Albert, Eddie (22 April 1906–26 May 2005), actor and environmental activist, was born Edward Albert Heimberger in Rock Island, Illinois, the son of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a realtor, and Julia Jones. At the age of one his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he attended parochial school before graduating from Central High School in 1924. He then entered the University of Minnesota where he majored in business and worked his way up to manager at the local theater. Young Eddie left school without graduating and worked a series of odd jobs before joining a singing trio that appeared on the local radio station. Tired of hearing his name mangled as “hamburger” he changed it to Eddie Albert, and after successfully auditioning at NBC he moved to New York with partner Grace Bradt to star in ...
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Albert, Eddie (1906-2005), actor and environmental activist
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
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Amory, Cleveland (02 September 1917–14 October 1998), writer and animal rights advocate
Ann T. Keene
Amory, Cleveland (02 September 1917–14 October 1998), writer and animal rights advocate, was born in Nahant, Massachusetts, the son of Robert Amory, a textile manufacturer, and his wife, Leonore Cobb Amory. Both parents were descendants of long-established upper-class families in Boston, where Cleveland grew up in a privileged household. He was educated at private schools, including Milton Academy, and enrolled at Harvard in 1935. After graduating four years later, he worked briefly as a reporter for the ...
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Amory, Cleveland (02 September 1917–14 October 1998)
In
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Caras, Roger (1928-2001), animal rights activist, Hollywood executive, and naturalist
Richard Harmond
Caras, Roger (24 May 1928–18 February 2001), animal rights activist, Hollywood executive, and naturalist, was born in Methuen, a rural Massachusetts town around thirty miles north of Boston, the son of Jacob Caras, an insurance salesman, and Bessie Caras, an accountant. His affection for animals developed at an early age. At home he was exposed to dogs, cats, and canaries, and in the woods surrounding his house were raccoons, deer, opossums, and skunks. "Methuen was a wonderful place in which to learn and to explore," he recalled in his autobiography, ...
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Davis, Ossie (18 December 1917–4 February 2005)
Rowland Scherman
In
Ossie Davis speaking at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., 1963, by Rowland Scherman
U.S. Information Agency. Press and Publications Service. ca. 1953–ca. 1978
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Davis, Ossie (18 December 1917–4 February 2005), actor, playwright, author, director, civil rights activist, and humanitarian
Margena A. Christian
Davis, Ossie (18 December 1917–4 February 2005), actor, playwright, author, director, civil rights activist, and humanitarian, was born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Georgia. He was the oldest of five siblings. His father, Kince Charles Davis, was a self-taught railway and construction engineer. His mother, Laura Cooper, was a homemaker. She called him “RC” for short, but others misconstrued her pronunciation as “Ossie.” His family was impoverished, and although both parents were illiterate, they stressed the importance of education through oral tradition with storytelling....
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Green, Ely (11 September 1893–27 April 1968), author, Black activist, and clairvoyant
Arthur Ben Chitty
Green, Ely (11 September 1893–27 April 1968), author, Black activist, and clairvoyant, was born near Sewanee, Tennessee, the son of a college student, Edward H. Wicks, later a Texas attorney, and Lena Green, a fourteen-year-old kitchen servant and daughter of a privy cleaner who had been enslaved. In Green’s own words, he “was a half-white bastard.” His mother died when he was eight. He was reared by Mattie Davis, a sympathetic neighbor who worked as a domestic. He did not finish the second grade but was largely self-taught. His phenomenal vocabulary came about because, so he said, “I studied from every man who would talk to me.”...
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McCann, Alfred Watterson (1879-1931), journalist, radio commentator, and crusader for pure food
Edward E. Adams
McCann, Alfred Watterson (09 January 1879–19 January 1931), journalist, radio commentator, and crusader for pure food, was born in Pittsburgh, the son of Michael McCann, a printer and engraver, and Maria (maiden name unknown). He attended the University of Chicago and was graduated in 1899 from Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, where he accepted a faculty position teaching English and mathematics after graduation. In 1905 he married Mary Carmody of Pittsburgh; they had five children....
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Newman, Paul (26 January 1925–26 September 2008)
Bernard Gotfryd
In
Paul Newman at United Nations, NY, 23 May 1978, by Bernard Gotfryd
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
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Newman, Paul (26 January 1925–26 September 2008), iconic Oscar-winning actor and philanthropist
Bruce J. Evensen
Newman, Paul (26 January 1925–26 September 2008), iconic Oscar-winning actor and philanthropist, was born Paul Leonard Newman in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the second son of Teresa Garth Fetzko Newman, a Slovak Roman Catholic, and Arthur Sigmund Newman, a German Jew, who owned a sporting goods and electronics store....
