Author: Peter J Patrick

Born July 14, 1928 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Henry Olson, a physician, and his wife, Evelyn, Nancy Olson was discovered on stage at UCLA which she transferred to in 1948. The peaches-and-cream blonde was given a walk-on in 1948’s Portrait of Jennie and then given a contract by Paramount. Olson made her first credited appearance…

Born June 10, 1911 in London, England to a British diplomat and his wife, Oxford educated Terence Rattigan was one of the preeminent British playwrights of the 20th Century. Rattigan began writing plays in 1934. He cowrite an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities with John Gielgud in 1935, but the play…

Born January 3, 1907 in Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, UK, Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones, known professionally as Ray Milland, was the son of a steel mill superintendent and his wife. He trained as an equestrian on his uncle’s horse breeding farm and later joined the Household Cavalry before becoming an actor. Turning to acting, Milland’s rise…

Born May 26, 1905 in Del Rio, Tennessee, Burnett Guffey attended school in Etowah, Tennessee. He worked as a messenger boy in a bank and then as a camera assistant at Fox beginning in 1923. His first film was that year’s The Courtship of Myles Standish that same year. John Ford picked him for second…

Born May 6, 1920 in Cleveland, Ohio, Martin Fuss, known professionally as Ross Hunter, was raised by his German American parents, attending Cleveland’s Glenville High School where he later taught English and Drama. He worked in U.S. Army Intelligence during World War II. After his war service, Hunter returned to teaching in Cleveland where he…

Born October 12,1968 in Sydney, Australia, Hugh (Michael) Jackman was the son of English parents who had emigrated to Australia in 1967. His father was a Cambridge educated accountant. His parents divorced when he was eight years old, with his mother taking his two sisters back to England with her, while Hugh and his two…

Born June 23, 1903 in New York, New Yo0rk, Anthony Veiller was the son of Oscar nominated actress, Margaret Wycherly, and her husband, playwright Bayard Veiller. Veiller was a journalist, publicist, and stage manager prior to moving to Hollywood in 1930. He married literary agent Laura Kerr in 1934 with whom he would have a…

Born October 16, 1881 in London, England to a Canadian doctor and his American wife, Margaret Lovett De Wolfe, known professionally as Margaret Wycherly, had a long and distinguished career on the Broadway stage, but is probably best remembered for two iconic film roles as the very different mothers of screen legends Gary Cooper and…