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People: Famous People born in 1878

People in chronological context: 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1878th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 878th year of the 2nd millennium, the 78th year of the 19th century, and the 9th year of the 1870s decade. As of the start of 1878, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. ()

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354 people found (page 1/12):

Joseph Stalin(† 74)

Actor | Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (real name Dzhugashvili) was born in Gori, Tiflis province, Russian Empire - a Soviet political, statesman, military and party figure, a Russian revolutionary. Actual leader of the USSR. General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1922-1953). Marshal of the Soviet Union (1943), Generalissimo of the Soviet Union (1945). People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR (since July 19, 1941), Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Chairman of the USSR State Defense Committee. He also held the following positions: From April 3, 1922 to February 10, 1934 - Secretary General, then - Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (from 1952 - CPSU), from December 19, 1930, after Vyacheslav Molotov took the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR instead of Alexey Rykov. In 1912, at the suggestion of V.I. Lenin was included in the Central Committee of the RSDLP. At the same time, Joseph Dzhugashvili finally chose the pseudonym "Stalin" for himself. During the October Revolution, the Second All-Russian Congress was elected a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars. In 1922, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), he was elected a member of the Orgburo and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), as well as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (when Lenin was Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR). In 1930, after the weakening and death of Lenin, Stalin finally emerged victorious from the internal party struggle, becoming the leader of the state. Stalin was the actual founder of the totalitarian dictatorship in the USSR. In 1928-1929 he was the initiator of the transition from the course of the New Economic Policy (NEP) to the course of industrialization, collectivization and building a planned economy, and intensified the policy of the cultural revolution in the USSR.

Known for: Russia Lies
* 12/18/1878

Lionel Barrymore(† 76)

Actor | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blyth; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), and is known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. He is also particularly remembered as Ebenezer Scrooge in annual broadcasts of A Christmas Carol during his last two decades. He is also known for playing Dr. Leonard Gillespie in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's nine Dr. Kildare films, a role he reprised in a further six films focusing solely on Gillespie and in a radio series titled The Story of Dr. Kildare. He was a member of the theatrical Barrymore family.

* 04/28/1878

Franklyn Farnum(† 83)

Actor | Boston, Massachusetts (US)

Leading man in silent films until mid to late 1920s when Farnum transitioned to a character actor. Then later in life he remained in the film business as a paid extra in many films and TV shows.

* 06/05/1878

Frank LaRue(† 81)

Actor | Ridgeway, Ohio (US)

Frank LaRue was born on December 5, 1878 in Ridgeway, Ohio, USA as Frank Herman LaRue. He was an actor, known for Boothill Brigade (1937), Sidewalks of New York (1931) and Mesquite Buckaroo (1939). He was married to Elsie May Payne. He died on September 26, 1960 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

* 12/05/1878

Frank Otto(† 85)

Actor

Frank Otto is an actor, known for Born Yesterday (1950), Idol of the Crowds (1937) and Woman in the Dark (1934).

* 1878

Fumiko Katsuragi(† 67)

Actress | Tokyo (JP)

Fumiko Katsuragi (葛城文子) was a Japanese actress.

* 07/29/1878

Hideo Fujino(† 77)

Actor | Tokyo (JP)

- No description / details available yet. -

Known for: The Lapel Shop
* 05/16/1878

Ethel Griffies(† 97)

Actress | Sheffield (GB)

Ethel Griffies (born Ethel Woods; 26 April 1878 – 9 September 1975) was an English actress of stage, screen, and television. She is remembered for portraying the ornithologist Mrs. Bundy in Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Birds (1963). She appeared in stage roles in her native England and in the United States, and had featured roles in around 100 motion pictures. Griffies was one of the oldest working actors in the English-speaking theatre at the time of her death at 97 years old. She acted alongside such stars as May Whitty, Ellen Terry, and Anna Neagle.

* 04/26/1878

Arthur Stuart Hull(† 72)

Actor | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Arthur Stuart Hull was an American stage and screen actor, his film career spanning the years 1913 to 1947.

* 05/08/1878

Albert S. Le Vino(† 69)

Crew

- No description / details available yet. -

* 1878

Julia Swayne Gordon(† 54)

Actress | Columbus, Ohio (US)

Julia Swayne Gordon (born Sarah Victoria Smith; October 29, 1878 – May 28, 1933) was an American actress who appeared in at least 228 films between 1908 and 1933.

