Amy Lou Adams was born in Aviano, Italy, of all damn places — a military base, the kind of joint where everything is temporary except the loneliness. Her father was in the Army, her mother was a Mormon with seven kids and not enough quiet in the house to hear herself think. Amy grew up … Read More “AMY ADAMS: THE RED-HEADED MERMAID WHO OUTSWAM EVERYONE” »
Jane Actman came into this world on April 6, 1949 — or so the record keepers claim. Maybe they got it right. Maybe they didn’t. Hollywood never cared much about birth certificates unless they needed to shave a few years off a woman’s age. What mattered is that she was born in America, somewhere people … Read More “JANE ACTMAN: THE WOMAN WHO ALMOST BROKE THROUGH THE SCREEN” »
Jean Acker came into this world under the name Harriet Ackers, in 1892 — or ’91, or ’93, depending which ghost you ask. The records don’t agree, and neither did most of the people in her early life. But she was born in New Jersey, that much is certain: a place that smelled like hard … Read More “JEAN ACKER: THE STARLET WHO LOCKED THE WORLD OUT” »
Amy Acker came into this world on December 5, 1976, in Dallas, Texas — a place full of church bells, heatstroke, and enough polite smiles to make a sane person scream. Her mother stayed home, her father practiced law, both probably wondering how they ended up with a daughter destined to spend half her life … Read More “AMY ACKER: A GENTLE GHOST WHO LEARNED TO BITE” »
You could say Paula Julie Abdul came into the world dancing, even before she learned how to crawl. Born June 19, 1962, in San Fernando, California — that hot, humming valley where dreams go to burn or bloom depending on the temperature of your desperation — she started her life like a match waiting for … Read More “PAULA ABDUL: A DANCE AGAINST GRAVITY” »
She came into the world on August 7, 1952, down in Richmond, Virginia — one of those places where the heat sits on your shoulders like an old drunk leaning in too close, and the air tastes like history that never learned to shut up. Her name was Caroline Sidney Abady then, before the movies … Read More “CAROLINE AARON: A LIFE IN MOTION” »
She started as Betty May, which sounds like a girl who bakes pies and marries the boy down the road. Instead she ended up being dragged underwater by a rubber monster in 3D and remembered by a thousand old horror nerds who still sigh when they think of white swimsuits and black lagoons. Julie Adams—born … Read More “Julie Adams” »
She was born into the business, which is just a polite way of saying she never had a chance at a normal life. New York City, February 8, 1949. Outside, the streets were full of exhaust and noise; inside, a baby named Brooke Adams arrived with stage lights already wired into her blood. Her mother, … Read More “Brooke Adams” »
She started out in a church and ended up in Hitchcock, which is one hell of a left turn for a minister’s kid from New Ulm, Minnesota. Kathryn Elizabeth Hohn, born July 15, 1920. Her father was a Methodist minister, Dr. Chris G. Hohn, the kind of man who probably smelled like coffee, paper, and … Read More “Kathryn Elizabeth Hohn” »
She came in with two names and two towns. Elta Danneel Graul, born in Lafayette, Louisiana, raised in Eunice—a place that sounds like a distant relative and feels like a cul-de-sac at the end of the earth. Her father looked into people’s eyes for a living, an ophthalmologist with steady hands and charts on the … Read More “Elta Danneel Graul” »