Poché Pictures

Ann Blyth comes from the kind of childhood that makes you old fast, even if your face stays young. Mount Kisco, New York, August 16, 1928—an ordinary date until you hang a life on it. Her father walked out early, and that’s a kind of weather that stays in the bones. She, her older sister … Read More “Ann Blyth Golden-voice ingénue with steel edges.” »

Lisa Suzanne Blount came out of Fayetteville like a fire that didn’t ask permission. July 1, 1957—summer heat, small-town lungs, and the kind of family roads where you learn early whether you’re going to be quiet or you’re going to get out. She got out. Jacksonville, Arkansas raised her the way places like that do: … Read More “Lisa Blount – Arkansas grit, screen-lit and scarred.” »

Brooke Bloom’s career is the kind that doesn’t kick down the door so much as slip inside, take a seat, and make you look twice. She starts out in the late-’90s TV churn—tiny parts that are basically warm-ups: a “Grunge Girl” on Chicago Hope, then drive-by appearances on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ER, … Read More “Brooke Bloom Indie bruiser with quiet voltage.” »

She came into the world like a suitcase getting tossed off a train—New York City, August 30, 1906, to a vaudeville family who lived on greasepaint, bad coffee, and the next town’s applause. Her cradle was a trunk. That tells you everything. Some kids get lullabies; Joan got curtain calls. Her old man, Ed Blondell, … Read More “Joan Blondell Brass lungs, soft heart, hard laugh.” »

Lela Bliss was born May 11, 1896, in a world that still thought motion pictures were a novelty and women were supposed to keep their dreams folded small. She lived long enough to watch Hollywood turn from nickelodeons into a billion-dollar fever, and she stayed standing through all of it. That alone makes her a … Read More “Lela Bliss Silent-era survivor, Hollywood’s patient ghost.” »

Some people are born with a mirror pointed at them, waiting for the world to decide what they are. Rosemarie Bowe Stack came into the light in 1932 in Butte, Montana, already carrying a face the world would stare at. She grew up in Tacoma, surrounded by washed-out skies and the kind of quiet that … Read More “Rosemarie Bowe Stack — the beauty who refused to drown” »

There are kids who grow into their lives gently, like easing into warm water. And then there are the ones who have to carve a space out for themselves with a blunt knife. Alice Lilan Bowden always felt like she belonged to the second group. Born in 1985, raised in the wide sprawl of California, … Read More “Alice Lilan Bowden — the woman who laughed her way through the locked doors” »

Linda Bove didn’t just act on Sesame Street—she shifted the cultural weather. For more than three decades, the Deaf librarian with the warm smile and quick hands introduced millions of American children to sign language, and in doing so, made Deaf culture part of the country’s shared vocabulary. Born in Garfield, New Jersey, Bove arrived … Read More “Linda Bove — the woman who brought a quiet revolution to Sesame Street” »

Patricia Bosworth didn’t just write about complicated people; she was one. Born Patricia Crum in Oakland in 1933, she came from a household where politics, danger, art, and ambition seeped under every doorway. Her father, Bartley Crum, wasn’t just any lawyer — he defended the Hollywood Ten, put his neck on the chopping block of … Read More “Patricia Bosworth — the woman who lived five lives and wrote ten more” »

Ferike Boros came into the world in 1873 in Nagyvárad, back when it still answered to Austria-Hungary and empires looked like they might last forever. They didn’t, of course. Borders changed, flags changed, languages changed. The only thing that stayed put was the stage, and that’s where she planted herself. She started acting in 1893 … Read More “Ferike Boros — the character woman who outlived empires and still had to mortgage the house” »