Hollywood Actors Archives - Page 65 of 115

David Birney

David Birney was born in 1939 in Washington D.C. He has had a profilic career on stage and television. His TV shows include “Bridget Loves Bernie” and “St Elsewhere”. His films include “Caravan to Vaccares” with Charlotte Rampling and “Trial by Combat”.

TCM Overview:

Since his primetime debut in the early 1970s, this handsome, dark-haired TV actor has seemed to be on the brink of superstardom, but has had the ill fortune of never appearing on a hit series. David Birney was the toast of the Dartmouth College drama program and worked extensively in theater before such TV series as “Bridget Loves Bernie” (CBS, 1972-73), “Serpico” (NBC, 1976-77) and “Glitter” (ABC, 1984) gave him a different profile.

After military service, Birney joined the Barter Theatre Company in Abingdon, VA, where he made both his professional acting (in Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever”) and directing ( with Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story”) debuts. He went on to appear with various regional theaters, including the Hartford Stage Company, before making his New York debut with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival in “A Comedy of Errors” in 1967. Birney appeared alongside Stacy Keach and Rue McClanahan in “MacBird” (1967) won praise for his turn in the off-Broadway show “Summertime” the following year. Numerous other stage roles followed, although his theater work became sporadic after 1975 when TV roles became more plentiful. Birney did make a belated Broadway debut in 1983 stepping into the role of Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s award-winning play “Amadeus”.

The actor made his TV series bow as the young lover Mark Elliot on the CBS soap opera “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” in 1968. Two years later, he segued to the ABC daytime drama “A World Apart”. But audiences came to recognize Birney for his primetime work beginning as Bernie Steinberg, the Jewish cab driver with writing aspirations married to an Irish-American Roman Catholic bride. “Bridget Loves Bernie” attempted to recreate the “Abby’s Irish Bride” and “Cohens and Kellys” successes of the early part of the 20th Century, but the show lasted a mere season. (Birney married his co-star, Meredith Baxter, whose fame was to eclipse his when she starred in “Family Ties” in the 80s. They divorced in 1989.)

Birney was an impressive John Quincy Adams in the 1976 PBS miniseries “The Adams Chronicles”. Later that year, he stepped into Al Pacino’s shoes as “Serpico”, but the small screen version only lasted one season. In 1982, Birney was in the original cast of the NBC medical series “St. Elsewhere” as Dr. Ben Samuels, the young doctor who had slept with every woman in the hospital. Conflicts with the producers on the direction and status of his role led to his leaving the series after a year. He hooked up with producer Aaron Spelling with the short-lived “Glitter”, as a star reporter for a magazine. A decade later, Birney was the smarmy news anchor on the equally short-lived UPN series “Live Shot” (1995).

As a frequent player in TV-movies and miniseries, Birney had better luck demonstrating his range and talent. He made his TV debut playing Brother Martin, hearing the confession of “Saint Joan” in a 1967 NBC “Hallmark Hall of Fame” production. He offered a strong performance as one of the leads in the syndicated miniseries “Testimony of Two Men”. His longform star status increased when he played Lyon Burke, the lawyer whose becomes involved romantically with one young woman and professionally with two others, in “Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls 1981”. Birney served as executive producer of “The Long Journey Home” (CBS, 1987) and wrote “The Diaries of Adam and Eve”, a stage project about relationships he performed with then-wife Meredith Baxter-Birney that was filmed for PBS in 1989. More recently, Birney was Alan Hamel, the husband of Suzanne Somers in the 1991 ABC biopic “Keeping Secrets” and the adoptive father of a confused Stephen Dorff in “Always Remember I Love You” (CBS, 1990).

Birney’s feature film appearances have been sporadic. He debuted in the low-budget “Caravan to Vaccares” (1974) but is probably better recalled as the advertising executive whose daughter sees the Almighty in “Oh God! Book II” (1980).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Trial By Combat (aka A Choice Of Arms, poster, aka A CHOICE OF WEAPONS), (l-r top): John Mills, David Birney, Barbara Hershey, Donald Pleasence, Margaret Leighton, Peter Cushing, poster art, 1976. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)

New York Times obituary:

David Birney, Who Starred on TV’s ‘Bridget Loves Bernie,’ Dies at 83

By Richard Sandomir

Published May 2, 2022Updated May 4, 2022

David Birney, a classically trained theater actor who found success on the stage, including on Broadway, but who was best known for his role in “Bridget Loves Bernie” — a short-lived sitcom about an interfaith marriage in which he starred opposite his future wife, Meredith Baxter — died on Wednesday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 83.

