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1-50 of 86
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Jay Hunt was born on 4 August 1855 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Black Sheep of the Family (1916), What Love Can Do (1916) and The Promise (1917). He was married to Florence Hale. He died on 18 November 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Effie Ellsler was born on 17 September 1855 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Daddy Long Legs (1931), The Actress (1928) and The Lady of Scandal (1930). She was married to Frank Weston. She died on 8 October 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Elisabeth Christensen was born on 24 November 1855 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Häxan (1922), Møllerens Datter (1912) and Et pokkers Pigebarn (1912). She died on 29 July 1923 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
William Friese-Greene was a prolific English inventor and professional photographer born in Bristol, England. He studied at the Queen Elizabeth's Hospital school. In 1871, he was apprenticed to the Bristol photographer Marcus Guttenberg, but later successfully went to court to be freed early from the indentures of his seven-year apprenticeship. He married the Swiss, Helena Friese, on 24 March 1874 and, in a remarkable move for the era, decided to add her maiden name to his surname. In 1876, he set up his own studio in Bath and, by 1881, had expanded his business, having more studios in Bath, Bristol and Plymouth. In Bath he came into contact with John Arthur Roebuck Rudge, a scientific instrument maker, who built what he called the Biophantic Lantern, which could display seven photographic slides in rapid succession, producing the illusion of movement. Friese-Greene was fascinated by the machine and worked with Rudge on a variety of devices over the 1880s, various of which Rudge called the Biophantascope. Moving his base to London in 1885, Friese-Greene realised that glass plates would never be a practical medium for continuously capturing life as it happens. Hence he began experiments with the new Eastman paper roll film before turning his attention to experimenting with celluloid as a medium for motion picture cameras. In 1888, he had some form of moving picture camera constructed, the nature of which is not known. On 21 June 1889, he was issued patent no. 10131 for a motion-picture camera, in collaboration with a civil engineer, Mortimer Evans. It was apparently capable of taking up to ten photographs per second using paper and celluloid film. In 1890 he developed a camera with Frederick Varley to shoot stereoscopic moving images. This ran at a slower frame rate, and although the 3D arrangement worked, there are no records of projection. He worked on a series of moving picture cameras into 1891, but although many individuals recount seeing his projected images privately, he never gave a successful public projection of moving pictures. His experiments with motion pictures were to the detriment of his other business interests and in 1891 he was declared bankrupt. From 1904 he lived in Brighton and, in 1905, he patented a two-colour moving picture system using prisms. Eventually, the arrival of the war and personal poverty meant there was nothing more to be done with colour for some years. On 5 May 1921, Friese-Greene, then a largely forgotten figure, attended a stormy meeting of the cinema trade at the Connaught Rooms in London to discuss the current poor state of British film distribution. Disturbed by the tone of the proceedings, Friese-Greene got to his feet to speak. The chairman asked him to come forward onto the platform to be heard better, which he did, appealing for the two sides to come together. Shortly after returning to his seat, he collapsed. People went to his aid and took him outside, but he died almost immediately of heart failure.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
James Williamson was born on 8 November 1855 in Kirkaldy, Scotland, UK. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Attack on a China Mission (1900), Stop Thief! (1901) and Spring Cleaning (1903). He died on 18 August 1933 in Richmond, Surrey, England, UK.- Jacob Adler, the legendary "Great Eagle"' ("adler" is the German word for "eagle") of the Yiddish theater, was one of the great American stage actors, ranking with Edwin Booth, John Barrymore and Marlon Brando. Adler also is famous as the patriarch of an acting dynasty that stretched over 100 years from the late 19th century to the 21st and was essential to the evolution of the American theater from melodrama to a new heights of realism and seriousness. Adler's life story not only elucidates the Golden Age of the Yiddish theater but is a testament to the survival of a culture in a world where many elements threatened to extirpate it.
Adler was born in Odessa in Imperal Russia on February 12, 1855 and was stricken with the theatrical bug as a teenager. He joined a Yiddish theatrical company, the Rosenberg Troupe, in the 1870s. The Rosenberg Troupe was one of three Yiddish theatrical companies in Russia, the other two being Goldfaden's Troupe and Sheikevitch's Troupe. During his theatrical apprenticeship with Rosenberg, Jacob Adler proved himself to be an outstanding actor and a superb dancer but a bust as a balladeer. His poor singing thus cut off the lucrative operetta field for him. He compensated by becoming a great actor.
