Ralph Edwards

Acting

Ralph Edwards

Born 1913-06-13

Ralph Edwards was born near Merino, Colorado, in 1913, moving with his family to Oakland, California, when he was 12. He worked his way through college at radio stations in Oakland and San Francisco, graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama. Edwards moved to New York in 1936 and became one of radio's busiest announcers, doing as many as 45 network shows a week. In 1940, in response to this hectic pace, Edwards created, produced and hosted the landmark audience participation show "Truth or Consequences". The show's great popularity led to his appearance in the Lucille Ball-Victor Mature film Seven Days' Leave (1942). He moved the show and his production company to Hollywood in 1945, where he made three more films for RKO: Radio Stars on Parade (1945), The Bamboo Blonde (1946) and Beat the Band (1947), all with Frances Langford. His big-screen career took a decided back seat in 1948, when Edwards first brought to the air his other long-running show, This Is Your Life (1952). On radio for its first two years, Edwards took the program to NBC-TV in 1952, where it remained until 1961, winning two Emmys (he also hosted a syndicated version from 1971-1973). His last feature film appearance came in the Susan Hayward MGM bio-pic of Lillian Roth, I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), which ends with a recreation of Roth's appearance on This Is Your Life (1952). Edwards' television career began in earnest in 1950, when The New Truth and Consequences (1950) aired one season on CBS-TV and earned the first Emmy awarded for an audience participation show. He turned over host duties to Jack Bailey in 1954 and, in 1956, launched the career of Bob Barker as host of the daytime version. Edwards, also well-known for his extensive charitable and philanthropic activities, became one of TV's most prolific producers. Date of Birth 13 June 1913, Merino, Colorado Date of Death 16 November 2005, West Hollywood, California (congestive heart failure)

Acting credits

Mansfield 66/67 poster
5.2

About the last two years of movie goddess Jayne Mansfield’s life and the speculation swirling around her untimely death being caused by a curse after her alleged romantic dalliance with Anton LaVey, head of the Church of Satan.

Mansfield 66/67

2017

Boulevard! A Hollywood Story poster
6.2

In the mid-1950s, Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, young composers and romantic partners, are hired by legendary silent film star Gloria Swanson to write a musical based on her film Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder in 1950.

Boulevard! A Hollywood Story

2021

Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust poster
6.6

Daniel Anker’s 90-minute documentary takes on over 60 years of a very complex subject: Hollywood’s complicated, often contradictory relationship with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The questions it raises go right the very nature of how film functions in our culture, and while hardly exhaustive, Anker’s film makes for a good, thought provoking starting point.

Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust

2004

The Bamboo Blonde poster
5.6

A pilot of a B 29 meets Louise Anderson, a singer in a New York nightclub. He falls in love with her, but he had to leave next day for action in the Pacific. He lets paint her picture on his bomber, the "Bamboo Blonde" and becomes a hero with his crew sinking a Japanese battleship and shooting down a Japanese fighter wing. Back in New York, he leaves his fiancée and engages him to Louise.

The Bamboo Blonde

1946

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio poster
7.6

For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

1991

He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce poster
8.4

Tribute to Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce who created some of the studio's most famous works including Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and countless other creatures. Rick Baker, Tom Savini, Howard Berger, Bob Burns, Scott Essman, Kim Newman, Gregory Nicotero and others discuss the work of Pierce and his enduring legacy.

He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce

2008

Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess poster
7.5

A documentary looking at the life, films, and troubled times of America's first sex symbol, screen actress Clara Bow, featuring interviews and archive footage. It takes a look at why she is considered the 'Lost Screen Goddess'.

Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess

2012

No artwork available
NR

30th anniversary special of This is Your Life, hosted by David Frost.

This Is Your Life: 30th Anniversary Special

1981

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story poster
7.8

Chronicles the last great American showman, filmmaker William Castle, a master of ballyhoo who became a brand name in movie horror with his outrageous audience participation gimmicks.

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story

2007

The New March of Dimes Presents: The Scene Stealers poster
7.0

A TV movie with intertwining music numbers and sketches.

The New March of Dimes Presents: The Scene Stealers

1962

Beat the Band poster
5.5

Singer Ann wants back her money that the manager of a big-band has embezzled.

Beat the Band

1947

Manhattan Merry-Go-Round poster
6.5

In this musical comedy, a crooked record producer uses his mob connections to force performers to do their stuff. The trouble really begins when the gangster's strong-arm tactics nearly cause a singer to lose his fiancée. A wide variety of entertainers appear including cowboy crooner Gene Autry, baseball hero Joe DiMaggio, and big band stars Cab Calloway, Ted Lewis, and the Kay Thompson Singers. Songs include "Mamma I Wanna Make Rhythm," "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round," "Heaven?," "I Owe You," and "It's Round-up Time in Reno."

Manhattan Merry-Go-Round

1937

Radio Stars on Parade poster
9.0

A Hollywood talent agency tries to avoid finacial ruin by getting its best clients on the air.

Radio Stars on Parade

1945