Author: Peter J Patrick

Born May 14, 1969 in Ivanhoe, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne, Catherine Elise (Cate) Blanchett was the middle child of a property director/teacher Australian mother and an advertising executive Texas-born father. Her father died when she ten, leaving her mother to raise the family with the help of her grandmother. Blanchett graduated from Australia’s National…

Born April 29, 1917 in New York, New York, Celeste Holm was an only child whose father was an insurance adjustor for Lloyd’s of London and her mother a portrait artist. Because of her parents’ occupations, she traveled extensively with them as a child, later studying drama while attending the University of Chicago. She became…

Born March 2, 1892 in East Prussia, Germany, which is now part of Russia, Felix Bressart made his stage debut in 1914 and his film debut in 1928. The Jewish character actor was forced to leave his home country in 1933 but continued to make German language films in Austria until he emigrated to the…

Born Isobel Fredricka Hochdorf on May 8, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, Isobel Lennart took her professional name from her mother, Victoria Lennart Livingston who died when Isobel was five years old, her dentist father later marrying his cousin. Afflicted as a girl with polio, and in leg braces, Isobel became an avid reader especially…

Born August 17, 1888 in New York, N.Y. to wealthy parents, Edgar Montillion (Monty) Woolley grew up in the highest social circles, his father having owned several Manhattan hotels. He received a Bachelor’s degree at Yale, where he was intimate friends with Cole Porter whom he later introduced to New York society. After obtaining Masters…

Born on June 5, 1928 in Yorkshire, England, Cecil Antonio “Tony” Richardson had the unprecedented distinction of being president of both The Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club, as well as being the theatre critic for the university student magazine at the same time. He graduated in 1952 and immediately became a…

Born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia, the acclaimed future actress was educated in her native country. Billed as Francee Anderson, she made her stage debut in Sydney in 1915. At the urging of some traveling American actors, she moved unsuccessfully to Hollywood and then to New York in 1918…