Boris, Lorre, Bela and Price

Lon Chaney Sr. Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)

Tito, a clown, adopts a girl whom he names Simonetta. The girl matures into an attractive woman, desired by Luigi, a wealthy nobleman. On the eve of her marriage, Simonetta learns that Tito loves her, and she responds, presumably, to avoid hurting him, by declaring that she returns his love. That night, disbelieving her, Tito falls while practicing a familiar trick--sliding down a tightwire--thus freeing Simonetta to marry the count. In an alternative (happy) ending, Tito survives his fall, Simonetta marries Luigi, and they all remain close friends.

Cast:
Lon Chaney (Tito )
Bernard Siegel (Simon )
Loretta Young (Simonetta )
Cissy FitzGerald (Giancinta )
Nils Asther (Luigi )
Gwen Lee (Lucretia )

Fredric March, 1931 "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

Fredric March won an Oscar nomination in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role based upon John Barrymore. He won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1931 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and again in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives. On March 25, 1954, March co-hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards ceremony from New York City, with co-host Donald O'Connor in Los Angeles.
March in A Star is Born (1937)

March was one of the few actors to resist signing long-term contracts with the studios, and was able to freelance and pick and choose his roles, in the process also avoiding typecasting. By this time, he was working on Broadway as often as in Hollywood, and his screen career was not as prolific as it had been.

March, however, won two Best Actor Tony Awards: in 1947 for the play Years Ago, written by Ruth Gordon; and in 1957 for his performance as James Tyrone in the original Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

March's neighbor in Connecticut, playwright Arthur Miller, was thought to favor March to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman (1949). However, March read the play and turned down the role, whereupon director Elia Kazan cast Lee J. Cobb as Willy, and Arthur Kennedy as one of Willy's sons, Biff Loman, two men that the director had worked with in the film Boomerang (1947). March later regretted turning down the role and finally played Willy Loman in Columbia Pictures's 1951 film version of the play, directed by Laslo Benedek. Perhaps March's greatest late-in-life role was in Inherit the Wind (1960), opposite Spencer Tracy.
in Inherit the Wind (1960)

When March underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1972, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last great performance in The Iceman Cometh (1973), as the complicated Irish bartender, Harry Hope. Coincidentally, co-star Robert Ryan was entering the final stages of lung cancer, so the film was the last for both March and Ryan.

March has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1616 Vine Street.

Wally Wood

Steve Fiorilla ....A Little Clay and Rubber

Steve Fiorilla (born January 12, 1961) is an American artist born in Paterson, New Jersey, who lives and works in Buffalo, New York. Throughout his career, Fiorilla has emphasized the grotesque and surreal in illustrations, sculpture and fine art. As a sculptor, he's produced a variety of bizarre, malformed creatures.
Print
Fiorilla has illustrated for books and magazines (Heavy Metal, Video Games and Computer Entertainment, High Times), T-shirts, small press journals (Eegah!, Magick Theatre, Moody Street Irregulars), catalog covers (Gregg Press), fanzines (Horror from the Crypt of Fear) and mini-comics (City Scenes). One of his 1985 sculptures was featured 12 years later on a cover for the magazine Bloodsongs (1997).
He created numerous drawings and product designs for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, including a belt buckle, T-shirts, caps, ads and catalog illustrations. Fiorilla sometimes works in tandem with illustrator Jim McDermott, such as their collaboration for Stephen J. Spignesi's The Complete Stephen King Encyclopedia (1991).
Film and television
Fiorilla's work for films includes sculptural designs for Boston's Olive Jar Animation. The short film Things Never Seen (1989), with creatures designed by Fiorilla, received multiple showings on MTV during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to special effects makeup for videos (Tennie Komar and the Silencers) and films (Winterbeast, 1991), he's designed masks for Death Studios and horror films, including Saturday the 14th (1981) and Till Death Do We Scare (1982).
The MTV animated logo "Guillotine" featured a sculpted horror by Fiorilla, and he also created the customized skeleton guitar writhing in a popular 1987 Dokken video seen on MTV. EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines owned one of Fiorilla's latex masks depicting EC's Old Witch (The Haunt of Fear). In the second season of HBO's Tales from the Crypt anthology television series, a photo of this Old Witch mask was a prop in the June 26, 1990 "Korman's Kalamity" episode, adapted from the EC story "Kamen's Kalamity." Illustrated by Jack Kamen, the original self-satirical story is set in EC's offices where the EC editors have a meeting with Kamen about his artwork.
Miscellaneous work
Buffalo's Low Down Dirty Low Brow Art Show was a 2002 group exhibition "inspired by the artwork of Steve Fiorilla," although he didn't participate in the show. Fiorilla's articles and reviews appear regularly in the online magazine, Flickhead. He also does film reviews under the pseudonym Jacques Corédor (a pun on Samuel Fuller's film Shock Corridor).
Watch

