The Flickr Celebrityautographseries Image Generatr

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. LTD., London, no. 109. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Cameron Mitchell in Hell and High Water (Samuel Fuller, 1954).

Cameron Mitchell (1918-1994) was an American stage and screen actor who appeared in many Horror films, thrillers and Westerns. During the 1960s, Cameron Mitchell appeared in several Italian films, but he is best remembered for the TV series The High Chaparral (1967-1971). As the happy-go-lucky, hard-drinking Uncle Buck Cannon, he stole the show.

Cameron Mitchell was born Cameron McDowell Mitzell in 1918 in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. His parents, Charles and Kathryn Mitzell, were both ministers of the Reformed Lutheran Church, and Cameron was the fourth of their seven children. In 1921, the family moved to Chicora, Pennsylvania, where his father was accepted as pastor of the St. John's Reformed Church, and he grew up in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania. Cameron graduated from Greenwood High School in Millerstown, PA, in 1936. His father wanted him to be a minister, but 'Cam' decided to become an actor instead. In New York City, he attended the Theatre School of Dramatic Arts. In 1939, Mitchell made his Broadway debut in a secondary role in 'Jeremiah'. During this time, Mitchell became a piccolo at NBC Radio City, leading to a secondary role in a production of William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' (1940), with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne's National Theatre Company. He changed his name from Mitzell to Mitchell because Fontanne realised his real name sounded "a little bit too much like the Hun". In 1940, he also appeared in an experimental television broadcast, The Passing of the Third Floor Back. Mitchell appeared again on Broadway in 'The Trojan Women' in 1941. During World War II, he served in the US Army Air Forces as a bombardier. In 1945, Mitchell signed a contract with MGM and made his film debut in What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (Richard Thorpe, 1945) starring Robert Walker. He continued with stage as well as film work. He had another small part in the War film They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945), starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, but soon followed bigger roles. He appeared in the drama Cass Timberlane (George Sidney, 1947) starring Spencer Tracy, and the War film Homecoming (Mervyn LeRoy, 1948) with Clark Gable and Lana Turner. He had his break when Elia Kazan chose him to play Happy Loman, the younger son, in Arthur Miller's stage play 'Death of a Salesman' on Broadway alongside Lee J. Cobb. His performance earned him a 1949 Theatre World Award. Mitchell also played the role in the film version, Death of a Salesman (Laslo Benedek, 1951) starring Fredric March as Willy Loman. It led to a contract with 20th Century-Fox, where he had a prolific career in films such as Les Misérables (Lewis Milestone, 1952). With Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall, he appeared in the hit comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953). Reportedly, he introduced Monroe to Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller. He then appeared with Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward and Richard Widmark in the Western Garden of Evil (Henry Hathaway, 1954), followed by a supporting role in Samuel Fuller's Cold War drama Hell and High Water (1954). He then played Joseph Bonaparte opposite Marlon Brando as Napoleon in Désirée (Henry Koster, 1954). He appeared with Gable and Jane Russell in the Western The Tall Men (Raoul Walsh, 1955) and had a role in the film version of the musical Carousel (Henry King, 1956). Mitchell was loaned back to MGM to star with Doris Day in the comedy musical Love Me or Leave Me (Charles Vidor, 1955), , as the pianist only too willing to pick up the singer Ruth Etting after she has been knocked down for the nth time by her husband. Mitchell starred alongside Joanne Woodward and Sheree North in the drama No Down Payment (Martin Ritt, 1957).

In 1960, Cameron Mitchell went to Italy, where large sums were being paid to fading Hollywood names. He starred as King Harald Hardradain in L'ultimo dei Vikinghi / The Last of the Vikings (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1961), and two follow-ups, Gli invasori / Erik the Conqueror (Mario Bava, 1961) and I Normanni / Attack of the Normans (Giuseppe Vari, 1961). In Rome, he often worked with cult director Mario Bava, such as in the Giallo Sei donne per l'assassino / Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964) with Eva Bartok, in which he portrays the owner of a fashion house plagued by a series of brutal murders, and he played a knife-throwing Viking warrior in I coltelli del vendicatore / Knives of the Avenger (Mario Bava, 1966). He also appeared in Westerns, such as Minnesota Clay (Sergio Corbucci, 1964), one of the first Spaghetti Westerns released after the surprise success of Per un pugno di dollari / A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) with Clint Eastwood. Back in the USA, he starred in the Western Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) with Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, and Harry Dean Stanton. Mitchell is best remembered by the public for his starring role as the tough Uncle Buck Cannon in the popular Western TV series The High Chaparral (1967-1971), opposite Leif Erickson and Henry Darrow, as Manolito Montoya. Mitchell, who did not drink, was a hit as the former Confederate soldier, drunkard cowhand Buck Cannon. Before he was cast by producer David Dortort for the series, he had appeared in an episode of Bonanza (1959) and a short-lived TV series that had also been produced by Dortort. In later years, Mitchell appeared in mean roles as a sheriff outlaw in Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967) starring Paul Newman, an outlaw in Buck and the Preacher (Sidney Poitier, 1972) and a Ku Klux Klan racist in The Klansman (Terence Young, 1974) with Lee Marvin. From 1970, he intermittently filmed The Other Side of the Wind with director Orson Welles, a project not released until 2018. In 1975-1976, he portrayed Jeremiah Worth in the TV series Swiss Family Robinson and had a supporting role opposite former Methodist minister Leo Fong in the Philippine film Enforcer from Death Row (Marshall M. Borden, Efren C. Piñon, 1976). He played the captain of the 'Goliath' in the thriller The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977), but his scenes were deleted. In the 1970s and 1980s, he played in numerous exploitation films, such as The Toolbox Murders (Dennis Donnelly, 1978), the Horror film The Swarm (Irwin Allen, 1978) with Michael Caine, and the Slasher films The Demon (Percival Rubens, 1979) and Silent Scream (Denny Harris 1980) with Barbara Steele and Yvonne De Carlo. The latter became one of the most financially successful independent Horror films of the 1970s. Mitchell even appeared in a hardcore porn film, Dixie Ray: Hollywood Star (Anthony Spinelli, 1982). He played a police lieutenant, although he did not 'perform'. Reportedly, he wasn't told it was a sex film until after his scenes were shot. Towards the end of his career, Mitchell had supporting roles in the anthology Horror films Night Train to Terror (Jay Schlossberg-Cohen, a.o., 1985) and From a Whisper to a Scream (Jeff Burr, 1987) with Vinccent Price, as well as roles as the right-wing general Edwin A. Walker in Prince Jack (Bert Lovitt, 1985) and as Captain Alex Jansen in the South African Science-Fiction film Space Mutiny (David Winters, 1988) with John Philip Law. Mitchell’s fortune took a downturn along with his career, and he twice filed for bankruptcy, in 1965 and in 1974. Mitchell was a heavy smoker. As a result, he died in 1994 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, after battling lung cancer for nearly two years. He reconciled with his first wife, Camille Janclaire, just before his death. Mitchell was survived by six of his seven children, including actors Cameron Mitchell Jr. and Camille Mitchell, and by 5 grandchildren, including Charles Joseph Mitchell and actress Jinjara Mitchell. Cameron Mitchell is interred at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, CA. Due to his numerous appearances in 'Schlock movies', Red Letter Media named him 'the patron saint of Best of the Worst', and he is part of their 'Best of the Worst Hall of Fame'.

Sources: David Shipman (The Independent), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard by Celebrity Publishers LTD, London, in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 334. Photo: Rank. Kenneth More in A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker, 1958).

Kenneth More (1914-1982) was one of the most successful and highest-paid British actors of his generation. He won a BAFTA Award in 1955 for his role in Doctor in the House. More was also nominated for a BAFTA for Genevieve (1954), The Deep Blue Sea (1956) and Reach for the Sky (1957). For The Deep Blue Sea, he received the Volpi Cup at the 1955 Venice Film Festival.