Adler gained experience as a member of the Rosenberg Troupe, touring Imperial Russia and putting on shows in Yiddish speaking communities. His first wife, Sonia Oberlander, was a member of the troupe. Adler was mentored by the eponymous head of the Troupe.
Jacob Adler became famous in the Polish and Russian Yiddish communities by playing the title role in Karl Gutzkow's drama, "Uriel de Acosta". Acosta (1585-1640) was a marrano (a Christianized Jew of medieval Spain) who fought for enlightenment in the Jewish community of Holland, which was under Spanish suzerainty. The play was hugely popular, but the popularity of the Yiddish theater and its tackling of serious, didactic fare rather than melodramas and musicals beloved by the masses made it suspect as a subversive influence.
The "modern" Yiddish theater can be seen as evolving out of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) rather than from the religious Purimspiel. The unenlightened and viciously anti-semitic Russian oligarchy launched a series of pogroms in the 1880's that almost wiped out Jewish culture in Russia. Jews started emigrating from Russia en masse, with whole villages sometimes uprooting and leaving for more hospitable climes such as North America. Jewish culture was dealt a further blow when Czar Alexander III issued a ukase banning the Yiddish theater. Jacob Adler had no choice but to leave Russia; he emigrated to England at the end of November 1883.
Adler caught on as an actor with 'Dramatic Clubs'. In London, the Odessa-born Adler had a hit with the play "The Odessa Beggar." He had an even bigger hit in Schiller's "The Robber," which brought him international fame. However, after six years in England, Adler decided to emigrate to the United States of America, moving to the great melting pot that was New York City. In his memoirs (written in Yiddish), Adler recalled that "...when I came to America in 1889, I was already known by the proud name 'Nesher Hagadol' ('The Great Eagle') and was an actor famous throughout the Yiddish theatrical world."
In the Big Town, The Great Eagle starred in various Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue in the Bowery, the "Jewish Broadway." There were hundreds of thousands of Jews in the New York Metropolitan Area in the Gay Nineties, and many spoke Yiddish as their first or only language. The theater was their major entertainment form in an era in which there was no radio, let alone television. It was not unusual for an impoverished Jewish family to spend half of its week's wages wrestled from laboring in Lower East Side sweatshops at a night at the theater. Adler was successful enough to be able to open his own theater in the Bowery, the Union Theater on Broadway and Eighth Street. (He also later opened the National in the same area.)
Adler focused on producing dramatic plays as he was not successful in operettas and had a didactic bent. He wanted the theater to be socially significant rather than remain just a vehicle for vulgar entertainment like the melodramas beloved by the Jewish denizens of the Lower East Side. Adler linked up with playwright Jacob Gordin and revolutionized the Yiddish Theater, and, a generation later, American theater as a whole.
Gordin wrote "Sibina", "The Wild Man", and "The Yiddish King Lear", Adler's greatest triumph. First assaying the role in November 1891, King Lear brought Adler even greater fame and solidified his reputation a great actor. Sara Heine Adler, his second wife, said of the night he first took the stage as Lear: "He was not an actor that night, but a force."
The great success of Ader in Gordin's Lear represented the incorporation of the world classical canon into the American (and international) Yiddish theater. It also meant that "better" or more high-brow theater targeting the Yiddish-speaking Jewish audience could thrive. It had been an axiom that the 'Shund' tradition of Jewish Broadway, a focus on sensational melodrama, was the vehicle for success as it attracted the Jewish masses. The undisputed champion of the 'Shund' tradition was Boris Thomashefsky, who had mocked "The Great Eagle" as he had been more financially successful with his cheap melodramas than Adler was with his more prestigious theatrical offerings.
However, with King Lear, Adler had not only an artistic triumph but a great financial success. Jacob Adler had made the "Jewish Broadway" safe for "better theater." A similar process would happen in the 1930s and 1940s when the Group Theatre, a company that included two of his children and which had roots in the quality Yiddish theater Adler had pioneered, would revolutionize the Great White Way of Old Broadway itself with a socially conscious "better theater". Jacob's daughter Stella Adler, the Yiddish- and Group Theatre-affiliated actress who became a premier acting coach in the US, said about her father's success with The Yiddish King Lear that "The whole profession caught fire. Good theater apparently could 'make it'... Every actor wanted to play Gordin. Every actor wanted to play the classics, and the people came."
