Ned Sparks
Nacimiento : 1883-11-19, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Muerte : 1957-04-03
Historia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ned Sparks (born Edward Arthur Sparkman, November 19, 1883 – April 3, 1957) was a Canadian-born character actor of the American stage and screen. Sparks was known for his deadpan expression and deep, gravelly voice.
Born in Guelph, Ontario, Sparks left home at age 16 and attempted to work as a gold prospector on the Klondike Gold Rush. After running out of money, he won a spot as a singer on a traveling musical company's tour. At age 19, he returned to Canada and briefly attended a Toronto seminary. After leaving the seminary, he worked for the railroad and worked in theater in Toronto. In 1907, he left Toronto for New York City to try his hand in the Broadway theatre, where he appeared in his first show in 1912.
While working on Broadway, Sparks developed his trademark deadpan expression while portraying the role of a desk clerk in the play Little Miss Brown. His success on the stage soon caught the attention of MGM's Louis B. Mayer who signed Sparks to a six picture deal. Sparks began appearing in numerous silent films before finally making his "talkie" debut in the 1928 film The Big Noise.
In the 1930s, Sparks became known for portraying dour-faced, sarcastic, cigar-chomping characters. He became so associated with the type that, in 1936, The New York Times reported that Sparks had his face insured for USD$100,000 with Lloyd's of London. The market agreed to pay the sum to any photographer who could capture Sparks smiling (Sparks later admitted that the story was a publicity stunt and he was only insured for $10,000). Sparks was also caricatured in cartoons including the Jack-in-the-Box character in the Disney short Broken Toys (1935), and the jester in Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938), a hermit crab in both Tex Avery's Fresh Fish (1939) and Bob Clampett's Goofy Groceries (1941), a chicken in Bob Clampett's Slap Happy Pappy (1940), Friz Freleng's Warner Bros. cartoon Malibu Beach Party (1940), and Tex Avery's Hollywood Steps Out (1940). Sparks also voiced the cartoon characters Heckle and Jeckle from 1947 to 1951.
Sparks appeared in ten stage productions on Broadway and over 80 films. He retired from films in 1947, saying that everyone should retire at 65
Ike
Una empresa dedicada a los sondeos de opinión busca con ahínco su “milagro estadístico”: una pequeña ciudad cuya opinión refleje la del resto del país. Cuando las cosas se ponen feas y la empresa parece estar abocada a la bancarrota, se publican los resultados de una encuesta realizada a miles de personas en todo el país. Lo asombroso es que esos resultados coinciden con los del sondeo realizado por la empresa en el pequeño pueblo de Grandview.
Ned Sparks
Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-1945). Dakota (Terry), un soldado que está de permiso en Nueva York, visita la famosa Stage Door Canteen (título original del film), un local de Broadway donde célebres artistas entretenían a los soldados que volvían del frente. Dakota y sus amigos, Tex (Sunset Carson) y California (Lon McAllister), caen rendidos ante los encantos de Eileen (Cheryl Walker), Jean (Marjorie Riordan) y Ella Sue (Margaret Early). Artistas del calibre de Katharine Hepburn, Merle Oberon, George Raft, Johnny Weismuller, Ralph Bellamy o Harpo Marx llenan el local, en el que actúan las bandas de Xavier Cugat, Count Basie y Benny Goodman.
Jonathan B. Sweet
A woman-hater who inherits a beauty salon gets a new perspective on females after capturing a gang of thieves.
'Speed' King
La vida de Gus Edwards, famoso compositor de vodevil, actor y productor.
Strings
After being nabbed while trying to stow away on board an ocean liner en route to Hawaii, young Bobby Breen sings for his travel fare and, along with sidekick Pua, turns detective to recover stolen naval documents from crooks
Inky Wells
A famous singer and matinée idol helps a pretty young theater usher in her dreams of becoming a singer, but when her career begins to take off and she becomes engaged to a wealthy young man, he realizes he's fallen for her and plots to break up her impending marriage.
Steve Cluskey
Satire on radio, built around the supposed feud between bandleader Ben Bernie and journalist Walter Winchell.
Danny Simpson
American theatrical manager (Menjou) discovers Henie preparing for the Olympics in Switzerland and brings her to Madison Square Garden.
Paul Dodson
Una pareja decide casarse y tratar de mantener sus respectivos trabajos. El equilibrio es precario, y un millonario anda enredando en su felicidad. Simpática comedia con la pizpireta Barba Stanwyck.
'Scoop' Oakland
A Broadway playboy inherits an almost bankrupt girls' school and tries to save it by a big show.
Elmer
A Brodway producer discovers new talent in a small Georgia town and brings them to New York for his new show.
'Ten Percent' Nelson
A midwest band leader and his lead singer share a love-hate relationship as they try for success in New York.
