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Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton, Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, which gave their son an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine show that included illusionist Harry Houdini, a family friend. Keaton himself verified the origin of his nickname "Buster", given to him by Houdini when the 3-year-old fell down a flight of stairs and Houdini picked him up, dusted him off, and told the boy's father Joe that the fall was "a buster." Savvy showman Joe Keaton liked the nickname, which has stuck for over one century.

At age 4, Keaton had already begun acting with his parents on the stage. Their act soon gained the reputation as one of the roughest in the country for their wild, physical onstage antics. It was normal for Joe to throw Buster around the stage and participate in elaborate, dangerous stunts to the awe of audiences. After several years on the Vaudeville circuit, "The Three Keatons" toured until Keaton had to break up the act because of his father's increasing alcohol dependence, making him a show business veteran by age 21.

While he was looking for work in New York, he had a chance run-in with wildly-successful film star and director Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, who invited him to be in his upcoming short Fatty garçon boucher (1917). This appearance launched Keaton's film career and spawned a friendship that lasted until Arbuckle's sudden death in 1933. By 1920, after making several successful shorts together, Arbuckle moved on to features, and Keaton inherited his studio, allowing him the opportunity to begin producing his own films. By September 1921, tragedy touched Arbuckle's life by way of a scandal, where he was tried three times for the murder of Virginia Rapp. Although he was not guilty of the charges, and never convicted, he was unable to regain his status, and the viewing public would no longer tolerate his presence in film. Keaton stood by his friend and mentor through out the incident, supporting him financially, finding him directorial work, even risking his own budding reputation offering to testify on Arbuckle's behalf.

In 1921, Keaton also married his first wife, Natalie Talmadge under unusual circumstance that have never been fully clarified. Popular conjecture states that he was encouraged by Joseph M. Schenck to marry into the powerful Talmadge dynasty, that he himself was already a part of. The union bore Keaton two sons. Keaton's independent shorts soon became too limiting for the growing star, and after a string of popular films like La maison démontable de Malec (1920), Frigo capitaine au long cours (1921) and Buster et les flics (1922), Keaton made the transition into feature films. His first feature, Les trois âges (1923), was produced similarly to his short films, and was the dawning of a new era in comedic cinema, where it became apparent to Keaton that he had to put more focus on the story lines and characterization.

At the height of his popularity, he was making two features a year, and followed Ages with Les lois de l'hospitalité (1923), La croisière du navigator (1924) and Le Mécano de la 'Général' (1926), the latter two he regarded as his best films. The most renowned of Keaton's comedies is Sherlock Junior (1924), which used cutting edge special effects that received mixed reviews as critics and audiences alike had never seen anything like it, and did not know what to make of it. Modern day film scholars liken the story and effects to Christopher Nolan Inception (2010), for its high level concept and ground-breaking execution. Keaton's Civil War epic The General (1926) kept up his momentum when he gave audiences the biggest and most expensive sequence ever seen in film at the time. At its climax, a bridge collapses while a train is passing over it, sending the train into a river. This wowed audiences, but did little for its long-term financial success. Audiences did not respond well to the film, disliking the higher level of drama over comedy, and the main character being a Confederate soldier.

After a few more silent features, including Sportif par amour (1927) and Cadet d'eau douce (1928), Keaton was informed that his contract had been sold to MGM, by brother-in-law and producer Joseph M. Schenck. Keaton regarded the incident as the worst professional mistake he ever made, as it sent his career, legacy, and personal life into a vicious downward spiral for many years. His first film with MGM was Le caméraman (1928), which is regarded as one of his best silent comedies, but the release signified the loss of control Keaton would incur, never again regaining his film -making independence. He made one more silent film at MGM entitled Le figurant (1929) before the sound era arrived.

His first appearance in a film with sound was with the ensemble piece Hollywood chante et danse (1929), though despite the popularity of it and his previous MGM silents, MGM never allowed Keaton his own production unit, and increasingly reduced his creative control over his films. By 1932, his marriage to Natalie Talmadge had dissolved when she sued him for divorce, and in an effort to placate her, put up little resistance. This resulted in the loss of the home he had built for his family nicknamed "The Italian Villa", the bulk of his assets, and contact with his children. Natalie changed their last names from Keaton to Talmadge, and they were disallowed from speaking about their father or seeing him. About 10 years later, when they became of age, they rekindled the relationship with Keaton. His hardships in his professional and private life that had been slowly taking their toll, begun to culminate by the early 1930s resulting in his own dependence on alcohol, and sometimes violent and erratic behavior. Depressed, penniless, and out of control, he was fired by MGM by 1933, and became a full-fledged alcoholic.

After spending time in hospitals to attempt and treat his alcoholism, he met second wife Mae Scrivens, a nurse, and married her hastily in Mexico, only to end in divorce by 1935. After his firing, he made several low-budget shorts for Educational Pictures, and spent the next several years of his life fading out of public favor, and finding work where he could. His career was slightly reinvigorated when he produced the short Chef d'orchestre malgré lui (1936), which many of his fans admire for giving such a good performance during the most difficult and unmanageable years of his life.

