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Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes in 10 films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977). In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances.

Armed with an entrancing whiskey-like voice that complemented her stunning, creamy blonde looks, Southern-bred beauty Joanna Moore had so much going for her when her film and TV career first took off in the late 1950s. Sadly, what began as an exciting Hollywood carnival ride would all too soon careen out of control and turn into a dangerous and tragic rollercoaster ride filled with personal and professional ups and downs.

Born Dorothy Joan Cook on November 10, 1934 in Americus, Georgia, Joanna was the elder daughter of Dorothy Martha (née English) and Henry Anderson Cook III. A fatal car accident in 1941 took the lives of both her mother and her baby sister. When her father died from his severe injuries a year later, 7-year-old Joanna lived with her grandmother; when the lady grew too feeble to look after her, Joanna was adopted locally by a well-to-do family who changed her name from Dorothy to Joanna. In June 1953, the 18-year-old girl married another teenager, Willis Moore, and divorced him within the year. She later enrolled at Agnes Scott, a women's college in Decatur, Georgia (near Atlanta).

Around this time, Joanna won a local Georgia beauty contest that would take her straight to Hollywood. Spotted at a party by a Universal producer, the actress was tested and quickly signed. A brief, impulsive marriage (1956-1957) to minor actor Don Oreck also occurred during this early career stage. She began as a lovely presence on such TV anthologies as "Lux Video Theatre," "Goodyear Theatre," "Studio One in Hollywood" and "Kraft Theatre," and also found work in top female lead and second lead roles in "B" movies. She started out promisingly as handsome George Nader's love interest in the film noir Appointment with a Shadow (1957), directed by Richard Carlson wherein both play crime reporters--he with an alcohol problem. She followed this with second femme roles in both the western comedy Slim Carter (1957) starring Julie Adams and Jock Mahoney as the title country singer, and the romantic drama Flood Tide (1957), which reunited her with Nader.

After Orson Welles gave her a small cryptic role in his classic film noir Touch of Evil (1958), Joanna went on to a secondary femme role in the Audie Murphy western Ride a Crooked Trail (1958) and co-starred as Arthur Franz's fiancée in the cult sci-fi horror programmer Monster on the Campus (1958) with Franz playing a Jekyll-and-Hyde college professor who turns ape caveman-like thanks to his radioactive exposure. She ended the decade with another second femme role in an "A" picture--The Last Angry Man (1959) starring Oscar-nominated Paul Muni as a Jewish doctor and featuring Joanna in a romantic subplot involving married TV producer David Wayne.

In the early 1960s, Joanna suffered severe auditory nerve loss (otosclerosis) to the point of having to read lips. An operation thankfully restored her hearing (in one ear) in 1962. By this time, Joanna had moved more towards TV and enjoyed guest parts on such dramatic shows as "Bourbon Street Beat," "Maverick," "The Rifleman," "Bat Masterson," "Tales of Wells Fargo," "The Rebel," "Adventures in Paradise" and "The Untouchables," with a few comedy shows such as "Bachelor Father" and "The Real McCoys" thrown in for good measure.

Joanna went on to portray more than a few wily females on screen as she did with her neurotic "Miss Precious" in the drama Walk on the Wild Side (1962), sexy "Alisha Claypoole" in the Elvis Presley vehicle Follow That Dream (1962), and Southern belle "Desiree de La Roche" in the light-hearted Disney comedy Son of Flubber (1962). She played the same kind of crafty gals on such TV shows as "Perry Mason," "Route 66," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Bewitched", and "The Wild Wild West." She is perhaps best remembered, however, for her down-home benevolent role of Peggy, the four-episode girlfriend of Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) in the third season of TV's The Andy Griffith Show (1960).

At the peak of her career, Joanna married her third husband, "Prince Charming" actor Ryan O'Neal, on April 3, 1963. O'Neal would soon make a huge TV impact as handsome but troubled "Rodney Harrington" on the prime time soaper Peyton Place (1964). The exceptionally good-looking couple became a popular Hollywood twosome and went on to have two children who also became actors: Tatum O'Neal and Griffin O'Neal. Joanna's marriage to O'Neal was stormy, to say the least, and they divorced in February 1967.

Joanna went into a gradual, deep decline after her divorce from O'Neal. Depression set in and she developed a severe amphetamine and alcohol addiction. Multiple arrests over time for drunk driving (one much later resulted in the loss of three fingers) led to her losing custody of her children in 1970. That same year she checked into a state hospital for psychiatric treatment. Sadly, both her children, Tatum and Griffin, would battle similar substance abuse problems as adults. There was also talk that Joanna was growing more and more bizarre, living in self-styled communes and isolating herself from any Hollywood contact. She went on to marry and divorce a third and fourth time.

