Category: Oscar Profile

Born June 19, 1930 in Madison, Wisconsin to a state legislator and his painter wife, Virginia Cathryn (Gena) Rowlands moved with her family to Washington, D.C. in 1939 when her father became a member of the Department of Agriculture. They moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1942. Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin from 1947-1950 and…

Born August 10, 1902 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, (Edith) Norma Shearer was the third child of Andrew, a successful contractor, and Edith, a minor actress, Shearer.  Older brother Douglas Shearer (1899-1971) became the head of the MGM sound department who won seven Oscars.  Older sister Athole Shearer (1900-1985) was married to Howard Hawks from 1928-1940…

Born June 13, 1894 in Santa Ana, California, William Taylor Garnett, known professionally as Tay Garnett, was one of the most prolific writer-directors of films and TV dramas from 1920 through 1975. Although he was never nominated for an Oscar, Garnett worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, directing a couple of them…

This is a revision of the second article in this series originally published on CinemaSight in September 2010. Of all the great stars of the studio era, Dunne remains the least known to modern audiences. That’s largely because so many of her films were remade and the originals suppressed by the studios.  Although most became…

Born May 3, 1901 in San Francisco, California, Hugo Friedhofer was the son of cellist Paul Friedhofer and his wife.  Following in his father’s footsteps, he began playing the cello at the age of 13.  After studying at the University of California, Berkely, he was employed as a cellist by the People’s Symphony Orchestra.  He…

Born November 7, 1903 in Lima, Ohio, Dean Jagger grew up on a farm.  Having caught the acting bug early, he practiced oratory on cows while working on th farm.  He latr won several oraory competitions.  At 14, he worked as an orderly at a sanatorium. Although he dropped out of school several times, at…

Born May 27, 1898 in Peoria, Illinois, Lee Garmes came to Hollywood in 1916. His first job was as a painter’s assistant in the paint department at the old Thomas H. Ince Studios. Garmes and future director Henry Hathaway were property boys together at “Inceville” where Sunset Blvd, met the Pacific Ocean.  The New York…

Born December 14, 1915 in New York, New York, Daniel James Dailey, Jr.’s father ran a hotel for show people on Long Island.  The star struck kid made his first appearance in show business as a performer in a minstrel show in 1921 when he was just five years old.  He then moved on to…

Born November 23, 1934 in Los Angeles, California, Robert Bertram Schwartz, known professionally as Robert Towne, was the older of two sons of a clothing store owner and property developer. Raised in the L.A. suburb of San Pedro, he graduated from Pomona College in Claremont.  Seeking employment as an actor, he took acting classes from…

Born October 28, 1897 in San Bernadino, California, Edith Claire Posener became Edith Head when she married her first husband, Charles Head in 1923. The future costume designer received a Bachelor of Arts degree in letters and science with honors in French from the University of California, Berkeley (1919), and a Master of Arts degree…

Born May 2, 1960 in Dorset, England, Stephen Daldry is the son of a singer mother and bank manager father.  The family moved to Taunton, Somerset where his father died of cancer when Daldry was 14. Daldry joined a youth theatre group in Taunton where he performed for the local amateur society.  At 18, he…

Born November 22, 1967 in Kinosha, Wisconsin to a construction painter father and hairstylist mother, Mark Ruffalo was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with his family which included two sisters and a brother, moving to San Diego and then Los Angeles after he finished high school. Ruffalo studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory and…

Born May 9, 1946 in Los Angeles, California to former Powers model Frances and ventriloquist-comedian-actor Edgar Beregn, Candice Bergen began performing on her father’s radio program at an early age and at 11 appeared with her father as a guest on Groucho Marx’s TV show, You Bet Your Life. Not a serious student, Bergen was…

Born February 11, 1936 in Lansing, Michigan, Burt Reynolds claimed that he was really born in Waycross, Georgia, that Lansing was where his parents lived when his father was drafted into the U.S. Army.  The family  moved around quite a bit after that.  After the end of World War II, they moved to Rivera, Florida…

Born April 6, 1895 in Wapakoneta, Ohio, Dudley Nichols was educated at the University of Michigan.  A star reporter and feature writer for the New York World in 1928, the year he married wife Esther Varez, he moved to Hollywood in 1929. He was under contract to Fox from 1929-1935 and RKO from 1935-1938 and…