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Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and raised in Tulita (formerly Fort Norman), Northwest Territories. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth (Davies), was Welsh. His father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, was a Danish-born Mountie and a strict disciplinarian. Leslie studied at the Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto before moving on to New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. His acting career started at a much earlier age when he was forced to lie to his father in order to avoid severe punishment. Leslie starred in over fifty films and many more television films. One of his two brothers became the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. On October 10, 2002, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in recognition of his contributions to the film and television industries. On November 28, 2010, Leslie Nielsen died at age 84 of pneumonia and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Tony Sirico was born in New York City on July 29, 1942 to a family of Italian descent. He grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush and Bensonhurst. His brother, Father Robert Sirico, is a Catholic priest and co-founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The Institute has been described as an "American research and educational institution, or think tank," in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles."

Sirico was convicted of several crimes and was arrested 28 times, including for disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery, before taking up acting. On February 27, 1970, he was arrested at a restaurant, and found with a .32 caliber revolver on his person. In 1971, he was indicted for extortion, coercion, and felony weapons possession, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 20 months at Sing Sing.

Tony Sirico died on July 8, 2022, from undisclosed causes, aged 79.

Comedian, actor, composer and conductor, educated in New York public schools. He was a master of ceremonies in amateur shows, a carnival barker, daredevil driver and a disc jockey, and later a comedian in night clubs. By the mid-1950s he had turned to writing original music and recording a series of popular and best-selling albums with his orchestra for Capitol Records. Joining ASCAP in 1953, his instrumental compositions include "Melancholy Serenade", "Glamour", "Lover's Rhapsody", "On the Beach" and "To a Sleeping Beauty", among numerous others.

David Cassidy was born on April 12, 1950 in Manhattan, to Jack Cassidy, a very skilled actor and singer, and Evelyn Ward, an actress. By the time he was five, his parents were divorced and Jack had married actress Shirley Jones, an actress who in 1955 had just made Oklahoma! (1955). When David was about 10, his mother moved to California from New Jersey. A few years later, she married a director and, like Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones, the marriage ended in divorce. David was thrown out of schools and hardly made it through one year of college. When he was eighteen, he went east to New York to perform in a play called "The Fig Leafs are Falling." He did some other spots on TV, but in 1970 he got the opportunity to play Keith Partridge on the TV show The Partridge Family (1970). (He did not know until he got the part that his real life stepmother Shirley Jones was to play his mother Shirley.) The show ended in 1974, but not the close relationship he had with his "sister" Susan Dey, who played Laurie Partridge. In 1976, David's father Jack died when his apartment caught on fire. That year, David married Kay Lenz, but they later divorced. He married again to a horse trainer in 1984, but it did not last either. In 1990, he married Sue Shifrin. He had two children, a son named Beau, with Sue, and actress Katie Cassidy. In 1994, he wrote a book about his years being Keith Partridge, and performed updated songs from the Partridge Family years.

David died on November 21, 2017, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was sixty seven.

A virile, beefcake blond of the late 1960s and 1970s small screen, Dennis Cole certainly had it all going for him, but tragic circumstances prevented an all-out successful career. A rugged TV version of Robert Redford, his tan, chiseled, surfer-fit looks were ideally suited for crime action and adventure stories and he gained ground by appearing everywhere -- daytime soaps, prime-time series, mini-movies -- you name it.

The Detroit-born and -raised stunner was the son of Joseph C. Cole, a musician during the 1940s and 1950s. His parents, both alcoholics, divorced when he was young (his father later committed suicide). Dennis was first noticed on the pages of physique magazines serving the likes of Robert Henry Mizer (aka Bob Mizer) and his Athletic Models Guild as well as other photographers. Paying his dues as a motion picture and television stuntman, Cole also appeared in an occasional bit part and in the background of a few movie musicals. His photogenic appeal could not be denied for long and eventually he took a front-and-center position, launching his acting career on the short-lived daytime soap Paradise Bay (1965) as a spoiled rich boy who causes tongues to wag after falling for a Mexican girl. However, it was the subsequent nighttime police series The Felony Squad (1966) alongside veterans Howard Duff and Ben Alexander (of Dragnet (1951) fame) that set Cole's TV career in high gear. As hunky rookie detective Jim Briggs, Dennis was able to ride high on the fame his two-and-a-half season series offered.

