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1-50 of 68
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Georgia Engel was born on 28 July 1948 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) and Open Season (2006). She died on 12 April 2019 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Grandson of famed humorist and actor Robert Benchley and the son of highly respected children's books author Nathaniel Benchley, novelist Peter Benchley's book were decidedly more dramatic in their content and style than his father's, and usually centered on the world's oceans as a backdrop to his vigorous plots.
Benchley is of course best remembered for penning the multi-million selling thriller Jaws, which was eventually filmed by director Steven Spielberg starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. Jaws (1975) was a box office sensation, becoming one of the seminal films of the 1970s, spawning several inferior sequels, numerous low budget copycat films starring hammerheads, tiger and mako sharks. Plus generations of swimmers chose backyard pools over the mysterious ocean surf for cooling off in summer.
Benchley also wrote The Deep and The Island which were also both brought to the screen, but with much less fanfare and box office return than the Jaws venture. Interestingly, after the enormous hysteria created over the great white shark and their alleged man-eating habits, Benchley became a dedicated environmentalist committed to learning all he could about one of the world's most amazing apex predators. In the ensuing years, Benchley became one of the great white shark's greatest defenders and publicly admitted on numerous occasions that with what he now knew about the fragility of the species, he would have never written a book like Jaws which demonised the great white.
Benchley kept very active in his passion for studying great whites up until the time of his death from pulmonary fibrosis on February 11th, 2006.- Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, to a German Jewish family. He was the son of Pauline (Koch) and Hermann Einstein, a featherbed salesman. Albert began reading and studying science at a young age, and he graduated from a Swiss high school when he was 17. He then attended a Swiss Polytechnic, where he met his first wife. He graduated in 1900, and became a Swiss citizen in 1901. He began working at the Swiss Patent Office and continued his scientific studies. He taught at universities in Prague, Zurich, and Berlin, and continued his research in physics. The onset of World War II led him to move to the United States, and he was granted a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey. Einstein was heavily involved in attempting to bring about world peace in his later life, and he continued his scientific research until his death in 1955.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer(April 22, 1904 - February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who was professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is among those who are credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project - the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer was among those who observed the Trinity test in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated on July 16, 1945. He later remarked that the explosion brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." In August 1945, the weapons were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- Paul D. Zimmerman was born on 3 July 1938 in New York, New York, USA. Paul D. was a writer, known for The King of Comedy (1982), Lovers and Liars (1979) and Consuming Passions (1988). Paul D. was married to Barbara. Paul D. died on 2 March 1993 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Sallie Brophy was born on 14 December 1928 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. She was an actress, known for Producers' Showcase (1954), The Children's Hour (1961) and The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957). She was married to George J.W. Goodman. She died on 18 September 2007 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- John Chancellor was born on 14 July 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for Baseball (1994), Coffee And (1951) and The Huntley-Brinkley Report (1956). He was married to Barbara Upshaw and Constance Herbert. He died on 12 July 1996 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Stephen Grover Cleveland was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. He won the popular vote for three presidential elections-in 1884, 1888, and 1892-and was one of two Democrats (followed by Woodrow Wilson in 1912) to be elected president during the era of Republican presidential domination dating from 1861 to 1933.
- Writer
- Actor
Prolific American author of the mid-twentieth century. Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, he later used the town, under the fictitious name of Gibbsville, as the setting for many of his novels and short stories. Among his books adapted for films are "From the Terrace," "A Rage to Live," "Ten North Frederick," "Pal Joey," and "Butterfield 8." Other well-known titles of his are "Ourselves to Know," "The Big Laugh," "A Family Party," and especially "Appointment in Samarra." Critic Woolcott Gibbs ranked the last-named with Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and Sinclair Lewis's "Babbitt" as the three best novels about America in the 1920s. O'Hara died in Princeton in 1970 and his novels fell into neglect shortly thereafter. Many fans and critics feel a revival of interest is long overdue.- Joanna Roos was born on 11 January 1901 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Play of the Week (1959), The Doctors (1963) and Kraft Theatre (1947). She died on 13 May 1989 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Kurt Gödel was born on 28 April 1906 in Brünn, Austria-Hungary. He died on 14 January 1978 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Probably one of the greatest comic book writers of all time, Gardner Fox was born 1911 in Brooklyn. He started out as a lawyer, and practiced law from around 1935-1937. Being a proficient writer, Gardner Fox found there was more money to be made in writing fiction than in practicing law (during the latter years of the Depression), and took a job with DC Comics.
