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- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Jack Lord will probably be best remembered as Steve McGarrett in the long running television series Hawaii Five-O (1968), but he was much more than that however. He starred in several movies, directed several episodes of his show, was in several Broadway productions, and was an accomplished artist. Two of his paintings were acquired by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum of Modern Art by the time he was twenty. Lord was also known for being a very cultured man who loved reading poetry out loud on the set of his TV show and as being somewhat reclusive at his Honolulu home. He met his son from his first marriage, who was killed in an accident when he was thirteen, only once as a baby.- Producer
- Production Manager
Steve Parker was born on 6 February 1922. He was a producer and production manager, known for My Geisha (1962), John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965) and The Lords of the New Church: Holy War (1992). He was married to Miki Hasegawa and Shirley MacLaine. He died on 13 May 2001 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.- The most famous henchman of the entire James Bond series of spy thrillers, Harold Sakata will forever be remembered as the villainous "Odd Job" in the ultimate Bond film, Goldfinger (1964), with his lethal martial arts and steel-brimmed bowler hat. He was born Toshiyuki Sakata in Hawaii, of Japanese descent. From a young age he was a proficient sportsman who developed a keen interest in wrestling, and won a Silver Medal in weightlifting for the light heavyweight division of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Sakata then went on to become a professional wrestler, and appeared under the name "Tosh Togo" where he became a "bad guy" wrestler who allegedly threw salt in his opponent's eyes.
Although he had no acting background, Sakata came to the attention of Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli when they were casting for the key role of the mute Asian villain "Odd Job". Sakata's steely gaze and powerful physique made him perfect for the role as Auric Goldfinger's (Gert Fröbe) deadly bodyguard, and the fight sequence between Sean Connery and Sakata in a glittering, gold-filled Fort Knox remains one of the highlights of the Bond series.
Unfortunately, Sakata never broke free of the "Odd Job" stereotype, and his remaining film appearances saw him cast as military figures, muscle-bound brutes or further mute bodyguards. He died from cancer in 1982, but had assured himself a very unique place in modern film history. - Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Tall, spade-jawed, hopelessly genial balladeer/actor Jim Nabors was born in James Thurston Nabors on June 12, 1930 in Sylacauga, Alabama and raised there, graduating from the University of Alabama. A typing clerk at the United Nations in his salad days, he eventually moved to Los Angeles, California on account of his asthmatic condition and became a film cutter for NBC.
Jim was discovered on stage doing a cabaret act at "The Horn," a now defunct but then highly popular Santa Monica nightclub. Combining his gifts for classical singing and gawky hick characterizations, his highly unique schtick was either ridiculously insane or totally brilliant. Either way this garnered him notice.
Comic Bill Dana caught Jim's act and opted for the latter assessment, inviting him to audition for Steve Allen's TV variety show. Jim went on to appear on Allen's show a number of times. TV star Andy Griffith caught his silly singing "down home" gimmick as well and offered him the part of dim but lovable gas station attendant Gomer Pyle on his popular 1960s sitcom. Jim's career took off like a skyrocket. His sheepish "gawwwleee" and bug-eyed "shazzayam" expressions became part of the American vernacular and it wasn't long before the beloved character would spin off into his own sitcom. Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964) was a solid hit as the bungling, painfully naive, gentle do-gooder found himself hilariously at odds with the Marine Corps and a particularly tough Sergeant Vince Carter (played terrifically by the late Frank Sutton). The sitcom ran a respectable five seasons and Jim solidified himself as a household name.
On the downside of this TV success, Jim found himself inextricably pigeon-holed as a gullible, squeaky-clean hick. As a result, he found work elsewhere, particularly in children-oriented series for Sid and Marty Krofft and Jim Henson. He also decided to refocus on his beautiful baritone voice. Recording a number of romantic, easy listening albums, five of them went gold and one went platinum. He earned a gold record for his rendition of "The Lord's Prayer."
