The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.
Nancy Kelly was an American actress in film, theater, and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time, and appeared in several films in the late 1920s. She became a leading lady upon returning to the screen in the late 1930s, while still in her teens, and made two dozen movies between 1938 and 1946, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone, later that same year. After turning to the stage in the late 1940s, she had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the 1956 film adaptation, her last film role. Kelly then worked regularly in television until 1963, then took over the role of Martha in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for several months. She returned to television for a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s.
George Brent was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel and Dark Victory.
Eamon Joseph O'Brien was an American actor of stage, screen, and television, and film director. His career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Joan Carroll was an American child actress who appeared in films until retiring in 1950.
Ruth Elizabeth Warrick was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children, which she played regularly from 1970 until her death in 2005. She made her film debut in Citizen Kane, and years later celebrated her 80th birthday by attending a special screening of the film.
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.
A Damsel in Distress is a 1937 American English-themed Hollywood musical comedy film starring Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen and Joan Fontaine. Loosely based upon P.G. Wodehouse's 1919 novel of the same name and the 1928 stage play written by Wodehouse and Ian Hay, it has music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was directed by George Stevens, who had also directed Astaire in Swing Time (1936).
George Meeker was an American character film and Broadway actor.
Susan and God is a 1940 American comedy-drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford and Fredric March. The screenplay was written by Anita Loos and was based upon a 1937 play by Rachel Crothers. The supporting cast features Rita Hayworth and Nigel Bruce.
The Long Hot Summer is an American drama series from 20th Century Fox Television that was broadcast on ABC-TV for one season from 1965–1966. It was aired in the UK on ITV.
What's Cookin'? is a 1942 American musical film directed by Edward F. Cline and starring The Andrews Sisters, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige and Gloria Jean. The film is based on the story Wake Up and Dream written by Edgar Allan Woolf.
Sarah Ann Padden was an English-born American theatre and film character actress. She performed on stage in the early 20th century. Her best-known single-act performance was in The Clod, a stage production in which she played an uneducated woman who lived on a farm during the American Civil War.
Secret Command is a 1944 American drama war film directed by A. Edward Sutherland and starring Pat O'Brien and Carole Landis. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Effects in 1945.
Child of Divorce is a 1946 American drama film directed by Richard O. Fleischer. It was the first film that he directed. RKO had adapted the play to film before as the 1934 film Wednesday's Child.
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday is a 1943 American comedy drama film produced and directed by Bruce Manning and starring Deanna Durbin, Edmond O'Brien, and Barry Fitzgerald.
Stopover Tokyo is a 1957 American film noir crime film directed by Richard L. Breen and starring Robert Wagner, Joan Collins, Edmond O'Brien and Ken Scott. Filmed in Japan in CinemaScope, the film is set in Tokyo and follows a US counterintelligence agent working to foil a communist assassination plot.
Second Chance is a 1950 American black-and-white drama film directed by William Beaudine and produced by Paul F. Heard for the Protestant Film Commission. It stars Ruth Warrick, John Hubbard, and Hugh Beaumont. The story centers on a middle-aged woman who has received a dire health prognosis from her doctor and proceeds to look back on her life in flashback, seeing herself change from a sweet and idealistic young bride into a brittle and disillusioned older woman. In the end, the wake-up call is really a dream, but the woman realizes that only by reconnecting with her Christian faith and with God will she manage to improve her life and relationships. The film was not released commercially, but was widely distributed to Protestant denominational churches in the United States and Canada.
Petticoat Larceny is a 1943 American comedy film directed by Ben Holmes from an original screenplay by Jack Townley and Stuart Palmer. The film stars Ruth Warrick, Joan Carroll, and Walter Reed, and was released by RKO Radio Pictures on July 7, 1943.
The Iron Major is a 1943 American biographical film about the famed college football coach and World War I hero, Frank Cavanaugh. Directed by Ray Enright, the screenplay was written by Aben Kandel and Warren Duff, based on Florence E. Cavanaugh's story.
