How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The lead roles were played by Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars and eventually won five, including the Oscar for Best Picture.
In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry of the United States as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Joan Fontaine, born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland (Tokyo, October 22, 1917 – Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, December 15, 2013) was an American actress.
She was born the daughter of patent expert Walter Augustus de Havilland (1872-1968), and British actress Lilian Augusta Ruse (1886-1975), who was known as Lilian Fontaine. Joan is the younger sister of Olivia de Havilland. As a child, she was often sick and suffered from anemia. On the advice of a doctor, she moved with her mother and sister to the United States, where they grew up in Saratoga. She made her theater debut in 1935 and from that year began acting in films as well. In 1939, she married actor Brian Aherne from whom she divorced in 1945.
In 1940 she got her first leading role, in the film Rebecca. For this she received an Oscar nomination. The following year she received an Oscar for her role in Suspicion. In the 1940s she starred in many films and in the 1950s she was mostly seen on Broadway and television (guest roles). The last film she was seen in was released in 1994.
She did not have a good relationship with her sister. Contact worsened when Olivia was also nominated for an Oscar in 1942. When it went to Joan, the latter refused to receive Olivia’s congratulations. She later won an Oscar herself, making the sisters unique in film history. Since 1975, however, the two did not speak to each other.
On December 15, 2013, Fontaine died a natural death at home, at the age of 96 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Gary Cooper, bijgenaamd Coop, geboren als Frank James Cooper (Helena (Montana), 7 mei 1901 – Beverly Hills (California), 13 mei 1961) was een Amerikaans filmacteur. Hij speelde in films vanaf de jaren twintig tot aan zijn dood. Gary Cooper stond bekend om zijn rustige, ingehouden acteerstijl en was veelvuldig in westerns te zien.
Hij is vijf keer genomineerd geweest voor een Oscar en won er twee, voor zijn rollen in Sergeant York (1941) en High Noon (1952). In april 1961, een maand voor zijn dood, kreeg hij een ere-Oscar voor zijn gehele oeuvre.
Gary Cooper was born the youngest son of Alice and Charles Henry Cooper. He grew up with his mother and older brother Arthur in Dunstable, England. At a young age, he was in a car accident, after which he rehabilitated on his father’s ranch.
At first he tried to build a career drawing political cartoons, but friends advised him to take on roles as an extra in cowboy movies. His agent, Nan Collins, arranged a major role for him in the 1926 film The Winning of Barbara Worth. Actress Clara Bow also arranged for the attractive actor to be her counterpart several times, for example in 1927’s It. The two had a brief relationship. For Paramount Pictures, he starred in several silent westerns. In 1929, he starred in his first sound film, The Virginian.
Throughout the 1930s he alternated romantic with adventure roles, including some Hemingway films. In 1933 he married Veronica Balfe, who had a short-lived acting career in the 1930s as Sandra Shaw. In 1936 he got the lead role in Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. In 1941, he was given the lead role in the biographical war film Sergeant York, at the request of war hero Alvin York, whose life was the model for the film. For this film, he won his first Oscar. The following year he starred in another biographical film, the sports film Pride of the Yankees based on the life of baseball star Lou Gehrig.
During World War II, he toured soldiers throughout the South Pacific. In the 1950s, he starred mostly in westerns, including the classic High Noon, for which he received his second Oscar.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, however, Cooper was plagued by illnesses. In April 1961, Gary Cooper received the honorary Oscar for his entire body of work and contributions to film. He could not attend the ceremony himself, however, and his good friend James Stewart accepted the award on his behalf. A month later, the actor died of lung cancer at the age of 60 in Beverly Hills, California.
John Ford: see Academy Awards 1940
Mary Astor, real name Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke (Quincy (Illinois), May 3, 1906 – Woodland Hills, September 25, 1987), was an American actress.
Mary Astor’s father was a German immigrant. At the age of 14 she was noticed by people from Hollywood, who happened to be present at one of the beauty pageants in which she regularly competed. Soon her father and mother signed a contract with their daughter.
Her first 1920 film “Scarecrow,” in which she played a small role, was the beginning of a life as an actress in the spotlight. In 1924, while shooting for a new film, she met John Barrymore, with whom she began an affair. This affair was not long-lived and in 1926 she left him.
At the time when the first sound films were recorded, Mary immediately stood out because she had a good voice and also appeared well on the screen.
In her later years she continued to star in several films, but after the death of her first husband, Kenneth Hawks (who died in a plane crash), an alcohol addiction and heart failure, she slowed down.
Mary died at the age of 81 from the effects of a heart attack in Woodland Hills.
Donald Crisp, born George William Crisp (London, July 27, 1880 – Van Nuys (Los Angeles, California), May 25, 1974) was an American actor.
Donald was born in London and began acting in 1908. He starred in more than 150 films, the last being released in 1963. He won an Oscar in 1941. He was married to Jane Murfin from 1932 to 1944.
He died after multiple strokes in 1974. He was 93 years old.