On TV, Jim became a frequent singing/comedy guest performer on all the top prime-time variety and late night shows, including "Sonny & Cher," "The Tonight Show," "The Dean Martin Show," "The David Frost Show," and "The Joey Bishop Show." He also became the annual "good luck charm" opening season guest on close friend Carol Burnett's TV variety series during her twelve-year run. It was enough for CBS to entrust Jim with own TV variety series The Jim Nabors Hour (1968), which ran for two seasons, featured his "Gomer Pyle" co-stars Frank Sutton and Ronnie Schell, and earned him a Golden Globe nomination. A decade later, he returned to the format hosting The Jim Nabors Show (1978), which was short-lived but earned him a daytime Emmy nomination.
Another good friend, Burt Reynolds, was responsible for Jim's theater debut as Harold Hill in "The Music Man" at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre with Florence Henderson as his Marian the Librarian. Jim also appeared in comic support in a couple of Reynolds' films -- The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and Stroker Ace (1983).
Nabors was seen on a limited basis in the early 1990s and his life took a serious hit in 1994 when, after years of declining health, he was forced to have a liver transplant. He has returned to the limelight very infrequently (talks shows and reunion shows), preferring the quiet, relaxing life he has in Hawaii and running a macadamia nut plantation.
On January 15, 2013, the 82-year-old Nabors came out as gay news by marrying his life partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader, a retired Honolulu firefighter, at a Seattle hotel after Washington became a "same sex" marriage state a month earlier. The 87-year-old died of an immune disorder on November 30, 2017.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Al Harrington was born on 12 December 1935 in Pago Pago, Western Samoa. He was an actor, known for Forrest Gump (1994), Hawaii Five-0 (2010) and Jake and the Fatman (1987). He was married to Rosa. He died on 21 September 2021 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.- The Asian-American actor Kam Fong, best known for his co-starring role as Chin Ho in the original Hawaii Five-O (1968) TV series, was born Kam Tong Chun on May 27, 1918 in Kalihi, Hawaii. (The name Fong was the result of a teacher incorrectly teaching him how to write his name. The name stuck and he later took it as his legal name.) After graduating from high school, he worked as a boiler-maker in the Pearl Harbor shipyard and was there on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attack on the naval base brought America into World War II.
He joined the police force in 1944, serving as cop for 16 years. While still on the force, he made his feature film debut in the B-movie Ghost of the China Sea (1958) (1958), following it up with a bit part in The Lost Missile (1958) (1958). After his retirement from the police department in 1960, he acted in community theater while working as a disc jockey and a real estate agent.
Other bit parts followed in the early '60s, but it was "Hawaii Five-O" that made him part of TV history. He appeared on the show for 10 of its 12 seasons, as well as in the 1997 Hawaii Five-O (1997) TV movie that reunited the original cast, despite Kam Fong having been killed off in season 10. His son Dennis Chun has appeared intermittently in the 2010 Hawaii Five-0 (2010) revival as SGT Duke Lukela.
Suffering from lung cancer, Kam Fong died on October 18, 2002 in Honolulu. He was 84 years old. - A tall, powerfully built man, Douglas Kennedy entered films after graduating from Amherst. Making his debut in 1940, he appeared in many westerns and detective thrillers, often as a villain. World War II interrupted his career, and he spent the war years as a Signal Corps officer and an operative in the OSS and US Army Intelligence. After the war he returned to Hollywood, where he began playing supporting roles in larger films and an occasional lead in a lower-budget film. He is most fondly remembered, though, by audiences of the 1950s for two roles: his western TV series Steve Donovan, Western Marshal (1955), and as one of the policemen taken over by the Martians in the sci-fi classic Invaders from Mars (1953).
- Producer
- Actress
Beth Chapman was born on 29 October 1967 in Denver, Colorado, USA. She was a producer and actress, known for Corner Gas (2004), Dog the Bounty Hunter (2003) and Hawaii Five-0 (2010). She was married to Duane 'Dog' Chapman and Keith A. Barmore. She died on 26 June 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Ann Dvorak was the daughter of silent film star Anna Lehr and silents director Edwin McKim. She entered films at the start of sound, as a dance instructor for the lavish MGM musicals. She came to international prominence in Scarface (1932) with Paul Muni, but often complained about the lack of quality of her films, which led to arguments with her bosses at Warners. She married British actor Leslie Fenton in 1932, and came to Britain to make a few films. She contributed to the British war effort driving an ambulance. She retired from the screen in 1951, and died in 1979.- Kwan Hi Lim was born on 11 July 1922 in Maui, Hawaii, USA. He was an actor, known for Uncommon Valor (1983), Magnum, P.I. (1980) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). He died on 22 December 2008 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
- From 1955 - 1960, Glenn Cannon was in New York City. He appeared on Broadway in A Moon for the Misbegotten and The Good Woman of Setzuan, and Off Broadway in 20 plays, among which were the famed productions of The Three Penny Opera at the Theatre DeLys and The Iceman Cometh at Circle in the Square. His tours included leading roles in West Side Story, Tea and Sympathy, and I Can Get It for You Wholesale. His television appearances in leading and supporting roles included such network live productions as Studio One (1948), Playwrights '56 (1955), Camera Three (1954), Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951). He also worked on two motion pictures shot in New York City during this time period: Cop Hater (1958) and Mad Dog Coll (1961). (Both are still seen on late-night TV in the United States.)
