Rita Hayworth-Early Life

 

Hayworth was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918 as Margarita Carmen Cansino, She was the oldest child of two dancers, Eduardo Cansino, Sr., and Volga Hayworth. The Catholic couple had married in 1917. They also had two sons: Eduardo, Jr. and Vernon.

Margarita's father wanted her to become a professional dancer. Her mother hoped she would become an actress. Her paternal grandfather Antonio Cansino was renowned as a Spanish classical dancer. Antonio Cansino popularized the bolero and his dancing school in Madrid was world famous. Rita later recalled,

From the time I was three and a half ... as soon as I could stand on my own feet, I was given dance lessons." I didn't like it very much ... but I didn't have the courage to tell my father, so I began taking the lessons. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, that was my girlhood.

Hayworth attended dance classes every day for a few years in a Carnegie Hall complex, where she was taught by her uncle Angel Cansino. She performed publicly from the age of six. In 1926, the eight year old Hayworth  was featured in “La Fiesta”, a short film for Warner Bros.

In 1927, her father took the family to Hollywood. He believed that dancing could be featured in the movies and that his family could be part of it. He established his own dance studio, where he taught such Hollywood luminaries as James Cagney and Jean Harlow. During the Great Depression, he lost all his investments, as musicals were no longer in vogue and commercial interest in his dancing classes waned. He partnered with his daughter to form "The Dancing Cansinos". Since under California law, Margarita was too young to work in nightclubs and bars, her father took her with him to work across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. In the early 1930s, it was a popular tourist spot for people from Los Angeles. Due to her working, Hayworth never graduated from high school; she completed ninth grade at Hamilton High in Los Angeles.

At the age of 16, Hayworth took a bit part in the film “Cruz Diablo”.  It led to another in “In Caliente” with the Mexican actress Dolores del Río. Hayworth danced with her father in such nightspots as the Foreign and the Caliente clubs. Winfield Sheehan, the head of the Fox Film Corporation, saw her dancing at the Caliente Club and quickly arranged for Hayworth to do a screen test a week later. Impressed by her screen persona, Sheehan signed her for a short-term six-month contract at Fox, under the name Rita Cansino, the first of name changes for her film career.

 

James Coburn-Early Life

 

 

 

Coburn was born in Laurel, Nebraska, to Mylet S. (née Johnson) and James Harrison Coburn, Jr.

 

Coburn was of Scotch-Irish and Swedish descent. He was raised in Compton, California, attended Compton Junior College. Coburn enlisted in the United States Army in 1950, serving as a truck driver and an occasional disc jockey on an Army radio station in Texas.

 

Coburn also narrated Army training films in Mainz, Germany. He attended Los Angeles City College, where he studied acting alongside Jeff Corey and Stella Adler. Coburn made his stage debut at the La Jolla Playhouse in Billy Budd.

 

Coburn was selected for a Remington Products razor commercial in which he was able to shave off 11 days of beard growth in less than 60 seconds  joking that he had more teeth to show on camera than the other 12 candidates for the part.

Anthony Quinn-Early Life

 

 

 

Quinn was born Antonio Reyes in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, on April 21, 1915. His mother, Manuela "Nellie" Oaxaca, was of Aztec Indian ancestry. His father, Francisco Quinn, was also born in Mexico, to an Irish immigrant father from County Cork and a Mexican mother.

 

Frank Quinn rode with Pancho Villa, then later moved to Los Angeles.  Frank Quinn became an assistant cameraman at a movie studio. In Quinn's autobiography The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait by Anthony Quinn he denied being the son of an "Irish adventurer" and attributed that tale to Hollywood publicists.

 

When he was six years old, Quinn attended a Catholic church (even thinking he wanted to become a priest). At age eleven, however, he joined the Pentecostals in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (the Pentecostal followers of Aimee Semple McPherson).

 

Quinn attended Hammel Street Elementary School, Belvedere Junior High School, Polytechnic High School and finally Belmont High School. 

 

As a young man Quinn boxed professionally to earn money.  He studied art and architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright, both at Wright's Arizona residence and his Wisconsin studio, Taliesin. The two very different men became friends. When Quinn mentioned he was drawn to acting, Wright encouraged him. Quinn said he had been offered $800 a week by a film studio and didn't know what to do. Wright replied, "Take it, you'll never make that much with me."

