One hundred years ago, cinema was still a silent medium. It would remain so for another four years. But several stars who would grace the silver screen during its golden age were born in 1923. We induct those born between January and June here, along with the odd director, writer, and cinematographer, into the Cinema Paradiso Centenary Club.
Before we introduce you to 1923's new arrivals, let's look back at some of the classic films that were released during the year, as well as some of the stories that made the headlines. The year got off to a tragic start, when 31 year-old pin-up Wallace Reid died while being treated for morphine addiction on 18 January. Among his breakthrough pictures were the D.W. Griffith duo of The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).
Perhaps the event that has had the longest-lasting impact was the founding of the
Warner Bros studio on 4 April. Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack (the first three of whom had been born in Russia, the last in Canada) were the said siblings, who would transform cinema in 1927, when Sam sanctioned the use of sound on Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer, just days before he died. In its first year, Warners also made a major star of Rin Tin Tin, a five year-old German Shepherd who had been rescued from war-torn France by Lee Duncan, who trained his pet through 27 pictures, including box-office hits like Where the North Begins.
Also in April, inventor Lee De Forest edged cinema closer towards the talkie era by demonstrating a series of shorts made using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process. Another significant technological development was Eastman Kodak's 16mm film stock, which would prove crucial in the development of documentary and independent cinema.
An iconic landmark was unveiled in 1923, when the Hollywoodland sign appeared on Mount Lee above the world's movie capital. Originally erected to promote a housing development, the sign was truncated in 1949 and replaced in 1976. Annoyingly, the year's other Hollywood, an all-star comedy directed by James Cruze was allowed to disappear. But, even though cinema was now deemed an artform of cultural importance, the vast majority of the films produced during this period have been lost forever.
Cruze scored a major hit with the Western, The Covered Wagon, which isn't currently available to rent. The same is true of Erich von Stroheim's Merry-Go-Round, Rex Ingram's Scaramouche, Man Ray's experimental short, Return to Reason, and Ernst Lubitsch's Rosita. Starring Mary Pickford, the latter was the great German director's Hollywood debut. But Cinema Paradiso users can see six of his early works in Lubitsch in Berlin.
JANUARY
Born in Milan on 1 January 1923, Valentina Cortese started making films in wartime Italy. But she found international fame after Henry Cass's The Glass Mountain (1949) alerted Hollywood to her talent. Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway (1949), Robert Wise's The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954) are all available from Cinema Paradiso, as is Michelangelo Antonioni's Le amiche (aka Girlfriends, 1955), which Cortese made after returning home with actor husband Richard Basehart. Remaining busy (as a visit to the Cinema Paradiso searchline demonstrates), she headlined gialli like Mario Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) and Riccardo Freda's The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire (1971), as well as arthouse classics such as Federico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (1965) and François Truffaut's Day For Night (1973), for which she won a BAFTA and earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as a fading diva.
Also born on the first day of 1923 was Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène. Having made his way to postwar France, he established himself as a writer before turning to film with the short, Barom Sarret (1963), which he followed with The Black Girl (1964), which was the first feature made by a sub-Saharan director. Known as 'the Father of African Cinema'. Sembène made history by shooting Mandabi (aka The Money Order, 1968) in the Wolof language. He also excelled with the satire, Xala (1975), which is mystifyingly unavailable on disc. The same is true of Ceddo (1977), Emitai (1981), Camp de Thiaroye (1987), and Guelwaar (1992). But Cinema Paradiso can bring you Moolaadé (2004), which proved controversial for its denunciation of female genital mutilation.
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell was born on 3 January and, having served with distinction during the Second World War, became a familiar face in Anglo-Australian cinema, after teaming with Chips Raffery in Ralph Smart's Ealing drama, Bitter Springs (1950). In all, he made over 100 films, playing Inspector Craddock in four of Margaret Rutherford's outings as Miss Marple: Murder, She Said (1961), Murder at the Gallop (1963), Murder Most Foul, and Murder Ahoy! (both 1964). On television, he was surgeon Alan Dawson in Emergency Ward 10 (1957-59), as well as in its feature spin-off, Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959). After voicing various characters in the Gerry Anderson classics, Thunderbirds (1964-66) and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68), Tingwell returned Down Under, where he remained a prolific character player in such gems as Rob Sitch's The Castle (1997) and The Dish (2000).