From 1960 - 1965, Cannon was in Los Angeles. He appeared in supporting and starring roles on television, which included episodes of Combat! (1962), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The Gallant Men (1962), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Johnny Staccato (1959), No Time for Sergeants (1964), and The Outer Limits (1963).
From 1965 - 1968, Cannon was a resident actor-director-teacher with the Stanford Repertory Theatre, an Equity company of nine actors supplemented by students in Stanford's theatre program. This was a pilot project for three years funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. During his time in California, he directed 15 stage productions.
In 1968, Cannon came to the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a drama professor. Shortly thereafter, he was cast as District Attorney John Manicote in Hawaii Five-O (1968), and played this recurrent role for eight years on the CBS series. He later played Dr. Ibold for eight years on Magnum, P.I. (1980) and made several appearances in principal roles on Tour of Duty (1987) and Jake and the Fatman (1987). He subsequently acted in several made-for-television movies filmed in Honolulu and played the recurring role of Dr. Landowski on the short-lived CBS series Island Son (1989) with Richard Chamberlain. Cannon also appeared in Miracle Landing (1990), based on the real-life air accident of Aloha Airlines Flight 243, and the feature film Picture Bride (1994) that included in its cast, Toshirô Mifune and Tamlyn Tomita.
Since making Hawaii his home, in addition to teaching, Cannon has remained active in acting and directing for the stage. Presently, he has directed over 108 plays at Kennedy Theatre, Diamond Head Theatre, Manoa Valley Theatre, and other venues in Hawaii. His stage appearances in Hawaii include starring roles in Othello (as Iago), J.B. (as The Devil), The Sunshine Boys (as Willie), Death of a Salesman (as Willy Loman), Follies (as Buddy), and I'm Not Rappaport (as Nat) among others. His efforts have not gone unnoticed by the local theatre community. Cannon is the winner of a total of 11 Po'okela Awards for Excellence in Directing and another for Best Actor since the awards were instituted in 1983 by the Hawaii State Theatre Council. - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Gardner is the son of Deane McKay, an ad executive, and Catherine. He was raised in New York and Paris. He attended Cornell University two years but left when his father died. He worked in advertising for 6 months but found that he could not stand it. At age 20, he became a sculptor and had a piece displayed in the Museum of Modern Art. In 1959, he was spotted by a Hollywood producer who convinced him to join the cast of TV's Adventures in Paradise (1959). When it was over, he decided he really did not like the celebrity spotlight and proceeded to roam the world. He hiked in the Amazon, rode camels in Egypt, and crewed on Caribbean yachts. Finally, in 1980, he met Madeleine Madigan, who became his wife. The life-long bachelor settled down and decided to become a writer.- Lane Bradford was born on 29 August 1922 in Yonkers, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), The Invisible Monster (1950) and The Toughest Gun in Tombstone (1958). He was married to Joan Irene Velin and Mary Schrock. He died on 7 June 1973 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was everything you could want in a love interest -- pretty, wholesome, reliable, true blue. Porcelain blonde Florence Rice would come to films in the mid '30s but disappear within a decade, having made little of the impression she might have made. She was introduced to the limelight practically from the beginning as the daughter of famous sportswriter, documentary producer and radio commentator Grantland Rice (1880-1954). Rice was known for his many "Grantland Rice Sportslights" shorts in the 1920s and 1930s and would win an Oscar for Best Short Subject for Amphibious Fighters (1943).
