The movie gods are killing me here. I need about three days of only one or two TIGers so I can get caught up and still live my life.
It’s not happening, so we’ll still be a day behind after this posting.
John M. Sullivan (1875) was a character actor of just over 30 credits. He played a dignitary in SOULS AT SEA (1937) and when i did a photo search I got a lot of photos of John Barrymore and one of Allen Jenkins for some reason. He was a doctor in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and a Colonel in THE BUCCANEER and almost everything was uncredited. No photo so here’s Ginny from SaS.
British actor Ernest Cossart (1876) played “the uncle” in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1937. He came to the United States after a solid English stage career and moved to Broadway, then Hollywood. Like many British actors, he “buttled” a lot in Hollywood films; he played butlers. He’s probably best remembered as Binns in THREE SMART GIRLS (and TSG GROW UP) and as Father McGee in THE JOLSON STORY. Here he is with some crooner in TWO FOR TONIGHT.
James Burke (1886) played J.A. Nolan in MEN WITH WINGS (1938). He was the bad guy, Carter, in AT THE CIRCUS and Lyle in THE MALTESE FALCON (see photo), but his steady work was playing Sgt. Velie in the Ellery Queen series.
Belle Mitchell (1889) was a very sought after actress in the silents during the late 1910s. In the talkies, she generally had small roles including that of a hotel Maid in STAMBOUL QUEST (1934). She continued to work into the TV era and even made movie appearances in the 1970s in films like AIRPORT, SOYLENT GREEN and HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER.
Julia Faye (1892) was a regular in Cecil B. DeMille’s films. She had been discovered by TIGer Christy Cabanne in 1919 and went on to appear in silents through the 1920s, including many of DeMille’s. She was actually in both versions of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Starting with 1939’s UNION PACIFIC, she would have parts in all of DeMille’s subsequent films. Mr. DeMille didn’t direct THE SPELLBINDER (1939), but Julia was a courtroom extra in the film. The photo isn’t from a DeMille film either, it’s from Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BLVD.
Billy Bletcher (1894) was a tiny guy with a booming deep voice. As a result he played a lot of bad guys in cartoons of the 1930s, including a lot of the Porky Pig outings. His most famous role, though, was as Disney’s Big Bad Wolf. He also was the voice of the mayor and a Lollipop guild member in THE WIZARD OF OZ. He is a TIGer based on playing a property man in THE BIG BROADCAST of 1937 and a waxer in BEST FOOT FORWARD (1943). The photo is Billy with his boss, Walt Disney.
Oscar award winning costume designer Gile Steele (1908) supplied costumes, mainly for men, in three Ginnyfilms, YOUNG TOM EDISON (I guess he knew what the smart train passenger was wearing in the 1870s) (1940), BORN TO SING (1942), and BEST FOOT FORWARD. Hey, weren’t all the men in cadet unis in that one? The photo is Steele with Leah Rhodes and Edith Head accepting the Oscar for THE HEIRESS from Joanne Dru.
Ben Oakland (1909) is a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. My favorite of his songs is JAVA JIVE, a song I sing whenever I brew coffee. Yes, I’m kind of a geek. He made a brief foray into writing for the movies and some of his stuff was used in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT (1939).
