Doris Schroeder (February 7, 1893 – January 4, 1981) was a prolific American screenwriter. Her first screenplay was the now-lost Heart of a Jewess. During the 1920s, Schroeder specialized in "women's pictures" for such specialized directors as Lois Weber. Her main concern was a girl named Jenna Schroeder. Doris Schroeder concentrated on Westerns, together with Harrison Jacobs she wrote several entries in the Hopalong Cassidy series.^[1]

During the 50's and 60's wrote many television and film tie-in young adult novels for Western Publishing.

Film credits[link]

Published works[link]

• Annie Oakley in Danger at Diablo (1955)
• Rin Tin Tin and Call to Danger (1957)
• Annie Oakley in the Ghost Town Secret (1957)
• Annie Oakley in Double Trouble (1958)
• Walt Disney's Spin and Marty Trouble at Triple-R (1958)
• Gunsmoke (1958)
• Lassie: Forbidden Valley (1959)
• The Lennon Sisters the Secret of Holiday Island: The Secret of Holiday Island (1960)
• Walt Disney's Annette: Sierra Summer (1960)
• Walt Disney's Annette, the Desert Inn Mystery (1961)
• Walt Disney's Annette and the Mystery at Moonstone Bay (1962)
• The Beverly Hillbillies: The Saga of Wildcat Creek (1962)
• Walt Disney's Annette and the Mystery at Smugglers' Cove (1963)
• Patty Duke and Mystery Mansion (1964)
• Walt Disney's Annette and the Mystery of Medicine Wheel (1964)
• Patty Duke and the Adventure of the Chinese Junk (1966)
• Lassie Forbidden Valley (1969)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Doris Schroeder at the Internet Movie Database

Bettina Böttinger

Bettina Böttinger (born 4 July 1956 in Düsseldorf) is a German television presenter.

Life[link]

After school Böttinger studied German language and history at the University of Bonn. In 1985 she began as journalist at Westdeutscher Rundfunk. She worked for television programme Aktuelle Stunde. As television presenter she worked during 1990s and 2000s in different programmes, for example Hier und Heute, Parlazzo and B. trifft. Böttinger lives as an open homosexual in Cologne and in the Eifel .

Awards[link]

• 2007: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

External links[link]

• Bettina Böttinger
• WDR:Kölner Treff:Bettina Böttinger

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2011)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)

With Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg, 2003.

Doris Schröder-Köpf (born 5 August 1963 in Neuburg an der Donau) is a German journalist and the fourth wife of the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Magazines she has worked for include Bild and Focus.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Doris Schröder-Köpf

References[link]

• "Doris Schröder-Köpf" (in German). FOCUS Magazin. http://www.focus.de/kultur/leben/nachgefragt/fragebogen-doris-schroeder-koepf_aid_204317.html. Retrieved 2010-09-26. 
• "Die Frau im Kanzleramt" (in German). Zeit Online. http://www.zeit.de/2005/36/Titel_2fK_9apf_36. Retrieved 2010-09-26. 

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This article about a European journalist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Heike Makatsch
Makatsch at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005
Born	(1971-08-13) 13 August 1971 (age 40) Düsseldorf, Germany
Occupation	Actress/Singer
Years active	1993–present
Partner	Daniel Craig (1994–2001)

Heike Makatsch (born 13 August 1971) is a German actress and singer.

Early life[link]

Makatsch was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, the daughter of former German national ice hockey team goaltender Rainer Makatsch. She spent several months in New Mexico in 1988 in an effort to improve her English, and later studied politics and sociology at the University of Düsseldorf for four semesters, which was followed by an apprenticeship as a dressmaker until 1994.

Career[link]

Her television career started in 1993, when she was hired by music channel VIVA, hosting shows such as Interaktiv and Heikes Hausbesuche; two years later, on August 13, 1995, she became the host of the German chart show Bravo TV, aired by RTL II, a position she kept until summer 1996. In 1997 she started hosting her own weekly, late night show titled Heike Makatsch Show. However, due to bad ratings, it was cancelled after only eight episodes.