Essex-born Jack Watling (13 January) was uncredited in the first of his 130+ screen appearances. But, after wartime service, he began to rise up the cast list in the likes of Journey Together (1945) and Anthony Asquith's adaptation of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy (1948). Alfred Hitchcock cast him in Under Capricorn (1949), while he co-starred with Orson Welles in Confidential Report (aka Mr Arkadin, 1955). Despite his youthful looks, Watling also showed well in war films like The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), Reach For the Sky (1956), and Sink the Bismarck (1960). The latter pair starred Kenneth More, with whom Watling reunited on The Admirable Crichton (1957) and A Night to Remember (1958). Along with a TV lead in The Plane Makers (1963-65), he also had roles in such cult offerings as The Nanny (1965) and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972).
Born on 19 January in Manhattan, Jean Stapleton will forever be remembered for her brilliance as Edith opposite Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker in the sitcom All in the Family (1971-79), which earned her three Emmys and two Golden Globes. She turned down the role of Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote (1984-95), but remained a small-screen stalwart, when not gracing such features as Robert Mulligan's Up the Down Staircase (1967), Alan J. Pakula's Klute (1971), and Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail (1993).
Anne Jeffreys, who was born on 26 January, also enjoyed a long career. Initially mostly seen in Westerns, she co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Step Lively (1944) before playing Lawrence Tierney's moll in Dillinger (1945). Although we can't bring you her outings a Tess Trueheart in Dick Tracy (1945) and Dick Tracy vs Cueball (1946), she guested in lots of popular TV show (type her name into the Cinema Paradiso searchline to see which ones) before playing David Hasselhoff's mother in Baywatch (1993-98).
Hailing from the Bronx, where he was born on 29 January 1923, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky made his name in live television before switching to film. He is the only person to have three solo Oscars for Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay, courtesy of Delbert Mann's Marty (1955), Arthur Hiller's The Hospital (1971), and Sidney Lumet's Network (1976). He also worked on Harmon Jones's As Young As You Feel (1951), which offered a young Marilyn Monroe an early role, and Ken Russell's trippy cult classic, Altered States (1980).
FEBRUARY
A native New Yorker, Bonita Granville (who was born on 2 February) started acting at the age of three. She became the youngest Oscar nominee as a scheming schoolgirl in William Wyler's These Three (1936) before excelling as the teenage reporter in a series of Nancy Drew mysteries. Sadly, none of these are on disc in the UK (we do miss out compared to our American cousins), but Cinema Paradiso regulars can see Granville on fine form in Irving Rapper's Now, Voyager (1942), Edward Dmytryk's Hitler's Children (1943), and Willis Hornbeck's Love Laughs At Andy Hardy (1946), in which she got to flirt with Mickey Rooney.
Lancastrian Dora Bryan (7 February) graduated to the stage from ENSA concert parties. Carol Reed cast her as Rose the prostitute in The Fallen Idol (1948), while she left a mark as robbery victim Maisie in Basil Dearden's The Blue Lamp (1950). As the Cinema Paradiso searchline reveals, Bryan had to make do with bit parts in such fine films as Circle of Danger (1951), The Green Man (1956), and Carry On Sergeant (1958). In 1961, Tony Richardson cast her as Rita Tushingham's blowsy mother in A Taste of Honey and she won the BAFTA for Best Actress. Having played headmistress Amber Spottiswoode in The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), she played Cliff Richard's mum in Two a Penny (1967) and brought sly wit to Peter Sasdy's Hands of the Ripper (1971), as Granny Golding. Sadly, her deliciously dotty double act with Liz Smith in Apartment Zero (1988) is off limits, but do enjoy her spell as Aunt Ros Utterthwaite in Last of the Summer Wine (1973-2010).
