Finnish Hollywood

Finnish Hollywood

Finnish artists in classic Hollywood movies
and in early international cinema

	Buffalo Bill 1846-1917 (William F. Cody, Ville Kotilainen?) Finnish-American? Ancestry unconfirmed and questionable. Legendary western showman and frontier cowboy hero. Worked on several silent films and has been featured as a character in many more. IMDb Wikipedia
	Jean Sibelius 1865-1957 (Johan Julius Christian Sibelius). Finnish. Classical composer. His music has been utilized in countless films. Memorably used by Billy Wilder in the funeral scene of his 1978 satire Fedora. Also featured in films like Death Takes a Holiday (1934), The Shining (1980), Die Hard 2 (1990), Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993), Radioland Murders (1994), Other Voices, Other Rooms (1995), Paragraph 175 (1999), Night and Day (2003). IMDb Biography Wikipedia
	Anders Wikman 1879-? (Anders Edvard Wikman, Dr. Anders Wikmann). Finnish, born in Uusikaupunki. Spouse since 1910: Rita Jann. Actor in Vienna, Düsseldorff (vice-president of the local actors union), Munich and Hamburg. In Berlin for UFA in 1919-21. Starred as the young Lorenzo in the Fritz Lang scripted horror classic The Plague in Florence (1919), based on Poe's The Mask of the Red Death. quote: "Death appears in a town as a beautiful woman, who comes to the attention of the city's ruler Cesare and his son, (Wikman), but in a jealous rage Ceasare orders that she be tortured, causing his son to kill his father and take over the city." Appeared in Joe May's Veritas vincit (Die Wahrheit siegt!) (1919) against Mia May. IMDb
	Mauritz Stiller 1883-1928 (Moshe Stiller). Russian-Jewish Finn. Emigrated to Sweden 1905 to avoid the Czar's army draft. Famed director and screenwriter, also a stage actor in Helsinki and Turku Swedish theaters. Mentor of Greta Garbo. In Hollywood 1926-28. Directed the young Garbo in her breakthrough film The Atonement of Gösta Berling (1924). IMDb Biography Wikipedia

Eric Tigerstedt (Eric Magnus Campbell Tigerstedt) 1886-1925. Finnish.
'Finnish Edison'. The inventor of sound film. Worked in Copenhagen, Berlin and New York.
Died of tuberculosis at the age of 39.
Finnish Bio
Finnish Bio02
Quote: "His film, Word and Picture, which was presented to a gathering of scientific dignitaries in Berlin in 1914, was the world's first successful “talking picture”."
Wikipedia

Hella Wuolijoki 1886-1954 (Hella Maria Murrik, Juhani Tervapää). Estonian born. Emigrated to Finland.
Playwright. Screen credits since 1937. Screen adaptation of her play Hulda of Juurakko as The Farmer's Daughter brought Loretta Young her best actress Academy Award in 1947. Co-wrote with Bertolt Brecht the often filmed play Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (filmed in Germany in 1955).
IMDb
Biography
Wikipedia

	Yrjö Saarnio 1890-1933 (Jori Sarno). Finnish. Actor. In Moscow, Russia 1910, in America 1914, in Estonia 1915-16. In Russian films 1916-20. In German and French films 1920-25. Played Prince Nekludoff (Tolstoy's favorite Nekludoff of all time) in the French film Résurrection (1923) based on Tolstoy's novel of the same name, directed by Marcel L'Herbier, filmed in the Eclair studios in Epinay, near Paris. IMDb IMDb
	Markus Rautio 1891-1973. Finnish Actor at the Tampere Worker's Theate in the early 1920s.. Travelled to the U.S. and worked for a while at the MGM studios. He soon returned to Finland and started his career at the Finnish Broadcasting Company in 1926, and became a beloved radio personality. IMDb
	Betty Aho 1897-? (Betty Alexandra Tuominen, Betty Ahomurto) Born in Askola, Finland. In the U.S. since 1923. Actress at the Tampere Worker's Theater before leaving for America with Markus Rautio's tour. Signed a contract with Paramount in Hollywood in 1926. Played Fred Kohler's sister in Josef von Sternberg's 1929 thriller The Case of Lena Smith (a lost film). IMDb
	Carl von Haartman 1897-1980. Finnish. Soldier, actor and director. In Hollywood 1927-1930. Played a German officer in William Wellman's 1927 Wings and also suprevised the flying sequences. IMDb

