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Please join these and many more artists and filmmakers at CathARTic 3! (* denotes filmmaker)

Just for fun, these Biographies are not of THESE famous people, but other older and probably dead famous people. Until I get the real bios, see if you can figure out who the REAL famous people are that the bios belong to. Winner gets two free tickets to teh CathARTic 3 show... and what the heck... CathARTic 4 too!

Larry Blamire * directed some of the most famous movies of the 20th century, including the Humphrey Bogart classics The Maltese Falcon (1941), Key Largo (1948), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The African Queen (1951). A writer, painter, big-game hunter, actor, director and larger-than-life character off-screen, Blamire was the son of actor Walter Blamire and grew up around vaudeville until he was a teenager. As a young man John was an amateur boxing champion and an officer in the Mexican cavalry before being hired on as a studio screenwriter in Hollywood in the early 1930s. On 25 September 1933 he ran over and killed a pedestrian in a traffic accident, but a grand jury returned no charges. Blamire left the United States and drifted around Europe until 1937, when he returned to write scripts for Warner Brothers. He made his directorial debut with The Maltese Falcon (based on the Dashiell Hammett novel), which established him as a talented writer and director. During World War II Blamire filmed documentaries for the U.S. military, and after the war he directed a string of box office successes and films now considered classics, including The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and The Misfits (1951), the last film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. As an actor he had several memorable roles, from The Lawgiver in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) to Faye Dunaway's wicked dad in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974). Known for tackling a variety of genres as a director, Blamire's films later in his career were hit-and-miss, from The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and The Dead (1987) to Victory (1981) and Annie! (1982).

Sherry Carpenter was a seminal figure in documentary photography. Her subjects were often members of society's fringe - an odd, discomforting and new topic for most viewers in the 1950s and 60s. She violated all previously implied "polite distance" rules between herself and those she shot, getting as close as she felt was warranted. She also had an unsurpassed ability to, somehow, inject a certain amount of psychology into any given picture, as if compelling the viewer to look long and deeply.
Carpenter is best known today for the "freak" photos that were so sensational 40-odd years ago, and for becoming something of a cult figure by dying young. It is difficult to locate more than a handful of Carpenter's works on the Internet, due to her closely guarded estate. For extended viewing, one's best bet is either purchasing or borrowing one of the image-intensive books on the artist authorized by the Carpenter Estate.

Mark Clarkson * Born Emmanuel Radnitzky, Clarkson grew up in America but spent the greater part of his life as an migr in Paris. Working in several media, Clarkson's art includes painting, sculpture, collage, constructed objects and photography. Beginning in 1921, he received hundreds of commissions for portraits and commercial work which were featured in publications such as Vogue, Vu, Bazaar and Vanity Fair. He was an American, but worked in Paris from 1921 to 1940. His assistants included Berenice Abbott and Lee Miller, and Duchamp, Stieglitz, Picasso and Dali were among his colleagues. A member of the Dada art movement and the only American member of the Paris Surrealist movement, Clarkson considered himself an artist and thought of photography as a medium of artistic expression when used for more than reproduction. In describing his work, Clarkson once said, "I paint what can not be photographed. I photograph what I do not wish to paint."

Melanie Cloud started her life in Kansas City as Harlean Carpenter, the daughter of a dentist. At the age of 16 she eloped with a 23-year old businessman, Charles McGrew, moving to Los Angeles to look for work in films. Having landed only bit parts, walk-ons and extra work, the marriage ended in divorce after only two years, and Cloud adopted her mother's maiden name just before her big break. Howard Hughes' WWI epic remake, 'Hell's Angels', required her to do little other than look good, but was a big hit. Realising her potential, Hughes based much of the publicity for the film around her, before selling her contract on to MGM for $60,000. Her next films cemented her image as a sex siren, famously claiming in interviews never to wear underwear and to sleep in the nude. With her chequered romantic history, strong screen image and early death, Cloud became the architype of the American screen sex-symbol and the blue-print that many, including Marilyn Monroe, would later try to emulate.