Florence, who was born in Cleveland, OH, in 1907, attended grammar and boarding schools in Englewood, NJ, and developed an early interest in acting. Gracing such Broadway stage productions as "June Moon" and "She Loves Me Not," she began appearing regularly on the big screen in the mid '30s and would work primarily for MGM in the light, sparkling comedy department over the years. Equally agreeable Robert Young would be a frequent co-star, appearing with her in such films as The Longest Night (1936), Sworn Enemy (1936), Married Before Breakfast (1937), Navy Blue and Gold (1937) and Paradise for Three (1938). Florence's best known role would come as the somewhat vapid singing ingénue (Kenny Baker was her bland male counterpart) in one of The Marx Brothers' lesser vehicles At the Circus (1939) (unlike Baker, her vocals were dubbed).
As was usually the case, Florence was overshadowed in most of her pictures by flashier dames or zany comedians. Following her role as the bride in the spooky "B" comedy The Ghost and the Guest (1943), she left films altogether and found some work waiting for her on radio and TV. Three prior marriages, including one to actor Robert Wilcox, failed, but in the postwar years she happily met and married Fred Butler and retired to Hawaii. She died of lung cancer in 1974.- Ben Chapman was born in Oakland, California, while his Tahitian parents were on a trip to the United States. He was raised in Tahiti, relocated to the U.S. in 1940 and went to school in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Working as a Tahitian dancer in nightclubs led to his first movie job, a bit in MGM's "Pagan Love Song" (1950); other small film roles followed before Korean War duty temporarily sidetracked his modest screen career. Talent scouts from Universal-International "discovered" Chapman upon his return, and for a year he became a U-I stock player--and, at six-foot-five, an ideal choice for the finny title role in "Creature from the Black Lagoon." (Chapman is the Creature in scenes where the camera is out of water; Ricou Browning is the Creature in scenes where the camera is underwater.) In his later years, Chapman frequently commuted to autograph shows in the mainland United States.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dorothy Mackaill was 11 when her parents separated; she then lived with her father. A rebellious teenager, Dorothy -- who had long wanted a career in the theater -- ran away to London and finally persuaded her father to pay for her board and lessons. Her first job was in the chorus; she then traveled to Paris, where she met a Broadway choreographer, who got her a job with the Ziegfeld Follies in New York. At the Follies, Dorothy became friends with ones of its stars, Marion Davies.
By 1921 Dorothy was making movies, but she didn't become a star for three years until The Man Who Came Back (1924). Other successful films included Chickie (1925), Joanna (1925), and The Dancer of Paris (1926). Her career continued into the beginning the sound era, and her silent film The Barker (1928) was reshot as a part-talkie. The industry was in upheaval during that transitional period, and First National didn't renew Dorothy's contract when it expired in 1931. As a free agent, she made some good films at Columbia (Love Affair (1932)), Paramount (No Man of Her Own (1932)), and MGM (The Chief (1933)), but overall her career was idling. The following year brought few prospects, and she wound up making a trio of quickies for the independent market, a particularly poor example being Cheaters (1934) for low-rent Liberty Pictures. Her last part was in Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1937). With that, Dorothy retired from pictures and took care of her invalid mother.- John Sylvester White was born on 31 October 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Welcome Back, Kotter (1975), Suspense (1949) and Kojak (1973). He was married to Joan Alexander. He died on 11 September 1988 in Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
- Herman Wedemeyer was born on 20 May 1924 in Hilo, Hawaii, USA. He was an actor, known for Hawaii Five-O (1968), Magnum, P.I. (1980) and Hawaii Five-O (1997). He died on 25 January 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
- Seth Sakai was born on 22 May 1932 in Hawaii, USA. He was an actor, known for Pearl Harbor (2001), The Next Karate Kid (1994) and Magnum, P.I. (1980). He died on 10 May 2007 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
- Actor
- Manager