 

In a rerun of an interview done with Anthony Quinn in 1999 for Turner Classic Movies' "Private Screenings with Robert Osborne", Mr. Quinn said that the contract was for $300 a week.

Marilyn Monroe-Early Life

 

 

Marilyn Monroe was born on June 1, 1926, in the Los Angeles County Hospital as Norma Jeane Mortenson. Monroe was the third child born to Gladys Pearl Baker.  Monroe's birth certificate names the father as Martin Edward Mortensen with his residence stated as "unknown". The name Mortenson is listed as her surname on the birth certificate. 

 

Gladys immediately had it changed to Baker, the surname of her first husband. Gladys Baker had married a Martin E. Mortensen in 1924, but they had separated before Gladys' pregnancy. Several of Monroe's biographers suggest that Gladys Baker used his name to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy.

 

Mortensen died at the age of 85, and Monroe's birth certificate, together with her parents' marriage and divorce documents, were discovered. The documents showed that Mortensen filed for divorce from Gladys on March 5, 1927, and it was finalized on October 15, 1928.

 

Throughout her life, Marilyn Monroe denied that Mortensen was her father. She said that, when she was a child, she had been shown a photograph of a man that Gladys identified as her father, Charles Stanley Gifford. She remembered that he had a thin mustache and somewhat resembled Clark Gable, and that she had amused herself by pretending that Gable was her father.

 

Gladys was mentally unstable and financially unable to care for the young Norma Jeane. Monroe was placed her with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender of Hawthorne, California. She lived with them until she was seven.

 

One day, Gladys visited and demanded that the Bolenders return Norma Jeane to her. Ida refused, she knew Gladys was unstable and the situation would not benefit her young daughter. Gladys pulled Ida into the yard, then quickly ran back to the house and locked herself in. Several minutes later, Gladys walked out with one of Albert Bolender's military duffel bags. To Ida's horror, Gladys had stuffed a screaming Norma Jeane into the bag, zipped it up, and was carrying it right out with her. Ida charged toward her. Gladys and Ida struggled causing the bag to split apart.  Norma Jeane was dumped out the bag, weeping loudly.  Ida grabbed her and pulled her back inside the house, away from Gladys.

 

In 1933, Gladys bought a house and brought Norma Jeane to live with her. A few months later, Gladys began a series of mental episodes that would plague her for the rest of her life. In My Story, Monroe recalls her mother "screaming and laughing" as she was forcibly removed to the State Hospital in Norwalk.

 

Norma Jeane was declared a ward of the state. Gladys' best friend, Grace McKee, became her guardian. It was Grace who told Monroe that someday she would become a movie star. Grace was captivated by Jean Harlow, and would let Norma Jeane wear makeup and take her out to get her hair curled. They would go to the movies together, forming the basis for Norma Jeane's fascination with the cinema and the stars on screen. When Norma Jeane was 9, McKee married Ervin Silliman "Doc" Goddard in 1935, and subsequently sent Monroe to the Los Angeles Orphans Home (later renamed Hollygrove), followed by a succession of foster homes. While at Hollygrove, several families were interested in adopting her; however, reluctance on Gladys' part to sign adoption papers thwarted those attempts.

 

In 1937, Monroe moved back into Grace and Doc Goddard's house, joining Doc's daughter from a previous marriage. Due to Doc's frequent attempts to sexually assault Norma Jeane, this arrangement did not last long.

 

Grace sent Monroe to live with her great-aunt, Olive Brunings in Compton, California; this was also a brief stint ended by an assault. One of Olive's sons had attacked the now middle-school-aged girl. Biographers and psychologists have questioned whether at least some of Norma Jeane's later behavior (i.e. hypersexuality, sleep disturbances, substance abuse, disturbed interpersonal relationships), was a manifestation of the effects of childhood sexual abuse in the context of her already problematic relationships.

 

In early 1938, Grace sent her to live with yet another one of her aunts, Ana Lower, who lived in Van Nuys. Years later, she would reflect fondly about the time that she spent with Lower, whom she affectionately called "Aunt Ana". She would explain that it was one of the only times in her life when she felt truly stable. As she aged, however, Lower developed serious health problems.

