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George II of Great Britain
George II of Great Britain (1683 - 1760)
George was born in the city of Hanover in Germany, and was the son of George Louis, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later King George I of Great Britain), and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Both of George’s parents committed adultery, and in 1694 their marriage was dissolved on the pretext that Sophia had abandoned […]
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Tina Aumont
Tina Aumont (1946 - 2006)
Actress. Born Maria Christina Aumont into a family of French-Jewish and Dominican descent, her father was actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, her mother was actress Maria Montez. Her mother died when Tina was five years old. She spent much of her childhood with various relatives and after her father married actress Marisa Pavan, Tina was sent to […]
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Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey (1918 - 2009)
Harvey was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The son of a policeman killed in 1921, Harvey made radio receivers as a young boy. He attended Tulsa Central High School where a teacher, Isabelle Ronan, was “impressed by his voice.” On her recommendation, he started working at KVOO in Tulsa in 1933, when he was 14. His […]
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Peter Graves
Peter Graves (1926 - 2010)
Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of parents Rolf Cirkler Aurness (1894–1982), a businessman, and his wife Ruth (née Duesler, died 1986), a journalist. Graves’ ancestry was Norwegian, German, and English. The family name originally was “Aursnes,” but when Rolf’s Norwegian father, Peter Aursnes, immigrated […]
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Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)
Austen’s parents, George Austen (1731–1805), and his wife Cassandra (1739–1827), were members of substantial gentry families. George was descended from a family of woollen manufacturers, which had risen through the professions to the lower ranks of the landed gentry. Cassandra was a member of the prominent Leigh family. They married on 26 April 1764 at […]
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Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (1899 - 1987)
Fred Astaire Born Frederick Austerlitz, Jr, in Omaha, Nebraska, and the son of an Austrian immigrant, he entered show business at the age of 5, working in both vaudeville and Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele. When Adele left show business to marry in 1932, he headed for Hollywood. Signed to RKO, he was […]
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Henry Austin
Henry Austin (1804 - 1891)
Henry Austin (December 4, 1804 – December 17, 1891) was a prominent and prolific American architect based in New Haven, Connecticut. He practiced for more than fifty years and designed many public buildings and homes primarily in the New Haven area. His most significant years of production seem to be the 1840s and 1850s. The […]
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Vivian Austin
Vivian Austin (1920 - 2004)
Actress. Best remembered for her role as the female lead in the serial “The Adventures of Red Ryder”. Her big break came in 1940 when she was selected to play along side Don Barry in “Red Ryder”. Soon after, she signed a contract with Universal Pictures and her first movie was “Moonlight in Vermont”. She […]
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Lois Austin
Lois Austin (1901 - 1957)
Actress. She appeared in 58 movies in the 1940s and 1950s, usually playing society ladies, although many of her roles were uncredited. She is remembered particularly for her role as “Mom” in the sexploitation thriller “Mom and Dad” (1944). In the 1951 television series “The Amos ‘n Andy Show”, she played Harriet Harrington and Mrs […]
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Gene Autry
Gene Autry (1907 - 1998)
Gene Autry Orvon Grover Autry was born September 29, 1907 near Tioga in Grayson County in north Texas, the grandson of a Methodist preacher. His parents, Delbert Autry and Elnora Ozment, moved in the 1920s to Ravia in Johnston County in southern Oklahoma. He worked on his father’s ranch while at school. After leaving high school in 1925, Autry worked as a telegrapher for the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. His […]
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Doe Avedon
Doe Avedon (1925 - 2011)
Actress, Model. She parlayed marriage to a photographer into a brief but spectacular career in the pages of fashion magazines as well as into time on stage and screen, and in the process inspired the 1957 “Funny Face”. Born Dorcas Marie Newell to an upper level servant family, she was orphaned at 12 and subsequently […]
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William W. Averell
William W. Averell (1832 - 1900)
Averell was born in Cameron, New York. As a boy he worked as a drugstore clerk in the nearby town of Bath, New York. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1855 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Mounted Rifles. His early assignments included garrison duty […]
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James Avery
James Avery (1945 - 2013)
James Avery James LaRue Avery (November 27, 1945 – December 31, 2013) was an American actor. He played patriarch and Judge Philip Banks in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990−96). This character was ranked #34 in TV Guide’s “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time.” He also provided the voice of Shredder in […]
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Patricia Avery
Patricia Avery (1902 - 1973)
Actress. Motion Picture star of the silent era. She is interred along with her husband, although her name does not appear on the marker.