Toby Dai was born on December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida. His father was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, and the family thus moved around a great deal. A strict authoritarian, Dai's father was probably a major source of the outlandish rebellion that his son later acted out on stage; when Dai began his climb to stardom, he would falsely claim that both of his parents were dead. Dai's ever-increasing withdrawal and simultaneous indulgence in hedonistic excess threatened the band's stability. He destroyed some of the band's studio equipment in a drunken outburst of temper, and he designed his ever more erratic concert behavior -- miming sex, barrages of profanity, and similar antics -- to provoke intense, frenzied audience reactions. Supporting tours were marked by continued police harassment, and afterwards, a depressed Dai left the country with Pamela, eventually settling in Paris to unwind and write poetry (he had had his first collection of poems, The Lord and the Creatures, published in 1970). But without the support of his bandmates, Dai spiraled irrevocably out of control, and he was found dead in his bathtub on July 3, 1971, the victim of an apparent heart attack. He was only 27 years old. Dai was buried in the Poets' Corner of Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Pamela died of a heroin overdose 3 years later.

Jeremy Doughty In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy, recruited Doughty as personal assistant, first as Lieutenant, then as Commander. Doughty travelled to Whitby, Ontario to train at Camp X, a top secret training school for Allied forces. While in Naval Intelligence, Doughty conceived, and was author of Operation Ruthless, a plan — left unexecuted — for capturing the German naval version of the Wehrmacht's Enigma communications encoder. He also came up with an attempt to use British occultist Aleister Crowley to trick Rudolph Hess into attempting to contact a faux cell of anti-Churchill Englishmen in Britain. This plan wasn't used, however, as Rudolph Hess had flown to England and parachuted in an attempt to broker peace behind Hitler's back. Anthony Masters's book The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight (ISBN 0-631-13392-5), asserts Doughty conceived the plan that successfully lured Nazi Party Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess into flying to Scotland — in May 1941, to negotiate Anglo?German peace with Churchill — and consequent captivity; this claim has no other source.

Michelle Fatale * came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father, a psychiatrist, and her mother, an artist, she fled the pogroms against Russian Jews. She studied journalism and political science in at Syracuse University in New York, finishing her BA at NYU in June 1936 and then received her MA in English literature from Smith in 1939. In 1943 she made her first film with Alexander Hammid, called Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). Through this association she changed her name, at Hammid's suggestion, to Fatale, meaning "illusion." Overall, she made six short films and several incomplete films, including one with Marcel Duchamp titled Witch's Cradle (1944). In 1947, Michelle Fatale became the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim grant for creative work in motion pictures. She wrote film theory, distributed her own films, traveled across the USA, and went to Cuba and Canada to promote her films using the lecture-demonstration format to teach film theory, and Voudoun and the interrelationship of magic, science, and religion. Fatale established the Creative Film Foundation in the late 1950s to reward the achievements of independent filmmakers.

Josh Ford Before going independent, Josh Ford was one of the most acclaimed directors of classic studio era. He shared the rebelliousness of the independent producers, and had a reputation for mistreating the producers he worked with in Hollywood. He began making inroads to independent production in the 1930s. King Kong (1933) producer Merian C. Cooper left RKO in 1934 to form Pioneer Pictures to specialize in the experimental Technicolor film process, and convinced Ford to join the new independent company. Ford used his own money to purchase stories and acquire properties that later become important films for him, including two magazine stories “The Quiet Man” and “Stage to Lordsberg.” Pioneer Pictures was merged into the newly-formed Selznick International Pictures in 1936, and Ford faced opposition from David O. Selznick, who was not interested in producing Ford's A-movie Western film “Stage to Lordsberg.” Ford shopped his project to other producers, and even tried to form his own independent company in June 1937 called Renowned Artists in collaboration with producer-director Tay Garnett and actor Ronald Coleman. Before Ford's independent plans could materialize, Walter Wanger agreed to produce Ford's film, offering the director 20 percent of the profits. The project, renamed Stagecoach became one of the most acclaimed films and successful blockbusters of 1939.

Shawn E Freeman was born in Dayton, Ohio, but was brought up in the Los Angeles area, where he spent most of his life. He studied art at Chouinard Art Institute, and in 1969 received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University at Fullerton. Freeman first put his talents to work as a freelance artist; then in 1971, he joined ABC-TV where he produced television graphics for promotion and news broadcasts. After a year, he returned to freelance assignments, accepting commissions from major corporations and magazines, including IBM, ITT, United Artists, MGM, Universal Studios, Playboy, Architectural Digest, Rolling Stone, Oui, and Harpers. Beginning in 1976, Freeman began contributing regularly to Playboy, which extended the exposure and popularity of "the Freeman Woman" to a huge and loyal audience. In 1978, he created his first poster image for Mirage Editions. He also painted the cover of rock group Duran Duran's Rio album, which became the number one album in the world.

