Acquanetta (1921-2004) Born in Wyoming in July 1921 and raised by adoptive parents in Pennsylvania, gorgeous Acquanetta made her way to New York in the late 1930s, as her exotic looks made her a sought-after model for the prestigious Powers Agency. Dubbed "The Venezualan Volcano" although she was Native American by birth, by the time she was 21 years old she signed a contract with Universal Studios and headed for Hollywood. Acquanetta appeared in just a handful of films from the early 1940s to the early 1950s, including Captive Wild Woman (1943; with Evelyn Ankers and John Carradine), Dead Man's Eyes (1944; with Lon Chaney Jr.), Tarzan and the Leopard Girl (1946; with Johnny Weissmuller and Johnny Sheffield), and Lost Continent (1951; with Cesar Romero and Hugh Beaumont). Her career was interrupted by two brief marriages in 1945 and 1951, as well as the birth of her first son in early 1947. When she married a wealthy businessman not long after the demise of her second marriage, Acquanetta walked away from acting, choosing instead to raise a family. Sadly, she passed away in August 2004 at the age of 83 from complications arising from Alzheimer's disease. The above photo is from Captive Wild Woman. Brian Aherne (1902-1986) British-born Brian Aherne started his acting career as a child in stage plays, moving into silent films when he was a young adult. He made his way to Broadway in the early 1930s and moved on to Hollywood in the mid 1930s, acting in a string of films for various studios before signing with Columbia as one of its biggest stars in the late 1930s. While at Warner Bros., Aherne garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance in Juarez (1939; with Bette Davis and Gilbert Roland). That same year, Aherne married actress Joan Fontaine, but the marriage dissolved in 1945. In 1943, Aherne walked away from films to become a stateside flight instructor for the Royal Air Force. Following World War II, like many actors Aherne had trouble finding good roles, although he made a comeback starting in the 1950s in such films as A Bullet Is Waiting (1954; with Rory Calhoun) and Susan Slade (1961; with Troy Donahue and Grant Williams). By the late 1960s, Aherne called it a day and retired. He passed away in 1986 from heart failure at the age of 83 and was survived by second wife Eleanor. Luana Anders (1938-1996) Born Luana Anderson in New York City on May 12, 1938, Anders was a pretty blond actress who got her big break at 19, acting in Roger Corman's Reform School Girl (1957; with Yvette Vickers). In the 1960s, Anders starred in several cult classic films, including Dementia 13 (1963; with William Campbell), The Trip (1967; with Bruce Dern and Barboura Morris), and Easy Rider (1969; with Peter Fonda). In addition to films, Anders made numerous TV appearances on such shows as Little House on the Prarie, Outer Limits, and Rawhide. She continued making film and TV appearances until her death from breast cancer at age 58 on July 21, 1996. The photo of Anders is from Dementia 13. Samuel Z. Arkoff (1918-2001)Legendary B movie producer Sam Arkoff was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa on June 12, 1918, to parents who owned a clothing store. Arkoff started his career as an entertainment lawyer but moved into early television production around 1950. He met James Nicholson in 1954, when Nicholson was trying to get his studio, American Releasing Corporation, off the ground. Arkoff and Nicholson teamed up to create American International Studios (AIP), probably the most successful of the independent studios in the 1950s and 1960s. AIP excelled at making low-budget films for teen audiences, and theatre rentals of their films made them wealthy. Nicholson and Arkoff parted ways in 1971, leaving Arkoff as the sole head of AIP; he sold his interest in the company in 1979. After a career during which he produced more than 150 films, Arkoff passed away on September 16, 2001, at the age of 83.Lucille Ball (1911-1989) While audiences recall Lucille Ball from her antics on the sit-com I Love Lucy, Ball started her career as model and glamour girl in the early 1930s. Coming to Hollywood as a Goldwyn Girl in 1933, at first she was just another beautiful blonde in the chorus. She toiled in mostly uncredited roles until the mid 1930s when she signed with RKO; the studio put Ball in a number of comedies where her talent shined through and her star began to rise. When the studio cast Ball with Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz in the musical comedy Too Many Girls (1940; with Richard Carlson), they fell in love and married shortly thereafter. Ball then left RKO and went to MGM, and during this period she dyed her hair red to stand out from the rest of the MGM crowd. However, she didn't find lasting success until 1951 when she and Arnaz produced I Love Lucy. Ball stuck with television, making few films afterward. She divorced Arnaz in 1960 and married comedian