For awhile Joanna managed to stay afloat on both film with such occasional second-string offers as the sci-fi chiller Countdown (1967); the comedy caper Never a Dull Moment (1968); the "bikersploitation" yarn J.C. (1972) and the all-star thriller The Hindenburg (1975). She also co-starred in the TV adaptation of Three Coins in the Fountain (1970) with Yvonne Craig and Cynthia Pepper and was seen fairly regularly on such late 1960's TV programs as "The Virginian," "Judd for the Defense," "The High Chaparral," "The F.B.I.," "The Name of the Game," "The Waltons," "Kung Fu," "Bronk," "Police Story," "Petrocelli", and "The Blue Knight."

After this, however, Joanna's personal life unravelled dramatically, which spilled into her professional career. By the late 1970s, Joanna, still abusing drugs and alcohol, had to be supported financially by daughter, Tatum, now an Oscar-winning film star. Little was heard for nearly a decade when it was learned that the actress was living in the Palm Springs area (Indian Wells) involving herself in small theater projects.

A long-time smoker, Joanna was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1996 and died a year later on November 22, 1997, age 63, with Tatum by her side. She was interred at Oak Grove Cemetery in her hometown of Americus, Georgia. In 2015, grandson Kevin Jack McEnroe (son of Tatum and her then-husband/tennis star John McEnroe) published a gripping novel entitled "Our Town," a "fictionalized account" of the damaging effects of substance abuse on a family. It is said to be strongly based on his own grandmother's devastating struggles.

A prolific young performer, child/juvenile Skippy Homeier was born George Vincent Homeier on October 5, 1930. Beginning on radio in his native Chicago at age six ("Portia Faces Life"), he came to films at age 14 with Tomorrow, the World! (1944), which was originally a 1943 Broadway drama starring Skippy, Ralph Bellamy and Shirley Booth. Recreating his role of Emil Bruchner, he received excellent reviews for his chilling portrayal of a callous Nazi youth this time opposite Fredric March and Betty Field.

The fair, oval-faced, tousled-haired blond remained an often troublesome, unsympathetic teen in post-war films such as Boys' Ranch (1946) as an incorrigible character named "Knuckles," but he also displayed his charms with his jitterbugging title teen in Arthur Takes Over (1948) and likable young character in Mickey (1948).

Growing into adult roles (now billed as Skip Homeier or G.V. Homeier), he continued at a more menacing pace in movie westerns and crime dramas, notably Halls of Montezuma (1951), The Gunfighter (1950) (as Gregory Peck's nemesis), Cry Vengeance (1954) (as an albino hit man), Stranger at My Door (1956) and The Tall T (1957).

As Homeier's film career began to bog down in the late 1950's, he turned more and more to TV parts playing a few good guys at times just as a change of pace. In addition to a number of guest roles in such anthology series such as "Schlitz Playhouse," "Playhouse 90," "Zane Grey Theatre," "The Alcoa Hour," "Lux Video Theatre," "Armstrong Theatre," "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "Studio One in Hollywood" and "Science Fiction Theatre," Skip starred in a brief TV series as Dan Raven (1960).

Skip went on to appear in a host of guest roles on such 60's series as "Wanted: Dead or Alive," "The Millionaire," "The Loretta Young Show," "The Deputy," "The Rifleman," "The Defenders," "The Addams Family," "The Virginian," "Branded," "Perry Mason," "Burke's Law," "Combat!," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Bonanza," "Star Trek," "Lassie," "The Wonderful World of Disney," "Mannix" and "Mission: Impossible." A few film roles did come his way co-starring with Beverly Garland in the chiller Stark Fear (1962), and supporting Audie Murphy in the westerns Showdown (1963) and Bullet for a Badman (1964) and Don Knotts in the slapstick comedy The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)

The remainder of Skip's career stuck closely to TV. He had a regular role as a doctor in the drama series The Interns (1970), and was a continuing guest star on a host of popular TV programs such as "Owen Marshall," "Police Woman, "The Blue Knight," "The Streets of San Francisco," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Bionic Woman," "Barnaby Jones," "Fantasy Island" and "Quincy." TV-movies and mini-series work included Two for the Money (1972), Voyage of the Yes (1973), Helter Skelter (1976), Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977) and The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979).

