Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress who was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol during
that time. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American
causes, particularly the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF). In 2008, she received the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award at the Foundation’s Anniversary
Gala. she made her first American film, John Huston’s Beat the Devil, in 1953
with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer jones. Another notable appearance was in
the 1956 circus drama Trapeze with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. In 1959
Gina co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Never So Few.In 1961 she made one of
her most popular films, the romantic comedy Come September, with Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin; for which she won a Golden Globe Henrietta Award,
World Film Favorite-Female.

Gina in Trapeze

Gina Lollobrigida in Beat the Devil

Actor and producer Tom Cruise has been nominated for three Academy Awards
and has won three Golden Globe Awards. Cruise first debuted in a major movie
in Francis Ford Coppola’s film The Outsiders, released in March 1983. His first
leading role was in the film Risky Business (1983). Cruise played the role of navy
pilot in the successfully popular 1986 film Top Gun. He is also seen in the Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s and Minority Report (2002) and
the Steven Spielberg adaptation of War of the Worlds (2005). 

 

Tom Cruise as Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in the Oliver Stone film

Ken Curtis is best remembered for his role as Festus Haggen on the long-
running CBS western TV series Gunsmoke (1955 – 1975). Curtis was a
singer before moving into acting and combined both careers once he
entered films, performing with the popular Sons of the Pioneers from 1949
to 1953 as well as singing with the Tommy Dorsey band. Curtis replaced
Frank Sinatra as vocalist for the band. Curtis’ last acting role was as the
aging cattle rancher "Seaborn Tay" (above) in the Turner Network TV
production Conagher (1991).  

Dan Aykroyd is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, and musician. He was
an original cast member of Saturday Night Live on NBC-TV from, 1975 to 1979,
and originator of The Blues Brothers in 1978 with John Belushi and Ghostbusters
(1984). Aykroyd has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

From left: Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd as a Conehead on SNL

Ghostbusters (Left to right) Bill Murray, Dan Aydroyd, and Harold Ramis

1987

1991

After working as a fashion model in New York, Susan Hayward travelled to
Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in
Gone With the Wind (1939). Although she was not selected, she secured
a film contract, and played several small supporting roles over the next few
years. By the late 1940s the quality of her film roles had improved, and she
achieved recognition for her dramatic abilities with the first of five Academy
Award nominations for Best Actress for her performance as an alcoholic in
Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). Her career continued successfully
through the 1950s and she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her
portrayal of death row inmate Barbara Graham in I Want to Live (1958).

Susan Hayward with co-star Dean Martin in Ada (1961)