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Kim Porter is from Columbus, Georgia. She started out as a blushing model from the small town area. After her graduation from Columbus High School in 1988, she moved to Atlanta to pursue a bigger dream. She was in a relationship with singer Al B. Sure! and in 1991, they had a son Quincy Brown who was named after Al B. Sure's mentor, musician Quincy Jones. In 1994 she began a relationship with Sean 'Diddy' Combs. He adopted and raised Quincy and the couple also has a son, Christian Casey Combs, and twin daughters D'Lila Star and Jessie James Combs.

Born in the Bronx, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents (Isidor "Ira" and Rita Blucher Miller), Richard Miller served in the U.S. Navy for a few years and earned a prize title as a middleweight boxer. He settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, where he was noticed by producer/director Roger Corman, who cast him in most of his low-budget films, often as dislikeable sorts, such as a vacuum-cleaner salesman in Not of This Earth (1957). His most memorable role would have to be that of the mentally unstable, busboy/beatnik artist Walter Paisley, whose clay sculptures are suspiciously lifelike in A Bucket of Blood (1959) (a rare starring role for him), and he is also fondly remembered for his supporting role as the flower-eating Vurson Fouch in Corman's legendary The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).

Miller spent the next 20 years working in Corman productions, and starting in the late 1970s was often cast in films by director Joe Dante, appearing in credited and uncredited walk-on bits as quirky chatterboxes, and stole every scene he appeared in. He has played many variations on his famous Walter Paisley role, such as a diner owner (Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)) or a janitor (Chopping Mall (1986)). One of his best bits is the funny occult-bookshop owner in The Howling (1981). Being short (so he never played a romantic lead or a threatening villain) with wavy hair, long sideburns, a pointed nose and a face as trustworthy as a used-car dealer's, he was, and is to this day, an immediately recognizable character actor whose one-scene appearances in countless movies and TV shows guarantee audience applause.

Lola Jean Albright was born on July 20, 1924 in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of John Paul Albright and Marion Harvey, both of whom were gospel singers. She worked as a model before moving to Hollywood in the mid-1940s, studied piano for 20 years and worked as a receptionist at radio station WAKR in Akron. Considered one of the most stylish, sultriest and beautiful actresses in Hollywood, with one of the throatiest, smokiest and most distinctive voices in the business, she starred with Kirk Douglas in the film noir Champion (1949). From 1958 to 1961, she played sultry nightclub singer Edie Hart on the popular television series Peter Gunn (1958).

She also made guest appearances on the television series Gunsmoke (1955), Bonanza (1959), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She played Constance McKenzie on the night-time soap opera Peyton Place (1964) after Dorothy Malone became sick and could no longer play the role. She received critical acclaim for her performances in A Cold Wind in August (1961), Joy House (1964) and How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967). Retired from acting, Lola Albright died at age 92 on March 23, 2017 in Toluca Lake, California.

Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents to the USA in 1908. After some years onstage as a dancer and comedian, he made his first film appearance in The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) singing "Thanks for the Memory", which became his signature tune.

In partnership with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, he appeared in the highly successful "Road to ..." comedies (1940-52), and in many others until the early 1970s. During World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars he spent much time entertaining the troops in the field. For these activities and for his continued contributions to the industry he received five honorary Academy Awards.

Character actor John Davis Chandler was born on January 28, 1935, in Hinton, West Virginia. He was raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Tall and thin, with fair hair, piercing blue eyes, a pale complexion and a nasal, whiny voice, Chandler specialized in portraying mean, neurotic and dangerous villains. He made an impressive film debut in his sole starring part as the titular sniveling, psychotic, homicidal weasel gangster in Mad Dog Coll (1961). He acted in a trio of Westerns for director Sam Peckinpah, and is especially memorable (and frightening) as the creepy Jimmy Hammond in the magnificent Ride the High Country (1962). He was excellent as vicious punk Arthur Reardon in The Young Savages (1961). He made an effectively loathsome appearance as a vile bushwhacker in the supremely spooky horror-western The Shadow of Chikara (1977) and had a nice bit as a bounty hunter in Clint Eastwood's terrific The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). He even played a good guy--of sorts--in Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965).

