Today is Olivia de Havilland’s 100th birthday! Olivia is probably best-known for playing Melanie “Mellie” Hamilton, Ashley Wilkes’ sweet wife-to-be and the eventual sister-in-law of Scarlett O’Hara in the 1939 classic Gone with the Wind. I became a fan of her through that role, Gone with the Wind being one of the first classic films I watched. But Olivia is much more than just Mellie … Continue reading Happy 100th Birthday, Olivia de Havilland!
Born May 29, 1896, Lillian Powell was a Canadian actress and dancer who would go on to train at Denishawn, appear in experimental short films and find success in television, in a career lasting from the 1920s through the end of the 1960s. After adopting her within the first year of her life, Charles and Eliza Powell moved Lillian from her birthplace of British Columbia … Continue reading Lillian Powell: a tribute
Happy (early) birthday to Thelma Ritter, born February 14, 1902 in Brooklyn, New York! Ritter got her acting start in high school plays before training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Prior to her first bit role in Miracle on 34th Street, she worked on the New York stage and on the radio. Her role in that film was uncredited — she simply played a … Continue reading Thelma Ritter: a tribute
Born on this day in 1888, Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens) would grow up to become one of the most prominent women of Hollywood’s golden age. But Frances Marion was no screen star — she was a writer, one of only a few women who were able to find major success in the male-dominated world of 20th century screenwriting. Before becoming a screenwriter, she … Continue reading Frances Marion: a tribute
Ruby Ann Wallace, later known as Ruby Dee, was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 27, 1924. As Ruby described in With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together, her parents were teenagers who hadn’t wanted another child. They already had one son and one daughter. When Ruby was about three years old, her mother left the family “to follow a preacher man.” Her father … Continue reading Ruby Dee: a tribute
Monetta Eloyse Darnell, who would later become known professionally as Linda Darnell, was born on October 16, 1923 in Dallas, Texas. One of six children (two of whom were half-siblings), Monetta’s mother had bigger dreams for her than the other children and was sure she had the potential to make it in show business. By the time she reached her teens, Darnell was working as … Continue reading Linda Darnell: a tribute
On October 6, 1908, an average American couple by the names of Frederick and Elizabeth became parents to a baby girl. They already had two sons. They named their family’s new addition Jane Alice Peters, but she would later become known as Carole Lombard, the queen of screwball comedy. Elizabeth divorced Frederick when her daughter’s age was still in the single digits. She moved her … Continue reading Carole Lombard: a tribute
Ladies of Leisure: a tale of romance between two people who fall at opposite ends of the wealth and status spectrum. The Miracle Woman: an exploration of a woman’s struggle to find faith in humanity and in God after the loss of her father, and after her own foray into corrupt evangelism. Forbidden: the story of a woman who has in illegitimate child with a married … Continue reading Frank Capra and Barbara Stanwyck: Cinematic Dream Team
Born July 6, 1927, Janet Helen Morrison is probably best known by modern audiences as the lady who gets killed in the shower scene of Psycho. But under her stage name of Janet Leigh, the actress racked up over 80 film and television credits. She was also an accomplished stage performer, a wife (married four times), a mother and a best-selling author. Janet was discovered in 1945 by … Continue reading Janet Leigh: a tribute
TMP celebrates a very special birthday today! One of my favorite performers of all time, Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, was born on June 30, 1917. Though she moved around the country quite a bit during her childhood, often traveling with her mother, by the 1930s Horne had made it back to her birth state of New York, where in 1933 she joined the Cotton Club … Continue reading Lena Horne: a tribute