Three Stooges

SHEMP HOWARD. Nationality: American. Born: Samuel Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York, 17 March 1895. Family: Married Gertrude Frank, 1925, one son. Military Service: U.S. Army during World War I. Career: Worked as comic in vaudeville; 1922—worked with Ted Healy; 1938–49—made a number of solo films. Died: 23 November 1955.

MOE HOWARD. Nationality: American. Born: Moses Horwitz in Bensonhurst, New York, 19 June 1897. Family: Married Helen Schonberger, 1925, two children. Career: In show business from age 12: ran errands at Vitagraph studios; worked in various comic and singing acts with Ted Healy. Died: 4 May 1975.

LARRY FINE. Nationality: American. Born: Louis Feinberg in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 5 October 1902. Family: Married Mabel Haney (died 1967), two children. Died: 24 January 1975.

CURLY HORWITZ. Nationality: American. Born: Jerome Lester Horwitz in Brooklyn, New York, 22 October 1903. Family: Married 1) unknown marriage (annulled); 2) Elaine Ackerman, 1937 (divorced 1940), one daughter; 3) Marion Buxbaum, 1945 (divorced 1946); 4) Valerie Neman, 1947, one daughter. Died: 18 January 1952.

Moe, Larry, and Shemp teamed with Ted Healy in mid-1920s for early Stooges act; 1930—film debut in Soup to Nuts; 1932—Shemp replaced by Curly in the act, and Healy dropped: long series of shorts and features, for MGM, 1933, and Columbia, 1934–57; 1946—Curly retired from the act for health reasons, and was replaced by Shemp; 1955—Joe Besser joined the act after Shemp's death; 1959—Curly Joe DeRita replaced Joe Besser in the act; 1965—made a series of five-minute TV cartoons.

The Dog

Well... let me start by saying, I think we all have a friend like this.

Margaret Hamilton

A kindergarten teacher in her native Cleveland, Margaret Hamilton began her acting career there in community theatre and with the prestigious Cleveland Playhouse. In 1933, Hamilton was invited to repeat her stage role of the sarcastic daughter-in-law in the Broadway play Another Language for the MGM film version. Though only in her early '30s, the gloriously unpretty Hamilton subsequently played dozens of busybodies, gossips, old maids, and housekeepers in films bearing such titles as Hat, Coat and Glove (1934), Way Down East (1935) and These Three (1936). She proved an excellent foil for such comedians as W.C. Fields (in 1940's My Little Chickadee) and Harold Lloyd (in 1946's The Sin of Harold Diddlebock). Her most famous film assignment was the dual role of Elvira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in the imperishable 1939 gem The Wizard of Oz -- a role which nearly cost her her life when her green copper makeup caught fire during one of her "disappearance" scenes. She played several smaller but no less impressive roles at 20th Century-Fox, including the first-scene plot motivator in People Will Talk (1951) and Carrie Nation in Wabash Avenue (1950). She alternated her film work with stage assignments in the 1950s and 1960s, frequently returning to her home base at the Cleveland Playhouse. Achieving "icon" status in the 1970s by virtue of The Wizard of Oz, Hamilton sometimes found herself being cast for "camp" effect (e.g. Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud), but also enjoyed some of her best-ever parts, including the role of professorial occult expert in the 1972 TV movie The Night Strangler. Despite her menacing demeanor, Hamilton was a gentle, soft-spoken woman; she was especially fond of children, and showed up regularly on such PBS programs as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers. In the 1970s, Margaret Hamilton added another sharply etched portrayal to her gallery of characters as general-store proprietor Cora on a popular series of Maxwell House coffee commercials -- one of which ran during a telecast of The Wizard of Oz! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frankenstien Pencil Sketch