In 1940, he met and married his third wife Eleanor Norris, who was deeply devoted to him, and remained his constant companion and partner until Keaton's death. After several more years of hardship working as an uncredited, underpaid gag man for comedians such as the Marx Brothers, he was consulted on how to do a realistic and comedic fall for Amour poste restante (1949) in which an expensive violin is destroyed. Finding no one who could do this better than him, he was given a minor role in the film. His presence reignited interest in his silent films, which lead to interviews, television appearances, film roles, and world tours that kept him busy for the rest of his life.

After several more film, television, and stage appearances through the 1960s, he wrote the autobiography "My Wonderful World of Slapstick", having completed nearly 150 films in the span of his ground-breaking career. His last film appearance was Le forum en folie (1966) which premiered seven months after Keaton's death from the rapid onset of lung cancer. Since his death, Keaton's legacy is being discovered by new generations of viewers every day, many of his films are available on YouTube, DVD and Blu-ray, where he, like all gold-gilded and beloved entertainers can live forever.

Tall, distinguished, aristocratic Louis Calhern seemed to be the poster boy for old-money, upper-crust urban society, but he was actually born Carl Vogt, to middle-class parents in New York City. His family moved to St. Louis when he was a child, and it was while playing football in high school there that he was spotted by a representative of a touring acting troupe and hired as an actor. He returned to New York to work in the theater, but his career was interrupted by military service in France in World War I. He returned to the stage after the war, and eventually broke into films. Although his regal bearing would seem to pigeonhole him in aristocratic parts in serious drama, he proved to be a very versatile actor, as much at home playing a comic foil to The Marx Brothers in Soupe au canard (1933) as he was as Buffalo Bill to Betty Hutton's Annie Oakley in Annie, la reine du cirque (1950) or, most memorably, the lawyer involved with the criminal gang in Quand la ville dort (1950). Married four times, he was in Tokyo, Japan, filming La petite maison de thé (1956) when he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Edith MacDonald was the second daughter of Daniel and Anne MacDonald; her father was a contractor and politician. Early on, her older sister Elsie, younger sister Jeanette MacDonald, and she were given theatrical training. Blossom and Jeanette played Philadelphia vaudeville houses while still youngsters.

Edith went to New York where she wed Clarence Rock in 1926; they toured in vaudeville for three years. When vaudeville died, she toured with her husband in "Grand Hotel" and, in 1936, played a streetwalker in "Dead End". The MGM talent agent who saw her in this signed her to the same studio as her now-famous sister Jeanette. Re-named Marie Blake, she debuted in Joan Crawford's Mannequin (1937) and, in 1938, she became established as "Sally" the phone operator in the Dr. Kildare series. After the last of these in 1947, she left MGM, changed her stage name to "Blossom Rock", freelanced, and doing bit parts. She appeared in television often, becoming widely known through the part of "Grandmama" in La famille Addams (1964) series.

Her husband was night manager at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for fifteen years, dying in 1960. After retiring, she lived at the Motion Picture Country Home.

Fittingly known to be a "Leo" for his horoscope, Bert Lahr is always remembered as the Cowardly Lion in (and the farmer "Zeke") Le Magicien d'Oz (1939). But during his acting career, he has been known for being in burlesque, vaudeville, and Broadway.

Dropped out of high school at the age of fifteen for a juvenile vaudeville act, Lahr worked his way up to the top billing of the Columbia Burlesque Circuit. When in Broadway, Lahr usually plays a comic actor in plays which he starred in such as the classic routine The Song of the Woodman, which he would later perform in Les 4 cavaliers de la rigolade (1937).

Aside from Le Magicien d'Oz (1939), Lahr's movie career never caught on because his gestures and reactions were too broad. Lahr died in 1967.

Shemp Howard was born Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was also the brother of fellow stooges Moe Howard and Curly Howard. Larry Fine was not related to any of the other stooges.

When not working with The Three Stooges, Shemp made a lot of feature film appearances, such as Mines de rien (1940) with W.C. Fields. Shemp, Moe, Larry and Curly appeared in only one short together -- Hold That Lion! (1947). In it, Curly appears as an uncredited train car passenger. Watch for the man with the hat on his face. This was a short, non-speaking cameo, due to a stroke Curly suffered the prior year.

Delightfully daffy and quite an apple dumpling of a darling, this cheerfully wizened character actress was born Ruth Thane Shoecraft on September 13, 1895, in Michigan but raised in Ohio where her father served as a county sheriff. Ruth's parents, both musicians, encouraged her to perform. Graduating from the Wooster University in Ohio, she later studied drama at the Toledo Dramatic Academy.

Ruth would also attend the American Academy of Dramatic Art (AADA) with strong designs on a New York career but instead married a Florida widower, Patrick McDevitt, a contractor, and decided to focus on domestic life. With the passing of her husband, however, in 1934, the now broaching 40-year-old lady decided to give it a go again and began dabbling in community theater plays

Reigniting her long dormant desires, Ruth eventually found herself in New York and it wasn't long before she became a viable 30's and 40's presence on Broadway and radio in both comedic and dramatic fare. Making her debut in late 1937 with a short-lived production of "Straw Hat" (as Ruth Thane McDevitt -- she shortened it later on), Ruth went on to appear in several other plays that had brief lives such as "Young Couple Wanted" (1940), "Goodbye in the Night" (1940), "Mr. Big" (1941) and "Meet a Body" (1944). She earned excellent notices when she replaced star Josephine Hull in the Broadway comedies "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1942) and "The Solid Gold Cadillac" (1954). Years later, she and Hull would also co-star as anomalous sisters Martha and Abby Brewster, respectively, in a 1949 TV production of "Harvey" for the "Ford Theatre Hour." As for radio, she provided the voice of Jane Channing on the popular radio soap "This Life Is Mine." during the war years.