With this success came two very short-lived series: the glossy ensemble drama Bracken's World (1969) and opposite Rod Taylor as a trouble-prone stud in the more adventurous Bearcats! (1971). Females couldn't get enough of Cole and his athletic skills had males idolizing from afar. Guest appearances on Medical Center (1969), Barnaby Jones (1973), Police Story (1973), Love, American Style (1969), The Love Boat (1977), The Streets of San Francisco (1972) and Police Woman (1974) kept him highly visible in between series runs. During this career peak, he made his Broadway debut in "All the Girls Came Out to Play" in 1972. He also decided to tap into his musical side and dabbled in his own musical revue, which showcased on the Sunset Strip and in Las Vegas. A guest TV appearance on Charlie's Angels (1976) led to his meeting and, in 1978, marrying "Angel" Jaclyn Smith. As one of Hollywood's more beautiful couples, they kept cameras flashing for a number of years until their breakup and divorce in 1981.

The early 1980s started off well for Cole as replacement "Lance Prentiss" in the soap-opera The Young and the Restless (1973) in 1981. Very much a product of TV, he was unable to permanently transition into films; he appeared occasionally in dismissible low-budget action fare such as Amateur Night (1986), Death House (1988), Pretty Smart (1987), Dead End City (1988) and Fatal Encounter (1990). He continued showing up on all the popular series of the day, including Silk Stalkings (1991), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Pacific Blue (1996) and Baywatch Nights (1995), among others, while appearing in such legit stage plays as "The Tender Trap", "Lovers and Other Strangers", "The Boys in the Band", and the British farces "Run for You Life" and "Out of Order". Very much involved with charity work, his endeavors over the years have included an over-two-decade involvement with the Cancer Society (Honorary Chairman), as well as the Arthritis and Cystic Fibrosis foundations.

Dennis' later personal and professional lives suffered as a result of a chronic alcohol problem, but an even greater setback occurred when his only child, Joey (whom he named after his father), was murdered during a 1991 robbery attempt in Venice, California. He continued to perform on TV and stage (as the "Narrator" in a production of "Blood Brothers" and the James Garner "King Marchan" role in the first national tour of the musical "Victor/Victoria"). Severe injuries suffered while performing in the latter show led to multiple surgeries, a three-year convalescence and a new direction.

Dennis returned to school and started up his own real estate company, setting up an office in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Married for several years to his third wife Marjorie ("Ree"), Dennis filed for divorce in May of 2007, which became final on April 21, 2008. He died at age 69 on November 15, 2009, in a Fort Lauderdale hospital of liver failure.

A blue-eyed, chestnut-haired beauty, Joan Weldon trained to be a singer, and made her professional debut as a member of the San Francisco Opera Company. While appearing with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Company, she came to the attention of Warner Brothers, who took her out of grand opera and put her in horse operas (The Command (1954), Riding Shotgun (1954)), a crime drama (The System (1953)) and, most famously, the biggest and best of the "Big Bug" movies, 1954's Them! (1954). Amidst her movie roles, all of them dramatic, non-singing parts, Weldon sang at the Hollywood Bowl, on her TV series This Is Your Music (1955) and on tour in "The Music Man" (on tour for three years as the repressed Marian the Librarian). She and her husband reside in Manhattan.

Shirley Patterson was born on 26 December 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Land Unknown (1957), World Without End (1956) and Batman (1943). She was married to Alfred Smith, Jr. She died on 4 April 1995 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Born David Weizer in London, England, as a child and teenager David Winters acted in many television shows and Broadway productions, including the initial line-up of the stage production of the musical "West Side Story," playing the role of Baby John.

In 1961, he appeared as A-Rab in the movie version of West Side Story (1961), recreating the "Cool" dance sequence, which was choreographed for him. He, Carole D'Andrea, Jay Norman, Tommy Abbott, William Bramley, and Tony Mordente, were the only members of the original Broadway Musical to be cast in the film. West Side Story (1961) was the highest-grossing Motion Picture that year and won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The feature established David as a young star. He began to release music and had steady work acting.

