A list of films produced in the French cinema, ordered by year and decade of release on separate pages.
Ralph Forbes (30 September 1904 – 31 March 1951) was an English actor in the American cinema. He was also a noted stage actor.
He was born Ralph Forbes Taylor in London, England, the son of E. J. Taylor and actress Mary Forbes and brother of actress Brenda Forbes. He met with an accident on the football field at Denstone College, Staffordshire that resulted in a scar on his cheek. Unusually, he started off in films, then went on stage. In the United States he appeared onstage opposite actress Ruth Chatterton, who became his first wife.
He married three times, first to actress Ruth Chatterton (who was 11 years his senior) from 1924 to 1932. He later married actress Heather Angel in 1934; that marriage also ended in divorce. His last wife was actress Dora Sayers (married 1946). Forbes dated Lucille Ball shortly before he married Angel. Ball turned down his marriage proposal.
His last years were given to working on the Broadway stage. One of his last stage appearances was in a revival of Shaw's You Never Can Tell in 1948. He died at Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx, New York in 1951, aged 46.
Paul Leroy Robeson ( /ˈroʊbsən/ ROHB-sən April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American singer and actor who was a political activist for the Civil Rights Movement. His disaffection with the policies of the United States (US) government, post-World War II and during McCarthyism, and his simultaneous advocation of the policies of the Soviet Union, brought retribution from the executive branch of the US government and scrutiny from the United States Congress. Though internationally acclaimed, he was subsequently blacklisted in the US from performing artistically and was not permitted to travel overseas. His right to travel was restored in 1958, but his health had broken down under controversial circumstances. Thereafter, he remained defiant and refused to admit any of his denunciations of US policy, or his support of the Soviet Union, was incorrect.
Early in his life, he won a scholarship to Rutgers University, where he was an football All-American and the class valedictorian. He subsequently graduated from Columbia Law School while playing professionally in the National Football League (NFL) and singing and acting in off-campus productions. After graduation, he worked briefly as a lawyer before focusing on the arts and becoming a popular figure on the acting stage.
Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour with You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to movie-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.
MacDonald was born June 18, 1903, at her family's Philadelphia home at 5123 Arch Street. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Anna Mae (née Wright) and Daniel MacDonald. She had Scottish, English, and Dutch ancestry. Starting at an early age, she took dancing lessons with Al White, imitated her mother's opera records and took singing lessons with Wassil Leps. She performed at church and school functions and began touring in kiddie shows, heading Al White's "Six Little Song Birds" in Philadelphia at the age of nine. She was raised as a Christian Scientist.