Dona Holloway

Last updated
Dona Holloway
Born
Agnes Mae Tweeddale

April 18, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado, USA
DiedSeptember 27, 1984 (aged 70)
West Hollywood, California, USA
OccupationFilm producer
Spouse(s) Louis Lichtenfield

Dona Holloway (born Agnes Mae Tweeddale) was an American film producer who got her start working for Columbia Pictures executive Harry Cohn. She's also known for her professional partnership with William Castle. At the time, she was one of the only female producers in the industry.

Contents

Biography

Born in Trinidad, Colorado, but raised in Los Angeles, Agnes Tweeddale was the daughter of Nicholas Tweeddale [1] and Esthel Wilcox. Her father was born in Scotland.

Holloway broke into the business when she was just 16, when she secured a position at William Morris. (She had been attending Los Angeles City College at the time, but left when the job opportunity came up.) [2] After serving as an assistant to WM VP John Hyde, she moved over to Columbia to assist studio chief Harry Cohn in 1949. [3]

"From Harry Cohn, I learned just about every phase of motion picture production, from scripts to casting, filming, editing, dubbing, and scoring," she told a reporter. [2]

In 1958, Cohn died, and Holloway joined Universal as an advisor to the studio's actresses. "Universal had a lot of luck developing young actors … but the girls weren't coming through for them," she'd later explain. "So I was taken on to try and bring out what they had, and did manage to spur the careers of a few anyway, Sandra Dee, Martha Hyer, and Kathryn Grant (Mrs. Bing Crosby), among others." [4]

In 1959, director William Castle—who she had met years earlier [5] —tapped her to join his independent production company. As his associate producer, she was involved with nearly a dozen films in the 1960s.

She was married twice: First to a doctor, and later in life, to Louis Lichtenfield, the head of special effects at Warner Brothers. [6]

Selected filmography

Related Research Articles

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment, itself a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony and one of the "Big Five" major American film studios.

Shelley Winters American actress

Shelley Winters was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films; she won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). She also appeared in A Double Life (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), and Pete's Dragon (1977). In addition to film, Winters appeared in television, including a tenure on the sitcom Roseanne, and wrote three autobiographical books.

Capucine French model and actress

Capucine was a French fashion model and actress known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther (1963) and What's New Pussycat? (1965). She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990.

Dorothy Hart American actress

Dorothy Hart was an American screen actress, mostly in supporting roles. She portrayed Howard Duff's fiancée in the film The Naked City (1948).

Harry Cohn Co-founder of Columbia Pictures Corporation

Harry Cohn was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.

Richard Quine American actor

Richard Quine was an American director, actor, and singer.

William Castle

William Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor.

Charles Vidor was a Hungarian film director. Among his film successes are The Bridge (1929), The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942), The Desperadoes (1943), Cover Girl (1944), Together Again (1944), A Song to Remember (1945), Over 21 (1945), Gilda (1946), The Loves of Carmen (1948), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), The Swan (1956), The Joker Is Wild (1957), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).

Sam Katzman American film producer and director

Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers.

Joan Caulfield American actress

Beatrice Joan Caulfield was an American actress and model. After being discovered by Broadway producers, she began a stage career in 1943 that eventually led to signing as an actress with Paramount Pictures. In the opinion of Ephraim Katz in The Film Encyclopedia, published in 1979, "For several years she was among Paramount's top stars, radiating delicate femininity and demure beauty but rarely much else."

Screen Gems Film studio of the United States of America

Screen Gems, Inc. is an American film production and distribution studio that is a division of Sony Pictures' Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation. The label currently specializes in genre films, mainly horror.

The Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP) was a motion picture studio and production company founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle. The company was based in New York City, with production facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1912, IMP merged with several other production companies to form Universal Film Manufacturing Company, later re-named Universal Pictures Company with Laemmle as president.

Constance Towers Actress, singer

Constance Mary Towers is an American film, stage, and television actress, and singer. She gained prominence for her appearances in several mainstream 1950s films before transitioning to theater, starring in numerous Broadway productions through the 1970s. Her accolades include two Emmy Award nominations.

<i>Song Without End</i> 1960 film by Charles Vidor, George Cukor

Song Without End, subtitled The Story of Franz Liszt (1960) is a biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the picture and was replaced by George Cukor. It was produced by William Goetz from a screenplay by Oscar Millard, revised (uncredited) by Walter Bernstein and based on screenwriter Oscar Saul's original 1952 script (uncredited). The music score was by Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman with music by Franz Liszt, and the cinematography by James Wong Howe and Charles Lang (uncredited). The film also features music of those contemporaries of Liszt whom he unselfishly championed by featuring them in his numerous performances.

Mary Castle American actress

Mary Ann Castle was an American actress of film and television whose personal problems destroyed her once burgeoning career. Castle's best-known role was as female detective Frankie Adams in the syndicated western series Stories of the Century (1954).

Constance Worth Australian actress

Constance Worth was an Australian actress who became a Hollywood star in the late 1930s. She was also known as Jocelyn Howarth.

Joan Perry

Joan Perry, born Elizabeth Rosiland Miller, was an American film actress, model, and singer. Known as Betty Miller when she was a model,

Bryna Productions American film production company

Bryna Productions is an American independent film and television production company established by actor Kirk Douglas in 1949. The company also produced a handful of films through its subsidiaries, Michael Productions, Joel Productions and Douglas and Lewis Productions, and outside the United States through Brynaprod. Other subsidiaries included Eric Productions, which produced stage plays, Peter Vincent Music, a music publishing company, Bryna International, a photographic service company, and Public Relations Consultants, which supervised the publicity of its early films. Douglas named the main company after his mother, Bryna Demsky, while its primary subsidiaries were named after his sons: Michael Douglas, Joel Douglas, Peter Douglas and Eric Douglas. In 1970, Bryna Productions was renamed The Bryna Company, when Douglas welcomed his children and second wife into the firm. Nevertheless, Michael, Joel and Peter, wanting to establish individual identities, went on to form their own independent film production companies.

Dorothy Cooper was an award-winning American screenwriter and TV writer active in the 1940s through the 1970s.

Irving Briskin American film producer

Irving Briskin was an American film producer of more than 200 films during the 1930s and 1940s. He was the brother of Samuel J. Briskin and Murray Briskin, both also film producers.

References

  1. ↑ "3 Apr 1962, 54 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  2. 1 2 "13 Jul 1966, 41 - Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  3. ↑ "21 Jan 1965, Page 19 - Albuquerque Journal at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  4. ↑ "16 Jul 1965, Page 9 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  5. ↑ "12 Jun 1963, 20 - The Indianapolis News at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  6. ↑ "6 May 1986, Page 62 - Asbury Park Press at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.