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Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of Hollywood's elite. Yvonne's mother wanted her to be in the entertainment field and enrolled her in a local dance school and also saw that she studied dramatics. Yvonne was not shy in the least. She was somewhat akin toColleen Moore who, like herself, entertained the neighborhood with impromptu productions. In 1937, when Yvonne was 15, her mother took her to Hollywood to try for fame and fortune, but nothing came of it and they returned to Canada. They came back to Hollywood in 1940, where Yvonne would dance in chorus lines at night while she checked in at the studios by day in search of film work. After appearing in unbilled parts in three short films, she finally got a part in a feature.

Although the film Harvard, Here I Come! (1941) was quite lame, Yvonne glowed in her brief appearance as a bathing beauty. The rest of 1942 and 1943 saw her in more uncredited roles in films that did not quite set Hollywood on fire. In The Deerslayer (1943),she played Wah-Tah. The role did not amount to much, but it was much better than the ones she had been handed previously. The next year was about the same as the previous two years. She played small parts as either secretaries, someone's girlfriend, native girls or office clerks. Most aspiring young actresses would have given up and gone home in defeat, but not Yvonne. She trudged on. The next year, started out the same, with mostly bit parts, but later that year, she landed the title role in Salome, Where She Danced (1945) for Universal Pictures. While critics were less than thrilled with the film, it was at long last her big break, and the film was a success for Universal. Now she was rolling.

Her next film was the western comedy Frontier Gal (1945)as Lorena Dumont. After a year off the screen in 1946, she returned in 1947 as Cara de Talavera in Song of Scheherazade (1947), and many agreed that the only thing worth watching in the film was Yvonne. Her next film was the highly regarded Burt Lancasterprison film Brute Force (1947).Time after time, Yvonne continued to pick up leading roles, in such pictures as Slave Girl (1947), Black Bart (1948), Casbah (1948)and River Lady (1948).She had a meaty role inCriss Cross (1949),a gangster movie, as the ex-wife of a hoodlum. At the start of the 1950s, Yvonne enjoyed continued success in lead roles. Her talents were again showcased in movies such as The Desert Hawk (1950), Silver City (1951)and Scarlet Angel (1952).Her last film in 1952 was Hurricane Smith (1952),a picture most fans and critics agree is best forgotten.

In 1956, she appeared in the film that would immortalize her best, The Ten Commandments (1956). She played Sephora, the wife of Moses (Charlton Heston). The film was, unquestionably, a super smash, and is still shown on television today. Her performance served as a springboard to another fine role, this time as Amantha Starr in Band of Angels (1957).In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Yvonne appeared on such television series as Bonanza (1959)and The Virginian (1962).With film roles drying up, she took the role of Lily Munster in the smash seriesThe Munsters (1964). However, she still was not completely through with the big screen. Appearances in such films as McLintock! (1963), The Power (1968), The Seven Minutes (1971)and La casa de las sombras (1976) kept her before the eyes of the movie-going public. Yvonne De Carlo died at age 84 of natural causes on January 8, 2007 in Woodland Hills, California.

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, Den goda viljan (1992)is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Söndagsbarn (1992)depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Enskilda samtal (1996) is the trilogy closed. Here, as in 'Den Goda Viljan'Pernilla August play his mother. Note that all three movies are not always full true biographical stories. He began his career early with a puppet theatre which he, his sister and their friends played with. But he was the manager. Strictly professional he begun writing in 1941. He had written a play called 'Kaspers död' (A.K.A. 'Kaspers Death') which was produced the same year. It became his entrance into the movie business as Stina Bergman (not a close relative), from the company S.F. (Swedish Filmindustry), had seen the play and thought that there must be some dramatic talent in young Ingmar. His first job was to save other more famous writers' poor scripts. Under one of that script-saving works he remembered that he had written a novel about his last year as a student. He took the novel, did the save-poor-script job first, then wrote a screenplay on his own novel. When he went back to S.F., he delivered two scripts rather than one. The script was Hets (1944)and was the fist Bergman screenplay that was put into film (by Alf Sjöberg). It was also in that movie Bergman did his first professional film-director job. Because Alf Sjöberg was busy, Bergman got the order to shoot the last sequence of the film. Ingmar Bergman is the father ofDaniel Bergman,director, and Mats Bergman,actor at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theater. Ingmar Bergman was also C.E.O. of the same theatre between 1963-1966, where he hired almost every professional actor in Sweden. In 1976 he had a famous tax problem. Bergman had trusted other people to advise him on his finances, but it turned out to be very bad advice. Bergman had to leave the country immediately, and so he went to Germany. A few years later he returned to Sweden and made his last theatrical film Fanny och Alexander (1982).In later life he retired from movie directing, but still wrote scripts for film and T.V. and directed plays at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre for many years. He died peacefully in his sleep on July 30, 2007.

Anna Nicole Smith was born on 28 November 1967 in Houston, Texas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known forNaked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994),Be Cool (2005)andIllegal Aliens (2007).She was married toJ. Howard Marshall IIand Billy Smith. She died on 8 February 2007 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.

Born Deborah Jane Trimmer in Glasgow, Scotland in 1921, she was the daughter of a soldier who had been gassed in World War I. A shy, insecure child, she found an outlet for expressing her feelings in acting. Her aunt, a radio star, got her some stage work when she was a teenager, and she came to the attention of British film producerGabriel Pascal,who cast her in his film version ofGeorge Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" (Major Barbara (1941)) andLove on the Dole (1941).She quickly became a star of the British cinema, playing such diverse roles as the three women inThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)and the nun inBlack Narcissus (1947).

In 1947, she "crossed the pond" to Hollywood and came to MGM, where she found success in films likeThe Hucksters (1947),Edward, My Son (1949)andQuo Vadis (1951).After a while, however, she tired of playing prim-and-proper English ladies, so she made the most of the role of the adulteress who romps on the beach withBurt LancasterinFrom Here to Eternity (1953).The film was a success, and Kerr received her second Oscar nomination. She also achieved success on the Broadway stage in "Tea and Sympathy", reprising her role in the 1956 film version of the same name. (Tea and Sympathy (1956)). That same year she played one of her best-remembered screen roles, "Mrs. Anna" inThe King and I (1956).More success followed inHeaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957),An Affair to Remember (1957),Separate Tables (1958),The Sundowners (1960),The Innocents (1961)andThe Night of the Iguana (1964).

