The lovely Margo was born in 1917 in Mexico City. She achieved fame in the 1930’s in such movies as “Lost Horizon” and “Winterset”. She was married to the actor Eddie Albert and their son was the actor Edward Albert. Margo died in 1985.
IMDB entry:
The daughter of a Spanish surgeon, Maria Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estella Castilla Bolado y O’Donnell was born in Mexico City. As a niece to famous bandleader Xavier Cugat, she performed with his orchestra from the age of nine as a specialty dancer in nightclubs, and, later, on the Starlight Roof of the hotel Waldorf Astoria in New York. When she was fifteen years old, she was head-hunted by writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who saw her dance and cast her in the Claude Rains drama Crime Without Passion (1934). Her debut as Rains’ ex-lover who ends up being murdered by him, was well-received, critic Mordaunt Hall describing her performance as ‘excellent’. Margo was best-known, however, for her role as the slum girl Miriamne Esdras in both stage and screen version of Maxwell Anderson‘s play Winterset (1936) and for her poignant performance as the young girl leaving Shangri-La (to her detriment) in Lost Horizon(1937). She also appeared on Broadway in ‘Masque of Kings’ (1937) and ‘The World We Make’ (1939) and had another small screen role in The Leopard Man (1943).
Margo was married for 39 years to the actor Eddie Albert, residing in Pacific Palisades, California. In later years, she became involved in the public sector, in 1974 becoming Commissioner for Social Services in Los Angeles.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Tarita was born in 1941 in Bora Bora in the South Pacific. She was discovered and given the lead in “Mutiny on the Bounty” in 1962 while the movie was shot on location in Bora Bora. She became the partner of Marlon Brando for many years. She did not make any other movies.
IMDB entry:
Had two children with Marlon Brando: a son, Simon Teihotu Brando (born on 30 May 1963) and a daughter, Tarita Zumi Cheyenne (13 February 1970-14 April 1995, suicide).
Born in a bamboo hut 6 kilometers from Bora Bora’s one village, Vaitape. Has 5 brothers and 1 sister. Father, Teriichira, was a fisherman. Attended school until she was 12.
Was working as a dishwasher at a resort near Papeete, Tahiti, when she was discovered. Grandmother of Tuki Brando, Cheyenne’s son. Daughter-in-law of Marlon Brando Sr. during her marriage to Marlon Brando. Sister-in-law of Jocelyn Brando during marriage to Marlon Brando. Although she had signed a contract with MGM, Marlon Brando made sure that she didn’t get any more roles after Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Has lived on Marlon Brando‘s estate at the beach of Papeete since 1970. Grandson Tuki Brando (b. 1990), her daughter’s Cheyenne’s son, has been chosen byDonatella Versace to be the new face of Versace for Men’s collection. (2007).
Neville Brand was one of the great evil characters in gangster and Western movies and television series of the 1950’s and 60’s. He was born in 1920 in Iowa. He had a distinguished war record while serving during World War Two. He made his movie debut in the film noir “D.O.A.” in 1950. His best known role was as ‘Al Capone’ in the TV series “The Untouchables”. He also shot and killed the Elvis Presley character in “Love Me Tender” in 1956 and was excellent opposite Burt Lancaster in the 1962 movie “Birdman of Alcatraz”. He starred in the TV series “Laredo” from 1965 until 1967. He died in 1992 at the age of 71.
IMDB entry:
Neville Brand joined the US Army in 1939, bent on a career in the military. It was while he was in the army that he made his acting debut, in Army training films, and this experience apparently changed the direction of his life. Once a civilian again, he used his GI Bill education assistance to study drama with the American Theater Wing and then appeared in several Broadway plays. His film debut was in Port of New York (1949). Among his earliest films was the Oscar-winning Stalag 17 (1953). His heavy features and gravelly voice made Brand a natural tough guy (and he wasn’t just a “movie” tough guy–he was among the most highly decorated American soldiers in World War Ii, fighting in the Pacific against the Japanese). “With this kisser, I knew early in the game I wasn’t going to make the world forget Clark Gable,” he once told a reporter. He played Al Capone in The George Raft Story (1961), The Scarface Mob (1959), and TV’s The Untouchables (1959). Among his other memorable roles are the sympathetic guard inBirdman of Alcatraz (1962) and the representative of rioting convicts in Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954). Perhaps his best-known role was that of the soft-hearted, loud-mouthed, none-too-bright but very effective Texas Ranger Reese Bennett of Backtrack! (1969),Three Guns for Texas (1968), and TV’s Laredo (1965).