In 1964, he choreographed Viva Las Vegas (1964), starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. He was seen regularly with his dance troupe in major TV shows such as Shindig! (1964) and Hullabaloo (1965). To his resume, he added three more Elvis Presley films (Girl Happy (1965), Tickle Me (1965), Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)), four films with Ann-Margret (Kitten with a Whip (1964), Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965), Made in Paris (1966), The Swinger (1966)), The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), and many more projects for film and television.

In 1967, he choreographed the television special Movin' with Nancy (1967), for which he received an Emmy nomination for his choreography in the category Special Classification of Individual Achievements. Also that year, he began to direct. His first assignments were for two episodes of the television show The Monkees (1965).

Shortly after he started producing, directing, and doing the choreography for star-studded television specials. These include The Ann-Margret Show (1968), Ann-Margret: From Hollywood with Love (1969) (for which he received his second Emmy nomination for dance choreography), Raquel (1970), Once Upon a Wheel (1971), The Special London Bridge Special (1972), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973) (nominated for three Emmys), and Timex All-Star Swing Festival (1972) (which won a Peabody Award and a Christopher Award for Winters as producer).

Winters began to produce and direct films in 1975. His first effort was the concert film Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare (1975). Shortly after he was hired to choreograph A Star Is Born (1976), starring Barbra Streisand. In 1982, he produced, directed, wrote, and co-starred in The Last Horror Film (1982). The film received several accolades through its festival run.

In 1986, he directed the first film about skateboarding Thrashin' (1986), starring Josh Brolin and Pamela Gidley. The movie is known for its soundtrack ,with songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers (who play a set in the film), Fine Young Cannibals, and The Bangles. The film also maintains a following. The next year, he founded his production and distribution company, "Action International Pictures", later renamed "West Side Studios", which he ran until the late 1990s.

In the 2000s, he directed Welcome 2 Ibiza (2003) which won the Bangkok Film Festival Audience Award. He also produced the historical epic The King Maker (2005). In 2015, he released Dancin': It's on! (2015), starring winners and runner-ups of So You Think You Can Dance (2005) and Dancing with the Stars (2005). He reconnected with his passion for dancing and won the best director award at the WideScreen Film Festival.

Only one film-maker can claim the title "Godfather of Gore." That peculiar but apt identification seems to be the exclusive property of Herschell Gordon Lewis. With an unusual background that included teaching English Literature to college students, producing and directing television commercials, and voicing radio and television commercials, Herschell literally - and single-handedly - established the "Splatter Film" category of motion pictures. He accomplished this by writing and directing (including the musical score) a mini-budget movie titled "Blood Feast," shot in Miami in 1963 and released theatrically the following year. As critics lambasted the primitive effects and inattention to script and sub-par acting, audiences flocked to theaters to see why friends who had reacted to the movie's fiery marketing campaign had said, "You gotta see this." Armed with boxoffice grosses, Herschell and his producer-partner David Friedman quickly decided to build onto their newly-discovered base. Herschell wrote and directed "Two Thousand Maniacs." The lead singer of the musical group hired to perform background music had a tenor voice. Herschell had written the title song, "The South Gonna Rise Ag'in." He wanted a baritone, and without hesitation he made the switch: the voice on the sound track is his. After their third splatter film, "Color Me Blood Red," David Friedman moved to California, engaging in a different type of motio0n picture. Herschell continued to grind out one success after another, with titles such as "The Gruesome Twosome," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore-Gore Girls." When major film companies began to invade his splatter-turf, Herschell took a hiatus, shifting full time to his "other career," writing advertising and mailings for marketers worldwide. He became one of a handful of experts to be inducted into the Direct Marketing Association's Hall of Fame. (Author of 32 books on marketing including the classic "On the Art of Writing Copy," Herschell is often called on to lecture on copywriting, just as he is invited to sing the theme from "Two Thousand Maniacs" at horror film festivals.) Over the years, an unusual reality came into place: Herschell's old films continued to play not just on TV screens but in theatres, years after conventional movies would have disappeared altogether. The result has been renewal of his life as a film director. Thus it is that a new Herschell Gordon Lewis movie is hoving into view: "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania," produced by James Saito in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and planned for 2015 release. Both the producer and the director encapsulate their opinion of "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania" in a single word: Enthusiastic.