Dan Herzig
Es el año 1898. El compositor Sid Barnett (D. Woods) logra que su novia Adeline Schmidt (I. Dunne), una cantante sin fama que trabaja en una cervecería, pueda entrar en la nueva opereta de Broadway, lo que enfurece a Elysia (W. Shaw), la estrella de antaño.
Elmer Smith
La viuda Beatrice Pullman (Claudette Colbert) empieza a obtener beneficios gracias a las recetas de repostería de su sirvienta negra Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers). Mientras tanto, la hija de Beatrice (Rochelle Hudson) se enamora de su padrastro. Por su parte, la hija de la sirvienta (Fredi Washington) se empeña en hacerse pasar por blanca
Plosser
María Galante, una joven e ingenua telefonista francesa, es raptada por un capitán que la desembarca en Yucatán, dejándola abandonada a su suerte. Con grandes dificultades, María llega a la zona del Canal de panamá, donde encuentra trabajo como cantante en un café.
Hjalmar Gnu
Heiress Hedda Nillson certain that her family is about to lose all its money, takes a job as a maid. After the usual trials and tribulations, Hedda falls in love with humble chauffeur Eric Landstrom.
Captain 'Sunny Jim' Roberts
Left only with their yacht after going broke in the Great Depression, a high-society family sets sail for the South Seas. Screwball comedy, with songs.
Toots McGuire
Un gángster se enamora de una cantante del tres al cuarto y trata de obligar a un productor a montarle un espectáculo.
Shammy
En esta ocasión, Paul Muni –especializado en papeles de gángster– intentó un cambio de registro al encarnar al editor de un periódico que, firmando con el pseudónimo de Nellie, comienza a investigar por su cuenta el asesinato de un banquero. Sus pesquisas le llevarán hasta los bajos fondos, donde conoce a algunos mafiosos y a la rubia de rigor (Glenda Farrell).
Conroy
Tras alcanzar el éxito, un cantante de baladas abandona a su prometida, una joven profesora, y se marcha con una mujer fatal. A pesar de ello, la novia no se rinde e intentará recuperarlo utilizando todos los medios a su alcance.
Caterpillar
Historia de magia y fantasía en la que Alicia se adentra en el sorprendente País de las Maravillas y conoce a extraordinarios personajes como Tweedledee y Tweedledum, el Sombrerero Loco, La Reina de Corazones y el frenético Conejo Blanco. Adaptación de las novelas de Lewis Carroll.
Lem Spawn
Un cantante duda entre dos mujeres, una "buena" y otra "mala".
Happy McGuire
Una anciana (May Robson) mantiene correspondencia con su hija, que vive en España, y le hace creer que es una gran dama de la alta sociedad que vive en un lujoso hotel. En realidad, es una alcohólica que vive de la venta ambulante de manzanas. Cuando su hija le anuncia que irá a verla para presentarle a su novio y a su suegro, miembros de una aristocrática familia, la desesperación se apodera de ella.
Barney Hopkins
En plena época de la Gran Depresión, Dick Powell es un compositor de canciones que se rebela contra sus adinerados padres para poder casarse con la corista Ruby Keeler. Musical de la Warner con espectaculares coreografías de Busby Berkeley. Obtuvo excelentes críticas.
Sunshine
In the 1860s, Mary Marlowe defies her father's wishes to marry a British lord and runs away with clerk John Carlton as he heads West to make his fortune. Mary and John endure the difficult journey and settle into a small cabin, then face the hostilities of a cattle rustling gang, as well as the tragic loss of their only son. With Mary's help, John defeats the gang, which propels him to political power that, over the years, gradually erodes the once-happy marriage.
Thomas Barry
Julian Marsh, un exitoso productor de Broadway, a pesar de su delicada salud, produce un nuevo espectáculo, financiado por un hombre rico que está enamorado de la actriz principal, Dorothy Brock , aunque ella no le corresponde. Cuando la víspera del estreno Dorothy se lesiona, es sustituida por una chica del coro.
Eddie Crane
Gangsters scheme to get rid of a crusading District Attorney by blackmailing him through his daughter.
Mr. 'Stacky' Stackhouse
Tragicomedia que parte del convencional argumento del paleto de Indiana que hereda una gran fortuna y parte hacia la ciudad de Nueva York. Allí, y con los malos consejos de su primo, descubrirá la buena vida, las mujeres, las juergas con alcohol y, cómo no, los problemas cuando tras una descontrolada borrachera una muchacha aparece asesinada. Versión cinematográfica sobre la obra teatral de Ward Morehouse.
George Moxley
A New York gossip columnist feuds with a singer and enjoys the power of the press.
Harry Evans
A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader, John Madison, encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam the gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel. But when a real healing takes place, a change comes over the gang.
A drunken husband tries to sneak in but his wife catches him... and that means trouble!