By 1939, he was writing Batman stories, and came up with ideas like the Batarang (which became so popular in the TV series in the 1960s). Gardner Fox also created some of the most enduring characters in the Golden Age of comics, such as: Starman, Dr. Fate, the Flash, Johnny Thunder and his Bahdnisian Thunderbolt, the Sandman (possibly inspired by the Green Hornet), and Hawkman and Hawkgirl (possibly inspired by the winged bat-men of Flash Gordon serials) - however, as Carter Hall & Shiera, Hawkman & Hawkgirl were the first married superheroes in comics (a quarter of a century before Reed & Sue in the Fantastic Four). Not one to be tied down to any one company, Gardner Fox also wrote for Timely (the precursor of Marvel) and EC Comics. Superhero comics thrived during the 1940s, but by 1951 they were replaced by Westerns and science fiction and teen humor comics; Gardner Fox took it all in stride and wrote for these genres, he also wrote stories for pulps such as "Amazing Stories" and "Planet Stories."
In the 1960s, Gardner Fox wrote the interstellar exploits of Adam Strange and his beloved Alanna in "Mystery in Space" comics. In those great years of the Silver Age, Gardner Fox revived many of the superheroes of the 1940s, to new audiences (he used a science fiction device: the earlier heroes live in a parallel universe on Earth-2). He wrote several thousand comics in his career. After 1968, he concentrated mainly on writing science fiction novels, and wrote such classics as "Escape Across the Cosmos" and "Arsenal of Miracles," as well as writing mysteries and sword-and-sorcery adventures. He wrote over 100 novels. In his small amount of free time, one of his hobbies was hunting; Gardner Fox was an excellent marksman and sometimes wrote about hunting and rifles in his novels. In his retirement years, Fox wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Lynna Cooper. He died at age 75; he had 2 children and 4 grandchildren.- Animation Department
- Director
- Producer
Larry Lauria was born on 5 April 1951 in Abington, Pennsylvania, USA. Larry was a director and producer, known for Pete's Odyssey (2009), Mimi and Gack (2012) and Jake the Salty Dog (2013). Larry died on 30 October 2014 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.- Alvin Schwartz was born on 25 April 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2 and Hatred (2015). He died on 14 March 1992 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Kenyon Hopkins was born on 15 January 1912 in Coffeyville, Kansas, USA. He was a composer, known for 12 Angry Men (1957), The Hustler (1961) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He died on 7 April 1983 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.- Jo Ann Sayers (real name: Miriam Lucille Lilygren) was born in Seattle, Washington. Named after Moses' dancer-sister Miriam, she danced as a child, took violin and piano lessons and acted in school plays. She attended the University of Washington with hopes of becoming a lawyer, but was drawn to the drama department instead. An agent "spotted" her and offered her a chance to make a screen test, which in turn led to Sayers' brief but busy run in Hollywood features and shorts. While under contract at MGM, Sayers was among the multitudes to test for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). She later co-starred with Shirley Booth in the Broadway smash "My Sister Eileen," but left the show after a year and a half to marry. She subsequently worked in summer theater, radio and TV. Widowed after the death of her second husband, Sayers resides in Princeton, New Jersey.
