Ralph Rexford Bellamy was a actor with a radio, stage, film and TV career that 
spanned sixty-two years. He appeared on Broadway in one of his most famous 
roles, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt (below) in Sunrise at Campobello. In 1984, 
he was presented with a Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, 
and in 1987 received an Honorary Academy Award "for his unique artistry and 
his distinguished service to the profession of acting". He gave his final acting 
performance in Pretty Woman (1990).

Ralph Bellamy as FDR

Bellamy in Rosemary’s Baby, 1968

Suspense was a radio drama series broadcast on CBS Radio
from 1942 through 1962. One of the premier programs was
subtitled “Radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” and focused
on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading
Hollywood actors of the day. Approximately 945 episodes
were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900
still exist. It its early years, the program made only
occasional ventures into science fiction and fantasy.

Lurene Tueelt (left) and Rosalind Russell in “The Sisters” episode on
Suspense in 1948.

 

Robert Montgomery is featured in a Suspense episode.

Burl Ives was a actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives work
included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and film. He
is most known as the narrator, Sam the Snowman, in the stop-motion animated
TV special, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ives continues to be linked to
the Christmas season with the yearly rebroadcast of the special.

Ives with Sam the Snowman

This 1949 version of Lavender Blue was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Actor Richard Earl Thomas is best known for his role as budding author John-Boy
Walton in the CBS-TV drama The Waltons (1972-1981). Thomas was seven when
he made his Broadway debut in Sunrise at Campobello (1958) playing John Roosevelt, son of future U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His television career began in 1959 when a appeared in A Doll’s House with Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer and Hume Cronyn. Richard then began acting in daytime TV, appearing in soap operas
such as The Edge of Night in 1961 and As the World Turns, 1966-1967. Thomas
received his first major roles in film, appearing in the  1969 pictures Winning with
Paul Newman and Last Summer with Barbara Hershey.

“Cleopatra” premiered at the Rivoli Theater in New York city and despite being a
critical failure, it won four Academy Awards and was nominated for five more. It was
the highest grossing film of 1963, earning a total of $57.7 million, yet made a loss 
due to its cost of $44 million, the only film ever to be the highest grossing film  
of the year yet to run at a loss.