The
1940s decade (
the forties) ran from January 1, 1940, to December 31, 1949.
The
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
took place in the first half of the decade, which had a profound effect on most countries and people in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
,
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
and elsewhere. The consequences of the war lingered well into the second half of the decade, with a war weary Europe divided between the jostling spheres of influence of
the WestThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. To some degree internal and external tensions in the post-war era were managed by new institutions, including the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
, the
welfare stateThere are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
and the
Bretton Woods systemThe Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid 20th century...
, providing to the post-World War II boom which lasted well into the
1970sThe 1970s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1970, to December 31, 1979.In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and political and economic liberty of women, continued to grow...
. However the conditions of the post-war world encouraged decolonialisation and emergence of new states and governments, with
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
,
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
,
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
and others declaring independence, rarely without bloodshed. The decade also saw the early beginnings of new technologies (including
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
s,
nuclear powerNuclear power is power produced from controlled nuclear reactions. Commercial plants in use to date use nuclear fission reactions....
and
jet propulsionA jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet of fluid to generate thrust in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets and pump-jets...
), often first developed in tandem with the war effort, and later adapted and improved upon in the post-war era.
Significant events
- Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Benelux
The Benelux is a union in Western Europe that comprises three neighboring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg , which lie in the north western European region between France and Germany...
, and France from 1940 to 1941
- Germany loses the Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially Fighter Command...
1940
- Germany attacks
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941)
- The United States enter World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
after the attack on Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 , later resulting in the United...
on December 7, 1941
- Germany and Japan suffer defeats at Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of World War II between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943....
, El AlameinThe Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. The battle lasted from 23 October to 5 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance...
, and MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
in 1942 and 1943
- D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
landing of Allied forces on the beaches of Normandy France (June 6, 1944)
- Iceland
The Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
declares independence from DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
. (June 17, 1944)
- Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D...
, wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
—PresidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
, and PremierPremier of the Soviet Union is the commonly used English term for the offices of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR...
Josef Stalin, respectively—for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization, intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe.
- The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
also known as The Shoah (HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
: , Latinized ha'shoah; YiddishYiddish is a non-territorial High German language of Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world...
: , Latinized churben or hurban) is the term generally used to describe the genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
of approximately six million European JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s during World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
, under Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
, its alliesThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
, and collaborators. Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic PolesIn addition to about three million Polish Jews , 2.5 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
, the RomaniThe Porajmos is a Romani term introduced by Romani scholar and activist Ian Hancock to describe attempts by the regime in Nazi Germany to exterminate most of the Romani people of Europe as part of the Holocaust.The phenomenon has been little studied and largely overshadowed by the Shoah The...
, Soviet civiliansGeneralplan Ost was a secret Nazi plan of genocide and ethnic cleansing to be realised in the territories occupied by Germany in Eastern Europe during World War II...
, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilitiesAction T4 was a program, also called Euthanasia Program, in Nazi Germany spanning October 1939 until August 1941, during which physicians killed 70,273 people specified in Hitler's secret memo of September 1, 1939 as suffering patients "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination", but...
, gay men, and political and religious opponentsWhile the term "Holocaust victims" generally refers to Jews, the German Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous...
. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victimsWhile the term "Holocaust victims" generally refers to Jews, the German Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous...
is between 11 million and 17 million people.
- Germany surrenders May 7, 1945
- Establishment of the United Nations Charter
The United Nations Charter is the treaty that forms and establishes the international organization called the United Nations. It was signed at the Herbst Theatre of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, United States, on June 26, 1945, by 50 of the 51 original...
(June 26, 1945) effective (October 24, 1945)
- Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively...
(August 6 and August 9, 1945); Japan surrenders on August 15
- World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
officially ends on September 2, 1945
- Beginning of Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom, United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
, which extends from 1946 to 1949.
- Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
gains independence from BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
August 14, 1947.
- India
India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
gains independence from BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
August 15, 1947.
- Establishment of the State of Israel May 14, 1948
- Establishment of the defense alliance NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
April 4, 1949.
- Victory of Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976...
in the Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China . The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC...
.
World leaders
- Prime Minister Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
(United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister David Ben Gurion (Israel)
- Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
(United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the country's greatest Prime Ministers...
(Australia)
- Head of state Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde, commonly known as Francisco Franco , or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975...
