- published: 22 Jul 2010
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Hedda Hopper (May 2, 1885 – February 1, 1966) was an American actress and one of America's best-known gossip columnists, notorious for feuding with her arch-rival Louella Parsons. She had been a moderately successful actress of stage and screen for years before being offered the chance to write the column Hedda Hopper's Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times in 1938. In the McCarthy era she named suspected Communists. Hopper continued to write gossip to the end, her work appearing in many magazines and later on radio.
Hopper was born Elda Furry in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Margaret (née Miller; 1856-1941) and David Furry, a butcher, both members of the German Baptist Brethren. Her siblings included Dora, Sherman, Cameron, Edgar, Frank and Margaret. Her family was of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent. The family moved to Altoona when Elda was three.
She eventually ran away to New York City and began her career in the chorus on the Broadway stage. Hopper was not successful in this venture, even getting the axe by the renowned Shubert Brothers. Florenz Ziegfeld called the aspiring starlet a "clumsy cow" and brushed off her pleas for a slot in his lavish Follies. After a few years, she joined the theater company of matinee idol DeWolf Hopper, whom she called "Wolfie" and would later marry.
Dame Helen Lydia Mirren, DBE (née Mironoff; born 26 July 1945), is an English actor. Mirren began her acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967, and is one of the few performers who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, having won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2007, after two previous nominations, for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. In 2015 she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, after two previous nominations, for her performance in The Audience, in which she also portrayed Elizabeth II. The Audience was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen. Mirren won her first of several Emmy Awards in 1993 for her performance as police detective Jane Tennison on the acclaimed ITV series Prime Suspect, which ran for a total of seven seasons between 1991 to 2006.
Some of her other notable film roles include Marcella in the 1984 film Cal, for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Madness of King George (1994), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Gosford Park (2001), Calendar Girls (2003), The Last Station (2009), Hitchcock (2012), and The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014). She also starred as Victoria Winslow in the action-comedy films Red and Red 2.
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope, KBE, KC*SG, KSS (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003), was an American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete, and author. With a career spanning nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in over 70 films and shorts, including a series of "Road" movies also starring Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. In addition to hosting the Academy Awards fourteen times (more than any other host), he appeared in many stage productions and television roles and was the author of fourteen books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" is widely regarded as Hope's signature tune.
Born in London, England, Hope arrived in America with his family at the age of four and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He began his career in show business in the early 1920s, initially on stage, and began appearing on the radio and in films in 1934. He was praised for his comedy timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes—which were often self-deprecating, with Hope building himself up and then tearing himself down. Celebrated for his long career performing United Service Organizations (USO) shows to entertain active service American military personnel—he made 57 tours for the USO between 1941 and 1991—Hope was declared an honorary veteran of the United States Armed Forces in 1997 by act of the U.S. Congress. He also appeared in numerous specials for NBC television, starting in 1950, and was one of the first users of cue cards.
Actors: James Finlayson (actor), Edward José (actor), Wyndham Standing (actor), Eileen Percy (actress), Hugh M. Hefner (producer), Claire Whitney (actress), Theda Bara (actress), Dana Delany (actress), Fred Malatesta (actor), Stuart Holmes (actor), Hugh Munro Neely (producer), Hugh Munro Neely (writer), Hugh Munro Neely (actor), Hugh Munro Neely (editor), Hugh Munro Neely (director),
Plot: The true story of the life of the movies first femme-fatale, Theda Bara, who made over 40 films, only a handful of which survive. Born in America, her film producers insisted she was an exotic foreigner, born in Egypt. Her most famous film was "Cleopatra" (Fox, 1917).
Keywords: actress, femme-fatale, film-history, lost-filmActors: Cesar Romero (actor), Rita Moreno (actress), Alice Faye (actress), Carmen Miranda (actress), Aurora Miranda (actress), Amanda Zinoman (editor), Helena Solberg (producer), Helena Solberg (director), Helena Solberg (actress), Helena Solberg (writer), Cynthia Adler (actress), David Meyer (producer), David Meyer (editor), Alan Eichler (miscellaneous crew), Leticia Monte (actress),
Plot: A biography of the Portuguese-Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, whose most distinctive feature was her tutti frutti hat. She came to the US as the "Brazilian Bombshell" and was a Broadway and Hollywood star in the 1940s.