In 1968, she quit movies, appalled by the explicit sex and violence of the day. After some stage and TV work in the 1970s and 1980s and swan song performances inThe Assam Garden (1985)andHold the Dream (1986),she retired from acting altogether. Kerr holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for Best Actress without a win (six), but that was made up for in 1994, when she was given an Honorary Oscar for her screen achievements.

Everyone knows (or should know) Lois Maxwell as the one and only "Miss Moneypenny," but there's much more to her acting career than that. She started out against her parents' will, and without their knowledge, in a Canadian children's radio program, credited as "Robin Wells." Before the age of 15 she left for England with the Canadian army's Entertainment Corps and managed (after her age had been discovered) to get herself enrolled in The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she met and became friends with Roger Moore.Her movie career started with aMichael Powelland Emeric Pressburgerproduction, A Matter of Life and Death (1946). After having won The Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe Award in 1947, she went to Hollywood and made six films before she decided to try her luck in Italy. She had to leave Italy to go to England when her husband became ill, and since then she has had roles in a number of movies besides the first 14 Bond movies. In 1989 she retired.

Ashleigh Aston Moore was born as Ashley MacMillan (first stage name Ashley Rogers) on September 30, 1981. Her parents were Maryanna Aston Moore, an interior designer, and Dennis MacMillan, who wasn't around for much of her life. She grew up in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Her first acting gig involved wearing a chicken suit for a White Spot restaurant commercial. From there she went on to film the Odyssey, other various commercials, TV and movies. Most notably, Ashleigh played the role of Chrissy in "Now and Then" with well known actors such as Demi Moore, Thora Birch, and Rosie O'Donnell. Her mother tutored her and helped her to pursue the dreams she'd had since she was four. Ashleigh's largest role was inNow and Then (1995),for which she had to pack on 20 pounds. This was a challenge for the 12-13 year old and caused life long self image issues. She had done a few more jobs since then, but after 1997, she decided to stop acting and remain in Vancouver, where many of her family members were located. In December 2007, Ashleigh passed away in British Columbia at the age of 26. It is rumored that it was an drug overdose, but it was actually from pneumonia and bronchitis.

Jane Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield on January 5, 1917, in St. Joseph, Missouri (she was also known later as Sarah Jane Fulks). When she was only eight years old, and after her parents filed for divorce, she lost her father prematurely. After graduating high school she attempted, with the help of her mother, to break into films, but to no avail. In 1935, after attending the University of Missouri, she began a career as a radio singer, which led to her first name change to Jane Durrell. In 1936 she signed a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures and that led to another name change, the more familiar one of Jane Wyman. Under that name she appeared in "A" and "B" pictures at Warners, including two with her future husband, Ronald Reagan: Brother Rat (1938)and its sequel, Brother Rat and a Baby (1940). In the early 1940s she moved into comedies and melodramas and gained attention for her role asRay Milland's long-suffering girlfriend in The Lost Weekend (1945).The following year she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Ma Baxter inThe Yearling (1946), and won the coveted prize in 1949 as deaf-mute rape victim Belinda MacDonald in Johnny Belinda (1948).She followed that with a number of appearances in more prestigious films, such asAlfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), Frank Capra's Here Comes the Groom (1951), Michael Curtiz's The Story of Will Rogers (1952) and the first movie version of The Glass Menagerie (1950). She starred oppositeBing Crosbyin the musicalJust for You (1952).She was Oscar-nominated for her performances in The Blue Veil (1951)and Magnificent Obsession (1954). She also starred in the immensely popular So Big (1953), Lucy Gallant (1955), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Miracle in the Rain (1956). In addition to her extensive film career, she hosted TV's Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre (1955) and starred in most of the episodes of the show, which ran for three seasons. She came back to the big screen in Holiday for Lovers (1959), Pollyanna (1960)and her final film, How to Commit Marriage (1969). Although off the big screen, she became a presence on the small screen and starred in two made-for-TV movies, including The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel (1979). In early 1981, in the 49th year of her career, she won the role of conniving matriarch Angela Channing Erikson Stavros Agretti in the movie "The Vintage Years", which was the unaired pilot for the prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest (1981),later in the year. For nine seasons she played that character in a way that virtually no other actress could have done, and became the moral center of the show. The show was a ratings winner from its debut in 1981, and made stars out of her fellow cast members Robert Foxworth, Lorenzo Lamas, Abby Daltonand Susan Sullivan.At the end of the first season the story line had her being informed that her evil son, played byDavid Selby,had inherited 50% of a California newspaper company, and the conflicts inherent in that situation led to even bigger ratings over the next five years. Wyman was nominated six times for a Soap Opera Digest Award, and in 1984 she won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series Drama. By the show's eighth season, however, she was emotionally drained and the strain of constantly working to keep up the quality of a hit show took its toll on her. In addition, there was friction on the set among cast members. All of these events culminated in her departure from the show after the first two episodes of the ninth season (her character was hospitalized and slipped into a coma) for health reasons. After a period of recuperation, she believed that she had recovered enough to guest-star in the last three episodes of the season (her doctor disagreed, but she did it anyway). She then guest-starred as Jane Seymour's mother on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993) and three years later appeared in Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1995). In the late 1990s she purchased a home in Rancho Mirage, California, where she lived in retirement. Her daughter, Maureen Reagan(who died in August 2001), was a writer who also involved herself in political issues and organized a powerful foundation. Also, she placed her 3200-sq.-ft. Rancho Mirage condominium on the market. Jane Wyman died at the age of 90, at her Palm Springs, California home, on September 10, 2007, having long suffered from arthritis and diabetes. It was reported that Wyman died in her sleep of natural causes at the Rancho Mirage Country Club.

Dabbs Greer was a very familiar face in films and especially on TV. He was a sort of "everyman" in his roles and played merchants, preachers, businessmen, and other "pillars of the community" types as well as assorted villains. With his plain looking face, wavy hair and mellow, distinctive voice he was a solid supporting actor.

He was born on April 2, 1917, in Fairview, Missouri, to Randall Alexander Greer and Bernice Irene Dabbs. Reared in Anderson, Missouri, he was the only child of a pharmacist father and a speech therapist mother. His first acting experience was on stage in a children's theatre production when he was eight years old. He attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, where he earned a BA and headed the drama department and Little Theatre in Mountain Grove, Missouri, from 1940-43. He then moved on to the famed Pasadena Playhouse in California as actor, instructor and administrator from 1943-50. He made his film debut inReign of Terror (1949)(aka "The Black Book" ) in an uncredited bit part and went on to appear in many parts during the next 50 years. He is probably best remembered for his role as Rev. Alden onLittle House on the Prairie (1974)but he was also a regular on the TV seriesGunsmoke (1955)as a merchant, Mr. Jonas; Hank (1965)as Coach Ossie Weiss andPicket Fences (1992)as Rev. Henry Novotny. He also appeared in made-for-TV movies and guest-starred on such series as Adventures of Superman (1952);The Rifleman (1958);Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958);Trackdown (1957);Perry Mason (1957);Bonanza (1959);The Fugitive (1963)and The Brady Bunch (1969).He died in 2007, aged 90. He never married, had no children, and left no immediate relatives.