Kenneth Gilbert More was born in 1914 in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. He was the only son of Charles Gilbert More, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, having spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of the Jersey Eastern Railway. When More was 17, his father died, and he applied to join the Royal Air Force but failed the medical test for equilibrium. He then travelled to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper, but was sent back to Britain because he lacked immigration documents. On his return from Canada, a business associate of his father, Vivian Van Damm, agreed to offer him work as a stagehand at the Windmill Theatre, where his job included shifting scenery and helping to get the nude players off stage during its Revudeville variety shows. After a chance moment on stage helping a comic, he realised that he wanted to act and was soon promoted to playing the straight man in the Revudeville comedy routines. He appeared in his first sketch in August 1935. He played there for a year, which led to regular work in repertory, performing in plays such as 'Burke and Hare' and 'Dracula's Daughter'. He continued his theatre work until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. During the war, More received a commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and saw active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. More made his official film and acting debut in Look Up and Laugh (Basil Dean, 1935) starring Gracie Fields. Nevertheless, in the first three film titles on his CV, he was 'only' an extra. His 'real' debut followed in 1946, with an unnamed role in the drama School for Secrets (Peter Ustinov, 1946) starring Ralph Richardson. He began to appear regularly on the big screen. For a small role in Scott of the Antarctic (Charles Frend, 1948) as Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, he was paid £500. He thought this film would launch him more than it did and held off from accepting other roles, which resulted in him "nearly starving". He took minor parts in the Film Noir Man on the Run (Lawrence Huntington, 1949), the drama Now Barabbas (Gordon Parry, 1949), and Stop Press Girl (Michael Barry, 1949) starring Sally Ann Howes.

Kenneth More achieved notable stage success in 'The Way Things Go' (1950) with Ronald Squire, from whom More later claimed he learned his stage technique. He was in demand for minor roles on screen, such as Morning Departure (Roy Ward Baker, 1950) with John Mills, and Chance of a Lifetime (Bernard Miles, 1950). More had a good part as a British agent in the mystery The Clouded Yellow (Ralph Thomas, 1950), starring Jean Simmons. He could also be seen in the thriller The Franchise Affair (Lawrence Huntington, 1951) and the sports comedy The Galloping Major (Henry Cornelius, 1951). More's first Hollywood-financed film was No Highway in the Sky (Henry Koster, 1951), where he played a co-pilot. Thomas cast him in another strong supporting part in Appointment with Venus (Ralph Thomas, 1952). More's name was placed above the title billing for the first time with a low-budget comedy, Brandy for the Parson (John Eldridge, 1952), playing a smuggler. Roland Culver recommended More to audition for a part in a new play by Terence Rattigan, 'The Deep Blue Sea' (1952). He was successful and achieved tremendous critical acclaim in the role of Freddie. During the play's run, he appeared as a worried parent in a thriller, The Yellow Balloon (J. Lee Thompson, 1953). He was in another Hollywood-financed film, Never Let Me Go (Delmer Daves, 1953), playing a colleague of Clark Gable. Kenneth More finally achieved film fame in the comedy Genevieve (Henry Cornelius, 1953). It stars John Gregson, Dinah Sheridan, Kenneth More and Kay Kendall as two couples comedically involved in a veteran automobile rally. In the New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote, "British producer-director, Henry Cornelius, has made a film that may cautiously be recommended as one of the funniest farce comedies in years." Genevieve was the second-most popular film at the British box office in 1953 and turned More into a star. The following year, Doctor in the House (Ralph Thomas, 1954) with Dirk Bogarde and More was even the biggest hit of the year at the British box office and the most successful film in the history of Rank. More received a BAFTA Award as Best Newcomer. He appeared in a TV production of The Deep Blue Sea (1954), which was seen by an audience of 11 million. He signed a five-year contract with Sir Alexander Korda at £10,000 a year and played the role again in a film version, The Deep Blue Sea (Anatole Litvak, 1955) with Vivien Leigh. He gained the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance, but the film was a critical and commercial disappointment. More appeared as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent in such comedies as Raising a Riot (Wendy Toye, 1955), The Admirable Crichton (Lewis Gilbert, 1957), The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (Raoul Walsh, 1958) with Jayne Mansfield and Next to No Time (Henry Cornelius, 1958) with Betsy Drake. He also played more serious roles as a leading man in Reach for the Sky (Lewis Gilbert, 1956), A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker, 1958), North West Frontier (J. Lee Thompson, 1959) with Lauren Bacall, The 39 Steps (Ralph Thomas, 1959) and Sink the Bismarck! (Lewis Gilbert, 1960) with Dana Wynter.

Kenneth More made a comedy, Man In The Moon (Basil Dearden, 1960) with Shirley Anne Field, which flopped at the box office. It was his first real flop since becoming a star. He returned to the stage directing 'The Angry Deep' in Brighton in 1960. Although his career declined in the early 1960s, two of his own favourite films date from this time. The first was the drama The Greengage Summer (Lewis Gilbert, 1961) with Susannah York in her first leading role. More later wrote that Lewis Gilbert insisted he go on a diet before making the film so that he might be more believable as a romantic lead. More did so as he very badly wanted to star in the film. The second film was The Comedy Man (Alvin Rakoff, 1964), but the film was not released for two years. In between, he returned to military roles as one of many stars in The Longest Day (Ken Annakin a.o., 1962) playing Beachmaster Captain Colin Maud. He accepted the lead in the low-budget youth film, Some People (Clive Donner, 1962), because he had no other offers at the time. The film was profitable. Kenneth More enjoyed a revival on television in the much-acclaimed series The Forsyte Saga (David Giles, James Cellan Jones, 1967), an adaptation of John Galsworthy's series of The Forsyte Saga novels. The series follows the fortunes of the upper-middle-class Forsyte family, and stars Eric Porter as Soames, Kenneth More as Young Jolyon and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene. It was shown in the United States on public television and broadcast all over the world, and became the first BBC television series to be sold to the Soviet Union. Another hit was the Father Brown series (1974) based on the stories by G. K. Chesterton. The series featured More as Father Brown, a Roman Catholic priest who solved crime mysteries. In the cinema, he appeared opposite Suzy Kendall in Fräulein Doktor (Alberto Lattuada, 1969). He was one of many names in Oh! What a Lovely War (Richard Attenborough, 1969) and Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969). He took the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooge (Ronald Neame, 1970) starring Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge. His later film roles included The Slipper and the Rose (Bryan Forbes, 1976), Leopard in the Snow (Gerry O'Hara, 1978), and Unidentified Flying Oddball (Russ Mayberry, 1979). Kenneth More was married to his first wife, Beryl Johnstone, from 1939 to 1946. With her, he had a daughter, Susan Jane More (1941). His second marriage (1952-1967) was to Mabel Edith 'Bill' Barkby. They also had a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth More (1954). He then married his third and final wife, the then-26-year-old actress Angela Douglas, in 1968. More and Douglas separated for several years during the 1970s but reunited when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. This made it increasingly difficult for him to work, although his last role was a sizeable supporting part in an American TV adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities (Jim Goddard, 1980) with Chris Sarandon. More and Douglas remained together until his death. In 1982, Kenneth More died in London from the effects of Parkinson's disease. He was 67. His oeuvre included more than 50 (television) films.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 189. Photo: Republic. Sterling Hayden in Timberjack (Joseph Kane, 1955).

American actor Sterling Hayden (1916-1986) specialised in Westerns and Film Noirs throughout the 1950s. He is best known for his role as the deranged General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). Hayden loved boating, and his passion dominated much of his life.

