 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Martin Fong (died 2014) was a film producer, director, cinematographer, stylist, actor, celebrity photographer, and was notable as one of the first major American tap dancers of Chinese descent to dance on the Las Vegas Strip.
Fong was raised by cinematographer James Wong Howe, A.S.C., who was his Fong's godfather and mentor.
Fong studied martial arts under Bruce Lee early in the career of both men. And, while Fong was in Hong Kong making movies, Bruce Lee joined him on the set and helped him to understand the importance of camera angles in fighting scenes.
Fong began his acting career at the age of 8 in Hong Kong, appearing in several films. Fong moved to America to be raised by Howe. His first American acting job was in Never So Few , starring Frank Sinatra, who introduced him to the Las Vegas Strip and tap dancing there. Fong appeared in Hawaiian Eye , The Islander , Run for Your Life , then more extensively on the television series I Spy . Fong can be seen in photographs consulting on espionage on the set of the James Bond film Octopussy .
Early in his career, Fong was a Las Vegas tap dancer who danced with the Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior, and Dean Martin. Fong's photograph is the entrance photograph at the MGM Grand Hotel. A controversy arose in the 1960s when Fong, a Chinese American, was on stage dancing with line of Caucasian women, mixing races in a city that catered to tourists from the segregated south. The women were then dressed in Asian costumes and had their faces and eyes painted to appear Oriental, so as to avoid controversy. He later dated the blonde co-star of the film Octopussy, this time without controversy, due to the rapid pace of improving race relations in the 1960s.
Fong did celebrity photographs from his photography studio in his Hollywood mansion from the 1960s until his death. Fong studied production, direction, and cinematography, casting, and photography on the sets of films being shot by Howe, and at the University of Southern California. He produced and directed feature films in Hong Kong, and commercials in Hollywood and Japan, with Hideki Tanaka. Fong spent the rest of his time writing screenplays.
Fong was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and Hollywood Hill, an association of entertainment industry executives dedicated to using the industry to promote positive social change. As of 2012, Fong lived in his Hollywood mansion at the foot of Griffith Park, where he collected clothing and Hollywood memorabilia, consulted on fashion. Fong died in 2014.
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer. She is the elder daughter of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra and is known for her 1965 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".
Dean Martin was an American singer, actor, and comedian. One of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, he was nicknamed "The King of Cool". Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio and television and in films.
Ocean's 11 is a 1960 American heist film directed and produced by Lewis Milestone from a screenplay by Harry Brown and Charles Lederer, based on a story by George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell. The film stars an ensemble cast and five members of the Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Centered on a series of Las Vegas casino robberies, the film also stars Angie Dickinson, Richard Conte, Cesar Romero, Patrice Wymore, Akim Tamiroff, and Henry Silva. It includes cameo appearances by Shirley MacLaine, Red Skelton, and George Raft.
The Rat Pack was an informal group of entertainers, the second iteration of which ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a group of A-list show business friends, such as Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and others who met casually at the Holmby Hills home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. In the 1960s, the group featured Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, among others. They appeared together on stage and in films in the 1950s and 1960s, including the films Ocean's 11 and Sergeants 3; after Lawford's expulsion, they filmed Robin and the 7 Hoods with Bing Crosby in what was to have been Lawford's role. Sinatra, Martin, and Davis were regarded as the group's lead members after Bogart's death.
Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian and dancer.
Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and most prominently, in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including Born to Dance (1936), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Rosalie (1937), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). She retired from films in the mid-1940s but resurfaced for the occasional specialty dance scene in films such as Thousands Cheer. In the 1950s she hosted a Christian children's TV show and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died from cancer at 69. Powell is known as one of the most versatile and powerful female dancers of the Hollywood studio era.
Christopher Doyle, also known as Dù Kěfēng (Mandarin) or Dou Ho-Fung (Cantonese) is an Australian-Hong Kong cinematographer. He has worked on over fifty Chinese-language films, being best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-wai in Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046. Doyle is also known for other films such as Temptress Moon, Hero, Dumplings, and Psycho. He has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, as well as the AFI Award for cinematography, the Golden Horse award, and the Hong Kong Film Award.
Carson Wayne Newton, mostly known as Mr. Las Vegas, is an American singer and actor. One of the most popular singers in the United States from the mid-to-late 20th century, Newton remains one of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas and has performed there since 1963. He is known by other nicknames such as "The Midnight Idol" and "Mr. Entertainment".
The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic American hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56-foot (17 m) high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, it hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis.
The Desert Inn, also known as the D.I., was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, which operated from April 24, 1950, to August 28, 2000. Designed by architect Hugh Taylor and interior design by Jac Lessman, it was the fifth resort to open on the Strip, the first four being El Rancho Vegas, The New Frontier, Flamingo, and the El Rancho. It was situated between Desert Inn Road and Sands Avenue.
Juliet Anne Prowse was a British-American dancer and actress whose four-decade career included stage, television and film. She was born in Bombay then of British India, raised in South Africa, where her family emigrated after World War II. Known for her attractive legs, she was described after her death as having "arguably the best legs since Betty Grable."
A showgirl is a female performer in a theatrical revue who wears an exotic and revealing costume and in some shows may appear topless. Showgirls are usually dancers, sometimes performing as chorus girls, burlesque dancers or fan dancers, and many are classically trained with skills in ballet. The term showgirl is also sometimes used by strippers and some strip clubs use it as part of their business name.
Andrew Lau Wai-keung is a Hong Kong film director, producer, and cinematographer. Lau began his career in the 1980s and 1990s, serving as a cinematographer to filmmakers such as Ringo Lam, Wong Jing and Wong Kar-wai. In the 1990s, Lau decided to have more creative freedom as a cinematographer by becoming a film director and producer. Apart from making films in his native Hong Kong, Lau has also made films in China, Korea and the United States. A highly prolific filmmaker, Lau has made films in a variety of genres, and is most notable in the West for his action and crime films which include the Young and Dangerous film series, the Infernal Affairs trilogy, and Revenge of the Green Dragons.
Wong Tung Jim, A.S.C. (Chinese: 黃宗霑; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976), known professionally as James Wong Howe (Houghto), was a Chinese-born American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood due to his innovative filming techniques. Howe was known as a master of the use of shadow and one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography, in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus.
John A. Alonzo, ASC was an American cinematographer, television director, and actor known for his diverse body of work in both film and television.
Kung fu film is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in wuxia, a related martial arts genre that uses historical settings based on ancient China. Swordplay is also less common in kung-fu films than in wuxia and fighting is done through unarmed combat.
Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) was an American singer, actor, and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. Over the course of his acting career he created a body of work that one biographer described as being "as varied, impressive and rewarding as that of any other Hollywood star".
Frank Stefanko is an American fine art photographer with connections to New Jersey performers Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen. Stefanko's early photographs, taken in the 1960s through the 1980s, reveal the emerging careers of the two young artists. Frank retains an ongoing working relationship with both Springsteen and Smith. A limited edition book was released in November 2017, entitled Bruce Springsteen: Further Up the Road. The book chronicles the 40-year working relationship between Stefanko and Bruce Springsteen. It contains personal stories and hundreds of Frank's photos from the 1960s to 2017, many never before seen.
Frankie Randall was an American singer and pianist.
Patrick Henry Scarnato, was a Brooklyn-born American comedian who was known for opening for Frank Sinatra for more than two decades. He first appeared with Sinatra in 1958, and appeared with him in the 1968 films The Detective and Lady in Cement.