Vincent Price 2

Vincent Leonard Price was born on May 27th, 1911 in St. Louis, Missouri. He went to Yale and travelled all over Europe before making his screen debut in 1938. It was in a small movie called "Service De Luxe". But it wasn't until his next movie that Vincent really got notice. It was a movie called, "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" and it was 1939. Price played Sir Walter Raleigh, and it was a great movie for him. This is because it featured big names such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Leo G. Carroll, Donald Crisp, and Henry Daniell. That same year, Price had a role in "Tower of London". Although the movie isn't very good, Vincent became interested in its genre. . .horror! In 1940, Vincent starred in another disappointing movie, "Hudson's Bay". But also featured in the movie was Gene Tierney, who would be in later movies with Vincent. In 1943, Vincent starred in one of my favorite movies: "The Song of Bernadette". He played hard-hearted Vital Dutour, the Imperial Prosecutor. The film also features magnificent performances by Jennifer Jones, who won an Oscar for her portrayal as Bernadette Soubirous, Gladys Cooper, Charles Bickford, and newcomer Lee J. Cobb.

In 1944, Vincent played Shelby Carpenter in Otto Preminger's classic noir, "Laura". The film also starred Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Judith Anderson. This movie is absoultely wonderful! It features a great cast and a perplexing story. If you've never seen this movie, I think it's Vincent's best!

Also in 1944, Vincent starred with Gregory Peck in the critically acclaimed "Keys of the Kingdom." In 1945, Vincent and Gene Tierney were again co-stars in "Leave Her to Heaven", in which Vincent played Russell Quinton. In 1952, he starred along with Jane Russell in "The Las Vegas Story".


Vincent became known as the horror movie king after this 3-d thriller. He had many successful (and some downright strange) movies for years after this.

100 Yards of Horror!

Illustration by my good and very Sensitive Friend Shawn McManus.
I headed back from the convenience store through the forest. I could see them lurking in the bushes. Who were they? My imagination began to expand. The Mobile, Alabama Leprecaun was descending from his tree and coming after me. Yee-OW! I tried to go faster, but the gout sent pain radiating through my legs. Now they huddled back into the shadows behind the trees. Were they wearing propellor beanies, or did I imagine that? Could it be... yes, no... gremlins? I was piloting a P-40 for Lt. General Chennault and the Flying Tigers, yes, World War II Flying Tigers, that's the ticket, and the gremlins were on the wing, oh my God, no, NOOOOOooooooo! Get a grip, man. Now they emerged from the shadows... and I saw... that they were only children. Kids holding rocks and branches and metal objects. Batteries? They took aim and began throwing. I wanted to run but I could not. I pulled the hood over my head and continued walking as the hurled objects whizzed past. Only 100 more yards to the house. Could I make it? I limped... only ten feet to the door and safety. Hand on doorknob. Home at last!

You no what? "Troubles don't melt like lemon drops! Little Bastards!

Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (onscreen title: Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein) is a 1948 comedy/horror film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.

This is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's film stable. In the film, they encounter Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolf Man. Subsequent films pair the duo with the Mummy, the Keystone Kops, and the Invisible Man. On a TV special in the early 1950s, the comedy duo did a sketch where they interacted with the latest original Universal Studios monster being promoted at the time, the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The film is considered the swan song for the "Big Three" Universal horror monsters – Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster – although it does not appear to fit within the loose continuity of the earlier films.

The film was re-released in 1956 along with Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In September 2007, Reader’s Digest selected the movie as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time.

Orson Welles, Man in the Shadow

Man in the Shadow is a 1957 thriller starring Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, Ben Alexander, and John Larch.

The cow town of Spurline is effectively ruled by Virgil Renchler (Orson Welles), owner of the Golden Empire ranch. One night, some of Renchler's hands beat a young laborer, Juan Martín, to death. The newly elected sheriff of Spurline, Ben Sadler (Jeff Chandler), decides to investigate the matter. During his investigation, he must contend with Renchler's henchmen and the fierce opposition of the townspeople, who fear Spurline would be ruined without the Golden Empire's business.

Blue Demon

Jack and his Friends are Back

John Joseph Nicholson' (born April 22, 1937), known as Jack Nicholson, is a three time Academy Award-winning American actor, internationally renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters. He is widely recognized as being one of the greatest actors of his generation.

He has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times and has won three times (twice for Best Actor and once as Best Supporting Actor). He is tied with Walter Brennan for most acting wins by a male actor (three), and second to Katharine Hepburn for most acting wins overall (four). He is also one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting (either lead or supporting) in every decade since the 1960s; the other is Michael Caine. He has won seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, As Good as It Gets, Tim Burton's Batman, Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men and Martin Scorsese's The Departed.

