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- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Presley (n�e Gladys Love Smith) and Vernon Presley (Vernon Elvis Presley). He had a twin brother who was stillborn. In 1948, Elvis and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he attended Humes High School. In 1953, he attended the senior prom with the current girl he was courting, Regis Wilson. After graduating from high school in Memphis, Elvis took odd jobs working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver for Crown Electric Company. He began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed with a local recording company, and then with RCA in 1955.
Elvis did much to establish early rock and roll music. He began his career as a performer of rockabilly, an up-tempo fusion of country music and rhythm and blues, with a strong backbeat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing 'black' and 'white' sounds, made him popular - and controversial - as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the rock and roll genre, with tracks like "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog" later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop music. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (television cameras were not permitted to film below his waist).
In 1956, following his six television appearances on The Dorsey Brothers' "Stage Show", Elvis was cast in his first acting role, in a supporting part in Love Me Tender (1956), the first of 33 movies he starred in.
In 1958, Elvis was drafted into the military, and relocated to Bad Nauheim, Germany. There he met 14-year old army damsel Priscilla Ann Wagner (Priscilla Presley), whom he would eventually marry after an eight-year courtship, and by whom he had his only child, Lisa Marie Presley. Elvis' military service and the "British Invasion" of the 1960s reduced his concerts, though not his movie/recording income.
Through the 1960s, Elvis settled in Hollywood, where he starred in the majority of his thirty-three movies, mainly musicals, acting alongside some of the most well known actors in Hollywood. Critics panned most of his films, but they did very well at the box office, earning upwards of $150 million total. His last fiction film, Change of Habit (1969), deals with several social issues; romance within the clergy, an autistic child, almost unheard of in 1969, rape, and mob violence. It has recently received critical acclaim.
Elvis made a comeback in the 1970s with live concert appearances starting in early 1970 in Las Vegas with over 57 sold-out shows. He toured throughout the United States, appearing on-stage in over 500 live appearances, many of them sold out shows. His marriage ended in divorce, and the stress of constantly traveling as well as his increasing weight gain and dependence upon stimulants and depressants took their toll.
Elvis Presley died at age 42 on August 16, 1977 at his mansion in Graceland, near Memphis, shocking his fans worldwide. At the time of his death, he had sold more than 600 million singles and albums. Since his death, Graceland has become a shrine for millions of followers worldwide. Elvis impersonators and purported sightings have become stock subjects for humorists. To date, Elvis Presley is the only performer to have been inducted into three separate music 'Halls of Fame'. Throughout his career, he set records for concert attendance, television ratings and recordings sales, and remains one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of popular music.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Isaac Hayes, the second-born child of Eula and Isaac Hayes Sr., was raised by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr. The child of a poor family, he grew up picking cotton in Covington, Tennessee. He dropped out of high school, but later his former high-school teachers to get his diploma, which he earned when he was 21. Otis Redding, Johnnie Taylor, The Bar-Kays, and Booker T. Jones (later of Booker T. & the M.G.s fame) were some of the "Memphis Sound" musical luminaries Hayes worked with during his early years as a budding musician and vocalist. He was a multi-talented composer, singer, and arranger who played the piano, vibraphone, and saxophone equally well. In 1971 he won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for a Motion Picture for the "Theme from Shaft" (1970) and was nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score for Shaft (1971).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Handsome, boyish-looking Ben Cooper graduated from child roles to playing juvenile leads in second features, often for Poverty Row studio Republic. As a nine year old, he made his stage debut in Bretaigne Windust's Broadway production of Life With Father, remaining in the cast for the entire run of the play. Between 1946 and 1952, Ben enjoyed a lengthy spell on the airwaves, lending his voice to many a famous radio soap of the day (by some accounts he acted in more than 3000 radio shows). A graduate of New York's Columbia University, he was featured on screen for the first time in a bit part in 1950. Three years later, he played Jesse James in a cameo in Woman They Almost Lynched (1953). His career made little headway until he was cast as brash would-be gunslinger Turkey Ralston in the noirish cult western Johnny Guitar (1954).
Ben's forte was the western. He had his own horse by the age of twelve, became an adept rider and diligently rehearsed the stunts he saw on the screen. He also perfected a fast draw, practicing "for 90 minutes each day over four years". During most of the early '50s, he went about playing assorted hombres on both sides of the law in B-westerns. He never quite managed to set the prairie on fire. A mere handful of starring turns confined him to staid leading men in run-of-the-mill oaters (Duel at Apache Wells (1957)) or routine melodramas (A Strange Adventure (1956)). Arguably, his most effective performance in a motion picture was in The Rose Tattoo (1955) (as the good-natured sailor in love with Marisa Pavan). Unable to find the one role which would have made him a household name, Ben eventually pursued a solid, if unremarkable, career as a television guest star with a predilection for westerns (Laramie (1959), Bonanza (1959), Gunsmoke (1955) ) and crime dramas (Perry Mason (1957), Mannix (1967)). His work in the former earned him a Golden Boot Award in 2005.- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Robert Gene "Red" West was a close friend of Elvis Presley and a member of Presley's inner circle, known as "The Memphis Mafia". He first met Elvis in high school, where he was a year behind him. West played football for the Memphis Tigers high school football team, boxed in the Golden Gloves and played football for the Jones County Junior College Bobcats playing center.