Sterling Hayden was born Sterling Reylea Walter in Upper Montclair, New Jersey in 1916. He was the son of George Walter and Frances Simonson. In 1925, when he was only nine years old, his father died. His stepfather James Hayden adopted him, and his name was changed to Sterling Walter Hayden. In his youth, he lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and Maine, among other places. Hayden was certainly not of wealthy stock, yet he attended Wassookeag School, a preparatory school in Dexter, Maine, until he was seventeen. After that, he fled to the sea. He worked aboard ships, first as a cabin boy on a schooner, later as a fisherman on the waters around Newfoundland and even as a fireman. In 1935, he received his first command. He sailed the world several times and became a ship captain at 22. The young captain stood out greatly for his qualities as a captain and his height (1m96), blond hair and muscular body. Hayden wanted to own his boat and decided to moonlight in the modelling world. prompting Paramount Pictures to call and offer a screen test. Hayden did a test in New York with Jeanne Cagney, James Cagney's sister. In 1940, he signed a seven-year contract with Paramount beginning at $250 a week. The studio began advertising him as 'The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies!' and 'The Beautiful Blond Viking God'. In his first film, Virginia (Edward H. Griffith, 1941), he starred with one of Paramount's best-known actresses, Madeleine Carroll. The two fell in love and married. After a second film with Carroll, Bahama Passage (Edward H. Griffith, 1941), Hayden left Hollywood to work as an undercover agent for William J. Donovan's Office of Strategic Services - the predecessor of the CIA -, where he remained when it changed to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). When the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor during World War II, Hayden joined the Marines under the pseudonym John Hamilton to obscure his Hollywood past. He went to Europe, where he smuggled weapons and supplies through the German line to the Yugoslav resistance and parachuted over fascist Croatia. Hayden befriended Yugoslav communists and received a Silver Star for his achievements and a commendation from Josip Broz Tito. After returning to the US, he continued acting. He was cast as one of several brothers in an aviation film, Blaze of Noon (John Farrow, 1947). The studio suspended him when he turned down a role in The Sainted Sisters. In 1946, he joined the Communist Party for six months. When McCarthyism took hold of America in 1951, Hayden admitted before the House Committee on Un-American Activities that he had ties to Communism. He also named some names. Hayden always regretted his actions, which he saw as a betrayal, and later wrote in his autobiography that he greatly despised himself around that time.

After several unsuccessful roles for Paramount, Hayden went freelance, although he did not enjoy the film world. He invested the money he earned in ship projects. During the 1950s, he starred in several Westerns and Film Noirs. Hayden had a starring role in John Huston's Noir classic The Asphalt Jungle (1950), for which he received excellent reviews. He had a support role in a big studio picture, Prince Valiant (Henry Hathway, 1954), playing Sir Gawain. That year, he acted in Nicholas Ray's Western Johnny Guitar (1954), starring Joan Crawford. It was a box office hit and became a cult favourite. However, his career was marked by mediocre roles, periods of absence when he was sailing, and bad films. There were some exceptions, though, such as Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). He was also offered the role of knife-throwing Britt in The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960), but he was unavailable. Sterling Hayden was reunited with Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964). For his role as General Jack D. Ripper, he was nominated for a BAFTA Award. However, he never lost his passion for sailing. Hayden periodically left the acting world to focus on his passion. In 1969, he bought a residential barge in the Netherlands, which he later moved to Paris and lived in. In 1972, he played the role of the corrupt cop McCluskey in the award-winning gangster film The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), which marked his return to the big screen. He played alcoholic novelist Roger Wade in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), and elderly peasant Leo Dalcò in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976). Hayden was cast as the sailor Quint in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), but Hayden had to decline due to tax problems. With a distinctive 'rapid-fire baritone' voice and a height of 1m96, he had a commanding screen presence in leading and supporting roles. He returned to Hollywood for King of the Gypsies (Frank Pierson, 1978), Winter Kills (William Richert, 1979), The Outsider (Tony Luraschi, 1980), 9 to 5 (Colin Higgins, 1980), the Canadian comedy Gas (Les Rose, 1981), Venom (Piers Haggard, 1981) and TV Mini Series The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982). Sterling Hayden also wrote two books. In 1963, his autobiography, 'Wanderer', was released, in which he wrote about his sea voyages and his regrets about cooperating with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In 1976, the novel 'Voyage' was published. In 1983, he appeared in a documentary on his life, Leuchtturm des Chaos/Lighthouse of Chaos (Manfred Blank, Wolf-Eckart Bühler, 1983). Sterling Hayden has been married to three women and was the father of six children. His first marriage was to British actress Madeleine Carroll. This marriage lasted four years (1942-1946). His second marriage, to Betty Ann de Noon (1947-1953, 1954-1955, 1956-1958), was turbulent: they divorced and remarried twice before breaking up for good in August 1958. What followed was a nasty battle for custody of their four children, Christian, Dana, Gretchen and Matthew. Hayden made headlines in 1959 when he ignored a court ruling on custody and took his four children on his schooner The Wanderer on a trip to Tahiti. His last marriage, to Catherine Devine McConnell (1960-1986), lasted until he died. With her, Hayden had two children, Andrew and David. In 1986, Sterling Hayden died of prostate cancer. He was seventy years old.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 155. Photo: Universal International. Caption: Jeff Chandler, Universal International's star currently in Technicolor Cinemascope Sign of the Pagan.

Ruggedly handsome American actor and singer Jeff Chandler (1918-1961) was best known for his portrayal of legendary Native American Apache chief Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In the 1950s, he was one of Hollywood's most popular film stars and stood out for his imposing stature, his sex appeal, and his early greying hair.

Jeff Chandler was born Ira Grossel to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1918. He was the only child of Anna (née Herman) and Phillip Grossel. He was raised by his mother after his parents separated when he was a child. After attending Erasmus High School, he took acting classes at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York. He then worked for radio for a while before joining a theatre company on Long Island as an actor and stage manager. He founded his own company, the Shady Lane Playhouse, in Illinois in the summer of 1941. The company toured the Midwest with some success until the United States became involved in World War II. He was active as a soldier in the Aleutians for four years, finishing with the rank of lieutenant. After the war, Chandler appeared on air in 'Rogue's Gallery 'with Dick Powell, who was impressed by the actor. Powell put pressure on Columbia to give Chandler his first film role, a one-line uncredited part as a gangster in Johnny O'Clock (Robert Rossen, 1947). Chandler received more attention playing Eve Arden's love interest on the radio in 'Our Miss Brooks', which debuted in July 1948 and became a massive hit. Chandler's performance in 'Our Miss Brooks' brought him to the attention of executives at Universal, who were looking for someone to play an Israeli leader in Sword in the Desert (George Sherman, 1949) starring Dana Andrews. Chandler impressed studio executives so much with his work that shortly into filming, Universal signed him to a seven-year contract. His first film under the arrangement was a supporting role in the Film Noir Abandoned (Joseph M. Newman, 1949). He was best known for his role as Apache chief Cochise in Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves, 1950) with James Stewart and Debra Paget. Broken Arrow turned out to be a considerable hit, earning Chandler an Oscar nomination and establishing him as a star. He was the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for portraying an American Indian. He reprised that successful character twice more in The Battle at Apache Pass (George Sherman, 1952) and in Taza, Son of Cochise (Douglas Sirk, 1954).

During his short career, Jeff Chandler starred several times in Westerns. He not only played an Indian, but he also stood his ground as a cavalry major as shown in Two Flags West (Robert Wise, 1950) starring Joseph Cotten and War Arrow (\George Sherman, 1953) with Maureen O'Hara. Chandler became one of Universal Pictures' more popular male stars of the 1950s. In addition to his acting in film, he was known for his role in the radio program 'Our Miss Brooks', as Phillip Boynton, her fellow teacher and clueless object of affection, and for his musical recordings. Chandler recorded several successful albums for Liberty Records, wrote music, played violin, and owned Chandler Music, a publishing company. His other film credits include the Film Noir Deported (Robert Siodmak, 1950) starring Märta Torén, Female on the Beach (Joseph Pevney, 1955) opposite Joan Crawford, and Away All Boats (Joseph Pevney, 1956) with George Nader. In 1957, he left Universal and signed a contract with United Artists. Having long desired to be an executive, he formed his own company, Earlmar Productions. He was due to star in Operation Petticoat (Blake Edwards, 1959) but became ill and had to pull out. He later formed another production company, August, for which he made The Plunderers (Joseph Pevney, 1960) at Allied Artists. His last film role was that of Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill in Merrill's Marauders (Samuel Fuller, 1962), the last of several World War II films in which he was able to use his military experience. He injured his back while playing baseball with U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers who served as extras in the film. After undergoing surgery for a spinal disc herniation in May 1961, a major artery was damaged and he haemorrhaged. In a seven-and-a-half-hour emergency operation over and above the original surgery, he was given 55 pints of blood. Another surgery followed where he received an additional 20 pints of blood. He died in the hospital in Culver City, California, in 1961. The cause was a blood infection complicated by pneumonia. He was 42 years old. His death was deemed malpractice and resulted in a large lawsuit and settlement for his children. Jeff Chandler was married from 1946 to 1959 to actress Marjorie Hoshelle with whom he had two daughters. In 1957, he had an affair with Esther Williams while they made a film together, and his wife filed for divorce at the end of the year. Chandler rests in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery near Los Angeles.