	John Beckman 1898-1989 (John Gabriel Beckman). Finnish-American. Born in Oregon. Production designer, set desinger, art director, muralist, artist, Hollywood credits since 1934 all the way to 1986, including Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Gypsy (1962), Which Way to the Front (1970). Uncredited set-dresser for Lost Horizon (1937), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). Other film credits include: Rhapsody in Blue, Robin Hood, High Sierra, Mr. Deeds goes to Town, Petrified Forest, The Bad Seed, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Devil at 4 O'clock, The Glass Menagerie. Beckman's early training began in Europe under Leon Bakst and Carl von Stuck. In 1912 he returned to the US to attend the UC Berkeley before moving to LA in 1920. Headed the original 1927 decorating team for the Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard and designed the Hollywood Canteen and painted the murals for the Catalina Casino's Avalon Theater. Survivor of the 1906 San Fransisco Earthquake. Spouse: actress, dancer, model Layne Grey. IMDb Biography Orbituary
	Gösta Wrede (Gösta Gustafsson Wrede, Baron Wrede) 1901-26. Finnish. Actor and film journalist in Hollywood from 1923 untill his accidental death on January the 22nd on a movie set. He appeared (uncredited) in Rex Ingram's Scaramouche (1923), Viktor Sjöström's Name the Man (1924), Allen Holubar's The Bishop of Cottowntown (1924), Kings in Exile (1925) and with Douglas Fairbanks in Don Q Son of Zorro (1925).
	Lizalotta Valesca, born 1903 in Helsinki. Emigrated to the U.S.. Actress, TV-producer and fitness guru. Allegedly the first ever Miss Finland, crowned in Pärnu, Estonia, at the Reval spa in 1930. Appeared in the camp classic This Island Earth (1955) as Dr. Marie Pitchener. IMDb
	Einar Aaron Swan 1903-1940 (Eino William Joutsen, E.A. Swan) First generation American (parents Edla Maria Aaltonen from Koski TL and Matti Aleksinpoika Joutsen from Evijärvi and Alaveteli). Jazz musician and composer. His most famous song (music & lyrics) When your lover has gone (1931) was featured as lead tune on the soundtrack of the James Cagney film Blond Crazy (1931). The song has been recorded by hundreds of performers, including: Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, Andy Williams, Vic Damone, Brenda Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Byrd, Chet Baker, Judy Garland, and Ray Charles. Lyrics: "For ages and ages The poets and sages Of love wond'rous love always sing. But ask any lover And you'll soon discover The heartaches that romance can bring. What good is the scheming, the planning and dreaming That comes with each new love affair. The dreams that we cherish, so often might perish And leave you with castles in air. When you're alone, who cares for starlit skies. When you're alone, the magic moonlight dies. At break of dawn, there is no sunrise When your lover has gone. What lonely hours, the evening shadows bring. What lonely hours, with memories lingering. Like faded flowers, life can't mean anything When your lover has gone." IMDb Wikipedia (Swedish)
	Bing Crosby 1903-1977. American with Finnish heritage (unconfirmed). The famous Oscar-winning crooner is reputed by certain sources to be of some Finnish descent on his Irish mother Catherine Ahearn Harrigan's side. IMDb
	Marian Nixon 1904 -83 (Marion Nixon, Maria Nissinen) First-generation American ( = born in the U.S. with Finnish immigrant parentage). Father from the Finnish Ostrobotnia, mother from Kotka. Hollywood star 1923-1936 for Fox, Universal and Warner Bros.. Managed a smooth transition from silents into talkies. Leading lady against James Cagney in the 1932 boxing drama Winner Take All. IMDb Wikipedia
	Mika Waltari 1908-79. Finnish. Novelist, playwright, screenwriter. Film credits since 1930. His international blockbuster novel The Egyptian was the basis for Michal Curtiz's 20th Century Fox epic of the same name in 1954. The leads Edmund Purdom and Bella Darvi were no contest to producer Darryl F. Zanuck's original casting of Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe in the roles. But Zanuck was dating Darvi and wanted to give her a good part. And soon after replacing Monroe they lost her that time lover Brando too. IMDb Biography Wikipedia
	Kari Karnakoski, born 1908. Finnish. Dancer. Member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Appeared in two musical shorts in Hollywood (The Gay Parisian 1941 and Spanish Fiesta 1942), both directed by Jean Negulesco.
