Category: Oscar Profile

Born 150 years ago on June 19, 1865 in Liverpool, England to a Liverpool newspaper editor and his wife, Mary Louise Whitty would become known to the world as the actress May Whitty from 1881 and Dame May Whitty from 1918 to her death thirty years later. An immediate success on stage, Whitty married actor-director…

Born August 30, 1896 in Toronto, Canada, Raymond Massey was the son of an American mother and a wealthy Canadian father, the owner of the Massey-Harris Tractor Company. His older brother was Vincent Massey who became the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada from 1952 to 1959. He often said that American audiences thought he…

Born Joaquin Rafeal Bottom in Puerto Rico on October 28, 1974, the middle child of five of a New York Jewish mother and California father of mostly English heritage, his parents who were then members of the Children of God missionaries changed the family name to Phoenix. With older siblings named River and Rain and…

Born (Margaret) Rumer Godden in Sussex, England on December 10, 1907, the future novelist grew up with her three sisters in a section of colonial India that is now part of Bangladesh where her father was a shipping company executive. Sent to England for schooling, she and her sisters were brought back to India at…

Born February 22, 1908 in Norfolk, England, the son of a mathematics teacher and a theatre box-office cashier, Lewis Ernest Watts Mills is bettered remembered as the distinguished Oscar winning actor, John Mills. Interested in acting from an early age, Mills made his professional acting debut in Five O’Clock Girl at the London Hippodrome in…

Born Patti Mary Woodward on October 15, 1879 in Palmyra, Missouri to railroad president William Woodward, who claimed to be a direct descendant of Andrew Jackson, and his wife, the future actress first wanted to be a circus rider, then an opera singer and even thought of entering the convent before finally deciding to become…

Born May 30, 1936 in Cleveland, Ohio, Keir Dullea was raised in New York’s Greenwich Village, the son of book store owners and educated in Pennsylvania’s George School, and later Rutgers University and San Francisco State University before making his acting debut at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse in 1956. He made his TV debut as…

Born May 24, 1949 in Torguay, Devon, England, the son of an actress and a builder, Roger Deakins developed an early love for painting. Educated at the Bath School of Art and Design and the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire, his newfound love of photography led to a job as a cameraman on…

Born Henry Montgomery, Jr., the son of the owner of the New York Rubber Company, on May 21, 1904 in Fishkill Landing (now Beacon), New York, the future actor-producer-director Robert Montgomery had a privileged childhood. His father’s fortune, however, was gone by the time he committed suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1922.…

Born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England on January 18, 1904, the future Cary Grant grew up in a working class family. When he was nine he was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. In truth, she had been placed in a mental institution. His father remarried when he was ten and…

Born August 16, 1962 in Concord, Massachusetts, Steven John (Steve) Carell was the son of a psychiatric nurse and an electrical engineer. After graduating from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, he worked as a letter carrier but quit because his supervisor told him was too slow. Later a stand-up comic, he eventually moved to Chicago…

Born December 3, 1960 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina to an American military judge and colonel and his wife, a Scottish born social worker, Julianne Moore spent her early life in over two dozen locations around the world. A graduate of Boston University, she honed her acting skills on TV soap operas and movies in…

Born June 3, 1925 in The Bronx, New York, the eldest of three boys to Hungarian Jewish emigrants Helen and Emanuel Schwartz, Bernard Hershel Schwartz would rise to become one the screen’s best known actors after changing his name to Tony Curtis. Young Bernie had a rough childhood. His father was a tailor and the…

Born January 22, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan, Rosetta “Rosie” Jacobs moved with her parents to Los Angeles when she was six. Her parents enrolled her in elocution lessons in hopes that the pretty redhead would overcome her shyness. She studied acting in high school, leading to a contract with Universal. Changing her name to the…