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Boris Karloff was born in England in 1887. He moved to Canada at 21 and then the U.S., and he was a stage actor who appeared in a large number of silent movies, but with only limited success. In 1931, he was cast as Frankenstein's monster, and his enormous success in that movie over-shadowed the fine performances he turned in on Scarface (1932), The Lost Patrol (1934), and The House of Rothschild (also in 1934). He was typecast as a monster/horror movie star, and with few exceptions, that is all he played the remainder of his career. He had great roles in The Mummy, The Bride of Frankenstein, and many others. He wore a huge amount of make-up in the Frankenstein movies and The Mummy, and he had health issues that made that even more uncomfortable, and so he later mostly played roles that did not require substantial make-up. In 1941 Karloff was offered the stage role of Jonathan Brewster (written specifically for him) in Arsenic and Old Lace, and he received a percentage of the profits. The film rights were sold to Warner Bros, who wanted Karloff to reprise his stage role, but he rightly thought appearing in the movie would hurt the play (and his profits) so he refused (which was a sound business decision, but robbed us of a great film portrayal!). The movie was filmed in late 1941, but the studio had agreed not to release it until the play finished its run, so it was not released until 1944 when the play finally ended after over 1,400 performances! Karloff is also well remembered for his great narration of Chuck Jones' great animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He passed away in 1969 at the age of 81. AND James Cagney was a legendary actor from the 1930s to the 1980s. He was a huge success in crime movies in the early 1930s (almost always playing a gangster), and that unfortunately typecast him in those roles, but he continually fought against it, and he made several wonderful non-gangster movies as well. Some of his movies include: The Public Enemy, Yankee Doodle Dandy (winner of the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), White Heat, Ragtime, Angels With Dirty Faces (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), The Roaring Twenties, One, Two, Three, Love Me Or Leave Me (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film) and scores of others! He retired from show business completely in 1961, but he was coaxed out of retirement to appear in Milos Formal's Ragtime in 1981. He passed away in 1986 at the age of 86.

And now you can see headshots of James Cagney in our gallery, Through The Years: James Cagney (from 1930 to 1984)!

Important Added Info: Note that this great candid still is undated, but based on the stars' appearances and the fact that someone wrote "SCREEN GUILD MEETING" on the back, makes us think it dates from exactly 1940 or very close to that. If anyone knows more about this, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

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