A flair for eccentric comedy opened a huge door for Ruth in the TV and film worlds during the 50s as one of those faces you couldn't put a name to but instinctively knew. Although she made her film debut in the little seen Paul Douglas sports drama The Guy Who Came Back (1951), most of Ruth's on-camera performances were on the small screen with such attention-getting roles as Mom Peepers, the mother of meek Wally Cox in the comedy series Mister Peepers (1952) series. She graced several of the popular anthology series as well ("Lux Video Theatre," "Philco Television Playhouse," "Kraft Theatre," "Studio One in Hollywood").

In the 1960's, Ruth appeared on Broadway in "The Best Man" and earned particularly fine reviews for what would be her last New York show, "Absence of a Cello." She also showed up on several sitcoms while lightening up many a drama. Her program guest list includes "Decoy," "Naked City," "Dr. Kildare," the daytime soaper "The Doctors." "Route 66," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir," "I Dream of Jeannie," "Mayberry R.F.D.," "My World and Welcome to It," "Ironside," "Love, American Style" and "Bewitched." She also milked laughs as a gun totin', sharp-shootin' granny in the comedy Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1966) starring Ann Sheridan. Sadly, the series was abruptly canceled after only one season due to the star's death from cancer.

Ruth decorated a number of fluffy film comedies as a befuddled, warble-voiced elderly in such lightweight fare as La fiancée de Papa (1961), The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), Angel in My Pocket (1969) and Mame (1974), and would continue to perform right up until her death. In her twilight years, she provided comedy relief as eccentric advice columnist and crossword puzzle enthusiast Emily Cowles in the cult supernatural thriller series Dossiers brûlants (1974) starring Darren McGavin. Her final guest appearances included "The Streets of San Francisco" and "Phyllis."

Ruth died of natural causes at age 80 on May 27, 1976, in Los Angeles.

With more than two decades of stage experience in France, England and on Broadway behind her, this moon-faced, heavy-set character actress first entered films in 1940. But no matter a film's genre - contemporary drama, historical costumer or shoot 'em up western - her Brooklyn roots always sounded through.

Paul Muni was born Sept. 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, who were both professionals. His family was Jewish, and spoke Yiddish. Paul was educated in New York and Cleveland public schools. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches, with black hair and eyes, 165 pounds. He joined the Yiddish Art Theatre in New York (1908) for 4 years, and then moved to other Yiddish theaters until 1926, when he "went into an American play" called "We Americans", his first English-language role. In 1927-28, he appeared in the plays "Four Walls", "This One Man", "Counsellor-at-Law", and others. He began with Fox in 1928. He would later alternate between Broadway and Hollywood for his roles, becoming one of the more distinguished actors in either venue. Failing eyesight and otherwise poor health forced him into retirement after his appearance in La colère du juste (1959).

Long acknowledged as one of the best "straight men" in the business, Bud Abbott was born William Alexander Abbott in Reading, Pennsylvania to Rae (Fisher) and Harry Abbott, who had both worked for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. When Bud was three his family moved to Asbury Park, New Jersey, which he later, erroneously, listed as his place of birth. He himself worked in carnivals while still a child and dropped out of school in 1909. He worked as assistant treasurer for the Casino Theater in Brooklyn, then as treasurer and/or manager of various theaters around the country. He worked as the straight man to such vaudeville and burlesque comics as Harry Steepe and Harry Evanson while managing the National Theater in Detroit. In 1931 while cashiering at the Brooklyn theater, he substituted for comic Lou Costello's ill straight-man. The two clicked almost immediately and formed their famous comedy team. Throughout the 1930s they worked burlesque, minstrel shows, vaudeville and movie houses. In 1938 they got national exposure through the Kate Smith radio show "The Kate Smith Hour", and signed with Universal Pictures the next year. They made their film debut in Une nuit sous les tropiques (1940), and, while the team wasn't the film's stars, it made money for Universal and they got good enough notices to convince Universal to give them their own picture. Their first starring film, Deux nigauds soldats (1941), with The Andrews Sisters, grossed what was then a company-record $10 million (on a $180,000 budget) and they were on their way to stardom and a long run as the most popular comedy team in America. In 1942 they topped a poll of Hollywood stars. They had their own radio show (ABC, 1941-6, NBC, 1946-9) and TV show (The Abbott and Costello Show (1952)). After the war their careers stalled and the box-office takes for their films started slipping. However, they made a big comeback in Deux nigauds contre Frankenstein (1948), which raked in huge profits and even got the team good notices from critics who normally wouldn't even review their films. The movie's success convinced Universal to embark on a series of films in which the team met various monsters or found themselves in exotic locations. Their film career eventually petered out and the team split up in 1957. Costello embarked on a series of TV appearances and even made a film, without Abbott, called The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959), but it was a flop. He received good notices after a dramatic performance in an episode of La grande caravane (1957) and was in discussion to star in a biography of famed New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, a project Costello had been trying to get off the ground for years, when he died. Both Abbott and Costello had major tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service and wound up virtually broke. Abbott started over with a new partner, Candy Candido, in the 1960s and set off on a national tour, including Las Vegas, but the act failed. In 1966 he voiced his character in a cartoon version of their television show. His health deteriorated badly in the late 1960s, he had always suffered from epilepsy, and he died in 1974.