Marcheline Bertrand was born on 9 May 1950 in Blue Island, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and producer, known forLookin' to Get Out (1982),The Man Who Loved Women (1983)andIronside (1967).She was married to Tom Bessamra andJon Voight.She died on 27 January 2007 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Veteran comedic actor Tom Poston, he with the bugged-out eyes that commonly accentuated a vague look of bewilderment, was born in Columbus, Ohio, on October 17, 1921. By age nine, the young boy was appearing with an acrobatic troupe.

Poston later attended Bethany College in West Virginia when World War II broke out and he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. He won medals for his courage under fire, and rose to the rank of captain. While he never returned to Bethany College, he would later receive an honorary doctorate from the institution. Following his military service, Poston went to New York and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA), training with acting guruSanford Meisner,among others. Making his Broadway debut in 1947 inJosé Ferrer's production of "Cyrano de Bergerac", Poston had the makings of a serious dramatic actor, appearing in such classics as "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" and "King Lear".

Although he also appeared seriously in TV drama in the early stages, comedy would become his forte. Hosting the amusing daily TV show "Entertainment" led to his biggest break onThe Steve Allen Show (1956).He,Louis Nye,Don Knotts,and other members of Allen's stock company became famous for their hilarious characters in Allen's famed sketch sequences. Poston himself would be best remembered as the "Man on the Street" interviewee who could never remember his own name. Winning an Emmy during those four seasons (1956-60), Poston went on to host another program, this time a game show, entitledSplit Personality (1959).

He developed an affinity for parlor games and appeared as a panelist on other quiz shows as well, notablyTo Tell the Truth (1956).Given a chance to star in his own comedy films by the early 1960s, Poston went completely unnoticed in such blah vehicles asZotz! (1962)andThe Old Dark House (1963),which failed to capitalize on his delightfully bungling, eccentric humor, although he did turn in a very funny supporting performance as a perpetually soused playboy in theDick Van DykecomedyCold Turkey (1971).

After his movie career dried up, television again became the object of his affection, usually in service to other stars. Alongside such top comedians asBob Newhart(Newhart (1982)) andRobin Williams(Mork & Mindy (1978)), Poston's absent-minded "second banana" foils found their engaging niche. The comedic actor also continued with light comedy theater vehicles such as "Forty Carats", "Come Blow Your Horn", "Plaza Suite", and "Mary, Mary", and even managed a few musicals ( "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "Fiddler on the Roof" ).

Poston had a pre-fame first marriage that ended in divorce. His second wife was film actressJean Sullivan.Their daughter,Francesca Poston,also became an actress. He had two other children by third wife Kay, who was 22 years his junior: son Jason and daughter Hudson. They divorced in 1975, but remarried in 1980 and remained together until her death at age 54 in 1998 from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). He and Kay appeared on many telethons to discuss the crippling disease. Three years later, Poston found happiness again when he marriedSuzanne Pleshette(they originally met while appearing in the 1959 Broadway comedy "Golden Fleecing", then worked again together on the oldThe Bob Newhart Show (1972)). He continued to provide glum, baggy-eyed comedy relief on TV as an octogenarian up until the end. Sadly, while wife Suzanne was battling cancer, Poston passed away unexpectedly of respiratory failure at his Los Angeles home on April 30, 2007, after a brief illness. Pleshette died on January 19, 2008.

The stalwart actor may not have nabbed top comic superstardom in his heyday, but he certainly enjoyed a long, durable career doing what he did best -- acting goofy and giving audiences a reason to smile.

A native Californian of Swedish descent, Sigrid Valdis (the professional stage name of Patricia Annette Olson) was raised in the Westwood and Brentwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and attended exclusive private schools, including Marymount High School. Upon graduation, she moved to Europe, then to New York City to continue the modeling career she had begun as a teenager. While working as a designer's showroom and runway model, she met and married a businessman in the fashion industry.

After the birth of her first child, Melissa, she began studying atStella Adler's Theatre School while working on her first feature film. Her natural talent and on-screen demeanor were impressive, and she found herself back in California in 1964 in pursuit of a promising acting career. Over the next 18 months, she would accumulate an impressive list of credits and on-camera time: Her first film,Two Tickets to Paris (1962)starringJoey Deeof "Peppermint Twist" fame, was followed by big screen roles inMarriage on the Rocks (1965)(alongsideFrank SinatraandDean Martin),Our Man Flint (1966)(starringJames CoburnandLee J. Cobb), andThe Venetian Affair (1966)(withRobert Vaughn).

The exposure of appearing in films brought her a plethora of work in television and opportunities to work with TV legends such as Phil Silvers,Steve Allen,Red SkeltonandSid Caesar.She shared the small screen with the likes ofAllan Sherman,Dennis Hopper,Henry Silva,Robert ConradandRoss Martin.Her numerous credits includeKraft Mystery Theater (1961),Arrest and Trial (1963),andThe Wild Wild West (1965).

She also performed on stage, most notably during the summer of 1968 when, withBob CraneandEdward H. Feldman,she starred in a touring production of the comedy "Cactus Flower". In addition to the exposure and the opportunity to work with Hollywood's biggest names, she was becoming recognized for her ability to perform effectively in various types of roles in multiple genres and settings. She succeeded in movies and television, comedy and drama, commercials, sitcoms and skits, and was equally successful in lead and supporting roles. She was widowed in 1967, just a short time after she had begun to gain exposure on a weekly network television show.

Valdis caught the eye ofHogan's Heroes (1965)producerEdward H. Feldmanin 1965, leading to her guest appearance as Gretchen in Episode 10. When the second season began, Feldman brought her under contract as a regular cast member, playing the role of Hilda, Col. Klink's secretary. On October 16, 1970, Sigrid and Crane were married on the set of the show. At that time, theirs was the first reported "actual" marriage to be performed on a sound stage. A year later they had a son, Robert Scott Crane. Sigrid retired from acting following Scott's birth so that she could devote herself to her husband and family.