(Spain)
- Emperor Hirohito
, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
(Japan)
- Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
(Germany)
- President İsmet İnönü
Mustafa İsmet İnönü was a Turkish Army General, Prime Minister and the second President of the Republic of Turkey...
(TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
)
- Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah Urdu: , a 20th century politician and statesman, is generally regarded as the founder of Pakistan. He served as leader of The Muslim League and Pakistan's first Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-i-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum...
(PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
)
- Chairman Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He was an influential member of the Kuomintang and Sun Yat-sen's close ally. He became the commandant of Kuomintang's Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun's place in the party when the latter died in 1925...
(Nationalist China) (TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
)
- Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was a Canadian lawyer, economist, university professor, civil servant, journalist, fisherman, waiter, teacher and politician. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921, to June 28, 1926; September 25, 1926, to August 6, 1930;...
(Canada)
- Prime Minister and President Hồ Chí Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary and statesman who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam .Hồ led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing...
(Democratic Republic of Vietnam) (North Vietnam)
- Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini,
KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by...
(Italy)
- Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan
For other people with the same or similar name, see Liaqat Ali Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan was a Pakistani politician who became the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Foreign Affairs & Commonwealth, Kashmir Affairs and Defence Minister...
(Pakistan)
- Prime-Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
- President Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine general and politician, elected three times as President of Argentina, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency. He was overthrown in a military coup in 1955...
(ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
)
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
(United States)
- General Aung San
Bogyoke Aung San ; 13 February 1915 – 19 July 1947) was a Burmese revolutionary, nationalist, and founder of the modern Burmese army, the Tatmadaw....
(Burma)
- General Secretary Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
(Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
)
- President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
(United States)
- President Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as president of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954.-Background:...
(BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
)
- Chairman Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976...
(China)
- President Romulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello , known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Accion Democratica - Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th century...
(VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
)
Military leaders
- General Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II...
(France)
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the...
(United States)
- General George Marshall (United States)
- General Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general, United Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II...
(United States)
- General Omar Bradley
General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley was one of the main U.S. Army field commanders in North Africa and Europe during World War II and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
(United States)
- General George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer most famous for his leadership commanding corps and armies as a general in World War II...
(United States)
- General Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from 18 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...
(Japan)
- General Kuniaki Koiso
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Governor-General of Korea and 41st Prime Minister of Japan from 22 July 1944 to 7 April 1945.Koiso was born in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture as the son of an ex-samurai family...
(Japan)
- Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama
was a field marshal who served as successively as chief of the Army General Staff, and minister of war in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II between 1937 and 1944. As War Minister in 1937, he was one of the principal architects of the China Incident or second Sino-Japanese War...
(Japan)
- Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery (United Kingdom)
- Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, honorary GCB was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played an important role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis...
(Soviet Union)
- Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , was perhaps the most famous German Field Marshal of World War II....
(Germany)
- ReichsMarshall Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician, military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated successor and commander of the Luftwaffe...
(Germany)
- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (United States)
- Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King (United States)
- Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Naval Marshal General was the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of the U.S...
(Japan)
- Fleet Admiral Osami Nagano
Fleet Admiral was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1934. More of an administrative officer than a sea commander, he was Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff for the majority of World War II, from April 1941 to February 1944....
(Japan)
Technical innovations
- Ballistic missiles
- Computers
- Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes — as high as 10,000 to 15,000 meters . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances...
- Nuclear weapons
Film
Although the 1940s was a decade dominated by
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
important and noteworthy films about a wide variety of subjects were made during that era. Hollywood was instrumental in producing dozens of classic films during the 1940s, several of which were about the war and some are on most lists of all-time great films. European cinema survived although obviously curtailed during wartime and yet many films of high quality were made in England, France, Italy, Russia and elsewhere in Europe.
Akira Kurosawawas a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. In a career that spanned 50 years, Kurosawa directed 30 films. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in film history...
and other directors managed to produce significant films during the 40s in Japan as well.
Some of Hollywood's best films of the 1940s include:
The Maltese FalconThe Maltese Falcon is a 1941 American Warner Bros. film based on novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. Written and directed by John Huston, the movie stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his femme fatale client, Sydney Greenstreet in his film debut, and Peter...
directed by
John HustonJohn Marcellus Huston was an American filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He was known for directing the films The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge The Misfits , The Man Who Would Be...
1941,
It's a Wonderful LifeIt's a Wonderful Life is an American drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
directed by
Frank CapraFrank Russell Capra was an American film director and a creative force behind a number of films of the 1930s and 1940s, including It Happened One Night , Mr. Deeds Goes to Town , You Can't Take It With You , Mr...