Gary Morton in 1961. After a lifetime in front of a camera, Ball passed away on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77. Suzan Ball (1933-1955) Sultry Suzan Ball, a distant cousin of Lucille Ball, was a starlet in the early 1950s under contract to Universal. While filming East of Sumatra (1953; with Jeff Chandler), Ball injured her right leg, which was later found to be cancerous. Her leg was eventually amputated below the knee. By 1955, the cancer had spread to her lungs, and she passed away in August 1955 at the age of 22. Ball married actor Richard Long in 1954, leaving him a widower just a year later. Jill Banner (1946-1982) Pretty Jill Banner made her big-screen debut in Jack Hill's horror film Spider Baby (1964; with Lon Chaney Jr. and Carol Ohmart). She also appeared in C'mon, Let's Live a Little (1967; with Bobby Vee and Jackie DeShannon) and in The President's Analyst (1967; with James Coburn). Banner acted in a few other films and was in numerous episodes of Dragnet and Adam 12. She also made a 1972 appearance in a two-part episode of Cade's County, and she had a role on The Bold Ones as well. By the mid 1970s, Banner gave up her acting career and made her way to New Mexico, where she sold real estate for several years, until her return to California around 1980. She was working on scripts for Marlon Brando, with whom she was rumored to be in a romantic relationship, when she was killed in a car accident in Malibu on August 7, 1982, at the age of 35. Thanks to Clyde Parker Jr. for the above photo of Jill Banner taken from The President's Analyst. George Barrows (1914-1994)Born in New York in February 1914, Barrows most often donned the gorilla suit he owned in the films he made, such as Robot Monster (1953; with George Nader) and Gorilla at Large (1954; with Raymond Burr). Without the monkey suit, he acted in such low-budget faire as Mesa of Lost Women (1953; with Jackie Coogan and Dolores Fuller). Barrows retired in the late 1970s and died in 1994 at the age of 80.John Drew Barrymore (1932-2004) The son of thespians Dolores Costello and John Barrymore, John Drew Barrymore used the name John Barrymore Jr. in his early film appearances. While his mother was keen for him to shun acting for more stable employment, the young actor entered films while still a teenager; his first film was the western The Sundowners (1950; with Robert Preston and Cathy Downs). Several career missteps saw Barrymore's early film career ebb, but by the late 1950s he was working steadily, in such films as High School Confidential! (1958; with Mamie Van Doren, Jan Sterling, and Russ Tamblyn), Night of the Quarter Moon (1959; with Julie London), and The Trojan Horse (1961; with Steve Reeves). Although Barrymore turned in great performances, his private life often overshadowed his career. In the early 1960s, he worked in many European films, but his career went south in the late 1960s. Sadly, John Drew Barrymore passed away in November 2004 of natural causes. He is survived by his actor son John Blyth Barrymore and his daughter, actress Drew Barrymore. The photo is from Never Love a Stranger (1958). Lyle Bettger (1915-2003) Born in Philadelphia on February 13, 1915, screen heavy Lyle Bettger started his acting career in the legitimate theater. Moving into films in the late 1940s when he signed a contract with Paramount Studios, Bettger acted in a number of film noir thrillers including his first film No Man of Her Own (1950; with Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Denning). He also appeared in a fair share of westerns, often as a villain, in such films as Drums Across the River (1954; with Audie Murphy, Mara Corday, and Hugh O'Brian) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957; with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Rhonda Fleming). At the end of his Paramount contract, Bettger went to TV, starring in The Court of Last Resort (1957-1958), the sister series to Perry Mason (1957-1966; with Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, and William Hopper). With no studio contract, Bettger made few films between 1960 and 1980 but guest-starred on numerous television series, retiring in the late 1970s. He passed away from natural causes on September 24, 2003 at the age of 88. Whit Bissell (1909-1996) Born in New York to a surgeon and his wife on October 25, 1909, early on Whit Bissell was keenly interested in an acting career and trained as an actor in college in the early 1930s. He got his break on Broadway in the early 1930s and starred in many Broadway plays until his World War II service in the Army Air Forces. In the late 1940s, Bissell's film career gained momentum when he signed with Universal Studios, making many appearances in film noir thrillers such as Brute Force (1947; with Burt Lancaster and Yvonne De Carlo) and A Double Life (1947; with Ronald Colman and Shelley Winters). However, Bissell was stuck in small, supporting