Sidney Blackmer, the Tony-award winning actor who played Teddy Roosevelt in seven movies, is best remembered by today's movie audiences for his turn as the warlock/coven-leader Roman Castevet in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he made his debut on July 13, 1895, he had planned as a young man to study law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. However, playing football and engaging in amateur theatricals proved more important to him than his aspirations to be an attorney, and while in his teens, he went to New York City to try to make it as an actor. He appeared uncredited in movies turned out by various film studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which in the first half of the decade of the 1910s, was the Hollywood of America. He reportedly appeared in a bit part in the popular movie serial "The Perils of Pauline" (1914).

Blackmer made his Broadway debut on February 13, 1917, in "The Morris Dance," Harley Granville-Barker's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "The Wrong Box." He was not to appear again on the Broadway stage for almost exactly three years, due to the outbreak of his World War I, which saw Blackmer join the military as an officer. After the war, he returned to the theater, making his second Broadway appearance in "Trimmed in Scarlet" on February 2, 1920. He appeared in 15 other productions on the Great White Way from 1920 to 1928. His appearance in 'Clare Kummer''s comedy "The Mountain Man" in 1921 made him a star.

He was a pioneer in the new medium of radio, on which he sang during the 1920s. (Blackmer later participated in the first experimental dramas on Allen B. DuMont's television network.) But it was the movies that increasingly attracted Blackmer's professional attention, in which he typically was cast as a smooth villain from High Society, although he did also play sympathetic roles.

Although Blackmer is now credited with appearing (un-billed) in "The Perils of Pauline," he didn't make a credited appearance on the silver screen until the dawn of the sound era. With the coming of sound, Hollywood needed actors and actresses who could talk and talk well, so it raided the Broadway stage. Blackmer was one of the Broadway stars who headed West, appearing in his first talkie, "The Love Racket" (1929), in 1929. He starred in other early sound films, including "Kismet" (1930/I), which is considered a lost film. He was memorable as Big Boy in support of Edward G. Robinson in the gangster classic Little Caesar (1931)

Blackmer returned to Broadway in 1931 with the comedy "The Social Register" and appeared again in the comedy "Stop-Over" in 1938. In Hollywood, he had a supporting role in the Robert Donat version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1934). Also that year, he appeared in 'William A. Wellman''s "The President Vanishes" (1934), co-starring 'Edward Arnold' and 'Osgood Perkins', the father of 'Anthony Perkins'.

Sidney Blackmer has the distinction of starring in the only movie ever "written" by a president of the United States, "The President's Mystery" (1936), based on a story by "co-authored" by 'Franklin D. Roosevelt'. F.D.R. was an avid murder mystery reader, and at a meeting of whodunit authors at the White House during his first administration, he suggested an idea for a mystery novel to the writers: A millionaire disappears and starts a new life under a new identity, taking his wealth with him. Mystery writers, including S.S. Van Dine, cobbled together a patch-work book of uneven quality based on the premise, with F.D.R. listed as co-author. "The President's Mystery" became a best-seller due to F.D.R.'s enormous personal popularity. In the movie version, written by future Hollywood Ten member 'Lester Cole' and novelist 'Nathanel West', Blackmer played millionaire industrialist Sartos, who engineers his own disappearance while holding on to his fortune. Sartos blackmails a corrupt investment bank run by two con men, which he takes over. He then invests his money with the firm, and robs himself under cover of the crooked brokerage. Disappearing after "losing" his fortune, people believe Sartos has committed suicide. Just when it seems that he has accomplished his goal and has escaped into his new life with his loot, something goes awry.

Nineteen-thirty seven was a busy year for Blackmer, who appeared in 12 films, including "Heidi" (1937), his second flick with superstar moppet Shirley Temple (the had earlier co-starred in "The Little Colonel" (1935)). He played General Phillip Sheridan in the epic pot-boiler "In Old Chicago" (1937), starring 'Tyrone Power, Jr.'. The movie featured an Oscar-winning performance by 'Alice Brady' as Molly O'Brady, she of the cow with the combustible personality whose bovine hissy fit causes a conflagration that wipes out the City of Broad Shoulders. Then, it was time to indulge in the enterprise of supporting 'Warner Oland' in "Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo" (1937) and 'Peter Lorre' in "Thank You, Mr. Moto." (1937). He also appeared again with Edward G. Robinson in "The Last Gangster" (1937).

