Kimberly Ann Caldwell-Harvey was born with a voice that wanted attention and a temperament that didn’t mind taking it. She stepped onstage at age five, singing in beauty pageants—tiny kid, big hair, bigger lungs. Some people get their childhoods; she got audiences. She won Star Search five times as a junior vocalist, one of those … Read More “Kimberly Caldwell – the girl who refused to vanish after the spotlight moved on” »
Jeanne Carolyn Cagney came into the world on March 25, 1919, the youngest child in a New York City apartment full of brothers, noise, and the kind of Irish-American grit that turns ordinary families into legends or fistfights, depending on the day. Her father died early, leaving her mother—a widow with five children—to steer the … Read More “Jeanne Cagney – the smart one who walked into the spotlight anyway” »
Angelique Cabral was born on January 28, 1979, a California kid with a mixed-heritage backbone—Mexican and Native American from her father, English and French from her mother, plus a family line that somehow branches over to Edie McClurg. She grew up in Carmel Valley, steeped in the kind of coastal quiet that makes you think … Read More “Angelique Cabral – sunshine with steel underneath” »
Marion Byron was born Miriam Bilenkin in Dayton, Ohio, in 1911—a small girl in a big, loud family, one of five daughters belonging to Louis and Bertha, who probably never imagined that the tiniest one would grow up to stand under the hot, unforgiving lights of early Hollywood. She didn’t wait for childhood to finish … Read More “Marion Byron – a five-foot spark in a ten-foot world” »
Mary Martha Byrne came into the world on December 23, 1969, in Ridgewood, New Jersey—a winter baby with a future that would unfold under studio lights instead of sunlight. She was the daughter of Terrence Joseph and Mary Adele Byrne, and the kind of kid who didn’t waste much time warming up. By the time … Read More “Martha Byrne – the girl who grew up on camera and refused to fade” »
Spring Dell Byington came into the world in 1886 in Colorado Springs, a place with altitude, clear air, and enough open sky to fool a person into thinking life might be simple. Her father was an educator, the kind who believed in rules and order; her mother, Helene Maud, would become a doctor—a woman out … Read More “Spring Byington – the quiet rebel in a tidy dress” »
Yancy Victoria Butler was born in the summer heat of 1970, in Greenwich Village—back when New York still smelled like cigarettes, rain on pavement, and the ambition of people who knew the world wasn’t going to hand them anything. Her mother, Leslie Vega, kept the machinery of a theater company running; her father, Joe Butler … Read More “Yancy Butler – all fire, no brakes” »
Brett Butler came into the world as Brett Anderson in Montgomery, Alabama, 1958, small and squalling in a state that treats pain like weather: you don’t talk about it much, you just stand there and take it. Eldest of five girls, the built-in shock absorber in a house run by an oil-company man with a … Read More “Brett Butler – the joke that wouldn’t stay dead” »
They called her “The Madonna of the Movies,” which is a hell of a joke when you think about it: a woman working twelve hours a day under hot lights so some stranger in a projection booth can sweat over a five-cent ticket. She was born Pauline Elvira Bush in 1886, somewhere in the Nebraska … Read More “Pauline Bush – a quiet saint in flickering shadows” »
Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo didn’t sound like the name of a woman destined to shred ’90s hair-metal guitar licks opposite Mike Myers, battle Schwarzenegger in True Lies, win two Grammys, and somehow remain one of the few people in show business who can say she survived both a soap opera and Donald Trump’s boardroom. So … Read More “Tia Carrere – the woman who survived Hollywood by refusing to play small” »