FURTHER READING: Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild – David Stenn (New York: Doubleday, 1988).
Charley Bowers
Born 1889
Died November 26, 1946
‘Bricolo’. Born in Cresco, Iowa, Charles R. Bowers got his start in show business supposedly at the tender age of six when he was kidnapped by circus performers. He developed a high wire act and also began designing and drawing the publicity material. He began acting in rep before becoming a cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune And Star. In 1916 he went into business with the illustrator Raoul Barré but within two years he had taken over. He co-wrote and co-directed 12 live animation Whirlwind Comedies with H.L. Muller. He drew more than 100 cartoons in 1926 including the Mutt & Jeff series for Pathé-Freres. That year he developed a photographic process, revolutionary for the time, by which he could incorporate incredible special effects into his films. In 1926 and 1927 he made 12 comedies for R-C Pictures. In 1928 he made another six for Educational. He played an eccentric or ne’er-do-well and based his character on Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon. In later years he wrote and illustrated children’s books and when he fell ill he trained his wife, Winifred Leyton, to take his place. Bricolo was how he was known in France.
CAUSE: He died, aged 57, in Paterson, New Jersey, after a long illness.
Cliff Bowes
Born November 14, 1894
Died July 6, 1929
Silent funnyman. Born in Colorado, Clifford W. Bowes came to prominence with his own series of comedies for Educational usually playing an accident-prone husband. He appeared in almost 50 films including: Cactus Nell (1917), Are Waitresses Safe? (1917), Good Little Brownie (1920), Up In Mary’s Attic (1920), Back Stage (1921), Should Stepmothers Trifle? (1921), Between Showers (1923), Wrecks (1923), West Is West (1923), Out Bound (1924) as Matthew, Fun’s Fun (1925), Brotherly Love (1926) and Ship Shape (1926).
CAUSE: Unknown.
Betty Box, OBE
Born September 25, 1915
Died January 15, 1999
Rank’s First Lady. Betty Evelyn Box was born at 283 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent, the youngest of the five children of Frank Edward Box (d. 1939) and Eva Annie Dowling. Her eldest brother was the film producer Sydney Box (b. Beckenham, Kent, April 29, 1907, d. Perth, May 25, 1983). She went to Balgowan Primary School, Sydenham, Bromley Road Elementary School, Beckenham, and the Girls’ Elementary School, Beckenham. On leaving full-time education she trained as a commercial artist, and in the early Thirties flirted with left-wing politics and joined the Young Communists. Three days after the outbreak of the Second World War, she married a car mechanic called Victor Albert Langfeld Taylor but they were divorced four years later. She joined Verity Films at the behest of her brother and contributed to more than 200 documentaries. She moved to Gainsborough in 1946 and made a dozen films there including Miranda (1948) and Here Come The Huggetts (1948). On Christmas Eve 1948 she married the film producer Peter Rogers and the following year she met the director Ralph Thomas and formed a partnership for the Rank Organisation at Pinewood that lasted from 1949 to 1979. The films were so successful she was nicknamed ‘Betty Box Office’. On a train one day she was reading Richard Gordon’s novel Doctor In The House and realised its film potential. The 1954 version became one of the biggest hits of the decade. It led to six sequels. She was offered the first James Bond film but did not think that she was the right person for the project and declined. In 1958 Box was awarded the OBE for her services to the film industry. Ironically, following the gong her films began to lose some commercial viability. Her last films included the sex comedies The Love Ban (1970), Percy (1971) and Percy’s Progress (1974).
CAUSE: She died of cancer at her home, The Oaks, Manor Lane, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Her autobiography, Lifting The Lid, was published posthumously in 2000. She left £2,811,251 gross; £2,775,011 net.
