11,712 stories by "Trav S.D."
In a universe that's got a Louise Lasser, a Louise Dresser, a Louise Carter, a Louise Carver, a Louise Fletcher, and a Luise Rainer, you perhaps can't be expected to keep track of a Louise L…
There were at three generations of performing Pryors. The patriarch Samuel Pryor was a bandmaster in St. Joe, Missouri. His son, Arthur Pyror (1869-1942) was born above a theatre in that tow…
I first became aware of Grace Leboy Kahn (1890-1983) from Charlotte Chandler's wonderful book Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends. Grace Kahn was actually Groucho's in-law: her d…
Sig Sautelle (George Satterly, 1848-1928) was a minor figure to be sure, of regional importance at best, but we offer this brief elucidation for those who chance to encounter the name on eph…
Brooklyn born Grace Bradley (1913-2010) was a child prodigy whose piano skills got her a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music when she was only 12 years old. There, she also learned to…
Hey Ho! Now that we in that yearly window when the heat is not oppressive yet we are still pre-sickness-spike season, I'd like to offer the return of my Times Square vaudeville walking tour!…
September 20, 1872 was the natal day of actor, director and producer Sidney Olcott, a major mover and shaker of the silent era, especially the earlier days of the industry. Olcott was essent…
Remembering at the 11th hour that it's Talk Like a Pirate Day, I was just about to re-share my post on the Five Greatest Pirate Actors Ever, when I suddenly realized that it's incomplete " w…
We are amused to learn that the author of the Lone Wolf series of mystery novels (oft adapted for the screen) was named Joseph Louis Vance (1879-1933) because of course there was a similar s…
September 18, 1992 was the premiere date of the CBS TV show Picket Fences. Believe it or not, I wasn't particularly aware of this program until I interviewed the delightful Fyvush Finkel sho…
Phyllis Kirk (1927-2006) entered my consciousness because she's the leading lady in one of my favorite movies House of Wax (1953), and I wondered what else she had done, although (as happens…
Back when I began doing biographical posts on this blog over a decade ago, on days when there were multiple subjects who shared a birthday, I'd fold them into a single post a la this one. Af…
Character actor Henry Silva passed away on September 14, just one day shy of his 96th birthday. Upon seeing the name, my immediate reaction was to confuse him with two other character actors…
Happy 70th birthday to Mickey Rourke, perhaps the unlikeliest star I'll ever cop to going ga-ga over, to the extent of even emulating him for two minutes when I was at the appropriate age to…
As I type this on September 16, 2022, stage and screen star Janis Paige (Donna Mae Tjaden) turns 100 years old. The photo above captures her at the mid-point, not just to demonstrate that sh…
I may well have never done a post on this topic, but a tweet from Penelope Ann Miller conveyed the news that her father, actor Mark Miller (1924-2022) just passed away on September 9, and I …
I obviously have a thing for tall Balkan beauties (I married one) so of course I was touched to learn that the world lost another one yesterday, Greek actress Irene Pappas (b. 1926). Pappas …
Word about the passing of artist/photographer/film-maker William Klein (1926-2022) has trickled out slower than that of his colleague and (adopted) countryman Godard. He passed away three da…
Stage and screen actress/comedienne Kay Medford (Margaret Kathleen Regan, 1919-1980) is best known for playing Fanny Brice's mother in the original Broadway production of Funny Girl (1964) a…
An actor may be judged by the roles he has exceled at and in this regard Nicol Williamson (1936-2011) very early ascended to the status of legend. He was Hamlet in Tony Richardson's critical…
We have just learned that Jean-Luc Godard has passed away. The method was assisted suicide and why not? It was, to bastardize the title of one of his movies, "His Life to Live". As it happen…
Edwina Booth (1904-1991) was indeed a movie star " technically " though I'll be very impressed if you've seen her in anything, for her time in the sun was brief. And, as we shall see, it was…
It was 150 years ago today that the Folies Trévise (built 1869), changed its name to the now immortal Folies Bergère. Both handles refer to nearby streets; "folies" of course to the wacky,…
Like Alice Lake, Maurice Chevalier, Ben Blue, H.L. Mencken, Billy Gilbert, Dickie Moore, Cynthia Myers, Nora Lane, Walter B. Gibson, Shep Fields, and Sir Ian Holm, stage and screen actre…
David Angell (1946-2001) and his wife Lynn were among the first victims on September 11. The pair had been vacationing in Cape Cod, and were returning home to Los Angeles via American Airlin…