The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, said Michele Roberge, his life partner.

Mr. Birney had been in a handful of television series and movies when he was cast in 1972 as Bernie Steinberg, a Jewish taxicab driver and struggling writer. Ms. Baxter played Bridget Fitzgerald, a schoolteacher from a wealthy Roman Catholic family.

“This is not a message show,” Mr. Birney, who was Irish American, said during an interview with The Kansas City Star before the series’s debut. “It’s not even an idea show.”

CBS gave it a plum time slot between “All in the Family” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” on Saturday night; it consistently finished among the top 10 programs in prime time and was the highest rated new series of the 1972-73 season.

But it attracted criticism from a broad spectrum of Jewish groups, which objected chiefly to its treatment of intermarriage between Jews and Christians as a positive outcome and complained that it used Jewish stereotypes. CBS publicly played down the criticism but, without an explanation, canceled “Bridget Loves Bernie” after 24 episodes.

“One segment of the protesters is truly concerned about the dilution of their faith,” Mr. Birney told The Daily News several months after the cancellation. “But intermarriage is on the rise, nevertheless. The threat doesn’t come from a harmless show such as ours, but from within.”

Mr. Birney and Ms. Baxter married in 1974.

In 1976, Mr. Birney received acclaim for playing John Quincy Adams in the public television production of “The Adams Chronicles.” Later that year, he was hired to play Frank Serpico, the corruption-fighting New York City detective, in an NBC series adapted from the Sidney Lumet movie “Serpico” (1973), which had earned Al Pacino an Oscar nomination for best actor.

Mr. Birney was cast in the role on the strength of his work playing an officer in two episodes of “Police Story,” another NBC series. But “Serpico” was canceled after less than a full season.

David Edwin Birney was born on April 23, 1939, in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Cleveland. His father, Edwin, was an F.B.I. agent, and his mother, Jeanne (McGee) Birney, was a homemaker and later a real estate agent.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Dartmouth College in 1961, Mr. Birney turned down a scholarship from Stanford Law School and instead chose to study theater arts at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received a master’s degree a year later. In the Army, he was part of a program called the Showmobile, which entertained at military bases in the United States.

Mr. Birney’s theater career began in earnest in 1965, when he won the Barter Theater Award, enabling him to spend a season acting in shows at the prestigious Barter Theater in Abingdon, Va. He moved on to the Hartford Stage Company in Connecticut, and in 1967 he played Antipholus of Syracuse in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of “A Comedy of Errors.”

Mr. Birney made his Broadway debut two years later in Molière’s “The Miser.” And in 1971 he starred in a Broadway production of J.M. Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. Mr. Birney played Christy Mahon, who enters an Irish pub in the early 1900s telling a story about killing his father.

“Mr. Birney had a cock sparrow arrogance,” Clive Barnes wrote in his review in The New York Times, “that mixture of both confidence and certainty that seemed perfectly right.”

At the opening of “Playboy,” the Clancy Brothers, the popular Irish singing group that Mr. Birney had befriended at a Manhattan bar, sat in the front row.

“They had their Irish sweaters on,” Ms. Roberge said in a phone interview, “and their arms crossed as if to say, Come on, show us what you’ve got.”

Over the rest of his theatrical career, Mr. Birney played a wide variety of roles, including Antonio Salieri, as a replacement, in Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” on Broadway; Benedick in “Much Ado About Nothing” at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J.; Hamlet at the PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria, Calif.; and James Tyrone Jr. in Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten” at the Miniature Theater of Chester, Mass.

He also adapted some of Mark Twain’s short stories into a play, “The Diaries of Adam and Eve,” which he often performed and directed. In 1989, he starred in one of the productions, with Ms. Baxter, for American Playhouse on PBS.

The couple divorced that year. In 2011, she wrote in her book,“Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame and Floundering,” that Mr. Birney had been abusive during their marriage. He denied her accusation, calling it an “appalling abuse of the truth.”

One of Mr. Birney’s biggest successes on television was a starring role as a doctor in the first season of the medical dramedy “St. Elsewhere.” But as the second season approached, he left the series because of his commitment on Broadway to “Amadeus.”

He continued to work in television through 2007, when he was a guest on the police procedural “Without a Trace.”

In addition to Ms. Roberge, Mr. Birney is survived by his children with Ms. Baxter, his daughters Kate and Mollie Birney and a son, Peter Baxter; a stepdaughter, Eva Bush, and a stepson, Ted Bush, Ms. Baxter’s children from a previous marriage; two grandchildren; and his brothers, Glenn and Gregory. Another marriage, to Mary Concannon, also ended in divorce

Beau Bridges is one the famous Bridges acting family which includes his late father Lloyd and his young brother Jeff. Beau made his film debut in 1948 in “Force of Evil”. In 1967 he made “The Incident” followed by “For the Love of Ivy”, “Hammersmith Is Out” with Elizabeth Taylor and “The Fabulous Baker Boys” with his brother Jeff.