 

In 1942, Monroe moved back to Grace and Doc Goddard's house. While attending Van Nuys High School, she met a neighbor's son, James Dougherty. Monroe began a relationship with him. Several months later, Grace and Doc Goddard decided to relocate to Virginia. Doc had received a lucrative job offer. Although it was never explained why, they decided not to take Monroe with them.

 

An offer from a neighborhood family to adopt her was proposed, but Gladys rejected the offer. With few options left, Grace approached Dougherty's mother and suggested that Jim marry her so that she would not have to return to an orphanage or foster care. Monroe was two years below the California legal age. Jim was initially reluctant, but he finally relented and married her in a ceremony arranged by Ana Lower.

 

Monroe briefly supported her family as a homemaker. In 1943, during World War II, Dougherty enlisted in the Merchant Marine. He was initially stationed on Santa Catalina Island off California's west coast. Monroe lived with him there in the town of Avalon for several months before he was shipped out to the Pacific. Frightened that he might not come back alive, Monroe begged him to try and get her pregnant before he left. Dougherty disagreed, feeling that she was too young to have a baby, but he promised that they would revisit the subject when he returned home. Subsequently, Monroe moved in with Dougherty's mother.

Elizabeth Taylor-Early Life

 

 

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born at her parents' home at 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb on February 27, 1932.

She was the younger of two children of Francis Lenn Taylor and Sara Viola Warmbrodt, who were Americans residing in England.

 

Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929.

 

Her parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Francis Taylor was an art dealer, and Sara was a former actress whose stage name was "Sara Sothern". Sothern retired from the stage in 1926 when she married Francis in New York City. Taylor's two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Mary (Rosemond) Taylor.

 

Colonel Victor Cazalet, one of their closest friends, had an important influence on the family. He was a rich, well-connected bachelor, a Member of Parliament and close friend of Winston Churchill. Cazalet loved both art and theater and was passionate when encouraging the Taylor family to think of England as their permanent home. Additionally, as a Christian Scientist and lay preacher, his links with the family were spiritual. He also became Elizabeth's godfather. In one instance, when she was suffering with a severe infection as a child, she was kept in her bed for weeks. She "begged" for his company: "Mother, please call Victor and ask him to come and sit with me."

 

Biographer Alexander Walker suggests that Elizabeth's conversion to Judaism at the age of 27 and her life-long support for Israel, may have been influenced by views she heard at home. Walker notes that Cazalet actively campaigned for a Jewish homeland, and her mother also worked in various charities, which included sponsoring fundraisers for Zionism. Her mother recalls the influence that Cazalet had on Elizabeth:

Victor sat on the bed and held Elizabeth in his arms and talked to her about God. Her great dark eyes searched his face, drinking in every word, believing and understanding.

Taylor had dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States. She was born British, through her birth on British soil and an American citizen through her parents.

 

Taylor reportedly sought, in 1965, to renounce her United States citizenship, to wit: "Though never accepted by the State Department, Elizabeth renounced in 1965. Attempting to shield much of her European income from U.S. taxes. Elizabeth wished to become solely a British citizen. According to news reports at the time, officials denied her request when she failed to complete the renunciation oath, refusing to say that she renounced "all allegiance to the United States of America."

 

At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, arriving in New York in April 1939. While her father remained in London to wrap up matters in his art business, arriving in November.

 

They settled in Los Angeles, California, where her father established a new art gallery, which included many paintings he shipped from England. The gallery would soon attract numerous Hollywood celebrities who appreciated its modern European paintings. According to Walker, the gallery "opened many doors for the Taylors, leading them directly into the society of money and prestige" within Hollywood's movie colony.

Bob Hope-Early Life

 

 

Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope, in Eltham, London, England, on May 29, 1903. He was the fifth of seven sons William Henry Hope and Avis Townes.

 

In his biography Arthur Marx gives evidence that Hope may actually have been born in 1901. His English father, William Henry Hope and Avis Townes were in April 1891.  The couple set up home at 12 Greenwood Street in the town, then moved to Whitehall and St George in Bristol, before eventually moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1908.