In the late '30s, Blackmer began making a side-line out of portraying F.D.R.'s cousin 'Theodore Roosevelt', appearing as the wild 'n' woolly bully Bull Moose himself in "This Is My Affair" (1937), "The Monroe Doctrine" (1939), and the Academy Award-winning two-reel short "Teddy the Rough Rider" (1940). He followed these up, reprising T.R., in the patriotic short "March On, America!" (1942), in the John Wayne western "In Old Oklahoma" (1943), in Bill Wellman's "Buffalo Bill" (1944), and in the nostalgic "My Girl Tisa" (1948). Blackmer appeared in three Broadway productions in the mid-1940s, but it wasn't until the dawn of the new decade of the '50s that he scored his greatest success on Broadway, playing the dipsomaniac Doc in 'William Inge''s "Come Back, Little Sheba" opposite Shirley Booth, who scored a Best Actress (Dramatic) Tony Award in 1950 as his wife. Though Blackmer won the Best Actor (Dramatic) Tony Award for "Sheba," he was not able to repeat his triumph on film and possibly join Booth into the Oscar-winner's circle as 'Burt Lancaster' coveted the role. Blackmer also lost out on another plum film assignment when it came time to cast the film version of Doux oiseau de jeunesse (1962). 'Ed Begley, Sr.' won an Oscar for his portrayal of Boss Finley in 'Richard Brooks''s film of the 'Tennessee Williams' play, a role that Blackmer had originated on Broadway under the stalwart direction of infamous Hollywood Un-American Activities Committee snitch 'Elia Kazan'. Blackmer last appeared on Broadway in "A Case of Libel" in the 1963-64 season.

In his private life, Blackmer served as the national vice president of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He was honored with a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1625 Vine Street, and was the recipient of the North Carolina Award, the state of North Carolina's highest civilian award, in 1972.

Blackmer was married to Lenore Ulric from 1928 until 1939, when they were divorced. He married his second wife Suzanne Kaaren in 1943. They had two sons, Jonathan and Brewster Blackmer.

Sidney Blackmer died of cancer on October 6, 1973 at the age of 78 in New York City. He was interred in Chestnut Hill Cemetery in his home town of Salisbury, NC.

Hollywood's original Latin Lover, a term that was invented for Rudolph Valentino by Hollywood moguls. Alla Nazimova's friend Natacha Rambova (nee Winifred Hudnut) became romantically involved with Rudy and they lived together in her bungalow from 1921 (during the filming of Camille) until they eloped to Mexico on May 13, 1922 believing that his divorce from Jean Acker was official. After their re-marriage two years later she left him because he signed a contract that barred her from being involved in his pictures and wasn't allowed on set. She went to Nice to live with her parents and never entered their new mansion, Falcon Lair. He began to date sexy Pola Negri and was also linked to Vilma Banky. While he was touring to promote his last film, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune accused him of "effeminization of the American male". He defended his manhood by challenging the article's writer to a boxing match; it never took place, but another writer for the paper did enter the ring on behalf of the author who would not be named, and Valentino defeated him. He died shortly afterward while he was in New York attending the premiere of his last film. He collapsed in his hotel on August 15, 1926 and died on August 23, after an operation that led to an infection. 80,000 mourners nearly caused a riot at his New York funeral. Another funeral followed in California.

Brawn won out over brain as well when it came to wrestler athlete Nat Pendleton's professional movie career. For two decades, this massively-built, dark-haired, good-looking lug played a number of kind-hearted lunkheads, goons, henchmen and Joe Palooka-like buffoons.

Nathaniel Greene Pendleton was born on August 9, 1895 on a farm close to Davenport, Iowa. The son of Nathaniel G. Pendleton, a lawyer, and mother Adelaide Elizabeth Johnson, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio when Nat was a mere two months of age. His uncle was well-known Cincinnati-born D.W. Griffith silent player Arthur V. Johnson.

After the family's move from Ohio to New York, Nat became star of Brooklyn's Poly Prep High School wrestling team and later went to Collumbia University where he became a popular athletic presence, never losing a match in college and serving on the 1915 team as their captain. Following a couple of national titles, he competed at the Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920 and won the heavyweight silver medal in what many say was a controversial decision (to Pendleton's advantage). Nat turned pro after this and was undefeated in his two years of competition. He grew disillusioned when he was unable to arrange money bouts with Jack Dempsey and Ed Lewis aka "Strangler" reportedly due to his lack of a flashy enough reputation.

With his athletic image intact, Nat decided to follow his Uncle Arthur into acting in the mid-20s, making his debut in the film The Hoosier Schoolmaster (1924). Several other films followed, mostly in sports-minded themes. He also set his powerful frame on the Broadway stage, with roles in "Naughty Cinderella" (1925), "The Grey Fox" (1928) and as Marcel the Great in the hit comedy "His Girl Friday" (1929). A truckload of films came his way by the early 1930s, including The Spirit of Notre Dame (1931) in which he played an assistant coach, and in both the Marx Bros.' farcical comedy Plumes de cheval (1932) with Thelma Todd, and Deception (1932), again with Todd, based on a story Pendleton himself wrote. He played football stars in both. In addition, he and Ward Bond played wrestlers in the Wallace Beery starrer Une femme survint (1932).