Barry Russo was born on 3 May 1925 in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and manager, known for Star Trek (1966), Toma (1973) and Tombstone Territory (1957). He was married to Carol Thurston. He died on 13 December 2003 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Composer, songwriter ("Mickey Mouse March"), actor, singer, guitarist and conductor, Jimmie Dodd was educated at the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Conservatory and Vanderbilt University. He began his career in 1933 as a guitarist and singer on radio, coming to Hollywood in 1937 to play in the Louis Prima orchestra and later become an actor. In World War II he toured the Aleutians and the China-Burma-India area for the USO with wife Ruth Carrell Dodd. He was active in television beginning in 1952 and won the MC role on the new The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) series in 1955. He left the series in 1959, beginning a tour of Australia that lasted in 1960. He also led his own dance group. Joining ASCAP in 1946, his chief musical collaborators included his wife Ruth and George Wyle and John Jacob Loeb. His other popular-song compositions include "He Was There", "Encyclopedia", "I Love Girls", "Lonely Guitar", "Mamie", "Nashville Blues", "I'm No Fool", "Rosemary", "Be a Good Guest", "Amarillo", "Hi to You", "Proverbs", "Washington" (official song of the District of Columbia), "Meet Me in Monterey" (for the Monterey Centennial), and "A Bird Is Singin' the Blues".- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
The icon of breezy island entertainment, Don Ho became synonymous with Hawaii and all it represented...colorful leis and shirts, festive luaus, strumming ukuleles, flowing palm trees, beautiful hula dancers, and, of course, the song "Tiny Bubbles". A trip to the "Aloha State" seemed incomplete unless capped by a Don Ho performance, a tourist attraction unto itself. He delighted thousands upon thousands for nearly five decades and was dubbed that island's "goodwill ambassador".
Born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako on August 13, 1930, he was one of nine children blessed with a mixed ethnic heritage that encompassed the Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German cultures. He was a high school football star by the time he left the state to study at Springfield College in Massachusetts. Chronic homesickness had him returning to his beloved island by year's end. Attending the University of Hawaii in 1954, he earned a BA in sociology, then served with the Air Force as a fighter pilot and was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant in 1959.
His parents owned a cocktail lounge, Honey's, in Honolulu and Don formed a small band to entertain the customers. The place started booming with business. He progressed to bigger hotels in the area ("Dukes", which became THE most popular night spot, thanks to him) and developed his own laidback style buoyed by easy, humorous banter and, above all, talented musicians. Reprise Records caught ear of his success and signed him up. Don's popular live albums "The Don Ho Show" in 1965 and the "Don Ho--Again!" were the results. "Tiny Bubbles" (1966), which he almost didn't record, became #8 on the Billboard charts and the signature song that opened and closed all his shows. Other popular tunes in his repertoire included "Pearly Shells", "I'll Remember You" and "With All My Love".
Extending himself further inland, he enjoyed the nation's top niteries in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Chicago and New York, often breaking attendance records in the process. A frequent guest on the TV variety and night-time talk show circuits, he earned his own ABC daytime comedy-variety show, The Don Ho Show (1976) which filmed in Waikiki Beach. He made fun cameo appearances on TV too, nearly always as himself, on such popular shows as "I Dream of Jeannie", "Batman", "The Brady Bunch", "Charlie's Angels", "Fantasy Island" and "McCloud".
Although he lost major clout after his 60s and 70s musical reign and was thereafter denounced/dismissed as little more than an outdoors lounge act, Don's natural charm and obvious charisma never lost for an audience back on his own Hawaiian turf, and he was hailed as Hawaii's equivalent of the "Rat Pack" in terms of style and sustained popularity. He was also a well-known restaurateur (Don Ho's Island Grill, which opened in 1998).
Don developed heart problems (cardiomyopathy) in 2005 but did not let it prevent him from doing what he loved best. He was a mainstay in Waikiki (for over 40 years) and the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel was his official stomping grounds, ever reliable behind his trademark Hammond organ, crooning tunes and teaching enthusiastic tourists simple Hawaiian language and traditions. In 2006 he had his pacemaker replaced. He died of heart failure at age 76 on April 14, 2007. Don had ten children in all with first wife Melvia; one of his daughters, singer Hoku (their seventh child, whose name means "star" in Hawaiian), often performed with him and went on to launch her own musical career. He married Haumea Hebenstreit, who produced his show at the Beachcomber, in 2006.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Ben Lyon was your average boyish, easy-going, highly appealing film personality of the Depression-era 1930s. Although he never rose above second-tier stardom, he would enjoy enduring success both in the United States and in the UK.