Keywords: 1940s, actress, brazil, brazilian, carmen-miranda, carmen-miranda-impersonator, character-name-in-title, coffin, dancer, dancingActors: Ken Thorne (composer), Katherine Helmond (actress), Jane Robinson (producer), Sherilyn Fenn (actress), Kevin McCarthy (actor), Ray Wise (actor), Eugene Roche (actor), William McNamara (actor), Alan Shearman (actor), John Saxon (actor), Michael Cavanaugh (actor), Nigel Havers (actor), Angus Macfadyen (actor), Kevin Connor (director), Jane Robinson (costume designer),
Plot: The story of 'Elizabeth Taylor (I)' (qv)'s rise to stardom, beginning in Los Angeles 1942. Her dominating mother has decided that her daughter must become a star - no matter what others or Elizabeth herself think. Assisted by 'Hedda Hopper' (qv), she gets a part in _Lassie Come Home (1943)_ (qv). She becomes a child star, raised by her studio. Growing up, she has several love-affairs - and several divorces, since her husbands can't accept being married to a Hollywood icon.
Keywords: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, acting, actress, alcoholism, based-on-novel, behind-the-scenes, celebrity, character-name-in-titleActors: B.J. Ward (actress), Jan Tríska (actor), Anne Haney (actress), Elizabeth Taylor (actress), Richard Dysart (actor), Joyce Van Patten (actress), Jane Alexander (actress), Edith Fields (actress), Bonnie Bartlett (actress), Denise Crosby (actress), Tim Robbins (actor), Mark L. Taylor (actor), Jason Wingreen (actor), Nolan Miller (costume designer), Charles Bernstein (composer),
Plot: Struggling actress Hedda Hopper can't get a break in Hollywood, even though an acquaintence of hers is the extremely powerful gossip monger Louella Parsons - maker and breaker of careers (and lives) through her daily syndicated newspaper column. The big movie moguls, fed up with Parson's power over their stars, decide to de-claw her by setting up gossip Hopper as a competitor in the rumour industry. What they couldn't forsee was that Hopper would become as big as Parsons -- and every bit as much of a pain. Based on the true life stories of two of the most powerful (and arguably dangerous) women of Hollywood's hay-day.
Keywords: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, actress, based-on-novel, based-on-true-story, docudrama, female-protagonist, film-critic, film-industryActors: Robert Karnes (actor), Edith Head (costume designer), Sidney J. Furie (director), Michel Legrand (composer), Jill Clayburgh (actress), William Bryant (actor), Melanie Mayron (actress), Army Archerd (actor), Ross Elliott (actor), Allen Garfield (actor), James Brolin (actor), Red Buttons (actor), Morgan Brittany (actress), Cal Bartlett (actor), Ivan Bonar (actor),
Genres: Biography, Drama, Romance,Actors: Jack Albertson (actor), Jerome Cowan (actor), Murray Alper (actor), Phil Arnold (actor), Richard Bakalyan (actor), Norman Alden (actor), Billy Bletcher (actor), Don Brodie (actor), John Carradine (actor), Robert Carson (actor), Chick Chandler (actor), Harry Cheshire (actor), Billy Beck (actor), Hans Conried (actor), Scatman Crothers (actor),
Plot: When a star comedian dies, his comedy team, decides to train a nobody to fill the shoes of the Star in a big TV show (a Patsy). But the man they choose, bellboy Stanley Belt, cant do anything right. The big TV show is getting closer, and Stanley gets worse all the time.