Makatsch first appeared in a movie in 1996, when she starred in Detlev Buck's Männerpension (English: "Jailbirds"); she received the Bavarian Film Award as most talented young actor for her performance. Since then, she has appeared in several German and English language productions including the romantic comedy Love Actually. Heike can be best remembered for a role of Lisa in a 2002, Capcom video game-based sci-fi/horror movie Resident Evil.

Filmography[link]

• Männerpension (English: "Jailbirds", directed by Detlev Buck, 1996)
• Obsession (directed by Peter Sehr, 1997)
• Bin ich schön? (English: "Am I beautiful?", directed by Doris Dörrie, 1998)
• Liebe deine Nächste (English: "Love your neighbour", directed by Detlev Buck, 1998)
• Aimée & Jaguar (English: "Aimee & Jaguar", directed by Max Färberböck, 1999)
• Gripsholm (directed by Xavier Koller, 2000)
• Late Night Shopping (directed by Saul Metzstein, 2001)
• Nackt (English: "Naked", directed by Doris Dörrie, 2002)
• Resident Evil (directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, 2002)
• Love Actually (directed by Richard Curtis, 2003)
• Anatomie 2 (English: "Anatomy 2" directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2003)
• Margarete Steiff (TV-film) (directed by Xaver Schwarzenberger, 2005)
• A Sound of Thunder (directed by Peter Hyams, 2005)
• Keine Lieder über Liebe (English: "No songs about love", directed by Lars Kraume, 2005)
• Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution (directed by Bille Eltringham, 2007)
• Hilde (directed by Kai Wessel, 2009)
• Die Tür (English: "The door", directed by Anno Saul, 2009)
• Tom Sawyer (2011)

Awards[link]

• 1995
  • Bavarian Film Award for Best New Actress^[1]
  • Telestar Förderpreis für "Interaktiv" (VIVA)
• 1996 - Bambi
• 2002 - Goldene Kamera
• 2003 - Bambi
• 2006 - Bambi

In 2006 Makatsch was nominated for an Emmy for her interpretation of Margarete Steiff in the TV movie of the same name.

Personal life[link]

Makatsch was involved in a seven-year relationship with British actor Daniel Craig.^[2]

She has two daughters, Mieke Ellen (born 23 January 2007) and an unnamed daughter (born 16 October 2009), with Max Martin Schröder from the German indie band Tomte.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Heike Makatsch at the Internet Movie Database
• Hilde at the Internet Movie Database
• Rotten Tomatoes entry for Heike Makatsch
• filmstar.de entry for Heike Makatsch (German)

Vivian Vance
A promotional photo of Vivian Vance for the play Springtime for Henry taken on August 9, 1948.
Born	Vivian Roberta Jones July 26, 1909 Cherryvale, Kansas, U.S.
Died	August 17, 1979(1979-08-17) (aged 70) Belvedere, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Singer
Years active	1933–77
Spouse	Joseph Shearer Danneck, Jr. (1928-31) George Koch (1933-40) Philip Ober (1941-1959) John Dodds (1961-79)[1]

Vivian Vance (born Vivian Roberta Jones, July 26, 1909 – August 17, 1979)^[2] was an American television and theater actress and singer. Vance is best known for her role as Ethel Mertz, sidekick to Lucille Ball on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, and as Vivian Bagley on The Lucy Show.

Early life[link]

Born in Cherryvale, Kansas, Vance was the second of six children born to Robert and Euphemia Jones.^[2] When she was six years old her family moved to Independence, Kansas, where she eventually began her dramatic studies at Independence High School under the tutelage of Anna Ingleman, the drama instructor. Her love of acting clashed with her mother's strict religious beliefs, and it wasn't too long before Vance, nicknamed "Viv" by friends, became very rebellious, often sneaking out of her bedroom and staying out after curfew. She soon changed her surname to Vance (after folklorist Vance Randolph) and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to find work as an actress. Vance was a founding member of the Albuquerque Little Theatre, where she appeared in many plays including, This Thing Called Love and The Cradle Song. The local theatre community helped pay her way to New York to study under Eva Le Gallienne.