Sources: William Bjornstad (Find A Grave), Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 167. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Francis Joins the WACS (Arthur Lubin, 1954).

Voluptuous American actress Mamie Van Doren (1931) was a sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s. Van Doren starred in several exploitation films such as Untamed Youth (1957), loaded with rock 'n' roll and juvenile delinquency. Her onscreen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring swimsuits. Mamie and her colleague blonde bombshells Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield were known as 'The Three M's.'

Mamie Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, in 1931. She was the daughter of Warner Carl Olander and Lucille Harriet Bennett. In 1942 the family moved to Los Angeles. In early 1946, Van Doren began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered several beauty contests. She was married for a brief time at seventeen when Van Doren and her first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage was dissolved quickly, upon her discovery of his abusive nature. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles Miss Eight Ball and Miss Palm Springs. Van Doren was discovered by producer Howard Hughes the night she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. The pair dated for five years. Hughes provided her with a bit role in Jet Pilot at RKO Radio Pictures. Her line of dialogue consisted of one word, "Look!". The following year, 1951, she posed for famous pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas, the painter of the glamorous Vargas Girls. His painting of Van Doren was on the July 1951 cover of Esquire magazine. Van Doren did a few more bit parts in RKO films, including His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951) starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Van Doren then began working on the stage. She was a showgirl in New York in Monte Proser's nightclub version of Billion Dollar Baby. Songwriter Jimmy McHugh discovered her for his musicals, then decided she was too good for the chorus line and should have dramatic training. She studied with Ben Bard and Bliss-Hayden. While appearing in the role of Marie in a showcase production of Come Back, Little Sheba, Van Doren was seen by Phil Benjamin, a casting director at Universal International. In 1953, Van Doren signed a contract with Universal Studios. They had big plans for her, hoping she would bring the same kind of success that 20th Century Fox had with Marilyn Monroe. Van Doren, whose signing day coincided with the inauguration of President Eisenhower, was given the first name Mamie for Ike's wife, Mamie Eisenhower. Universal first cast Van Doren in a minor role as a singer in Forbidden (Rudolph Maté, 1953), starring Tony Curtis. Interested in Van Doren's allure, Universal then cast her again opposite Curtis in The All American (Jesse Hibbs, 1953), playing her first major role as Susie Ward, a wayward girl who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (Joseph Pevney, 1954), starring Jeff Chandler and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith. In 1955, she had a supporting role in the musical Ain't Misbehavin' (Edward Buzzell, 1955) and starred in the crime drama Running Wild (Abner Biberman, 1955). Soon thereafter, Van Doren turned down a Broadway role in the play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and was replaced by newcomer Jayne Mansfield. In 1956, Van Doren appeared in the Western Star in the Dust (Charles F. Haas, 1956). Though Van Doren garnered prominent billing alongside John Agar and Richard Boone, she appears rather briefly, as the daughter of a ranch owner. By this time, Van Doren had grown tired of Universal, which was only casting her in non-breakthrough roles. Therefore, Van Doren began accepting bigger roles in better movies from other studios, such as Teacher's Pet (George Seaton, 1958) with Doris Day and Clark Gable. She appeared in some of the first films to feature rock 'n' roll music, such as Untamed Youth (Howard W. Koch, 1957). The film was originally condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, but that only served to enhance the curiosity factor, resulting in it being a big moneymaker for the studio. Van Doren became identified with this rebellious style and made some rock records. She went on to star in several bad girl movies that later became cult films. These include Born Reckless (Howard W. Koch, 1958), High School Confidential (Jack Arnold, 1958), and The Beat Generation (Charles F. Haas, 1959). After Universal Studios chose not to renew her contract in 1959, Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work.

Mamie Van Doren became known for her provocative roles. She was in prison for Girls Town (Charles F. Haas, 1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (Mickey Rooney, Albert Zugsmith, 1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in other films, like Vice Raid (Edward L. Cahn, 1960) audiences were clued in as to the nature of the films from the titles. Many of these productions were low-budget B-movies which sometimes gained a cult following for their high camp value. An example is Sex Kittens Go to College (Albert Zugsmith, 1960), which co-starred Tuesday Weld and Mijanou Bardot - Brigitte's sister. Mamie also appeared in foreign productions, such as the Italian crime comedy Le bellissime gambe di Sabrina/The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959) with Antonio Cifariello, and the Argentine film Una americana en Buenos Aires/The Blonde from Buenos Aires (George Cahan, 1961) with Jean-Pierre Aumont. Van Doren took some time off from her career and came back to the screen in 1964. That year she played in the German Western musical Freddy und das Lied der Prärie/In the Wild West (Sobey Martin, 1964), starring Freddy Quinn and Rik Battaglia. Tommy Noonan convinced Van Doren to appear in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (Tommy Noonan, 1964). Van Doren had turned down Noonan's previous offer to star in Promises! Promises!, in which she would have to do nude scenes. She was replaced by Jayne Mansfield. In 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt, Mamie did a beer-bath scene but is not seen nude. She posed for Playboy to promote the film. Van Doren next appeared in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (Arthur C. Pierce, 1966) which co-starred Jayne Mansfield. It was the only time two of 'The Three M's' appeared together in a film. A sequel was titled Hillbillys in a Haunted House, but Van Doren turned this role down and was replaced by Joi Lansing. She appeared in You've Got to Be Smart (Ellis Kadison, 1967), and the Sci-Fi film, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by the young Peter Bogdanovich (Derek Thomas). In this film astronauts land on Venus and encounter dangerous creatures and meet sexy Venusian women who like to sunbathe in hip-hugging skin-tight pants and seashell brassieres. In 1968, she was offered the role of a murder victim in the independent horror film The Ice House as a replacement for Mansfield, who died the previous year. She turned the offer down, however, and was replaced by Sabrina. During the Vietnam War, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam for three months in 1968, and again in 1970. Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and did live theatre. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theater, Chicago, and appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theater. In the 1970s, Van Doren performed a nightclub act in Las Vegas as well. Van Doren had a supporting role in the Western The Arizona Kid (Luciano B. Carlos, 1970). Since then, Van Doren has appeared only in cameo appearances in low-budgeted films. To this date, Van Doren's last film appearance was a cameo role in the comedy Slackers (Dewey Nicks, 2002). Van Doren's guest appearances on television include Jukebox Jury, What's My Line, The Bob Cummings Show, The Jack Benny Show, Fantasy Island, Burke's Law, Vega$, and L.A. Law. She released her autobiography, Playing the Field, in 1987 which brought much new attention and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication, she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting. Van Doren has been married five times. Her first marriage was to sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman whom she married and divorced in 1950. Her second marriage was to bandleader, composer and actor Ray Anthony whom she married in 1955. They had one son, Perry Ray Anthony (1956). The couple later divorced in 1961. When Van Doren's early 1960s, highly publicized, on-again off-again engagement to baseball player Bo Belinsky ended in 1964, she married baseball player Lee Meyers in 1966. They were divorced in 1967. Her fourth marriage was to businessman Ross McClintock in 1972. They met while working on President Nixon's reelection campaign; the marriage was annulled in 1973. Since 1979 she has been married to Thomas Dixon, an actor and dentist.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 103. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Rita Gam in Night People (Nunnally Johnson, 1954).

Rita Gam (1927-2016) was an American film and television actress and documentary filmmaker. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Rita Gam was born in 1927. Her acting career began on Broadway and in television, after which she moved on to films. She first appeared in the film noir The Thief (Russell Rouse. 1952), which starred Ray Milland. She was nominated for a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer. Another interesting film noir was Night People (Nunnally Johnson, 1954) with Gregory Peck. She was a bridesmaid at her good friend Grace Kelly's wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In Italy, she starred opposite Alberto Sordi in the comedy Costa Azzurra (Vittorio Sala, 1959) and she was the leading lady of the Peplum Annibale/Hannibal (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1959) featuring Victor Mature.

