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People: Famous People born in 1874

People in chronological context: 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1874th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 874th year of the 2nd millennium, the 74th year of the 19th century, and the 5th year of the 1870s decade. As of the start of 1874, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. ()

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277 people found (page 1/10):

Winston Churchill(† 90)

Actor | Blenheim, Oxfordshire (GB)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955.

* 11/30/1874

Sidney Toler(† 72)

Actor | Warrensburg, Missouri (US)

Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his portrayal of the Chinese-American detective in 22 films made between 1938 and 1946. Before becoming Chan, Toler played supporting roles in 50 motion pictures, and was a highly regarded comic actor on the Broadway stage.

* 04/28/1874

Harry Houdini(† 52)

Actor | Budapest / Buda Pest (HU)

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts.[3] His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician Robert-Houdin (1805–1871).

* 03/24/1874

Emma Gramatica(† 91)

Actress | Fidenza, Parma, Emilia-Romagna (IT)

Emma Gramatica (born Aida Laura Argia Gramatica; 25 October 1874 – 8 November 1965) was an Italian stage and film actress. She appeared in 29 films between 1919 and 1962. She was born in Borgo San Donnino, today Fidenza, province of Parma and died in Ostia. Her sisters Irma and Anna were also actresses.

* 10/25/1874

Henry Travers(† 91)

Actor | Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland (GB)

British-born Henry Travers was a veteran of the English stage before emigrating to the U.S. in 1917. He gained more stage experience there on Broadway working with the Theatre Guild, and began his long film career with Reunion in Vienna (1933). Travers' kindly, grandfatherly demeanor became familiar to filmgoers over the next 25 years, especially in films like High Sierra (1941), where he played Joan Leslie's kindly but slyly observant uncle, and the generous Mr. Bogardus in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), but it's as the somewhat befuddled angel Clarence Oddbody assigned to James Stewart in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) that Travers will forever be known. After a long and successful career, he retired from the screen in 1949, and died in Hollywood in 1965.

* 03/05/1874

Grant Mitchell(† 82)

Actor | Columbus, Ohio (US)

Grant Mitchell (born John Grant Mitchell Jr.) was an American stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for his portrayals of fathers, husbands, bank clerks, businessmen, school principals and similar type characters, usually supporting, in films of the 1930s and 1940s.Mitchell, a Yale post graduate at Harvard Law, gave up his law practice to become an actor, making his stage debut at age 27. He appeared in lead roles on Broadway in such plays as "It Pays to Advertise", "The Champion", "The Whole Town's Talking", and "The Baby Cyclone", the last which was specially written for him by George M. Cohan.His screen career took off with the advent of sound (years earlier he had appeared in at least two silent films). He appeared primarily in B films, though from time to time enjoyed being a part of A-quality productions such as Dinner at Eight (1933), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).Grant Mitchell retired from show business in 1948. He died, age 82, in Los Angeles in 1957.

* 06/17/1874

W. Somerset Maugham(† 91)

Crew | Paris (FR)

William Somerset Maugham ( MAWM; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897. He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. By 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories. Maugham's novels after Liza of Lambeth include Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930) and The Razor's Edge (1944). His short stories were published in collections such as The Casuarina Tree (1926) and The Mixture as Before (1940); many of them have been adapted for radio, cinema and television. His great popularity and prodigious sales provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, many of whom sought to belittle him as merely competent. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage – a book with a large autobiographical element – as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard. Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichés attracted adverse critical comment. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with the norms of his day. After a three-year affair with Syrie Wellcome which produced their daughter, Liza, they married in 1917. The marriage lasted for twelve years, but before, during and after it, Maugham's principal partner was a younger man, Gerald Haxton. Together they made extended visits to Asia, the South Seas and other destinations; Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever they went. They lived together in the French Riviera, where Maugham entertained lavishly. After Haxton's death in 1944, Alan Searle became Maugham's secretary-companion for the rest of the author's life. Maugham gave up writing novels shortly after the Second World War, and his last years were marred by senility. He died at the age of 91.