West lived with his mother, Lois West, in the Hurt Housing project in Memphis. West became Elvis's personal driver in driving Elvis and band members Scotty Moore, Bill Black and later D.J. Fontana to different Southern cities for live appearances from 1955 to 1956. West served in the US Marine Corps from 1956 to late 1958 and was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, which allowed him to stay in contact with Elvis. On August 14, 1958, West's estranged father, Newton Thomas West, died, the same day as Elvis' mother, Gladys Presley.
After Elvis' discharge from the US Army in 1960, West was employed as one of the star's bodyguards. Over the years, Elvis bought West a number of vehicles as he became a world-famous celebrity. West also became a movie stuntman and appeared in 16 of Elvis' films in the 1960s, usually playing extras or bit and supporting parts. West married one of Elvis' secretaries, Pat West, on July 1, 1961. West became a songwriter for songs that Elvis, Pat Boone, Ricky Nelson and Johnny Rivers recorded, including the classic tune "Separate Ways" for Elvis, which won a BMI Award. In addition to the Elvis movies, West appeared in three Robert Conrad TV series The Wild Wild West (1965), Black Sheep Squadron (1976) and The Duke (1979). During the 1970s West, his cousin Del 'Sonny' West, and Dave Hebler served as Elvis' bodyguards, in charge of his daily transportation and keeping weirdo or potentially dangerous fans away from him. On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley, Elvis' father, fired all three bodyguards, criticizing what he believed to be their heavy-handed tactics. The three later collaborated on a book about their lives as Elvis' bodyguards, which was published just two weeks before Elvis' death in 1977.
West continued his acting and songwriting careers, the former until 2015, two years before his death.- Actress
Gladys Presley was born on 25 April 1912 in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Vernon Presley. She died on 14 August 1958 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Jeff Buckley was born on 17 November 1966 in Anaheim, California, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Vanilla Sky (2001), Tell No One (2006) and Jeff Buckley: Everybody Here Wants You (2002). He died on 29 May 1997 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Macon McCalman was born on 30 December 1932 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Deliverance (1972). He died on 29 November 2005 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of Alberta Christine (Williams), a schoolteacher, and Martin Luther King Sr. a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. For Martin the civil rights movement began one summer in 1935 when he was six years old. Two of his friends did not show up to play ball with him and Martin decided to go looking for them. When he went to one of the boys' house, their mother met him at the front door and told him in a rude tone that her son would not be coming out to play with him that day or any other day because they were white and he was black. Years later, Martin admitted that those cruel words altered the direction of his life. As a teenager, Martin went through school with great distinction. He skipped ninth and 12th grades, and excelled on the violin and as as a public speaker. One evening after taking top prize in a debate tournament, he and his teacher were riding home on the bus discussing the event when the driver ordered them to give up their seats for two white passengers who had just boarded. Martin was infuriated as he recalled, "I intended to stay right in my seat and protest," but his teacher convinced him to obey the law and they stood for the remainder of the 90-mile trip. "That night will never leave my memory as long as I live. It was the angriest I had ever been in my life. Never before, or afterward, can I remember myself being so angry," he later recalled.
Martin entered Morehouse College, his father's alma mater, when he was 15 with the intention of becoming a doctor or lawyer. After graduating from Morehouse at the age of 19, he decided to enter Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. This private nondenominational college had only 100 students at the time, and Martin was one of six black students. This was the first time that he had lived in a community that was mostly white. He won the highest class ranking and a $1,200 fellowship for graduate school. In 1951 he entered Boston University School of Theology to to pursue his Ph.D. While at Crozer Martin had attended a lecture by Howard University President Mordecai Johnson, who spoke about Mohandas K. Gandhi, India's spiritual leader whose nonviolent protests helped to free his country from British rule, and that gave Martin the basis for positive change. It was here that he met and married his wife Coretta Scott King, who was a soprano studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1954 Martin accepted a call to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, to be its pastor. Despite Coretta's warning that it would not be safe for them in Alabama, the poorest and most racist state in the US, Martin insisted that they move there. Many local black ministers attended Martin's first sermon at the church, among them the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who congratulated him on his speech. The two became fast friends and often discussed life in general and the challenges of desegregation in particular. Then an incident changed Martin's life forever.