Keywords: actor-director, agency, agent, ballet, barber-shop, bellboy, breaking-the-fourth-wall, cameo, crazy-humor, directed-by-starActors: Len Hendry (actor), E. Mason Hopper (actor), Chuck Hamilton (actor), Ken Christy (actor), Joe Gray (actor), William Holden (actor), Fred Aldrich (actor), Cecil B. DeMille (actor), Eddie Dew (actor), Fred Clark (actor), Larry J. Blake (actor), Franklyn Farnum (actor), Al Ferguson (actor), Creighton Hale (actor), Buster Keaton (actor),
Plot: The story, set in '50s Hollywood, focuses on Norma Desmond, a silent-screen goddess whose pathetic belief in her own indestructibility has turned her into a demented recluse. The crumbling Sunset Boulevard mansion where she lives with only her butler, Max who was once her director and husband has become her self-contained world. Norma dreams of a comeback to pictures and she begins a relationship with Joe Gillis, a small-time writer who becomes her lover, that will soon end with murder and total madness.
Keywords: abbreviation-in-title, actor, actress, aging, animal-burial, ashtray, assistant-director, astrology, auto-repossession, automobileActors: Myron Healey (actor), Al Hill (actor), John Berkes (actor), Alvin Hammer (actor), Paul Bryar (actor), Jim Bannon (actor), Lane Chandler (actor), Cliff Clark (actor), George Brent (actor), Fred Aldrich (actor), William Forrest (actor), Gregory Gaye (actor), Wilton Graff (actor), William Halligan (actor), Robert Kellard (actor),
Plot: When a dead body turns up in the home of a famous actress, two reporters (who also happen to be in love with one another) compete to get the real scoop.
Keywords: based-on-novel, news-reporterActors: Billy Wayne (actor), Herman Bing (actor), Syd Saylor (actor), Raymond Walburn (actor), Robert Dudley (actor), Nat 'King' Cole (actor), Byron Foulger (actor), James Conaty (actor), Thomas E. Jackson (actor), Lester Dorr (actor), Howard Negley (actor), William Newell (actor), Lee Phelps (actor), Dick Elliott (actor), Matt Willis (actor),
Plot: Based on the old radio series of the same name, we see the lives of several people attending a popular radio show, including a young couple who meet and fall in love at the show. Great musical acts including Nat King Cole and Spike Jones. ZaSu Pitts almost steals the show!
Keywords: public-domain, radioActors: Dennis O'Keefe (actor), Forbes Murray (actor), William H. O'Brien (actor), Horace McMahon (actor), Adolphe Menjou (actor), Stephen Chase (actor), Louis Natheaux (actor), Jack Gargan (actor), Gus Glassmire (actor), Vinton Hayworth (actor), Edward Everett Horton (actor), Hobart Cavanaugh (actor), Charles Judels (actor), Roscoe Karns (actor), Moroni Olsen (actor),
Plot: A fictional-story film in which many of the people seen in it are using their real name portraying the character who shows up in this fictional film in a completely fictional-and-staged setting, which means their role name is their own name, and is not any combination of "Self": The fictional J. D. Forbes, head of the (fictional) Four Star Studios in Hollywood, informs his associate producers that business and attendance at Four Star Films has tanked, and changes must be made. J. D. has decided that the movie-going public has to be offered down-to-earth entertainment such as that offered by a band leader named Kay Kyser, who puts on a radio and-live theatre program called "The Kollege of Musical Knowledge," and Forbes dictates to his hirelings to "get me Kay Kyser." When Chuck Deems---a fictional character playing the manager of a 'real' band---gets the studio offer, he and band members Ginny Simms, Sully Mason, Ish Kabiddle, Harry Babbitt and the others are all fired up at the prospect of going to Hollywood and working in the movies, but band-leader Kay is all against it and says his old grandmother ( a fictional character and not the actual Kay Kyser grandmother ) has told him to stay in his own back yard, but he relents. Once there, Stacey Delmore (a fictional character), a Four Star associate producer left in charge of the studio while Forbes is out of town, discovers that the screenplay writers, Tom Village and Dwight Cook, have prepared a script that has Kay Kyser playing a glamorous lover in an exotic European setting, and Delmore, after meeting Kay Kyser, sees real quick like that a rewrite has to be done. Lots of fictional things follow including a fictional press conference.
Keywords: 1930s, actor, actor-shares-first-name-with-character, actor-shares-full-name-with-character, actor-shares-last-name-with-character, actress, agent, archive-footage, band-manager, bandleader