Although the Cranes were separated during part of 1977, they reconciled in 1978. However, Sigrid met with tragedy again a few months later when Crane was murdered. Amid this turmoil and fear, she moved from the Los Angeles area to protect her family from the constant media scrutiny invited by the case.

Charles Nelson Reilly was born to Charles Joseph Reilly and Signe Elvera Nelson. His father was Irish-American and Catholic, his mother was Swedish-American and Lutheran. As a child he amused himself with improvised puppet theater performances.

He had a traumatic experience in 1944, when present for the Hartford circus fire in Hartford, Connecticut. A fire during a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus killed 167 people and injured 700 people. While Reilly was one of the survivors, he was left with a life-long fear of fires. He never attended public performances of theater and circus again, as an audience member, for fear of another fire.

Reilly wanted to enter show business as a youth, and in particular to become an opera singer. He took lessons at the University of Hartford Hartt School, but eventually realized that his voice skills were inadequate. He turned to theater next, and debuted in film with a bit role in "A Face in the Crowd" (1957). During the late 1950s, Reilly appeared regularly in comic roles in theatrical performances off-Broadway. In 1960, Reilly first gained critical attention, for a small but noteworthy part in Broadway musical "Bye Bye Birdie". In 1961, Reilly joined the cast of the musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". He won his first Tony Award in 1962 for that performance. He kept appearing in Broadway shows for the rest of the decade.

As a notable actor, Reilly started making television appearances in the 1960s. He started as a guest in panel shows and as a player in television advertisements. He eventually gained a key role in the television series "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir", where he appeared from 1968 to 1970. In the 1970s, Reilly was a regular in game shows and children's series, such as "Match Game" and "Uncle Croc's Block".

In 1976, Reilly started teaching acting to others, while shifting his own career from acting to directing. He directed Broadway shows regularly and was nominated for a Tony Award for directing in 1997. He also directed a number television episodes. In the 1990s, he had guest roles in television series such as "X-Files" and "Millennium".

In the 2000s, Reilly was primarily known for the autobiographical play "Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly", and for its film adaptation. While touring the United States, he developed respiratory problems which led to his retirement. His illness got worse, and he died due to pneumonia in 2007.

He was a master class in cerebral eloquence and audience command...and although his dominant playing card in the realm of acting was quite serious and stately, nobody cut a more delightfully dry edge in sitcoms than this gentleman, whose calm yet blistering put-downs often eluded his lesser victims.

Acting titan Roscoe Lee Browne was born to a Baptist minister and his wife on May 2, 1922, in Woodbury, New Jersey. He attended Lincoln University, an historically black university in Pennsylvania until 1942, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he served in Italy with the Negro 92nd Infantry Division and organized the Division's track and field team. He graduated from Lincoln University in 1946, and studied French through Middlebury College's summer language program. He received his master's degree from Columbia University, then subsequently returned to Lincoln and taught French and comparative literature, seemingly destined to settle in completely until he heard a different calling.

Roscoe relished his first taste of adulation and admiration as a track star, competing internationally and winning the world championship in the 800-yard dash in 1951. He parlayed that attention into a job as a sales representative for a wine and liquor importer. In 1956, he abruptly decided to become an actor. And he did. With no training but a shrewd, innate sense of self, he boldly auditioned for, and won, the role of the Soothsayer in "Julius Caesar" the very next day at the newly-formed New York Shakespeare Festival. He never looked back and went on to perform with the company in productions of "The Taming of the Shrew", "Titus Andronicus", "Othello", "King Lear" (as the Fool), and "Troilus and Cressida".

Blessed with rich, mellifluous tones and an imposing, cultured air, Roscoe became a rare African-American fixture on the traditionally white classical stage. In 1961 he appeared notably withJames Earl Jonesin the original off-Broadway cast ofJean Genet's landmark play "The Blacks". Awards soon came his way -- the first in the form of an Obie only a few years later for his portrayal of a rebellious slave in "The Old Glory". Additionally, he received the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Award for both "The Dream on Monkey Mountain" (1970) and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (1989). Roscoe found less successful ventures on 1960s Broadway, taking his first curtain call in "A Cool World" in 1960, which folded the next day. He graced a number of other short runs including "General Seegar" (1962), "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" (1962), "The Ballad of the Sade Cafe" (1964), "Danton's Death" (1965), and "A Hand Is on the Gate: An Evening of Negro Poetry and Folk Music" (1966), which he also wrote and directed. He did not return to Broadway until 1983 with the role of the singing Rev. J.D. Montgomery inTommy Tune's smash musical "My One and Only" in which his number "Kicking the Clouds Away" proved to be one of many highlights. Roscoe returned only once more to Broadway, earning acclaim and a Tony nomination for his supporting performance in August Wilson's "Two Trains Running" (1992).

Although he made an isolated debut withThe Connection (1961),he wouldn't appear regularly in films until the end of the decade with prominent parts in theElizabeth Taylor/Richard Burtonfilm,The Comedians (1967), Jules Dassin's Uptight (1968),Hitchcock's Topaz (1969)and, his most notable, The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970). Thereafter, he complimented a host of features, both comedic and dramatic, includingSuper Fly (1972)(and its sequel), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Logan's Run (1976), Legal Eagles (1986), The Mambo Kings (1992)and Dear God (1996)

Elsewhere, Roscoe's disdainful demeanor courted applause on all the top 70s sitcoms including "All in the Family", "Maude," "Sanford and Son", "Good Times" and "Barney Miller" (Emmy-nominated), and he played the splendidly sardonic role of Saunders, the Tate household butler, after replacingRobert Guillaume's popular "Benson" character onSoap (1977).In 1986 he won an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on The Cosby Show (1984).His trademark baritone lent authority and distinction to a number of documentaries, live-action fare, and animated films, as well as the spoken-word arena, with such symphony orchestras as the Boston Pops and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to his credit. A preeminent recitalist, he was known for committing hundreds of poems to memory. For many years he and actorAnthony Zerbetoured the U.S. with their presentation of "Behind the Broken Words", an evening of poetry and dramatic readings.

At the time of his death of cancer on April 11, 2007, the never-married octogenarian was still omnipresent, more heard than seen perhaps. Among his last works was his narrations of a Garfield film feature and the most recent movie spoofEpic Movie (2007).

Born into a prominent Mormon family in Utah, Laraine Day's acting career began after her parents moved to Long Beach, California, where she joined the Long Beach Players. She appeared in her first film in 1937 in a bit part, then did leads in severalGeorge O'Brienwesterns. Signing a contract with MGM, she achieved popularity playing the part of Nurse Lamont in that studio's "Dr. Kildare" series. An attractive, engaging performer, she had leads in several medium-budget films for various studios, but never achieved major stardom. She was married for 13 years to baseball managerLeo Durocher,and took such an active interest in his career and the sport of baseball in general that she became known as "The First Lady of Baseball".

Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the difficulty of precisely describing their category is itself the very quintessence of Antonioni's films. Among the most-cited contributions of Antonioni's cinema are their striking descriptions of that unique strain of post-boom ennui everywhere apparent in the transformed life and leisure habits of the Italian middle and upper classes. Detecting profound technological, political and psychological shifts at work in post-WWII Italy, Antonioni set out to explore the ambiguities of a suddenly alienated and dislocated Italy, not simply through his oblique style of narrative and characters, nor through any overt political messaging, but instead by tearing asunder the traditional boundaries of cinematic narrative in order to explore an ever shifting internal landscape expressed through architecture, urban space and the sculptural, shaping presence of objects, shapes and emotions invented by camera movement and depth of focus.

Antonioni deftly manipulates the quieter, indirect edges of cinematic structure, often so discretely that his existential puzzles are felt before they can be intellectualized. The negative space is as prominent as the positive, silence as loud as noise, absence as palpable as presence, and passivity as driving a force as direct action. Transgressing unspoken cinematic laws, Antonioni frequently focuses on female protagonists while refusing to sentimentalize or morally judge his characters and placing them on equal footing with the other elements within his total dynamic system, like sounds or set pieces. And he violates spoken rules with unconventional cutting techniques, fractured spatial and temporal continuity, and a camera that insistently lingers in melancholy pauses, long after the actors depart, as if drifting just behind an equally distracted, dissipating narrative. Leaving questions unanswered and plot points irresolute, dispensing with exposition, suspense, sentimentality and other cinematic security blankets, Antonioni releases the viewer into a gorgeous, densely layered fog to contemplate and wrestle with his characters' imprecise quandaries and endless possibilities. Culminating in tour de force endings that often reframe the narrative in a daring, parting act of deconstruction, Antonioni's rigorously formal, yet open compositions allow his great, unwieldy questions to spill over into the world outside the cinema and outside of time.

Born into a middle-class family in the northern Italian town of Ferrara, Antonioni studied economics at the University of Bologna where he also co-founded the university's theatrical troupe. While dedicating himself to painting, writing film reviews, working in financial positions and in different capacities on film productions, Antonioni suffered a few false starts before expressing his unique directorial vision and voice in his first realized short film, Gente del Po, a moving portrait of fisherman in the misty Po Valley where he was raised. Uncomfortable with the neo-realist thrust of Italian cinema, Antonioni directed a series of eccentric and oblique documentary shorts that, in retrospect, reveal his desire to investigate the psyche's mysterious interiors. In his first fictional feature, Story of a Love Affair, Antonioni immediately subtly challenged traditional plot and audience expectation in ways that anticipate the formal and emotional expressionist dynamic that would fully flower within the groundbreakingL'avventura (1960).

Reversing its raucous 1960 premiere to an infuriated Cannes audience, L'Avventura was rapturously lauded by fellow artists and filmmakers and awarded a special Jury Prize "for its remarkable contribution toward the search for a new cinematic language." It also presented the controlled ambivalence ofMonica Vitti,who would become his partner, muse and psychological constant throughout his famed trilogy of L'Avventura,La notte (1961)andL'eclisse (1962)in addition to the exquisiteIl deserto rosso (1964),a film that marked another significant shift toward expressive color, male leads and working with soft focus and faster cuts. After the phenomenal commercial success of the MGM-producedBlow-Up (1966),Antonioni was devastated by the anti-climactic box office disaster ofZabriskie Point (1970)and returned to documentary. Invited to make Chung Kuo China by the Chinese government, Antonioni delivered a mesmerizing yet unsentimental four-hour tour of China which was vehemently rejected by its solicitors. A few years later, Antonioni returned to fictional form in his last masterpiece,Professione: reporter (1975),an Enigma tic fable of vaporous identity that offers a bold companion piece to L'Avventura. Aside from the thematically retrospectiveIdentificazione di una donna (1982)and a period film made for television,Il mistero di Oberwald (1980)in which he conducted unusual experiments with color and video, Antonioni closed out his career with mostly short films, many of which were made after he suffered a stroke in 1985.

Tremendously influential yet largely taken for granted, Antonioni made difficult, abstract cinema mainstream. Embracing an anarchic geometry, Antonioni turned the architecture of narrative filmmaking inside-out in the most eloquent way possible, with many of his iconic scenes eternally preserved in the depths of the cinema's psyche. Observing modern maladies without judgment - sexism, dissolution of family and tradition, ecological/technological quandaries and the eternal questions of our place in the cosmos - Antonioni's prescience continues to resonate deeply as we find our way in the quickly moving fog.

Robert Gerard Goulet was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a family of French-Canadian origin. He was the son of Jeanette (Gauthier) and Joseph Georges André Goulet. After hearing his son sing "Lead Kindly Light", in their church hall, his father told him, "I'm proud of you, son". A few weeks later, his father, lying on his death bed, called Robert to his side and told him the Lord had given him a beautiful voice and he must go and sing. His father died when Robert was 13 and he moved to Edmonton, Canada, a year later. Goulet won a singing scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of music in Toronto and, in 1951, made his concert debut at Edmonton in George Frideric Handel's "Messiah". Goulet was also a DJ on Canada's CKUA in Edmonton for two years. In 1960, he landed one of his biggest roles as "Lancelot" in Broadway's "Camelot", opposite Richard Burtonand Julie Andrews.He received a Tony award in 1968 for his role in "Happy Time". He and his first wife, Louise Longmore, had one daughter, Nicolette Goulet(aka Nikki). His second wife, actress and singer Carol Lawrence,produced two sons, Christopher and Michael. In 1982, with Glenn Fordgiving the bride away, he was married in Las Vegas toVera Goulet(aka Vera Novak), a Yugoslavian-born writer, photographer and artist. When not living at their home in Las Vegas, they reside on their yacht, "Rogo", in Los Angeles. Goulet has performed at the White House for three presidents, as well as a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II.

On September 30, 2007, he was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, "a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition". On October 13, he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined that he "would not survive without an emergency lung transplant".

Goulet died on October 30, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, while awaiting a transplant.

He is survived by his wife,Vera Goulet,and three children, sons Christopher and Michael, and daughter Nicolette Goulet,who is the mother of his grandchildren, Jordan Gerard and Solange.