Career[link]

Broadway[link]

Starting in 1932, Vivian was in a number of shows on Broadway, usually as a member of the chorus. Eventually she graduated to supporting parts after she replaced Kay Thompson in the musical Hooray for What! Her most successful stage role was that of Nancy Collister in the Cole Porter musical Let's Face It! in which she starred alongside Danny Kaye and Eve Arden for over 500 performances.

• Music in the Air- November 8, 1932 - September 16 , 1933
• Anything Goes - November 21, 1934 - November 16, 1935
• Red, Hot and Blue - October 29, 1936 - April 10, 1937
• Hooray for What! - December 1, 1937 - May 21, 1938
• Skylark - October 11, 1939 - May 25, 1940
• Out From Under - May 4, 1940 - May 11, 1940
• Let's Face It! - October 29, 1941 - March 20, 1943
• It Takes Two - February 3, 1947 - February 8, 1947
• The Cradle Will Rock (revival) - December 26, 1947 - February 7, 1948
• My Daughter, Your Son - May 14, 1969 - June 21, 1969

Film[link]

Following her appearance in a revival of The Cradle Will Rock in 1947, Vance decided to move to California to pursue other theatre projects as well as opportunities in film. During her stay in Los Angeles, Vance appeared in two films: The Secret Fury (1950) as Leah, a streetwise chambermaid, and The Blue Veil (1951) as Alicia. Aside from receiving several positive notices for her performance the films did little to further Vance’s career as a film actress.

In all Vance made four film appearances;

• Take a Chance (1933)-Dancehall Girl
• The Secret Fury (1950)- Leah
• The Blue Veil (1951)- Alicia
• The Great Race (1965)- Hester Goodbody

[edit] I Love Lucy

1967 publicity photo of Lucille Ball (left) and Vance in the rebroadcast Japan episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

When Desi Arnaz and wife Lucille Ball were casting their new television sitcom I Love Lucy in 1951, director Marc Daniels, who had previously worked with Vivian Vance in a theater production, suggested Vance for the role of landlady Ethel Mertz. Lucille Ball had wanted either actresses Bea Benaderet or Barbara Pepper, two close friends, to play the role. CBS refused Pepper on the grounds that she had a drinking problem, and Benaderet was already playing Blanche Morton on the Burns and Allen television series.^[3] Arnaz then began searching for another actress. Daniels took Arnaz to the La Jolla Playhouse, along with producer Jess Oppenheimer, to see Vance in the John Van Druten play The Voice of the Turtle. While watching her perform, Arnaz was convinced he had found the right actress to play Ethel Mertz. Ball was less sure. She had envisioned Ethel to be much older and less attractive. Vance, however, was close to Ball's age and was attractive. In addition, Ball, firmly entrenched in film and radio, had never heard of Vance, who was primarily a theater actress. Nonetheless, the 42-year-old Vance was given the role on the new television program, which debuted October 15, 1951, on CBS. Throughout the run of the show, Vance's character of Ethel Mertz was dressed in old-fashioned and frumpier clothing to tone down her attractiveness and make her look older than she actually was. Although Vance's and Ball's friendship was lukewarm initially, Ball eventually overcame her resistance to Vance and began respecting her as a friend and an actress, and the two formed a close friendship.^{[citation needed]}

Vance's Ethel Mertz character was the less-than-prosperous landlady of a New York City brownstone, owned by her and husband Fred Mertz on East 68th Street. The role of Fred was played by William Frawley, who was 22 years her senior in real life. While Vance and Frawley shared great acting, comedic, and musical chemistry on-screen, off-screen they did not get along. According to some reports, things first went sour when Frawley overheard Vance complaining about his age, stating that he should be playing her father rather than her husband. She used to skim through the script before she memorized her lines to see how many scenes she had with that "stubborn-headed little Irishman."^[4] Others recall that Vance and Frawley practically loathed each other on sight, and that Vance was put off by Frawley's cantankerous attitude.^[5]

Honored for her work in 1953, Vance became the first actress to win an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actress". Vance accepted her award at the Emmy ceremony in February 1954. She was nominated an additional three times (for 1954, 1956 and 1957) before the end of the series.

