Rebecca is a 1940 American psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. David O. Selznick handled the production and the lead roles were played by Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.
Rebecca was Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film. In 2020 there was a remake of the film.
Ginger Rogers (Independence (Missouri), July 16, 1911 – Rancho Mirage (California), April 25, 1995) was born Virginia Katherine McMath and was an American actress and dancer.
She is often mentioned in the same breath as Fred Astaire with whom she made ten singing-dancing Hollywood musicals, but her acting career spanned thirty years. Her first roles were in a trio of short films in 1929 – Night in the Dormitory, A Day of a Man of Affairs, and Campus Sweethearts. In 1939, she starred opposite David Niven in Bachelor Mother.
In 1940, she won the Oscar for best actress for her lead role in Kitty Foyle. Rogers was married five times and divorced five times.
She died in 1995 and, like Fred Astaire, was buried at Oakwood Memorial Park cemetery in Chatsworth, California.
James Maitland (Jimmy) Stewart (Indiana (Pennsylvania), May 20, 1908 – Beverly Hills (California), July 2, 1997) was an American film actor, who enjoyed great popularity among audiences. Stewart played mostly everyday all-American roles, mostly friendly, polite, somewhat lanky or shy characters. He starred in many films now considered classics, including Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Vertigo. Stewart has been nominated five times for an Oscar, winning one of them for The Philadelphia Story in 1940. In 1984, he received an honorary Oscar. Although his call sign was Jimmy, during his career as an actor, the credits always listed his official first name as James.
John Ford (Cape Elizabeth (Maine), February 1, 1894 – Palm Desert (California), August 31, 1973) was an American film director. He successfully made films from the 1930s to the 1960s, and is best known for such westerns as Stagecoach and The Searchers. He won four Oscars for best director, but remarkably none for his westerns. He is considered one of the greatest American directors of all time.
Jane Darwell (Palmyra (Missouri), October 15, 1879 – Woodland Hills (California), August 13, 1967) was an American actress. Her best-known roles were that of Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath and that of the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins.
Her career began as a stage actress in Chicago. In 1913 she made her film debut, 2 years later she had already participated in 20 films. After an absence of 15 years, she made her career in film in 1930 in the film Tom Sawyer. With this, her Hollywood career had begun.
When she retired from it in 1964, she had appeared in more than 170 films. Darwell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6735 Hollywood Boulevard. Her last role was that of the Bird Woman in the Disney film Mary Poppins, which was offered to her personally by Walt Disney.
Walter Brennan: see Academy Awards 1936