TCM overview:

An Emmy and Golden Globe award winner, actor Beau Bridges – the eldest son of actor Lloyd Bridges and brother of Jeff Bridges – developed into an amiable character actor after beginning his career as a child star in such films as “Force of Evil” (1948) and Lewis Milestone’s “The Red Pony” (1949). Graduating into more adult roles in the late 1960s, Bridges was a diversely talented actor who fit comfortably into a number of genres – drama, comedy, historical biopics, and even science-fiction. Following a praised turn as reporter in “Gaily, Gaily” (1969) and a starring role in Hal Ashby’s directorial debut, “The Landlord” (1970), he made his first of several collaborations with director Peter Ustinov in the satirical comedy, “Hammersmith Is Out” (1972). Later in the decade, Bridges was the husband of union organizer “Norma Rae” (1979) and entered the following decade with a starring role in the biopic “Heart Like a Wheel” (1983). He joined his brother for the critically hailed romantic drama, “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989), which he followed with an Emmy-winning performance in the title role for “Without Warning: The James Brady Story” (HBO, 1991). Bridges also found great success on the small screen, earning critical acclaim for portraying Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker, former U.S. president Richard Nixon, and 19th century showman P.T. Barnum. Entering the new millennium, Bridges showed no sign of slowing down with a recurring role on “Stargate: SG-1” (Sci-Fi Channel, 2005-07), a supporting part in Steven Soderberg’s World War II drama, “The Good German” (2006), and a guest starring role on “Desperate Housewives” (ABC, 2004- ). With his modest gravitas, which always made him a favorite of his many collaborators, Bridges quietly became one of the most prolific character performers working in Hollywood.

Born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III on Dec. 9, 1941 in Hollywood, CA, he earned his lifelong nickname as a child, after the fictional son of Ashley Wilkes’ in “Gone with the Wind” (1939). After a hopeful career in pro basketball failed to pan out, Bridges returned to acting in his early twenties. In the early 1960s, he appeared in a number of TV shows, including his father’s syndicated undersea adventure series “Sea Hunt” (1958- 1961). Seeking to forge his own identity separate from his famous father, however, Bridges began going after more serious, adult-oriented fare toward the end of the decade. Among his most notable credits from this early period was a supporting part as a soldier menaced by hoods during a subway ride in Larry Peerce’s “The Incident” (1967). Bridges also gained notice for his gripping portrayal of a fictionalized Ben Hecht in Norman Jewison’s “Gaily, Gaily” (1969).

Although he proved himself a capable romantic lead early on – particularly in Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord” (1970) – Bridges ultimately found his niche as a character actor. He continued to work steadily, if not spectacularly, throughout the 1970s in features like Sidney Lumet’s “Child’s Play” (1972) and Peerce’s “The Other Side of the Mountain” (1974), before landing the thankless role of Sally Field’s husband in director Martin Ritt’s pro-union drama “Norma Rae” (1979). While Field’s flashier title role nabbed her an Oscar for Best Actress, Bridges’ role as her insecure, frustrated spouse, Sonny, was deceptively multi-layered and arguably the more complex of the two.

Bridges became especially prolific during the 1980s, appearing in no less than two dozen features and television productions. In 1981, Bridges earned positive notice for his supporting role as East German baddie Guenter Wentsel in “Night Crossing,” an interesting, but ultimately forgettable Cold War drama. Two years later, Bridges gave one of his best performances supporting Bonnie Bedelia in the underrated racecar drama “Heart Like a Wheel” (1983). Around this same period, Bridges branched into directing with the 1982 NBC movie “The Kid from Nowhere,” a vehicle which not only saw him act, but also provided roles for sons Casey and Jordan. He later helmed, co-produced and starred in the highly-acclaimed “The Thanksgiving Promise” (ABC, 1986), an even larger family affair featuring three generations of Bridges – father, mother, brother and son Jordan. Bridges made his feature directing debut with “The Wild Pair” (1987), acting opposite father Lloyd and sons Casey and Dylan this time, but neither it nor the subsequent “Seven Hours to Judgment” (1988), which re-teamed him with Leibman, created much excitement.