Chandler popped up in three entertaining drive-in exploitation features for director William Grefé: at his wacky best as the crazed, doped-up Acid in The Hooked Generation (1968), a foul shark poacher in the fun Jaws (1975) copy Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) and an evil pot farmer in Whiskey Mountain (1977). Among the many TV shows John did guest spots on are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), Chicago Hope (1994) ER (1994), Simon & Simon (1981), Hunter (1984), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Hill Street Blues (1981), T.J. Hooker (1982), Fantasy Island (1977), The Incredible Hulk (1977), Police Woman (1974), Gunsmoke (1955), Adam-12 (1968), The Fugitive (1963), Combat! (1962), The Rifleman (1958), Route 66 (1960) and The Virginian (1962). In real life he was an avid practitioner of yoga. Chandler died at age 75 on February 16, 2010 in Toluca Lake, California.

Vocal artist and character actor supreme Robert Ridgely was born on December 24, 1931 under the name of Robert Ritterbusch in New Jersey. Ridgely started out as a cabaret entertainer. In the late 1950s, he recorded 45 RPM singles for Decca Records under the name of Bob Ritterbush and as Bob Ritterbusch and Robert Ridgely after changing his name to the latter. He began his television acting career in the early 1960s with guest appearances on such TV shows as Surfside 6 (1960), Sea Hunt (1958), and Maverick (1957). He had a recurring role as Lt. Frank Kimbro on the short-lived World War II TV series The Gallant Men (1962). He made his film debut in the 1963 feature FBI Code 98 (1963). Ridgely was occasionally cast as sleazy charmers such as unctuous emcees and announcers.

He popped up in four comedies for Mel Brooks: Blazing Saddles (1974), High Anxiety (1977), Life Stinks (1991), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Moreover, Ridgely was in several pictures for director Jonathan Demme; he's especially memorable (and delightful) as smarmy game show host Wally "Mr. Love" Williams in the wonderful Melvin and Howard (1980). Other noteworthy movie roles are boozy, moonshine-running airplane pilot Lester Boggs in the rowdy redneck romp The Great Lester Boggs (1974), radio talk show host Bob Morton in Heart Like a Wheel (1983), and Los Angeles Mayor Ted Egan in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987).

Ridgely lent his voice to countless animated TV programs and cartoon features; the characters he voiced include Tarzan in Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1976), Flash Gordon in Flash Gordon (1979), the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak in the The World of Strawberry Shortcake (1980) and TV specials, and Thundarr in Thundarr the Barbarian (1980). Among the TV shows on which he had guest spots were Designing Women (1986), Newhart (1982), Night Court (1984), Hunter (1984), The Incredible Hulk (1977), WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), Kung Fu (1972), and Get Smart (1965). In addition, he did voice-over work for numerous TV commercials. He gave a robust and engaging performance as jolly porno producer the Colonel James in the fantastic Boogie Nights (1997), which turned out to be his last movie and a worthy closer to his long and distinguished career.

Robert Ridgely died at age 65 from cancer on February 8, 1997 in Toluca Lake, California.

Robert Easton was born on 23 November 1930 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Working Girl (1988) and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975). He was married to June Bettine Grimstead. He died on 16 December 2011 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Peggy Rea was born on 31 March 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress and casting director, known for Grace Under Fire (1993), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and The Learning Tree (1969). She died on 5 February 2011 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

Hayden Rorke was best known as the ever suspicious "Dr. Alfred E. Bellows" on the 1960s TV series, I Dream of Jeannie (1965). Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rorke was educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he began his stage career in the 1930s with the Hampden Theatrical Company. A veteran of numerous Broadway shows, he made his film debut in the musical, This Is the Army (1943), while in the service during World War II. His films included: An American in Paris (1951), Pillow Talk (1959) and When Worlds Collide (1951). A familiar face on TV during the 1950s, Rorke appeared on numerous shows including: The Twilight Zone (1959), Perry Mason (1957), Broken Arrow (1956) and Cheyenne (1955). His final appearance was reprising the role of "Dr. Bellows" in the TV movie: I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later (1985).