- Thomas Harvey was born on 10 October 1912 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He died on 5 April 2007 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Ashley Montagu was born on 28 June 1905 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Elephant Man (1980), The Sam Levenson Show (1951) and The Force Beyond (1977). He was married to Marjorie Peakes. He died on 26 November 1999 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Nadene Murphy was born on 28 February 1931 in Hunt County, Texas, USA. She was married to Wadell O. Peasy. She died on 31 January 2023 in Princeton, Texas, USA.
- Neil Fitzgerald was born the son of a member of Parliament James Fitzgerald near Emly in Co. Limerick on 15 January 1892. He was educated in Trinity College Dublin where the onus on him was to study pharmacy of which he received his degree but he preferred to tread the boards in Dublin, London and New York. He made his Broadway Debut in "Leave her to Heaven" on February 27th 1940 . He was nominated for a Drama Critics Circle Award in 1972 for his role as the doctor in Edward Albee's "All Over" and he appeared in numerous Irish plays in New York on Broadway during his life-time. George Bernard Shaw told him as a youngster that "You will do better with greasepaint than with blood". His film debut was in 1935 in John Fords' classic "The Informer" where he played Tommy Connor. He also has numerous television credits.
- Lillian V. Foote was born on 18 July 1923 in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, USA. Lillian V. was a producer, known for On Valentine's Day (1986), American Playhouse (1980) and 1918 (1985). Lillian V. was married to Horton Foote. Lillian V. died on 5 August 1992 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Additional Crew
Freeman Dyson was born on 15 December 1923 in Crowthorne, England, UK. He is known for The Oakes, The Nuclear Expedition and Citizen Kurchatov: Stalin's Bomb Maker (1999). He was married to Imme Jung and Verena Esther Huber. He died on 28 February 2020 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.- Charles Neider was born on 18 January 1915 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a writer, known for One-Eyed Jacks (1961) and Unterwegs zur Familie Mann (2001). He was married to Joan Merrick. He died on 4 July 2001 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- I.A.R. Wylie was born on 16 March 1885 in Melbourne, Australia. I.A.R. was a writer, known for Evenings for Sale (1932), Young Nowheres (1929) and The Gaiety Girl (1924). I.A.R. died on 4 November 1959 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
- Having lost both his parents as an infant, Samuel Shellabarger was brought up by his paternal grandparents. His grandfather (also named Samuel) was a well-known Ohio lawyer, then later a US congressman and still later Ambassador to Portugal in the years during and after the Civil War. The younger Shellabarger's life was something of a bridge between the early US--via the upbringing of his grandparents--and that of the fast emerging changes of the first half of the 20th century. He considered this perspective as central to later historical insights as a scholar and writer.
He was privileged to see much of Europe while still a youth, and the memories of seeing historical cities and sites would provide a rich storehouse of information for his later literary endeavors. He graduated from Princeton University in 1909 and spent an additional year at the University of Munich. He returned to the US and, while working as an instructor at Princeton (1914-17), attended Harvard for graduate studies and received his PhD in 1917. He then joined the US Army during World War I, being posted to the Intelligence Service. In the meantime he had continued traveling to Europe, married and started a family. He was an assistant professor of English at Princeton until 1921 and then decided that he wanted to pursue writing. The next year he moved the family to Lausanne, Switzerland--a five-year stay that was followed by an additional two years in England and France. He would revisit Europe many times to come.
Shellabarger was well equipped, with the ability to speak and write fluently in French, German, Swedish, Italian, Dutch and Spanish. He published both scholarly works and even a few mystery and romance novels. Since he did not want to mix his "legitimate" scholarly works with his more informal other works, he used pen names for the light literature. These began to appear once he was back in the US. He completed the manuscript of research done in Europe for a biography of the famous early 16th-century French knight Pierre Bayard, revered in that country as a symbol of chivalric virtues. "The Chevalier Bayard, A Study in Fading Chivalry" was published in 1928 (to this day in remains the only definitive treatment of Bayard in English). After another European sojourn he came home once again in 1931 and returned to writing and publishing romantic genera through 1939. He also wrote a good deal of magazine fiction.