Bill Boyd
Born September 29, 1910
Died December 7, 1977
The cowboy rambler. Boyd, who was born in Fannin County, Texas, is perhaps better known for his singing than the half dozen films he made in 1942 for PRC. He had been a regular performer with his younger brother, Jim (b. Fannin County, Texas, September 28, 1914), on the wireless from 1926. He was given his own show on WRR-Dallas in 1932 and in 1934 began recording for Bluebird. PRC decided that they needed a singing cowboy and teamed Boyd with Art Davis and Lee Powell for a short series of pictures. As was normal for this genre, Boyd, Davis and Powell all played a character with the same name as themselves. The films were Texas Manhunt (1942), Raiders Of The West (1942) for which he contributed a song, Rolling Down The Great Divide (1942) for which he wrote a number of songs, Tumbleweed Trail (1942) for which he also wrote a number of songs, Prairie Pals (1942) and Along The Sundown Trail (1942). He had two Top 10 hits on Billboard’s country chart in the mid-Forties: ‘Shame On You’ which reached number four in 1945 and ‘New Steel Guitar Rag’ which peaked at number five the following year. Bill Boyd retired from the music business in 1950.
CAUSE: Boyd died, aged 67, at his ranch in Dallas, Texas.
William Boyd
Born June 5, 1895
Died September 12, 1972
Western hero. Born in Hendrysburg, Ohio, William Lawrence Boyd is one of those actors known just for one role (one that he began playing at the age of 40) even though he had been making films since 1915. The role, of course, was that hero of the West, Hopalong Cassidy, a character created by pulp writer Clarence E. Mulford. Cassidy, called Hopalong because of a slight limp, was a teetotal, non-smoker who didn’t swear and would never draw his gun in anger. He was also the only goodie to wear black, made even more dramatic by Boyd’s prematurely white hair. The actor was often cast by Cecil B. DeMille but it looked as if his career might be over when in 1933 another actor called William Boyd was involved in an unsavoury incident and this William Boyd’s picture appeared in the newspapers. Boyd was released by RKO and took to drinking heavily to drown his sorrow at the injustice of it all. A sturdy 6’, Boyd began playing Hopalong in 1935 and went on to portray him in 66 films, making himself a small fortune in the process. He was married four times and to four actresses: Ruth Miller (from 1921 until 1924; their son, his only child, died aged 9 months), Elinor Fair (married Santa Ana, California January 13, 1926, divorced 1930; she was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 21, 1903, and died in Seattle, Washington on April 26, 1957), 5́ 3˝ Dorothy Sebastian (married 1930, divorced May 29, 1936; she was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 26, 1903, and died in Hollywood on April 8, 1957) and from June 5, 1937, until his death to blonde Grace Bradley.
CAUSE: He died aged 74 in South Coast Community Hospital, Laguna Beach, California, the result of a combination of Parkinson’s disease and congestive heart failure. When he tried to join the army to fight in World War I, he was turned down because of a heart problem. He was buried in the Sanctuary of Sacred Promise at Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks, 1712 Glendale Avenue, Glendale, California 91209.
Charles Boyer
Born August 28, 1899
Died August 26, 1978
Gallic charmer. Boyer was born weighing 2.2kg, an only child, in Figeac, France. His father sold farm machinery and died before Charles was ten. After studying at the Sorbonne and the Paris Conservatory, Boyer made his stage début in Les Jardins Des Marcie in 1920 in the French capital. That same year the 5́ 9˝ Boyer made his first film, L’Homme Du Large, followed by Chantelouve (1921), L’Esclave (1923) and Le Grillon Du Foyer (1923), but he didn’t become a success in the cinema of his native land so he travelled to America where he made French versions of American films. His film début Stateside came in The Magnificent Lie (1931). He appeared in two English language films, The Man From Yesterday (1932) opposite Claudette Colbert and Red-Headed Woman (1932) with Jean Harlow before disappointedly returning to France. Back at home he threw himself into films and plays before getting the call to return to the land of the free where he was promoted as ‘the new Valent
ino’ at Fox Studios. The appellation didn’t quite stick, perhaps because he was bald (he wore a toupee on screen) and pot-bellied. He moved to other studios, appearing as a doctor in Private Worlds (1935) again opposite Claudette Colbert, as Napoleon in Conquest (1937) with Greta Garbo, as thief Pépé Le Moko in Algiers (1938) playing with Hedy Lamarr and in Gaslight (1944) alongside Ingrid Bergman. The last three films all won him Oscar nominations. Algiers was Lamarr’s first American film and it made her a star and launched a new fashion with her white turban. Boyer wasn’t impressed; he moaned that she couldn’t act. One of the most famous cinematic sayings is linked to the film, but Boyer never actually said, “Come wiz me to ze Casbah.” On St Valentine’s Day 1934, he eloped to Yuma, Arizona, and married actress Pat Paterson (b. Bradford, Yorkshire, April 7, 1911), 22 days after they met. A son, Michael Charles, was born on December 9, 1943. Theirs was a supremely happy marriage. During World War II Boyer worked with other stars to raise money for the Allies. In 1942 he was presented with a special Oscar for “his progressive cultural achievement in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference for the Hollywood motion picture industry.” In 1961 he was again nominated for an Oscar for his role in Fanny and spent much of the Sixties on either Broadway or the West End stage. On September 23, 1965, his son, believing himself a loser, committed suicide in his Coldwater Canyon home, 1861 Heather Court, with a. 38 calibre revolver. The memorial service was attended by only family and close friends including actors Van Heflin and Gig Young, himself to die in similar circumstances. The Boyers never came to terms with their only child’s premature death. They sold their Californian home and rarely returned to the state. Charles Boyer’s 47th and last American film was A Matter Of Time (1976) with Liza Minnelli.