Michelle Nicastro was born on 31 March 1960 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for The Swan Princess (1994), When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986). She was married to Steve Stark. She died on 4 November 2010 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Appeared on the Andy Griffith show after Don Knotts departed. He played a bumbling deputy in the tradition of Barney Fife. After his partnership with George Carlin ended, he teamed with Avery Schreiber after meeting at Chicago's Second City comedy club. Jack appeared on Saturday Night Live In 1977 and turned to writing In in the 1980's.

Born Noble LaPorte Chisman to Thomas F and Cora Esther (LaPorte) Chisman of Indianapolis, he eventually adopted the screen name Kid Chissel. He left his Indiana home in the mid-1930's, not long after his parents had divorced. He aimed to pursue a Hollywood career. Prior to that, he worked as a locomotive fireman in Indianapolis (1930 U.S. Census). His father worked the railroad yards in Indianapolis, and at the time of Noble's birth, resided at 3018 East New York Street (1910 U.S. Census).

Stan Haze was born on 23 October 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Tina and the Professor (1994), House Party (1990) and Don't Answer the Phone! (1980). He died on 8 May 1999 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

For more than three decades, Henry King was the most versatile and reliable (not to mention hard-working) contract director on the 20th Century-Fox lot. His tenure lasted from 1930 to 1961, spanning most of Hollywood's "golden" era. King was renowned as a specialist in literary adaptations (A Bell for Adano (1945), The Sun Also Rises (1957)) and for his nostalgic depictions of rural or small-town America (Margie (1946)). Much of his work was characterized by an uncomplicated approach and a vivid visual style rather than cinematic tricks or technical individuality. For the most part it was his meticulous attention to detail, and his reliance on superior plots and good acting, that got the job done. King was, above all, an astute judge of talent. He introduced Ronald Colman to American audiences in The White Sister (1923), drawing a mustache on the actor's clean-shaven face with a retouching pencil--the real thing later becoming a Colman trademark. King discovered Gary Cooper and cast him in a leading dramatic role in his outdoor western The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), over the initial objections of producer Samuel Goldwyn who thought Coop was just another "damn cowboy". Goldwyn quickly changed his mind after seeing the rushes. Other King discoveries included the lovely Jean Peters (in Captain from Castile (1947)) and Tyrone Power, whom he actively promoted to the point of badgering studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck to star him in Lloyd's of London (1936). Power subsequently became one of Fox's most popular stars.

All in all, not bad for a guy who had left school at 15 to work for the Norfolk & Western Railroad. After enduring the machine shops for a few years, King found more suitable employment as an apprentice actor with the touring Empire Stock Company, where he often performed song-and-dance routines in blackface. During his travels he befriended comedy actress Pearl White. While accompanying her on a visit to the Lubin film studio in Philadelphia in 1913, he was somehow talked into trying out as an actor. Before long King found himself cast as assorted western villains in scores of one-reelers. Moving to California the following year, he graduated to romantic leads in full-length feature films with the Balboa Amusement Company, often co-starring opposite popular child actress Marie Osborne. King's directing career began in 1915 and gathered momentum after he joined The American Film Manufacturing Company, and, subsequently, Thomas H. Ince. His first success was the army comedy 23 1/2 Hours' Leave (1919). By 1921 King fronted his own production company, Inspiration Pictures, releasing through First National. The rustic southern drama Tol'able David (1921) was his next critically acclaimed picture, but not until joining Goldwyn at United Artists (1925-30) did he manage to turn out a consistent string of hits, including The White Sister (1923) and Romola (1924)--both shot on location in Italy--and the archetypal tearjerker Stella Dallas (1925). For King, the transition to sound pictures was a mere formality.