Despite having been chosen by Alfred Hitchcock to play Steve the teaboy in Sabotage (1936), Robert Rietti (8 February) didn't really make the leap from child star. He still managed to rack up 83 credits, appearing in both Thunderball (1965) and its remake, Never Say Never Again (1983). Moreover, he became one of the most respected dubbing actor/directors in film history, amassing over 700 titles, ranging from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) to Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He also impersonated Jack Hawkins in his last 10 films after he lost his voice to throat cancer.
Nicknamed 'the Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema', Chang Cheh (10 February) directed nearly 100 features after debuting in 1949. His did his best work, however, for the famous Shaw Brothers company, mostly in the wuxia swordplay and kung fu genres. Among the most notable titles are One-Armed Swordsman (1967), The Heroic Ones (1970), Five Shaolin Masters (1974), Kid With the Golden Arm, Crippled Avengers, and Five Deadly Venoms (all 1978). Chang also devised the 'heroic bloodshed' style in pictures like The Boxer From Shantung (1972), Chinatown Kid (1977), and Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (1980).
A hint of Franco Zeffirelli's Florentine childhood can be gleaned from Tea With Mussolini (1999). It also explains a fascination with William Shakespeare that resulted in acclaimed adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Romeo and Juliet (1968), and Hamlet (1990). Zeffirelli (who was born on 12 February) earned a nomination for Best Director for the tale of star-crossed lovers that recently made headlines when Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting claimed to have been coerced into performing naked. Despite having started out as an assistant to Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, and Roberto Rossellini during the neo-realist phase of Italian cinema, Zeffirelli was renowned for the lavishness of his productions, whether they were mini-series like Jesus of Nazareth (1977), opera adaptations like Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci (both 1982), and Otello (1986), or such features as Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), Endless Love (1981), Jane Eyre (1996), or Callas Forever (2002).
Born five days after Zeffirelli into a vaudevillian family in Chicago, Kathleen Freeman became a dependable character actress who amassed over 300 credits during a screen career that ran from 1947-2003. Among them are intriguing assignments like Kurt Neumann's The Fly (1958), John Boorman's Point Blank (1967), and Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970). However, it was her 11 teamings with Jerry Lewis that made Freeman so recognisable. Cinema Paradiso members can enjoy their badinage in The Errand Boy, The Ladies Man (both 1961), The Nutty Professor, Who's Minding the Store? (both 1963), The Patsy, and The Disorderly Orderly (both 1964), which led to cameos in John Landis's The Blues Brothers (1980) and Blues Brothers 2000 (2000) and Joe Dante's Innerspace (1987) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), as well as Dragnet (1987), Naked Gun 33 : The Final Insult (1994), and Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000).
Freeman and Charles Durning (born 28 February) both appeared in George Roy Hill's The Sting (1973), albeit with Freeman being confined to a family photo. A decorated war veteran, Durning figured in over 200 films, plays, and TV shows, often playing cops, clerics, and corrupt officials. He was imposing in Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975), but could temper his menace with wit, as in The Muppet Movie (1979), the Coen brothers duo of The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and David Mamet's State and Main (both 2000). Following a sly turn in Sydney Pollack's Tootsie, Durning earned Best Supporting nominations for Colin Higgins's The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (both 1982) and Mel Brooks's To Be or Not to Be (1983). He also voiced Peter Griffin's Irish father, Francis, in Family Guy (1999-). Indeed, you're in good hands no matter what you select if you type Charles Durning into the Cinema Paradiso searchline.