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Kat Parsons <fke2d@Virginia.EDU> (qv’s & corrections by A. Nonymous)
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Article on Neville Brand in “Tina Aumont’s Eyes” website:
Tough and uncompromising, former military hero Neville Brand brought his hard, threatening manner to a number of westerns, prison flicks and other cult movies. With his gruff voice and intimidating stare, it’s easy to see why he was so often cast in villainous roles, yet he could also be sympathetic and gentle when called for.
Born in Iowa on August 13th, 1920, Brand spent the years 1939 to 1945 in the US Army, where his heroic actions earned him both the Silver Star and Purple Heart. After studying drama, he made his feature debut in the 1950 noir ‘D.O.A.’, where his no-nonsense henchman viciously beats a fatally poisoned Edmond O’Brien. After playing one of William Holden’s fellow prisoners in Billy Wilder’s excellent P.O.W drama ‘Stalag 17′ (’53), he was great as a psychopathic inmate leading a riot, in Don Siegel’s classic prison drama ‘Riot in Cell Block 11′ (’54). In a change of pace role, Brand was likable as a kindhearted Navy Officer, romancing Jan Sterling’s toughened waitress, in the little-known drama ‘Return from the Sea'(’56). Around this time, Neville would also make a number of appearances in various westerns, such as ‘The Man from Alamo’ (’53), with Glenn Ford, and Anthony Mann’s ‘The Tin Star’ (’57), with Henry Fonda and a young Anthony Perkins.
From time to time, Brand wasn’t averse to playing real life characters. He twice played Butch Cassidy, first in 1956’s ‘The Three Outlaws’, and again two years later in ‘Badman’s Country’ (’58). He also made a good Al Capone, on both television (‘The Untouchables’-’59), and screen (‘The George Raft Story’-’61). My favourite performance of Brand’s at this time, was as the kindly prison guard; Bull Ransom, in the superb biopic ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’ (’62).
Television would keep Brand busy in the Sixties, cropping up in the western serials ‘Rawhide’ ‘Wagon Train’ and ‘Laredo’. In 1965 he was a Disney villain paired with Frank Gorshin, in ‘That Darn Cat!’, with Hayley Mills. Another military role came in 1970, when he played Lieutenant Kaminsky in the Pearl Harbor adventure ‘Tora! Tora! Tora! (’70). Back in western mode, other roles around this time included the part of a half-breed Indian in the John Wayne starrer ‘Cahill U.S Marshall’ (’73), and then an outlaw named Choo Choo, in the much maligned ‘The Deadly Trackers’ (’73), with Richard Harris and Rod Taylor. Venturing into exploitation territory, Brand played a rapist in Bert I. Gordon’s violent shocker ‘The Mad Bomber’ (’73), an ok thriller that certainly pulls no punches. He then co-starred with Jim Hutton in the mental institution thriller ‘Psychic Killer’ (’75), and was a crazed hotel owner in the cult yet rather dreary oddity ‘Eaten Alive’ (’76). one of Brand’s last memorable roles was that of Major Groper, in William Peter Blatty’s asylum-based sleeper ‘The Ninth Configuration’ (’80). After appearing in a couple of Greydon Clark’s B-movies (‘Without warning’ & ‘The Return’ – both 1980), Neville’s final movie was the terrible alien sexploiter ‘Evils of the Night’ (’85), with Aldo Ray and the ubiquitous John Carradine.
A talented and versatile actor, Neville Brand died from emphysema, on April 16th 1992, aged 71. In a career lasting 35 years, he was one of cinema’s most memorable tough guys, and has the distinction of killing Elvis Presley in his movie debut!
