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- Actor
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Peter Whitney's over-powering frame, swarthy looks, bushy brows and maniacal look in his eye made him one of the most fearsome character actors to lump around in 1940s-60s film and TV.
Born on May 24, 1916 in New Jersey of German ancestry, Peter King Engle was educated at Exeter Academy. He eventually moved to the Los Angeles area and trained with the Pasadena Community Playhouse, gaining valuable experience in summer stock as well. He made a play for films in the early 1940s, deciding also to use his wife Adrienne's middle name of Whitney for his own stage moniker. He felt his real name of Engle sounded too German and might be detrimental to his WWII-era career. He and Adrienne went on to have three children. His mammoth features and pudding-like puss reminded one easily of a Charles Laughton without table manners.
Whitney started his supporting career off promisingly at Warner Bros. at the outbreak of America's involvement in WWII showing potential in such films as Underground (1941), his debut, Nine Lives Are Not Enough (1941) and Blues in the Night (1941) as assorted henchmen, cronies and just downright mean guys. Taking part in "A" quality casts such as in Action in the North Atlantic (1943) and Mr. Skeffington (1944), Whitney played two of his most notorious roles at war's end, that of murderous hillbilly twins Mert and Bert Fleagle in the riotous Fred MacMurray comedy Murder, He Says (1945) and as Peter Lorre's seedy partner in the film noir Three Strangers (1946). Whitney broke with Warner Bros. in the post-war years but still yielded some fine entertainment with roles in such "B" fare as The Notorious Lone Wolf (1946), Blonde Alibi (1946), and an odd, romantic turn as Lt. Gates in the creepy Rondo Hatton crimer The Brute Man (1946).
In the mid-1950s, television took over a larger portion of his career. His imposing mug was featured in about every popular western and crime drama there was including "Gunsmoke", "Wagon Train", "Rawhide", "The Rifleman", "Bonanza", "Perry Mason", and "Peter Gunn". He finally cut loose a bit and spoofed his own grubby rube image with guest turns on such bucolic series as "Petticoat Junction", and "The Beverly Hillbillies", the latter playing a greedy ne'er-do-well fellow rustic in four episodes with the name of Lafe Crick. His obesity contributed to an early fatal heart attack at age 55 in 1972, which robbed Hollywood of a wondedes with the rfully unappetizing and scurrilous character actor. In addition to his wife and three children, Whitney was survived by four grandchildren.- Gabriel Heatter, a radio journalist rivaled only by Walter Winchell and Edward R. Murrow in his time, was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to immigrant parents on September 17, 1890. The family soon moved to Brooklyn, where Heatter went to school. He was not a good student and found his high school studies particularly frustrating. However, he was well-spoken, well-read and had a lively interest in current events.
When he was 16 years old, Heatter harnessed his gift for communication and hit the hustings as a sidewalk campaigner for media baron and Congressman William Randolph Hearst's unsuccessful 1906 run for mayor of New York City. Although Hearst lost the race, his example as a progressive tribune of the people influenced the young Heatter to become a journalist. After graduating from high school, Heatter began working at the "East New York Record," a weekly paper where he reported on social functions. Heatter moved on to the "Brooklyn Times," and while working as a cub reporter for that paper, the Heast Corp. offered him a position as the Brooklyn reporter for The "New York Evening Journal," Hearst's flagship paper in the Big Apple. He accepted.
Heatter became well-known because of a 1931 article published by the liberal weekly "The Nation" in which he argued against the legality of the U.S. Socialist Party. New York radio station WMCA set up an on-air debate between Heatter and a prominent Socialist, and when his opponent failed to show up, Heatter went on the air and discussed his article in more depth. The response was so positive that a larger station, Mutual Broadcasting's WOR, offered him a job as a commentator and reporter. From then on, his career was in radio news.
Heatter became a prominent radio newsman in 1933 when he covered the "Trial of the Century," the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the German immigrant accused of kidnapping and murdering the child of American hero Charles Lindbergh. Now nationally famous, Heatter's commentary began to be a major influence on public opinion, and he became a peer and competitor of powerful radio newsman Walter Winchell. Heatter's heyday was World War II, when his upbeat reporting and commentary was popular with American audiences gloomy over the reversals of fortune in the immediate post-Pearl Harbor period.
In the first half of 1942 the news from the Pacific War was not good. One evening, after the U.S. Navy successfully sank a Japanese destroyer, Heatter came on the air declaring, "There is good news tonight." This became his catch phrase, and one he used throughout his career. He was seen as a morale booster looking for blue skies and silver linings in the dark clouds that comprised much of the news in those days. This optimism and lack of objectivity may be one reason why he is forgotten today, whereas the highly opinionated Winchell and the coldly objective-seeming (though by no means neutral) Murrow live on 'til this day (in Matt Drudge and the Murrow biopic Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005), respectively). - László Szilassy was born on 13 February 1908 in Nyírcsászári, Hungary. He was an actor, known for A beszélö köntös (1941), Szíriusz (1942) and Zenélö malom (1943). He died on 30 March 1972 in São Paulo, Brazil.
- Helge Essmar was born on 3 September 1901 in Oslo, Norway. He was an actor, known for Kvinnens plass (1956), Fire in the Night (1955) and Sankt Hans fest (1947). He died on 30 March 1972 in Oslo, Norway.
- Libbie Block authored over her career some two hundred and fifty short stories and two novels. A number of her short stories were later compiled and published under the title "No Man Tells Everything". Her two novels were, "This Town Needs a Doctor" and "Wild Calendar", the latter was made into the 1949 film "Caught".
Libbie was the daughter of Russian immigrants, David and Mildred Block. She was born on 10 July, 1910 in Denver, where her father practiced dentistry. At the time of her death she was survived by her husband, Pat Duggan, a daughter and two sons. - Gerda Kofoed was born on 8 April 1899 in Frederiksberg, Denmark. She was an actress, known for Potteplanten (1922), Højt paa en kvist (1929) and En pige med pep (1940). She died on 30 March 1972.
- Svend Carlo Jensen was born on 27 August 1900 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor, known for Den lille Virtuos (1918). He died on 30 March 1972.