* 10/29/1878

Henry B. Walthall(† 58)

Actor | Shelby County, Alabama (US)

Henry Brazeale Walthall (March 16, 1878 – June 17, 1936) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared as the Little Colonel in D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915).

* 03/16/1878
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Thomas R. Mills(† 75)

Actor

- No description / details available yet. -

* 1878

Percy Parsons(† 66)

Actor | Louisville (US)

Edward Percy Parsons (1878–1944) was an American actor and singer who worked largely in the British film industry.

* 06/12/1878

Paul Reynaud(† 87)

Actor | Barcelonnette

Jean Paul Reynaud, né le15octobre1878àBarcelonnette(Basses-Alpes) et mort le21septembre1966àNeuilly-sur-Seine(Seine), est unhomme politiquefrançais. Député des Basses-Alpes (aujourd'hui lesAlpes-de-Haute-Provence), puis deParis, il fut plusieurs fois ministre sous laIIIeRépublique, et notamment ministre des Finances en1938dans legouvernement Daladier. Il estprésident du Conseildu22 marsau16juin1940, fonction qu'il cumule avec celle deministre des Affaires étrangèrespuis de ministre de la Guerre. Après ladébâcle de juin, Paul Reynaud, alors en désaccord avec les principaux membres du gouvernement et responsables militaires quant à la conduite à tenir, démissionne et est remplacé par lemaréchal Pétainqui signe l’Armistice.

* 10/15/1878

Bella Starace Sainati(† 80)

Actress | Naples (IT)

Bella Starace Sainati (June 2, 1878 – August 4, 1958) was an Italian stage and film actress.

* 06/02/1878

George Holt(† 65)

Actor | Fall River (US)

George Holt (September 30, 1878 – July 18, 1944) was an American actor and film director of the silent era. He appeared in 64 films between 1913 and 1935. He also directed 24 films between 1919 and 1924. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and died in Santa Monica, California.

 
* 09/30/1878

Roy Applegate(† 71)

Actor | Upper Black Eddy (US)

Roy Applegate (7 December 1878 – 9 February 1950) was an American actor

* 12/07/1878

Harriet Bosse(† 83)

Actress | Kristiania [now Oslo] (NO)

Harriet Sofie Bosse was a Swedish–Norwegian stage and screen actress. A celebrity in her own day, Bosse is today most commonly remembered as the third wife of the playwright August Strindberg.

* 02/19/1878

George M. Cohan(† 64)

Crew | Providence, Rhode Island (US)

George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878 – November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudeville act known as "The Four Cohans". Beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote, composed, produced, and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals. Cohan wrote more than 50 shows and published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards "Over There", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "The Yankee Doodle Boy" and "You're a Grand Old Flag". As a composer, he was one of the early members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). He displayed remarkable theatrical longevity, appearing in films until the 1930s and continuing to perform as a headline artist until 1940. Known in the decade before World War I as "the man who owned Broadway", he is considered the father of American musical comedy. His life and music were depicted in the Oscar-winning film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and the 1968 musical George M!. A statue of Cohan in Times Square, New York City, commemorates his contributions to American musical theatre.

* 07/03/1878

Ernest Torrence(† 54)

Actor | Edinburgh, Scotland (GB)

He was the man you loved to hiss. This towering (6' 4"), highly imposing character star with cold, hollow, beady eyes and a huge, protruding snout would go on to become one of the silent screen's finest arch villains. Born Ernest Thayson Torrence-Thompson on June 26, 1878, in Edinburgh, Scotland, he was, unlikely enough, an exceptional pianist and operatic baritone. A graduate of the Stuttgart Conservatory, Edinburgh Academy before earning a scholarship at London's Royal Academy of Music, he toured with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in such productions as "The Emerald Isle" (1901) and "The Talk of the Town" (1905) before serious vocal problems set in. Both Ernest and his actor brother David Torrence came to America directly from Scotland prior to WWI. Focusing instead on a purely acting career, both brothers developed into seasoned players on the New York stage. Ernest made his Broadway bow with "Modest Suzanne" in 1912 and a standout role in "The Night Boat" in 1920 brought him to the attention of Hollywood filmmakers.He earned superb marks playing the despicable adversary Luke Hatburn in Tol'able David (1921) opposite Richard Barthelmess, and immediately settled into films for the rest of his career. Adept at both comedy and drama, Ernest avoided what could have been a damaging stereotype with his sympathetic portrayal of a grizzled old codger in the classic western The Covered Wagon (1923). He further bolstered his celebrity with plum, lip-smacking roles alongside Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) as Clopin, king of the beggars, and Betty Bronson in Peter Pan (1924) as the dastardly Captain Hook. In an offbeat bit of casting he paired up with Clara Bow in Mantrap (1926) as a gentle, bear-like backwoodsman in search of a wife, and participated in other silent classics such as The King of Kings (1927) (as Peter) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) as Buster Keaton's steamboat captain Dad.Despite his celluloid villainy, Ernest was known as a courtly and cultivated gentleman in private. He made the transition into talking films intact and was able to play a marvelous nemesis, Dr. Moriarty, to Clive Brooks ' Sherlock Holmes (1932) before his untimely death. Ernest died following his filming as a smuggler in I Cover the Waterfront (1933) starring Claudette Colbert in New York on May 15,1933, at the relatively young age of 54. It seems that while en route to Europe by ship, Torrence suffered an acute attack of gall stones and was rushed back to a New York hospital. He died of complications following surgery. Looking and usually playing much older than he was, Hollywood lost a marvelously talented and robust character player who had dozens of films ahead of him.