CAUSE: In the Seventies Boyer went for a health check-up and suggested his wife did the same. Pat Boyer was diagnosed with inoperable colon and liver cancer and was given a year to live. Boyer kept this from her and the couple moved to Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Arizona, for what she believed was his health. Boyer read constantly to his wife as she became sicker. On August 24, 1978, at 3am, she died aged 67 of the disease as Boyer held her hand. Boyer was grief-stricken and two days later he took an overdose of Seconal. He died in hospital in Phoenix. He was buried next to his wife and son in Holy Cross Cemetery & Mausoleum, 5835 West Slauson Avenue, Culver City, California 90230 on what would have been his 79th birthday.
FURTHER READING: Charles Boyer: The Reluctant Lover – Larry Swindell (New York: Doubleday, 1983).
Alice Brady
Born November 2, 1892
Died October 28, 1939
Cinematic mother. Born in New York, the daughter of producer William Aloysius Brady (b. San Francisco, California, June 19, 1863, d. New York, January 6, 1950) and Rose Marie René who died in 1896 when Alice was three. She was educated in a convent school in Madison, New Jersey and at the New England Conservatory of Music where she trained to become an opera singer. With her father working in the business it was no surprise that Alice entered the world of entertainment, although he actively discouraged her ambitions. She made her Broadway début in a minor role in his 1910 production of The Mikado, appeared under an assumed name in The Balkan Princess the following year, and in 1912, using her real name, she won wide acclaim in Little Women. She moved into films in 1914 with As Ye Sow, playing Dora Leland. Before Mary Pickford overtook her, Brady was the highest paid film actress in Hollywood and also maintained her stage career. She appeared in almost 80 films, many for her father’s company, over 25 years. Her early films included: The Gilded Cage (1914) as Princess Honore, La Bohème (1916) as Mimi, Betsy Ross (1917) as Betsy Griscom and Woman And Wife (1918) as Jane Eyre. In 1918 she returned to Broadway in the play Forever After and enjoyed great successes in Zander The Great (1923), Old Mama (1925), The Bride Of The Lamb (1926), Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra (with Alla Nazimova – 13 years older – playing her daughter!) (1931), Mademoiselle (1932) and many more plays. She made no films between 1923 and 1933, returning to appear in When Ladies Meet (released June 23, 1933) as Bridgie Drake. Her later films included The Gay Divorcee (October 12, 1934) as Aunt Hortense, Gold Diggers Of 1935 (March 15, 1935), Three Smart Girls (1936) as Mrs Lyons, Go West Young Man (November 13, 1936) as Mrs Struthers, One Hundred Men And A Girl (September 5, 1937) as Mrs Frost and her last film Young Mr Lincoln (May 30, 1939) as Abigail Clay. She was twice nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar – for My Man Godfrey (September 6, 1936) as Angelica Bullock and In Old Chicago (January 6, 1938) as Tyrone Power’s mother Molly O’Leary, for which she won. She was unable to attend the ceremony because she had broken an ankle on March 10, 1938 at the Biltmore Bowl in LA’s Biltmore Hotel. An unknown man walked up and accepted the award on her behalf. After the show, he and the golden statuette were never seen again. On March 22 the Academy presented Brady with a replacement trophy. In 1919 she married the actor James L. Crane (b. Rantoul, Illinois, August 9, 1889, d. San Gabriel, June 2, 1968) and by him had a son, Donald, but they divorced in 1922.
