines and later on radio. She had an extended feud with another gossip columnist, arch-rival Louella Parsons. Early life Hopper was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Margaret ( née Miller; 1856–1941) and David Furry, a butcher, both members of the German Baptist Brethren. Her family was of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. The family moved to Altoona when Elda was three. Career Acting She eventually ran away to New York City and began her career in the chorus on the Broadway stage. Hopper was not succes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Owen Moore
Owen Moore (12 December 1886 – 9 June 1939) was an Irish-born American actor, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937. Early life and career Moore was born in Fordstown Crossroads, County Meath, Ireland. Along with his parents, John and Rose Anna Moore, brothers Tom, Matt, and Joe, and sister Mary, he emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S.S. ''Anchoria.'' The Moore family were inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896 and settled in the Toledo, Ohio area. Moore and his siblings went on to successful careers in motion pictures in Hollywood, California. While working at D. W. Griffith's Biograph Studios, Moore met a young Canadian actress named Gladys Smith, whom he married on January 7, 1911. Their marriage was kept secret at first because of the strong opposition of her mother. However, Smith soon overshadowed her husband under her stage name, Mary Pickford. In 1912, he signed on with Victor Studios, co-starring in a numbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Von Stroheim
Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. His 1924 film ''Greed'' (an adaptation of Frank Norris's 1899 novel ''McTeague'') is considered one of the finest and most important films ever made. After clashes with Hollywood studio bosses over budget and workers' rights problems, Stroheim found it difficult to find work as a director and subsequently became a well-respected character actor, particularly in French cinema. For his early innovations as a director, Stroheim is still celebrated as one of the first of the auteur directors.Obituary ''Variety'', May 15, 1957, page 75. He helped introduce more sophisticated plots and noirish sexual and psychological undercurrents into cinema. He died of prostate cancer in France in 1957, at the age of 71. Beloved by Parisian neo-Surrealists kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchka'' (1939) with Greta Garbo. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award-winning performances in ''Hud'' (1963) and ''Being There'' (1979) and his Academy Award–nominated performance in ''I Never Sang for My Father'' (1970). Douglas was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting. In the last few years of his life Douglas appeared in films with supernatural stories involving ghosts. Douglas appeared as "Senator Joseph Carmichael" in '' The Changeling'' in 1980 and '' Ghost Story'' in 1981 in his final completed film role. Early life Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford) and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a concert pianist and composer. His father was a Je ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
