You probably won’t remember the name, but I am sure that you will remember the face. Edmund Gwenn is probably one of the most famous faces of Santa Claus. He played the man in the red suit in the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street.

Gwenn was born Edmund John Kellaway in Wandsworth, London on September 26, 1877 and began actin in the theatre in 1895 at the age of 18. He impressed the playwright George Bernard Shaw who cast him in six of his plays. Gwenn interrupted his acting career to serve in World War I.

Gwenn appeared in over 80 films during his lifetime such as Pride and Prejudice (1940), Of Human Bondage, Cheer Boys Cheer and Miracle on 34th Street. He moved in Hollywood in 1940. He was nominated and received the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role of Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street. He remarked when receiving the award “Now I know there is a Santa Claus!”

Edmund Gwenn passed away twenty days before his 82nd birthday in 1959. He died from pneumonia after suffering a stoke.

How often to we see movies where millions are gambled and one. Some celebs do not live up their movie images though!

I used to be a big fan of Designing Women. It was a hilarious show and Dixie Carter was great as the “straight man.” Dixie was born May 25, 1939 McLemoresville, Tennessee and spent her early years in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated from Memphis State with a degree in English. In 1959, Carter was the first runner-up in the Miss Tennessee beauty pageant.

Carter started acting in 1960 in a local production of Carousel. She traveled to New York City in 1963 and appeared in A Winter’s Tale on Broadway. After eight years away from acting, Carter filled in for the role of Dorian Cramer on One Life to Live while the regular actress, Nancy Pinkerton, was on maternity leave. She then was cast in the soap opera Edge of Night as Assistant D.A. Olivia Brandeis “Brandy” Henderson. She left the role in 1976, moved to Los Angeles and appeared in a variety of television series. Carter is best known for her role as interior decorator Julia Sugarbaker in the 1980s/1990s television program Designing Women, set in Atlanta, Georgia. Hal Holbrook, her real-life husband, had a recurring role as Reese Watson, and Carter’s daughters, Ginna and Mary Dixie, also had guest-star roles as Julia Sugarbaker’s nieces, Jennifer and Camilla.

After Designing Women, Carter in other television roles and on Broadway. Her final film was That Evening Sun, which she filmed on site with her husband Hal Holbrook in East Tennessee in the summer of 2008.

In 1967, Carter married Arthur Carter (no relation) and had two children. She later divorced him in 1977 and married Broadway actor George Hearn the same year. She divorced Hearn in 1979 and married Hal Holbrook in 1984.

Carter died on April 10, 2010 in Houston, Texas from complications due to endometrial cancer.

Jessica Hahn (born July 7, 1959) is best known for her sexual encounter with the televangelist Jim Bakker. Hahn claimed that she was drugged and raped by Bakker in 1980 when she was the church secretary.

Today on The View, Hahn claimed that it wasn’t rape, but a sexual encounter with Bakker and another preacher telling her is was for God. Sherri Shepard called the incident an “affair” and Hahn countered with

This wasn’t an affair. Unlike, I don’t want to be cruel or anything, in your book Audition you had an affair with a Senator.

She was talking to Barbara Walters. Walters told Hahn “This is about you, my dear. this is not about me. OK?”

Hahn has appeared in Playboy and television shows including “Married… with Children”. She has had relationships with Sam Kinison and Ron Leavitt (co-creator of “Married… with Children.”)

After my post on True Grit (1969) a reader asked “Whatever Happened to Kim Darby?” She played Mattie Ross.

Kim Darby was born Deborah Zerby in Los Angeles California on July 8, 1947. She is the daughter of professional dancers. Kim began acting at age fifteen and her first appearance was that of a dancer in the 1963 film Bye, Bye Birdie. She played a fourteen year old in the movie True Grit even though she was twenty at the time. In the 1960s and 70s she appeared in numerous television roles. In 1999 she appeared as a female convict in a television episode of the X-Files.

Kim has been married five times and has one daughter. She teaches acting and lives in California.

I have not yet seen the new True Grit movie and I am not sure that I will. I have always been a fan of John Wayne and really can’t see anybody else play Rooster Cogburn. I went to a local store to try and buy a copy of the 1969 version of True Grit, but their POS systems were screwed up and they couldn’t even tell me if they had a copy, so I decided to order it from Amazon instead.

The movie is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Charles Portis. Wayne won his only Academy Award for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn. When this film was shot in Colorado, Wayne had already had one of his lungs removed and could not walk for any length of time without having trouble breathing. The horse in the film became one of Wayne’s favorites and was used in his last film, The Shootist.

Julie Dawn Cole played Veruca Salt in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that premiered in 1971. Julie was born October 16, 1957 and is an English theater, movie and television actor. She was 12 years old when she was first cast in the movie. She was only payed 600 pounds (about $950 in today’s money) for the movie. She still has two of the original props: the Golden Ticket and the Everlasting Gobstopper.

Of the five children in the movie, Julie is the only one who has continued acting.

I didn’t realize this, but some of the original text of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl was changed. Dahl faced criticism from the NAACP and others due to the portrayal of the Oompa Loompas as dark skinned and skinny African pygmies who work in the chocolate factory for cacao beans.

Some text was changed and so were some of the illustrations and a new version released in 1973.

In the new version, the Oompa Loompas are funny, long golden-brown hair with rosy-white skin. Instead of originating in Africa they were moved to the fictional Loompaland.

Is this just a case of censorship?

Some celebrities may have embraced being bald (think of Bruce Willis), but others are still trying to find the best hair loss products. The list of celebrities that might (or might not, maybe they are just having a bad hair day) include Marv Albert, Pat Boone, Sam Donaldson, Chuck Norris and David Lee Roth.

If you want to see the whole list and some great pictures, you can find them at Pop Culture Dish.

Whatever happened to the cute little girl who played ZuZu in It’s a Wonderful Life?

Karolyn Grimes was born July 4, 1940 in Hollywood, California. Her mother started her in the acting business She appeared in her first film in 1945. Some of her other films included Blue Skies with Bing Crosby (1946), The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant (1947) and Hans Christian Anderson with Danny Kaye (1947). Due to her mother’s failing health, she wasn’t able to act as much. Her mother died in 1954 and her father died a year later in a car accident.

Karoyln was sent to live with an Aunt and Uncle in Missouri in what she called a “bad home.” After completing high school she got married, attended college and became a medical technologist. She has suffered from serious setbacks in her life including the death of her first husband, a son’s suicide and death of her second husband. However, after a financial setback in the 2000s, she decided to make a career of advocating the film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” She travels, give speeches and memories about the films and signs autographs.

One of her favorite memories about the film is at the end when Jimmy Stewart is holding her and they are singing Auld Land Syne. Karoyln did not know the words and so was pretending to sing along. Stewart found it amusing and you can see him laughing in the film.