1946,
Double Indemnity directed by
Billy WilderBilly Wilder was an Austrian-American journalist, filmmaker, screenwriter and producer, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
1944,
Meet Me in St. LouisMeet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 romantic musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of four sisters living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904....
directed by
Vincente MinnelliVincente Minnelli was a Hollywood director and stage director. His skilled integration of story, music, lighting, and design elements in a film made him the most critically respected crafter of American film musicals...
1944,
CasablancaCasablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one...
directed by
Michael CurtizMichael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American filmmaker. He directed more than fifty films in Europe and more than one hundred in the United States. The best-known were The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Christmas. He thrived in the heyday...
1942,
Citizen KaneCitizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, and the first feature film directed by Orson Welles. It was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, but won only for Best Original Screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Welles...
directed by
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
1941,
The Big SleepThe Big Sleep is a film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart as detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the female lead. The Big Sleep is a prime example of the film noir genre. William Faulkner, Leigh...
directed by
Howard HawksHoward Winchester Hawks was an influential American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
1946,
The Lady EveThe Lady Eve is a screwball comedy film about a mismatched couple who meet on a luxury liner, written by Preston Sturges based on a story by Monckton Hoffe, and directed by Sturges, his third directorial effort, after The Great McGinty and Christmas in July...
directed by
Preston SturgesPreston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated screenwriter and film director born in Chicago....
1941,
The Shop Around the CornerThe Shop Around the Corner is a romantic comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on a 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie, written by Miklós László. This film was ranked #28 on AFI's 100 Years......
directed by
Ernst LubitschErnst Lubitsch , was a German-born Jewish film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch".- Biography :Born in Berlin, as son of a Jewish...
1940,
White HeatWhite Heat may refer to:In film:* White Heat, a 1949 film starring James CagneyIn music:*White Heat, a 1975 album from R&B group White Heat * White Light/White Heat, a 1968 album by The Velvet Underground...
directed by
Raoul WalshRaoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
1949,
Yankee Doodle DandyYankee Doodle Dandy is a biographical musical film about George M. Cohan , the actor / singer / dancer / playwright / songwriter / producer / theatre owner / director / choreographer known as "The Man Who Owns Broadway", starring James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston and Richard Whorf, and...
directed by
Michael CurtizMichael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American filmmaker. He directed more than fifty films in Europe and more than one hundred in the United States. The best-known were The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and White Christmas. He thrived in the heyday...
1942, and
Notorious directed by
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, 1946. The
Walt Disney StudiosWalt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company:Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was established as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since 1954 were released under the name of the parent company, then named Walt Disney...
released the animated feature films
PinocchioPinocchio is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based on the story Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi. The second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by RKO Radio...
1940,
DumboDumbo is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon a child's book of the same name by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl. The main...
1941,
FantasiaFantasia is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Fantasia features animation set to classical music and no dialogue—only spoken introductions by the host, American composer and music critic Deems Taylor, before segments...
1941, and
BambiBambi is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
1942.
In France during the war the tour de force
Children of ParadiseLes Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 film by French director Marcel Carné, made during the Nazi occupation of France. Set among the Parisian theatre scene of the 1830s, it tells the story of a beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love...
directed by
Marcel CarnéMarcel Carné was a French film director.Born in Paris, France, he began his career in silent film as a trainee with director Jacques Feyder. By age 25, Carné had already directed his first film, one that marked the beginning of a successful collaboration with surrealist poet and screenwriter...
1945, was shot in Nazi occupied Paris. Memorable films from Post-war England include
David LeanSir David Lean was an English filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai,Doctor Zhivago,...
's
Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations is a 1946 British film directed by David Lean and based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It stars John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt, and Alec Guinness. Jean Simmons, who played the role of the young Estella in the film, later played Miss Havisham in a 1989...
(
1946The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...
) and
Oliver TwistOliver Twist is the second of David Lean's two film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. Following the success of his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his next film, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan, cinematographer Guy...
(
1948The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue
...
), Carol Reed's
Odd Man OutOdd Man Out is an Anglo-Irish film noir directed by Carol Reed, starring James Mason, and is based on a novel of the same name by F. L. Green.-Plot:The film's opening intertitle reads:...
(
1947The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten."*November 25...