Among Pendleton's other film highlights include his gangsters in Sing and Like It (1934) with Zasu Pitts and The Gay Bride (1934) with Carole Lombard; his policemen in L'introuvable (1934) and Nick joue et gagne (1939); strongman Sandow in Le grand Ziegfeld (1936); another dimbulb wrestler in Swing Your Lady (1938) starring Humphrey Bogart and Louise Fazenda; a barkeep in Le grand passage (1940) starring Spencer Tracy; _a haranguing officer/nemesis to Abbott and Costello in Deux nigauds soldats (1941) and several Dr. Kildare medical dramas as hunky ambulance driver/comedy relief Joe Wayman. A rare prime starring role was the title part as Top Sergeant Mulligan (1941) for Poverty Row's Monogram Pictures.

Following his final film part reprising the badgering sergeant in Deux nigauds démobilisés (1947), Nat turned to TV before retiring in 1956. The twice-married actor/wrestler died of a heart attack on October 12, 1967 at age 72.

A Corsicana native, Rex (Clifford) Ingram was the son of Mack and Mamie Ingram. He graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in medicine before launching a brilliant acting career which spanned 50 years. Ingram made his screen debut during the silent era in Tarzan chez les singes (1918). He won widespread acclaim for his portrayal of De Lawd in The Green Pastures (1936), Ingram also appeared on the Broadway stage and in television productions, bringing skill and dignity to every performance. Actor probably best remembered for his portrayal of Jim, the fugitive slave, opposite Mickey Rooney in Les aventures de Huckleberry Finn (1939). He died September 19, 1969 and was buried in California.

Oscar-winning actor Paul Lukas was born in Hungary and graduated from the School for Dramatic Arts. In 1916 he went to Kosice (Kassa) to be an actor; in 1918 he became an actor specializing in comedy. For ten years he was the most popular character player and romantic lead of the company. In 1918 he began making movies in Budapest and in the 1920s he began appearing in films in Austria as well. He journeyed to Hollywood in 1927, where he finally settled down. He wasn't untrue to the stage--he played Dr. Rank to Ruth Gordon's Nora in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" in the Morosco Theatre in New York in 1937--but concentrated on films until 1948. In the '50s he started appearing on stage more and more, and worked in films and on TV only sporadically.

Nigel was, from the beginning, typecast as bumbling English aristocrats, military types or drawing room society snobs and, within the narrow parameters of his range, he was very, very good at playing these parts. Nigel Bruce was born in Mexico, where his father, Sir William W. Bruce, worked as an engineer. His family was part of English aristocracy, ever since Charles I. bestowed a baronetcy upon them in 1629 (William's older brother Michael held the hereditary title). Nigel was educated in England at Grange, Stevenage and Abingdon. His first job was at a stockbroker's firm. During World War I, he served in the British Army (like his future co-star, Basil Rathbone) where he received a serious leg wound and was for some time confined to a wheelchair.

Following his discharge, he turned to acting in 1919, but it wasn't until ten years later that he achieved a breakthrough in Noël Coward's 'This was a Man' on Broadway. Then followed the performance which was to set the standard for all his later work in Hollywood: the 1931 comedy "Springtime for Henry". On the strength of his performance as Johnny Jelliwell, Fox offered Nigel the opportunity to reprise his role in the 1934 movie. Soon after that, Nigel was cast to star as British detective Bertram Lynch in a minor thriller, Murder in Trinidad (1934). The contemporary New York Times Review (May 16,1934) was skeptical about the film's merit, but found Nigel's performance 'compelling'. After that followed a gallery of endearingly stereotypical 'Britishers': Squire Trelawny in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic L'île au trésor (1934), the Prince of Wales in Le chevalier de Londres (1934), Professor Holly in La Source de feu (1935) and Sir Benjamin Warrenton in La charge de la brigade légère (1936). All, without exception, were roles in which Nigel felt perfectly at home.

In 1939, he teamed up with Basil Rathbone for the first two Holmes/Watson movies, Le chien des Baskerville (1939) and Les aventures de Sherlock Holmes (1939), filmed at 20th Century Fox. Both films had an authentic period feel for Victorian England and the chemistry between the two stars was just right. Three years later, Rathbone was contractually obliged to make a further series of twelve Holmes pictures at Universal, again co-starring Nigel as Dr. Watson. Nigel portrayed his lovable self in two Hitchcock classics Rebecca (1940) (as Major Giles Lacy) and Soupçons (1941) (as 'Beaky').

A prominent member of the resident English colony in Hollywood, Nigel Bruce at one time captained the cricket club established by fellow actor and compatriot C. Aubrey Smith in 1932 (other members included P.G. Wodehouse, Boris Karloff, Ronald Colman and David Niven).

Starting out as a rodeo cowboy and then becoming a stuntman in silent westerns, Yakima Canutt later doubled for such stars as Clark Gable and John Wayne, among others, in such dangerous activities as jumping off the top of a cliff on horseback, leaping from a stagecoach onto its runaway team, being "shot" off a horse at full gallop and other such potentially life-threatening activities. He became expert at staging massive events involving livestock, such as cattle stampedes and covered-wagon races, as well as Indians-vs.-cavalry battles on a grand scale. Canutt's most noteworthy achievement as a second-unit director came in his staging and direction of the chariot-race sequence in William Wyler 's Ben-Hur (1959)--which, from initial planning to final execution, took two years.