In 1938 he was appointed headmaster of the Columbus girls' school in Ohio, which occupied him for eight years. Though he had previously returned for a few years to teaching at Princeton, he considered his headmaster time as more fulfilling as an educational experience than his university teaching. It was during his Ohio stay that Shellabarger began to entertain the idea of writing historical fiction. Though he was well-honed in the basics of such writing, he knew that a serious meshing of history with fictional characters carried the weight of factual research and integration to give the work realism. He took an innate pleasure in swashbuckler tales, and had enjoyed being on the fencing team as a student at Princeton. The study of Renaissance history was a particular interest of his. The two enjoyments merged when he started working on ideas for "swashbuckling" historical novels. In this he was moving into the same sphere of an already famous novelist, Rafael Sabatini. Sabatini's writing philosophy was also one of historical accuracy. His output was prodigious compared to what would be that of Shellabarger's, but his subjects were of uneven interest, sometimes hampered with heavy-handed historical constraints, and his style could drag with extraneous, stilted dialog. Additionally, he sometimes lapsed into inaccuracies in detail and continuity problems.
Still, Warner Bros. had opted to buy movie rights to two of Sabatini's novels ("Captain Blood", filmed as Captain Blood (1935), and "The Sea Hawk"; brought to the screen--bearing little resemblance to the novel--as The Sea Hawk (1940) both starring "swashbuckler par excellance Errol Flynn), On the contrary, Shellabarger's style of writing was at once refreshing for its concise, richly painted and realistic dialog, detailed narrative and, most importantly, a story that was always compelling. His work had the enthusiasm of Alexandre Dumas without the early 19th-century verbosity of style. When Shellabarger finished his first effort, "Captain from Castile", in early 1945 it sold so briskly that it was in its 12th printing by March. Hollywood, in the person of 20th Century-Fox, came knocking and bought the screen rights for $100,000. The story used the backdrop of the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century. However, the screenplay essentially covered the story up to the march on Mexico City--about halfway through the book. It would have been extremely difficult for the studio to get past the censors with some aspects of the book, particularly graphic scenes of Aztec human sacrifice. The remainder of the novel continued a sweeping story of return to Europe and all things coming to rights in the end. The subject, however, was simply too big for a two-hour movie. The film was released in 1947 and was a hit all the same.
Shellabarger spun out another yarn two years after the publication of "Captain from Castile", a story set in 16th-century Italy and dealing with the machinations of Cesare Borgia, Prince of Foxes. It was another best-seller, and Fox bought this one also. Since the story remained in Italy it was much easier to handle as a screenplay, which covers the totality of the book quite faithfully. It was a unique undertaking, inasmuch as Fox footed the bill to shoot on location in Italy and in the tiny principality of Andorra. However, because the film was getting to be so expensive, Fox decided to shoot in in black-and-white, a fact that does not detract from the film's splendid look. The movie was released in 1949 and was noted for its high production values. Shellabarger wrote another Renaissance novel, this dealing with France during the wars of France I with Emperor Charles V. This was "The King's Chevalier", which was published in 1950 and was another success, but it was not optioned for filming.
Shallebarger finished his next novel, "Lord Vanity:, in 1953. This story departed from the previous trilogy by being about late 18th-century Italy and the New World. It was evidently inspired by another scholarly work, "Lord Chesterfield's World" (1935). It was not made into a film either. Nonetheless, Shellabarger had amassed a total $1.5 million for his late-in-life historical novels. A continued output was in progress, but what had truly been Shellabager's golden years in more ways than one were cut short by his passing in 1954. Two other novels were published posthumously: "The Token" (1955) and "Tolbecken" (1956) but remain obscure. The Renaissance trilogy has continued in popularity. Though all have been reprinted, it is still possible to find period editions of the books in used-book stores, due to the huge number of copies printed. The quality of his work is validated in the Samuel Shellabarger Memorial Prize in Creative Writing awarded each year by Princeton to a senior judged most qualified.