Leach in Bristol, England.
His father was Jewish; his
mother was gentile.
Born in 1904, Mr. Grant
discovered the theater
when he was 13. He soon
joined a group of acrobats,
then worked as a stilt
walker on Coney Island.
While in his mid-20s, Mr.
Grant began appearing in
lead roles on Broadway. In
1932, he signed a five-year
contract with Paramount
Studios, earning $450 a
week.
Actress Mae West gave
Mr. Grant his big break,
casting him in She Done
Him Wrong. When she first
set eyes on the handsome
actor, Ms. West cooed, "If
he can talk, I'll take him."
Mr. Grant's subsequent
films included Topper, The
Awful Truth, North by
Northwest, and The
Philadelphia Story.
Mr. Grant, a devoted
Dodgers fan, was married
several times, including to
actress Dyan Cannon, who
is Jewish. They divorced in
1968 and had one
daughter, Jennifer, Mr.
Grant's only child.
Mr. Grant died in 1986.
He was 82.
LORNE GREENE,
patriarch of the "Bonanza"
clan, was born in Canada
in 1915, the child of Rus-
sian Jewish immigrants.
His father, whom Mr.
Greene said was the in-
spiration for his
"Bonanza" character, Ben
Cartwright, sold or-
thopedic shoes.
Mr. Greene began acting
in high school. In 1932, he
joined the drama guild of
Queens University in On-
tario, and changed his
major from chemical engi-
neering to languages,
which he hoped would
leave more time for his
first love: the theater. In
1953 he came to New York,
making his Broadway
debut with Katharine
Cornell in The Prescott
Proposals.
In addition to his televi-
sion work, Mr. Greene ap-
peared in numerous movies
including Autumn Leaves
and Earthquake.
Mr. Greene died in 1987.
He was 72.
LAURENCE HARVEY,
perhaps best known for his
role as the brainwashed
assassin in The Manchurian
Candidate, was born La-
rushka Skikne in Lithuania
in 1928.
When Laurence was 6,
his family moved to South
Africa. Laurence learned
English by going to the
movies.
Mr. Harvey began
studies at the Royal Acad-
emy of Dramatic Art in
London in 1946. Soon after,
he appeared in several
British films. He made his
Broadway debut in 1955.
Once wed to Joan Cohn,
widow of Columbia Pic-
tures head Harry Cohn,
Mr. Harvey starred in
Darling and Room at the
Top. He died of cancer at
age 45.
LESLIE HOWARD
starred as the dashing
Ashley Wilkes, the object
of Scarlett O'Hara's
misplaced affections, in
Gone With the Wind.
Born Leslie Howard
Steiner in London in 1893,
Mr. Howard started out as
a writer. He sold detective
stories to pulp magazines,
then at 19 took a job in a
bank.
After serving in World
War I, Mr. Howard first
appeared on stage in 1917.
His Hollywood career took
off in the early 1930s, when
he performed in such films
as Of Human Bondage, The
Scarlet Pimpernel and The
Petrified Forest.
In 1939, one year after
Gone With the Wind, Mr.
Howard returned to
England to help out with
the war effort. Four years
later, while on a goodwill
tour of Spain and Portugal,
Nazi forces shot down the
plane in which he was
traveling. Mr. Howard's
body was never found.
BILLY JOEL is the son
of Howard Joel and
Rosalind Nyman. Born in
1949 in New York, Mr. Joel
at an early age expressed
interest in music. His
father, a German immi-
grant and engineer with
General Electric, promptly
signed up his son for
classical piano lessons.
Though young Billy lov-
ed Mozart, he did not like
studying the classics. In an
interview with High Fideli-
ty he explained, "I realized
that if you're going to be a
concert pianist, then
you've got to practice six
hours a day and devote
your whole life to it. You
become a high-strung ma-
niac."
Instead, Billy at 14 joined
the rock group the Echoes.
He spent virtually all his
time with the band, so
much so that he was not
allowed to graduate in
1967 because of too many
absences.
Mr. Joel's first album,
"Cold Spring Harbor,"
came out in 1972. He mov-
ed to Los Angeles and
began performing under
the name Billy Martin.
In 1973, Mr. Joel signed
with Columbia Records.
