-
Cecil Frances Alexander
Cecil Frances Alexander (1818 - 1895)
Alexander was born in Dublin, the third child and second daughter of Major John Humphreys (of Norfolk, land-agent to 4th Earl of Wicklow and later to the second Marquess of Abercorn), and Elizabeth (née Reed). She began writing verse in her childhood, being strongly influenced by Dr Walter Hook, Dean of Chichester. Her subsequent religious […]
-
Cecil Kellaway
Cecil Kellaway (1890 - 1973)
Cecil Kellaway was born on 22 August 1890 in Cape Town, South Africa, where he gained an early interest in theatre acting, much to the displeasure of his parents. He was educated in South Africa and England, before becoming a touring stock company actor. By the early 1920s, he had settled in Australia, becoming a […]
-
Cecily Adams
Cecily Adams (1958 - 2004)
Adams was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, the daughter of comic actor Don Adams and singer Adelaide Efantis. She attended Beverly Hills High School and the University of California at Irvine. She acted in high school and college and in 1983 joined the Hollywood theatre company Theatre West. Adams is well known to fans […]
-
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (1415 - 1495)
Cecily Neville was a daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Her paternal grandparents were John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby and Hon. Maud Percy, daughter of Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy. Her maternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and Katherine Swynford. […]
-
Cedric Gibbons
Cedric Gibbons (1893 - 1960)
Austin Cedric Gibbons (March 23, 1893 – July 26, 1960) was an Irish art director and production designer for the film industry. He also made a significant contribution to motion picture theater architecture from the 1930s to 1950s. He is credited as the designer of the Oscar statuette in 1928. Nominated for thirty-eight Oscars himself […]
-
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm (1917 - 2012)
Born and raised in Manhattan, Holm was an only child. Her mother, Jean Parke, was an American portrait artist and author; her father, Theodor Holm, was a Norwegian businessman whose company provided marine adjustment services for Lloyd’s of London. Because of her parents’ occupations, she traveled often during her youth and attended various schools in […]
-
Celia Lovsky
Celia Lovsky (1897 - 1979)
Celia Lovsky married journalist Heinrich Vinzenz Nowak in 1919. By 1925, they were apparently estranged and she was romantically involved with playwright Arthur Schnitzler. She later moved to Berlin, where she acted in the surrealist plays Dream Theater and Dream Play by Karl Kraus. There, in 1929, she met Peter Lorre, who had seen her […]
-
Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero (1907 - 1994)
Romero was born Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. in New York City on February 15, 1907, the son of Cesar Julio Romero, Sr. and Maria Mantilla (daughter of Cuban national hero José Martí). His father was an Italian-born importer-exporter of sugar refining machinery, and his mother was a Cuban concert singer. He grew up in Bradley […]
-
Charles Adler Jr.
Charles Adler Jr. (1899 - 1980)
Charles Adler, Jr. (June 20, 1899 – October 23, 1980) was an American inventor. An engineer, he invented a number of safety signals, some of which are still in common usage. Charles Adler, Jr. was a lifelong resident of Baltimore, Maryland. At age 14, he formally started his career as an inventor when he received […]
-
Charles Aidman
Charles Aidman (1925 - 1993)
Aidman was born in Frankfort in Clinton County, Indiana. After graduating from Frankfort High School he served in the United States Navy from 1946-1948 attending officer’s training at DePauw University. He attended Indiana University in Indianapolis. Among his many television credits, Aidman guest starred on NBC’s The Virginian (in the episode “The Devil’s Children”), and […]
-
Charles Arthur Floyd
Charles Arthur Floyd (1904 - 1934)
Charles Arthur Floyd was born in Bartow County, Georgia in 1904. His family moved to Oklahoma in 1911, and he grew up there. As a youth, he spent considerable time in nearby Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri. Floyd was first arrested at age 18 after he stole $3.50 in coins from a local post office. Three […]
-
Charles Bassett
Charles Bassett (1931 - 1966)
Bassett was born in Dayton, Ohio, on December 30, 1931. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. After graduating from Berea High School in Berea, Ohio in 1950, he attended Ohio State University from 1950 to 1952, and Texas Technological College, now Texas Tech […]
-
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer (1899 - 1978)
Charles Boyer Born in Figeac, France, he was a distinguished performer who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. He began his career in the theater and made his big screen debut in was “L’homme du large” (1920). Relocating to America, he became a US citizen in 1942 and performed on Broadway, […]
-
Charles Brooks Jr.