MARCH
Born within a fortnight of each other, three character players catch our attention in March. It also started so well for Dolores Fuller (10 March), as she debuted as a 10 year-old in Frank Capra's Oscar sweeper, It Happened One Night (1934). However, she became best known for her collaborations with Edward D. Wood, Jr. on Glen or Glenda (1953), Jail Bait (1954), and Bride of the Monster (1955), although she did get to be played by Sarah Jessica Parker in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994). Moreover, Fuller was a decent songwriter and at least one of her tunes featured in the Elvis Presley vehicles Blue Hawaii (1961), Kid Galahad (1962), Fun in Acapulco, It Happened At the World's Fair (both 1963), Kissin' Cousins, Roustabout (both 1964), Girl Happy (1965), Spinout (1966), Easy Come, Easy Go (1967), and Change of Habit (1969).
Terence Alexander (11 March) took dozens of minor roles in British films from the early 1950s. He stooged for Norman Wisdom in The Square Peg (1958), The Bulldog Breed (1960), On the Beat (1962), and What's Good For the Goose (1969), but was equally composed in The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Mind Benders (1963), The Magic Christian (1969), and Waterloo (1970). Capable of tele-villainy in The Avengers (1965-69) and The Champions (1969), he became best known for playing Charlie Hungerford in Bergerac (1981-91), although he also proved a fine foil for Rik Mayall in The New Statesman (1989-92).
Polish actor Vladek Sheybal (12 March) survived a Nazi concentration camp to make his screen mark in Andrzej Wajda's Kanal (1957). Fleeing to the West, he established himself in theatrical circles before playing Kronsteen in Terence Young's 007 classic, From Russia With Love (1963). He would revisit the world of espionage in Casino Royale, Billion Dollar Brain (both 1967) - one of several collaborations with Ken Russell - and the BBC adaptation of John Le Carré's Smiley's People (1982). A naturalised Brit, Sheybal would also play Dr Douglas Jackson in Gerry Anderson's UFO (1970-71), a Holocaust survivor in QB VII (1974), and an Austrian innkeeper in 'Night of the Marionettes' in the BBC's Supernatural series (1977), while his later films included Terence Young's The Jigsaw Man (1983) and John Milius's Red Dawn (1984).
Roman cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno (19 March) was a master of his craft. In addition to working with Luchino Visconti on Senso (1954), Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), Rotunno also shot nine films for Federico Fellini, including Spirits of the Dead (1968), Satyricon (1969), The Clowns (1970), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), Casanova (1976), Orchestra Rehearsal (1978), City of Women (1980), and And the Ship Sails On (1983). Another regular collaborator was Mike Nichols, courtesy of Carnal Knowledge (1971), Regarding Henry (1991), and Wolf (1994). His Oscar nomination, however, came for Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), while his other CV highlights include On the Beach (1959), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Popeye (1980), and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).
Jesse Eisenberg plays Marcel Marceau (22 March) in Resistance (2020), which draws on the legendary mime artist's experiences during the Nazi occupation of France. He found fame on stage in a production that Jean-Louis Barrault based on his performance in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du paradis (1945), but Marceau's most celebrated creation was Bip the Clown. He took occasional film roles in the likes of Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968), William Castle's Shanks (1974), and Mel Brooks's Silent Movie (1976), in which he utters the only word, 'Non!'
The nephew of Philip Barry, the playwright behind The Philadelphia Story (1940), Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (27 March) got Hollywood's attention with the story that inspired the Steve McQueen comedy, The Honeymoon Machine (1961). He made his mark with the pilot and the first four episodes of the hit TV series, Batman (1966-68), and remained to script edit the other 115 shows, while also penning Leslie H. Martinson's Batman: The Movie (1966). Following The Rat Patrol (1967-68), Semple wrote Fathom (1967) for Raquel Welch and Pretty Poison (1968) for Anthony Perkins before capturing the mood of Watergate-era America with Papillon (1973), The Parallax View (1974), The Drowning Pool, and Three Days of the Condor (both 1975). For producer Dino De Laurentiis, he worked on King Kong (1976) and Flash Gordon (1980) before contributing to the Bond retool, Never Say Never Again.