In 1957, after the highly successful half-hour I Love Lucy episodes had ended, Vance continued playing Ethel Mertz on a series of hour-long specials titled The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (later retitled The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). In 1959, she divorced her third husband Philip Ober, who allegedly physically abused her.^[6] When I Love Lucy was reformatted into the hour-long Lucy-Desi shows in 1957, Desi Arnaz proposed to Vance and Frawley the opportunity to star in their own "Fred and Ethel" spin-off show. Although Frawley was very interested, Vance declined mainly because she did not want work on a one on one basis with Frawley as they already did not get along. Also, she felt the Mertz characters would be unsuccessful in a show without the Ricardos. Vance declining the would-be show intensified the animosity between her and Frawley.^[7] Instead Vance was interested in doing a series based on the life of Babs Hooten, a New York socialite who moves to New Mexico to run a hotel and ranch. Desi Arnaz financed a pilot starring Vance as Hooten titled Guestward, Ho! which was shot in 1958 by Desilu, however, the show was rejected by CBS and in turn Vance continued in her Ethel Mertz role. Arnaz would later retool the show with model and actress Joanne Dru taking the lead role, selling the series to ABC where it was subsequently cancelled after one season.

[edit] The Lucy Show

In 1961 she married literary agent John Dodds (d. 1986). The couple established their home in Stamford, Connecticut, although the couple moved to California in 1974; the marriage lasted until Vance's death. In 1962, Lucille Ball was planning to return to television in a new series, The Lucy Show. The premise of the series starred Ball as Lucy Carmichael, a widow with two children living in Danfield, New York. Vance reluctantly agreed to be her co-star on the condition that she be allowed to appear in more glamorous clothes as well as having her character be named "Vivian".

By this time in her life, Vance had grown tired of the public addressing her as "Ethel". She appeared on The Lucy Show from 1962-65, as Vivian Bagley, a divorced mother of one son, sharing a house with Ball's character. The character was the first divorcee ever on a weekly American television series. The strain of commuting from her home in Connecticut to Hollywood was too hard on her. In the third season, Vance didn't appear in 7 of the season's 26 episodes. In 1965, after completing her third year on the series, Vance decided to leave. At the start of the 1965-66 season, the format of the sitcom had changed. The "Lucy" character moved out to Los Angeles. Vivian Bagley remarried and she, her son and her new husband remained in Danfield. Before she departed the show, Vance was offered a new contract with Desilu Studios, giving her the opportunity to direct. This never came to fruition, though, when Vance could not reach an agreement on salary. She made only 3 more guest appearances on the remaining seasons of The Lucy Show.^{[citation needed]}

Life after Lucy[link]

Following her departure from The Lucy Show at the end of the third season, Vance signed on to appear in a Blake Edwards film, The Great Race. Vance saw this as an opportunity to restart a movie career which never really took off. The film was a moderate success, receiving several Academy Award nominations; however, it did little to help Vance establish a career as a movie actress. Vance was slated to make her return to Broadway in the Woody Allen comedy Don't Drink the Water. However, Vance left the play during its out-of-town tryouts, later saying she felt the role was not right for her and asked the show's producers to be let out of her contract. Vance would end up making her Broadway return several years later in 1969 in the comedy My Daughter, Your Son. However, the show was not a success and lasted only five weeks. A national tour proved to be more successful.^{[citation needed]}

After her departure from The Lucy Show, Vance appeared occasionally alongside Ball on reunion shows and made several guest appearances on Ball's third sitcom, Here's Lucy (1968–1974). In 1973, Vance was diagnosed with breast cancer. The following year, she and her husband moved to Belvedere, California, so she could be near her sister. It was during this period that Vance's agent got her an endorsement deal with Maxwell House Coffee. Over the next several years Vivian could be seen in numerous commercials for Maxwell House. The 1970s saw Vance making a number of TV guest appearances as well as appearing in a number of made for TV movies including The Front Page (1970), Getting Away From it All (1972) and The Great Houdini (1976).

