The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers [Hardcover]

Billy H. Doyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0810835479 | ISBN-13: 978-0810835474

A follow-up to The Ultimate Directory of the Silent Screen Performers (1995), this text includes the birth, death, and career dates of actors during the transition from silents to sound and into the sound era in filmmaking. The book includes individuals from Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America, ranging from stars and featured actors to character and minor actors. The reader will find actors that bridge the silent and the sound eras, actors from the "Golden Age of Hollywood," and actors who straddle the big screen and the small screen of television.

Information is included on thousands of actors from throughout the world, creating a populated map of film history. With the continued popularity of classic films, from early Hollywood and around the world, The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers will be a welcome resource.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

From marquee stars of the pastAlike Humphrey Bogart and Bette DavisAto obscure character actors, this volume provides an alphabetical list of over 15,000 actors and actresses from around the world who made their way into U.S. films. They include performers who had both silent and sound careers and performers who acted in both films and television. Each entry includes the actor's date and place of birth, date and place of death, and, frequently, dates of their screen career. This volume is a companion to Doyle's two previous necrologies (The Ultimate Directory of the Silent Screen Performers, Scarecrow, 1995; The Ultimate Directory of Film Technicians, Scarecrow, 1999); in this latest volume, there's an addendum of silent performers not included in Doyle's earlier book. Be advised, though: necrologies often serve merely to whet the user's appetite for information; most people will find this volume helpful only when consulted in conjunction with other directories, dictionaries, biographies, or a tool like the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). Larger libraries will find this volume a good supplement to their film reference sources, and serious film buffs will want it for their home libraries.AKathy Breeden, Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Larger libraries will find this volume a good supplement to their film reference sources, and serious film buffs will want it for their home libraries. (Library Journal )

Taken individually or as a group, these necrologies stand as useful reference works for the film scholar or enthusiast. This work is recommended for academic and public libraries that support a strong interest in film studies. (Arba )

Doyle's volumes are a staggering achievement...It's hard to imagine anyone challenging Doyle. (Movie Collector's World )

I found it to be a reliable resource with no missing actors that I could determine. (Paul Holbrook Big Reel )

...an excellent, comprehensive compendium for serious film scholars... (Choice )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 636 pages
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press (July 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810835479
• ISBN-13: 978-0810835474
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,763,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable, May 28, 2000

By 

Hans J. Wollstein (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ultimate Directory of Silent and Sound Era Performers (Hardcover)

In the spirit of fairness, I should begin this review by mentioning that my name appears in the book's acknowledgments. That said, however, this, Billy Doyle's final book in his trilogy, is indeed indispensable for everyone researching past film personalities. An indefatigable necrologer, Mr. Doyle has left no stone unturned in order to deliver the facts -- birth and death places and dates for more than 15,000 performers. Doyle has spent a lifetime collecting and updating his material and is the foremost authority in his field. Naturally, a great deal of the names are unknown to even the most ardent film buff, but THE ULTIMATE DIRECTORY ... can settle any argument concerning the true age of anyone from Jean Arthur to Blanche Yurka. And Doyle did not stop there but has included a wealth of foreign actors -- from Hans Albers to Milivoye Zivanovic. As an added bonus, Doyle has included corrections and additions to the first two books in the trilogy, THE ULTIMATE DIRECTORY OF SILENT SCREEN PERFORMERS and THE ULTIMATE DIRECTORY OF FILM TECHNICIANS.