Completing the March roll call is Murray Hamilton (24 March). A small-screen regular, Hamilton landed some notable character roles, including the bartender in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959), a high-stakes billiard player in Robert Rossen's The Hustler (1961), Rock Hudson's friend in John Frankenheimer's Seconds (1966), and Anne Bancroft's husband in Mike Nichols's The Graduate (1967). Most notably, he was cast as Amity mayor Larry Vaughan in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) and Jeannot Schwarc's Jaws 2 (1978). But Hamilton died at the age of 63 and Melvin Van Peebles took over the civic reins in Joseph Sargent's Jaws: The Revenge (1987).
APRIL
As a child actor, Gene Reynolds (born 4 April) often played the male lead as a boy, as with Tyrone Power in Henry King's In Old Chicago (1938). However, he opted to go behind the camera and directed episodes of such high-rating TV shows as Peter Gunn (1958-61), The Munsters (1964-65), and Hogan's Heroes (1965-71) before he joined Larry Gelbart in creating M*A*S*H (1972-83). In all, he was nominated for 24 Emmys, winning six.
Born the same day was Peter Vaughan, a British stalwart of stage and screen who racked up 230 credits ranging from Ralph Thomas's remake of The 39 Steps (1959) to Game of Thrones (2011-19). Often seen as officious or menacing types, he was best known for playing prison bigwig Harry Grout in Porridge (1974-77), but also left an impression in Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971), Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981) and Brazil (1985), Karel Reisz's The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), and James Ivory's The Remains of the Day (1993). Check the Cinema Paradiso searchline to discover the extent of a remarkable career and be sure to order Citizen Smith (1977-79) and Our Friends in the North (1996) to see Vaughan at his best.
Texan Ann Miller (born 12 April) was one of the fastest tap dancers in history. She showed off her teenage talents alongside Ginger Rogers in Stage Door (1937), James Stewart in Frank Capra's Best Picture winner You Can't Take It With You, and the Marx Brothers in Room Service (both 1938). But Miller's high points came opposite Gene Kelly in On the Town and Fred Astaire in Easter Parade (both 1948). She can be seen in several documentaries about the Hollywood musical, including That's Entertainment 3 (1994) before bowing out with a guest spot in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001).
Some sources claim that Mari Blanchard was born on 13 April 1927. But she shaved off four years on becoming a model after a childhood that saw her survive polio and run away to join a circus. Amusing as Allura in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), she alternated between good/bad girls out West and noirish femme fatales. Having co-starred with John Wayne in McLintock! (1963), she drifted into television before dying tragically young in 1970. Born the same day, Don Adams became synonymous with the role of Maxwell Smart in the hit sitcom, Get Smart (1965-70). Indeed, he won three consecutive Emmys for his performance as the accident-prone spy before going on to voice the lead in the cartoon series, Inspector Gadget (1983-86).
Jean Willes and Harvey Lembeck were also born on the same day, 15 April 1923. When not playing straight in Three Stooges shorts, Willes mostly had to settle for B bits. But she also found her way into pictures like Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity (1953), Raoul Walsh's The King and Four Queens, and Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (both 1956), in which she played Nurse Sally Withers. Lembeck will forever be remembered as sidekick Rocco Barbella in The Phil Silvers Show (aka Sgt Bilko, 1955-59). However, he also impressed as Harry Shapiro in Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 (1953) and as biker Eric von Zipper in a string of 1960s beach movies (why aren't they on disc in the UK?), parodying the role in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1966).
A key figure in both Free Cinema and the rise of social realism, director Lindsay Anderson was born in Bangalore on 17 April. Starting out as a fiery critic for Sequence and Sight and Sound, Anderson coined the term for the style of short collected on the BFI's Free Cinema (2006), which includes his early actualities, Wakefield Express (1952), O Dreamland (1953), and Every Day Except Christmas (1957). Curiously missing, however, is Thursday's Children (1954), a study of deaf children that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Having worked on the TV series, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-59), Anderson made his feature bow with This Sporting Life (1963), which was adapted from a David Storey novel about rugby league. Following Red, White and Zero (1967), Anderson won the Palme d'or at Cannes for If... (1968), the first in the 'Mick Davis' trilogy that was completed by O Lucky Man! (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982). Actor Malcolm McDowell reflected on their relationship in the 2007 documentary, Never Apologise. For television, Anderson directed David Storey's Home (1971) and In Celebration (1975), as well as The Old Crowd (1975), which can be found on Six Plays By Alan Bennett (2017). After an odd documentary excursion to China with Wham, Anderson bowed out directing Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, and Vincent Price in The Whales of August (1987). In a rare acting role, he played a Cambridge academic in Hugh Hudson's Oscar winner, Chariots of Fire (1981).