James Woods' career has been noted for the intense characters he has chosen, the earliest of which was his portrayal of a sadistic murderer in 1979's The Onion Field. He appeared in an episode of The Rockford Files, playing a son whose parents were murdered and wants James "Jim" Rockford to find the murderer. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice: the first in 1987 for Best Actor in Salvador and again in 1996 for Best Supporting Actor for his acclaimed performance as Byron De La Beckwith in Ghosts of Mississippi. He has also garnered critical praise for his voice work for Hades in Disney's Hercules. His personal favorite of all of his roles, however, is as the domineering gangster Max in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon A Time In America (1984).

He was briefly considered for the role of The Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for the Batman film in 1989. Hamm recalls that he and Burton thought, "James Woods would be good and wouldn't need any makeup, which would save a couple of hours' work every morning." The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson.[6] Quentin Tarantino wrote a part in Reservoir Dogs with Woods in mind, but his agent rejected the script without showing it to the actor. When Woods learned of this some time later, he fired the agent. Woods was also considered for the part of Donald Kimball in American Psycho, but he turned it down. The part was given to Willem Dafoe.

James Woods' appeared as himself in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer and Apu" and in an episode of Family Guy entitled "Peter's Got Woods". The high school in Family Guy is also named James Woods High after him. In 2006, Woods starred opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in the political thriller End Game. Also in 2006, Woods played himself in the premiere episode of Entourage's third season. He also starred in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as Mike Toreno and voiced the falcon in Stuart Little 2.

Woods stars in the new CBS legal drama Shark. Woods plays an infamous Los Angeles defense lawyer who, growing disillusioned, becomes a prosecutor. The Shark pilot episode was directed by Spike Lee.


Willem Dafoe'
After touring with Theatre X for four years in the United States and Europe, he moved to New York City and joined the Performance Group. Dafoe's film career began in 1981, when he was cast in Heaven's Gate, but his role was removed from the film during editing. In the mid 80`s he was cast by famed Director William Friedkin to star in the classic film "To Live And Die In LA" where Willem Dafoe delivers one of his greatest performances ever as the ace counterfeiter Rick Masters. A year later he starred as the leader of a motorcycle gang in The Loveless (and later played a similar role in Streets of Fire), but his first breakthrough film role was as the compassionate Sergeant Elias in Platoon (1986). In 1988 Dafoe starred in another movie set in Vietnam, this time as CID Agent Buck McGriff in Off Limits. He has since become a popular character actor; due to his harsh facial features and crooked smile, he is often typecast as unstable or villainous characters, such as the psychotic Green Goblin in the Spider-Man film series and Barillo in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Before that, he was briefly considered for the role of The Joker by Tim Burton and Sam Hamm for the Batman film in 1989. Hamm recalls "We thought, 'Well, Willem Dafoe looks just like The Joker.'" The role ended up going to Jack Nicholson.[3] He also played Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). He once remarked "To this day, I can't believe I was so brazen to think I could pull off the Jesus role", though Dafoe received acclaim despite the controversy surrounding the film.

He starred in the erotic drama Body of Evidence with Madonna. In this film, he appeared totally nude, as well as giving Madonna cunnilingus in a famous scene in a carpark. In 1991 Willem Dafoe delivered another outstanding performance in the role as a Manhattan, New York drug dealer in the film "Light Sleeper". This film received very good reviews by both critics and fans alike. Dafoe played peculiar detectives in The Boondock Saints (1999) and in American Psycho (2000). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1986 for Platoon and 2000 for Shadow of the Vampire. After Spider-Man, Dafoe had a rare opportunity to play a heroic film role when he provided the voice of Gill in the animated movie Finding Nemo.

He worked briefly as a model in a 1990 Prada campaign. In 2004, Dafoe lent his likeness and voice for the highly successful James Bond video game Everything or Nothing as villain Nikolai Diavolo. In 2006, he played NYPD detective Stan Aubray on the hunt for a serial killer, the lead in New York-set thriller Anamorph, opposite Scott Speedman and Peter Stormare. In his most recent film he stars alongside Rowan Atkinson in the sequel to 1997's Bean, Mr. Bean's Holiday which was released worldwide 30 March 2007.