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On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy led a surprise military strike against the American naval base stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The following day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared war against Japan, which fully plunged the United States into World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of American men enlisted in the various branches of the armed forces to help their country in the fight against the Axis Powers. Some of these men were established Hollywood actors, while others became recognizable movie stars in the post-war period. Here are five (more) male actors who served in World War II before or after they became famous. Walter Matthau (1920-2000) | U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942-1945 Matthau enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1942 and was assigned as a radio operator and gunner with the Eighth Air Force. In 1943, he was shipped out to England and was stationed at RAF Old Buckenham in Norfolk, where he served with the 453rd Bombardment G...

Katharine Hepburn  is one of my most acclaimed actresses of the Old Hollywood era, and the only actor in history to have four Academy Awards. She received her fourth Oscar for her performance as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen consort of King Henry II of England, in Anthony Harvey's The Lion in Winter (1968). But did you know that she was actually a direct descendant of Eleanor and Henry II, who were, in «technical terms,» her 23rd great-grandparents? Here's another interesting fact: Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine were also direct ancestors of Olivia de Havilland , Joan Fontaine, Humphrey Bogart and Laurence Olivier via their great-grandson, King Edward I of England, whose children originated the blood lines from which all of these actors (including Kate) descended. This means that they are all somehow related.   King Edward I of England was Katharine Hepburn's 20th great-grandfather. Edward I (1239-1307) married Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290) in 1254 and together they ...

Do you ever wonder when a certain event happened for the first time in history? For someone as painfully curious as me, I do. And often. So, I thought it would be fun to find some firsts in film history. Here are 10 that I thought would be interesting to share. 1. The first ever motion picture to be made in Hollywood was In Old California (1910). Directed by D. W. Griffith for Biograph Company, the film was a 17-minute melodrama set in the early 19th century, when California was under Spanish and Mexican rule. It starred Frank Powell, Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard and Henry B. Walthall. The short was considered lost for many decades, until a copy was found in 2004 and screened at the Beverly Hills Film Festival.   (from left to right) Marion Leonard, Henry B. Walthall and Arthur Johnson in In Old California ; D. W. Griffith in his office at Biograph Company in New York.   2. The first ever movie to have a Hollywood premiere was Robin Hood (1922). Directed by Allan Dw...

In anticipation to the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, which will be held on April 25, I have decided to write a series of articles related to the most prestigious awards in the movie industry. Two weeks ago I talked about the birth of the Academy Awards , and last week I wrote about Wings (1927), the first ever film to win the statuette for Best Picture. For this week, I bring you 10 interesting facts about the Academy Awards, plus some bonus facts. (All of these stand true as of the writing of this post; changes may occur in the future. )   1. The least and most expensive winners Moonlight (2017), directed by Barry Jenkins, stands as the lowest-budgeted film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, with a budget of $1.5 million. In contrast, James Cameron's Titanic (1997) is the most expensive winner, with a budget of $200 million. Bonus fact: Moonlight is also the first film with an all-black cast to win Best Picture.   2. Dual nominations for the same role Barry Fit...

The Golden Age of Hollywood was all about the glitz and glamour. Movie stars were fashion icons, western heroes, brooding outsiders, average Joes, and femme fatales. Some had careers that spanned decades, others were short-lived in their success, and most of them were no strangers to scandal. In such crazy times as these, there are bound to exist some wild facts about the stars and films that made Old Hollywood legendary. I've rounded up 10 of them. In all honesty, they're not really «wild» facts; they're more like random, useless tidbits. 1. When Clark Gable appeared without an undershirt in It Happened One Night (1934), women across the nation stopped buying the garment for their husbands. This caused a depression in undershirts in the United States in the 1930s. In 1957, Gable said, «I didn't know what I was doing to the undershirt people. That was just the way I lived. I hadn't worn an undershirt since I'd started school. They made me feel hemmed in and...