Favourite Movie: Birdman of Alcatraz Favourite Performance: Riot in Cell Block 11
Article on Neville Brand can also be accessed online here.
Kaz Garas was born in Lithuania in 1940. He came to the U.S. when he was nine years of age. He made his debut in the TV series “Seaway” in 1966. He came to the U.K. to make the popular series “Strange Report” in 1969. His films include “The Last Safari” with Stewart Granger in 1967. Fropm the 1970’s onwards most of his work has been on American television.
Shirley Yamaguchi obituary in “The Guardian” in 2014.
Filmic evidence has often been produced in war trials, but Li Xianglan, who has died aged 94, had the distinction, in 1945, of being prosecuted for treason in China for the fictional roles she had played. Having depicted on screen Chinese women falling for members of the Japanese occupation forces, she read in the newspapers that she was to be publicly executed at Shanghai’s horse track. Then, as if in the plot of a baroque opera – a genre that would have suited her vocally – her family register was smuggled in, within the head of a doll.
The document proved that Li had been born Yamaguchi Yoshiko, the daughter of Japanese parents in Manchuria, a colony of Japan before the second world war. Yamaguchi became one of millions to be repatriated to the main Japanese islands. But her singing talent, fame, and ability with languages was to propel her through careers in journalism and politics.
When their daughter was born, Yamaguchi’s parents had befriended two influential Chinese men; the girl became their goddaughter and so also acquired the Chinese name Li Xianglan. Her musical talent was developed by lessons with professional singers, often Russian. From the age of 13 and using another Chinese name bestowed upon her, Pan Shuhua, she attended high school in Beijing. Here she added to her proficiency in Mandarin – unusual enough among Japanese settlers – by acquiring all the mannerisms of Chinese girls.
In 1934, recruited by a radio station to sing Chinese tunes, she used her adopted name of Li Xianglan, which she retained as her career developed. By the age of 18, she had been recruited by Manchuria Film Productions, or Man’ei, the rapidly expanding film studio in Harbin, Manchuria. The initial idea had been for her to sing, but Man’ei rapidly realised that it could develop her acting and personality to further its transnational aims.
The problem for the commercially minded propagandists at Man’ei was that its early films had little success in China, with films such as China Nights(1940) faring much better in Japan. The three Chinese characters of her stage name rendered into Japanese as Ri Koran, the performer always appeared in a Chinese qipao dress, and her recordings launched a craze for “continental” songs and films. Back in China, the film, where it was not boycotted entirely, caused particular offence by showing the star taking a violent slap from her Japanese admirer as a proof of affection, resulting in marriage in short order.
It was films such as this that were produced as evidence for the prosecution in Shanghai. In reality, virtually no one had seen them, even after the considerable Chinese success of her later film Eternity (1942), from which came her hit song Stop Smoking, about opium.
Up to the end of the war, Shanghai periodicals doted on the persona of Li Xianglan. Li’s Japanese origin was never entirely obscured, even though the star continued to represent China’s young women. Taking daily English and Russian lessons in Shanghai, Li was better equipped than most to deal with the defeat of her native Japan, but being put on trial for her roles seems to have come as a genuine shock.
Back in Tokyo, her fame still lay in her persona as Ri Koran. The script of Desertion at Dawn (1950), initially an adaptation by Akira Kurosawa, went through six major rewrites under occupation censorship. Strongly condemning militarism, it depicted the love of a Japanese soldier for a Chinese “comfort woman”. Its success at the box office prompted further nostalgic musical memories of the empire that were less nuanced as the moral crusade of the occupation had dissolved. But Yamaguchi went on to star in a Kurosawa film, Scandal (1950), which dealt with the media-hounding of an actress.
Yamaguchi travelled to the US that year, taking the first name Shirley. She starred in two Hollywood films, and befriended figures such as Charlie Chaplin, working on the musical soundtrack of Limelight (1952). Her marriage to the American sculptor Noguchi Isamu in 1952 lasted only a few years, and she was later denied entry to the US because of her association with names such as Chaplin.