On the cold winter night of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress who worked in a downtown Montgomery department store, boarded a bus for home and sat in the back with the other black passengers. A few stops later, she was ordered to give up her seat to a white passenger who just boarded. She repeatedly refused, prompting the driver to call the police, who arrested her. In response to Mrs. Parks' courage, the town's black leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and elected Martin as its leader. The first goal of the MIA was to boycott the city's bus system until public transportation laws were changed. The strike was long, bitter and violent, but eventually the city's white merchants began to complain that their businesses were suffering because of the strike, and the city responded by filing charges against Martin. While in court to appeal the charges, he learned that the U.S. Supreme Court had affirmed the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court that the local laws requiring segregation on buses were unconstitutional. The first civil rights battle was won, but for Martin it was the first of many more difficult ones. On November 29, 1959, he offered his resignation to the members of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as several months earlier he had been elected leader of a new organization called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He moved his family to Atlanta and began to establish a regional network of nonviolent organizations.
In April 1961 he coordinated the SCLC and other civil-rights organizations to take two busloads of white and black passengers through the South on a "freedom ride" for publicity reasons. In Virgina and North and South Carolina there were no incidents, but in Anniston, Alabama, the ride became a rolling horror when one bus was burned and its passengers beaten by an angry racist white mob. In Birmingham, angry mobs--with some policemen joining them--greeted the bus with more violence, which was broken up when state police intervened and stopped the chaos. The violence shook Martin and he decided to abandon the freedom rides before someone was killed, but the riders insisted they complete the ride to Montgomery, where they where greeted with more violence. In January 1963 Martin arrived in Birmingham with Ralph Abernathy to organize a freedom march aimed to end segregation. Despite an injunction issued by city authorities against the gathering, the protesters marched and were attacked by the police. Three months later another march was planned with the intent to "turn the other cheek" in response to the violence by the city's police force. As the marchers reached downtown Birmgingham, the police attacked the crowd with high-pressure fire hoses and attack dogs. This time, however, the incident was witnessed across the entire country, as many network TV crews were there and broadcasting live footage of unarmed marchers being blasted to the ground by high-pressure hoses and others being bitten and mauled by snarling attack dogs, and it sparked a national outrage.
The next day, more marchers repeated the walk and more policemen attacked with fire hoses and police dogs, leading to a total of 1,200 arrests. On the third day, Martin organized another march to the city jail. This time, when the marchers approached the police, none of them moved and some even let the marchers through to continue their march. The nonviolent strategy had worked--the strikes and boycotts were cutting deeply into the city merchants' revenues, and they called for negotiations and agreed with local black leaders to integrate lunch counters, fitting rooms, restrooms and drinking fountains within 90 days. Martin was then called for a rally in Washington, DC, near the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Nearly 200,000 people stood in the intense heat listening to the speeches by the members and supporters of the NACCP. By the time Martin was called as the day's final speaker, the crowd was hot and tired. As he approached the podium, with his papers containing his prepared speech, he suddenly put them aside and decided to speak from the heart. He spoke of freedoms for blacks achieved and not yet achieved. He then spoke the words that echo throughout the world to this day: "I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.' I have that dream." By mid-October 1964 Martin had given 350 civil rights speeches and traveled 275,000 miles across the country and worked for 20 hours a day.
While in an Atlanta hospital after collapsing from exhaustion, his wife brought in his room a telegram notifying him that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 1, 1968, Martin traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to meet with two of his advisers, James Bevel and Jesse Jackson, to discuss organizing a march to Washington in support of a strike by Memphis' city's sanitation workers. In the late afternoon of April 4, he stepped out onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where he was staying to speak with Andrew Young. As he saw Jackson and waved to him for a moment, a gunshot rang through the air and Martin Luther King Jr. was hit in the neck and fell dead from a sniper's bullet. He was dead, but the struggle that he started to continue to bring peace and end the racial conflict in the USA continues to this day.- Don Briscoe was born on 20 March 1940 in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Dark Shadows (1966), Days of Our Lives (1965) and House of Dark Shadows (1970). He died on 31 October 2004 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Gene Rutherford was born on 4 March 1939 in Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Will Penny (1967), The High Chaparral (1967) and Mannix (1967). He died on 24 September 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Ellis Rabb was born on 20 June 1930 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Great Performances (1971), The Dain Curse (1978) and The Royal Family (1977). He was married to Rosemary Harris. He died on 11 January 1998 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
- Sound Department
- Writer
Jack Lescoulie was born on 17 November 1912 in Sacramento, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Emergency Landing (1941), The Great Library Misery (1938) and Volume One (1949). He was married to Virginia. He died on 22 July 1987 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Windland "Wendy" Smith Rice was the first child of the founder of FedEx, Frederick W. Smith. Her father named FedEx's first plane "Wendy" after her in 1973. She became an accomplished photographer of nature and animals. The movie, "P.S. I love you," was produced by her sister, Molly, in her honor.