 

The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. 

 

Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of 17.  In a 1942 legal document, Hope's legal name is given as Lester Townes Hope. His name on the Social Security Index is also listed as Lester T. Hope.  His name at birth as registered during the July–August–September quarter in the Lewisham district of Greater London was Leslie Towns Hope.

 

From the age of 12, Hope worked at a variety of odd jobs at a local boardwalk. He would busk, doing dance, and comedy patter to make extra money. Hope entered many dancing and amateur talent contests, and won prizes for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. Hope also boxed briefly and unsuccessfully under the name Packy East (after the popular Packey McFarland). Hope made it to the semifinals of the Ohio novice championship once.

 

In 1918, at the age of 15, Hope was admitted to the Boys Industrial School in Lancaster, Ohio. Formerly known as the Ohio Reform School. This was one of the more innovative, progressive institutions for juvenile offenders.

As an adult, Hope donated sizable sums of money to the institution.

 

Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw one of Hope's performances with his first partner, Lloyd "Lefty" Durbin. In 1925, Arbuckle got the pair steady work with Hurley's Jolly Follies. Within a year, Hope had formed an act called the Dancemedians with George Byrne and the Hilton Sisters.  Hope and George Byrne, had an act as a pair of Siamese twins. Both danced and sang while wearing blackface, before friends advised Hope that he was funnier as himself.

 

In 1929, Hope changed his first name to "Bob". In one version of the story, he named himself after racecar driver Bob Burman. In another, he said he chose Bob because he wanted a name with a friendly "Hiya, Fellas!" sound to it. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, by his own account, Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner (and future wife) Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for “Pathé” at Culver City, California.

Humphrey Bogart-Early Years

 

 

Bogart was born on December 25, 1899 in New York City, the eldest child of Dr. Belmont DeForest Bogart and Maud Humphrey. Belmont and Maud married in June 1898. Bogart is a Dutch surname derived from “bogaard”, a short name for “boomgaard”, which means “orchard”. Bogart's father was a Presbyterian of English and Dutch descent.  His mother was an Episcopalian of English descent. Bogart was raised in his mother's faith.

 

Bogart's birthday has been a subject of controversy; according to Warner Bros, he was born on Christmas Day, 1899. Others believe that this was a fiction created by the studio in order to romanticize their star, and that he was actually born on January 23, 1899. However, this story is now considered false. No birth certificate has ever been found but his birth notice did appear in a New York newspaper in early January 1900, which supports the December 1899 date, as do other sources, such as the 1900 census.

 

Bogart's father was a cardiopulmonary surgeon. His mother, Maud Humphrey, was a commercial illustrator. She was a militant suffragette. She used a drawing of baby Humphrey in a well-known ad campaign for Mellins Baby Food. In her prime, she made over $50,000 a year, then a vast sum, far more than her husband's $20,000 per year. The Bogarts lived in a fashionable Upper West Side apartment, had an elegant cottage on a fifty-five acre estate in upstate New York on Canandaigua Lake. As a youngster, Humphrey's gang of friends at the lake would put on theatricals.

 

Humphrey was the oldest of three children. He had two younger sisters, Frances and Catherine Elizabeth (Kay). His parents were very formal, busy in their careers, and frequently fought—resulting in little emotion directed at the children, "I was brought up very unsentimentally but very straightforwardly. A kiss, in our family, was an event. Our mother and father didn’t glug over my two sisters and me."

 

As a boy, Bogart was teased for his curls, his tidiness, the "cute" pictures his mother had him pose for ‘the Little Lord Fauntleroy’ clothes she dressed him in. From his father, Bogart inherited a tendency for needling people, a fondness for fishing, a life-long love of boating, and an attraction to strong-willed women.

 

The Bogarts sent their son to private schools. Bogart began school at the Delancey School until fifth grade, when he was enrolled in Trinity School. He was an indifferent, sullen student who showed no interest in after-school activities Later he went to the prestigious preparatory school Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts.