Her final acting appearances came in some Hong Kong films, apparently lost in a fire. By this time, she had married a Japanese diplomat, Otaka Hiroshi; formally, she kept her married name Otaka Yoshiko after his death in 2001.
To later generations in the 1960s and 70s she was known as a television journalist on Asian subjects, often focusing on Palestine and women’s issues. She pursued these concerns as a representative of the upper house of the Japanese legislative body, the Diet, for 18 years.
A musical of her career ran in Tokyo for more than 20 years. Her voice may yet be her most enduring legacy. Recordings from Russia, seemingly acquired and treasured by postwar Red Army soldiers, can be heard on YouTube, and testify to a voice that hits every note in the middle, without a hint of vibrato.
• Yoshiko Yamaguchi (Li Xianglan), actor, journalist and politician, born 12 February 1920; died 7 September 2014
Anjanette Comer was born in Dawson, Texas in 1939. She hadsome major roles in Hollywood movies of the 1960’s. Her credits include “The Loved One” in 1965, “The Apaloosa” opposite Marlon Brando and “Guns for San Sebastian” opposite Anthony Quinn.
TCM overview:
A pretty, dark-haired actress who often played roles of women not in control of the fraught environment around them, Anjanette Comer broke into feature films in the 1960s, added TV-movies to her repertoire in the 70s, took a sojourn from the cameras in the 80s and returned in supporting parts in the 90s.
Comer’s first feature was the comedy “Quick Before It Melts” (1965), in which she played a woman brought to an Antarctica research station. That same year, she was the ditzy beauty Robert Morse lusts after in Tony Richardson’s “The Loved One”. She had another good shot as Marlon Brando’s cohort in “The Appaloosa” (1966), but her follow-up in “Banning” (1967), was a barren sturm und drang that did nothing to promote her career. Comer was burdened by a ridiculous script in “Guns for San Sebastian” (1968), in which she supported the zealous Anthony Quinn. In 1970, she played the semi-pro hooker who lures former athlete James Caan from his family in the dull “Run, Rabbit”. Feature roles came less regularly in the 70s. Comer was wife to Public Enemy Number One “Lepke” (1975), played by Tony Curtis and was in the disastrous “Fire Sale” (1977). She appeared in the direct-to-video fantasy “Netherworld” (1992) and returned to the big screen as Peter Gallagher’s mother in Steven Soderbergh’s noirish “The Underneath” (1995).
While Comer had some TV experience in the 60s, and guest starred on the 1969 pilot for the ABC series “The Young Lawyers”, her work on the small screen began in earnest with a burst of TV-movies in the 70s. Her first was “Firechasers” (1970), and in 1971, she played one of the women on a resort island stalked by an escapee from a mental institution in “Five Desperate Women” (ABC). She was also in jeopardy in “The Deadly Hunt” (CBS, 1971), in which Comer was in the grips of two paid assassins and stuck in the center of a forest fire at the same time. She was the wife of Joseph Campanella stuck above a fire in a skyscraper in “Terror on the 40th Floor” (NBC, 1974) and the abducted wife of Vincent Edwards in “Death Stalk” (NBC, 1975). Comer was a woman in jeopardy long before than genre became a mainstay of TV longforms. After “The Long Summer of George Adams” (NBC, 1982), Comer was little seen on either TV or in the movies, and then reappeared on the two-part season opener of “Jake and the Fat Man” (CBS, 1991). She has since resumed her work in TV longforms in supporting roles. She played Beulah, in the miniseries “Larry McMurtry’s Streets of Laredo” (CBS, 1995) and was featured in “Deadly Family Secrets” (NBC, 1995).
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Race Gentry was born in 1934 in Los Angeles. He made his film debut in the Western, “The Lawless Breed” in 1953. Other credits include “Rails Into Laramie”, “Black Horse Canyon” and “There’s Always To-Morrow”.