CAUSE: Alice Brady died of cancer, aged 46, in New York. She was buried next to the kerb in plot Gibeon 57, of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County, Tarrytown, New York.
Wilfrid Brambell
Born March 22, 1912
Died January 18, 1985
‘Dirty old man’. Henry Wilfrid Brambell was born at 6 Edenvale Road, Rathgar, County Dublin, one of at least two sons of Henry Lytton Brambell, a cashier at the Guinness brewery, and his wife, Edith Marks (b. circa 1879), who was an opera singer. He made his first appearance on stage in November 1914 entertaining the troops in the First World War. After attending Kingstown Grammar School, he became a journalist for The Irish Times before turning part-time to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin where he was paid ten shillings a week. Deciding he preferred the roar of the crowd to the clack of the typewriter, he left journalism and began acting full-time at the Gate Theatre, also in Dublin. During the Second World War he performed with ENSA. He appeared in several plays and pantomimes including making his Broadway début in the musical Kelly which opened at the Broadhurst Theater on February 6, 1965. It was the true-life story of Steve Brodie who may or may not have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1880s. Among those who rejected the title role were Richard Harris, Gene Kelly and Frank Gorshin (later to find fame as The Riddler in Batman). Anita Gillette was signed to play the leading female part. (Like Gorshin she, too, would find fame on TV, as Dr Emily Hanover, wife of Quincy, M.E.) Like many shows the reviews were terrible. One read, “Ella Logan was written out of Kelly before it reached the Broadhurst Theater Saturday night. Congratulations Miss Logan.” The show closed the same night. Brambell found lasting fame as the “dirty old man” Albert Steptoe in the hit sitcom Steptoe And Son, about father and son rag and bone men. The series ran from June 14, 1962 until December 26, 1974 and also spawned a couple of unsuccessful film versions, Steptoe And Son (1972) and Steptoe And Son Ride Again (1974). To play the dishevelled Albert, Brambell wore a special set of worn-down, blackened false teeth that he kept in a glass of gin and tonic. Brambell also appeared in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), Another Shore (1948), Dry Rot (1956) as a tar man, What A Whopper! (1961) as a postman, Flame In The Streets (1961), The Boys (1962) as Robert Brewer, In Search Of The Castaways (1962) as Bill Gaye, The Three Lives Of Thomasina (1963) as Willie Bannock, A Hard Day’s Night (1964) playing John McCartney, Paul’s grandfather, a train guard on Where The Bullets Fly (1966), Witchfinder General (1968), Carry On Again Doctor (1969) as Mr Pullen, Holiday On The Buses (1974) as Bert Thompson, who romances Stan’s mum, The Adventures Of Picasso (1978) as Alice B. Toklas and Uncle Jocelyn in The Island Of Adventure (1978). In 1955 he divorced his wife of seven years, Molly Josephine, after she became pregnant by their lodger, Roderick Fisher, and gave birth to a son, Michael. She apparently died in 1956. He claimed that he forsook sex for ten years after that. However, on November 22, 1962 he was arrested outside a pu
blic lavatory on Shepherd’s Bush Green in London for importuning for immoral purposes. At his trial in December Brambell denied he was gay (although his homosexuality was well known to the police and in show business) and claimed that he was drunk at a BBC cocktail party and decided to walk a quarter of a mile to find a taxi to take him home to Acton. He visited two lavatories in quick succession because he was “extremely fuddled” and “it was necessary”. Luckily for him, the magistrates believed his feeble defence and he received a conditional discharge and was ordered to pay 25 guineas in costs. From 1969 until his death he lived with Yussof Ben mat Saman.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 36