Evie Wynn Johnson was born on 8 May 1914 in Buffalo, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Private Secretary (1953), Motion Picture Stars Attend Premiere of 'Call Northside 777' (1948) and Biography (1987). She was married to Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn and Harold A Dautch. She died on 19 July 2004 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Another vivacious blonde who made a tiny splash in Hollywood during the 30s was June Clyde. Her career was perhaps more substantial than that of many of her contemporaries. A talented songstress and dancer, June began on the vaudeville circuit in 1917 as an eight-year old, billed as 'Baby Tetrazini'. Though born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, she grew up in San Francisco. Her proper stage career kicked off in 1925 by being part of the chorus line in Topsy and Eva, which starred The Duncan Sisters. In 1929, she was signed by RKO. A couple of bit parts later, June was thrust into the limelight as the female lead in Tanned Legs (1929), a minor musical comedy set in high society (with songs by celebrated wit Oscar Levant). The picture did just enough to secure her next role in RKO's second A-grade musical Hit the Deck (1929). In 1932, June was voted one of the year's WAMPAS Baby Stars (along with Ginger Rogers). In between film work, June posed for fan magazines. Now freelancing, she received third-billing in a John Wayne western, Arizona (1931), made at Columbia. A worthier acting role was that of Teola Garfield in Fox's pre-code drama Tess of the Storm Country (1932), alongside the popular pairing of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Two years later, June also co-starred in Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet (1933), with Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes. That pretty much sums up the better part of her screen résumé. By the mid-30's, June was pretty much relegated to leads in second features and therefore decided to try her luck on the other side of the Atlantic, eventually alternating theatrical work between London's West End ("Lucky Break" (1934) and "The Flying Trapeze" (1935)) and Broadway (""Hooray for What!" (1937) and "Banjo Eyes" (1941). She also toured Australia in the late 1940s with "Born Yesterday" and "Annie Get Your Gun".

Though she was quoted in a 1935 interview (at Twickenham Studios) declaring that "Hollywood Is the dullest place on earth!", she nonetheless persevered there for most of the 40s, but, alas, cast in pictures for Poverty Row studios like Republic, or worse, PRC. Towards the end of her career, she made several films in England, the last of which was a minuscule role in a maudlin Joan Crawford melodrama, The Story of Esther Costello (1957). June eventually gave up acting and retired to Florida with her husband, the director Thornton Freeland. Her hobbies were said to have been riding, tennis and ping-pong.

Pat Barrington was an extremely buxom, curvy and drop-dead gorgeous brunette topless dancer who popped up in a handful of enjoyably trashy softcore sexploitation features throughout the 1960s, often for producer Harry H. Novak's Boxoffice International Pictures and directed by William Rotsler.

She was born Patricia Annette Bray on 10/16/39 in Charlotte, NC. Her mother Willie Jo Bray had a fling with a local man named Claude Weidenhause and became pregnant at age 16. Weidenhause had already left by the time Barrington was born. Pat moved with her mother Willie Jo to Richmond, VA, when she was only two years old. Willie Jo married another man, Eugene Lee Barringer, but the marriage was short-lived and Pat found herself moving once again with her mother, this time to Hyattsville, MD. Willie Jo subsequently married a former Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Upset with the unstable situation at home, Pat left her mother and went out to fend for herself after her sophomore year in high school.

Pat relocated to Baltimore, MD, where she hooked up with an Italian-American mobster named Bob. She got married for the first time in the late 1950s but soon left him after the relationship became abusive. Bob helped Barrington get back on her feet by securing her a job as an exotic dancer. She then made a name for herself in Washington, DC, dancing under the name of "Vivian Storm". She caught the eye of local jazz musician Melvin Rees and moved into his abode back in Hyattsville in 1959. She moved down south with him in 1960. Alas, Rees was found guilty of murdering a Virginia family and was sentenced to life in prison.