Fortunately, Bridges managed to close the decade out on an especially high note – starring opposite his brother Jeff in director Steve Kloves’ engaging drama, “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989). Cast as the low-rent, polyester-clad lounge lizard Frank Baker, Bridges turned in a magnificent performance as the spurned half of a brother-brother nightclub act with both in love with saucy Michelle Pfeiffer. Smart, smooth and unexpectedly poignant, Bridges earned raves for his performance – one that many viewed as partly autobiographical in nature.

Returning to the small screen in the 1990s, Bridges tried to make a go of series television as the star and executive producer of “Harts of the West” (CBS, 1993-94), a dramedy about a city slicker who uproots his family to the Flying Tumbleweed Ranch in Sholo, NV. Unfortunately, the show failed to find an audience. Luckily, Bridges appeared to have better luck in the long-form format. In 1992, Bridges won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his tragic portrayal of James Brady – the former press secretary of President Ronald Reagan who took a bullet from John Hinkley’s attempt on the president’s life – in “Without Warning.” The following year, Bridges took home another Emmy in the same category for his deliciously funny turn in the cable black comedy, “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleading-Murdering Mom” (HBO, 1993) – based on the true story of accused murderer Wanda Holloway.

Continuing his good luck with politically-themed dramas, Bridges turned in yet another Emmy-nominated performance as disgraced President Richard Nixon in the TNT made-for-TV movie “Kissinger & Nixon (1995). Starting in 1997, Bridges served as co-star and producer on three Showtime telefilms based on the old TV series “The Defenders” (CBS, 1961-64). In the first two, “The Defenders: Payback” (1997) and “The Defenders: Choice of Evils” (1998), original series star E.G. Marshall reprised his role as Lawrence Preston, joined by son Don (Bridges) and granddaughter M J. (Martha Plimpton). When Marshall became too ill to participate in the third installment, “The Defenders: Taking the First” (1998), the focus of the movie shifted to the father-daughter team, indicating that there was still life in the franchise. Bridges also starred in the Barry Sonnenfeld-produced summer series “Maximum Bob” (ABC, 1998), a quirky one-hour drama based on an Elmore Leonard novel, playing Floridian Judge Bob Isom Gibbs, a hard-nose who meets his match in a female lawyer.

In 2005, Bridges was cast as austere Major General Frank Landry on the cable sci-fi adventure series “Stargate SG-1” (Showtime/Sci-Fi Channel, 1997-2007). The following year, Bridges received his third Emmy nod; this time for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Carl Hickey, the no-goodnick father of the title character played by Jason Lee in the hit NBC sitcom “My Name is Earl” (2005-09). Following supporting turns in Steven Soderbergh’s World War II mystery, “The Good German” (2006), and as a Hollywood manager in “Americanizing Shelley” (2007), Bridges co-starred in the video game feature film adaptation, “Max Payne” (2008), playing a former cop and mentor who helps the titular antihero (Mark Wahlberg) find the people responsible for killing his family and partner. On the small screen, Bridges earned an Emmy Award nomination in 2009 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for playing handyman Eli Scruggs on an episode of “Desperate Housewives” (ABC, 2004- ). Earlier that year, he shared a Grammy Award with Cynthia Nixon and Blair Underwood for Best Spoken Word Album for his reading of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. In another acclaimed guest turn, he played Detective George Andrews – who decides to undergo a transformation into Detective Georgette Andrews – on an episode of “The Closer” (TNT, 2005-2011). His performance earned Bridges an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He continued amassing Emmy nominations as a guest star with his performance as the old boyfriend of family matriarch Nora Walker (Sally Field) on “Brothers and Sisters” (ABC, 2006-2011).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Betsy Von Furstenberg was born in 1931 in Germany. She made her debut on film in Germany and came to the U.S. in 1951. Her film career has been totally on television and include “Adventure in Paradise” in 1960 and “The Defenders” in 1963.

IMDB entry:

This elegant, ladylike 50s Broadway star was born in Heiheim Heusen, German on August 16, 1931, the daughter of Count Franz-Egon von Furstenberg and his wife Elizabeth (Johnson). A lady of privilege, Betsy moved to America growing up and attended Miss Hewitt’s Classes and New York Tutoring School. With designs on acting, she prepared for the theater at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner and made her stage debut in New York at the Morosco Theatre in 1951 with “Second Threshold.” She went on to create a gallery of breezy and stylish debutantes and society girls and enjoyed her first major hit playing Myra Hagerman in “Oh, Men! Oh, Women!” in 1953. Her role would be played by Barbara Rush in the 1957 movie version. Betsy continued with prime roles throughout the 1950s in such plays as “The Chalk Garden,” “Child of Fortune,” “Nature’s Way,” “Wonderful Town” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” among others. At the same time she also graced a number of live and taped TV dramas, including ‘Playhouse 90,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Kraft Television Theatre” and a variety of talk shows.