Rita Gam had another notable role as Herodias in King of Kings (Nicholas Ray, 1961) about the life of Christ. She shared the Silver Bear for Best Actress award with Viveca Lindfors at the 1962 Berlin Film Festival, for their performances in No Exit (Tad Danielewski, Orson Welles (uncredited), 1962), based on the play by Jean-Paul Sartre. Later she appeared in small parts in films like Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971), before taking up documentary filmmaking. She was married to Thomas Henry Guinzburg, Jr. and director Sidney Lumet. Rita Gam died in 2016 of respiratory failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was married to director Sidney Lumet and to Thomas Henry Guinzburg, Jr., the first managing editor of The Paris Review and president of Viking Press. Survivors include her daughter, film producer Kate Guinzburg, her son, novelist Michael Guinzburg; and granddaughters Michelle, Olivia and Louisa. Rita Gam was 88.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD., London, no. 246. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Peter Finch in Simon and Laura (Muriel Box, 1955).

Peter Finch (1916-1977) was a British film and theatre actor who became a film star appreciated by critics and audiences alike from the 1950s onwards. He received a posthumous Oscar in 1977 for his portrayal of the mad newscaster Howard Beale in Sidney Lumet's satire Network (1976).

Peter Finch was born as Frederick Peter Ingle-Finch in 1916 in London, Great Britain. Finch was the illegitimate child of Alicia Gladys Fisher and a British military officer. His mother was married at the time to chemist and mountaineer George Ingle Finch, who officially assumed paternity. After his parents' early divorce, Peter Finch grew up mostly with relatives in France, India and Australia, his parents' home country. After leaving school, he took numerous low-paid odd jobs in Sydney. He eventually decided to become an actor. He later commented, "If I was broke anyway, I might as well become an actor." He first found employment in sketches within vaudeville shows. By the mid-1930s, Finch began to play more serious roles in the theatre and to work in radio. In 1938 he made his feature film screen debut in Dad and Dave Come to Town by Ken Hall. Other roles in Australian cinema followed, though without initially attracting international attention. He did, however, become one of the most popular actors in radio dramas in Australia, thanks to his pleasant voice. From 1941 to 1945 he served with the Australian Imperial Force in World War II, partly in troop entertainment, and was latterly in the rank of sergeant. During one of his stage appearances shortly after the end of the war, Finch was brought to London by Laurence Olivier to the Old Vic Theatre, where Olivier was artistic director at the time. He later had an affair with Olivier's wife, the actress Vivien Leigh. In London, Finch was soon able to make a name for himself in stage roles, for example in 1949 with a performance in Daphne Laureola alongside Edith Evans, which received a standing ovation.

However, as Peter Finch had severe stage fright, from the 1950s onward he concentrated primarily on his film career, which had been sluggish until then. His first British production was Eureka Stockade in 1949, although here he was still in a supporting role. A year later he made a minor appearance in the Hollywood drama The Miniver Story by H.C. Potter, the sequel to the war drama Mrs. Miniver. In 1952, his portrayal of the Sheriff of Nottingham opposite Richard Todd in Ken Annakin's The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men received some attention. This was followed by a series of leading roles that propelled him to stardom in British cinema in the mid-1950s. Finch's roles included Elizabeth Taylor's husband in Elephant Walk (William Dieterle, 1954), Flambeau in Father Brown (Robert Hamer, 1954), German Captain Hans Langsdorff in The Battle of the River Plate (Powell & Pressburger, 1957) and an atheist medical doctor alongside Audrey Hepburn's nun in The Nun's Story (Fred Zinnemann, 1959). Especially the latter film, a huge financial and critical success, boosted Finch's international reputation. His portrayal of an Australian soldier in the film A Town Like Alice by Jack Lee earned him his first British Film Academy Award (BAFTA) in 1956, and he later received the award three more times.

In the course of the 1960s, Peter Finch succeeded in positioning himself increasingly as a sought-after character actor in international cinema. At the 1961 Berlinale, he was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his portrayal of a politician in crisis, both personally and professionally, in No Love for Johnnie by Ralph Thomas. He also received much praise for his portrayal of Oscar Wilde in the film biography The Man with the Green Carnation/ The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) by Ken Hughes. Internationally, he played British officer Harris in Robert Aldrich's survival drama The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) and Italian general Umberto Nobile in Krasnaya palatka/ The Red Tent (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969). He also appeared in military roles in other films. In 1960, Finch tried his hand behind the camera for once when he made the semi-documentary style short film The Day about the life of a boy on the island of Ibiza. The Day was well received at film festivals, but it was to remain his only directorial effort.

In Britain at this time, Peter Finch was one of a group of already established actors who had no inhibitions about working with the innovative directors of the British New Wave. He often played intelligent and reserved characters here, for example a writer in a love affair with a younger woman in Desmond Davis' Girl with Green Eyes (1964) and the lonely farmer William Boldwood opposite Julie Christie in John Schlesinger's romantic drama Far from the Madding Crowd (based on Thomas Hardy's novel On the Green Edge of the World). In 1971 Finch worked with Schlesinger again for the film drama Sunday, Bloody Sunday, for which he received his first Oscar nomination, in the category of Best Actor in a Leading Role. Shortly after filming began, he spontaneously replaced Ian Bannen, who had actually been engaged and was uncomfortable with the risky role - as a gay Jewish doctor who shares his younger lover (Murray Head) with a woman (Glenda Jackson), Finch became probably the first film star to be seen in a gay film kiss. His subsequent film projects were less successful, however, as were his two films with Liv Ullmann: the spectacularly flopped musical Lost Horizon (Charles Jarrott, 1973) and the historical film The Abdication (Anthony Harvey, 1974). In the 1973 historical war film Bequest to the Nation by James Cellan Jones, he portrayed British General Horatio Nelson.

Shortly before his death, Peter Finch hit the screens with a television film Raid on Entebbe (Irvin Kershner, 1976), in which he played Yitzchak Rabin, and was on a promotional tour for his latest feature film, the media satire Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976). On 14 January 1977, Finch died of a heart attack suffered in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angles at the age of 60. A few months later, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Howard Beale, a television host gone mad, in Network; the award was accepted by his widow Eletha Finch. Finch and Heath Ledger are the only actors to date to receive the Oscar posthumously. The scenes in which Finch's character preaches his wisdom to the television audience are among the most famous of the classic Network; the film quote "I'm mad as hell and I can't take it anymore" spoken by him became equally famous.
Peter Finch was married three times and had four children: from 1943 until his divorce in 1959 to ballet dancer Tamara Tchinarova Finch (1919-2017), one child; from 1959 to 1965 to actress Yolande Turner (1935-2003), two children; and from 1973 until his death to Eletha Barrett Finch, one child. Businessman and film producer Charles Finch (b. 1962) is his son. Biographies and obituaries described Finch the man as a womaniser and relatively heavy drinker, but also as kind and educated. Peter Finch is buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Sources: Wikipedia (German, Dutch and English), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 268. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Film. Tony Wright in Tiger in the Smoke (Roy Ward Baker, 1956).

British actor Tony Wright (1925-1986) was a popular leading man during the 1950s and nicknamed 'Britain's Mr. Beefcake'. He was a Rank Organisation contract player for some years and played the role of London-based private detective Slim Callaghan in three French films.

Paul Anthony 'Tony' Wright was born in London, in 1925. He was the son of French-born British actor and screenwriter Hugh E. Wright. Tony got his start working in South African repertory theatre. In 1952, he made his screen debut in a BBC TV play, This Happy Breed (1952), based on a play by Noël Coward. In the cinema, he played a sexy, dangerous type in The Flanagan Boy (Reginald Le Borg, 1953) lured by Hollywood 'Bad Blonde' Barbara Payton to do her dirty work. The film made the hunky blond actor a beefcake pin-up of the 1950s. In France, he had success in the title role of the crime film À toi de jouer... Callaghan!!!/Amazing Mr. Callaghan (Willy Rozier, 1955), based on a novel by Peter Cheney. It was soon followed by Plus de whisky pour Callaghan!/No more whisky for Callaghan! (Willy Rozier, 1955) with Magali Vendeuil.