) and
The Third ManThe Third Man also spelled The 3rd Man, is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. The screenplay was written by novelist Graham Greene. Greene's novella of the same name, written in preparation for writing the...
(
1949The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1949.shtml- Awards :Academy Awards:*Adam's Rib*The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr...
), and
Powell and PressburgerThe British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s, and in were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious award...
's
A Matter of Life and Death (
1946The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...
),
Black NarcissusBlack Narcissus is a film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden...
(
1946The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...
) and
The Red ShoesThe Red Shoes is a British feature film about ballet, written, directed and produced by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as The Archers...
(
1948The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue
...
),
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson...
's
HamletHamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. Hamlet was Olivier's second film as director, and also the second of his three Shakespeare films...
, the first non-American film to win the
Academy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible...
and
Kind Hearts and CoronetsKind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949) English black comedy directed by Robert Hamer. It was written by John Dighton and Hamer, and loosely based upon the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal , by Roy Horniman...
(
1949The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :source: http://www.boxofficereport.com/database/1949.shtml- Awards :Academy Awards:*Adam's Rib*The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr...
) directed by
Robert HamerRobert Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter. He was the son of the actor Gerald Hamer ....
.
Italian neorealismItalian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
of the 1940s produced poignant movies made in post-war Italy.
Roma, città aperta directed by
Roberto RosselliniRoberto Rossellini was an Italian film director. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:...
1945,
Sciuscià directed by
Vittorio De SicaVittorio De Sica was a Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.-Biography:...
1946,
PaisàPaisà is a 1946 Italian film directed by Roberto Rossellini. It is divided into six episodes. They depict the Italian Campaign during World War II when Germany was losing the Second World War against the Allies, using themes such as the difficulty of communication between people who do not speak...
directed by Roberto Rossellini 1946,
La terra tremaLa terra trema is a 1948 Italian dramatic film directed by Luchino Visconti...
directed by
Luchino ViscontiLuchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director and writer, best known for films such as The Leopard and Death in Venice . He died in Rome of a stroke at the age of 69...
1948,
The Bicycle Thief directed by
Vittorio De SicaVittorio De Sica was a Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.-Biography:...
1948, and
Bitter RiceBitter Rice , is a 1949 Italian film made by Lux Film, written and directed by Giuseppe De Santis.Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone, Doris Dowling and Vittorio Gassman, Bitter Rice was a commercial success in Europe and America...
directed by
Giuseppe De SantisGiuseppe De Santis was an Italian film director. One of the most idealistic neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote and directed films punctuated by ardent cries for social reform....
1949, are some well-known examples.
In Japanese cinema
The 47 Roninis a 1941 black and white two-part jidaigeki Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.The first part was originally released in Japan just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, and adapted from the play by Seika Mayama...
is a 1941 black and white two-part
Japanese filmThe has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world, being currently the third largest by number of feature films produced.-Definition:Japanese Cinema is a hard thing to clearly define...
directed by
Kenji MizoguchiKenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His film Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Top Ten Poll in 1962 and 1972...
.
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tailis a Japanese film, written and directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1945. It is based on the kabuki play Kanjinchō, which is in turn based on the Noh play Ataka.The film stars Hanshiro Iwai, Susumu Fujita, Kenichi Enomoto, and Denjirō Ōkōchi...
1945, and the post-war
Drunken Angelis a 1948 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It stars Takashi Shimura as an alcoholic doctor in postwar Japan who treats a young, small-time hood named Matsunaga , after a gunfight with a rival syndicate. The doctor diagnoses the young gangster with tuberculosis, and convinces him to begin...
1948, and
Stray Dogis a 1949 film noir police procedural directed by Akira Kurosawa.-Plot:Rookie homicide detective Murakami frantically seeks his stolen Colt pistol which, to his shame, has been pickpocketed on a bus. A manhunt begins when the stolen gun is used in a murder. The older and wiser detective, Sato ,...
1949, directed by
Akira Kurosawawas a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. In a career that spanned 50 years, Kurosawa directed 30 films. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in film history...
are considered important early works leading to his first masterpieces of the 1950s.
Drunken Angel 1948, marked the beginning of the successful collaboration between Kurosawa and actor
Toshirō MifuneToshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa in films such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
that lasted until 1965.
Entertainers
- Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor.-Early life:He was born Carver Dana Andrews on a farm just outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi, the third of nine children of Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister, and his wife Annis...
- Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
- Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire , born Frederick Austerlitz, was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films...
- Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
- Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her husky voice and sultry looks....
- Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American expatriate entertainer and actress. She became a French citizen in 1937. Most noted as a singer, Baker also was a celebrated dancer in her early career. She was given the nicknames the "Bronze Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in...
- Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as All About Eve, The Razor's Edge and The Ten Commandments.-Early life:...
- Jack Benny
Jack Benny , born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
- William Bendix
William Bendix was an American film actor.-Early life:Bendix, named for his paternal grandfather, was born in Manhattan, New York City, the only son of Cleveland-born Oscar and London-born Hilda Bendix...
- Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress in the first Tony Award ceremony in 1947. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
- Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor.After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart turned to film...
- Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor, who had appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After having a dramatic education, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in European and Hollywood movies during the 1930s. Although moving to the U.S., he kept up the connection with...
- Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Highly regarded as a film character actor, Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor three times...
- James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American film actor. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of roles, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.For his first performing...
- Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s...
- Lon Chaney Jr.
- Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film actor. He was known for his brooding, sensitive working-class character roles. He received four Academy Award nominations during his career.-Early life:...
- Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American stage and film actress.Born in Saint-Mandé, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
- Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
- Gary Cooper
Frank James “Gary” Cooper was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
- Abbott and Costello
William Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work in radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 50s...
- Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. He is best remembered for his association with Orson Welles, which led to appearances in Journey into Fear, which Cotten wrote, Citizen Kane, The Third Man, and The Magnificent Ambersons.Cotten first achieved prominence on Broadway,...
- Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925...
- Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American popular singer and actor whose career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death....
- Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer. Dandridge was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.-Early life and career:...
- Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
- Doris Day
Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff , known by her stage name Doris Day, is an American singer and actress.With the versatility to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she became one of America's biggest box-office stars. Day has 39 movies to her credit, even though she retired from films in...
- Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is an actress. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. De Havilland is one of the last surviving female stars from 1930s Hollywood. She is also the last living lead from Gone with the Wind....
- Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself. In 1920s Berlin, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
- Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
- Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American actor and film producer recognized for his prominent cleft chin, his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as "sons of bitches". He is the father of Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas...
- Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama .-Early life:Born Irene Marie...
- Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader.Duke Ellington became one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music, and is largely recognized as one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz, though his music stretched into...
- Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer. She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader-comedian Phil Harris...
- Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian film actor, known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Background and early life:...
- Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of method acting....
- Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine is a British American actress. She became an American citizen in April 1943. She is the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, also an Academy Award winner. Along with Luise Rainer, Gloria Stuart, Shirley Temple, Deanna Durbin and Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine is one of the...
- Clark Gable
William Clark Gable was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In , the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time....
- Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared in supporting roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, admired for her beauty, and highly regarded for her...
- Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy...
- Greer Garson
Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson, CBE was a British-born actress who was very popular during World War II. As one of MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, winning the Best Actress award for Mrs. Miniver...
- Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith and Erich...
- Betty Grable
Betty Grable was an American dancer, singer, and actress.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the Life magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
- Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was a British-American actor...
- Sidney Greenstreet
- Carl Stuart Hamblen
- Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as the era's greatest sex symbol, most notably in Gilda...
- Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, television and stage.Hepburn holds the record for the most Best Actress Oscar wins with four, from 12 nominations. Hepburn won an Emmy Award in 1976 for her lead role in Love Among the Ruins, and was nominated for four other Emmys, two...
- Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG was an American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO tours entertaining American military personnel...
- Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne is an American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz notables, including Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Benny Carter and Billy Eckstine...
- Walter Huston
Walter Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Career:...
- Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:...
- Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was an American award-winning actor, singer and comedian.-Early years:Born David Daniel Kaminsky to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants in Brooklyn, Kaye became one of the world's best-known comedians...
- Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer....
- Alan Ladd
Alan Walbridge Ladd was an American film actor.-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas to an American father and an English-American mother . His father died when the boy was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City, where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
- Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake was an American film actress and pin-up model who enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, as well as her peek-a-boo hairstyle.-Early life and career:Veronica Lake was born Constance Frances Marie...
- Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-born American actress and scientist. Though known primarily for her acting , she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.-Early life and career in Europe:Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler...
- Dorothy Lamour
Dorothy Lamour was an American film actress. She is probably best-remembered for appearing in the Road to... movies, a series of successful comedies co-starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.-Early life:...