Whether portraying a glum, withering wallflower, a drab and dowdy housewife, a klutzy maid or a cynical gossip, eccentric character comedienne Alice Ghostley had the ability to draw laughs from the skimpiest of material with a simple fret or whine. Making a name for herself on the Tony-winning Broadway stage, her eternally forlorn looks later evolved as an amusingly familiar plain-Jane presence on TV sitcoms and in an occasional film or two during the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Alice was born in a whistle-stop railroad station in the tiny town of Eve, Missouri, where her father was employed as a telegraph operator. She grew up in various towns in the Midwest (Arkansas, Oklahoma) and began performing from the age of 5 where she was called upon to recite poetry, sing and tap-dance. Spurred on by a high school teacher, she studied drama at the University of Oklahoma but eventually left in order to pursue a career in New York with her sister Gladys.

Teaming together in an act called "The Ghostley Sisters", Alice eventually went solo and developed her own cabaret show as a singer and comedienne. She also toiled as a secretary to a music teacher in exchange for singing lessons, worked as a theater usherette in order to see free stage shows, paid her dues as a waitress, worked once for a detective agency, and even had a stint as a patch tester for a detergent company. No glamourpuss by any stretch of the imagination, she built her reputation as a singing funny lady.

The short-statured, auburn-haired entertainer received her star-making break singing the satirical ditty "The Boston Beguine" in the Broadway stage revue "New Faces of 1952", which also showcased up-and-coming starsEartha Kitt, Carol Lawrence,Hogan's Heroes co-starRobert Claryand Paul Lyndeto whom she would be invariably compared to what with their similarly comic demeanors. The film version ofNew Faces (1954)_ featured pretty much the same cast. She and "male counterpart" Lynde would appear together in the same films and/or TV shows over the years.

With this momentum started, she continued on Broadway with the short-lived musicals "Sandhog" (1954) featuring Jack Cassidy,"Trouble in Tahiti" (1955), "Shangri-La" (1956), again starring Jack Cassidy,and the legit comedy "Maybe Tuesday" (1958). A reliable sketch artist, she fared much better on stage in the 1960s playing a number of different characterizations in both "A Thurber Carnival" (1960), and opposite Bert Lahrin "The Beauty Part" (1962), for which she received a Tony nomination. She finally nabbed the Tony trophy as "featured actress" for her wonderful work as Mavis in the comedy play "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" (1965).

By this time Alice had established herself on TV. She and good friend Kaye Ballardstole much of the proceedings as the evil stepsisters in the classic Julie Andrewsversion of Cinderella (1957),and she also recreated her Broadway role in a small screen adaptation of _Shangri-La (1960) (TV)_. Although it was mighty hard to take away her comedy instincts, she did appear in a TV production of "Twelfth Night" as Maria oppositeMaurice Evans' Malvolio, and graced such dramatic programs as "Perry Mason" and "Naked City", as well as the film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). She kept herself in the TV limelight as a frequent panelist on such game shows as "The Hollywood Squares" and "The Match Game".

Enjoying a number of featured roles in such lightweight comedy fare as My Six Loves (1963)with Debbie Reynolds, With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) starringDoris Day,and the Joan Riversstarrer Rabbit Test (1978),she also had a small teacher role in the popular film version of Grease (1978).Alice primarily situated herself, however, on the sitcom circuit and appeared in a number of recurring 'nervous Nellie "roles, topping it off as the painfully shy, dematerializing and accident-prone witch nanny Esmeralda in Bewitched (1964)from 1969-1972 (replacing the lateMarion Lorne,who had played bumbling Aunt Clara), and as the batty friend Bernice in Designing Women (1986).

In 1978 Alice replacedDorothy Loudonas cruel Miss Hannigan in "Annie", her last Broadway stand. Alice would play the mean-spirited scene-stealer on and off for nearly a decade in various parts of the country. Other musicals during this time included "Take Me Along", "Bye, Bye Birdie" (as the overbearing mother), and the raucous revue "Nunsense".

A series of multiple strokes ended her career come the millennium and she passed away of colon cancer on September 21, 2007. Her long-time husband of fifty years, Italian comedic actor Felice Orlandidied in 2003. The couple had no children.

A genial, well-respected, all-around "nice guy", the breezily handsome Barry Nelson was born Haakon Robert Nielsen on April 16, 1917, in San Francisco, California, to Betsy (Christophersen) and Trygve "Ted" Nielsen, both Norwegian immigrants. He was raised in nearby Oakland and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1941. A talent scout from MGM caught Barry in a college production of "Macbeth" and quickly sized up his potential. Cast in earnest secondary roles includingShadow of the Thin Man (1941)andDr. Kildare's Victory (1942),he was assigned the lead in the war filmA Yank on the Burma Road (1942).Serving in WWII, he appeared in the Moss Hartplay "Winged Victory", in what would become his Broadway debut, in 1943 and a year later he appeared as "Corporal Barry Nelson" in the 1944 film version of the play. Barry lost major ground in films during the post-war years, but certainly made up for it on the live stage by appearing in a string of New York successes ranging from "The Rat Race" to "The Moon Is Blue."

On TV, in addition to becoming a trivia statistic in the Hollywood annals as being the first to give video life toIan Fleming's "007" agent James ( "Jimmy" ) Bond in a one-hour production of "Casino Royale" inClimax! (1954),Barry lit up the small screen in such dramatic programs as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)and, in particular, a memorable episode ofThe Twilight Zone (1959).He also starred in the seriesThe Hunter (1952),a Cold War adventure, andMy Favorite Husband (1953),in which he played the level-headed mate and "straight man" to daffy blondeJoan Caulfield.In the 1960s he continued to demonstrate his acting muscle on stage and TV, although he did manage to preserve on film his starring role inMary, Mary (1963),a huge Broadway hit withDebbie Reynoldsco-starring in place of stage partnerBarbara Bel Geddes.The lightweight play "Cactus Flower" withLauren Bacallwas another bright vehicle, but starWalter Matthau's clout cost Barry the part when it went to film. Through it all Barry remained a thoroughly solid professional, particularly in the realm of TV-movies. Such standouts include his neighbor/undercover agent to criminals-on-the-runDon MurrayandInger StevensinThe Borgia Stick (1967)and his blind plane crash survivor inSeven in Darkness (1969).

The 1970s proved a very good decade indeed for Barry theater-wise with "Seascape," "The Norman Conquests" andLiza Minnelli's "The Act" among his pleasures, the last-mentioned earning him a Tony nomination. Despite co-starring roles in the blockbuster hitAirport (1970)and comedyPete 'n' Tillie (1972), the silver screen would not become his strong suit in later years. By the early 1990s he had fully retired.