Skip phased out his career and retired completely following a featured role in the western film Quell and Co. (1982). Little was heard from him until his death on June 25, 2017 at the age of 86 from spinal myelopathy in Indian Wells, California. He was survived by his second wife, former actress Della Sharman and two sons from his first marriage.

Bob Einstein was born on 20 November 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Bizarre (1979), Super Dave (1987) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000). He was married to Roberta Marie Smith and Cathy Maureen Kilpatrick. He died on 2 January 2019 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Fresh-faced, blue-eyed all-American looking Roger Perry was discovered by Lucille Ball and signed as a Desilu contract player, beginning his screen career in anthology television. An early chance for stardom came his way as the junior half of a father-and-son lawyer firm (the other half of the duo was played by Pat O'Brien) in Harrigan and Son (1960). A busy and versatile actor who had more talent than he was perhaps given credit for, Perry popped up in diverse genres throughout the 1960s. He notably had a guest role as the involuntarily time-travelling Air Force pilot John Christopher in Tomorrow Is Yesterday (1967). Prior to his acting career in the early 50s, Perry had served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force.

His characters could be sized up on the odd occasion as shifty types, dopers or nervous weaklings, but more often as down-to-earth cops, doctors or middle echelon military types. No stranger to science fiction and horror, his better known roles included a devious alien masquerading as a magazine writer in The Prophet (1967) and a sympathetic physician in Count Yorga, Vampire (1970). The doctor tag stuck and Perry went on to play medicos in a couple of camp cult favorites: The Return of Count Yorga (1971) (in which his character hurls a vampire off a balcony to his doom) and The Thing with Two Heads (1972) (as a collaborator of the demented scientist in residence, played tongue-in-cheek by Ray Milland). He also enjoyed frequent guest spots on crime time TV (notably Ironside (1967) and The F.B.I. (1965)) and soap opera (Falcon Crest (1981)).

Perry sidelined as a composer and songwriter for Los Angeles theatre productions, including a mid-1980s musical version of George Bernard Shaw's 'You Never Can Tell', which featured his future wife, Joyce Bulifant.

James Frawley was born on 29 September 1936 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Muppet Movie (1979), The Big Bus (1976) and The Monkees (1965). He was married to Cynthia Margaret. He died on 22 January 2019 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

His parents were circus acrobats and he became part of their act. When they changed to vaudeville and wound up in California, he got a job in the movies. The founder of Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle changed his name to Lake. In silent films he played somewhat dimwitted youngsters, The long-running part of Dagwood in the "Blondie" series pretty much continued the the pattern into adult life. He and Penny Singleton also appeared in a half-hour "Blondie" radio series which ran from 1939 to 1950, airing on CBS, ABC and finally on NBC. The program's stylized opening line, delivered by Bill Goodwin became famous: "Uh-uh-uh. Don't touch that dial. It's time for ...[Lake:] Blond-dee".

Kathy Richards was born on 7 April 1938 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. Kathy was a casting director, known for Escape (1990). Kathy was married to Robert Conrad Fenton Jr., Jack Michael Catain Jr., Kenneth Edwin Richards and Laurence Kenneth Avanzino. Kathy died on 2 March 2002 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

William Moss was born on 13 June 1920 in Greybull, Wyoming, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Big Cat (1949), Kilroy Was Here (1947) and Let's Go Steady (1945). He was married to Dianne Elizabeth Ingels, Ann Miller and Jane Withers. He died on 22 January 2017 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Don Ohlmeyer was born on 3 February 1945 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a producer and director, known for NFL Monday Night Football (1970), Special Bulletin (1983) and Stroh's Circle of Sports (1985). He was married to Linda Corinne Jonsson, Adrian Perry and Dorothy Ellen (Dossie) Mahaffey. He died on 10 September 2017 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Jacqueline Stone was born on 16 August 1921 in Paris, France. She was married to Louis Stone. She died on 28 April 2014 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Sam Boghosian was born on 22 December 1931 in Fresno, California, USA. He was married to Judy. He died on 26 February 2020 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Ron Fairly was born on 12 July 1938 in Macon, Georgia, USA. He was married to Mary. He died on 30 October 2019 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Bobby Winkles was born on 11 March 1930 in Tuckerman, Arkansas, USA. He was married to Ellie Hoeman. He died on 17 April 2020 in Indian Wells, California, USA.

Mildred Horn was born on 4 January 1901 in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. She was a writer, known for Mom and Dad (1945), One Too Many (1950) and The Lawton Story (1949). She was married to Kroger Babb. She died on 7 June 1998 in Indian Wells, California, USA.