Tony Wright was contracted by the Rank Organisation and appeared in the Franke Howerd comedy Jumping for Joy (
John Paddy Carstairs, 1956) and a series of mediocre crime films. He married actress Janet Munro in 1957, though the couple was divorced in 1959. He returned as Callaghan in the French film Callaghan remet ça/Callaghan does it again (Willy Rozier, 1961) opposite Geneviève Kervine. In 1962, he married Shirley Clark, the daughter of writer Lesley Storm. During the 1960s he worked mostly for television and guest-starred in such popular series as The Avengers (1968) and The Saint. (1962-1968). Later he only played small roles in such B films as Clinic Exclusive (Doon Chaffey, 1971) and The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis, 1973) starring Christopher Lee. His final screen appearance was a bit role in the TV series Don't Wait Up (1983). Tony Wright passed away in 1986 in Wandsworth, London, in the aftermath of falling. He was 60. Wright was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 151. Photo: M.G.M. Michael Wilding in Torch Song (Charles Walters, 1953).

British actor Michael Wilding (1912-1979) worked steadily in British films for nearly three decades. Though never a star of the first rank, he had leading roles in numerous films, including several musicals in which he co-starred with Anna Neagle. Wilding moved to Hollywood and was featured in two Hitchcock films, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950).

Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, in 1912. After leaving school, Michael wanted to be a portrait and commercial artist. He left home at age 17 and trained for the career by traveling around nightclubs and cafes in Brussels, Antwerp, and Paris, earning a living by sketching portraits. In 1933, he approached a London film studio for a job as a set designer in the art department. Instead, they invited him to come to work as an extra due to his dashing good looks. At age 21, he debuted as an extra in Bitter Sweet (Herbert Wilcox, 1933) starring Anna Neagle. He was sent to Austria to play opposite Mabel Poulton in Pastorale, which didn't get released. Horrified at his performance he decided to go into rep theatre to learn his job properly and was accepted by Watford Repertory Theatre. In 1934, he made his stage debut in 'The Ringer'. A year later, he made his West End debut in 'Chase the Ace' (1935), and then he returned to films. He had bigger film parts in the sports drama There Ain't No Justice (Pen Tennyson, 1939), Convoy (Pen Tennyson, 1940), and Tilly of Bloomsbury (Leslie S. Hiscot, 1940). He had a good role in Sailors Three (Walter Forde, 1940), and Sailors Don't Care (Oswald Mitchell, 1940). Wilding worked steadily in British pictures for nearly three decades. Though never a star of the first rank, he had leading roles in numerous films, including a part in the classic In Which We Serve (Noël Coward, David Lean, 1942), the story of a British Naval ship, H.M.S. Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II.

Michael Wilding finally became a film name with Dear Octopus (Harold French, 1943), starring Margaret Lockwood. He followed it with English Without Tears (Harold French, 1944). After the war, he starred opposite Paulette Goddard in An Ideal Husband (Alexander Korda, 1947) based on the play by Oscar Wilde. In the following years, Wilding co-starred with Anna Neagle in such musicals as Spring in Park Lane (Herbert Wilcox, 1948), and Maytime in Mayfair (Herbert Wilcox, 1948). Wilding moved to Hollywood and was featured in two of Hitchcock's lesser efforts, Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949) with Ingrid Bergman and Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, 1950) starring Marlene Dietrich. Wilding's last film role was a two-line cameo in Lady Caroline Lamb (Robert Bolt, 1972), in which he co-starred with his fourth wife, Margaret Leighton. Michael Wilding passed away in 1979 in London, England. An epileptic seizure triggered Wilding's fall down a long flight of stairs. The head injuries received in that fall proved fatal. He was 66. He was married to Kay Young (1937-1951), Elizabeth Taylor (1952-1957), Susan Neill (1958-1962), and Margaret Leighton (1964 -1976 - her death). The first three marriages ended in a divorce and he had two sons with Elizabeth Taylor, Christopher Edward Wilding, and Michael Wilding Jr. Allegedly, he had a homosexual affair with playwright Noël Coward in the mid-1930s. In 1964, Wilding filed a $3 million libel suit against gossip columnist Hedda Hopper for implying that he was gay in her book, 'The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth'. The suit was settled for $100,000.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers Ltd., London, no. 226. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Anthony Steel in Passage Home (Roy Ward Baker, 1955).

Tall and dashing Anthony Steel (1920-2001) was one of Britain’s most popular matinee-idols during the early 1950s. He also was the stiff-upper-lipped star of many distinguished British war films and made more than 60 film appearances between 1948 and 1980. In the 1980s his once brilliant career collapsed into poverty and destitution.

Anthony Maitland Steel was born in London in 1920. He was the son of Edward Steel, an Indian army officer, and he was educated in Ireland, then at Cambridge University. After serving as an officer in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, he decided to take up acting and appeared in small parts on the stage. When his girlfriend, a niece of J. Arthur Rank, introduced him to the film mogul at a party, Rank recognised that Steel could be an asset to British films and signed him to a contract. His first film was Saraband For Dead Lovers (Basil Dearden, 1948). The Rank Organisation hoped that he could beat the more muscular of Hollywood's leading men at their own game. They carefully prepared Steel for stardom by giving him small roles in over a dozen films in three years, including The Blue Lamp (Basil Dearden, 1949), Trotti True (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1949), The Chiltern Hundreds (John Paddy Carstairs, 1949) and Marry Me (Terence Fisher, 1949). His first major opportunity came when he was cast as one of the officers who devise a novel method of escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp in The Wooden Horse (Jack Lee, 1950), based on Eric Williams's autobiographical book. The tall, handsome, and gentlemanly Steel was hailed as a top ‘beefcake’ star: the British answer to Rock Hudson. The film was a great success. In 1951 he starred in the Royal Command Performance film Where No Vultures Fly (Harry Watt, 1951) and was presented to the Queen. He played an upright game warden who campaigns for a national safari park after he witnesses the slaughter of wildlife in East Africa. The film was the top British moneymaker of 1952. Steel established his matinee idol status in films like the comedy Laughter In Paradise (Mario Zampi, 1951), Another Man's Poison (Irving Rapper, 1952) opposite Bette Davis, and the war films Malta Story (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1952) with Alec Guinness, and Albert R.N. (Lewis Gilbert, 1953), in which he was once again a resourceful officer who makes a lifelike dummy to cover the escape of prisoners from a camp in Germany. The former Guards officer proved to be very well suited to his many military roles. While filming The Master of Ballantrae (William Keighley, 1953), his costar Errol Flynn ran his epee through Steel's hand. West of Zanzibar (Harry Watt), 1954, a sequel to Where No Vultures Fly, gave him the hit song Jambo, and British cinemagoers voted him second to Jack Hawkins as the most popular British film star. The following years he appeared in another Second World War story, The Sea Shall Not Have Them (Lewis Gilbert, 1954), co-starring Dirk Bogarde and Michael Redgrave, in the merchant-navy drama Passage Home (Roy Ward Baker, 1955), The Black Tent (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1956) and Checkpoint (Ralph Thomas, 1956). In the great 1950s peak of the British film industry, he was the highest-paid Rank star – together with Dirk Bogarde.