A popular, clean-cut, down-to-earth "Average Joe" with a charmingly sly side, you just couldn't help but like Barry Nelson. Although he certainly could play the deceptive villain when called upon, he was usually the kind of guy you'd root for having as a neighbor, pal or business partner. Divorced from actressTeresa Cellifor quite some time and completely retired now, he and second wife Nansilee (they married in 1992) traveled extensively and enjoyed antique shopping in particular. In 2007, during one of their many excursions, Barry passed away quietly at age 89 at a hotel in Bucks County, Pennesylvania.

The daughter of a United Press executive, Mala Powers attended the Max ReinhardtJunior Workshop as a kid and fell in love with acting the first time she set foot on a stage. She made her film debut in Universal's 1942Tough As They Come (1942)before actressHelene Thimig(Max Reinhardt's wife) convinced her to continue studying rather than become a child actress. Powers worked in radio ( "Cisco Kid", "Red Ryder", "This Is Your F.B.I.", "Lux Radio Theater", "Screen Guild on the Air" ) and met actressIda Lupinowhile working on the latter show; Lupino auditioned and approved Powers for the top role inOutrage (1950),made by Lupino's Filmmakers production company. Powers' promising career was derailed by illness in the early '50s; when she resumed work, it was as the "B queen" of Westerns and sci-fi flicks (and much TV). For many years she has been lecturing on and teaching theMichael Chekhovacting technique throughout the U.S.

Anton Rodgers was born on 10 January 1933 in Ealing, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known forDirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988),The Merchant of Venice (2004)andThe Fourth Protocol (1987).He was married toElizabeth GarvieandMorna Watson.He died on 1 December 2007 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK.

A classical actor (and founding member in 1960 of the Royal Shakespeare Company), Richardson earned international fame as the villainous Francis Urquart in the BBC television trilogy, "House of Cards." Uttered in a cut-glass accent, the Machiavellian Prime Minister's sly "You might well think that... I couldn't possibly comment" became a catchphrase when the series was broadcast in the 1990s. Richardson's contributions to his art were honored in 1989 when he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE.) Fittingly, his family had his ashes buried beneath the auditorium of the new Royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Born the son of John and Margaret (Drummond) Richardson on April 7, 1934, he was educated at Tynecastle School in Edinburgh, and studied for the stage at the College of Dramatic Art in Glasgow, where he was awarded the James Bridie Gold Medal in 1957. He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company a year later where he played Hamlet as well as John Worthing in "The Importance of being Earnest." In 1960 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (then called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) and drew excellent notices for his work in "The Merchant of Venice," "Twelfth Night," "The Winter's Tale," "Much Ado About Nothing," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Taming of the Shrew," "The Comedy of Errors" and "King Lear", among others. In 1964 Richardson played the role of the Herald before advancing to the title role of Jean-Paul Marat in the stunning, avant-garde RSC production of "Marat-Sade". In addition, he made his Broadway debut in said role at the very end of 1965, and recreated it to critical acclaim in Peter Brooks' film adaptation with Glenda Jacksonas murderess Charlotte Corday. Richardson also went on to replay Oberon in a lukewarm film version of RSC's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) that nevertheless bore an elite company of Britain's finest pre-Dames --Judi Dench, Helen Mirrenand Diana Rigg.One of his lower film points during that time period, however, was appearing in the huge musical movie misfire Man of La Mancha (1972)in the role of the Padre opposite Peter O'Tooleand Sophia Loren.

Richardson was never far from the Shakespearean stage after his induction into films with majestic portraits of Coriolanus, Pericles, Richard II, Richard III, Cassius ( "Julius Caesar" ), Malcolm ( "Macbeth" ), Angelo ( "Measure for Measure" ), Prospero ( "The Tempest" ) and Mercutio ( "Romeo and" Juliet ") paving the way. Elsewhere on Broadway he received a Drama Desk Award and Tony nomination for his splendid Henry Higgins in a revival of" My Fair Lady "in 1976, and was part of the cast of the short-lived (12 performances) production of "Lolita "(1981), written byEdward Albee and starringDonald Sutherland as Humbert Humbert.

Customary of many talented Scots, Richardson would find his best on-camera roles in plush, intelligent TV mini-series. On the Shakespearean front he appeared in TV adaptations of As You Like It (1963), All's Well That Ends Well (1968) and Much Ado About Nothing (1978). After delivering highly capable performances as Field-Marshal Montgomery in both Churchill and the Generals (1979) andIke (1979),Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983), and Indian Prime Minister Nehru in Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986), he capped his small-screen career in the role of the immoral politician Francis Urquhart in a trio of dramatic satires: House of Cards (1990), To Play the King (1993)and The Final Cut (1995).His impeccably finely-tuned villain became one his best remembered roles.

Filmwise, Richardson's stature did not grow despite polished work in Brazil (1985), Cry Freedom (1987), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), M. Butterfly (1993), Dark City (1998),and the lightweight mainstream fareB*A*P*S (1997)and 102 Dalmatians (2000).He appeared less and less on stage in his later years. He took his final stage bows in 2006 with West End productions of "The Creeper" and "The Alchemist".

The urbane 72-year-old actor died unexpectedly in his sleep at his London abode on February 9, 2007, survived by his widow Maroussia Frank(his wife from 1961 and an RSC actress who played an asylum inmate alongside him in "Marat-Sade" ) and two sons, one of whom, Miles Richardson,has been a resident performer with the RSC.

Mean, miserly and miserable-looking, they didn't come packaged with a more annoying and irksome bow than Charles Lane. Glimpsing even a bent smile from this unending sourpuss was extremely rare, unless one perhaps caught him in a moment of insidious glee after carrying out one of his many nefarious schemes. Certainly not a man's man on film or TV by any stretch, Lane was a character's character. An omnipresent face in hundreds of movies and TV sitcoms, the scrawny, scowling, beady-eyed, beak-nosed killjoy who usually could be found peering disdainfully over a pair of specs, brought out many a comic moment simply by dampening the spirit of his nemesis. Whether a Grinch-like rent collector, IRS agent, judge, doctor, salesman, reporter, inspector or neighbor from hell, Lane made a comfortable acting niche for himself making life wretched for someone somewhere.