Born Ben Lyon, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia, the future singer/actor was the son of Alvine Valentine (Wiseberg) and Benjamin Bethel "Ben" Lyon, a pianist-turned-businessman, and the youngest of four. His maternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants. Raised in Baltimore, he started performing in amateur productions as a teen before earning marquee value on Broadway opposite such stars as Jeanne Eagels.
Hollywood took notice of the baby-faced charmer and soon Ben was ingratiating filmgoers opposite silent film's most honored leading ladies. He appeared with Pola Negri in Lily of the Dust (1924), Gloria Swanson in Wages of Virtue (1924), Barbara La Marr in The White Moth (1924), Mary Astor in The Pace That Thrills (1925) and Claudette Colbert, in her only silent feature, in For the Love of Mike (1927). He advanced easily into talkies and was particularly noteworthy as the dashing hero in Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930), in which Ben actually piloted his own plane (Ben had trained as a pilot during WWI) and filmed some of the airborne scenes for Hughes himself. That same year was also a banner year for him in his personal life after marrying Paramount Pictures film star Bebe Daniels, with whom he had appeared in Alias French Gertie (1930).
As both of their movie careers started to decline, the talented twosome decided to work up a husband-and-wife music hall and vaudeville act. They took their show to England and became a hit at the London Palladium. At one point he served in the U.S. Army Air Force and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel in charge of Special Services for the U.S. Air Corps in England. Soldiers, sailors and airmen (from 1939) listened to Ben and Bebe weekly on the air waves with their popular, long-running BBC broadcast "Hi, Gang!" The couple remained in England throughout WWII performing on stage and doing their valid part to entertain and honor the troops.
After a brief postwar stay in Hollywood in 1946, where Ben had taken an executive position with Fox, the couple returned to England and headlined another popular 1950s radio show, "Life with the Lyons," which spawned two family-styled films that included children Barbara Lyon and Richard Lyon. In the early 1960s Bebe suffered multiple strokes and left the limelight, passing away in 1971. Ben remarried (to former actress Marian Nixon) and settled in the US, where he died in 1979 of a heart attack while on vacation.- Actor
- Soundtrack
In his earlier days, Halliday seems to have relished the life of an adventurer. At one time he fought with the British Army during the Boer War. As a mining engineer he then dug for gold nuggets in Nevada, rapidly made a fortune and lost it as quickly. He eventually switched to the more peaceful pursuit of acting, initially in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, then in dramatic plays on Broadway from 1912 to 1936 (lastly in "Tovarich", as Prince Alexandrovitch). Though Brooklyn-born, Halliday was raised in England and often adopted an upper-crust British accent. An incisive and debonair actor with a penchant for sophisticated comedy, he received good reviews as co-star of The Woman Accused (1933) with Cary Grant and Nancy Carroll. He was very much at home playing caddish bon vivants, gleeful villains (such as in Terror Aboard (1933)) or wily arch rogues (notably Desire (1936) with Marlene Dietrich). Halliday had another pivotal role in Intermezzo (1939) and was then cast to best advantage as Katharine Hepburn's charming philanderer of a father in The Philadelphia Story (1940). He died in Honolulu, Hawaii, from a heart ailment in October 1947 at the age of 67.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Clarissa Haili was born on October 28, 1901 in Honolulu. Everyone however called her Clara. Clara first sang in her church choir and loved to dance the hula despite her mother's objections. In 1930, she married Theodore Inter. In 1940, she met Harry Owens, who got her into the movies. Clara legally took the name Hilo Hattie at the insistence of Harry Owens during the 1941 filming of Song of the Islands (1942). In 1949, Clara also appeared regularly on Owens' television show and in a number of variety shows, plus several non-musical stints on Hawaii Five-O (1968). In 1979, she passed away in Honolulu shortly after her biography was published.
Today, Hilo Hattie is an icon because of her music and dancing as well as for her namesakes. In 1969, a new hybrid orchid was named after her. In 1971, an original line of clothing was also named after her. That clothing line eventually became a full-fledged clothing store called Hilo Hattie. Now there are 7 Hilo Hattie retail stores in the state of Hawaii. The Hilo Hattie stores remain a major tourist destination for visitors to Hawaii.