Category: Oscar Profile

Born May 7, 1923 in Michigan City, Indiana but raised in New York City, Anne Baxter was the daughter of a Seagrams Distillery executive and his wife, the daughter of world-renown architect Frank Lloyd Wright. She was determined to become an actress after seeing Helen Hayes on stage in Mary of Scotland when she was…

Born March 27, 1902 in Bluff, Utah, Charles Bryant Lang, Jr. was one of the great cinematographers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Tied with Leon Shamroy for the most Oscar nominations for cinematography (18), he was an expert in the use of chiaroscuro (strong contrasts between light and shade) in creating moods for every genre from…

Born September 5, 1902 in Wahoo, Nebraska to the promiscuous daughter of the town’s only hotel and her husband, the hotel’s alcoholic night clerk, Darryl F. Zanuck was on his own by age 13 having been abandoned by both parents. He joined the Army at 15 by lying about his age and fought in Belgium…

Born July 25, 1894, Walter Brennan was the second of three children of an engineer and inventor and his wife. He became interested in acting in high school and began performing in vaudeville at the age of 15. While serving with the U.S. Army in France during World War I, he suffered a gas attack…

Born May 19, 1939 in Hong Kong to Cambridge educated Chinese architect Kwan Wing Hong and his English wife, Marquita Scott, Nancy (AKA Ka Shen) Kwan is an internationally celebrated Eurasian actress and producer. Two years after her birth, as World War II escalated, Kwan’s parents divorced and her mother returned to England. In fear…

Born Edythe Marrener, the daughter of a transportation worker, in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, N.Y. on June 30, 1917, the future Susan Hayward went to the movies a lot as a child to escape the boredom of her poor surroundings. A stunning beauty even as a child, she became a photographer’s model as a…

Born September 25, 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Michael Douglas was the first of four sons of Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas. He made his film debut in an uncredited role as a jeep driver in his father’s 1966 film, Cast a Giant Shadow. Determined not to be a chip off the old block, he…

Born April 7, 1928 in the Bronx, New York to parents of Polish Jewish ancestry, Alan J. Pakula majored in drama at Yale. He began his Hollywood career as an assistant in the cartoon department at Yale. Having convinced his father, who owned a successful printing business, to give him the money to finance a…

Born November 24, 1913 in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of a prominent lawyer and his wife, Geraldine Fitzgerald had a multi-faceted career as an Oscar nominated actress; Tony nominated director and cabaret star. Her father’s law firm, D&T Fitzgerald, is mentioned in James Joyce’s classic novel “Ulysses”. Joyce was a close friend and client. On…

Born March 2, 1914 in New York, N.Y., Martin Ritt attended Elon College in North Carolina and St. John’s University in New York. He became an actor in the mid-1930s, making his Broadway debut in Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy in 1937. The play, which starred Frances Farmer, Luther Adler, Morris Carnovsky and Roman Bohnen in…

Born July 4, 1924 in Newark, New Jersey, Eva Marie Saint’s acting career began in the early days of television. An NBC page, she first appeared on live TV programs in 1946 which have been preserved on kinescope in the Library of Congress. Cast as the only female in the original 1947 Broadway production of…

Born April 3, 1924 in Cincinnati, Ohio to William Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master, and his wife Alma, a housewife, Doris Kappelhoff was the third of three children and the only girl. Her parents separated when she was ten and she lived thereafter with her mother. Intent on becoming a professional dancer, young…

Born August 20, 1974, Amy Lou Adams was the fourth of seven children born in Vicenzo, Vineto, Italy to a Mormon family while her father, a U.S. serviceman, was stationed there. Settling in Castle Rock, Colorado, the family would leave the Church after her parents’ divorce in 1985, but the church’s basic “do under others”…

Robert B. Sherman, born December 19, 1925 and Richard M. Sherman, born June 12, 1928 were the only children of composer Al Sherman (1897-1973) and his wife Rosa. Writing music most of their lives, they had their first hit that year with the song “Tall Paul” sung by Mouseketeer Annette Funicello which led to Walt…

Born September 15, 1890 in Devon, England, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her books have sold more than 4 billion copies worldwide. Her works rank third after those of The Bible and William Shakespeare as the most widely published books of all time. Her best-selling novel is And Then There Were…