Did you know that there were many Old Hollywood movie stars who has siblings who were also stars?Some you might recognize but some might actually surprise you. I didn't know that Estelle Evans (To Kill a Mockingbird), Rosanna Carter (Numerous TV guest roles), and Esther Rolle (Good Times) were sisters and yet I have seen each of them in many shows and films. 

I can only imagine that having a sibling to support you during the ups and downs in a career like moving making would have been very comforting. Many of the siblings you see here in this post were also a part of the Hollywood studio system. The studios were very strict and controlling of their stars so I like to think siblings like Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine helped each other when times got tough.

Here are some Old Hollywood movie stars with their movie star siblings:

Estelle Evans/ Rosanna Carter/ Esther Rolle

Dana Andrews/Steve Forrest 

Natalie Wood/Lana Wood

Constance Bennett/Joan Bennett

Olivia de Havilland/ Joan Fontaine

Pier Angeli/Marisa Pavan

Fayard Nicholas/Harold Nicholas 

John Barrymore/ Ethel Barrymore/ Lionel Barrymore

Noah Beery/Wallace Beery

Sam McDaniel/Etta McDaniel/Hattie McDaniel

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is one of my favorite movies. It has everything anyone could want to see in a film. There's drama, romance, action, twists, and even a villain. I was lucky that I was able to meet and interview Karolyn Grimes who played Zuzu Bailey early on in my blogging journey which you can read about HERE. 

This movie means so much to me. George Bailey's story is an important reminder that life is challenging but valuable. If you love It's a Wonderful Life (1946) as much as I do, you may enjoy these bits of trivia about the film. What are some of your favorite classic holiday movies?

"It's a Wonderful Life" represented the first and last time Capra produced, financed, directed and co-wrote a film.

Director Frank Capra often said that this was his favorite of all his films.

When the rights were still held at RKO, Cary Grant was slated to play the lead role of George Bailey made iconic by Jimmy Stewart.

The film, although now considered a classic, was such a financial disappointment that it busted Capra's production company, Liberty Films.

The set for Bedford Falls was constructed in two months and was one of the longest sets that had ever been made for an American movie. It covered four acres of RKO's Encino Ranch. It included 75 stores and buildings, a main street, a factory district and a large residential and slum area. Main Street was 300 yards long--three whole city blocks.

According to Matzen, "It's a Wonderful Life" was Jimmy Stewart's first picture after 20 months on the front lines of WWII. He reportedly suffered post-traumatic stress disorder while filming.

The film takes place from 1919 to December 24, 1945.

James Stewart was nervous about the phone kiss scene because it was his first onscreen kiss since his return to Hollywood after the war. Under director Frank Capra's watchful eye, Stewart filmed the scene in only one unrehearsed take, and it worked so well that part of the embrace was cut because it was too passionate to pass the censors.

A photograph of James Stewart at the age of six months, donated by his parents, was included in the Bailey home set.

Robert J. Anderson, who played young George Bailey, said Mr. Gower actor H.B. Warner really was drunk in the scene in which he slaps George. The real slaps caused real blood to ooze out of Anderson's ear. After the cameras stopped rolling, he comforted Anderson.

George hopes to go to college to "learn how to build things." In real life, James Stewart majored in architecture at Princeton University.

For the scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock through the window of the Granville house, director Frank Capra hired a marksman to shoot it out on cue. To everyone's amazement, Reed broke the window by herself. She had played baseball in high school and had a strong throwing arm. 

As Uncle Billy drunkenly leaves the Bailey home, it sounds as if he stumbles into some trash cans on the sidewalk. In fact, a crew member dropped a large tray of props right after Thomas Mitchell went off-screen. James Stewart began laughing, and Mitchell quickly improvised, "I'm alright, I'm okay!" Director Frank Capra decided to use this take in the final cut and gave the stagehand a $10 bonus for "improving the sound."

The gym floor that opens in the middle to reveal the swimming pool underneath was filmed at Beverly Hills High School In Beverly Hills, California, USA was real and is still in regular use.

The disgruntled prankster who opens the gymnasium floor, revealing the pool during the school dance, is none other than Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the Little Rascals shorts.

Sam Wainwright's catchphrase "hee-haw" is said 13 times throughout the movie, and not always by him.

While filming the scene in which George prays in the bar, James Stewart was so overcome that he began to sob. Frank Capra later re-framed and blew up the shot because he wanted to catch that expression on Stewart's face. This is why the shot looks so grainy compared with the rest of the film.

Actor and producer Sheldon Leonard said that he only agreed to play Nick the bartender so he could buy baseball tickets with his paycheck.

During the bank run scene, director Frank Capra rehearsed the scene between James Stewart and Ellen Corby several times. When Corby's character was asked how much money she needed, she replied $17, which was in the script. Just prior to the first actual take, Capra took Corby aside and told her to give Stewart an odd number, thinking it would be funnier. When she said "17.50" to Stewart, he was taken off-guard and impulsively kissed her, which was not in the script. Stewart's spontaneous reply was so genuine that Capra left the scene in the final film.

Halloween (1978) was shot in just 20 days.

The mask that was used was a mask of William Shatner as Captain Kirk from Star Trek.

The original draft of the screenplay was titled The Babysitter Murders and The Night He Came Home.

Will Sandin (Young Michael Myers) became a police officer in Los Angeles. He had no interest in pursuing a full time acting career.

The story is based on an experience John Carpenter had in college touring a psychiatric hospital. Carpenter met a child who stared at him "with a look of evil, and it terrified me."