In 1930 King qualified for his pilot's license and began busily scouting locations from the air, earning him the sobriquet "The Flying Director". When not airborne or on the golf course (his other passion), he demonstrated his amazing versatility with box-office hits across a wide variety of genres: striking and colorful swashbucklers (The Black Swan (1942)); romantic or religious melodramas--their sentimentality well-tempered so they never seemed maudlin--such as (The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)); epics (In Old Chicago (1938), with its splendid recreation of the 1871 great fire, the entire enterprise filmed at a staggering cost of $1.8 million); popular musicals (Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Carousel (1956)); psychological war drama (Twelve O'Clock High (1949)); and uncompromisingly tough, offbeat westerns (The Gunfighter (1950) and the underrated The Bravados (1958)). The latter three all starred King's preferred leading actor, Gregory Peck. Peck was also on hand for The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), reputedly Ernest Hemingway's favorite among all his filmed adaptations. Of course, King also had his occasional failures. Topping that list was Zanuck's pet project, the biopic Wilson (1944). Overly serious to the point of being dour, its pacifist message was lost to an audience in the middle of a world war. King's other notable dud, near the end of his career, was Beloved Infidel (1959). Badly miscast, the film chronicling the affair between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham was played out, inaccurately, as a genteel and overly glossy romance.

Though nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director, King failed to snag the coveted trophy. However, he did win a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America in 1956. More importantly, perhaps, he seems to have enjoyed his work, stating in a 1978 interview, "I've had more fun directing pictures than most people have playing games" (New York Times, July 1 1982).

Gil Stratton was originally billed as Gil Stratton, Jr. He had a young, wholesome juvenile look when, at the age of 19, he debuted on Broadway creating the role of Bud Hooper in the 1941 Broadway musical "Best Foot Forward", in which he sang and danced.

Stratton continued working in New York on stage and in radio, which got him his first featured film role with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in Girl Crazy (1943). More films roles soon followed, usually playing himself in such movies as Dangerous Years (1947) and Half Past Midnight (1948). In Stalag 17 (1953) he made a noteworthy impression as "Cookie", the stuttering narrator. His small physical stature landed him the part of "Mousie", a smaller member of Marlon Brando's motorcycle gang in The Wild One (1953).

He next played "Junior Jackson" in the 1954 sitcom That's My Boy (1954), which got the attention of management at the local Los Angeles CBS affiliate KNXT, and they offered him regular work as the daily sportscaster. That job wound up lasting more that 20 years and garnered him the reputation as one of the best sportscasters in the business.

Being in Los Angeles also afforded Stratton the opportunity to continue work in films, often playing himself as an announcer, most notably in Mae West's last film, Sextette (1977). Although officially retired and living in Hawaii (where he moved in 1984), Stratton still occasionally keeps his hand in the film and TV business, such as his role as a café manager in the not particularly well received Dismembered (2003). He maintains a home in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles, but spends most of his time in Hawaii, where he also owns a radio station.

Sailor Vincent was born on 24 October 1901 in Dracut, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Man I Love (1929), Woman Trap (1929) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He died on 12 July 1966 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

Actor, screenwriter and director Crane Wilbur was born Erwin Crane Wilbur on November 17, 1886, in Athens, NY. The nephew of the great stage actor Tyrone Power Sr., Wilbur first took to the boards as an actor, making his Broadway debut billed as Erwin Crane Wilbur on June 3, 1903, in a trilogy of William Butler Yeats plays, "A Pot of Broth" / "Kathleen ni Houlihan" / "The Land of Heart's Desire", put on by the Irish Literary Society at the Carnegie Lyceum.

He began appearing in films in 1910, but he made his name as a cinema actor as the male lead in The Perils of Pauline (1914), the enormously popular serial starring Pearl White. A star during the 1910s, Wilbur's career as a movie actor began petering out after he appeared as the eponymous hero of Breezy Jim (1919). As the Roaring Twenties made their debut, Wilbur went back to the stage. Between 1920-34 he had seven plays presented on Broadway: "The Ouija Board" (1920); "The Monster" (1922; revived 1933); "Easy Terms" (1925); "The Song Wtiter" (1928); "Border-Land" (1932); "Halfway to Hell" (1933); and "Are You Decent" (1934). He also staged "Halfway to Hell" and directed Donald Kirkley and Howard Burman's "Happily Ever After" in 1945. Crane also performed in "The Ouija Board", "Easy Terms" and nine other Broadway shows from 1927-32, including "A Farewell to Arms" (1930) and "Mourning Becomes Electra" (1932).