In the 1960s Betsy appeared in another sparkling comedy hit playing the role of Tiffany in “Mary, Mary” starring Barbara Bel Geddes and Barry Nelson. Again, however, when it came time to film the movie version, Betsy was replaced…this time by then-popular TV star Diane McBain. Making her first and only film appearance in the Italian-made _Donne senza nome (1949)_ [Women Without Names], one can only surmise the film career she might have had, had she been able to recreate some of her lovely stage roles. In the 1970s Betsy was seen opposite Maureen Stapleton in “The Gingerbread Lady” and played Sybil in a production of “Private Lives.” Light comedies also came her way with “There’s a Girl in My Soup” (with Don Ameche and Taina Elg), “Absurd Person Singular,” “Status Quo Vadis” and “Avanti!”

Married to Guy Vincent de la Maisoneuve, she retired from the stage in later years but was glimpsed quite often in high society gatherings and theater benefit functions.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Rosemary Murphy

Rosemary Murphy was born in 1927 in Munich, Germany. She studied acting in New York at the Neighbourhood Playhouse. She made her stage debut in Germany in 1949 in “Peer Gynt”. Her Broadway debut came in 1950. She gave an incisive performance in the movie “To Kill A Mockingbird” in 1962 and also featured in “Walking Tall” in 1973. She died in July 2014.

Her “Hollywood Reporter” obituary:

Rosemary Murphy, who played the neighbor Miss Maudie in the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird and earned an Emmy Award and three Tony nominations during her distinguished career, has died. She was 89.

Murphy, who won her Emmy for portraying the mother of Franklin Delano Rooseveltin the 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin, died Saturday in her Upper East Side apartment in New York City, her longtime agent, Alan Willig, told The Hollywood Reporter. She recently was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.

In To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), the acclaimed film drama based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Murphy played Maudie Atkinson, who lives across the street from attorney Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and helps teach his children lessons about racism and human nature.

“You knew you were in something special. It was a fascinating experience,” Murphy said about making the film in a 2012 interview with The Daily Beast. “I was very respectful of where I was and thrilled to be there. Gregory Peck was accessible and a real gent.”

With her death, Robert Duvall is believed to be the last adultMockingbird castmember still alive.

After Eleanor and Franklin, Murphy collected a second Emmy nom for playing Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt in the follow-up telefilm Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977).

Murphy’s Tony noms, all for best actress in a play, came in 1961 for her work as Dorothea Bates inTennessee Williams’ Period of Adjustment; in 1964 for Any Wednesday, in which she starred opposite Gene Hackman; and in 1967 for Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, which also starredHume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.

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She appeared in more than a dozen Broadway productions, from 1950’s The Tower Beyond Tragedythrough 1999’s Waiting in the Wings, written by Noel Coward.

On film, Murphy stood out as prostitute Callie Hacker in the Joe Don Baker revenge tale Walking Tall(1973). She also appeared in The Young Doctors (1961); the 1966 film version of Any Wednesday that starred Jane Fonda; the killer rodent sequel Ben (1972); 40 Carats (1973), with Liv Ullmann; Julia (1977), again with Fonda; September (1987), with Elaine Stritch; Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite(1995); and Synecdoche, New York (2008).

In the 1976 NBC telefilm A Case of Rape, Murphy played a ruthless D.A. who cross-examines a rape victim (Elizabeth Montgomery) and wins acquittal for the man who attacked her. She also had a regular role in the 1970s NBC drama series Lucas Tanner, starring David Hartman.

Her TV résumé also includes playing kleptomaniac Loretta Fowler on the NBC daytime drama Another World and guest-starring stints on such shows as The Virginian, Ben Casey, The Fugitive, Cannon,Medical Center, Trapper John, M.D., Murder, She Wrote and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Murphy was born in Munich, the daughter of a U.S. diplomat. She studied acting in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio.

She never married. Survivors include her sister Mildred and nephew Greg. A memorial will be held in Manhattan in September, her nephew said.

Tall & handsome James Lilburn was the younger brother of Maureen O’Hara. He was born in Dublin in 1927. He made his movie debut with his sister and John Wayne in the classic “The Quiet Man” as the young curate Fr Paul. He then went on to Hollywood and made such movies as “What Price Glory”, “Titanic”, “Desert Rats”, “Suddenly” and “The Long GrayLine”. He died in 1992 in Glendale, California.