Adler achieved even greater success when, in 1903, he trod the boards on Broadway as Shylock in a production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." He had another supreme triumph, humanizing a character that until then had been a one-dimensional, stereotypical villain, nearly always played by a gentile in a red fright wig.
In 1910, Adler made his first and only feature film for the Selig movie studio, "Michael Strogoff" an adaptation of Jules Verne's adventure story directed by J. Searle Dawley. The movie was one of the first full-length adaptations of a Verne work. "Michael Strogoff" was a first rate production with lavish production values, which were unusual for a movie from the Selig studio, but which bears testimony to the fame and respect Adler engendered. The film was notable for its climax, which entailed the burning of a Siberian city.
Adler' wrote his memoirs in Yiddish, which were published in the Yiddish-language socialist newspaper 'Die Varheit' ('The Truth') from 1916-19. Adler fell ill in 1922, and though he recovered, his illness had aged him and sapped his powers. When he returned to front his theater before the adoring crowds, putting back on the grease-paint to play in Gordin's drama "The Stranger", he was a success, but had clearly lost the stamina necessary for the stage. He died on April 1, 1926 in New York City, aged 81.
His second wife Sara Heine Adler, herself a great actress who regaled a young Marlon Brando with tales of her late husband and his acting philosophy that had a great influence on the tyro thespian, died in 1953. They had brought into being an acting dynasty, most notable in the successes of their son, Luther, and their daughter, Stella. Stella's grandson David Oppenheim is an actor who runs the influential acting school she founded.
Jacob Adler's legacy was to effect the transformation of the Yiddish Theater into quality theater. His son Luther and daughter Stella, as members of the Group Theatre, an organization with roots firmly planted in the Yiddish theater, helped do the same to Broadway in the 1930s. He also helped influence a new generation of actors who came to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably Paul Muni, who started in the Yiddish theater, which largely died out even before the Holocaust due to assimilation, the decline of Yiddish as a living language among American Jews, and the competition posed by radio and movies as a new form of cheap entertainment.
The nearly 70-year-old Adler, in the last chapter of his memoirs, explained the significance of the Yiddish theater and its enduring legacy: "Only dipped in blood and lit with tears of a living witness can the world understand how, with our blood, with our nerves, with the tears of our sleepless nights, we built the theater that stands today as a testament to our people." - Thomas F. Fallon was born on 8 September 1855 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for While New York Sleeps (1920), The Last Warning (1928) and The House of Fear (1939). He died on 19 June 1930 in New York, USA.
- James O. Barrows was born on 29 March 1855 in Copperopolis, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Tomboy (1924), The Signal Tower (1924) and The Sea Beast (1926). He died on 7 December 1925 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Thomas Commerford was born on 1 August 1855 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ex-Convict (1913), Frauds (1915) and The Hobo's Rest Cure (1912). He died on 17 February 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Arthur Wing Pinero was born on 24 May 1855 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Mid-Channel (1920), Bonds of Love (1919) and The Gay Lord Quex (1917). He was married to Myra Holme. He died on 23 November 1934 in London, England, UK.
- Max Pohl was born on 10 December 1855 in Nikolsburg, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. He was an actor, known for Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931), Die Furcht vor dem Weibe (1921) and Die Radio Heirat (1924). He died on 7 April 1935 in Berlin, Germany.
- Stevan Sremac was born on 11 November 1855 in Senta, Austria-Hungary [now Serbia]. He was a writer, known for Pop Cira i pop Spira (1957), Zona Zamfirova (2002) and Ivko's Feast (2005). He died on 12 August 1906 in Sokobanja, Serbia.
- Charlie Siringo was born on 7 February 1855 in Matagorda County, Texas, USA. He died on 18 October 1928 in Altadena, California, USA.
- Eugene V. Debs was born on 5 November 1855 in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. He was married to Kate Metzel. He died on 20 October 1926 in Elmhurst, Illinois, USA.
- Popular on both sides of the Atlantic, British author and playwright, Stanley John Weyman, was considered by many to be one of the best historical romance writers of his day. Some lamented the fact that in 1928 his death rated only scarce mention, at least in America, by the national press.