Charles Brooks Jr. (1942 - 1982)
Brooks was raised in a wealthy family in Fort Worth, Texas. He attended I.M. Terrell High School (named after its first principal Isaiah Milligan Terrell), where he played football. He had a prior criminal history, having served time at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth for illegal possession of firearms. On December 14, 1976, Brooks went […]
-
Charles Colson
Charles Colson (1931 - 2012)
Charles “Chuck” Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012) was an Evangelical Christian leader who founded Prison Fellowship and BreakPoint. Prior to his conversion to Christianity, he served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. Once known as President Nixon’s “hatchet man,” Colson gained notoriety at the height of […]
-
Charles Crawford
Charles Crawford (1879 - 1931)
Criminal. Shady Los Angeles racketeer. His murder by a Deputy District Attorney was ruled justifiable homicide.
-
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
Charles Robert Darwin, (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern […]
-
Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle (1890 - 1970)
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was the dominant military and political leader of France for much of the period from 1940 to 1969. As an army colonel, in 1940 he bravely had some success against the Nazis, when other French units were suffering losses. Refusing to accept […]
-
Charles Denner
Charles Denner (1926 - 1995)
Denner was born in 1926 in the city of Tarnów in south-eastern Poland, before emigrating with his family to France at the age of four. During World War II, his family took refuge in Brive-la-Gaillarde, where they were helped by Rabbi David Feuerwerker. During WWII Charles Denner was a Free French partisan in the Vercors […]
-
Charles Drake
Charles Drake (1917 - 1994)
Drake was born as Charles Ruppert in New York City. He graduated from Nichols College and became a salesman. In 1939, he turned to acting and signed a contract with Warner Brothers. He was not immediately successful. During World War II Drake served in the United States Army. Drake returned to Hollywood in 1945, his […]
-
Charles Durning
Charles Durning (1923 - 2012)
Durning was born in Highland Falls, New York, the ninth of ten children. His three brothers and sister, James (Roger) (1915–2000), Clifford (1916–1994), Frances (born 1919) and Gerald (born 1926), survived to adulthood but five sisters lost their lives to scarlet fever and smallpox as children. He was the son of Louise (née Leonard; 1894–1982), […]
-
Charles E. Mack
Charles E. Mack (1887 - 1934)
Stage, screen, vaudeville and radio actor. He was in the “Moran and Mack” comedy team with George Moran. They were usually referred to as the “Two Black Crows.”
-
Charles Eaton
Charles Eaton (1910 - 2004)
With his sister Doris Eaton Travis, Eaton made his Broadway debut in the 1918 version of Mother Carey’s Chickens. In a 1928 Broadway production called Skidding, which ran for 472 performances, Eaton created the role of Andy Hardy. Eaton acted in ten Broadway shows in total, including The Awakening and The Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, […]
-
Charles Emmett Mack
Charles Emmett Mack (1900 - 1927)
Actor. He was discovered by director D. W. Griffith, who cast him in his films “Dream Street” (1921), “One Exciting Night” (1922), “The White Rose” (1923), and “America” (1924). Mack later joined Warner Bros. and seemed destined for stardom when he was killed in a car crash while filming “The First Auto” (1927). He is […]
-
Charles Gray
Charles Gray (1928 - 2000)
Gray was born Donald Marshall Gray in Bournemouth, Dorset, the son of Maude Elizabeth (née Marshall) and Donald Gray, who was a surveyor. Gray attended Bournemouth School alongside Benny Hill, whose school had been evacuated to the same buildings, during the Second World War. Some of his friends remember that his bedroom walls were plastered […]
-
Charles H. Black
Charles H. Black (1852 - 1918)
Black was a native of Hagerstown in Wayne County, Indiana. When he was a child, his family moved to Indianapolis, where he received his education in the city’s public schools. He went on to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War, as did his younger brother Edward E. Black, who became the […]
-
Charles Hallahan
Charles Hallahan (1943 - 1997)
Charles John Hallahan (July 29, 1943 – November 25, 1997) was an American film, television and stage actor known for his performances in Going in Style, The Thing, Cast a Deadly Spell, and Dante’s Peak. Hallahan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Rutgers University, then going on to Temple University to earn a Master’s […]
-
Charles Herbert Best
Charles Herbert Best (1899 - 1978)
Born in West Pembroke, Washington County, Maine, he was the son of Luella Fisher and Herbert Huestis Best, Canadians from Nova Scotia. Best married Margaret Hooper Mahon in Toronto in 1924 and they had two sons. One son, Dr. Henry Best was a well-regarded historian who later became president of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. […]
-
Charles Keating
Charles Keating (1941 - 2014)
Of Irish Catholic extraction, Keating was born in London, England, the son of Charles James Keating and Margaret (née Shevlin) Keating. He appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon before turning to television (he was in the pilot episode of the long-running ITV series Crown Court in 1972), winning the role of Rex Mottram […]
-
Charles Lane
Charles Lane (1905 - 2007)
Lane spent a short time as an insurance salesman before taking to the stage at the Pasadena Playhouse. Actor/director Irving Pichel first suggested that Lane go into acting in 1929, and four years later Lane was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He became a favorite of director Frank Capra, who used him […]