Virginia Bruce was a beautiful blonde actress who shone in some fine movies in Hollywood primarily in the 1930’s and 40’s. She was born in 1910 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She had the title role in the 1934 film adaptation of “Jane Eyre”. Other films include “The Great Ziegfeld”, “Born to Dance”, “Arsene Lupin Returns” and “Adventure in Washington”. Her final film role was as the mother of Kim Novak in “Strangers When We Meet”. She died in 1982.

Source: Wikepidia, the Free Encyclopedia

Helen Virginia Briggs, later know as Virginia Bruce, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on the day of September 29th, 1910. Though born in Minnesota, she grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. In 1929, she left North Dakota to attend a womans college in California. Upon arrival to California she caught the “acting-bug” and went to MGM Studios were she landed bit-parts in silent-films and early talkies. It was while at MGM, that she meet screen legend John Gilbert, then in his decline as both a star and a human-being. They were married in 1932, and in 1933 Virginia Bruce gave birth to a daughter whom she christined Susan Ann. In 1934, Virginia divorced Gilbert. After the divorce she continued her movie career landing suitable roles in movies like The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Born to Dance (1936). In 1939, she proved to Hollywood and the world that she was a true actress when she starred in Stronger Than Desire (1939). The film was a remake of the 1935 film, Evelyn Prentice, yet the plot was the same. It was with this film that Virginia Bruce cemented her career, playing a New York Socialite who murders her lover and uses her brains and beauty to evade her crime. In 1941, she married J. Walter Reuban, a screenwriter at MGM Studios. That same year she gave birth to a son. (The name of the offspring is unknown). In 1942, Reuban went to serve in the war and ended up dying there, leaving Virgina a widow. It was doing that war that Virginia took time off from movies to help with the war-effort by attending War-Bond Rally’s, Touring with the USO, and even being a nighthostess at the Hollywood Canteen in downtown Los Angeles. The 1950s, saw her married to Ali Ipar, a Turkish film director. She was divorced from Ali Ipar for the first time in 1951 when he began his compulsory Turkish army service because Turkish law forbids commissions to men married to foreigners. In 1952, they remarried and in 1964, they divorced for the second and final time. The 1950s also saw Virginia Bruce in television, working with the Ford Television Theatre and also with the Lux Video Theatre in a television adaption of the 1945 film, Mildred Pierce, with Virginia Bruce in the title role. In the late 60s, work was hard to come by for Virginia Bruce and when the 1970s began she retired from acting. In 1981, she came out of retierment to star in the film, Madame Wang’s. By 1982, her health problems had increased and on February 24th, 1982 Virginia Bruce died in Woodland Hills, California of cancer at age 71.

Nina & Frederick

Nina Van Pallandt was born in 1932 in Denmark. She and her husband were a famous folk duo in the early 1960’s and were known as ‘Nina and Frederick’. She had a leading role in 1973 in Robert Altman’s Philip Marlowe Private Eye’s “The Long Goodbye” with Elliot Gould. She also starred with Paul Newman in “Quintet” in 1979 and “American Gigolo” opposite Richard Gere in 1980.

IMDB Entry:

Nina Van Pallandt became famous in the United States in the early 1970s as the mistress of hoaxer Clifford Irving, who went to jail when his biography of Howard Hughes, allegedly written with Hughes’ co-operation, proved to be a fake when Hughes himself came out of seclusion to repudiate the work. Van Pallandt helped expose Irving’s fraud by revealing that he was vacationing with her in Mexico at the time he was allegedly interviewing Hughes. She appears, as herself, in Orson Welles‘ non-fiction film “F For Fake” (F for Fake (1973)). Van Pallandt was known in Europe as a singer of folk songs before her involvement with Irving and subsequent film career, having been married to her fellow folk singer, Baron Frederik van Pallandt, with whom she toured Europe and had many hit records as “Nina & Frederik”. The height of Van Pallandt’s film career was her appearance in four Robert Altman movies: The Long Goodbye (1973), A Wedding (1978), Quintet (1979) and O.C. and Stiggs (1985).

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Guy Lazarus

Frederick obituary from 1994 in “The Independent”:

Frederik had not performed together for nearly 30 years. But the death of Frederik van Pallandt in what police in the Philippines have described as a mysterious professional killing, brings to a final end an era of sweet, slightly folk-tinged singing that, in their heyday, placed van Pallandt and his then wife Nina at the top of the international popular music tree, with sell-out Royal Albert Hall concerts, and at least five chart entries (one song twice) between 1959 and 1961.