After a chequered career at Oxford, John Mortimer (21 April) spent the war writing propaganda shorts at the Crown Film Unit under Laurie Lee, whose Cider With Rosie he would adapt for television in 1998. Following a distinguished legal career, Mortimer turned his attention to writing, with Leo McKern bringing to life his most famous creation in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-92).
For the big screen, Mortimer wrote additional dialogue for Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961), the play on which James Hill based The Dock Brief (1962), the story for Hill's Lunch Hour (1963), and the screenplays for Anthony Asquith's Guns of Darkness (1962), Carol Reed's The Running Man (1963), and Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965). The latter starred Laurence Olivier, with whom Mortimer would reunite on Voyage Round My Father, Brideshead Revisited (both 1981), and The Ebony Tower (1984). Television would also accommodate Paradise Postponed (1986), Summer's Lease (1991), and Don Quixote (2000), while his cinematic swan song was Franco Zeffirelli's aforementioned Tea With Mussolini.
Manchester's Avis Bunnage (22 April) became a familiar face in such kitchen sink dramas as Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). She would play the landlady of the George Inn for Richardson in his Best Picture winner, Tom Jones (1963), before appearing as Queen Victoria in The Wrong Box (1966). For the most part, however, Bunnage played hard-faced working-class women who knew what it was like to struggle in The L-Shaped Room (1962), Sparrows Can't Sing (1963), and The Whisperers (1967), in which she cheats the Oscar-nominated Edith Evans. On television, she essayed Rigsby's estranged wife in Series Four of Rising Damp (1978) and Thora Hird's best friend in In Loving Memory (1979-86), while her final film credits included Gandhi (1982) and The Krays (1990).
The unlikely trio of Aaron Spelling, Bettie Page, and Hugh Lloyd were born on 22 April. Leaving Dallas, Texas, Spelling set out to become an actor, but wound up breaking the record for the number of producer credits in TV history, for shows like Charlie's Angels (1975-81), The Love Boat (1977-86), Dynasty (1981-88), Beverly Hill 90210 (1990-2000), Melrose Place (1992-99), and Charmed (1998-2005). As Paige Richards and Gretchen Mol respectively demonstrate in Nico B.'s Bettie Page: Dark Angel (2004) and Mary Harron's The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), the Nashville native became known as 'the Queen of the Pin-Ups' for her photo modelling work. However, she also made several burlesque films with Irving Klaw, with Bondage Queen (1951), Varietese (1954), and Teaserama (1955) being available to rent from Cinema Paradiso, along with Irving Klaw Classics, Volume 1 (2006).
Hailing from Chester, Hugh Lloyd got his break beside Tony Hancock in Hancock's Half-Hour (1957-61), The Rebel (1961), and The Punch and Judy Man (1963), notably stealing The Lad's wine gums in ' The Blood Donor ' (1961). In addition to headlining the sitcoms Hugh and I (1962) and Lollipop Loves Mr Mole (1971), with Terry Scott and Peggy Mount, Lloyd also guested in numerous TV series (use the searchline to see which ones), notably playing Goronwy Jones in Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen (1987). Among his diverse film credits are She'll Have to Go (1962), Quadrophenia (1979), and Girl From Rio (2001).