Sheriff Jack Rancid
A Wild West spoof by The Masquers Comedy Club of Hollywood.
Slim
A stock market broker plans to liven up his boring life by taking up piracy on the high seas.
Bert Benedict
The Secret Call is adapted from The Woman, a play by William C. DeMille (brother of Cecil B.) Peggy Shannon plays Wanda Kelly, the daughter of a disgraced politician. Reduced to working as a switchboard operator, Wanda is privy to the many secrets and indiscretions of the clients of a big-city hotel. She also finds romance in the form of handsome Tom Blake (Richard Arlen). The huge cast of characters comes in handy for the film's multitude of subplots, none of which ever get their wires crossed. Peggy Shannon acquits herself nicely in her first major role, but by the end of the decade her career was in decline.
Riley
Prizefighter Mason loses his opening fight so wife Rose leaves him for Hollywood. Without her around Mason trains and starts winning. Rose comes back and wants Mason to dump his manager Regan and replace him with her secret lover Lewis.
Hughie Hanready
A former All-American football star, now working as a steel mill supervisor in New Jersey, falls in love with the mill owner's wealthy, very spoiled daughter.
Sparks
Chick Evans is a Marine private in Honolulu, Hawaii. He falls for society girl Delphine Witherspoon, and begins to scheme as to how to win her over.
Winthrop 'Little Nemo' Clavering
Margaret Holt and her brother Victor set out to smash a narcotics ring responsible for their father's death. Young reporter John Howell and eccentric mystery writer Winthrop Clavering help unravel the truth about the murder.
Danny Walsh
Johnny Quinlan is so desperate for a job that he takes a gig as a "bag man" for the mob. Meanwhile, his beleaguered wife has to deal with her bizarre, unemployed, wise-cracking brother and various neighbors while keeping house in their Brooklyn tenement.
Charlie Thorne
Un buscador de fortunas se casa con una joven por su dinero, pero descubre que ella realmente lo ama y quiere mantenerlo a pesar de la desaprobación de su familia.
Happy Max
Based on a novel by William R. Lipman
Happy
An American sailor comes to a seedy banana republic, and finds a fellow yank, a stranded girl, as a saloon singer. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding about her feelings toward the local dictator threatens their happiness.
Happy Winter
A homeless and destitute violinist joins a combo to bring it success, but has problems with her love life.
Clarence van Dyke
A young man bets $10,000 that for 24 hour he can tell nothing but the truth.
Yacht First Mate
On board a yacht sailing from India to Britain, the owner of the vessel is murdered by one of the passengers. (This film was produced both in full sound and silent versions, the latter for theaters that had not yet been wired for sound.)
Tony Skeel
A beautiful showgirl, name "the Canary" is a scheming nightclub singer. Blackmailing is her game and with that she ends up dead. But who killed "the Canary". All the suspects knew and were used by her and everyone had a motive to see her dead. The only witness to the crime has also been 'rubbed out'. Only one man, the keen, fascinating, debonair detective Philo Vance, would be able to figure out who is the killer. Written by Tony Fontana
Tim
Count D'Estrange tries to save his nephew Hubert from Denise Laverne he believes a heartless flirt. Denise's mother Mme. Florence Laverne uses all her charms to solve the problems. Finally Count D'Estrange marries Mme. Florence Laverne. Both couples leave for a honeymoon in Venice
William Howard
John Stoval, a guard in a New York subway, thinks that Philip Hurd, who owns a concession at Coney Island, would make a good husband for his daughter Sophie. Sophie, however, has her sights set on Bill Hedges, the son of a wealthy farmer in upstate New York. Her father arranges for her to marry Hurd in exchange for a 25% interest in the concession, but matters come to a halt when John slips and falls off a subway platform and is injured.
J. Hamilton Beamish
What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.
Phinuit
Cuando Eve De Montalais (Lois Wilson) planea pasar de contrabando sus joyas a los Estados Unidos, sin saberlo viajando en el mismo barco, hay una banda de ladrones que planean robar las joyas. Michael Lanyard (Bert Lytell), alias The Lone Wolf, trastorna sus intrigas y Eve busca su ayuda para que las gemas pasen por los funcionarios de aduanas. Mientras está en un club nocturno de Nueva York, Eve se entera de que Lanyard es The Lone Wolf. Luego es engañada por un ladrón que asume el papel de un oficial de aduanas y la induce a entregar las joyas, Eve luego escapa al descubrir el engaño. Lanyard es dominado por la pandilla, pero logra liberarse y declara las joyas a los funcionarios de aduanas, quienes luego arrestan a los ladrones de inmediato. Eve se siente aliviada al descubrir que Lanyard es un agente del Servicio Secreto, y los amantes se reencuentran.
Valet
A British nobleman, heavily in debut to a moneylender, agrees to marry the man's daughter in exchange for his debt being cleared. However, since the girl is Jewish, her new "husband" lets her know that the marriage is strictly a business matter and that he could never have romantic feelings for one of "her kind".