Barrington moved to Los Angeles, CA, in 1962 and promptly got a job dancing at the prestigious nightclub The Classic Cat. She then decided to pursue a modeling career and subsequently started posing in spreads for various men's magazines as well as numerous commercial layouts. After an ill-advised foray into dancing in Las Vegas, she returned to Los Angeles and resumed her career as a model while still dancing on the side. She began auditioning for film work in the mid-'60s, achieving her greatest cult cinema fame as the female lead in Stephen C. Apostolof's unintentionally hilarious horror camp hoot Orgy of the Dead (1965), in which she also performs one of her patented steamy nude dances as the painted Gold Girl. Barrington had another rare substantial starring part as a bored housewife who works as a high-priced call girl in the seamy Agony of Love (1966). More often, though, the stunning and spectacularly alluring Pat was relegated to secondary roles as a go-go dancer in such delightfully down'-'n'-dirty low-grade fare as Lila (1968), The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (1966) and Sisters in Leather (1969). She appeared as herself in both the lurid mondo item Hedonistic Pleasures (1969) and Russ Meyer's blithely silly documentary Mondo Topless (1966). During this time she was briefly married to cinematographer Robert Caramico.

After calling it quits as an actress, Pat left Los Angeles and moved to New Jersey with a singer named Romeo. She soon found gainful employment dancing in clubs up and down the East Coast under the pseudonym Princess Jajah". In the mid-'70s she branched out into topless dancing and settled down in Cliffside Park, NJ, in 1980. She eventually dumped Romeo and became involved with a much younger man named Robert. Pat moved with Robert to Fort Lauderdale, FL, in 1984. She worked as a stripper using the name "Yvette" at assorted seedy clubs throughout Florida. After retiring from dancing in the early '90s, Barrington went on to work as a telemarketer. In her later years, she also helped local animal rescue groups (she was a lifelong lover of animals).

Pat Barrington died from lung cancer at age 74 on 9/1/2014.

Tommy Lane was born Benjamin Thomas Lane in Liberty City, Miami, Florida. He was an actor and stuntman in various films, including Shaft (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), and Ganja & Hess (1973). In addition to a career on the stage and screen, Tommy was a jazz musician who played the trumpet and flugelhorn.

Metter grew up in the Boston area, lived in the Hollywood Hills for most of his adult life, and moved to South Florida in 2009.

Alan began his creative life at Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), the legendary advertising agency. In the late 1970s, Metter leaped at the opportunity to direct some of the first music videos for the likes of George Harrison, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Chicago, Olivia Newton-John, and Donna Summer, as well as comedians Rodney Dangerfield and Steve Martin, which were aired on the fledgling MTV.

The experience of directing major rock stars and comedians in music videos established Metter as a candidate to direct feature films.

Mark Hammond was born on 9 June 1955 in the USA. He was an actor, known for The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Babe: Pig in the City (1998) and Space Case (1992). He died on 7 August 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Lilly Christine, a.k.a. "The Cat Girl," was a famous and beloved burlesque exotic dancer and men's magazine model of the late 1940's up until the early 1960's with a mesmerizing stage presence, a wild mane of long peroxide blonde hair, and a simply spectacular 37C-22-35 voluptuous bombshell body. Lilly was born as Martha Theresa Pompender on December 17, 1923 in Dunkirk, New York. Although there were rumors that she had a Norwegian father and a Swedish mother, Christine in reality was actually of Italian-Polish descent. She first began dancing in 1948 and proved to be a major headliner performing her trademark voodoo love potion dance at Prima's 500 Club in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lilly was prominently featured doing her other signature stalking cat dance in the Broadway stage production of the musical revue "Michael Todd's Peep Show," which ran from June 28, 1950 to February 24, 1951 at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City. Moreover, Christine graced the covers and/or posed for centerfolds in such adult publications as "Rogue," "He," "Modern Man," "Gala," "Tempo," and "Cover Girls." She had uncredited minor parts in the movies "Two Guys from Texas," "My Wild Irish Rose," "Two Guys from Milwaukee," and "Irish Eyes Are Smiling." Lilly Christine was still dancing and drawing huge crowds in nightclubs down south when she died from peritonitis at the tragically young age of 41 on January 9, 1965 in Broward County, Florida.