They first made their mark in Britain at Christmas 1959 with a revival of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’, which had been a hit for Harry Belafonte two years earlier, followed by another religious song, ‘Little Donkey’, which was in the charts for 10 weeks between November 1960 and February 1961. It reached No 3. They released two different albums called Nina and Frederik, the first of them reaching the Top 10 for albums in February 1960, and the second No 11 in April/May 1961.

Much was made of their aristocratic origins. Frederik was a baron, and the son of a former Ambassador for the Netherlands to Denmark, and Nina had simliar connections with the Danish and American social registers. Though they principally used material from the Third World – like another Belafonte hit, ‘Long Time Boy’, in September 1961, and ‘Sucu Sucu’ the following month – they were really part of the soft underbelly of folk, represented by a number of such duos – one thinks immediately of the Israeli Ofarim, who had a similarly glamorous woman partner with a pretty-boy male counterpart – whose hegemony was decisively put to an end by the tongue-in-cheek antics of Sonny and Cher, as well as the more carefully crafted tones of Peter Paul and Mary.

But it was not a shift in musical tast that dislodged them from their brief pinnacle of fame. Never particularly fond of the spotlight that success shone upon their lives, Frederik broke up the partnership by insisting that they retire, though Nina carved out a solo career for herself thereafter, followed by acting roles in films such as Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1973) and A Wedding (1979), and Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo (1980).

Frederik invested his chart profits in a number of ventures, farming for a while in Ibiza – where Nina was a close neighbour – and becoming owner of Burke’s Peerage for a short time in 1979.

Though the couple separated and eventually divorced in 1976, they remained friends until Frederik’s death, from gunshot wounds, along with his second wife, Susannah. It was a measure of their continuing closeness that Nina flew out to the Philippines to bring his body home to Europe.

The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.

Spring Byington was born in 1886 in Colorado. She specialised in mother roles. Her first movie was “Pap’s Slay Ride” in 1930. Other films included “Werewolf of London” with Valerie Hobson, “Mutinyon the Bounty” and in 1960, “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” with Doris Day. In 1954 she starred in a very sucessful television series “September Bride”, She died in 1971.

Gary Brumburgh’s entry:

The possessor of one of Hollywood’s gentlest faces and warmest voices, and about as sweet as Tupelo honey both on-and-off camera, character actress Spring Byington was seldom called upon to play callous or unsympathetic (she did once play a half-crazed housekeeper in Dragonwyck (1946)). Although playing the part of Mrs. March in Little Women (1933) was hardly what one could call a stretch, it did ignite a heartwarming typecasting that kept her employed on the screen throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Her first name said it all: sunny, sparkling, flowery, energetic, whimsical, eternally cheerful. She was a wonderfully popular and old-fashioned sort. By the 1950s, Spring had sprung on both radio and TV. The petite, be-dimpled darling became the star of her very own sitcom and, in the process, singlehandedly gave the term “mother-in-law” a decidedly positive ring.

She was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 17, 1886 (some sources list the year as 1893), one of two daughters born to a college professor/school superintendent. Her father Edwin died when she was quite young, and mother Helene placed the children with their maternal grandparents while she studied to become a doctor. Spring developed an early interest in the theater as a high-school teenager and ambitiously put together an acting company that toured mining camps in the Colorado Springs area. Her professional career materialized via the stock company circuit in both the U.S. and Canada. At the onset of WWI she joined a repertory company that left for Buenos Aires. There she married the company’s manager, Roy Carey Chandler, and had two children by him: Phyllis and Lois. The couple remained in South America and Spring learned fluent Spanish there. About four years into the marriage, the couple divorced and Spring returned to New York with her children. She never married again.

Spring took her first Broadway bow at age 31 with a role in the comedy satire “A Beggar on Horseback”, a show that lasted several months in 1924. She returned to the show briefly the following year. Other New York plays came and went throughout the 1920s, but none were certifiable hits. She did, however, gain a strong reputation playing up her fluttery comic instincts. Other shows included “Weak Sister” (1925), “Puppy Love” (1926), “Skin Deep” (1927), “To-night at Twelve” (1928) and “Be Your Age” (1929). She also played the role of Nerissa in “The Merchant of Venice” on Broadway alongside George Arliss and Peggy Wood in the roles of Shylock and Portia, respectively.

By the 1930s, Spring had established herself as a deft comedienne on stage but had made nary a dent in film. In early 1933, following major hits on Broadway with “Once in a Lifetime” (1930) and “When Ladies Meet” (1932), Spring was noticed by RKO, which had begun the casting for one of its most prestigious pictures of the year, Louisa May Alcott‘s classic Little Women (1933). As a testament to her talents and graceful appeal, the studio took a chance on her and gave her the role of Marmee. As mother to daughtersKatharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Jean Parker and Frances Dee in what is still considered the best film version of the novel, Spring was praised for her work and became immediately captivated by this medium. She never returned to Broadway.

