Kirk Douglas was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas, including westerns and war films. During his career, he appeared in more than 90 films and was known for his explosive acting style. He was named by the American Film Institute the 17th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood cinema.
Woman of the Year is a 1942 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The film was written by Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin, and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
The More the Merrier is a 1943 American romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. The film's script—from Two's a Crowd, an original screenplay by Garson Kanin (uncredited)—was written by Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy, and Lewis R. Foster. Set in Washington, D.C., the film presents a comic look at the housing shortage during World War II.
A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 American romantic drama that tells the story of a woman who sends a letter to three women, saying she has left town with one of their husbands without revealing which one. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Paul Douglas, Kirk Douglas, and Jeffrey Lynn. Thelma Ritter as "Sadie" and Celeste Holm have key supporting roles.
John Arthur Kennedy was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway. He won the 1949 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Miller's Death of a Salesman. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for the 1955 film Trial, and was a five-time Academy Award nominee.
Jerome Irving Wald was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs.
Carl Foreman, CBE was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films The Bridge on the River Kwai and High Noon, among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s because of their suspected communist sympathy or membership in the Communist Party.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is the American Film Institute's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history and is the second list of the AFI 100 Years... series.
Lonely Are the Brave is a 1962 American black and white Western film adaptation of the Edward Abbey novel The Brave Cowboy directed by David Miller from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands and Walter Matthau.
Don't Bother to Knock is a 1952 American psychological thriller starring Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe and directed by Roy Ward Baker.
How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 American drama film directed by John Ford, adapted by Philip Dunne from the 1939 novel of the same title by Richard Llewellyn. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and a young Roddy McDowall.
Lady Be Good is an MGM musical film released in 1941. The film stars dancer Eleanor Powell, along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed. This was the first of several films Powell made with Skelton. Powell received top billing, but Sothern and Young are the main stars. They play, respectively, Dixie Donegan, a would-be lyricist, and Eddie Crane, a struggling composer.
White Heat is a 1949 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo and Edmond O'Brien.
Mother Wore Tights is a 1947 American Technicolor musical film starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey as married vaudeville performers, directed by Walter Lang.
The Big Sky is a 1952 American Western film produced and directed by Howard Hawks and written by Dudley Nichols, based on the novel of the same name by A.B. Guthrie Jr. The cast includes Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt and Arthur Hunnicutt, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Though not considered among Hawks's major achievements by most critics, the film was chosen by Jonathan Rosenbaum for his alternative list of the Top 100 American Films.
Off Limits is a 1953 American comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Maxwell. Hope plays a manager who enlists in the army to keep an eye on his boxer, who has been drafted. The picture was written by Hal Kanter and Jack Sher, and was released in the UK as Military Policemen, as the characters played by Hope and Rooney join the military police.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American psychological drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson as a new patient at a mental institution, alongside Louise Fletcher as a sadistic nurse. The supporting cast is Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, Sydney Lassick, William Redfield, and the film debuts of Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif.
Edward Snyder, also known as Edward J. Snyder, was an American cameraman, cinematographer, and visual effects/special effects artist. Born in New York City in 1895, Snyder would break into the film industry as the director of photography on The Fighting Marine. a 1926 silent film that featured the only screen performance by boxing heavyweight champion Gene Tunney. Snyder would be one of the plethora of talented cameramen to work on the Howard Hughes' 1930 aerial classic, Hell's Angels, along with such other notable cameramen and future directors of photography, Paul Ivano, Henry Cronjager and Ernest Laszlo. It was as special effects artist that Snyder would have his greatest success, working on such classic films as Otto Preminger's Laura; George Cukor's Winged Victory; The Keys of the Kingdom, starring Gregory Peck; Elia Kazan's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Anna and the King of Siam, starring Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison. Snyder was nominated for an Academy Award for 1948's Deep Waters, losing to the special effects team of Portrait of Jennie). Snyder died in 1982.
She Had to Eat is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Malcolm St. Clair and written by Samuel G. Engel. The film stars Jack Haley, Rochelle Hudson, Arthur Treacher, Eugene Pallette, Douglas Fowley and John Qualen. It was released on July 2, 1937 by 20th Century-Fox.
Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith Bergman were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated television, film, and stage productions. The Bergmans enjoyed a successful career, honored with four Emmys, three Oscars, and two Grammys. They are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