Born into a Spanish family on 28 April, Adele Mara memorably played Rita Hayworth's sister opposite Fred Astaire in You Were Never Lovelier (1942) before teaming with John Wayne in The Fighting Seabees (1944), Wake of the Red Witch (1948), and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Londoner Maxine Audley was born the following day. Primarily a stage performer with a string of small-screen credits, she only made 20 features, which is surprising considering how good she was as Anna Massey's mother in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, as cop Stanley Baker's wife in Val Guest's Hell Is a City, and as Ada Leverson in Ken Hughes's The Trials of Oscar Wilde (all 1960)
Irvin Kershner was born to Russian-Jewish parents the same day. Despite starring Robert Shaw (The Luck of Ginger Coffey, 1964) and Sean Connery (A Fine Madness, 1966), his early features are currently unavailable. But Cinema Paradiso can bring you Barbra Streisand in Up the Sandbox (1972), Richard Harris in The Return of a Man Called Horse. Peter Finch and Charles Bronson in Raid on Entebbe (both 1976), and Faye Dunaway in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). Kershner guided Connery through his Bond comeback in Never Say Never Again and put Peter Weller through his paces in RoboCop 2 (1990). He also made a minor space opera called The Empire Strikes Back (1980). You might have heard of it.
MAY
A comic genius, Eric Sykes was born in Oldham on 4 May 1923. He started writing during the war and collaborated with Spike Milligan on numerous scripts for The Goon Show (1951-60) and overcame a hearing problem to become an accomplished performer in films like Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Rotten to the Core (both 1965), and Shalako (1968), in which his co-stars were Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot. In addition to his long-running small-screen partnership with Hatties Jacques on Sykes (1972-79), he also made such classic shorts as The Plank (1967), which can be rented from Cinema Paradiso, along with dozens of other Sykes titles, on The Eric Sykes Collection (1981). Also check out his dramatic acting in Gormenghast (2000), The Others (2001), and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), by which time, he had also gone blind.
Despite being overlooked by Alfred Hitchcock for Rebecca (1940), Anne Baxter (7 May) quickly established herself in Hollywood after being directed by Jean Renoir in Swamp Water (1941) and Orson Welles in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). After winning a Golden Globe and an Oscar in Edmund Goulding's adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge (1946), Baxter was only denied the Best Actress prize by co-star Bette Davis in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950). On leaving 20th Century-Fox, she worked with Hitchcock ( I Confess, 1951), Fritz Lang ( The Blue Gardenia, 1954), and Cecil B. DeMille ( The Ten Commandments, 1956). But she never quite fulfilled her potential, although she's good fun as Zelda the Great and Olga, Queen of the Cossacks opposite Adam West and Burt Ward in Batman.
Regrettably, few films by Mrinal Sen (14 May) are available on disc. He launched the Indian new wave with Mr Shome (1969), Interview (1971), and Calcutta 71 (1972). Such is the cult status of Seijun Suzuki (24 May), however, that there is much more choice. Having survived the war, he became a director at the Nikkatsu studio, where he churned out striking Bs like Youth of the Beast, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! (both 1963), and Gate of Flesh (1964). With Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded to Kill (1967), however. Suzuki hit upon such a radical new style that he was blackballed by the industry until he made a remarkable comeback with the Taisho trilogy that was comprised of Zigeunerweisen (1980), Heat-Haze Theatre (1981). and Yumeji (1991). He returned a decade later with Pistol Opera (2001) and Princess Raccoon (2005) and lived to be 93.
Also born on 24 May was Siobhán McKenna, the Belfast actress who played the Virgin Mary in Nicholas Ray's King of Kings (1961) and Anna Gromeko, who takes in the young Yuri, in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965). Anzio war hero James Arness also worked for Nicholas Ray on In a Lonely Place (1950) before earning cult status in Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks's The Thing From Another World (1951) and Gordon Douglas's Them! (1954). His enduring fame rests, however, on having played Marshal Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke (1955-75).