Weyman's more popular works included "The King's Stratagem," (1891, "The Gentleman Of France Being The Memorys Of Gaston De Bonne Sieur De Marsac" (1893) and "Under the Red Robe" (1894)) - Soundtrack
Julian Edwards was born on 11 December 1855 in Manchester, England, UK. He was married to Philippine Siedle (diva). He died on 5 September 1910 in Yonkers, New York, USA.- Charles Beetham was born on 16 December 1855 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Man from Snowy River (1920), A Daughter of Australia (1922) and Tall Timber (1926). He died on 28 July 1937 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Marie Corelli was born on 1 May 1855 in London, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Leaves From Satan's Book (1920), The Treasure of Heaven (1916) and Innocent (1921). She died on 21 April 1924 in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, UK.
- Ludwik Solski was born on 20 January 1855 in Gdów, Galicia, Austrian Empire [now Malopolskie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Geniusz sceny (1938), Ziemia obiecana (1927) and Tajemnica lekarza (1930). He died on 19 December 1954 in Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland.
- Writer
- Actress
Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland was born on 15 September 1855 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Monte Carlo (1930), The Road to Yesterday (1925) and Monsieur Beaucaire (1924). She was married to Dr. J.P. Sutherland. She died on 24 December 1908 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- H.C. Bunner was born on 3 August 1855 in Oswego, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Windows (1955), A Sisterly Scheme (1919) and Your Show Time (1949). He was married to Alice Learned. He died on 11 May 1896 in Nutley, New Jersey, USA.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Anatol Liadov was born on 10 May 1855 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a composer, known for Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), The Invisible Boy (2014) and The Price of Milk (2000). He died on 28 August 1914 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire [now Russia].- Raymond Blathwayt was born on 25 February 1855 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Great Moment (1921), Wild Honey (1922) and Sacred and Profane Love (1921). He died on 10 December 1935 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK.
- Actor
- Cinematographer
Charles Sutton was born on 17 March 1855 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He was an actor and cinematographer, known for The Cub Reporter (1912), Pardners (1917) and Vanity Fair (1915). He was married to Mary Isabella Bailey. He died on 20 July 1935 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Elith Reumert was born on 9 January 1855 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor and director, known for Lille Klaus og store Klaus (1913), Nøddebo præstegaard (1974) and Grænsefolket (1927). He died on 20 June 1934 in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Ludwig Ganghofer was a German Heimat-writer. More than 34 of his novels were made into films. He was born in Kauftbeuren, Bavaria, Germany, as the son of the Bavarian Ministerialrat August Ganghofer and Caroline (born as Louis). After graduating from high school he worked as a mechanic in Augsburg. Then he studied literature and philosophy in Munich and Berlin. In 1879 he was promoted in Leipzig and in 1880 he wrote his first play, "Der Hergottschnitzer von Ammergau", inspired by the Volksschauspieler Ensemble at the Gärnerplatztheater in Munich. The premiere of the play in Berlin was a big success. In 1881 he worked in Vienna, Austria. In 1882 he married Catharina Engel and had four children. Between 1886 and 1891 he worked for the "Wiener-Tagblatts". In 1894 he settled down in Munich. In 1898 he founded the Litterary Society in Munich. In 1899 he published the book "Das Schweigen im Walde", in 1900 "Der hohe Schein", in 1908 the novel "Waldrausch" and from 1909 to 1911 he worked on his biography "Lebenslauf eines Optimisten" ("Diary of an optimist").
In 1917 he issued three stories "Neue Büte", "Die Depesche" and "Das Falsche Mass". He died in 1920 in his home at Tegensee. - Gerald Griffin was born on 12 December 1855 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for A Pair of Cupids (1918), Feathertop (1916) and The Sunbeam (1916). He died on 16 March 1919 in Venice, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Otto Elg-Lundberg was born on 26 August 1855. He was an actor, known for Charlotte Löwensköld (1930) and The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924). He died in 1942.- Arthur Azevedo was born on 7 July 1855 in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. He was a writer, known for A Capital Federal (1923), Entra na Farra (1943) and Teu Tua (1979). He died on 22 October 1908 in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
- Cenek Fencl was born on 29 May 1855 in Hrimézdice, Cechy, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Ceské nebe (1918), Certisko (1919) and Princezna z chalupy (1919). He died on 12 August 1928 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].