Lew Pollack was born on 16 June 1895 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Island (2005), La Ligne verte (1999) and Les Associés (2003). He was married to Helen Martin Mellette (dancer). He died on 18 January 1946 in Hollywood, California, USA.

The son of a day laborer, William Boyd moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was seven. His parents died while he was in his early teens, forcing him to quit school and take such jobs as a grocery clerk, surveyor and oil field worker. He went to Hollywood in 1919, already gray-haired. His first role was as an extra in Cecil B. DeMille's L'Échange (1920). He bought some fancy clothes, caught DeMille's eye and got the romantic lead in Le batelier de la Volga (1926), quickly becoming a matinée idol and earning upwards of $100,000 a year. However, with the end of silent movies, Boyd was without a contract, couldn't find work and was going broke. By mistake his picture was run in a newspaper story about the arrest of another actor with a similar name (William 'Stage' Boyd) on gambling, liquor and morals charges, and that hurt his career even more. In 1935 he was offered the lead role in Hop-a-Long Cassidy (1935) (named because of a limp caused by an earlier bullet wound). He changed the original pulp-fiction character to its opposite, made sure that "Hoppy" didn't smoke, drink, chew tobacco or swear, rarely kissed a girl and let the bad guy draw first. By 1943 he had made 54 "Hoppies" for his original producer, Harry Sherman; after Sherman dropped the series, Boyd produced and starred in 12 more on his own. The series was wildly popular, and all recouped at least double their production costs. In 1948 Boyd, in a savvy and precedent-setting move, bought the rights to all his pictures (he had to sell his ranch to raise the money) just as TV was looking for Saturday morning Western fare. He marketed all sorts of "Hoppy" products (lunch boxes, toy guns, cowboy hats, etc.) and received royalties from comic books, radio and records. He retired to Palm Desert, California, in 1953. In 1968 he had surgery to remove a tumor from a lymph gland and from then on refused all interview and photograph requests.

Edward S. Brophy was born on February 27, 1895 in New York City and educated at the University of Virginia. He became a bit and small-part in the movies starting in 1919, but switched to behind-the-scenes work for job security, though he continued appearing in small parts. While serving as a property master for Buster Keaton's production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Brophy appeared in a memorable sequence in Keaton's classic Le caméraman (1928), in which Buster and Brophy both try to undress simultaneously in a tiny wardrobe room. Keaton cast Brophy in larger parts in two of his talkies, and by 1934, Brophy abandoned the production end of the movies altogether and was acting full-time.

Possessed of a chubby, bald-headed face with pop-eyes, and blessed with (for a comic) a high-pitched voice, Brophy appeared in scores of comic roles. He also played straight dramatic parts, but was less effective in them. Typical of his work was his memorable turn providing comic relief in the small supporting role of the Marine in Manila who adopts the dog "Tripoli" in Howard Hawks' war propaganda masterpiece Air Force (1943).

In the 1950s, Brophy began taking fewer roles. His last role was in director John Ford's Western Les Deux Cavaliers (1961), during the production of which, he died on May 27, 1960 in Pacific Palisades, California. He will always be remembered to film-lovers as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Walt Disney's classic 1941 cartoon Dumbo (1941).

Becoming popular playing the ukulele, his unique singing and supplying the voice of animated movies, Cliff Edwards was one of the most popular singers in America.

Born in Hannibal, Missouri, Edwards left school at the age of 14, moved to St. Louis, and started to work as a singer in saloons. He then taught himself to play the ukulele. He got his nickname, "Ukelele Ike", from a club owner who couldn't remember his name.

Entering the vaudeville circuit, he finally made it big. After going into movies, one of his first movies he made was his most noticeable: Hollywood chante et danse (1929). Eleven years later, he was immortalized in Disney's Pinocchio (1940).

Mathew McCue was born on 4 October 1895 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Le fugitif (1963) and Gunsmoke (1955). He died on 10 April 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Lewis Milestone, a clothing manufacturer's son, was born in Bessarabia (now Moldova), raised in Odessa (Ukraine) and educated in Belgium and Berlin (where he studied engineering). He was fluent in both German and Russian and an avid reader. Milestone had an affinity for the theatre from an early age, starting as a prop man and background artist before traveling to the US in 1914 with $6.00 in his pocket. After a succession of odd jobs (including as a dishwasher and a photographer's assistant) he joined the Army Signal Corps in 1917 to make educational short films for U.S. troops. Following World War I, having acquired American citizenship, he went on to Hollywood to meet the director William A. Seiter at Ince Studios. Seiter started him off as an assistant cutter. Milestone quickly worked his way up the ranks to become editor, assistant director and screenwriter on many of Seiter's projects in the early 1920s, experiences that would greatly influence his directing style in years to come.