* 01/25/1874

Henry Kolker(† 72)

Actor | Berlin (DE)

Joseph Henry Kolker (November 13, 1874 [some sources 1870] – July 15, 1947) was an American stage and film actor and director.

* 11/13/1874

Charles Middleton(† 74)

Actor | Elizabethtown, Kentucky (US)

Charles Brown Middleton (October 3, 1874 – April 22, 1949) was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, he appeared in nearly 200 films as well as numerous plays. Sometimes credited as Charles B. Middleton, he is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless in the three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940.

* 10/03/1874

Frank Shannon(† 84)

Actor | Ireland (IE)

Frank Shannon was an Irish-born stage and screen performer. He had his film debut in The Prisoner of Zenda (1913). He is most fondly remembered as the brilliant Dr. Zarkov in the three Flash Gordon serials.

* 07/27/1874

Dorothea Wolbert(† 84)

Actress | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Dorothea Wolbert (April 12, 1874 – September 15, 1958) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 140 films between 1916 and 1957. She appeared on the television series I Love Lucy (with her character named Dorothea Wolbert) in episode #137, "Ricky's European Booking" (1956). She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died in Hollywood, California.

* 04/12/1874

Mary Carr(† 99)

Actress | Germantown, Pennsylvania (US)

Mary Carr(14 March 1874 – 24 June 1973) was an American film actress and was married to the actor William Carr (1866–1937). She appeared in 144 films between1915and 1956.

* 03/14/1874
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Lucy Maud Montgomery(† 67)

Crew | New London (CA)

Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with Anne of Green Gables. She published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success; the title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. Most of the novels were set on Prince Edward Island, and those locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site – namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park. She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935. Montgomery's work, diaries, and letters have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide. The L. M. Montgomery Institute, University of Prince Edward Island, is responsible for the scholarly inquiry into the life, works, culture, and influence of L. M. Montgomery.

* 11/30/1874

Helen Haye(† 83)

Actress | Assam Province, British India

Helen Haye (born Helen Hay, 28 August 1874 – 1 September 1957) was a British stage and film actress.

* 08/28/1874

Luigi Barzini(† 73)

Actor

- No description / details available yet. -

Known for: Fabulous India
* 1874

Mario Caserini(† 46)

Crew | Roma, Lazio (IT)

Italian filmmaker, actor, screenwriter. Married to actress Maria Caserini.

* 11/17/1874

John Emerson(† 81)

Crew | Sandusky, Ohio (US)

John Emerson (born Clifton Paden; May 29, 1874 – March 7, 1956) was an American stage actor, playwright, producer, and director of silent films (many featuring Douglas Fairbanks). Emerson was married to Anita Loos from June 15, 1919, until his death, and prior to that the couple had worked together as a writing team for motion pictures. They would continue to be credited jointly, even as Loos pursued independent projects.

* 05/29/1874

George Irving(† 86)

Actor | New York City, New York (US)

George Henry Irving (October 5, 1874 – September 11, 1961) was an American film actor and director. Irving started his career as a theatre actor.In 1914 he came to Hollywood and acted in over 250 films from 1914 until 1948. Irving was initially an actor-director and directed about 35 silent films. He switched exclusively to acting in the mid-1920s and became a character actor until the later 1940s. He usually played reputable and stern persons of authority in supporting roles. Irving is perhaps best known for his roles as Robert Wentworth in Coquette (1929), and as the lawyer Alexander Peabody in Bringing Up Baby (1938).George Irving ended his prolific career with television roles in the 1950s.

* 10/05/1874

Albert Capellani(† 57)

Crew | Paris (FR)

Albert Capellani (23 August 1874 – 26 September 1931) was a French film director and screenwriter of the silent era.He directed many films between 1905 and 1922.One of his brothers was the actor-sculptor Paul Capellani, and another, film director Roger Capellani.

