September 10 Birthday Wishes

Al 'Fuzzy'St. John [1893 - 1963]
Bessie Love [1898 - 1986]
Edmund O'Brien [1915 - 1985]

Robert Wise (1914-2005) - Blood on the Moon, one of my favorite westerns.

Howdy Manco!!

Al "Fuzzy" St John was a Vaudeville actor, who got into silent films back in 1913. He went under several names, like Al.Q. St John, Al "Fuzzy" St John and others. Rumor has it, that a producer/director was trying to hire Fuzzy Knight, but he was unavailable and so they just started calling Al ,"Fuzzy". He was the stunt double for Fatty Arbuckle and also appeared in The Keystone Cops series. He appeared in literally hundreds of films, both silent and talkies through the 50's, often co-starring with Buster Crabbe, Robert Livingston and Lash LaRue. Al also appeared in several films with Hopalong Cassidy. I remember him best from the Lash LaRue films, like Mark Of The Lash, Return Of The Whip and King Of The Bullwhip. Al was one of the actors responsible for putting humor in westerns, as the comedic "sidekick", along with Smiley Burnette and Pat Buttram.

Bessie Love was another of the pioneers in film, beginning her career back in 1916, in silent films. She appeared in over 100 silent films, with Douglas Fairbanks .Jr, in The Aryan with William.S.Hart and received an Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1929 film, Broadway Melody. Apparently, she didn't make the transition to talkies very well, because her career was virtually over by 1931. She made a few t.v. appearances after the invention of t.v. and had small roles in Reds, Sunday, Bloody Sunday and The Hunger in the 70's and 80's.

Edmund O'Brien got his start in show business as a 10 year old, while being tutored by his next door neighbor, Harry Houdini. He appeared in Broadway plays with John Gielgud, Laurence Oliver and Orson Wells, before beginning his film career in 1939. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in the 1954 film, The Barefoot Contessa. O'Brien was simply one of the best actors in Hollywood from the 40's through the 60's, both as a leading man as in D.O.A. and as a supporting actor in Up Periscope, the editor of the Shinbone Star in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and as the old man in The Wild Bunch. There is a story about late in his career, suffering with memory and eyesight problems, he began to show up on the set later than usual. One of his directors, thinking he had become a drunk, began to spy on him through his trailer window. He discovered O'Brien sitting down with a young man, who was reading him his lines in the next scene. O'Brien didn't want the studio to find out about his physical problems, for fear they would fire him. He was a hell of an actor until the very end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Robert Wise was an editor, producer and director on many of the great films of the past. He got his start, when Orson Wells asked him to edit the classic, Citizen Kane. When Wells left the country, while filming The Magnificent Ambersons, the studio asked Wise to edit that films also. Wise edited over 40 minutes of Well's film out of the movie, which was lost and Wells didn't forgive him for over 40 years, until 1986. Wise won 4 Oscars during his career and directed 9 Oscar nominated actors, includig Steve McQueen, Rita Moreno and Julie Andrews. Some of Wise's films include, the 1951 version of, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Run Silent, Run Deep, Blood On The Moon, The Sound Of Music, West Side Story, The Sand Pebbles and many others.

Ed

Howdy, Pards!

Bessie Love started acting in 1915 when her family sent her to meet D.W. Griffith at Biograph because her family was financially strapped. She made several films with William S. Hart and Douglas Fairbanks, and appeared in Griffith's epic film Intolerance. When sound came to films, she appeared in several musicals, and was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Broadway Melody in 1929. After WWII, she moved to Great Britain, and continued making movies until the early 1980s.

Edmund O'Brien first appeared in the 1939 version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He then went on to make films in several genres. He played opposite of James Cagney in White Heat, as a poisoned man trying to find his killers in D.O.A., as a newspaper man the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and won an Oscar for his role in The Barefoot Contessa (which also featured Bessie Love). He continued acting in movies and TV until 1974.

Robert Wise was an editor (Citizen Kane), and later a director of films of many genres: horror (The Body Snatcher, The Haunting), Westerns (Blood on the Moon, Tribute to a Bad Man), sci-fi (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Star Trek:The Motion Picture), war movies (The Desert Rats, Run Silent Run Deep), and musicals (The Sound of Music, West Side Story, winning the Best Director Oscar for both). He was one of the most highly acclaimed directors in the history of cinema.