* 06/26/1878

Nicolas Koline(† 94)

Actor | Saint Petersburg (RU)

Nicolas Koline (1878–1973) was a Russian stage and film actor. He established himself in Russia as a stage performer with the Moscow Art Theatre. He emigrated from Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and came to France with La Chauve-Souris cabaret run by Nikita Balieff. In Paris he then joined Joseph Ermolieff's film company at Montreuil. He appeared in numerous French and German films during his career, initially often as a leading player during the silent era and later in supporting roles.

* 05/07/1878

Fred Mace(† 38)

Actor | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Fred Mace (August 22, 1878 – February 21, 1917) was a comedic actor during the silent era in the United States. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1909 and 1916. Mace worked for Mack Sennett at Keystone Studios. Shortly after he left, Roscoe Arbuckle, who had appeared in a few pictures at Keystone with Mace, took over as Sennett's lead comedic actor. Mace was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died at the Hotel Astor in New York City in 1917. All of his work is in the public domain.

* 08/22/1878

Rex De Rosselli(† 63)

Actor | Kentucky (US)

Rex De Rosselli (May 1, 1878 – July 21, 1941), was an American actor of the silent era, mainly appearing in Westerns. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1911 and 1926. He was born in Kentucky and died in East Saint Louis. He also served as head trainer of the Universal City Zoo from approximately 1915 to 1917. Rex De Rosselli was described as a "silver-haired Beau Brummell" who alternated film work in the winters and circus work in the summers.

Known for: Elmo, the Mighty
* 05/01/1878

Bigelow Cooper(† 75)

Actor | Springfield, Ohio (US)

Jackson Bigelow Cooper (December 21, 1867 – 1953) was an American stage and screen character actor prominent in the silent film era.

* 01/01/1878

Bobby Burns(† 87)

Actor | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)

Robert Paul Burns (September 1, 1878 – January 16, 1966) was an American film actor and director. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1908 and 1952 as well as directing 13 films between 1915 and 1916. Burns was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died in Los Angeles, California. He played Pokes in the Pokes and Jabbs silent comedies of the mid 1910s, with Walter Stull as Jabbs and frequently featuring Babe (Oliver) Hardy. Later he supported Hardy in his partnership with Stan Laurel at the Hal Roach Studios in several of their early short comedies and feature films.

 
* 09/01/1878

Edward Cecil(† 62)

Actor | San Francisco (US)

Edward Cecil (September 13, 1878 – December 13, 1940) was an American film actor. During the silent era he played supporting roles and the occasion lead. Following the introduction of sound, he mainly appeared in more minor roles until his death.

* 09/13/1878

Lauren Ridloff(145)

Actress | Chicago, Illinois (US)

Lauren Ridloff is an American actress and former teacher. She is best known as a former Miss Deaf America, for her 2018 Tony-nominated Broadway performance as Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God, and as Connie in the AMC television series The Walking Dead.

* 04/06/1878

John Ince(† 68)

Actor | New York City, New York (US)

John Edward Ince (August 29, 1878 – April 10, 1947), also credited as John E. Ince, was an American actor of stage and motion pictures, and a film director. He was the elder brother of Thomas H. Ince, and Ralph Ince.

* 08/29/1878

Leo Curley(† 81)

Actor | New York, New York (US)

- No description / details available yet. -

* 04/12/1878
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