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1-7 of 7
- Actor
- Soundtrack
A promising post-war musical entertainer from the bandstand as well as in late 40s films, singer Freddie Stewart is a name that slips by most. Born Morris Joseph Lazar on March 25, 1925, in New York City, his father was a cantor. Freddie was forced to drop out of school while relatively young and work as a clerk to help support his family. His musical talents were noticed early and he found work in the Catskills resort area where he introduced himself with a more suitable marquee name -- Freddie Stewart. By 1940 he had moved up in the musical field as a tenor vocalist with Clyde McCoy's Orchestra, which led to his own radio show, "Freddie Stewart Sings," in New York.
A compact, highly personable young man with wavy hair and an appealing, boyish enthusiasm, Hollywood's ears eventually caught the sound of this young New York talent, and the powers that be encouraged him to move West. Following a brief singing spot in Columbia's She's a Sweetheart (1944) which starred Larry Parks, no other offers came in so Freddie accepted a steady job with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, hoping to attain at least a measure of the success his idol Frank Sinatra had found. Following this period he signed with the small "Poverty Row" studio Monogram and starred in a succession of eight bobbysoxer musicals featuring a main staple of players including June Preisser (as his love interest), Noel Neill of "Superman" fame (playing June's sister), and Frankie Darro (as his nemesis), among others. Billed as the "Teenagers" in the show, the cast, most in their late 20s, were pretty long in the tooth to be playing collegiates much less high schoolers. Despite the flimsy plots and frivolous nature, the tunefests, which began with Junior Prom (1946), and ended with Music Man (1948) succeeded as breezy escapist fare and proved popular enough as second features to make money for Monogram. Freddie usually had a solo or two in each picture. The youthful romantic lead, who was only 5'6" tall, found little waiting for him after the demise of the series. Audiencegoers were looking for Hollywood he-men to idolize now. He didn't fit the bill and promptly retired from films.
Freddie went out on the road in both Europe and the U.S. and at one time fronted his own night club in Miami Beach called "Freddie Stewart's Matchbox," but it soon folded. He kept singing for years with no major film or TV comeback happening for him. Quietly retired, he had been divorced three times by the time he died on August 15, 2000, in his Southern California home. He was survived by a daughter.- Ena Begovic was a prominent Croatian film actress. She is regarded as one of the best and most beautiful actresses in former Yugoslavia. Begovic began acting early, making her first screen appearance at the age of 18 through a small part in Occupation in 26 Pictures (1978), a 1978 film directed by Lordan Zafranovic. She made her breakthrough role in Zafranovic's next film, The Fall of Italy (1981), where she played Veronika, the daughter of a wealthy local from the Dalmatian coast who sided with occupying Italian Fascists. This debut established Begovic as one of the sex symbols of 1980s Yugoslav cinema, a status that she later successfully maintained despite appearing in relatively few films as her acting career shifted towards theater.
On 15 August 2000, in the Postira village on the island of Brac, a few months after marrying the Croatian businessman, Josip Radeljak, and a month and a half after giving birth to their daughter, Lana, she was involved, as a passenger, in a traffic accident, a rollover, which claimed her life. - Editor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Editorial Department
Robert E. Swink, a top-notch editor favored by directors no less scrupulous than William Wyler and Franklin J. Schaffner, first moved to Hollywood with his family in 1927, and made the place his home for the rest of his life. Following graduation from North Hollywood High in 1936, Swink turned down a football scholarship in favor of an apprenticeship in film editing at RKO, where he remained for years, barring a World War II hitch in the US Army Special Services, editing training films. Beginning in 1944, he was promoted to cutting feature films. In 1952 Swink moved over to Paramount, where he started out with William Wyler's Carrie (1952), and shortly thereafter received his first Academy Award nomination for Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953). In the three decades of steady work to follow, he would edit pictures as various as The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), The Best Man (1964), Papillon (1973) and Three the Hard Way (1974), and receive two further Oscar nominations, for Funny Girl (1968) and The Boys from Brazil (1978). As well, he served as second unit director on a handful of films, though unlike his contemporary Robert Wise he did not make the jump to director. He might have made an excellent one, judging from the crackerjack pacing and faultless dramatic instinct evident behind all the films he touched, and the respect he garnered from the frequently demanding directors who repeatedly hired him. Meaning to retire after completing Franklin Schaffner's Sphinx (1981) in 1981, Swink was coaxed out of retirement to supervise the editing of the finally unreleased feature "And They're Off." He returned to work one final time: as the favorite editor of director Schaffner (they had had five prior collaborations), he was the logical choice to assemble the footage for Welcome Home (1989), as Schaffner had died before the post-production phase.- Director
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Edward Craven-Walker was an industrialist who had served as a squadron leader during World War II. In 1960, he invented the "Astro Lamp" (known in the United States as a "Lava Lamp" or "Lava Lite"). Over seven million have been sold throughout the world, and Walker manufactured them from his factory in Bournemouth, in the south of England. At the time of his death his company was still manufacturing over ten thousand lamps per month. A life-long sun-lover, Walker wanted to promote the naturist movement, so, using the name Michael Keatering, he produced and directed three films. After the demand for nudist films ended, he never picked up the movie camera again, and returned to his day job.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Terri Gardener was born on 13 December 1919. He was an actor, known for The Final Finale (1968) and A Little of What You Fancy (1968). He died on 15 August 2000.- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Denis Marion was born on 15 April 1906 in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels, Belgium. He was a writer and assistant director, known for Le secret de Monte-Cristo (1948), L'échafaud peut attendre (1949) and Days of Hope (1940). He died on 15 August 2000 in Vence, Alpes-Maritimes, France.- Writer
- Actor
Mac Shoub was born on 5 June 1919 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was a writer and actor, known for Suspense (1949), Matinee Theatre (1955) and Police Call (1954). He was married to Lisa Herscovitch. He died on 15 August 2000 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.