 

The Bogarts hoped Humphrey would go on to Yale, but in 1918, Bogart was expelled. The details of his expulsion are disputed: one story claims that he was expelled for throwing the headmaster into Rabbit Pond, a man-made lake on campus. Another cites smoking and drinking, combined with poor academic performance and possibly some inappropriate comments made to the staff. It has also been said that he was actually withdrawn from the school by his father for failing to improve his academics, as opposed to expulsion. In any case, his parents were deeply dismayed by the events and their failed plans for his future.

Greta Garbo-Early Years

 

 

Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She was the third and youngest child of Anna Lovisa  Karlsson, (1872–1944.) and Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871–1920).  Garbo had an older brother, Sven Alfred (1898–1967), and an older sister, Alva Maria (1903–1926).

 

Her parents met in Stockholm. Her father made occasional trips from his home in Frinnaryd. He moved to Stockholm to become independent, and worked in various odd jobs. He married Anna, who had recently relocated from Högsby. The Gustafssons were impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat. They raised their three children in a working-class district regarded as the city's slum. Garbo would later recall:

“It was eternally gray—those long winter's nights. My father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room my mother is repairing ragged old clothes, sighing. We children would be talking in very low voices, or just sitting silently. We were filled with anxiety, as if there were danger in the air. Such evenings are unforgettable for a sensitive girl. Where we lived, all the houses and apartments looked alike, their ugliness matched by everything surrounding us.”

As a child, Garbo was a shy daydreamer. She hated school and preferred to play alone. Yet she was an a imaginative child, and a natural leader, who became interested in theatre at an early age. She directed her friends in make-believe games and performances. Garbo dreamed about becoming an actress. 

 

Later, she would participate in amateur theatre with her friends and frequent the Mosebacke Theater.  At the age of 13, Garbo graduated from school which was typical of a Swedish working-class girl at that time.  She did not attend high school. She would  confess later, she had an inferiority complex about this.

 

In the winter  of 1919, the Spanish flu spread throughout Stockholm.  Garbo's father, to whom she was very close, became ill.  He began missing work and eventually lost his job.  Garbo stayed at home looking after him and taking him to the hospital for weekly treatments.  In 1920, when she was 14 years old, he died.

John Wayne-Early Life

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, Iowa. His middle name was soon change afterwards to Michael because his parents decided to name their next son Robert.

John Wayne's father, Clyde Leonard Morrison, was of Irish, Scot-Irish, and English decent. Clyde is the son of American Civil War Veteran, Marion Mitchell Morrison (1845-1915).

John Wayne's mother, Mary Alberta Brown, was from Lancaster, Nebraska.

John Wayne's family moved to Palmsdale, California. In 1911, they moved to Glendale, California.

It was at this time John got this nick name, Duke. On his way to school, he past a firestation. One of the fireman started to call him 'Little Duke' because John never went anywhere without his Airedale Terrier dog named Duke. John preferred the name 'Duke' to 'Marion' so the name Duke stuck with him for the rest of his life.

As a teen, John worked in an ice cream shop for a man, who shod horses for Hollywood studios. He was also an active member of a youth organization associated with the freemasons called the 'Order of De Molay'. John went to Wilson Middle School, played football for Glendale High School. He applied at the U.S. Naval Academy but wasn't accepted. Instead John attended the University of Southern California. He majored in pre-law. He was a member of the Trojan Knight, Sigma Chi fraternities, and the USC football team.

John sustained an injury bodysurfing at the 'Wedge' at the tip of Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. The injury caused him to loose his athletic scholarship. Without the funds, he had to leave the university.

The silent western star, Tom Mix, had gotten John a summer job in the prop department in exchange for football tickets. Later, John moved on to little parts in films, leading him into a friendship with John Ford. John Ford provided most of Wayne's roles. John appeared in 'Brown Of Harvard' (1926), 'The Dropkick' (1927), 'Salute' (1929), and 'Maker Of Men' (1931).

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I put this section here for people who came from the tribute page I have up on my main website, "Midnight Angel's Place". Home will take you back to the tribute page of John Wayne on my main website. The other links will take you to the other segments about John Wayne.

Home

John Wayne-Film Career

John Wayne-Personal Life

John Wayne-Politics

John Wayne-Military Conterversy

John Wayne-Death

John Wayne-Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom

Winds Of The Wasteland-This is a movie John Wayne starred in.

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