"Twinkletoes" Minasi wants to be a great dancer like her deceased mother. Twink meets Chuck Lightfoot, a noted prizefighter, who falls in love with her at first sight. She tries to avoid falling in love with Chuck, whose wife, Cissie, is a drunken harridan and more than a little bit spiteful. Meanwhile, Twink has secured a job in a singing-dancing act in a Limehouse theater, under the auspices of Roseleaf, who has more than just a protective interest in the girl. The jealous Cissie discovers that Twink's sign-painting father also has a night job as a burglar, and she turns him into the police. While a big success dancing on the stage, the arrest of her father has left her somewhat down in the dumps, and she decides to toss herself into the Thames. Possibly, the now-free Chuck, since Cissie has been killed in an accident, might come along and rescue her.
Mistaken identity and female impersonation take place when indigents Billy Winthrop (George K. Arthur) and Ethel Winthrop (Dorothy Reviere) rent a fashionable apartment for a few days in order to impress rich uncle Hiram (Tom Ricketts.) Complications and misunderstanding arise.
Mulligan
The film tells the tale of three ex-cons who finally go straight, through the redemptive power of love. After rescuing Mary from certain death, the “three bad men” meet her saintly mother and stay on to help on their farm. In The Hidden Way, two of the ex-cons conspire to steal the family’s tiny nest egg, but through plot twists involving a medicinal spring, a wronged woman, a villainous Casanova, his avaricious father, and government inspectors (!), the pair eventually see their error and join the third in turning over a new leaf.
Slinky
A Modest Comedy Drama
Lucius Fenton
Sam Starling (Owen Moore) is deep in debt, his wife Phoebe (Claire Windsor) is leaving him and still he is confident. When Phoebe boards a luxury yacht and is wooed by the captain, Sam comes aboard as a woman and tries to seduce the captain (in fact, a liquor smuggler), away from his wife.
Gibson
Thyra arrives in Chekia to wed its old and ugly king. The Duke falls in love with her. A revolution erupts and the king is assassinated. Chief revolutionary Gigberto also falls in love with Thyra. The revolutionaries plan to drown Thyra and Gigberto in a boat, but the Duke takes Gigberto's place. And the loving couple are rescued.
Barney Gallagher
Tom loves Patsy, but she lives in the city while he is every bit the country bumpkin. When an invention of his sells, he decides to take the money and go to the city. There he will show Patsy that he can be just what he thinks she wants: a city slicker. But Patsy yearns for the simple pleasure of her country boy, Tom, and is shocked at what shows up at her door.
A writer, looking for some peace and quiet in order to finish a novel, takes a room at the Baldpate Inn. However, peace and quiet are the last things he gets, as there are some very strange goings-on at the establishment.
Orrin Crumb
After a stormy six year marriage, Barnaby Powers divorces his wife Richmiel. She returns home, taking their young son Oliver with her. Barnaby follows her, to ask for custody of the boy, but meets and falls in love with Richmiel's pretty and sensitive cousin Ledda. Complications ensue.
Adrian
John Douglas, a down-on-his-luck engineer, takes his sweetheart, Sara Deeping, to a play starring Carla King, and he falls in love with the actress.
Cyrus Morgan
For the sake of his impoverished mother, Joe Newbolt bonds himself to harsh Isom Chase. Ollie Chase tires of the difficult life her husband has forced on her and plans to elope with Cyrus Morgan, but Joe's sense of honor forces him to intervene. While Joe is trying to persuade Ollie not to proceed with her plans, Chase discovers him with his wife, misunderstands, reaches for his gun, and is accidentally killed. Joe protects Mrs. Chase, though he is accused of murder, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged.
Peter Stearns
The plot revolves around a down-on-her-luck woman named Mary whose lack of references makes it impossible for her to gain employment. When a friend falls ill, Mary impersonates her in order to take a job as secretary to an elderly socialite. Things immediately start going downhill when she is tasked to introduce a ne'er-do-well nephew to high society—but ends up bailing him out of a string of scandals instead.
Grimes, the Anarchist
Mary Blake can charm any man, young or old, with her winning ways -- except for the one she really wants. James Stanhope is a misogynist who won't give her the time of day.
Waiter
The Monocle Man
Robert Bennett, an idle socialite, wagers $30,000 with his three friends that he can tell nothing but the truth for a period of one week. His troubles begin at a party where his friends' wives question Robert about their husbands' outside activities. Forced to tell the truth, Robert's veracity results in domestic disharmony. Consequently, his vengeful trio of friends pursue Robert for the next five days, intent upon silencing him until the week is over. They finally resort to committing Robert to an insane asylum where he escapes with the aid of Dolly, who is in love with him because she believes that Robert is a society thief.
