Category: Oscar Profile

Born October 30, 1896 to a New England sea captain and his wife, Ruth Gordon Jones was enrolled the American Academy of Dramatic Arts upon graduating high school. A fast study, by 1915 she made her Broadway debut as Nibs in a revival of Peter Pan starring Maude Adams. That same year she made three…

Born June 26, 1922 in Cedarville, Ohio, the youngest of three children to a mathematics teacher and his wife, Eleanor Jean Parker developed an early interest in acting. On stage from the age of 15, she twice turned down Hollywood offers for screen tests, wanting to finish high school and then college before starting a…

Born September 15, 1946 in San Saba, Texas to an oil-field worker and his wife, who had been a police officer, school teacher and later beauty shop owner, Tommy Lee Jones is a colorful award-winning actor. Although mostly of Welch descent, one of his grandmothers was of Cherokee ancestry a fact heonce used to refer…

Born November 11, 1887 in London, England, Roland Young was a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made his stage debut in 1908 and his Broadway debut in 1912. Becoming a U.S. citizen in 1917, he served with Uncle Sam in World War I. After his war service he married Frances Kummer…

Born September 16, 1911, the son of a dry goods salesman, Jerry Wald began his career in show business as a radio columnist for The New York Evening Graphic in 1929 at the age of 18, while completing his schooling in journalism. Writing for crooner Russ Columbia and other radio stars led to writing short…

Born on August 17, 1879 in Warsaw, Poland, Schmuel Gelbfisz was the oldest of six children of a struggling furniture dealer and his wife. The penniless young man left home on foot at the age of 15 to seek his fortune in England. He stayed for a few years with relatives who Anglicized his name…

Born February 27, 2005 in Niagara Falls, New York to well-to-do parents, Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone had an interest in the stage from an early age. President of the drama club at Cornell University, he made his Broadway debut in 1927. He drew attention a year later as Newland Archer, Jr. in Katharine Cornell’s production…

I attended New York’s Junior High School 109 from the ages of 12 through 14 so it’s fitting that for my 109th Oscar profile I focus on Oscar winners in that age group. Jackie Cooper was 8 years old in 1931 when he became the first child actor nominated for a competitive Oscar for his…

Born September 29, 1913, Trevor Howard was born in Kent, England, the only child of a Lloyd’s of London executive, who was later the company’s representative in Ceylon and his Canadian born wife. Partially raised in Ceylon, Howard was educated in Bristol and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. On stage from…

Born April 23, 1894, the son of Luigi and Maria Borzaga AKA Borzage, the future actor/producer/director’s name is pronounced Bor-zay-gee (long “a”, hard “g” as in guy) and not Borsage (rhyming with “corsage”) as it is often mispronounced by TV commentators. One of fourteen children, eight of whom survived to adulthood, one of his sisters…

Born Phylis Lee Isley on March 2, 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma to a minor show business couple, the future superstar’s parents owned and operated a traveling tent show that performed throughout the Midwest. The aspiring actress transferred form Northwestern University in Chicago to New York’s Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1938 where she met and…

Born Christmas Eve, 1892 in New York City, Ruth Chatterton was of English and French extraction. She was related to poet Thomas Chatterton who died of arsenic poisoning at age 17 in 1770. Chatterton went on the stage at age 12 to help support the family after her parents separated. She became a major star…

Born June 19, 1877 in Macon, Georgia to Scots-Irish American parents, Charles Coburn began his show business career as an usher and doorman in a Savannah theatre which he became manager of in 1895 at the age of 18. By 1901 he was already starring on Broadway in the first of twenty-seven plays he appeared…

Born December 13, 1934 to 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck and his wife, actress Virginia Fox, Richard Zanuck grew up in the business. He accompanied his father to the studio on many occasions, often sitting in on rough cuts and went to work for Fox’s story department while studying at Stanford University. Married…

Born April 19, 1858 in Melbourne, Australia, the fourth child of a British Naval Captain and his wife, Mary Jeanette Robison would move to her parents’ native England after the death of her father, and would be educated in London, Paris and Brussels. After emigrating to the U.S. as a young woman, she married a…