Tommy Lee Wallace who was the production designer hand painted the leaves you see in the film.

They would collect all the leaves that were on the ground and recycle them for another scene.

The house that was the Meyers house was originally dilapidated as you would see it in the later scenes. The crew eventually fixed it up so they could film the opening scene with Judith and her little brother Michael Meyers.

Of the female leads (all the girls are supposed to be in high school), only Jamie Lee Curtis was actually a teenager at the time of shooting.

John Carpenter came up with the idea of having his name in the title as John Carpenter's Halloween. He was ahead of his time when it came to branding.

The first scenes with Judith and Michael were filmed using a Panaglide, allowed the camera to be rigged to the operator for long, unbroken shots.

Jamie Lee Curtis admits she made up the "Just the two of us" song she sang to herself at the movie's beginning when she was walking home from school.

The car that was used when Michael escapes from the asylum is a 1976 Ford LTD station wagon and it was rented. The car rental company was never told that the car was going to be used in a film.

The kids that were trick or treating in the film were local kids, not actors.

The movie that Tommy and Laurie are watching is The Thing from Another World (1951).

The stabbing sound effect is actually a knife stabbing a watermelon.

The co-creator and producer of Halloween (1978) Debra Hill was a the one who killed Judith Myers. The hand that we see from Michael's POV stabbing his sister repeatedly is that of Hill, as she was the only one small enough to fill the part.

Debra Hill wrote most of the dialog for the female characters, while John Carpenter concentrated on Dr. Loomis' speeches.

Originally, Dr. Loomis was supposed to have a phone conversation with his wife. Donald Pleasence didn't do it, saying he thought the character shouldn't have a family or a past.

John Carpenter composed the score in four days.

Inside Laurie Strode's bedroom there is a poster of a painting by James Ensor (1860-1949). Ensor was a Belgian expressionist painter who used to portray human figures wearing grotesque masks.

According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter's first girlfriend.

Donald Pleasence suggested the ended that was created for the film. It was filmed with Loomis discovering the body is gone. Rather than register any shock, he stares fixedly down, resigned to the fact that this battle is not over.

Latinos have been a part of the cinematic experience from the very beginning. Many of the actors back then were Mexican-born American or of Mexican descent. It wasn't until about the 1940's that Puerto Ricans became a part of the Old Hollywood landscape.

Just for background information, Puerto Ricans are Americans as Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States. As a U.S. territory, it is neither a state nor an independent country. It was in the 1940's and 1950's that many from the island of Puerto Rico came to the States in droves. My own paternal grandparents came to New York in the 1940's. My grandfather fought in WWII and in 1949 they had their first child, my father.

As more Puerto Ricans began to pursue careers in the arts, more were scene on the big screens as well as the small screens. Probably the most famous Puerto Rican Old Hollywood actors on this list are Jose Ferrer and Rita Moreno. 

The actors on this list forged through many challenges trying to find roles that weren't typecasting them but eventually they all created incredible careers. I really enjoyed putting this post together because I discovered a few Puerto Rican actors that I never heard of before. 

Here are ten Puerto Ricans that were in classic films:

José Ferrer (1912 - 1992)

Tony Martinez (1920 – 2002) 

Marquita Rivera (1922–2002)

Olga San Juan (1927–2009) 

Rita Moreno (1931 - )

Raúl Dávila (1931–2006)

Chita Rivera (1933-) 

Victor Argo (1934–2004) 

Míriam Colón (1936 - 2017)

Gregory Sierra (1937-2021) 

When the character Judy Haynes sings, you're actually hearing Rosemary Clooney or singer Trudy Stevens. The only time Vera's real singing voice is heard is when they disembark the train in Vermont and the quartet sing the opening lines of "Snow.

When the film came out, Rosemary was 26, and Vera-Ellen, 33. Even more striking? Bing, who plays her love interest, was 51 when the movie debuted.

The film was the highest-grossing movie of 1954 with a box office take of $12 million. 

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye's comedy act wasn't originally in the story. They were goofing around, though, and director Michael Curtiz found it so hilarious that he wrote it in. Apparently, the actors found it comical, too: The laughing during the number is real.

Although Dean Jagger was made out to be the "old man", Bing Crosby was actually six months older than Dean in real life.

When Bob looks at a picture of Benny Haynes, "The Dog-Faced Boy," it's actually an image of a grown-up Carl Switzer. He's best remembered for playing Alfalfa in the original Our Gang, also known as the The Little Rascals.

Percy Helton, who plays the railroad conductor, also appears in another holiday movie, playing the drunk Santa Claus at the beginning of Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

At 18, Vera-Ellen was one of the youngest Radio City Rockettes.

"Judy" was shorter than "Betty" so in an effort to make them even heights for their song numbers, although their shoes were matching, Judy's heels were higher.

Bob Fosse was the uncredited choreographer.

Throughout the film, dancer George Chakiris accompanies the Haynes sisters in an uncredited role. But soon after, he received the credit he was due: He later won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Bernardo in West Side Story. 

The Vermont inn is the remodeled Connecticut inn set from Bing Crosby's earlier movie Holiday Inn (1942).

After Fred and Bing's success in Holiday Inn, this film was intended to reunite them. But Fred had "retired" by the time White Christmas was shot 12 years later and he declined. Then, the part was offered to Donald O'Connor (known for Singin' in the Rain) but he pulled out after an illness. Then, the part was reworked for Danny Kaye.