Yale Gracey joined the Walt Disney Company in 1939 as a layout artist, working on Disney’s second feature-length motion picture Pinocchio. He contributed to many Disney classics like Fantasia and The Three Caballeros. Taking the newly-coined title of “Imagineer,” Yale designed some of the more memorable effects seen in attraction is Disneyland. He developed the …
Hal Smith started off as a DJ in upstate New York. He soon was tapped to be “The Pancake Man” on a morning kids’ show on local Los Angeles television sponsored by International House of Pancakes. Dressed in a classic chef’s uniform, she showed cartoons and told jokes to the amusement of his juvenile audience. …
As a child in Oregon, Daveigh Chase entered local talent shows where her vocal ability was warmly recognized and critically praised. On a trip to Los Angeles, she began attending casting calls, eventually landing a role in a Campbell’s Soup commercial at the age of seven. In 1998, Daveigh was cast in a small role …
June Lockhart passed away on October 23, 2025 at the age of 100. 100 — boy! what a run! June was most identified as the all-American wholesome model Mom, playing the definitive role in — not one but two — popular TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. Well, I never watched Lassie and I’ve …
Poor Sal Mineo. After a couple of film roles (including one for which he beat out another up-and-coming actor named Clint Eastwood), Sal Mineo was cast as “John ‘Plato’ Crawford” in Rebel Without a Cause alongside James Dean and Natalie Wood. The film earned Sal an Academy Award nomination and made him a household name, …
Debra DeSanto was born in Pierre, South Dakota in 1955. However, there may never have been a “Debra DeSanto” born in Pierre, South Dakota in 1955. In 1978, producer-director-entrepreneur Jim Clark (sometimes known as “Jim Buckley”) released the pornographic film Debbie Does Dallas. The film, a loose account of the trials and tribulations of an …
In January 2025, when the announcement of Anita Bryant’s death was made public (nearly a month after the actual occurrence), most people thought that she had already been dead for a long time. That’s because her career died in the late 1970s. Anita Bryant enjoyed a lot of success in the late 50s and early …
Week 3 of the “Horror Actors of the 1940s” series in JPiC’s “Inktober” continues with Rondo Hatton. Rondo Hatton was a star athlete at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Florida, excelling in track and football. He was also voted Most Handsome Boy in his senior year. After high school, he worked as a sportswriter for …
After making his Broadway debut in The Wiz, Ken Page took the featured role of “Nicely-Nicely” in a Broadway revival of the Damon Runyon musical Guys and Dolls. He followed that up with a turn in Ain’t Misbehavin’, the acclaimed musical biography of jazz pianist Fats Waller. Ken reprised the role in a television broadcast …
Hank McKinnies, Jr. began his acting career on radio and in local theater. His big break came when he was spotted by talent scouts and offered a contract with 20th Century Fox. Using the stage name “Jeffrey Hunter,” he was cast in a bit part in a 1950 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with a young …