That year saw the release
of his first single, "Piano
Man." But it was his 1977
album "The Stranger" that
really brought fame and
fortune to Billy Joel.
Among the record's hits
were "Just the Way You
Are," "Only the Good Die
Young" and "Movin' Out."
The album sold more than
5 million copies.
Mr. Joel has since releas-
ed numerous other albums,
including "An Innocent
Man" and "Glass Houses,"
and in 1987 performed a
series of concerts in the
Soviet Union. He is mar-
ried to model Christie
Brinkley.
HARVEY KEITEL, one
of the Jakes in the
Chinatown follow-up The
Two Jakes, was born in
Brooklyn, N.Y. His birth
year is listed as everything
from 1939 to 1947.
Mr. Keitel, who studied
with Lee Strasberg at the
Actors Studio, made his
film debut in 1968 in Who's
That Knocking At My
Door? Other film credits
include Mean Streets, Taxi
Driver, The Border and
Blue Collar.
KEVIN KLINE, Broad-
way and film star, was
born in 1947 in St. Louis,
Mo. His father, Robert,
who owned the city's
largest toy store, was a
German Jew who con-
sidered himself an
agnostic; his mother,
Peggy, was Catholic. Mr.
Kline was baptized and
raised a Catholic, though
today he practices no re-
ligion.
Mr. Kline inherited his
love of performing from his
father, who played piano
and was a great fan of the
opera. Young Kevin's first
dream was to become a
composer, and he did not
discover acting until he at-
tended Indiana University.
"I stank when I first
started acting," Mr. Kline
said in an interview with
The New York Times. "I
was really wretched."
In 1970, Mr. Kline moved
to New York City, where
he studied at the Juilliard
Drama Center with future
stars William (The Doctor)
Hurt and Patti Lupone, the
first Evita and star of tele-
vision's "Life Goes On." He
later found work in televi-
sion commercials and on
the soap opera "Search for
Tomorrow."
Mr. Kline has appeared
on Broadway in The Pi-
rates of Penzance and On
the Twentieth Century. In
films, he starred as Nathan
Landau in Sophie's Choice
and has had roles in The
Big Chill and I Love You to
Death. He lives in
Manhattan and is married
to actress Phoebe Cates.
BERT LAHR, the
Cowardly Lion of The
Wizard of Oz, was born Irv-
ing Lahrheim in 1895.
He got his start in
burlesque, then made his
first film in 1931. After ap-
pearing in The Wizard of
Oz in 1939, he starred in
movies and Broadway
plays including Waiting for
Godot and A Midsummer
Night's Dream.
Mr. Lahr died of cancer
in 1967.
PEGGY LIPTON, the
coolest of the cool in that
cool, cool '60s show "The
Mod Squad" (yet another
Aaron Spelling production;
see below), was raised in a
Reform Jewish home in
Lawrence, N.Y. Her father,
Harold, was a lawyer; her
mother, Rita, was an artist.
Ms. Lipton became an
Eileen Ford model at 15.
Three years later, she won
the role of Julie Barnes on
"The Mod Squad," which
focused on the lives of three
undercover cops.
When "The Mod Squad"
ended in 1973, Ms. Lipton
married composer/producer
Quincy Jones and settled
down to the quiet life. She
has since divorced Mr.
Jones. She revived her ac-
ting career several years
ago, when she starred on
"Twin Peaks."
In an interview with
People, Ms. Lipton said her
religious interests lie in
New Age spiritualism. She
meditates and practices
yoga.
HERBERT LOM, born
Herbert Charles Angelo
Cuchacevich ze Schluder-
pachern in 1917 in
Bohemia, has appeared in
numerous films throughout
his long career. But he is
perhaps most famous for his
role as Chief Inspector
Dreyfus, the boss of Inspec-
tor Clouseau in the Pink
Panther films.
After moving to London
in 1939, Mr. Lom made his
first movie in 1940, starr-
ing as Adolph Hitler in
Mein Kampf.
In addition to the Pink
Panther films, he can be
seen in The Dead Zone, The
Seventh Veil and King
Solomon's Mines.
TINA LOUISE, Ginger
Grant on that most in-
tellectual of television ex-
periences, "Gilligan's
Island," was born Tina
Blacker in New York. Her
birth year is alternatively
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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