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Reeve, Christopher (25 Sept. 1952–10 Oct. 2004), actor and spinal cord injury activist
Bruce J. Evensen
Reeve, Christopher (25 Sept. 1952–10 Oct. 2004), actor and spinal cord injury activist, was born Christopher D’Olier Reeve, the oldest of two sons born in New York City to Barbara Pitney (Lamb) Reeve, a journalist, and Franklin d’Olier Reeve, a poet and Russian scholar....
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Robeson, Paul (1898-1976), actor, singer, and civil rights activist
Larry R. Gerlach
Robeson, Paul (09 April 1898–23 January 1976), actor, singer, and civil rights activist, was born Paul Leroy Robeson in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of William Drew Robeson, a Protestant minister, and Maria Louisa Bustill, a schoolteacher. Robeson’s mother died when he was six years old, and he grew up under the influence of a perfectionist father, a former runaway slave who fought in the Union army. During his senior year at the Somerville, New Jersey, high school, he achieved the highest score in a statewide scholarship examination to attend Rutgers College (later Rutgers University). The lone black at Rutgers as a freshman in 1915 and only the third African American to attend the institution, Robeson was an outstanding student and athlete. A varsity debater, he won class prizes for oratory all four years, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, was one of four seniors chosen for membership in the Cap and Skull honorary society, and was named class valedictorian. The 6′ 3″, 215-pound Robeson earned twelve varsity letters in four sports (baseball, basketball, football, and track) and was twice named football All-America (1917 and 1918). According to former Yale coach ...
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Robeson, Paul (1898-1976)
Maker: Carl Van Vechten
In
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Seldes, Gilbert Vivian (1893-1970), critic and writer
Michael Kammen
Seldes, Gilbert Vivian (03 January 1893–29 September 1970), critic and writer, was born in Alliance, New Jersey, the son of George Sergei Seldes, a pharmacist, and Anna Saphro, who died when Gilbert was three. His only sibling, George Seldes, became a distinguished journalist known for his coverage of European affairs between the world wars. Their father, a freethinker of Russian Jewish descent, sought to convert his farm into an anarchist utopian colony. When that did not succeed, he entered the drugstore business. He enjoyed friendships with ...
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Seldes, Gilbert Vivian (1893-1970)
Maker: Carl Van Vechten
In
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Thomas, Danny (1912-1991), entertainer and philanthropist
Stephen G. Marshall
Thomas, Danny (06 January 1912–06 February 1991), entertainer and philanthropist, was born Muzyad Yakhoob in Deerfield, Michigan, the son of Shaheed Yakhoob (later anglicized to Charles Jacobs), a horse breeder, and Margaret Christen Simon. He started working at the age of eleven, first selling newspapers on a street corner and then candy and soda pop in a burlesque house. He later changed his name to Amos Jacobs and started a song-and-dance act with one of his brothers. He quit high school at age sixteen and attempted unsuccessfully to find employment as a comedian, then worked several years as a punch press operator, night watchman, and semiprofessional basketball player. In 1932 he became an announcer on a local radio station and then master of ceremonies at Bert’s Beer Garden, in Detroit, Michigan....
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Villanueva, Danny D. (5 Nov. 1937–18 June 2015), professional athlete, sports broadcaster, media entrepreneur, and philanthropist
Jorge Moraga
Villanueva, Danny D. (5 Nov. 1937–18 June 2015), professional athlete, sports broadcaster, media entrepreneur, and philanthropist, was born Daniel Dario Villanueva in Tucumcari, New Mexico, the ninth child (out of twelve) of Primitivo and Pilar Villanueva. His Mexican-born father and mother had immigrated to the United States in the 1920s. Primitivo, an itinerant Methodist minister, was reassigned to a new ministry in Phoenix, Arizona shortly after Daniel’s birth. After moving the family there he would later move to Calexico, California. There, in the borderlands of Greater Mexico, Danny Villanueva spent most of his childhood years....
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Walton, Lester A. (1882-1965), diplomat, journalist, civil rights activist, and theater producer
Betty Kaplan Gubert
Walton, Lester A. (20 April 1882–16 October 1965), diplomat, journalist, civil rights activist, and theater producer, was born Lester Aglar Walton in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Benjamin A. Walton, Sr., and Olive May Camphor Walton. After graduation from Sumner High School, Walton began his career as a journalist at the ...