Mireya is a Bilingual actress with many credits in both languages the Spanish and the American market in film and TV Best know for her Lead is the feature film " Love and Contempt" where she was nominated for "Best actress in a feature film " at the Widescreen International film festival . She is also known the recent " Racist Rights" and also the 4 award winning short as the lead actress Lauren in " Rankling". Mireya was recently nominated again as " Best supporting actress" for her portrayal role of a alcoholic pill popping woman who had a very secret past as Elaine in " Clovis". She recently completed 16 days of shooting as the lead actress in a bilingual film where her character only spoke Spanish in the film " Temple in the Palms". To be released in 2020 . She resides in Florida and is also busy in the Spanish market .

Hailing from Chicago (his birth has also been noted as late as 1907 which to the purpose would be too late), Gavin Muir had that sort of lean and hungry John Carradine face and slight build that begged for character villain parts. Indeed he was bit by the acting bug and started in regional theater but jumped to Broadway by 1920, though his first role noted was "Enter Madame" in 1922. This play was also the debut Broadway performance for another young actor destined for Hollywood -- but a sadly short career -- Ross Alexander. By 1923 Muir's abilities beckoned further demands, and he produced and performed in the comedy "Love Set". In fact the majority of his plays were comedy rather than drama. And with twenty-one plays to his credit (until 1939) and making the round of famous New York houses, the St. James and the Lyceum, for example, Muir worked with some Broadway's greatest leads and some later fellow film actors, such as, Harry Davenport, Robert Warwick, and Henry Hull. Although he had one film for an uncredited part in 1932, he was a fixture of the Broadway theater season until 1933. Although Muir still had a few more Broadway plays to do, he was finding his niche in Hollywood. The next year he was in the film adaptation of the play Mary of Scotland (1936) directed by John Ford. Along with an assemblage of some of the best character actors of Hollywood, Muir joined a rogues' gallery of self-seeking Scottish lords who included: Robert Barrat, William Stack, and Ian Keith trying to discredit the young queen. Muir was busy thereafter through the war years of the 1940s his acting, and especially his various British accents (he was sometimes mistaken as a British actor) but others were in demand as military officer, doctor, noble, dignitary - and, of course, villains. Into the 1950s he even endured Abbott and Costello in their continued pop success, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), one of five such formula 'Meet' films. The film parts continued to get leaner, so he ventured into TV, doing playhouse theater and also some series. He was a regular-the butler Hollister - on The Betty Hutton Show (1959) and did not retire until later 1965 after over seventy screen appearances.

Marilyn Gleason was born on 25 October 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Toy (1982), Mr. Billion (1977) and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983). She was married to Jackie Gleason and George Horwich. She died on 2 April 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

American actor of stage and screen. His father was a famous character actor, Maurice Moscovitch who sent his son abroad to study in Paris, Lausanne, and London. Upon returning to the U.S. following his stage debut in Great Britain, he began an active career on the American stage, specializing in highly sophisticated characters. In 1930, he began appearing in films, most often in roles far different from the upper-class types he played on stage, mostly as gangsters and low-lifes. In 1943, he left films and returned full-time to the theatre, where he was active both as an actor and as a director.

Dovima was born on 11 December 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Funny Face (1957), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and My Favorite Martian (1963). She was married to Casper West Hollingsworth, Alan Murray and Jack Golden. She died on 3 May 1990 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Eve Smith was born on 31 August 1905 in DeLand, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Romancing the Stone (1984) and Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988). She died on 28 August 1997 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Susan Teesdale was born on 15 February 1959. She was an actress, known for Go for It (1983), Where the Boys Are (1984) and Waitress! (1982). She died on 8 December 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

Prior to her Burlesque dance days, She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from New York University., In the early 1950's she began modeling for Men's magazines, as well as controversial fetish photographer Irving Claw. Dorian began stripping in 1953 eventually becoming one of the top 15 exotic dancers in the country. She retired from the world of stripping and burlesque in 1969 prior to her death of cancer at age 46..

