August 10 - Ken Annakin

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On this day, in 1914, Kenneth Cooper Annakin was born in Beverly, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. As a young man, Ken was in training to be an income tax inspector (the British equivalent of an IRS agent who shows up at your office and starts confiscating things) in the city of Hull when he decided that maybe that wasn’t the life for him. Financed by an unexpected win at the racetrack, he immigrated to New Zealand and spent a good chunk of his twenties bouncing around the world doing whatever work he could find. The onset of World War II drew him back home to England where he joined the Royal Air Force as a mechanic. Ken was injured in the blitz of Liverpool and discharged in 1942 but he didn’t go far. He became a camera operator in the arm of the RAF that was making training films.

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It didn’t take Ken long to graduate to assistant director and then director. His first gig at the helm of a film was for the short documentary London 1942, which showcased the plucky spirit of Londoners under the hardships of war. Three years later, he directed his first feature length project, the 1945 documentary Make Fruitful the Land. As the British war machine began winding down, Ken continued to make new training films for it until the head of the company that produced his documentaries asked him for a favor. They were starting a new studio to produce fictional films, would Ken like to direct one of those? The result, Holiday Camp, was a fairly bland comedy about a Cockney family who encounters mild mayhem on vacation. Holiday was released at exactly the right time, however. It struck a chord with war weary audiences, became a decent hit and spawned three sequels, all of which were directed by Ken. His career in the cinema was now well established.

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Ken worked steadily for the next three decades. He made comedies like 1948’s Miranda, starring Glynis Johns as a mermaid, and the 1965 classic Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. He directed thrillers like 1950’s Double Confession with Peter Lorre and 1957’s Across the Bridge with Rod Steiger. He helmed war movies like the comedy Hotel Sahara with Peter Ustinov and David Tomlinson in 1951 and was one of the five directors on the star studded classic, The Longest Day, in 1962. By the mid-Seventies, Ken’s career was starting to slow considerably and he even took a few dips in the smaller pond of television (not nearly the prestigious waters it’s considered today), directing the CBS miniseries The Pirate and a made-for-tv movie called Institute for Revenge.

Image courtesy filmsofthefifties.com

Over the course of that career, Ken did several high profile pictures for the Walt Disney Company. His first came in 1952 when Disney produced their first version of The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men. Next came The Sword and the Rose, also starring Glynis Johns (who would be a frequent star of Ken’s over the years), and Third Man on the Mountain, a thriller set in the Swiss Alps which inspired Walt to build the Matterhorn Bobsled ride in Disneyland. Ken’s biggest hit with Disney (and one of his biggest hits period) was the 1960 adventure Swiss Family Robinson, which starred  John Mills (Hayley’s father) and inspired its own walk-through attraction in two Disney theme parks, the Swiss Family Treehouse. For all these contributions to Disneyana, Ken was officially declared a Disney Legend in 2002, only the second director to receive the honor.

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In 1978, near the end of his career, Ken made a physical move to Los Angeles, where he would spend the rest of his life. He directed a handful of forgettable films during the Eighties. In 1992, his final project would go unfinished. It was a biopic of Genghis Khan starring Charlton Heston. They were filming in Kyrgyzstan when the Soviet Union fell apart and everyone had to get out of Dodge before they were finished. They never got the chance to go back. Someone bought the footage in 2010, intending to make something out of it, but that film has never materialized either.

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Ken lived his remaining years in Beverly Hills, California, occasionally giving interviews or advising young filmmakers who sought him out. In 2002, he was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his contributions to British cinema and also received an honorary degree from Hull University (who was apparently okay with the fact that he’d abandoned the city’s tax inspection needs so many years before). In February 2009, Ken suffered a heart attack one day followed by a stroke the next. He would linger for two more months but never recover. On April 22, 2009, the director of over 50 popular films passed away quietly at home. He was 94.

September 28 - Janet Munro

On this day, in 1934, actress Janet Neilson Horsburgh was born in Blackpool, Lancashire England. The daughter of a Scottish comedian, Alex Munro, she used her father's stage name and was known as Alice Munro. Janet's mother died when she was seven and she grew up on the road with her father. She left school to work in a shoe shop but her ambition was always to become an actress.

At the age of 17, Janet began her professional acting career, gracing the stages of various repertory theaters, pulling in eight pounds a week. In 1954, she landed the lead role in a BBC drama, Capture the Castle. This lead to regular appearances on various BBC shows and small roles in British films.

Janet's big movie break came in 1959. Walt himself reportedly picked her out of a pool of 300 actresses to play Katie O'Gill, the female lead in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. She starred opposite a pre-James Bond Sean Connery, who actually sings in one scene. The film itself was very well received. Critic Leonard Maltin has even declared it to be one of the best Disney movies you've never seen. Janet's performance was so impressive she earned herself a Golden Globe and a five year contract with the studio.

It didn't take long for Disney to start using that contract. Later the same year they released Third Man on the Mountain. That movie chronicles the tale of a young mountaineer trying to conquer the mountain his father died climbing. Janet starred as the romantic interest of the climber, played by James MacArthur. Third Man is generally credited as the inspiration behind the Matterhorn Bobsleds attraction at Disneyland. The following year, Janet and James would once again be paired in the Disney classic Swiss Family Robinson, which also begat an attraction at the park.

A third movie starring Janet and MacArthur was planned, Bon Voyage, which would also star Karl Malden. A change in directors and other production delays meant that never happened. Voyage would be released in 1962 but with a different cast. Janet's final project with Disney was 1961's The Horsemasters. Originally made as two episodes of Disneyland on television, The Horsemasters would later be released theatrically. It marked the first time Janet worked with Annette Funicello and the second with Tommy Kirk, who was also in Swiss Family Robinson.

Janet would continue to get roles in British films throughout the mid sixties, most notably the lead in The Day the Earth Caught Fire. As the decade came to a close, she took time off from acting to start a family, giving birth to two daughters. She would return to her career after her divorce in 1971. Janet's second go around would be brief, however. In December of 1972, she would pass away from a heart attack caused by ischemic heart disease. She was was only 38 years old.