* 08/23/1874

Gilbert Keith Chesterton(† 62)

Crew | Kensington, London, England (GB)

Gilbert Keith Chesterton KC*SG (29 May 1874 - 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Time magazine observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories-first carefully turning them inside out". Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and wrote on apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. George Bernard Shaw, his "friendly enemy", said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius". Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, Cardinal John Henry Newman, and John Ruskin.

 
* 05/29/1874

Clarence Kolb(† 90)

Actor | Cleveland, Ohio (US)

Clarence William Kolb, sometimes given as C. William Kolb, (July 31, 1874 – November 25, 1964) was an American vaudeville performer and actor known for his comedy routines that featured a Dutch dialect.

* 07/31/1874

Soledad Jiménez(† 92)

Actress | Santander (ES)

- No description / details available yet. -

* 02/28/1874

Raymond Brown(† 64)

Actor | Champaign, Illinois (US)

- No description / details available yet. -

* 08/16/1874

Emma Dunn(† 92)

Actress | Birkenhead, Cheshire, England (GB)

Emma Dunn (26 February 1875 – 14 December 1966) was an English actress. After starting her acting career on stage in London, she became known for her works in numerous films and Broadway productions.

* 02/26/1874

Nance O'Neil(† 90)

Actress | Oakland, California (US)

Nance O'Neil, born Gertrude Lamson, was an American stage and screen actress. When she decided to become an actress, her religious father, George Lamson, an auctioneer, denounced his daughter in church for going on the stage and asked the congregation to pray for her. O'Neil's first performance in a professional production was in the role of a nun in Sarah at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco on October 16, 1893. At the height of her career, she was promoted on theatre bills and in period trade publications and newspapers as the "American Sarah Bernhardt".

* 10/08/1874

Paul Scardon(† 79)

Actor | Melbourne, Victoria (AU)

Paul Scardon (6 May 1874 – 17 January 1954) was an actor, a producer, and a director on both Australian and New York stages. When he was 15, Scardon debuted on stage as a contortionist in vaudeville. He progressed from that to pantomime and then joined a troupe headed by J. C. Williamson, touring New Zealand and Australia for five years. In 1905, he joined a company headed by Nance O'Neil, and that group's tour brought him to the United States. Scardon's Broadway credits include Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh (1911), Becky Sharp (1911), The Green Cockatoo (1910), Hannele (1910), The Debtors (1909), Agnes(1908), Our American Cousin (1908), and Brigadier Gerard (1906). Scardon went to Hollywood in 1910. In motion pictures, he worked for Majestic Pictures, Reliance-Majestic Studios and Vitagraph Studios. He directed Blanche Sweet in Unwilling Husband, Bessie Barriscale in some of her most successful productions, and most of the melodramas which starred his wife, actress Betty Blythe. Retiring when sound films came in, Scardon returned to films as an actor in the 1940s, playing bit roles until he retired from the film industry in 1948.

* 05/06/1874

Franklin Dyall(† 76)

Actor | Liverpool, England (GB)

Frank Poole Dyall (3 February 1870– 8 May 1950), professionally known as Franklin Dyall, was an English actor. In his early years he was a member of the companies of the actor-managers George Alexander, Ben Greet, John Martin-Harvey and Johnston Forbes-Robertson. During a 50-year stage career he played a wide range of parts in plays from Shakespeare to modern comedy, grand guignol, swashbuckling costume drama and the works of Ibsen. He broadcast on radio and television and made more than 20 films. He was the father of the actor Valentine Dyall.

* 02/03/1874

Peter Robinson(† 72)

Actor | Springfield, Massachusetts (US)

- No description / details available yet. -

Known for: Freaks
* 04/06/1874

Rosa Albach-Retty(† 105)

Actress | Hanau, Hesse (DE)

Rosa Albach-Retty (born Rosa Clara Franziska Helene Retty; 26 December 1874 – 26 August 1980) was an Austrian film and stage actress.

* 12/26/1874

J.G. Hawks(† 65)

Crew

- No description / details available yet. -

* 10/13/1874
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