It's been said that if Donn Pearce is remembered at all, it won't be for having written "Cool Hand Luke," his acclaimed but little-read novel about his life as a convict on a southern chain gang, but for the classic movie based on it. Starring Paul Newman in the Oscar-nominated title role, Cool Hand Luke (1967) was both a critical and commercial success. An outstanding film across the board, it brought us one of the screen's most compelling anti-heroes and one of the all-time great movie lines: "What we've got here is failure to communicate." Nominated for Best Picture, "Cool Hand Luke" was one of the key films of the Sixties. Many consider it a masterpiece.

Donn Pearce is not one of them.

"I seem to be the only guy in the United States who doesn't like the movie," Pearce told the Miami Herald in 1989. "Everyone had a whack at it. They screwed it up 99 different ways."

To begin with, Pearce has said he thinks Paul Newman was wrong for the part of Luke. Then there's the minimal royalties the financially strapped Pierson receives from a very successful movie based on his life. Faced with ill health, mounting medical bills, and other financial hardships, Pearce has had to work as a process server, bail bondsman, and private investigator just to make ends meets all these years.

On top of this, when people think of "Cool Hand Luke," they invariably remember the movie, not Pearce's book. Though critically acclaimed, Pearce's novel never received the readership it deserves. Even Pearce has said that "the book is a nonentity." For over forty years, he's been trying to recreate its success with little luck.

Donald Mills Pearce was born in 1928 in Croydon, Pennsylvania, but "never really knew what it was like to have a home." His parents divorced when he was eleven. At fifteen, he dropped out of school and tried joining the merchant marine but was refused because he was underage. The Army was another story. In 1944, it needed infantry badly. Pearce lied about his age (he was sixteen) and was inducted. But he chafed under Army discipline and went AWOL before turning himself in. A court martial sentenced him to 30 days in the stockade but he was released almost immediately as a combat infantry replacement. About to be shipped off to war, Pearce wrote a desperate letter to his mom, who informed the Army that her son was underage. The Army discharged Pearce for false enlistment.

Now seventeen, Pearce was old enough to join the merchant marine. He marveled at the world he saw during his travels. Arriving in Paris, he became involved in the thriving post-war European black market. He sold counterfeit American money to a police officer and wound up in a tough French prison. While working outside prison walls, Pearce made a run for it. Traveling cross-country by foot, he crossed the border into Italy. After replacing the seaman's papers the French had confiscated from him, Pearce boarded a ship to Canada. From there, he re-entered the United States.

Back in America, the nineteen-year-old Pearce met an older burglar, who became his safecracking partner. Pearce admits he wasn't very good at it but he was addicted to the adrenaline rush of crime. But businesses now used checks instead of cash, and most of the 27 safes Pearce says he cracked held little or no money.

In Tampa, Florida, Pearce thought he saw his big chance. Moviegoers were lined up around the block to see "Hamlet." Pearce envisioned a theater safe full of money. His partner passed on the job. Pearce, who has described himself as someone whose "mouth runs like a lunatic," bragged about the job to a waitress he was trying to bed. She told her husband, who was a cop.

Pearce was convicted of breaking & entering and grand larceny. In 1949, he was sentenced to five years hard labor ("back when hard time meant hard"). He was twenty.

Pearce spent the first year working in the print shop at the Florida State Penitentiary at Raiford. But then, he was sent to Road Camp No. 48, Tavares, Lake County, Florida. Over thirty years later, Pearce recalled the experience as "a chamber of horrors."

Chain gang inmates lived and worked with iron shackles riveted to their ankles for their entire sentences. Simple tasks such as removing and putting on their pants became a struggle. To avoid bruising their ankles, inmates had to adopt a stiff-legged, pigeon-toed gate or tie the ankle rings high on their calves.

Road gangs worked from sunup to sundown tarring roads or clearing the tall grass and weeds along roadsides with "bush axes" or "yo-yos." Also called Kayser blades or sling blades, these weed cutters had long wooden handles attached to an A-shaped yoke with a double-edged blade for clearing brush with vigorous forward and backward swings.

