In 1999 film icon John Wayne (born Marion Robert Morrison) was named 13th
among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time by the American Film Institute. A
Harris Poll, released January 2011, placed Wayne third among America’s favorite
film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared
on the poll every year since it began in 1994. Wayne won a Best Actor Oscar for
the 1969 film True Grit. His last film was The Shootist (1976). John Wayne died
of cancer in 1979.

Wayne’s breakthrough role came with director John Ford’s classic
film in 1939.

The Searchers (1956) continues to be widely regarded as Wayne’s
finest and most complex performance.

An original 1977 release poster

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, written
and directed by George Lucas was the first of six films released in the Star
Wars sage. It earned $460 million in the United States and $337 million 
overseas, surpassing  Jaws (1975) as the highest-grossing film of all time
at that time. The film gained ten Academy Award nominations, winning six;
the nominations included Best Supporting Actor for Alec Guinness and
Best Picture.

Midnight Cowboy won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director
and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is the only “X” rated film to ever win Best
Picture. The film was later rated “R” for reissue in 1971  with no edits made. 

Director John Schlesinger

Pianist and pop conductor Peter Nero recorded his first album in 1961, and won 
a Grammy Award that year for "Best New Artist." Since then, he has received 
another Grammy, garnered ten additional nominations and released 67 a total 
of 67 albums. Nero’s early association with RCA records produced 23 albums in
eight years. His then moved to Columbia Records which resulted in a million selling
single and album… “Summer of ‘42”.

Raymond Burr won two Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry
Mason (above) which he played for nine seasons between 1957 and 1966 on
CBS-TV. His second hit series, Ironside (1957 –1975 on NBC-TV), earned him
six Emmy Award nominations, and two Golden Globe nominations. 

1954


James Stewart

Raymond Burr