In 1956, at the height of his fame, Anthony Steel suddenly broke his contract with Rank to set out with the voluptuous Swedish star Anita Ekberg to break into Hollywood pictures. Steel had met the glamorous Ekberg after making Storm Over the Nile (Zoltan Korda, Terence Young, 1956). In this remake of The Four Feathers, he had the central role of Harry Faversham, branded a coward by his fellow officers after he resigns his commission in 1895 rather than go to Sudan. After their initial encounter, at a film premiere, Steel called Ekberg the most beautiful woman he had ever met, and they married in Florence in 1956. When Steel announced that he was moving to Hollywood at the request of his wife, the Rank Organisation (in particular its head of production John Davis) considered it an act of ingratitude after the grooming and promotion they had given him, and there is little doubt that the decision damaged his career considerably. The results of his Hollywood adventure were mixed. He appeared in a little-seen thriller with a post-Civil-War Western setting, Valerie (Gerd Oswald, 1957), co-starring Sterling Hayden and Ekberg. His career died in comparison with Ekberg's, and his marriage to her ended in bitter rows. Steel was reserved and not at all stagey, while the extrovert Ekberg liked displaying herself. ‘Mr. Ekberg’ became prone to what was called ‘hellraising’; he hit photographers who pursued his wife and was twice arrested for drunk driving. He never completely recovered emotionally from the collapse of his disastrous marriage. He also never recovered professionally, for when he returned to Britain at the end of the 1950s, the affronted British film industry showed little interest. However, he played in the superior drama Harry Black (Hugo Fregonese, 1958), though his role was secondary to that of Stewart Granger. He then took the leading role of a sterile husband in A Question of Adultery (Don Chaffey, 1958), a sensationalist treatment of artificial insemination which anticipated the sort of exploitation films in which Steel ultimately found himself. His last prestigious leading role was in Michael Powell's unsuccessful attempt to recapture the flavour of The Red Shoes with a bland blend of romance and ballet, Luna de miel/Honeymoon (Michael Powell, 1959).

In 1960 Anthony Steel took up residence in Rome and made La vendetta dei barbari/Revenge of the Barbarians (Giuseppe Vari, 1960). This was the first of several European films, including the comedy Vacanze alla baia d'argento/Holiday at the Silver Coast (Filippo Walter Ratti, 1961), the adventure La tigre dei sette mari/Tiger of the Seven Seas (Luigi Capuano, 1962), the Eurowestern Winnetou - 2. Teil/Last of the Renegades (Harald Reinl, 1965), the anthology film Le Fate/Sex Quartet (Antonio Pietrangeli, 1966), and the thriller Hell Is Empty (John Ainsworth, Bernard Knowles, 1967) with Martine Carol. He had small roles in the war epics Lo sbarco di Anzio/Anzio (Duilio Coletti, Edward Dmytryk. 1967) starring Robert Mitchum, I diavoli della guerra/War Devils (Bitto Albertini, 1969) starring Guy Madison, and Massacre in Rome/Rappresaglia (George P. Cosmatos, 1973) starring Richard Burton. He also appeared in several erotic features during the 1970s, such as Häschen in der Grube/Run Rabbit Run (Roger Fritz, 1969), in which he played a music conductor who falls in love with his mistress's teenage daughter; Histoire d'O/Story of O (Just Jaeckin, 1975), the screen version of Pauline Reage's classic; Hardcore (James Kenelm Clarke, 1977), a heavily fictionalised 'autobiography' of 70s sex star Fiona Richmond; La notte dell'alta marea/Twilight of Love (Luigi Scattini, 1977) with Pam Grier, and the film version of Jackie Collins's book The World is Full of Married Men (Robert Young, 1979) with Carroll Baker. During the 1980s, he had mainly TV assignments, polished guest appearances in such popular series as Tales Of The Unexpected (1980), Jemima Shaw Investigates (1983), Bergerac (1983), and Robin Of Sherwood (1985). He also played in the BBC's epic three-hour science-fantasy production Artemis 81 (Alastair Reid, 1981), which featured Sting as an alien. His last film was the horror anthology The Monster Club (Roy Ward Baker, 1980) with Vincent Price. He also made stage tours in the 1980s. He looked much older but still distinguished. In the following decade, his life became a downbeat story. Work was scarce. First, he lived in a seedy Earl's Court hotel, then he moved to sheltered accommodation in a tiny council flat in Northolt, West London. Almost totally cut off from his past, he never told friends where he was. In the middle 1990s, his long-time manager Stephen Daly, got him admitted to Denville Hall, the London home for retired theatrical people, and also got him a role as Dr. Steven Hart, the guest lead in the TV series The Brokers Man (1999). It would be his last part. In 2001, Anthony Steel died from heart failure in Northwood, Middlesex, England, aged 80. He was married three times: to Juanita Forbes (1949-1954), to Anita Ekberg (1956-1959), and to Johanna Melcher, a former Miss Austria, (1964-?). He had two daughters and a son. In 1952, he had an affair with actress Patricia Roc while they were co-starring in Something Money Can't Buy (1952), resulting in a son, Michael. At the time Roc was married to André Thomas but they were unable to have children so Thomas agreed to raise Michael as his own.

Sources: Dennis Barker (The Guardian), Tom Vallance (The Independent), Patrick King (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by L.D. Ltd., London, no. 165. Photo: Universal-International.

Last Sunday, 23 August 2020, beautiful blonde American actress and former model Lori Nelson (1933) passed away. She started acting at the age of 2 and was Miss Encino at age 17. Nelson played the lead in several Universal films of the 1950s, and is best known for her roles in B-films like the 3D fantasyRevenge of the Creature (1955) and Day the World Ended (1955). After several years at Universal, she freelanced in films and TV. She was 87.

Dixie Kay Nelson was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1933. Nelson is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.A. Nelson. She began her career at the age of 2 appearing in local theatre productions. She was voted Santa Fe's most talented and beautiful child, and toured the state billed as 'Santa Fe's Shirley Temple'. When Nelson was 4 years old, her family moved to Encino, California. At the age of 5, she won the title of 'Little Miss America'. During her childhood, she toured veteran's hospitals entertaining patients, acted in productions of little theatres, and modeled for photographers. At age 7, Nelson contracted rheumatic fever which left her bedridden for four years. After she recovered, she returned to pageants and won the title of Miss Encino at age 17. After graduating from Canoga Park High School, Nelson worked as a model. In 1950, agent Milo O. Frank Jr. saw her performing in a little theatre production. He took the 17 years-old to Universal to meet with casting people. Nelson trained with the studio dramatic coach, enacted a scene for the front office, and ultimately was offered a seven-year contract. Universal considered the names Dixie Walker and Dixie Nelson before settling on the screen name Lori Nelson. She made her film debut in the Western Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952), starring James Stewart. Later that year, she appeared as Rosie Kettle in the comedy film Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (Charles Barton, 1952), the fourth installment of Universal-International's Ma and Pa Kettle franchise starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. This was followed by a supporting role in Francis Goes to West Point (Arthur Lubin, 1952) starring Donald O'Connor and Francis the talking mule (with the voice Chill Wills). The following year she appeared in the romantic drama All I Desire (Douglas Sirk, 1953), starring Barbara Stanwyck. In 1955, Nelson guest-starred in two episodes of It's a Great Life, and reprised her role as Rosie Kettle in Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (Lee Sholem, 1955). That same year, she co-starred in the Creature From the Black Lagoon sequel Revenge of the Creature (Jack Arnold, 1955) with John Agar. It marked Clint Eastwood's film debut. Her supporting roles in films also included the low-budget sci-fi story Day the World Ended (1955), directed by Roger Corman, and a big-budget Paramount Pictures Western spoof, Pardners (Norman Taurog, 1956), starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in one of their final films together. Nelson had a featured role in the Film Noir I Died a Thousand Times (Stuart Heisler, 1955), a remake of High Sierra (). She also starred in Destry (George Marshall, 1954), an almost scene-for-scene remake of Destry Rides Again (1939) with Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart and also directed by George Marshall.