Guards beat prisoners for any infraction. For special punishment, there was the "Box," a cramped, unventilated wooden outhouse that was stifling by day and cold and full of insects at night. An inmate could earn a night in the Box for offenses ranging from losing his dinner spoon to "eyeballing," that is, "looking at someone who was passing you on the road. Prisoners weren't allowed to look at a free person in those days." Pearce was put in the Box twice: "Once for talking in lineup and once for letting the mess hall door slam." After a night in the Box, an inmate was put back on the "hard road" at sunup.

Pierce says he always yearned to write. He found a writing mentor in an inmate who was a Stanford graduate. Released after two years, Pearce returned to the merchant marine (earning a third-mate's license) and began writing in earnest during the long voyages. His fellow shipmates "used to say in the forecastle, 'Imagine, a seaman trying to write a book!' and they'd roar laughing."

A near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1959 immobilized Pearce for two years. In 1960, while recuperating, he started writing "Cool Hand Luke." For five years, he rewrote it as many as six times, while serving in the merchant marine and living in studio apartments in New York. Pearce already had six unpublished novels under his belt when he finished "Cool Hand Luke." It garnered a string of rejections. Finally, Scribner's published it in 1965. The New York Times called it an "impressive novel; the most brutal and authentic account of a road gang-or chain gang-that we have had." Publishers Weekly praised "the author's extraordinary gift for rhythmic prose, tragic drama, and realism made larger than life."

The day before the book's release, the New York Times printed an article entitled "A Picket Rejoices at his First Novel." Pearce was walking a picket line at New York's Pier 59. Unlike his fellow strikers, he was "beaming" on the eve of publication of his first book. He said that he met his wife, Christine, a nurse, while recuperating from his motorcycle crash, which he called "one of the best accidents of my life."

But despite good reviews, the hardcover sold a meager eleven hundred copies. A decade after the movie's release, the book was out of print and would be for another eight years. Sales of "Cool Hand Luke" were always disappointing, especially to Pearce, who struggled all his life to make a living despite having a hit film based on his life.

Two years after the book's release, it was a major motion picture. Jalem, the production company of actor Jack Lemmon, bought the film rights. Pearce wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which was completed by Frank Pierson, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

Pearce served as the film's technical adviser and had an uncredited bit part as "Sailor." His entire time in Hollywood, Pearce felt unwelcome. He'd expected movie people to be more open-minded about his past, but he said they treated him like an ex-con. On the last day of filming, Pearce punched out a fellow actor. He wasn't invited to the movie's premiere but attended the Oscars ceremony when he was nominated for Best Screenplay. He lost to In the Heat of the Night (1967).

The Pearces bought a house in Fort Lauderdale and struggled to raise their three sons, Hawser, Anker, and Rudder. Pearce wrote books and stories that were either rejected or published and made very little money. He worked as a freelance writer for Esquire, Playboy, Oui, and the Miami Herald. His wife, Chris, often had to work as a nurse to support them, despite ill health.

It took Pearce fours years to complete the follow up to "Cool Hand Luke." Published in 1972, "Pier Head Jump" was an off-beat, off-color tale about merchant marines who "rescue" an inflatable female doll that's so life-like, they squabble, fight, and, eventually, commit murder to possess "her" sexually. It was supposed to be a comedy.

In 1974, Pearce published "Dying in the Sun," a non-fiction account of the elderly in Florida that was not well-received. That's when Pearce quit writing to support his family, just six years after his Oscar nomination. For the next thirty years, he worked as a process server, bail bondsman, and private investigator.

In later years, Pearce underwent hernia operations, fought cancer of the spleen, and suffered from arthritis. His wife, Chris, also struggles with rheumatoid arthritis.

In 2004, Pearce returned to form with the acclaimed "Nobody Comes Back," a tale of a young soldier during the Battle of the Bulge. The review from Newsweek was so good, it caused a brief spike in sales.

"Nobody Comes Back" is Pearce's first acclaimed book since "Cool Hand Luke." As further vindication, the paperback is due out in February 2009.