Death[link]

Vance made her final television appearance with Lucille Ball on the CBS special Lucy Calls the President, which aired November 21, 1977. That same year, Vance suffered a stroke which left her partially paralyzed.

She died on August 17, 1979, of bone cancer (secondary to breast cancer). After her death, Desi Arnaz remarked, "It’s bad enough to lose one of the great artists we had the honor and the pleasure to work with, but it’s even harder to reconcile the loss of one of your best friends."

Her body was cremated, and the ashes scattered at sea. Family members donated Vance's Emmy Award to the Albuquerque Little Theatre after her death. During a 1986 interview, Lucille Ball talked about watching I Love Lucy reruns and her reaction to Vance's performance: "I find that now I usually spend my time looking at Viv. Viv was sensational. And back then, there were things I had to do—I was in the projection room for some reason, and I just couldn't concentrate on it. But now I can. And I enjoy every move that Viv made. She was something."

For her achievements in the field of television, Vance was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991 at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard.^[8]

Vance is memorialized in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York. On January 20, 2010, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a local antique dealer had inherited many of Vance's photos and scrapbooks and a manuscript of Vance's unpublished autobiography when John Dodds died in 1986.^[9] Vance and Frawley were inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in March 2012.

Trivia[link]

• She was the godmother of Lovin' Spoonful guitarist John Sebastian, whose mother had been a close friend. Vance herself had no children.

Filmography[link]

• Lucy Calls the President (TV, 1977) as Viv
• The Great Houdini (TV, 1976) as Minnie (nurse)
• Rhoda (1 episode, 1975) as Maggie Cummings
• Here's Lucy (4 episodes, 1968–1972) as Vivian Jones
• Getting Away from It All (TV, 1972) as May Brodey
• The Front Page (TV, 1970) as Mrs. Grant
• Love, American Style (1 episode, 1969) as Madame Zimia Zygmundt (segment "Love and the Medium")
• The Lucy Show (80 episodes, 1962–1968) as Vivian Bagley
• The Great Race (1965) as Hester Goodbody
• The Red Skelton Show (6 episodes, 1960–1964) as Clara Appleby
• Guestward Ho! (1 episode, 1960)
• The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (13 episodes, 1957–1960) as Ethel Mertz
• The Deputy (1 episode, 1959) as Emma Gant
• I Love Lucy (176 episodes, 1951–57) as Ethel Mertz
• The Blue Veil (1951) as Alicia
• The Secret Fury (1950) as Leah

Broadway credits[link]

• Music in the Air (1932–1933)
• Anything Goes (1934–1935)
• Red, Hot and Blue (1936–1937)
• Hooray for What! (1937–1938)
• Skylark (1939–1940)
• Out From Under (1940)
• Let's Face It! (1941–1943)
• It Takes Two (1947)
• The Cradle Will Rock (1947–1948)
• My Daughter, Your Son (1969)

References[link]

For further reading[link]

• Castelluccio, Frank and Walker, Alvin. The Other Side of Ethel Mertz: The Life Story of Vivian Vance. New York: Berkley Books, 2000. ISBN 0-425-17609-6
• Edelman, Rob and Kupferberg, Audre. Meet the Mertzes: The Life Stories of I Love Lucy's Other Couple. Los Angeles, Calif.: Renaissance Books, 1999. ISBN 1-58063-095-2

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vivian Vance

Biography portal

• Vivian Vance at Find a Grave
• Vivian Vance at the Internet Broadway Database
• Vivian Vance at the Internet Movie Database