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1-10 of 10
- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Born in Grodek, Poland, Ross Martin grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. He spoke Yiddish, Polish, and Russian before even learning English and later added French, Spanish, and Italian to his amazing repertoire.
Despite academic training (and receiving honors in) business, instruction, and law, M. Martin chose a career of acting. His first film was the George Pal production Conquest of Space (1955). Soon after, he caught the eye of Blake Edwards who cast him in a number of widely varied roles, culminating with a fantastic part in The Great Race (1965).
Ross somehow managed a series in between, the short-lived Mr. Lucky (1959). With the release of The Great Race (1965), CBS cast him in what was to become his most famous part, Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West (1965), opposite Robert Conrad. Perhaps the show's cancellation in 1969 was for the best - he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1968.
Afraid to take the risk of having a lead actor with a heart condition, the networks snubbed him with regards to a lead role, yet he appeared as a guest star in an amazing number of programs, not all dramatic masterpieces. Yet Ross loved to act, and took every role which came his way. Ross Martin collapsed while playing tennis, the heart condition finally taking its toll on July 3rd, 1981.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Brilliant, distinguished American director, particularly of Westerns, whose simple, bleak style disguises a complex artistic temperament. The adopted son of a wealthy hardware retailer, Boetticher attended Culver Military Academy and Ohio State University, where he excelled in football and boxing.
Following his schooling Boetticher, something of an adventurer, went to Mexico and transformed himself into a formidable professional matador. His school chum, Hal Roach Jr., used his film connections to get Boetticher minor jobs in the film industry, most importantly the job of technical adviser on the bullfighting romance Blood and Sand (1941). By studying the work of the film's director, Rouben Mamoulian, and from editor Barbara McLean, he gained a thorough grounding in filmmaking.
After an apprenticeship as a studio messenger and assistant director, he was given a chance to direct, first retakes of scenes from other directors' films, then his own low-budget projects. For producer John Wayne Boetticher filmed his first prominent work, a fictionalization of his own experiences in Mexico, Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), although the work was re-edited without Boetticher's approval by his mentor, John Ford (the director's cut was restored several decades later).
Following a number of sprightly but inconsequential programmers in the early 1950s, Boetticher formed a partnership with actor Randolph Scott which, with the participation of producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy, led to a string of the most memorable Western films of the 1950s, including 7 Men from Now (1956) and The Tall T (1957). He directed a sharp gangster film, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), then, with his wife Debra Paget, left for Mexico to film a monumental documentary on famed matador Carlos Arruza. The travail of the next seven years, which Boetticher detailed in his autobiography "When In Disgrace", included near-fatal illness, divorce, incarceration in jails, hospitals and an insane asylum, and the accidental deaths of Arruza and most of the film crew. The film, Arruza (1971), was both an exquisite documentary and a testament to Boetticher's immutable drive. Though he returned to Hollywood to form a partnership with Audie Murphy, they completed only one film together before Murphy's death in 1971.
Since then Boetticher completed another documentary and had announced several feature films in preparation. He died at age 85.- Buxom and shapely blonde bombshell Lynda Wiesmeier was born on May 30, 1963 in Washington, D.C. Wiesmeier resided in various places throughout America and Germany before eventually settling down in Los Angeles, California. Lynda worked as a receptionist at a doctor's office prior to deciding to pose nude for Playboy as the Playmate of the Month for July, 1982. In the wake of her Playmate stint Wiesmeier not only appeared in a handful of Playboy videos and newsstand special editions, but also was a promotional model and reporter for the Playboy Channel as well as acted in several comedies and low-budget exploitation movies that were made and released throughout the early to mid-1980's. After calling it a day as an actress, Lynda went on to become an office manager in Lafayette, Louisiana and subsequently moved back to Southern California. Wiesmeier died at the tragically young age of 49 from a brain tumor on December 16, 2012 in Ramona, California.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Casey Tibbs was born on 5 March 1929 in Fort Pierre, South Dakota, USA. He was an actor, known for The Young Rounders (1971), The Sioux Nation (1970) and Born to Buck (1966). He was married to Cleo Ann Harrington. He died on 28 January 1990 in Ramona, California, USA.- Wag Blesing was born on 26 December 1920 in Marble Falls, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Rounders (1966). He was married to Faye Blesing. He died on 14 October 1981 in Ramona, California, USA.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
King Zany was born on 11 June 1889 in Toledo, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Can't Hardly Wait (1998), The Great Gabbo (1929) and Broadway or Bust (1924). He died on 19 February 1939 in Ramona, California, USA.- Dai Vernon was born on 11 June 1894 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Magician (1973), Magiskt (1993) and Tomorrow Coast to Coast (1973). He died on 21 August 1992 in Ramona, California, USA.
- Art Department
John N. Graffeo was born on 9 October 1941 in Hollywood, California, USA. John N. is known for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Breakdown (1997) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985). John N. died on 20 July 2007 in Ramona, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jazz pianist, saxophonist, trombonist, cornetist, accordionist, singer ("Maybe You'll Be There", a 1948 gold record)", arranger and composer (his first tune was the 1928 "Please Don't Go Away), educated at the College of Fine Arts and the University of Oklahoma. He had been a member, usually on alto sax, with Herb Cook's Oklahoma Joy Boys, Frank Williams and his Oklahomans, and Etzi Covato before 1929. In the early 1930s he performed in and around Oklahoma City, then went on tour and then came to Chicago in late 1932, leading his own bands and those of Wingy Manone and Jack Teagarden on their first recordings. Going back on tour in the mid-1930s he toured Texas and the midwest with Eddie Neibauer and Dell Coon, and led his own all-star recording group in Chicago (1935) before starting on radio in 1935. Going to Hollywood in 1938, he joined Frank Trumbauer in 1938, then worked in radio and recording studios in Hollywood with Skinnay Ennis, Victor Young, John Scott Trotter and Gordon Jenkins, and accompanied Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes and other stars into 1950. He sang in the 'Golden Horseshoe Revue' at Disneyland until 1960, which was the most performed stage show in the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1958 he recorded as the blues vocalist on the concept album "The Letter" with Judy Garland. After an extremely busy decade following that, he organized a piano-repair and tuning service in Southern California. Joining ASCAP in 1956, his chief musical collaborators were Tom Adair and 'Bonnie Lake', and his popular-song compositions include: "The Blues Have Got Me", "Cuban Boogie Woogie", "It's All In Your Mind", and "Mis'ry & The Blues".- Sabrina Thibault was a producer, known for One Foot in the Grave (1998) and The Garage (2006). Sabrina died on 15 March 2008 in Ramona, California, USA.