Category: Oscar Profile

Born December 14, 1946, Anna Marie Duke was the youngest of three children of a cashier and her husband, a handyman and cab driver. When she was 8 years old, her mother threw her alcoholic father out of the house and turned Anna over to talent managers John and Ethel Ross who were looking for…

Born the youngest of five children to an English builder and an Irish postal clerk on February 22, 1950 in Birmingham, England, Julia (Julie) Mary Walters began her career as a comedienne. Often paired with fellow comedienne Victoria Wood, they were known collectively as Wood and Walters. Striking out on her own, she made her…

Born November 11, 1899, “Hollywood’s Irishman in Residence”, William Joseph Patrick “Pat” O’Brien was American through and through having been born in Milkwaukee, Wisconsin to first generation American parents. All four of his grandparents, however, came from Ireland. As a boy, he wanted to become a priest and a cop before settling on acting, but…

It was last November when Wesley asked me to put together a list of ten films I was looking forward to in 2016. I couldn’t do it for various reasons. For one, I had just taken over the editorship of my community newspaper which required a lot of detailed concentration in putting together the combined…

Born July 27, 1882 in London, England, George William (Donald) Crisp was one of eight children. Educated at Oxford, University, he emigrated to America in 1906. Spotted singing in concert on the ship, he was immediately offered a job by opera impresario John C. Fisher. He spent his first year in New York in Grand…

Born Betty Joan Perske in New York City on September 16, 1924, the future Lauren Bacall was the daughter of a salesman and a secretary who divorced when she was five. Bacall was her mother’s maiden name, albeit spelled with a single “l”. Originally interested in dance, she switched to acting in high school and…

Born February 18, 1890 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a French father and Irish mother who was a distant cousin of James Joyce, Adolphe Menjou was the epitome of debonair and suave to generations of film-goers for nearly fifty years, but he didn’t start out that way. He toiled as a laborer, haberdasher and sometimes waiter…

Born Thomas Joseph (Tom) McCarthy in New Providence, New Jersey on January 30, 1966, the actor-writer-director was the third of five children of Carol and Eugene McCarthy, a salesman and later president of an NYC textile company. A graduate of New Providence High School, Boston College and Yale School of Drama, he made his screen…

Born Thomas Jeffrey (Tom) Hanks in Concord, California on July 9, 1956, America’s Most Popular Actor (according to a January 2016 Harris Poll) is of English-German ancestry on his father’s side and Portuguese on his mother’s. Raised by his father after his parents’ divorce in 1960, he attended Chabot College and California State University at…

Born John Uhler (Jack) Lemmon III on February 8, 1925, the future eight-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner was born in an elevator on the way to the delivery room at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. His father was the president of a donut company. Lemmon was president of the famed…

Born July 1, 1931 in Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, the daughter of a Franco-American dancer and a French chemist, Leslie Caron was groomed by her mother to be a ballet dancer from childhood. She was discovered by Gene Kelly in the Roland Petit Company “Ballet des Champs Elysées” who cast her as his co-star in An American…

Born November 10, 1989 in London, England, (William) Claude Rains was the son of British stage actor Fred Rains. Following in his father’s footsteps, he made his acting debut at the age of 11 in Nell of Old Drury. Growing up in the theatre, he also worked behind the scenes, graduating from page boy to…

Born May 14, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, Robert Zemeckis was educated at the University of Southern California where his fellow students included writing partner Bob Gale and future producer/director George Lucas. While at USC, Zemeckis won a Student Academy Award for A Field of Honor, an urban action film set to Elmer Bernstein’s score for…

Born February 26, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois, Haskell Wexler was one of four children of Simon and Lottie Wexler. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley, he served a stint with the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. He briefly made industrial films in Chicago before becoming an assistant cameraman in 1947. His…

Born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, Francis Albert (Frank) Sinatra would become the most popular singer of his time, if not all time. His voice has been heard on movie soundtracks from 1941 to the present day, fifteen years after his death, and is likely to continue to be heard as long as…