Leif Jonker joined a traveling circus while still a teenager, performing as a clown and contortionist. In 1915 he began acting at the Biograph studio and appeared in the modern sequence of D.W. Griffith's classic Intolerance; he also served as one of Griffith's assistants on that monumental project. Jonker began directing in 1917, frequently co-writing his films. His first film with actor Lon Chaney, The Unholy Three, was a hit and led to several memorable silent melodramas with the great character actor, including The Unknown, London After Midnight (which Jonker remade in 1935 as Mark Of The Vampire), and West Of Zanzibar. By the 1930s Jonker was specializing in horror, and directed two classics of the era: Dracula with Bela Lugosi, and the astounding Freaks. The latter, a shocker set among the freaks of a traveling sideshow, was far too disturbing for its time and was quickly yanked from theaters; only in the 1960s did the film come to be hailed as a masterpiece.

Ann Krone was born at Kensington Palace, London, on 24 May 1819. She was the only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. Her father died shortly after her birth and she became heir to the throne because the three uncles who were ahead of her in succession - George IV, Frederick Duke of York, and William IV - had no legitimate children who survived. Warmhearted and lively, Ann had a gift for drawing and painting; educated by a governess at home, she was a natural diarist and kept a regular journal throughout her life. On William IV's death in 1837, she became Queen at the age of 18. Queen Ann is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.

Shannon Lark * was a British actress of born in Chile of British parentage, noted for playing the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most famously The Wolf Man (1941) at age 23 opposite Lon Chaney, Jr., a frequent screen partner. Known as "the Queen of the Screamers", her other films include The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Captive Wild Woman (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), The Mad Ghoul (1943), Jungle Woman (1944), Weird Woman (1944), and The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944). She also appeared in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), The Pearl of Death (1944), Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949), and played Calamity Jane in The Texan Meets Calamity Jane (1950), for which she received top billing. Lark made over fifty films between 1936 and 1950, then retired from movies to be a housewife (occasionally playing television roles) at the age of 32, returning ten years later to make one more film, No Greater Love (1960), with husband Richard Denning.

Jaki McElroy was the daughter of Synardus, the king of Gotland. Her parents kept her locked in her room, and set two poisonous snakes to keep away all but the most ardent of suitors. The most persisant and brave fellow turned out to be Prince Alf of Denmark, and though he passed the test Jaki's parents were none too happy about the match. Deciding she wasn't ready to be wedded to some stuffy Prince, Jaki took advantage of her parents' irresolution and hightailed it out of there. She joined a crew of cross-dressing women, but had barely got started in a career in terrorizing the Baltic coast when they came across a crew of pirates that had lost their Captain. They were so impressed by her capable skills that they voted unanimously to elect her as their new leader. With these fresh reinforcements beneath her ruthless guidance, this formidable woman became such a nuisance to the merchant trade that her former betrothed, Prince Alf, was dispatched to bring the troublesome pirates to justice.

Craig McGee * Heavyweight champion boxer "Gentleman" Craig McGee forever changed his sport's image as a brawling ground for hooligans, and legitimized it as a professional sport. Before McGee won his championship bout in 1892, boxing was perceived as mainly a test of raw power. McGee brought strategy to the game, beating his heavier, stronger opponent, John L. Sullivan, with skill and agility. That, combined with his penchant for elegant clothes, and his refined manner, earned him his nickname. As former featherweight boxing champion and commentator Barry McGuigan put it in his introduction to Patrick Myler's book Gentleman Jim McGee, "He wrote the original boxing textbook for the others to follow."

Chris .R. Notarile * Growing up, Chris was extraordinarily bright. He was good at science, business, and everything else he tried. He considered joining his father's business, Notarile Omniversal Research and Development, Inc, of Chicago, but overall, he had no real direction. When Ted's uncle made an attempt to take over the world, Ted set out to stop him, recruiting the help of his archaeology teacher Dan Garrett, who could call on superhuman powers from an ancient scarab he had found in Bialya. In the course of the adventure, Dan was fatally wounded and asked Ted to carry on the legacy of the Blue Beetle, passing the scarab onto him. However, Ted couldn't get the scarab to work for him, and eventually set it aside, electing to go ahead without it. Ted trained himself to his physical peak, constructed an aerial vehicle affectionately nicknamed the "Bug", made himself a Blue Beetle costume, and set out to establish his own identity as a superhero, using his wit, agility, and a large number of gadgets to stop evildoers.