Wilbur had directed several silent pictures, but he made his sound debut as a director with the controversial Tomorrow's Children (1935), touted as "The Most Daring, Sensational Drama Ever Filmed!" The movie is an expose of the "science" of eugenics, tied to a story about the attempted forced sterilization of a married couple by the Welfare Bureau. "Tomorrow's Children" exposed the fact that many people were sterilized against their will and even without recourse to due process of law. The movie was banned in New York state on the grounds that it was "immoral", that it would "tend to corrupt morals" and that it was an incitement to crime. The ban was challenged but was upheld in the courts and on appeal as it was found to disseminate information about birth control, which was illegal at the time.

After this controversy Wilbur went on to a long and productive career, particularly in the mystery-thriller genre, as both a director and a screenwriter. He had a hand in the production of such genre classics as House of Wax (1953), The Bat (1959) (which he also directed) and Mysterious Island (1961).

Wilbur died on October 18, 1973, in Toluca Lake, CA, of complications following a stroke.

Dolores Hope was born on 27 May 1909 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Soup for Nuts (1934), There Were Times, Dear (1985) and The Christophers (1952). She was married to Bob Hope. She died on 19 September 2011 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.

The career of actor and night club nightclub performer Charles Pierce, "Male Actress," Stand-Up Comic in a Dress, and the "Master and Mistress of Surprise or Disguise" included acting and radio announcing, but as a female impressionist, Pierce has left his audiences weak with laughter, and brightened their lives with his wicked and sometimes irreverent impressions of film stars, including Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Carol Channing, Katharine Hepburn and even "Mrs. Olsen" of the Folgers coffee commercials. His career took him to London, New York, San Francisco, Miami Beach, Los Angeles and Chicago. His 1984 show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was filmed and broadcast on the Playboy Channel. His engagements at the Henry Fonda Theatre (Hollywood), Ballroom and Village Gate (Manhattan) and the Fortune Theatre (London) were all sell-outs. During his illustrious career, celebrities around the world, including Tommy Tune, Anita Loos, Beatrice Arthur, Eugenia Bankhead (the sister), the Incomparable Hildegarde (with whom he appeared at Town Hall in New York), and Stephen Sondheim have toasted him. In the mid-1990s he retired, having lost several staff members to the AIDS epidemic. He made a few appearances for special events, such as author/actor Charles Busch's highly successful Town Hall drag summit show in New York City, which featured Milton Berle and all the best drag acts. In the last couple of years, Charles gathered together all his scrapbooks photographs, programs, recordings and videotapes and shipped them to the Performing Arts Library of Lincoln Center, New York, and to the ONE Archives at USC in Los Angeles. By May 1999 the materials were catalogued, and are now available to researchers.

Born on Bastille Day in 1926, Charles was named after his grandfather, Dr. Charles E. Pierce, and spent his youth in Watertown, New York. Beginning around 1944, Charles worked at a local radio station WWNY, playing the Hammond organ and acting in radio dramas. In a vintage photo taken at the station, 18-year-old Charles, seated at the organ, is shown looking at the sheet music of "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old," a song Bette Davis sang in the Warner Bros. film "Thank Your Lucky Stars." It was not easy for the critics to describe Charles' unique act, but when they did, he would happily appropriate the description. Apparently it was Herb Caen (in whose San Francisco Chronicle gossip column Charles appeared 50 times) who dubbed Charles a "male actress." When he played the Fairmont Venetian Room in the 1980s, the ads showed Charles as Bette Davis, holding a smoldering cigarette, with the caption, "The Last Drag."