- Bert Lancaster
- Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a popular comedy team composed of thin, English-born Stan Laurel and heavy, American-born Oliver Hardy . They became famous during the early half of the 20th century for their work in motion pictures and also appeared on stage throughout America and Europe.The two comedians...
- Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and two-time director.While best known for his historical roles in films, he started his career as a remarkable stage actor...
- Peter Lawford
Peter Sydney Vaughn Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English actor, member of the "Rat Pack," and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...
- Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won two Best Actress Academy Awards for playing "southern belles": Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she had also played on stage in London's West End.She was a...
- Gene Lockhart
Eugene "Gene" Lockhart was a Canadian Academy Award-nominated character actor, singer, playwright and popular composer.-Early life:...
- June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American television and film actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s TV. She is best remembered as the mother on two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She is also remembered as Dr...
- Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in several classic films of the 1930s, most notably in the 1936 film My Man Godfrey...
- Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He made an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
- Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
- Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was an English-American film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her forty-eight year career, she appeared in fifty-nine films, and directed nine others. She also appeared in episodic television fifty-eight times and directed fifty other episodes...
- Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Lynn, DBE is an English singer whose career flourished during World War II. Nicknamed "The Forces' Sweetheart", the songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover".-'Ea'rly life:...
- Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a highly successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, starting in 1930 and extending into the 1970s.MacMurray is well known for his role in the 1944 film noir Double...
- Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives.-Early life:...
- Ray Milland
Ray Milland was a Welsh-American actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best-remembered for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend ....
- Carmen Miranda
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha
GCIH, better known by the stage name Carmen Miranda was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer and actress popular in the 1940s and 1950s....
- Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe , born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model....
- Margaret O'Brien
Margaret O'Brien is an Academy Award-winning American film actress, and although her career was brief, was one of the most highly regarded child actors in cinema history....
- Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude...
- Gregory Peck
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- Walter Pidgeon
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- Dick Powell
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- Eleanor Powell
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- William Powell
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- Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as "Ty Power", was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black...
- Anthony Quinn
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- Claude Rains
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- Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone, MC , was a South African–born British actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and of suave villains in such swashbuckler films as The Mark of Zorro, Captain Blood, and The Adventures of Robin Hood.- Early life :He was born Philip St...
- Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
- Edward G. Robinson
Edward Goldenberg Robinson, Sr. was an American actor born in Romania...
- Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American film and stage actress, dancer and singer.During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and is noted for her role as Fred Astaire's romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of ten Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre...
- Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers , was a singer and cowboy actor, as well as the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants chain. He and his second wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino Trigger, and his German Shepherd Dog, Bullet, were featured in over one hundred movies and The Roy Rogers Show...
- Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was a Cuban American film and television actor, best known for his portrayal of The Joker in the 1960s television series Batman...
- Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. During his career he has won multiple awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
- Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Auntie Mame in film...
- Joseph Schildkraut
Joseph Schildkraut was an Austrian stage and film actor.-Early life:Born in Vienna, Austria, Schildkraut was the son of stage actor Rudolf Schildkraut. The younger Schildkraut moved to the United States in the early 1900s. He appeared in many Broadway productions...
- Lizabeth Scott
Lizabeth Scott is an American actress who achieved much success within the film noir genre, as well as other mainstream films and music.- Early life :...
- Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, a star of film and television, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
- James Stewart
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
- Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE , also known as Liz Taylor, is an English-born British-American actress. Known for her acting skills and beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle, including many marriages...
- Robert Taylor
Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor.-Early life:Born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the son of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, who was a farmer turned doctor. As a teenager, he was a track star and played the cello in his high school orchestra...
- Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best-remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven...
- Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 74 films from 1930 to 1967. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Tracy among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 9th on the list...
- Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
- John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , born Marion Robert Morrison, better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and has become an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and height...
- Orson Welles
George Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
- Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark was an American actor of films, stage, radio and television.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
- Cornel Wilde
Cornelius Louis Wilde was an American actor and film director.-Early life:Wilde was born in 1915 in Manhattan. His parents were the Hungarian Jews Béla Weisz and Renée Vojtech. A talented linguist, and an astute mimic, he had an ear for languages which became apparent later in his acting career...
- Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman was an American character actress of stage, film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades...