Lori Nelson was one of the leads in Mohawk (Kurt Neumann, 1956), an 18th-century adventure story starring Scott Brady and Rita Gam. Nelson had top billing in the street-racing film Hot Rod Girl (Leslie H. Martinson, 1956), also starring Chuck Connors. The following year she co-starred opposite Mamie Van Doren as two sisters who are sentenced to work on a 'punishment' farm in Untamed Youth (Howard W. Koch, 1957). On television, Nelson co-starred with Van Johnson and Claude Rains in the television film The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Bretaigne Windust, 1957), which aired on NBC as a Thanksgiving Day television special. She was cast in one of the three lead roles in the syndicated sitcom How to Marry a Millionaire (1957-1958), based on the 1953 film of the same name starring Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall. Nelson starred as Greta Hanson, a brainy psychology major who works as an usher on a television game show. The series also starred Barbara Eden and Merry Anders. Nelson opted to leave the series after the first season and her character was written out. After leaving the series, Nelson continued with guest roles on Wagon Train (1959), Tales of Wells Fargo (1959), The Tab Hunter Show (1960-1961), and Laramie (1961). She took a ten-year break from acting in 1961 and returned with a guest role in the sitcom Family Affair (1971). Nelson has since worked sporadically. She made only three on-screen appearances in the 1990s including a role in the direct-to-video release Mom, Can I Keep Her? (1998). Her last role to date was in the ultra-low-budget Science-Fiction and horror-comedy fan-film The Naked Monster (Ted Newsom, 2005), in which she reprised her Revenge of the Creature role. In the early 1950s, Nelson dated actor Tab Hunter. The relationship was fodder for gossip columnists at the time and there was speculation that the two would marry. In his 2005 autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, Hunter admitted he considered marrying Nelson but was still struggling to come to terms with his true sexuality. While Hunter was dating Nelson, he was also secretly involved with figure skater Ronald Robertson. The two eventually stopped dating but remained friendly. Hunter later cast Nelson in two guest-starring roles on his NBC sitcom The Tab Hunter Show. In 1960, Nelson married composer Johnny Mann in Los Angeles. The couple had two daughters, Lori Susan and Jennifer, before divorcing in 1973. In 1983, Nelson married a police officer, Joseph J. Reiner. Lori Nelson passed away on Sunday 23 August 2020, aged 87. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several years and died at her home in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles

Sources: Tom Weaver (IMDb), The Hollywood Reporter, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, London, no. 188. Photo: Republic. Publicity still for Timberjack (Joseph Kane, 1955).

After achieving modest fame as an ice skater in her native Czechoslovakia, Vera Hruba (1923-2003) was brought to America by Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates, who hoped to turn her into the next Sonja Henie. After featuring her in several Ice Capades movies, he added "Ralston" to her name and tried to pass her off as a leading lady.

Věra Helena Hrubá was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in 1923. Her father was a wealthy jeweler and her brother later became a film producer in the United States under the name of Rudy Ralston. As a figure skater, she represented Czechoslovakia in competition under her birth name Věra Hrubá. She competed at the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 15th. Later that season, she competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where she placed 17th. Hrubá competed at the 1937 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 7th. She emigrated to the United States in the early 1940s and became a naturalized citizen in 1946.

Vera Hruba moved to Hollywood with her mother and signed a contract in 1943 with Republic Pictures. During her career she was known as Vera Hrubá Ralston and later as Vera Ralston. She normally played an immigrant girl, because of her limited English skills. Among the 26 films Ralston starred in were Storm Over Lisbon (1944) with Erich von Stroheim, Dakota (1945) with John Wayne, I, Jane Doe (1948) with Ruth Hussey and John Carrol, and The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), also with John Wayne. In 1952 Ralston married Republic studio head Herbert Yates. Yates was nearly 40 years her senior, and had left his wife and children to be with Ralston. Yates used his position to obtain roles for Ralston, such as in A Perilous Journey (1953) with David Brian, and Fair Wind to Java (1953) with Fred MacMurray. At one point was sued by studio shareholders for using company assets to promote his wife. She retired from films in 1958. Reportedly only 2 of her 20 films made money. Yates died in 1966, leaving his $8 million estate to Ralston. She suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter, then remarried and lived quietly in southern California. Vera Ralston died in 2003, in Santa Barbara, California, after a long battle with cancer. The authors of the book The Golden Turkey Awards nominated her for the dubious honor of "The Worst Actress of All Time," along with Candice Bergen and Mamie Van Doren. They all lost to Raquel Welch.

Sources: Ray Hamel (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD., London, no. 279. Photo: Universal-International. Publicity still for The Night Runner (Abner Biberman, 1957).

American actor Ray Danton (1931-1992) was a handsome and smooth natured leading man who often played oily individuals in Hollywood film and TV series. He also worked in Europe where he directed some film too.

Ray Danton was born Raymond Caplan in New York in 1931. Raymond was the son of Myrtle (née Menkin) and Jack Caplan. Danton entered show business as a child radio actor on NBC radio's Let's Pretend show in 1943. Danton did many stage roles whilst attending the University of Pittsburgh. He was dramatically trained at Carnegie Tech and in 1950 went to London to appear on stage in the Tyrone Power production Mister Roberts. Danton's acting career was put on hold when he served in the United States Army infantry during the Korean War from 1951–1954. His on-screen debut was as a moody Native American opposite Victor Mature in Chief Crazy Horse (George Sherman, 1955), a biography of the famous Lakota Sioux war chief which was told entirely from the Indian viewpoint. He was contracted to Universal Pictures. He played a supporting part as a smooth but dangerous villain in I'll Cry Tomorrow (Daniel Mann, 1955) starring Susan Hayward. For this part he won the Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer. At the set of his third film for Universal The Looters (Abner Biberman, 1955) he met his future wife Julie Adams. Danton guest-starred in many 1950s TV shows including Playhouse 90 (1956), Wagon Train (1957), and 77 Sunset Strip (1958), often as a gunslinger or a slippery criminal. Danton found plenty of demand for his talents and appeared in several minor films including the Film Noir The Night Runner (Abner Biberman,1957), The war film Tarawa Beachhead (Paul Wendkos, 1958), in which he starred with his wife, Julie Adams, and then as a serial rapist in The Beat Generation (Charles F. Haas, 1959) opposite Steve Cochran and Mamie van Doren. However, his most well remembered role was as the vicious prohibition gangster Jack Diamond in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) also starring a young Warren Oates and directed by Budd Boetticher. Wikipedia: "Danton played his role using dynamic body language with his smooth persona fitting the character like a glove." Danton reprised his Legs Diamond role only a year later in the unrelated, and not as enjoyable Portrait of a Mobster (Joseph Pevney, 1961).

Cornering the market on playing shady characters, Ray Danton then portrayed troubled actor George Raft in The George Raft Story (Joseph M. Newman, 1961 with Jayne Mansfield), but he was back on the side of good in 1962 playing an Allied officer at the invasion of Normandy in The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962). Europe then beckoned for the virile Danton, and like many other young US actors in the early 1960s, he made several films in Italy and Spain between 1964 and 1969 with a mixture of success. These films included Sandokan alla riscossa/Sandokan Fights Back (Luigi Capuano, 1964) with Guy Madison, and the Europsy film Corrida pour un espion/Code Name: Jaguar (Maurice Labro, 1965) with Pascale Petit. Danton returned to the USA in the early 1970s, but also ran his own production company in Barcelona, Spain. In Europe he directed the AIP production of Deathmaster (Ray Danton, 1972) starring Robert Quarry who was riding high on the success of the Count Yorga vampire films. He also directed La tumba de la isla maldita/Crypt of the Living Deads (Julio Salvador, Ray Danton, 1973) with Mark Damon. Later he became involved in television and directed episodes of some of the most popular TV series of the 1970s and 1980s, including Quincy M.E. (1976), The Incredible Hulk (1978), Magnum, P.I. (1980), Dynasty (1981), and Cagney & Lacey (1981). His final directorial work was an episode for the TV series Mike Hammer (1989). Ray Danton passed away in 1992 from kidney failure. He was only 61. He was divorced of his wife, Julie Adams, in 1978 (IMDb) or 1981 (Wikipedia). They had two sons, assistant director Steve Danton (1956) and editor Mitchell Danton (1962). His companion at the time of his death was actress Jeannie Austin, who was cast in a couple of TV episodes Ray directed, including Magnum, P.I. (1980).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series by Celebrity Publishers LTD., London, no. 266. Photo: Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Robbery Under Arms (Jack Lee, 1957).

Scottish actress Maureen Swanson (1932) was a pretty, elegant, brunette leading lady in British films of the 1950s. After her marriage to the count of Dudley she retired.

For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards Already over 4 million views! Or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.

British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, no. 227, by Celebrity Publishers Ltd., London. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Publicity still for Simba (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1955).

Distinguished British actor and novelist Sir Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) was Britain's number one box office draw of the 1950s, gaining the title of ‘The Matinee Idol of the Odeon’. In the 1960s, he abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts in films by Joseph Losey, John Schlesinger, Luchino Visconti, Liliane Cavani and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Bogarde made a total of 63 films between 1939 and 1991.

For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.