She became the quintessentially wise, concerned and understanding mother/relative in scores of films, often to her detriment. The roles were so kind, polite and conservative that it was hard for her to display any of her obvious scene-stealing abilities. As a result, she was often overlooked in her pictures. Her best parts came as a bewildered parent, snooty socialite, flaky eccentric, inveterate gossip or merry mischief-maker. From 1936 to 1939, she did a lot of mothering in the popular “Jones Family” feature film series from 1936 to 1940. but the flavorful roles she won came with her more disparate roles inDodsworth (1936), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) (as the Widow Douglas), When Ladies Meet (1941) (in which she recreated her Broadway triumph), and Roxie Hart (1942) (in which she played the sob sister journalist). Spring’s only Oscar nomination came with her delightful portrayal of eccentric Penny Sycamore inYou Can’t Take It with You (1938).

Throughout the war years, she lent her patented fluff to a number of Hollywood’s finest comedies, including The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), Rings on Her Fingers (1942) andHeaven Can Wait (1943). Her career began to die down in the 1950s, and, like many others in her predicament, she turned to TV. Her sparkling performance in the comedyLouisa (1950), in which she played an older lady pursued by both Edmund Gwenn andCharles Coburn, set the perfect tone and image for her Lily Ruskin radio/TV character.December Bride (1954) was initially a popular radio program when it transferred to TV. The result was a success, and Spring became a household name as everybody’s favorite mother-in-law. As a widow who lived with her daughter and son-in-law, complications ensued as the married couple tried to set Lily up for marriage–hence the title. Brash and bossy Verna Felton and the ever-droll Harry Morgan were brought in as perfect comic relief.

The show ran for a healthy five seasons, and Spring followed this in 1961 with the role of Daisy Cooper, the chief cook and surrogate mother to a bunch of cowpokes in the already established western series Laramie (1959). Making her last film appearance in the comedy Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960) as, of course, a spirited mom (this time toDoris Day), Spring, now in her 70s, started to drop off the acting radar. She eventually retired to her Hollywood Hills home after a few guest spots on such ’60s shows asBatman (1966) (playing a wealthy socialite named J. Pauline Spaghetti) and I Dream of Jeannie (1965) (as Larry Hagman‘s mother). A very private individual in real life, Spring enjoyed traveling and reading during her retirement years. She passed away in 1971 from cancer and was survived by her two daughters, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Liam Sullivan was born in 1923 in Jacksonville, Illinois. He was a stalwart of American television guest starring in such television shows as “Twilight Xone”, “Combat” and “Knot’s Landing”. He does not seem to have made any feature films. He died in 1998.

IMDB entry:

Liam Sullivan was schooled at Illinois College while having his first fling with the acting profession in regional theater. He then studied drama at Harvard, made his way to New York and first appeared on Broadway in “The Constant Nymph” in 1951. He later returned to the West Coast to perform in an LA stage production of “Mary Stuart”. By the early 1950’s, he began appearing in television, his Romanesque features and precisely modulated voice ideally suited to smoothly roguish, arrogant or cynical gents, adept at caustic or witty repartee. He was a familiar presence across all genres, from western to science fiction.

Among his many TV credits two stand out above all: his sadistic philosopher-king Parmen from the Star Trek (1966) episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” ; and his obnoxious social-climbing upstart Jamie Tennyson in “The Silence” (Twilight Zone (1959)) who, unwisely accepts a bet for a half-million dollars that he can remain silent for a year (based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, entitled “The Bet”). Liam appeared in another TZ episode, “The Changing of the Guard”, but this time was overshadowed by Donald Pleasence who delivered arguably the most poignant performance of his career.

During the latter stages of his life, Liam combined acting with writing and, just prior to his death, was working on a novel. He was also in the process of compiling a biographical history of the Eli Bridge Company who built the innovative ‘Big Eli’ Ferris Wheel in Jacksonville, Illinois in May 1900. Founded by his ancestor W.E.Sullivan, the business is still run by members of the Sullivan family.

– IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis

The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.

Collection of Classic Hollywood Actors

David Birney

New York Times obituary:

David Birney, Who Starred on TV’s ‘Bridget Loves Bernie,’ Dies at 83

Beau Bridges

Betsy Von Furstenberg

Rosemary Murphy

James Lilburn

Virginia Bruce

Nina Van Pallandt

Nina & Frederick

Spring Byington

Liam Sullivan

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