John LoneJohn Lone was born in 1952 in Hong Kong. He trained at the Peking Opera. He continued his studies in the performing arts in California
TCM overview:
A strikingly handsome, lithe and somewhat androgynous Hong Kong-born actor of film and stage, John Lone became established on stage initially via several collaborations with playwright David Henry Hwang. On film, he is probably best recalled for his portrayal of Emperor Pu Yi in Bernardo Bertolucci’s lavish, Oscar-winning epic “The Last Emperor” (1987). Orphaned as a young boy, Lone began rigorously training as an actor at the Chin Ciu Academy of the Peking Opera in Hong Kong at age 10. He resided at the school for eight years, undergoing all day training in acting, singing, dance, mime, poetry, weaponry, acrobatics, and martial arts.
At age 18, Lone moved to America and settled in Los Angeles where he quickly snared small roles on film and TV, as well as joined the East-West Players. After earning attention for his performance in David Henry Hwang’s “F.O.B.” in L.A., he headed to NYC to recreate the role Off-Broadway in 1981, netting an OBIE Award. The playwright then wrote “Dance and the Railroad” specifically for Lone who starred in, directed, choreographed and scored the production at the Public Theatre.
The movies soon beckoned and Lone made an impact with an impressive nonverbal performance as a defrosted caveman in “Iceman” (1984), following up with “Year of the Dragon” (1985), playing a ruthless Chinese Mafia boss. Here, without mounds of obscuring makeup, he displayed his glamorous movie-star looks to the American public for the first time.
Lone has not had a prolific feature career, apparently by choice. He shifts back-and-forth from stage to screen, directing to acting. He has a successful pop singing career in Asia as well as and his own lines of cosmetics and apparel. The actor has made quirky film choices opting for roles in foreign and small independent films (e.g., Alan Rudolph’s “The Moderns” 1988) rather than standard commercial Hollywood fare. Lone continued in this vein with David Cronenberg’s film version of Hwang’s “M. Butterfly” (1993), where he played the Asian object of desire of a French diplomat (Jeremy Irons). Subsequent high profile feature roles have cast the handsome player as nefarious types. In 1994’s “The Shadow”, Lone was the descendent of Genghis Khan battling Alec Baldwin’s Lamont Cranston, while “The Hunted” (1995) saw him portray a cold-blooded assassin. After a long absence, Lone graced US audiences with his charismatic presence playing yet another suave ganglord in “Rush Hour 2” (2001).
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Cathy O’Donnell was born in 1923 in Alabama. Although she did not make many movies, she has an unusually high number of great calibre of film among her credts – “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1946, “They Live By Night” and “Side Street”, both opposite Farley Granger, “Detective Story” , “The Man From Laramie” with James Stewart and “Ben-Hur” in 1959. She died at the age of 46 in 1970.
IMDB entry:
She was in Alabama until age 12, Ann Steely attended high school and college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then worked as a stenographer to finance a trip to Hollywood, where fortune favored her with a contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer under Samuel Goldwyn. Recognizing her talent and appeal through a thick Southern accent, Goldwyn arranged rigorous voice & theatrical training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and elsewhere, gave her an Irish-sounding stage name & cast her in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). This film’s success boded well for Cathy’s career, and soon she was starred in the now-classic They Live by Night (1948). However, her rise in films was checked when, on Sunday, April 11th, 1948, at age 23, she married 48-year-old Robert Wyler, older brother of famous M-G-M director, William Wyler, with whom Goldwyn was feuding. The irate Goldwyn abruptly canceled her contract; thereafter she had no lasting association with any studio or producer. Her most memorable roles of the 1950s were in classic film-noir such as Detective Story (1951), which typifies her sincere, believable performances as a sweet girl-next-door whose radiant inner beauty shone through an exterior not quite fitting the Hollywood glamor mold. Her last film and most famous, wasBen-Hur (1959), and then she worked in TV until 1961. Belying Goldwyn’s opinion, her marriage to Wyler proved happy though childless. Her death on their 22nd wedding anniversary, on Saturday, April 11th, 1970 followed a long struggle with cancer.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
2017.0059.028 O’clock Walk, poster, (aka EIGHT O’CLOCK WALK), US poster, top from left: Cathy O’Donnell, Richard Attenborough, bottom right: Richard Attenborough, 1954. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)