Milestone directed his first film, Les sept larrons en quarantaine (1925), for Howard Hughes and two years later won his first of two Academy Awards for the comedy Frères d'armes (1927). He received his second Oscar for what most regard as his finest achievement, the anti-war movie À l'Ouest rien de nouveau (1930), based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The film, universally praised by reviewers for its eloquence and integrity, also won the Best Picture Academy Award that year. A noted Milestone innovation was the use of cameras mounted on wooden tracks, giving his films a more realistic and fluid, rather than static, look. Other trademarks associated with his pictures were taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches, good examples being the screwball comedy Spéciale première (1931), the melodrama Pluie (1932)--based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham--and an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Des souris et des hommes (1939). When asked in 1979 about the secret behind his success, he simply declared "Arrogance, chutzpah--in the old Hollywood at least that's the thing that gave everybody pause" (New York Times, September 27, 1980). Milestone had a history of being "difficult", having clashed with Howard Hughes, Warner Brothers and a host of studio executives over various contractual and artistic issues. Nonetheless, he remained constantly employed and worked for most of the major studios at one time or another, though never on long-term contracts. While he was not required to testify before HUAC, Milestone was blacklisted for a year in 1949 because of left-wing affiliations dating back to the 1930's. His output became less consistent during the 1950s and his career finished on a low with the remake of Les Révoltés du Bounty (1962) and its incongruously cast, equally headstrong star Marlon Brando.

Milestone must be credited with a quirky sense of humor: when the producer of "All Quiet on the Western Front", Carl Laemmle Jr., demanded a "happy ending" for the picture, Milestone telephoned, "I've got your happy ending. We'll let the Germans win the war".

Having suffered a stroke, Lewis Milestone spent the last ten years of his life confined to a wheelchair. He died September 25, 1980, at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Ruth Lee was born on 14 September 1895 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for Corpus Christi Bandits (1945), The Town Went Wild (1944) and G.I. Honeymoon (1945). She was married to Grandon Rhodes and Charles George Woehler. She died on 3 August 1975 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Robert Burton was born on 13 August 1895 in Eastman, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Règlement de comptes (1953), La quatrième dimension (1959) and The Slime People (1963). He was married to Marguerite Garrett. He died on 29 September 1962 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Busby Berkeley was one of the greatest choreographers of the US movie musical. He started his career in the US Army in 1918, as a lieutenant in the artillery conducting and directing parades. After the World War I cease-fire he was ordered to stage camp shows for the soldiers. Back in the US he became a stage actor and assistant director in smaller acting troupes. After being forced to take over the direction of the musical "Holka-Polka" he discovered his talent for staging extravagant dance routines, and he quickly became one of Broadway's top dance directors. Producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. called him to direct the dance routines for his production of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Eddie Cantor, who starred in the long-running Ziegfeld production "Whoopee!", suggested Berkley create the dance routines in the film version )Whoopee! (1930) and Ziegfeld agreed.

At first in Hollywood Berkeley wasn't satisfied with the possibilities of his job--at the time, dance directors trained the dancers and staged the dances. The director chose camera positions and the editor chose which of the takes were shown to the audience. Berkeley wanted to direct the dances himself and convinced producer Samuel Goldwyn to let him try. One of the first chances he took was that he used only one camera in his films. He also showed close-ups of the chorus girls. Asked about this, he explained, "Well, we've got all the beautiful girls in the picture, why not let the public see them?" With the decline of musicals in 1931 and 1932, he was thinking of returning to Broadway when Darryl F. Zanuck, chief producer at Warner Brothers, called him in to direct the musical numbers of Warners' newest project, the backstage drama 42ème rue (1933). Berkeley accepted and directed great numbers like "Shuffle Off To Buffalo", "Young and Healthy" and the grandiose story of urban life, the finale "42nd Street". The film was a smash hit, and Warner Brothers knew who made it such an extraordinary success--Berkeley, as well as composer Harry Warren and lyricist Al Dubin, got seven-year contracts. Berkeley created musical numbers for almost every great musical that Warner Brothers produced from 1933 to 1937. His overhead shots forced him to drill holes in the studio roofs, and he used more dancers with each succeeding picture. However, by the late 1930s the musical was in decline once again, and Berkeley had nothing to do as a choreographer. He directed two non-musical pictures for Warner Brothers then went to MGM, where he choreographed the final number from Emporte mon coeur (1939) with Jeanette MacDonald. As a director and choreographer he worked on four pictures with teenage stars Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. He also choreographed the "Fascinatin' Rhythm" finale for MGM's reigning tapping star, Eleanor Powell in Divorce en musique (1941). He directed Gene Kelly in his first picture, Pour moi et ma mie (1942). Kelly, who choreographed his own numbers, learned a lot from Berkeley.

Berkeley worked for 20th Century-Fox in Banana split (1943) with its surrealistic number "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat". In 1949 he directed his last picture, Match d'amour (1949), but this time the choreography was by Gene Kelly. Berkeley did a few numbers in the early 1950s but, by the end of the decade, he was all but forgotten. A revival of his films in the late 1960s brought him some popularity and he was asked to return to Broadway and supervise the dance direction in the revival of a Vincent Youmans musical comedy from 1925. One of the actresses in this production was Ruby Keeler, one of his leading ladies in Warner musicals. When the production went on tour in 1972, one of the road cast was Eleanor Powell. The production was a smash hit. When he walked on stage after one opening night, the house exploded with applause.

A strange fact is that Busby Berkeley never had a dancing lesson and, in his early days, was very afraid of people finding out. He often drove his producers crazy when he gave orders to build a set and then sat in front of it for a few days, thinking up the numbers.