Charles' first stand-up comedy routines were naïvely costumed. In a 1983 Public Radio interview on KALW in San Francisco, Charles said, "Through the years the act has had a lot of phases. I originally started in a tuxedo with a box of props. Then I started working clubs in Florida that required a lot of changes in material, so then I started working more or less in drag, and I say 'more or less' because Florida [laws] were very strict: You could wear black pants, you could wear a black turtle neck sweater, but you could not wear a dress. You could put feather boas on, and hats and gloves and pocketbooks, but you couldn't be in drag. And so we did a lot of pantomimes, and then I would do my 'live' material (maybe 10 minutes) at the end of that show. Eventually we ended up here in San Francisco (When I say 'we,' I refer to my performing partner at that time, Rio Dante), and we 'holed up' at the Gilded Cage for six years. We did a lot of pantomimes, and Mae West's [rock and roll] 'Treat Him Right' was one of them." In this same interview, Pierce admitted he never took the impersonations too seriously, "I've been billed as the 'stand up comic in a dress or 'the grand impostor,'...but it's all for laughs, it's all for fun and comedy."

Through the years, Charles' reputation built up from playing small gay clubs around the country, but San Francisco embraced him as no other town. John Wallraff, who attended the Pasadena Playhouse with Charles in 1947-48 reminisced: "He wanted to be a stage actor. He raced around Hollywood trying to get jobs. He went to a theatre group called Cabaret Concert, doing sketches à la Noël Coward. Back at Pasadena Playhouse, he played in Richard III and played the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol, Pierce also did some summer stock in upstate New York before returning to California. He had gone to see Arthur Blake - who did famous impressions of Bette Davis, Charles Laughton, and Tallulah Bankhead. Charles submitted some material to Blake, but Blake told him he wrote his own, so Charles said 'I'll use it myself!' While Living at Algonquin Hotel in Pasadena, in the early 50s, we went to see 'The Star' with Bette Davis. Charles decided it was fodder for a comedy parody, and performed it for me in his apartment. Charles and I started writing material, such as the Norma Desmond routine. At a Hollywood party, he played for a group that included Harriet Parsons (Louella's daughter), Jane Withers, Franklin Pangborn, and Mary McCarty. Charles did the tux bit in Altadena at Café La Vie, doing stand-up seriously. At various bars, he would improvise. Eventually Ann Dee, of Ann's 440 (San Francisco) saw him in Altadena and signed him up for her club, where Johnny Mathis later got his start."

"He then traveled to Florida, to the Red Carpet (Miami Beach) and the Echo Club. In Miami he met his future show-biz partner, Rio Dante, and they started to do lipsynching. They also created the puppets (The Moppettes), headless puppets Charles would put up to his own face and then perform outrageous dialogue and suggestive poses - with the likes of Shirley Temple, a Singing Nun, and a stripper. Rio Dante and Charles did a gig at the Statler Hotel in Hollywood and the Club Capri. Next stop was San Francisco's legendary Gilded Cage, in 1963, where he played a record six years. He made many appearances on television, but not always in drag: Wonder Woman, Designing Women, Fame (as a bag lady), Wayland Flowers and Madame in Madame's Place, Love American Style, Chico and the Man. Starsky and Hutch, Laverne & Shirley, and the talk shows of Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglass and Regis & Kathy Lee."

He was selected by playwright Harvey Fierstein to play "Bertha Venation" in the film "Torch Song Trilogy." Pierce rolls his eyes in the dress shop when Harvey Fierstein tells Matthew Broderick that "...if anyone asks, I'm the pretty one." Through the years, Charles had the best musical directors/accompanists in the business, and they all admitted to having learned a great deal about comedy and timing from Mr. Pierce. Those who have accompanied him include Michael Biagi, Michael Ashton, Joan Edgar, Rio Dante, and Michael Feinstein (Backlot of Studio One, September, 1981). That's three Michaels, a Rio and a "real Woman," as Charles used to call Joan in front of a screaming, adoring audience. Joan Edgar, Charles' musical director for seven years, marveled at the way he would constantly work on his act, even up to the final performance. At the end of a three-month run, just before the final show, in his dressing room he remarked, "Darling, you know that line where I say that our theatre curtain used to be Orson Welles' boxer shorts? Well, it would sound funnier if I said, "It was one of Kate Smith's slack suits. You see, the sound of all those consonant 'ks' make it sound funnier... or, how would it sound to say Rosemary Clooney's caftan?"