	Kosti Ruohomaa 1914-1961. First-generation American. Photographer, animator. He was hired as an animator by Disney studios in 1937 and worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Later left Hollywood for the East Coast and became famous as an observer of Maine. Quote: "I was in a couple of the inter-studio salons, in one of which was a man named Kosti Ruohomaa who later on became a very well-known photographer in the East. He was at Disney working as one of the animators and his work was really quite different from the others, most of whom did just stock portraits. His work really fascinated me." Quote: "The legend of Kosti Ruohomaa, like most artists who die young, has grown to mythic proportions since his sudden death in 1961." Biography
	Greta Peck, born 1915 (Eine Kukkonen, Greta Rice). Finnish-American, in the U.S. since childhood. Theater hairdresser. Married to Gregory Peck 1942-55. Prominent member of the Finnish Hollywood colony. Biography
	Tula Parma 1915-74 (Tuulikki Paananen) Finnish-American. Dancer and actress in Finland 1936-39. In Hollywood since 1939. Played Consuelo in Jaques Tourneur's 1943 classic The Leopard Man. IMDb Biography
	Arvo Ojala, 1920-2005. First-generation American with Finnish parents. A legendary Hollywood quick-draw expert and gun-coach with credits since 1955. Appeared in the opening sequence of the series Gunsmoke (1955). IMDb
	Vampira, born 1921 (Maila Syrjäniemi, Maila Nurmi). Finnish-American. Actress and TV-presenter. Personal friend of the late James Dean. Played the Vampire Girl with a ridicilously narrow waistline in the outrageous Ed Wood scifi horror Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). IMDb Biography Wikipedia
	Heimo Haitto 1925-1999. Finnish-American. Violinist, child actor. In America since 1940. The most famous of all Finnish violinists, with a dangerously bohemian life style. Spent 40 years in America. Played himself in the 1941 Paramount musical There's Magic in Music. IMDb
	Albert Salmi 1928-90. First-generation American with Finnish parents. "Finland's favorite son" Character actor, played villains and heavies in Hollywood since 1958 until his tragic, violent death. Harrassed Montgomery Clift as the antagonist of the 1960 drama Wild River. IMDb Biography Wikipedia
	Caspar Wrede 1929-1998. Finnish, in the U.K. since 1950s. Director, made his career enterily in the U.K., married to Dilys Hamlett 1950-1976. Directed TV-plays for ITV and four features including two Tom Courtenay films Private Potter (1962) and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970), which was forbidden in Finland until 1994 as being too anti-Soviet. His last film was the 1975 terrorist thriller Ransom, starring Sean Connery. The latter two films were photographed by the legendary Sven Nykvist. Wrede also directed Shakespeare's Othello at the Old Vic in 1963 and was one of the original artistic directors of the ’59 Theatre Company (later The Royal Exchange) in Manchester, directing Paul Scofield in 1978. Quote: "“We need a new stage on which to WAKE OUR DREAMS and awake ourselves within the dream. But if we want that stage we’ll have to build it ourselves”." IMDb
	Richard Davalos, born 1930 (Dick Davalos). American of Finnish-Spanish stock with a Finnish father. (Ancestry unconfirmed. Other sources state him to be Greek-American.) Played James Dean's angelic brother Aron Trask in his debut Warner Bros. role in the 1955 drama East of Eden. IMDb Wikipedia
	Taina Elg, born 1931. Finnish-American. Dancer and actress. In Hollywood since 1955. Solid long career still continuing. Danced and acted against Gene Kelly as one of his Les Girls in 1957 and received a Golden Globe nomination for her work. IMDb Biography Wikipedia
	Leila Lampi Finnish. Finnish dancer, singer and actress. Later a diplomat's wife. Had a small part in a 1953 French film Women of Paris starring Michel Simon. IMDb
	Jari Baker. Finnish. Adopted to France/U.S.A. Josephine Baker's son. The only blond, a blue-eyed boy, adopted as #3, among Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe of 12 children. quote: "She adopted 12 children, partly because she couldn't have any of her own and partly because she believed in equality for all, no matter what nationality, religion or race they were of. The were called "the Rainbow Children" and their names were: Aiko (Korea), Luis (Colombia), Janot (Japan), Jari (Finland), Jean-Claude (Canada), Moses (French), Marianne (France), Noel (France), Brahim (Arab), Mara (Venezuela), Koffi (the Ivory-Coast), Stellina (Morocco)." Josephine Baker IMDb
	Ann Savo, born 1932 (Anneli Sauli, Anneli Savolainen). Finnish. Big domestic star since 1953. International actress in German films 1958-65. Played the role of Fanny Weldon against Klaus Kinski in the 1961 Edgar Wallace mystery The Dead Eyes of London. IMDb
	Ruth Johansson, born 1933 Finnish-German, born in Germany with a Finnish mother. Actress. In German films in the mid 1950s. IMDb