- Clementine Plessner was born on 7 December 1855 in Vienna, Austrian Empire [now Austria]. She was an actress, known for Taras Bulba (1924), Kaliber fünf Komma zwei (1920) and Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen (1918). She died on 27 February 1943 in Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia [now Terezín, Czech Republic].
- John Hays Hammond was born on 31 March 1855 in San Francisco, California, USA. He died on 8 June 1936 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA.
- Thecla Åhlander was born on 3 June 1855 in Norway. She was an actress, known for The Hell Ship (1923), Elisabet (1921) and The Blizzard (1923). She died on 8 April 1925.
- Robert H. Fordyce was born on 19 October 1855 in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. He died on 8 June 1928 in Wyckoff, New Jersey, USA.
- Marie Ring was born on 10 July 1855 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Den glade løjtnant (1912). She died on 2 January 1929.
- Madam Norina was born on 27 March 1855 in Birmingham, England, UK. She was an actress, known for For Ireland's Sake (1914). She was married to Samuel Genese. She died in 1940 in Camberwell, London, England, UK.
- Helena Cavallier was born on 5 May 1855 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. She was an actress, known for Noivado de Sangue (1909), Pela Vitória dos Clubes Carnavalescos (1909) and Mil Adultérios (1910). She died on 15 April 1920 in Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Hermes da Fonseca was born on 12 May 1855 in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He died on 9 September 1923 in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Writer
- Editor
Charles T. Dazey was born on 13 August 1855 in Lima, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and editor, known for The Kentucky Derby (1922), Manhattan Madness (1916) and The Midnight Trail (1918). He was married to Lucy Harding. He died on 9 February 1938 in Quincy, Illinois, USA.- William Shepherd Benson was born on 25 September 1855 in Macon, Georgia, USA. He died on 20 May 1932 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Georges Rodenbach was born on 16 July 1855 in Tournai, Belgium. He was a writer, known for Más allá del olvido (1956), Die tote Stadt (1983) and Brugge, die stille (1981). He died on 25 December 1898 in Paris, France.- Robert LaFollette was born on 14 June 1855 in Primrose, Wisconsin. He was a writer, known for Robert LaFollette Campaign Speech (1924), Presidential Possibilities (1912) and Universal Current Events, No. 22 (1917). He was married to Belle Case La Follette. He died on 18 June 1925.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Félix Mortreuil was born on 29 November 1855 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. Félix is known for Chemineau chemine (1906) and Damia, la chanteuse était en noir (2017). Félix died on 28 October 1928 in Paris, France.- August Kitzberg was born on 29 December 1855 in Laatre, Viljandimaa, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire [now Estonia]. August was a writer, known for Libahunt (1968) and Teatterituokio (1962). August died on 10 October 1927 in Tartu, Estonia.
- C.M. Ackerman was born on 17 March 1855 in Germany. He was an actor, known for The Ticket-of-Leave Man (1914), Little Miss Make-Believe (1914) and Gwendolin (1914). He was married to Wilhelmine Anna Boley. He died on 15 December 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- T. Gideon Warren was born on 21 August 1855 in Westminster, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Antique Brooch (1914). He died in 1919 in Lambeth, London, England, UK.
- Mrs. Hungerford was born on 27 April 1855 in Rosscarbery, County Cork, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. She was a writer, known for Molly Bawn (1916). She died on 24 January 1897 in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland].
- Frederick de Belleville was born on 17 February 1855 in Liege, Belgium. He was an actor, known for The Daughter of the People (1915), A Trade Secret (1915) and The New Adventures of J. Rufus Wallingford (1915). He was married to Edith Emmy Mueller, Dorothy Chester (actress), Kate Cleveland (aka Kate Massi, 1860-1893, actress), Edith Cornish and Julia Jacobs Josephs. He died on 25 February 1923 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Vladimir Gilyarovskiy was born on 8 December 1855 in Vologda, Russian Empire [now Russia]. Vladimir was a writer, known for Khitrovka. The Sign of Four (2023). Vladimir died on 1 October 1935.
- Betzy Kofoed was born on 14 October 1855 in Kristiansand, Norway. She was an actress, known for Kærlighedens Firkløver (1915), Telefondamen (1917) and Zigøjnerblod (1915). She was married to Carl Emil Petersen and Jens Koefoed. She died on 23 January 1923 in Skive, Denmark.