roles for years. His fortunes improved with the release of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954; with Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, and Richard Denning). Bissell went on to star in a number of science fiction and horror films in the 1950s, such as Target Earth (1954; with Richard Denning), I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1958; with Gary Conway), and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1958; with Michael Landon). After appearing in more than 100 films and countless hours of television guest appearances, Bissell retired from acting in 1984. He passed away on March 5, 1996 at the age of 86 and was survived by three children from his first two marriages and a stepson, child actor Brian Forster, best known for his role on the ABC TV series The Partridge Family (1971-1974). The above photo is from The Young Stranger (1957; with James MacArthur). Eve Brent (1929-2011) Houston, Texas-born Eve Brent got her start in show business on radio and early television in her native state. When Brent and her first husband and son James relocated to California, in the mid 1950s, she quickly found work in films and on television. Her first film appearance came in the low-budget film noir thriller Female Jungle (1955; with Lawrence Tierney, John Carradine, and Jayne Mansfield). While she is best remembered in the role of Jane in Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958; with Gordon Scott and Woody Strode), Brent worked in films and on television regularly until the 1990s and, in addition, did numerous commercials to supplement her income. Sadly, Eve Brent passed away on August 27, 2011, at the age of 81. She was survived by son James and was preceded in death by her fourth husband, Michael, in 2008. Patricia Breslin (1931-2011) Born in New York on March 17, 1931, actress Patricia Breslin began acting as a teenager and continued to do so in college while a student at the College of New Rochelle. Her first big role came in early television, acting opposite Kevin McCarthy in a 1949 episode of NBC's The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse. She continued acting in New York-based television series in the early 1950s. Upon marrying her first husband, actor/director David McDearmon, in 1953, the couple made their way to Hollywood. Breslin made her film bow in the drama Go, Man, Go! (1954; with Dane Clark and Sidney Poitier), and the following year she landed her best-known role as Mandy Peoples in the NBC comedy The Peoples Choice (1955-1958). However, Breslin's film career never really took off, although she did star in such films as Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958; with Mickey Rooney and Jerry Colonna) and the William Castle horror films Homicidal (1961; with Glenn Corbett and Joan Marshall) and I Saw What You Did (1965; with Joan Crawford, John Ireland, and Leif Erickson). Afterward, she took a recurring role on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital. Following her late 1960s divorce from David McDearmon, she married National Football League team owner Art Modell in 1969 and walked away from her career. Sadly, Patricia Breslin passed away on October 12, 2011 at age 80 in Baltimore, Maryland, where she had been hospitalized for several months with pancreatitis. She was survived by husband Art Modell (1925-2012) and two sons from her first marriage. David Brian (1914-1993) Dancer-turned-actor David Brian didn't enter films until he was in his mid 30s, yet he made a great impression on moviegoers in such films as Flamingo Road (1949; with Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott), The Damned Don't Cry (1950; with Joan Crawford and Steve Cochran), and The High and the Mighty (1954; with John Wayne and Jan Sterling). Brian's film career ran out of steam by the late 1950s; he then turned to television and the theater. Brian passed away from natural causes at age 78 on July 15, 1993 and was survived by his wife, actress Lorna Gray (1917-2017). David Bruce (1916-1976) Born in Illinois in 1916, character actor David Bruce got his big break in films when he signed with Warner Bros. in the late 1930s. He worked steadily during World War II in a variety of roles and eventually left Warner Bros. for Universal, where he starred in such films as The Mad Ghoul (1943; with Evelyn Ankers) and Calling Dr. Death (1943; with Lon Chaney Jr.). While Bruce enjoyed success in films during the war, actors returning to Hollywood at the end of the war spelled the beginning of the end for Bruce's film career. By the late 1940s, Bruce was having trouble getting roles, and he retired from acting after the release of the science fiction film Jungle Hell (1956; with Sabu). Bruce passed away on May 3, 1976 from a heart attack at the age of 60. He was survived by his daughter, actress and songwriter Amanda McBroom. |
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