James Maitland Stewart was an American actor. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality he portrayed both on and off the screen, he epitomized the "American ideal" in the mid-twentieth century. In 1999, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked him third on its list of the greatest American male actors. He received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1980, the Kennedy Center Honor in 1983, as well as the Academy Honorary Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom, both in 1985.
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
Night Must Fall is a play, a psychological thriller, by Emlyn Williams, first performed in 1935. There have been three filmed adaptations: Night Must Fall (1937); a 1954 adaptation on the television anthology series Ponds Theater starring Terry Kilburn, Una O'Connor, and Evelyn Varden; and Night Must Fall (1964).
George Emlyn Williams, CBE was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor.
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television.
The Valley of Decision is a 1945 American drama film directed by Tay Garnett, adapted by Sonya Levien and John Meehan from Marcia Davenport's 1942 novel of the same name. Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1870s, it stars Greer Garson and Gregory Peck. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. This was Garson's sixth nomination and her fifth consecutive, a record for most consecutive Best Actress nominations that still stands. The Allegheny City railroad station is misspelled as Alleghany City.
Blithe Spirit is a comic play by Noël Coward, described by the author as "an improbable farce in three acts". The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his wilful and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance. Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost.
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is a professional conservatory for actors in New York City. First operational from 1915 to 1927, the school re-opened in 1928 and has been active ever since. It is the birthplace of the Meisner technique of acting, named for American actor and acting teacher Sanford Meisner.
Pork Chop Hill is a 1959 American Korean War film starring Gregory Peck, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, and George Peppard. The film, which was the final war film directed by Lewis Milestone, is based upon the 1956 book by U.S. military historian Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall. It depicts the first fierce Battle of Pork Chop Hill between the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division and Chinese and North Korean forces in April 1953.
The Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942. It was produced by Michael Myerberg and directed by Elia Kazan with costumes by Mary Percy Schenck. The play is a three-part allegory about the life of mankind, centering on the Antrobus family of the fictional town of Excelsior, New Jersey. The epic comedy-drama is noted as among the most heterodox of classic American comedies — it broke nearly every established theatrical convention.
Jill Esmond Moore was an English stage and screen actress.
The Corn Is Green is a 1938 semi-autobiographical play by Welsh dramatist and actor Emlyn Williams. The play premiered in London at the Duchess Theatre in September 1938; with Sybil Thorndike as Miss Moffat and Williams himself portraying Morgan Evans, the West End production ran in all for 600 performances. The original Broadway production starred Ethel Barrymore and premiered at the National Theatre in November 1940, running for 477 performances.
Jean Parker was an American film and stage actress. A native of Montana, indigent during the Great Depression, she was adopted by a family in Pasadena, California, at age ten. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist, but was discovered at age 16 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive Louis B. Mayer after a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper when she won a poster contest.
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at the junction of Denman Street and Sherwood Street, near Piccadilly Circus, in the City of Westminster, London. It opened in 1928.
Basil Sydney was an English stage and screen actor.
Crahan Denton was an American stage, film and television actor. One of his most famous film roles was in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), in which he portrays "Walter Cunningham," a client of the main character, lawyer Atticus Finch. He acts as the leader of a mob that attempts to lynch another of Finch's clients.
On the Spot is a 1930 Chicago-set play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. Wallace was inspired by a visit to the United States and, in particular, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Known as a prolific author, he reportedly dictated the manuscript for the play in just four days. It was his greatest theatrical success.
Someone Waiting is a 1953 thriller play by the British writer Emlyn Williams.
The Light of Heart is a 1940 play by the British writer Emlyn Williams.
The Druid's Rest is a 1943 comedy play by the British writer Emlyn Williams. Set in his native Wales it was based on memories of village life there. It takes place entirely in The Druid's Rest a bar in a small community who mistakenly believe the man they are sheltering in their village, and need to with the Eisteddfod, is a murderer.