Windland attended St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee. The school now has a state of the art library and classroom building that bears her name. She attended Duke University in 1992, where she studied drama.
She completed photography commissions for organizations such as Fujifilm, the National Geographic Society, and Nature's Best Photography Magazine. Her work won several awards and has been exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The annual Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards are also named after her. She acccompanied the second pair of pandas sent from China to the National Zoo in 2000 in a FedEx plane that was repainted to say "Panda I." She photographed the pandas for Fujifilm who have used her work around the world.
Windland Smith Rice died suddenly in Memphis, Tennessee while visiting her mother, Linda Grisham Smith McFarland, of an undiagnosed genetic heart condition called Long QT Syndrome Type 2. The Mayo Clinic has since opened the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory. At the Long QT Syndrome Clinic, research efforts are devoted to identifying individuals at greatest risk for autopsy negative sudden death. Athletes, in particular, are susceptible-Windland was a triathlete and marathon runner.
A few weeks after Windland's death, her sister, Molly Smith, read Cecelia Ahern's debut novel "P.S. I Love You." She found such comfort in the story that she read it several times and ended up producing the movie. The movie has an all-star cast including Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Harry Connick Jr. and Kathy Bates. At the end of the movie, which was partially funded by her father, there is a dedication to Windland Smith Rice.
Windland had five sisters and three brothers. She resided in Jackson Hole, Wyoming with her husband and children. She was married to Jeffrey Scott Rice. They had two sons together; Mason Frederick Rice (born in 2003) and Alden James Rice (born in 2004.) - Minnie Mae Presley was born on 17 June 1890 in Fulton, Mississippi, USA. She died on 8 May 1980 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Gail Stone-Stanton was born on 19 November 1954 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Making the Grade (1984). She died on 21 November 1996 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Vernon Presley was born on 10 April 1916 in Fulton, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Elvis on Tour (1972), Hee Haw (1969) and Elvis in Concert (1977). He was married to Davada "Dee" Stanley and Gladys Presley. He died on 26 June 1979 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Nelson Frazier Jr. was born on 14 February 1971 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for WWE Raw (1993), WWE Smackdown! (1999) and WWE A.M. Raw (2005). He was married to Cassandra. He died on 18 February 2014 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Sherry Ann Mathis began her career on the local stage in Memphis, Tennessee. She went to New York in 1971 and soon made her Broadway debut in Harold Prince's "A Little Night Music". She subsequently appeared as "Liza Sentell" on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow (1951) for seven years. She appeared with Burt Reynolds in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), and made several television appearances before retiring from acting and returning to her native Memphis due to poor health.
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Shelby Foote was born on 17 November 1916 in Greenville, Mississippi, USA. He was a writer, known for Memphis (1992), Baseball (1994) and Rebel Forrest: The Nathan Bedford Forrest Story (2002). He was married to Gwyn Rainer, Peggy DeSommes and Tess Lavery. He died on 27 June 2005 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jimi Jamison was born on 23 August 1951 in Durant, Mississippi, USA. He was an actor, known for Spy Game (2001), Lock Up (1989) and Wrongfully Accused (1998). He was married to Deborah Teal and Brenda Fay. He died on 31 August 2014 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Actress
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Gangsta Boo was born on 7 August 1979 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress and composer, known for Zola (2020), Gangsta Boo: Meet The Devil (2015) and Latto Feat. GloRilla & Gangsta Boo: FTCU (2022). She died on 1 January 2023 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Wayne Emmons was born on 26 November 1937 in Sheffield, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for The Rainmaker (1997) and Daddy and Them (2001). He died on 10 September 2010 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- A durable catcher in the Major Leagues, McCarver was one of the few players to play in four different decades (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s). Not known for his bat, McCarver was a smart, defensive catcher, who knew how to position his fielders and take care of his pitchers. McCarver caught for two of the game's greatest pitchers, Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton. McCarver, an eloquent player with reporters, later became a baseball television announcer, where he does color commentary for ESPN and ABC TV.
- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Young Dolph was born on 27 July 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a music artist and actor, known for Keanu (2016), Step Sisters (2018) and On My Block (2018). He died on 17 November 2021 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Bobby Bland was born on 27 January 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee, USA. He is known for The Fugitive (1993), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) and Fighting (2009). He was married to Willie Mae Bland. He died on 23 June 2013 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.