- Loretta Young
-Early life:She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah as Gretchen Young, of Luxembourgian descent.At confirmation, she took the name Michaela. She and her family moved to Hollywood when she was three years old. Loretta and her sisters Polly Ann Young and Elizabeth Jane Young worked as child actresses,...
Musicians
- Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was an American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. Music critic Alan Blyth said "Her voice was a rich, vibrant contralto of intrinsic beauty." Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and...
- The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters LaVerne Sophia Andrews , Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and Patricia Marie Andrews...
- Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
- Gene Autry
Orvon Gene Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
- Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
- Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
- Charlie Barnet
Charles Daly Barnet was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", and "Southland Shuffle".-Early life:...
- Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Widely regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time, Basie led his popular Count Basie Orchestra for almost 50 years...
- Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
- Mills Brothers
The Mills Brothers were a jazz and pop vocal quartet of the 20th century producing more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and garnered at least three dozen gold records...
- Les Brown
Les Brown, Sr. and the Band of Renown are a big band that began in the late 1930s, initially as the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils that Brown led while a student at Duke University...
- Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songs, as recorded by Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin...
- Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s...
- Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat "King" Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz...
- Perry Como
Pierino "Perry" Como was an Italian-American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with it in 1943. "Mr...
- Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American popular singer and actor whose career stretched over more than half a century from 1926 until his death....
- Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
- Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis Dorsey was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing".. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey.". His lyrical trombone style became one of the signature sounds of his band...
- Billy Eckstine
William Clarence “Billy” Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
- Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader.Duke Ellington became one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music, and is largely recognized as one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz, though his music stretched into...
- Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Lady Ella", and the "First Lady of Song", was an American jazz vocalist....
- Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
- Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer.Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
- Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman was an American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
- Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host and songwriter.-Biography:...
- Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing...
- Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne is an American singer and actress. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz notables, including Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Charlie Barnet, Benny Carter and Billy Eckstine...
- Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress and singer.-Early life:Hutton was born as Elizabeth June Thornburg, a daughter of railroad foreman Percy E. Thornburg and his wife, the former Mabel Lum...
- Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson was an African-American gospel singer. With her powerful, distinct voice, Mahalia Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and is the first Queen of Gospel Music...
- Harry James
Harry Haag James was an American musician and bandleader. James was an instrumentalist of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work identifiable...
- Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian, and actor. According to PBS, he is considered the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America"...
- Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was an American award-winning actor, singer and comedian.-Early years:Born David Daniel Kaminsky to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants in Brooklyn, Kaye became one of the world's best-known comedians...
- Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye was a famous U.S. bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line "Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye" became one of the most famous of the so-called Big Band Era.He graduated from Rocky River High School in Rocky River, Ohio in 1927...
- Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an influential American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
- Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza was an Italian American tenor and Hollywood movie star who enjoyed success in the late 1940s and 1950s....
- Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer and actress. She first came to prominence in the 1940s with her #1 hits Somebody Is Taking Your Place and Mañana, having a string of successful albums and top 10 hits in three consecutive decades...
- Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American songwriter and singer. As a songwriter, he is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
- Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller , was an American jazz musician, arranger, composer, and band leader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
- Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus, Jr. was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and pianist. He was also known for his activism against racial injustice....
- Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American singer, trumpeter and big band leader, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
- Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is often considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians...
- Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf, born Édith Giovanna Gassion , was a French singer and cultural icon who "is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer." Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
- Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin"...
- Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
- Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history...
- Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
- Paul Robeson
Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson was an internationally renowned American basso profundo concert singer, scholar, actor of film and stage, All-American and professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator and lawyer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism...
- Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader...
- Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality. She was most popular during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 1950s....
- Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
- Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America"...
- Ink Spots
- Billy Strayhorn
William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn was an American composer, pianist and arranger, best known for his successful collaboration with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington lasting nearly three decades...
- Ernest Tubb
Ernest Dale Tubb , nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" , marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music...
- Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century". She had a contralto vocal range....
- Hank Williams
- Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by many music authorities one of the fathers of Western swing and called the King of Western Swing by his fans.-New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma:He was born near Kosse,...
- Teddy Wilson
Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was a jazz pianist from the United States born in Austin, Texas. His sophisticated and elegant style graced the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald...
Sports
During the 1940s Sporting events were disrupted and changed by the events that engaged and shaped the entire world. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the United States Heavyweight Boxing Champion
Joe LouisJoseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949....
and numerous stars and performers from American baseball and other sports served in the armed forces until the end of the war. Among the baseball players (including well known stars) who served during World War II were
Moe BergMorris "Moe" Berg was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II...