Billy Saetre, a professional singer/friend of Pierce living in Munich, remarked, "There is a genuine warmth and love of the 'art' of performing that so few folks have anymore. Of course being in the classical branch of performing, I see a completely different side of this silly world, where 'genuineness' is absolutely foreign. There is such a love of humor with Charles, and when he blows a line, or messes up a joke/story, he relishes in his own embarrassment as well as getting himself out of the situation... I remember crying at his last show when he sang "Illusions" (an old Dietrich number). There is something so poignant about him and his connection with an audience... Charles Pierce completes the information from Alpha to Omega. Everything the audience not only wants, but needs to know, is shared. No silly nonsense or mystery there. Gott sei Dank!"

Russ Alley (General Manager of San Francisco's York Hotel and Plush Room 1980-1983) produced more than 500 performances of Pierce at the York Hotel's Plush Room. Alley later went to work at the Fairmont Hotel in SF, as director of Public Relations & Entertainment, for Rick Swig. It was there that Alley convinced Swig to hire Charles Pierce, by showing him that Pierce's revenue had "saved" the Plush Room from closing. Alley remarked, "I had been trying to sell Charles to the Fairmont for years. I showed Swig the numbers, and told him 'Herb Caen will love it.'" And he did. Alley continued, "There will never be another Charles... or a better Katharine Hepburn as 'Eleanor of Acquitaine' (turkey wattle!), Maria Ouspenskaya (one of his Turban Ladies), Bette, Tallulah, those ratty foxes of his from way back.... Dietrich: "I was on a fwight fwom pawwis to Los Angewis and both of my wegs were on the fwight wif me; one in first cwass and the other in coach...", and of course Jeanette MacDonald and that swing. So many great memories."

John Epperson (The Fabulous Lypsinka) remarked, "Charles Pierce, the self-described 'male actress,' was one of the funniest people in the world. He was also incredibly generous. He had many successes at The Ballroom, a nightclub in New York City. In 1991, when the management asked him to PLEASE come back again, he said, 'Call Lypsinka instead.' He was sorely missed by all of his fans for the last several years in all the venues where he was so popular.

At The Plush Room many years ago, he acknowledged his good friend Beatrice Arthur, in the audience, as having the greatest comic timing in the world. He should know: Charles had the second best. People who never saw him as Tallulah and Bette Davis--at the same time--don't know what they've missed. (People who don't know Tallulah and Bette don't know what they're missing!) People who did see Charles' act know they saw a comic mastermind.

Betty Reilly was born on 2 July 1918 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Because of You (1952), Judy's Little No-No (1969) and Machito and Orchestra (1946). She was married to Charlie Barnet and John Henry Hagarty. She died on 23 December 1982 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

Anne Rooney was born on 15 August 1925 in San Jose, California, USA. She was an actress, known for High School Hero (1946), Freddie Steps Out (1946) and Follow the Band (1943). She died on 16 August 2006 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

Betty Caldwell was born on 9 January 1923 in Mason City, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for Jinx Money (1948) and On Our Merry Way (1948). She was married to John D. Howard. She died on 26 July 2002 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

Jerry Segal was born on 3 July 1927 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was a writer, known for Die Laughing (1980), One on One (1977) and Walk Proud (1979). He was married to Ann Benson. He died on 23 June 2023 in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Ed Morgan was born on 31 December 1926 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Wag the Dog (1997), For Love of the Game (1999) and You Light Up My Life (1977). He was married to Betsy Musick Morgan. He died on 27 January 2013 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.

B.J. Turner was born on 20 March 1949. He was an actor, known for Scarecrows (1988), Alien Private Eye (1989) and Private War (1988). He died on 1 August 1993 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.