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Albert, Eddie (1906-2005), actor and environmental activist  

Edward L. Lach, Jr.

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 ...

Article

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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Cover Davis, Ossie (18 December 1917–4 February 2005)

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

Article

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....

Article

Day, Doris (3 Apr. 1922–13 May 2019), singer, actress, and animal rights activist  

Bruce J. Evensen

Day, Doris (3 Apr. 1922–13 May 2019), singer, actress, and animal rights activist was born Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff to Alma Sophia (Welz) von Kappelhoff, a stage mother, and Joseph von Kappelhoff, a music teacher and remote father, in Cincinnati.

In 1935...

Article

Dee, Ruby (27 Oct. 1922–11 June 2014), actor, author, and civil rights activist  

Andrea Egan Weever

Dee, Ruby (27 Oct. 1922–11 June 2014), actor, author, and civil rights activist, was born Ruby Anne Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio, to Edward Nathaniel Wallace, who held various positions with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Gladys Hightower. When the unstable Gladys left the family, her father married Emma Amelia Benson, a former teacher....

Article

Fleming, Rhonda (10 August 1923–14 October 2020), actress and philanthropist  

Bruce J. Evensen

Fleming, Rhonda (10 August 1923–14 October 2020), actress and philanthropist, was born Marilyn Cheverton Louis in Los Angeles and raised in Hollywood, the second of two daughters of Effie Olivia Graham Louis, an actress and former Manhattan model, and Harold Cheverton Louis, an insurance broker....

Article

Furness, Betty (1916-1994), actress, product spokesperson, and consumer advocate  

Donna L. Halper

Furness, Betty (03 January 1916–02 April 1994), actress, product spokesperson, and consumer advocate, was born Elizabeth Mary (Betty) Furness in New York City to George Choate Furness, an executive with the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation, and Florence Sturtevant, who later became an interior decorator. Betty was educated at New York City’s elite Brearley School and then attended the Bennett School for Girls in Millbrook, New York, where one of her classmates predicted she would become an actress. That prophecy made sense because Betty had long shown an interest in performing. Her introduction to the media came at age seven, when she accompanied her father to the studio to watch him produce informational radio talks about the care and use of batteries. She got her first job at age fourteen, modeling for the John Robert Powers Modeling Agency during summer vacation. Several years later she caught the eye of a well-known photographer named Hal Phyfe, who was taking graduation pictures at the Bennett School. He too was impressed by how personable and photogenic she was, and he made sure her photos got to the right people....

Article

Johnson, Osa (1894-1953), author, lecturer, and film producer  

Dennis Wepman

Johnson, Osa (14 March 1894–07 January 1953), author, lecturer, and film producer, was born Osa Helen Leighty in Chanute, Kansas, the daughter of William Sherman Leighty, a railroad engineer, and Ruby Isabel Holman. In 1910 she left high school to marry Martin Johnson, whom she had met eleven years earlier when he visited Chanute as an eighteen-year-old itinerant photographer. In the meantime he had visited Europe alone and traveled with ...

Article

La Follette, Fola (1882-1970), actress and feminist  

Kate Wittenstein

La Follette, Fola (10 September 1882–17 February 1970), actress and feminist, was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the daughter of Robert Marion La Follette, a progressive politician, and Belle Case La Follette, a lawyer and suffragist. Though named Flora at birth, she used her childhood nickname throughout her life. A history major at the University of Wisconsin (1900–1904), La Follette studied under historian of the American West ...

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Cover Newman, Paul (26 January 1925–26 September 2008)

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

Article

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....

Article

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....

Article

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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Cover Robeson, Paul (1898-1976)

Robeson, Paul (1898-1976)  

Maker: Carl Van Vechten

In 

Paul Robeson As Othello. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1944. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-111185).

Article

Taylor, Elizabeth (27 February 1932–23 March 2011), actress, philanthropist, and AIDS activist  

M. G. Lord

Taylor, Elizabeth (27 February 1932–23 March 2011), actress, philanthropist, and AIDS activist, was born Elizabeth Rosemund Taylor in London, England, to Sara Warmbrodt, an American actor who worked briefly on Broadway, and Francis Taylor, an affluent American art dealer. In 1939 the family moved to Los Angeles, where Elizabeth, already noted for her beauty, began auditioning for movie roles. In ...

Article

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....

Article

Washington, Fredi (1903-1994), actress, dancer, and civil rights activist  

Laurie A. Woodard

Washington, Fredi (23 December 1903–28 June 1994), actress, dancer, and civil rights activist, was born Fredericka Carolyn Washington in Savannah, Georgia, the second child and eldest daughter of Hattie Walker Ward and Robert T. Washington, a porter, part-time barber, and postal worker. Their neighborhood on the outskirts of Savannah was racially mixed, and Fredi remembered being bullied by white children because of her race. Even as a young girl she fought back when a neighbor’s son hurled derogatory epithets at her....