,
Joe DimaggioJoseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Jr., was an American baseball player for the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955...
,
Bob FellerRobert William Andrew "Bob" Feller , nicknamed the "Heater from Van Meter", "Bullet Bob" and "Rapid Robert", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.-Early life:Feller was born and raised in the small town of Van Meter, Iowa, the...
,
Hank GreenbergHenry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s....
, and
Ted WilliamsTheodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was a left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played 21 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot...
. They like many others sacrificed their personal and valuable career time for the benefit and well being of the rest of society.
Boxing
- Buddy Baer
Buddy Baer , born Jacob Henry Baer, was an American boxer, and the brother of heavyweight champion Max Baer. He boxed 59 professional fights, won 52 with 46 knockouts, and was defeated 7 times...
- Ezzard Charles
Ezzard Mack Charles was an African-American professional boxer and former world heavyweight champion.He was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, but is commonly thought of as a Cincinnatian. Charles graduated from Woodward High School in Cincinnati where he was already becoming a well-known fighter...
- Billy Conn
William David Conn , better known in the boxing world as Billy Conn, was a Light-Heavyweight boxing champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis. He had a professional boxing record of 63 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw, with 14 wins by knockout...
- Rocky Graziano
Rocky Graziano, born Thomas Rocco Barbella in New York City , was an outstanding American boxer. Graziano was considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing history, often displaying the capacity to take his opponent out with a single punch...
- Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949....
- Sugar Ray Robinson
'Sugar Ray Robinson was a professional boxer. Frequently cited as the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson's performances at the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight...
- Max Schmelling
- Jersey Joe Walcott
Arnold Raymond Cream , better known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was a world heavyweight boxing champion. He broke the world's record for the oldest man to win the world's Heavyweight title when he earned it at the age of 37.- Background :Walcott was born in Merchantville, New Jersey, the son of...
- Tony Zale
Anthony Florian Zaleski was an American boxer. Zale was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, a steel town, which gave him his nickname,...
Baseball
- Bill Dickey
William Malcolm Dickey was a Major League Baseball player and manager. One of the most famous catchers in major league history, he played his entire career with the New York Yankees, with whom he appeared in eight World Series, winning seven.Dickey was born in Bastrop, Louisiana. He broke into...
- Joe Dimaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Jr., was an American baseball player for the New York Yankees. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955...
- Bob Feller
Robert William Andrew "Bob" Feller , nicknamed the "Heater from Van Meter", "Bullet Bob" and "Rapid Robert", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.-Early life:Feller was born and raised in the small town of Van Meter, Iowa, the...
- Josh Gibson
Joshua Gibson was an American catcher in baseball's Negro Leagues. He played for the Homestead Grays from 1930 to 1931, moved to the Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1932 to 1936, and returned to the Grays from 1937 to 1939 and 1942 to 1946...
- Hank Greenberg
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s....
- Monte Irvin
Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin is a former left fielder and right-handed batter in the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball who played with the Newark Eagles , New York Giants and Chicago Cubs .Although born in Haleburg, Alabama, Irvin grew up in Orange, New Jersey, one of five players who grew...
- Buck Leonard
Walter Fenner "Buck" Leonard was an American first baseman in Negro League baseball.Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Leonard left school at the age of 14 because no high school education was available for blacks in his hometown...
- Johnny Mize
John R. "Johnny" Mize was a baseball player who was a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and New York Yankees. He played in the Major Leagues from 1936 through 1953 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.Mize was born in Demorest, Georgia, where he later...
- Stan Musial
Stanley Frank "Stan" Musial , born Stanisław Franciszek Musiał, , is a retired American professional baseball player who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. Nicknamed "Stan the Man", Musial played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1941 to 1963...
- Satchel Paige
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in several different Negro Leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...
- Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive best known for two things: breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing African American player Jackie Robinson and later drafting the first Hispanic superstar Roberto Clemente; and creating the framework for the...
- Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
- Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was a left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played 21 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot...
Activists and religious leaders
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr., , is an American evangelist and an Evangelical Christian. He has been a spiritual adviser to multiple United States presidents and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 21st century. He is a Southern Baptist...
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah Urdu: , a 20th century politician and statesman, is generally regarded as the founder of Pakistan. He served as leader of The Muslim League and Pakistan's first Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-i-Azam and Baba-e-Qaum...