Anita Belle Colton, known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances that shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer". Refusing to pander to any female stereotype, O'Day presented herself as a "hip" jazz musician, wearing a band jacket and skirt as opposed to an evening gown. She changed her surname from Colton to O'Day, pig Latin for "dough", slang for money.
The year 1958 in film in the US involved some significant events, including the hit musicals South Pacific and Gigi, the latter of which won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events. The Bridge on the River Kwai topped the year's box office in North America, France, and Germany, and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.
Rodney Sturt Taylor was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including Young Cassidy (1965), Nobody Runs Forever (1968), The Train Robbers (1973) and A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975).
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was a Swedish actress active in American and European films, known for her beauty and curvaceous figure. She became prominent in her iconic role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.
Sterling Walter Hayden was an American actor, author, sailor, model and Marine. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in Westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). He became noted for supporting roles in the 1960s, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
Call Me Bwana is a 1963 British Technicolor farce film starring Bob Hope and Anita Ekberg and directed by Gordon Douglas.
Rhonda Fleming was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamorous actresses of her day, nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because she photographed so well in that medium.
Zero Hour! is a 1957 American drama film directed by Hall Bartlett from a screenplay by Bartlett, Arthur Hailey, and John Champion. It stars Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Sterling Hayden and features Peggy King, Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch, Geoffrey Toone, and Jerry Paris in supporting roles. It was released by Paramount Pictures.
Euan Lloyd was a British film producer.
Anthony Maitland Steel was a British actor and singer who appeared in British war films of the 1950s such as The Wooden Horse (1950) and Where No Vultures Fly (1951). He was also known for his tumultuous marriage to Anita Ekberg.
War and Peace is a 1956 epic historical drama film based on Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel of the same name. It is directed and co-written by King Vidor and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti for Paramount Pictures. The film stars Audrey Hepburn as Natasha, Henry Fonda as Pierre, and Mel Ferrer as Andrei, along with Vittorio Gassman, Herbert Lom, Oskar Homolka, Anita Ekberg in one of her first breakthrough roles, Helmut Dantine, Barry Jones, Anna Maria Ferrero, Milly Vitale and Jeremy Brett. The musical score was composed by Nino Rota and conducted by Franco Ferrara.
Gerd Oswald was a German director of American films and television.
The Badlanders is a 1958 American western caper film directed by Delmer Daves and starring Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine. Based on the 1949 novel The Asphalt Jungle by W. R. Burnett, the story was given an 1898 setting by screenwriter Richard Collins.
Crime of Passion is a 1957 American film noir crime drama directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Jo Eisinger. The cast features Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr.
The Man Inside is a 1958 British crime adventure film directed by John Gilling and starring Jack Palance, Anita Ekberg, Nigel Patrick, Anthony Newley and Bonar Colleano. It was produced by Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli for Warwick Film Productions. The screenplay by David Shaw was based on the 1954 novel of the same name by M. E. Chaber. It was Bonar Colleano's final film role.
Paris Holiday is a 1958 American comedy film starring Bob Hope, which was directed by Gerd Oswald, and written by Edmund Beloin and Dean Riesner from a story by Hope. The film also features French comedian Fernandel, Anita Ekberg and Martha Hyer, and a rare appearance by writer/director Preston Sturges. The film was shot in Technirama and Technicolor in Paris and in the French village of Gambais.
Gerrianne Raphael is an American stage, screen, and voice-over actress. Though much of her career has been spent in the theatre, she is perhaps best known for her major role as the voice of Pumyra in ThunderCats.
Dragstrip Girl is a 1957 film starring John Ashley in his first lead role. American International Pictures released the film as a double feature with Rock All Night and it proved an early success for the studio.