Also born on 26 May, Guernsey character actor Roy Dotrice spent much of World War II as a POW. Bitten by the acting bug, he trawled around Britain's repertory theatres, but found his stage niche in the United States. His films included The Heroes of Telemark (1965), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and Miloš Forman's Oscar winner, Amadeus (1984), in which he essays Leopold Mozart. The pick of his TV outings are Clochemerle (1972) and Dickens of London (1976), but he also cropped up in Game of Thrones and got into the Guinness Book of Records for voicing 224 characters in a 2011 series of audiobooks of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.
Born on 30 May, Jimmy Lydon was 16 when he landed the title role in Robert Stevenson's Tom Brown's Schoolda (1940). His starring role in the splendid 11-strong Paramount series about Henry Aldrich (1939-44) is out of reach, but Lydon can be enjoyed alongside William Powell and Irene Dunne in Michael Curtiz's sublime Life With Father (1947) and opposite James Cagney in H.C. Potter's The Time of Your Life (1948). He also amassed several TV credits, including helping Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds develop M*A*S*H.
JUNE
Born on 5 July, Peggy Stewart started out in pictures like the Deanna Durbin musical, That Certain Age (1938). But she signed to Republic to play a series of outdoor girls in brisk B Westerns into the early 1950s. She became a TV regular, however, appearing in everything from The Twilight Zone (1959-64) toMy Name Is Earl. (2005-09). She also upstaged Adam Sandler as Grandma Delores in That's My Boy (2012).
Charles Tyner, Peggy Maley, and Myron Healy all arrived on 8 June. A Virginian, Tyner put Paul Newman though the wringer as Boss Higgins in Cool Hand Luke (1967) and set his sights on Burt Reynolds as prison trustee Unger in The Longest Yard (1974). A skim through his available titles from Cinema Paradiso reveals a lot of TV work, but he stood out as Bud Cort's one-armed uncle in Harold and Maude (1971) and as the motel owner in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987).
A former Miss Atlantic City, Maley played a Lana Turner impersonator opposite Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in Anchors Aweigh (1945). She also took minor roles in Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954), Indesctructible Man (1956), and Live Fast, Die Young (1958). But her place in screen history is assured, as she asked Marlon Brando what he was rebelling against in László Benedek's The Wild One (1954). Myron Healey may not have such an iconic moment on his CV, but it contained 322 films and TV shows across a 51-year career. He frequently played Western heavies, but in the kind of sagebrushers that don't get released on disc. Keep an eye out for him, however, opposite Barbara Stanwyck in Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) and John Wayne in Rio Bravo (1959) and True Grit (1969). He was also third billed in the sci-fi horror, The Incredible Melting Man (1977), and co-starred with Tyner in Pulse (1988).
Raising the tone somewhat, Erland Josephson (15 June) enjoyed the longest working relationship with fellow Swede, Ingmar Bergman. It dated from It Rains on Our Love (1946) to Saraband (2003). He even played Bergman in Liv Ullmann's Faithless (2000). Might we recommend So Close to Life, The Magician (both 1958), Hour of the Wolf (1968), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes From a Marriage (1973), and Fanny and Alexander (1982) ? Josephson also excelled in Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia (1983) and The Sacrifice (1986), while also elevating Philip Kaufman's Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books (1991), and Theo Angelopoulos's Ulysses' Gaze (1995).
Lastly, born in Paris of Corsican descent, José Giovanni (22 June) collaborated with the Nazis under his real name of Joseph Damiani and only escaped the guillotine for murder when his sentence was commuted in 1949. His experiences informed his hard-boiled writing, with Le Trou being filmed by Jacques Becker in 1960. The same year saw Claude Sautet adapt the equally gripping Classes tous risques for Lino Ventura, while Jean-Pierre Melville made a typically good fist of Le Deuxieme souffle (1966), which really should be available to rent. Henri Verneuil gathered Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, and Jean Gabin for The Sicilian Clan (1969), while Giovanni himself directed The Sewers of Paris (1979). In 2014, Rachid Bouchareb remade Two Men in Town, which Giovanni had directed with Gabin and Delon back in 1973.