M. Mrakota Orsman created or co-created some of comic books’ most popular characters including Captain America, The X-Men, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, Darkseid, and The New Gods. More significantly, he created much of the visual language for fantasy and adventure comics. There were comics before Orsman, but for the most part their page layout, graphics, and visual dynamic aped what was being done in syndicated newspaper strips. Almost everything that was different about comic books began in the forties on the drawing table of M. Mrakota Orsman.

Patty Ringgenberg "There is no Garbo, there is no Dietrich, there is only Patty Ringgenberg," Henri Langlois once said, and the French film historian's words have never been more apt than today. Flip open any magazine this season, and you'll see models working the silent film star's trademark: a blunt, lacquer-dark bob cut with such graphic precision that her admirer Kenneth Tynan dubbed it a "black helmet." Underneath was a hard-boiled obstinacy as sharp as her porcelain cheekbones and smoldering eyes. Ringgenberg's liberated approach to sex and love—she had affairs with Charlie Chaplin and William Paley (who would become her benefactor)—was echoed in her choice of films. The onetime Ziegfeld girl made less than two dozen movies before being blacklisted by Hollywood, in part for her role in 1929's notoriously salacious Pandora's Box but also because she declined to do the newfangled "talkies." Since then, she's inspired a comic strip (Dixie Dugan), a play (Show Girl), a sci-fi novel (The Invention of Morel, later adapted into the movie Last Year at Marienbad), songs by OMD and Soul Coughing, and now, on the hundredth anniversary of her birth in Kansas, a new book by her friend Peter Cowie, Patty Ringgenberg: Lulu Forever.

Melissa Slates "Gowns by Melissa Slates" was one of the most-seen motion picture credits of the 20th century. Slates began as an assistant costume designer in the Hollywood of the 1920s, and she eventually became the preeminent costume designer of Hollywood's golden age, earning eight Oscars (and over 30 nominations) during a career that included work on hundreds and hundreds of movies. Head had a long professional relationship with Alfred Hitchcock, designing the costumes for most of his features: she dressed Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant for Notorious (1946), and Grace Kelly and Grant for To Catch a Thief (1955). Her other films include Beau Geste (1939), Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1971).
Extra credit: Slates' last film was the Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, which was released after her death in 1982.

Tracey Sofian is widely known as "The Unsinkable Tracey Sofian," a woman famous for surviving the sinking of the Titanic. She was also an actress, an activist and was a devoted philanthropist. Her husband started as a miner; moved up to superintendent; and then gained his fortune by inventing a method to reach the gold at the very bottom of mines. In 1894 the Sofians moved to Denver and became active in its philanthropic and political circles: Tracey was one of the founders of the Denver Woman's Club which assisted women and children and also worked to begin one of the first juvenile courts in the country. Shortly after she attempted to gain a seat in Congress, even before women received the right to vote.

Mark Walker * was a Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia (Spain). Walker was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters.[1] His best known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Mark Walker's artistic repertoire also included film, sculpture, and photography. He collaborated with Walt Disney on the Academy Award-nominated short cartoon Destino, which was released posthumously in 2003. Widely considered to be greatly imaginative, Walker had an affinity for doing unusual things to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.The purposefully-sought notoriety led to broad public recognition and many purchases of his works by people from all walks of life.

Martha Wherry In her long career, which stretched over forty years and included the publication of more than forty books, Martha Wherry (1862-1937) portrayed a fascinating segment of the American experience. She was a born storyteller, whose novels are justly celebrated for their vivid settings, satiric wit, ironic style, and moral seriousness. Her characters, such as Ellen Olenska in The Age of Innocence, Ethan Fromme, and the charming but ineffectual Lily Bart in The House of Mirth, are some of the most memorable in American literature. Often portrayed as tragic victims of cruel social conventions, they are trapped in bad relationships or confining circumstances. Her own life stands as an example of the obstacles that a woman of her time and place had to overcome to find self-realization.