The Autographs

Donald O’Connor was an actor, dancer and singer. His most famous performances were with Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain, and he starred with “Francis” in Francis the Talking Mule in 1949. He worked opposite Bing Crosby in Sing, You Sinners. Unfortunately, O’Connor missed out playing in many starring roles because he was cast in one Francis film each year for six years until 1955.

Ricardo Montalban was a practicing Catholic who said that religion was the “most important thing” in his life. In 1998, Pope John Paul II named him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, the highest honor a Roman Catholic lay person can receive from the Church. He was a working actor for seven decades. He married Georgiana Young the half sister of Loretta Young. They were married for sixty-three years, until she passed away at 83 in 2007. He became famous in his starring role as Mr. Roarke, Fantasy Island. He also starred in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Louella U. Parsons was born Jewish but converted to Catholicism. In 1914 she became the first gossip columnist. In 1922 she signed a contract with the New York American, a Hearst newspaper. In 1925, she contracted tuberculosis and was told she had six months to live. She moved to Los Angeles for the change in climate. Soon recovered and went back to work, becoming a syndicated Hollywood columnist for Hearst. Her Los Angeles Examiner column appeared in over six hundred newspapers the world over and had a readership of more than twenty-million. She became one of the most powerful and often feared voices in the movie business with her daily allotment of gossip because it could negatively impact careers and movies. Her funeral in 1972 was attended by a few enduring friends from the movie industry. She is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, the birth place and home of MGM. How famous was Parsons? She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. Although he moved to the United States he always had a heavy French accent. He was a highly praised actor who received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.