He was born Charles Gerstle Levison on January 26, 1905 in San Francisco and was actually one of the last survivors of that city's famous 1906 earthquake. He started out his working-class existence selling insurance but that soon changed. After dabbling here and there in various theatre shows, he was prodded by a friend, director Irving Pichel,to consider acting as a profession. In 1928 he joined the Pasadena Playhouse company, which, at the time, had built up a solid reputation for training stage actors for the cinema. While there he performed in scores of classical and contemporary plays. He made his film debut anonymously as a hotel clerk inSmart Money (1931)starring Edward G. Robinsonand James Cagneyand was one of the first to join the Screen Actor's Guild. He typically performed many of his early atmospheric roles without screen credit and at a cost of $35 per day, but he always managed to seize the moment with whatever brief bit he happened to be in. People always remembered that face and raspy drone of a voice. He appeared in so many pictures (in 1933 alone he made 23 films!), that he would occasionally go out and treat himself to a movie only to find himself on screen, forgetting completely that he had done a role in the film. By 1947 the popular character actor was making $750 a week.

Among his scores of cookie-cutter crank roles, Lane was in top form as the stage manager in Twentieth Century (1934);the Internal Revenue Service agent in You Can't Take It with You (1938); the newsman in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); the rent collector in It's a Wonderful Life (1946); the recurring role of Doc Jed Prouty, in the "Ellery Queen" film series of the 1940s, and as the draft board driver in No Time for Sergeants (1958). A minor mainstay forFrank Capra,the famed director utilized the actor's services for nine of his finest films, including a few of the aforementioned plus Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) andState of the Union (1948).

Lane's career was interrupted for a time serving in the Coast Guard during WWII. In post-war years, he found TV quite welcoming, settling there as well for well over four decades. Practically every week during the 1950s and 1960s, one could find him displaying somewhere his patented "slow burn" on a popular sitcom - Topper (1953), The Real McCoys (1957), The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), Mister Ed (1961), Bewitched (1964), Get Smart (1965), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), The Munsters (1964), Green Acres (1965), The Flying Nun (1967)and Maude (1972).He hassled the best sitcom stars of the day, notably Lucille Ball(an old friend from the RKO days with whom he worked multiple times), Andy Griffithand Danny Thomas.Recurring roles on Dennis the Menace (1959), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) andSoap (1977)made him just as familiar to young and old alike. Tops on the list had to be his crusty railroad exec Homer Bedloe who periodically caused bucolic bedlam with his nefarious schemes to shut down the Hooterville Cannonball on Petticoat Junction (1963). He could also play it straightforward and serious as demonstrated by his work in The Twilight Zone (1959), Perry Mason (1957), Little House on the Prairie (1974) andL.A. Law (1986).

A benevolent gent in real life, Lane was seen less and less as time went by. One memorable role in his twilight years was as the rueful child pediatrician who chose to overlook the warning signs of child abuse in the excellent TV movie Sybil (1976).One of Lane's last on-screen roles was in the TV-movie remake of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1995) at age 90. Just before his death he was working on a documentary on his long career entitled "You Know the Face".

Cinematically speaking, perhaps the good ones do die young, for the irascible Lane lived to be 102 years old. He died peacefully at his Brentwood, California home, outliving his wife of 71 years, former actress Ruth Covell, who died in 2002. A daughter, a son and a granddaughter all survived him.

Ulrich Mühe was born on 20 June 1953 in Grimma, East Germany. He was an actor and director, known forThe Lives of Others (2006),Funny Games (1997)andDer letzte Zeuge (1998).He was married toSusanne Lothar,Jenny Gröllmannand Annegret Hahn. He died on 22 July 2007 in Walbeck, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

In retrospect, he was considered an actor's actor to be sure. Renowned theater performer George Grizzard would make his biggest impact under the Tony-winning Broadway lights in a career spanning over five decades. Born an only child on April 1, 1928, in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, George Cooper Grizzard, Jr. was raised (from age 7) in Washington D.C., and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1949. Precoccupied for a time in the advertising field, he then seemed bent on a radio broadcasting career when the "acting bug" suddenly bit.

Grizzard studied with respected acting coach Sanford Meisner in New York and went on to apprentice in stock plays. He eventually took on Broadway where he earned major kudos right off the bat for his debut role asPaul Newman's younger brother in "The Desperate Hours" (1955). More New York acclaim came in the form of "The Happiest Millionaire" (1956), for which he won the "most promising" Theatre World Award; "The Disenchanted" (1958), which earned him a Tony nomination; "Big Fish, Little Fish" (1961), for which he won the Outer Critic's Circle award; theEdward Albee's emotional roller-coaster ride "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1962), wherein he originated the rakish, fair-haired role of Nick; and, more recently, in a revival of "A Delicate Balance" (1996), wherein he finally won the coveted Tony. Never far away from Broadway, he returned again and again over the years in both comedies and dramas: "Mary, Mary", "The Glass Menagerie", "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running", "The Country Girl", "The Royal Family", "California Suite", "Man and Superman", "Judgment at Nuremberg" and "The Creation of the World and Other Business" in which he played Lucifer himself. Other noteworthy theatrical events away from Broadway ranged from his title role in "Hamlet" at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater, to his mental patient who thinks he's Einstein in "The Physicists", to his Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at the Kennedy Center.

Films beckoned in the 60s with a sampling of handsome, intellectual, white-collared roles. Making his Broadway debut with Paul Newmanin 1955, he made his film debut with Newman as well, in the role of a ruthless young tycoon inFrom the Terrace (1960).He also earned excellent notices as a crafty senator in the well-mounted political dramaAdvise & Consent (1962).He found, however, more durable, frequent work on the smaller screen playing various politicians (presidents, governors, mayors, etc.), notably his Emmy-nominated portrayal as John Adams inThe Adams Chronicles (1976).He won the Emmy for his portrayal of Henry Fonda's opportunistic son in the TV specialThe Oldest Living Graduate (1980).Often seen in a calculating, unsympathetic light, he continued to mix stage and on-camera work for the remainder of his career.

A co-founder of the APA Repertory Company in New York, Grizzard took his final Broadway bow bantering with life-sized lizards in the surrealEdward Albeedrama "Seascape" in 2005. His last movie role was a part inClint Eastwood's memorable Flags of Our Fathers (2006).He died the following year, on October 2, 2007, of complications from lung cancer at a New York City hospital. His sole survivor is long-time partner William Tynan.

James T. Callahan was born on 4 October 1930 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known forKnight Rider (1982),The Governor & J.J. (1969)andBaa Baa Black Sheep (1976).He was married toPeggy Cannon.He died on 3 August 2007 in Fallbrook, California, USA.