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Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery (1924 - 2011)
Actress. Born in New York City, daughter of screenwriter Stephen Morehouse Avery, she marked her professional acting debut at the age of twelve on the Broadway stage in the musical “Orchids Preferred” (1937), followed by “Three Waltzes” (1937 to 1938) and “Charley’s Aunt” (1940 to 1941). She broadened her skills at the American Academy of […]
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Keiko Awaji
Keiko Awaji (1933 - 2014)
Actress. She will perhaps be best remembered by international movie audiences for playing Kimiko in the picture “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” (1954). Born Ayako Ida, she left high school early and became a member of the Shochiku Kageki Dan (or the SKD) She marked her motion picture debut in “Stray Dogs” (1949) and would go […]
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Abe Axler
Abe Axler (2024 - 1933)
Abe Axler Organized Crime Figure. One of the most prominent members of Detroit’s Purple Gang. He was born and raised in Williamburg, Brooklyn, along with future Purples like Eddie Fletcher, Irving Milberg, Sam Abramson, and Isadore Cantor. In the fall of 1921, Abe and his brother Simon were convicted on burglary charges and did 4 […]
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Mae Axton
Mae Axton (1914 - 1997)
Mae Axton She was born Mae Boren in 1914 in Bardwell, Texas, but was raised in Oklahoma. There were many politicians within her family – her brother, David, became a state senator. She obtained a degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and then worked for Life magazine as a reporter. In the mid-Thirties, […]
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Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Axton (1938 - 1999)
Hoyt Axton His mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote the classic rock ‘n’ roll song “Heartbreak Hotel“, which became the first major hit for Elvis Presley. Some of Hoyt’s own songs were also later recorded by Elvis. Axton’s father, John T. Axton, was a Naval officer stationed in Jacksonville, Florida; the family joined him there in […]
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Marion Aye
Marion Aye (1903 - 1951)
Actress. A noted beauty of the early 1920s, she had a brief career in silent films. Raised in Chicago, she was signed by producer Mack Sennett who had an eye for girls that looked good in swimsuits and made her silver screen bow in the 1919 short “Hearts and Flowers”. Marion went on to roles […]
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Agnes Ayers
Agnes Ayers (1898 - 1940)
Actress. While a teenager, Agnes Ayres made her film debut at the Essanay Studios in Chicago. In 1920 she signed a contract with Paramount studios and began starring in various films, mostly under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille. 1921 was a busy year for her as she acted in the films “The Affairs of […]
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Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996)
Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Irma and Louis Ayres, who divorced when he was four. Louis, an amateur musician and court reporter, remarried soon after. As a teen, Lew and his mother moved with his step-father and half brother and sister to San Diego, California. Leaving high school before graduating, he started a […]
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William Edward Ayrton
William Edward Ayrton (1847 - 1908)
Ayrton was born in London, the son of Edward Nugent Ayrton, a barrister, and educated at University College School and University College, London. He later studied under Lord Kelvin at Glasgow. Ayrton’s second wife, Hertha Marks Ayrton, whom he married in 1885, assisted him in his research, and became known for her own scientific work […]
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Lida Baarova
Lida Baarova (1914 - 2000)
Born Ludmila Babková, she studied acting at Prague Conservatory and got her first film role in a Czech film at the age of 17. Her mother appeared in several theatre plays and her younger sister, Zorka Janů, was also a film actress. After being discovered by talent scouts for the German film studios, Baarova left […]
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Benjamin T. Babbitt
Benjamin T. Babbitt (1809 - 1889)
Benjamin Babbitt was born in Westmoreland, New York on May 1, 1809. His parents were Betsey (Holman) Babbitt, and Nathaniel Babbitt, a blacksmith, tavern owner and ensign in the militia of Oneida County, New York. As a child, he attended public school and worked on the family farm. He “possessed a most ingenious and inquiring […]
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Parveen Babi
Parveen Babi (1949 - 2005)
Parveen was born in Junagadh, Gujarat in a Muslim family. She did her early schooling from Mount Carmel High School, Ahmedabad and later attended St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad where she emerged as a Master of Arts in English literature Her father Vali Mohammed Babi (died 1959), was a System administrator with the Nawab of Junagadh […]
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Alice Backes
Alice Backes (1923 - 2007)
Actress. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, she was a character actress who appeared in numerous films and television shows from the 1940s to the 1990s. After making her debut in the 1948 film “Up in Central Park”, Backes appeared in “I Want To Live!” (1958), “It Started with a Kiss” (1959), “The Glory Guys” […]
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Jim Backus
Jim Backus (1913 - 1989)
James Gilmore Backus was born February 25, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Bratenahl, Ohio, a wealthy village surrounded by greater Cleveland. He was the son of Russell Gould Backus, a mechanical engineer, of Lithuanian origin, and Daisy Gilmore (née Taylor) Backus. Backus attended Shaw High School in East Cleveland, Ohio. Backus was expelled […]
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Henny Backus
Henny Backus (1911 - 2004)
Henrietta Kaye was born in Brooklyn March 21, 1911. She studied sculpture at Cooper Union, but she preferred working in the theatre and appeared in Broadway musicals during the 1930s. Working as Henriette Kaye, she was a member of the Federal Theatre Project. Described by The New York Times as “a leggy redhead with a […]
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Olga Baclanova
Olga Baclanova (1896 - 1974)
Actress. Born Olga Vladimirovna Baklanova in Moscow, Russia. She worked extensively on stage in London’s West End and in New York, before her film debut with a bit in “The Dove.” Over the following years she played roles in “The Man Who Laughs,” “Street of Sin,” and “The Docks of New York.” She is perhaps […]