#BOTD 1929 – 2010 Jean Simmons, 80, English-US actress.
Great Expectations (1946) * Black Narcissus * Hamlet (Oscar Nom) * So Long at the Fair * Trio * Angel Face * Young Bess * The Robe * The Actress * Beautiful but Dangerous * The Egyptian * Désirée * Footsteps in the Fog
#BOTD 1929 – 2010 Jean Simmons, 80, English-US actress.
Guys and Dolls * This Could Be the Night * The Big Country * Home Before Dark * Elmer Gantry * Spartacus * Rough Night in Jericho * Happy Ending * TV's Thorn Birds * How to Make an American Quilt * Shadows in the Sun (2009)
#BOTD 1929 – 2010 Jean Simmons #BOTD 30 Jan 1900 – 1969 Martita Hunt
"He calls the knaves jacks, this boy! What coarse hands he has! You stupid, clumsy labouring boy! She says many hard things of you but you say nothing of her."
"Scullery maid Lily Watkins (Simmons) startles her employer, Stephen Lowery (Stewart Granger), revealing she knows how he's responsible for his wife's recent death."
Daughter of vaudevillians, she began on stage, age 3. As a child actress, her film debut Westward Passage (1932)
In, These Three (1936), she was OscarNom, age 14. She later starred Nancy Drew film series.
#BOTD 1923 – 1988 Bonita Granville, 65, US actress.
Westward Passage (1932) * Anne of Green Gables * These Three (OscarNom age 14) * Plough and Stars * Nancy Drew, Detective (1938-39) * Mortal Storm * Escape * Wild Man of Borneo * People v Dr Kildare * HM Pulham Esq * Glass Key
#BOTD 1923 – 1988 Bonita Granville, 65, US actress.
Now, Voyager * Hitler's Children * Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble * Suspense * The Guilty * Guilty of Treason * The Lone Ranger (1956) - The Magic of Lassie (1978, producer) * The Legend of The Lone Ranger (1981 cameo, final film)
When he was 8, his mother enrolled him and his brother in dance class. "We didn't like it, were always in fights with the neighborhood boys who called us sissies. I didn't dance again until I was 15."
He was forced to leave College after the 1929 crash and Depression working to help his family. He later did pursue a career as a dancer, and dropped out of school. He made his Broadway debut as a dancer in 1938.
He starred in Pal Joey (1940) bringing in film offers. Film debut For Me and My Gal (1942) * DuBarry Was a Lady * Cover Girl * Christmas Holiday * Anchors Aweigh * The Pirate * Three Musketeers * Words and Music
#OTD 1995 – Donald Pleasence, 75, English-French actor (b. 1919)
Originally a pacifist, he enlisted in 1940 after Blitz. He became a wireless-operator with Bomber Command in 60 raids over Nazi Europe. In August 1944 his plane was shot down, and he became P.O.W in Stalag Luft I.
#OTD 1995 – Donald Pleasence, 75, English actor (b. 1919)
Film debut Privates Progress (1954) Black Tent * Tale of Two Cities * Look Back in Anger * Circus of Horrors * Sons and Lovers * What a Carve Up! * The Caretaker * Great Escape * Dr Crippen * Hallelujah Trail * Cul-de-sac
#OTD 1995 – Donald Pleasence, 75, English actor (b. 1919)
Fantastic Voyage * Night of Generals * You Only Live Twice * Will Penny * Madwoman of Chaillot * Soldier Blue * THX 1138 * Henry VIII and Six Wives * Kidnapped * Beyond the Grave * Black Windmill * Count of Monte Cristo
Served 1943 two Arctic Russian convoys and operations against Tirpitz. Convoy PQ 17, and Mediterranean as part of the invasion of southern France. After WW2 he gained an MA (Hons) English, 1950.
His first novel was HMS Ulysses (1955), Guns of Navarone (1957) Last Frontier (1959) Fear Is Key (1961) Satan Bug (1962) Ice Station Zebra (1963) He bought 'Jamaica Inn', Bodmin Moor #Cornwall to 'retire'.
Film adaptations: Guns of Navarone (1961) * Satan Bug * Ice Station Zebra * Fear Is Key * Force 10 from Navarone * Bear Island (1979) Author/Screenwriter: Where Eagles Dare (1968) Breakheart Pass (1975)
#OTD 1969 – Boris Karloff, (b. William Pratt), 81, English actor (b. 1887)
Film debut: Lightning Raider (1919) * Unholy Night (1929) Criminal Code * Frankenstein * Scarface (1932) Old Dark House * The Mummy * The Ghoul * Lost Patrol * The Black Cat (1934) * Bride of Frankenstein
#OTD 1969 – Boris Karloff, 81, English actor (b. 1887)
The Raven * Son of Frankenstein * Tower of London * British Intelligence * House of Frankenstein * The Body Snatcher * Lured * Dick Tracy meets Gruesome * The Strange Door * Colonel March of Scotland Yard (TV series 1954-55)
#OTD 1969 – Boris Karloff, 81, English actor (b. 1887)
Frankenstein 1970 (1958) * Corridors of Blood * The Raven * The Terror * Comedy of Terrors * Sorcerers * His final US film was Bogdanovich's Targets, playing an aging horror film star. His final film House of Evil (UK 1968)
#BOTD 1901 – 1960 Clark Gable, 59, (Heart Attack), US actor.
White Man (1924) * Painted Desert (1931 first credit) * Dance, Fools, Dance (1931 lead) * Night Nurse * Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) * Red Dust * No Man of Her Own (1932 only film with Carol Lombard) * Dancing Lady
It Happened One Night * Manhattan Melodrama * Call of the Wild * Mutiny on Bounty * Wife v Secretary * San Francisco * Parnell * Saratoga (1937 Jean Harlow's last film) * Test Pilot * Idiot's Delight * Gone with Wind * Strange Cargo
Boom Town * Comrade X * Honky Tonk * Somewhere I'll Find You (1941) He enlisted in US Army Air Corp after Carole Lombard's tragic death in 1942. Show Business at War (1942) Wings Up (Narrator) * Combat America (1945 Narrator/producer)