Timelines for year 1938

Tommy Bond

Tommy Bond


Bond was one of the first "Charter" members of the newly formed 'Screen Actors Guild [us]' when he joined in 1938 at the age of 11 years old. His sponsor was Comedian/Actor Eddie Cantor.

Jeff Donnell

Jeff Donnell


Lived in Towson, MD during her youth and was a 1938 graduate of the Towson Senior High School.

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney


In 1938, he was severely reprimanded by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer for having a torrid affair with Norma Shearer. The affair was causing quite a commotion on the set of her film Marie Antoinette , where the two would hole up in her trailer. Mickey was 18 at the time. Shearer was 38 and her husband, MGM studio exec Irving Thalberg, had recently died. Mayer managed to keep the story from going public and it was not revealed until many years later, when Rooney gave the explicit details in his autobiography.

In 1938, he was severely reprimanded by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer for having a torrid affair with Norma Shearer. The affair was causing quite a commotion on the set of her film Marie Antoinette (1938), where the two would hole up in her trailer. Mickey was 18 at the time. Shearer was 38 and her husband, MGM studio exec Irving Thalberg, had recently died. Mayer managed to keep the story from going public and it was not revealed until many years later, when Rooney gave the explicit details in his autobiography.

Graduated from Hollywood High School in Hollywood, California, in 1938.

John Ford

John Ford


His apparently madcap affair with Katharine Hepburn, when both were married, inspired his friend Dudley Nichols to write the script for Bringing Up Baby (1938). When (after Hepburn broke off her relationship with Ford) she began her lifelong affair with Spencer Tracy, Ford was allegedly incensed and, after the two had had a fruitful collaboration early on in their careers, he neither spoke with or worked with Tracy for about 20 years.

Forrest Tucker

Forrest Tucker


Tucker was a 1938 graduate of Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, VA. Other alumni include Shirley MacLaine, Warren Beatty and Sandra Bullock.

Bob Feller

Bob Feller


Named to 8 American League All Star Teams (1938-1941, 1946-1948 and 1950).

Jo Stafford

Jo Stafford


Member of The Pied Pipers from 1938-1944.

William McKinley

William McKinley


Pictured on the 25¢ US postage stamp in the Presidential Series, issued 2 December 1938.

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee


Had four siblings, two sisters and two brothers: Phoebe Lee (b. 1938), Agnes Lee, older brother and fencing champion Peter Lee, and younger brother and musician Robert Lee. Some sources claim he also had a brother James who died of Black Lung in 1972, but James Yimm Lee was in fact his training partner, and not his brother.

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover


Hoover's birth certificate was not filed until 1938.

Elliott Gould

Elliott Gould


Was the lead in the film adaptation of Herman Raucher's novel "A Glimpse of Tiger" and one day walked off the set for reasons then unclear. He had been playing a wild, clownish, unpredictable character. A new director, Peter Bogdanovich, then got involved and the project morphed into what we know as the remake of Bringing Up Baby (1938)--What's Up, Doc? (1972), with the wild, clownish, unpredictable character changing genders and played by his ex-wife, Barbra Streisand.

Bill Cullen

Bill Cullen


At one point, he had dropped out of South High School, during his senior year, and raced professionally, but decided to comeback and graduate from high school in 1938.

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis


His brother Julius died after being hit by a truck (1938).

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers


Besides his most famous role as Roy Rogers himself, "King of the Cowboys", Roy may be one of the few actors, if not the most famous one, to have played three of the West's greatest legends: Wild Bill Hickok, William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill) and Jesse James. Also, in Billy the Kid Returns , he played the slain gunslinger as well.

Roy got his horse Trigger in 1938 and rode him in every one of his films and TV shows after that. He had appeared in one earlier movie, ridden by Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood . Trigger died in 1965 at age 33.

Roy got his horse Trigger in 1938 and rode him in every one of his films and TV shows after that. He had appeared in one earlier movie, ridden by Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Trigger died in 1965 at age 33.

Besides his most famous role as Roy Rogers himself, "King of the Cowboys", Roy may be one of the few actors, if not the most famous one, to have played three of the West's greatest legends: Wild Bill Hickok, William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill) and Jesse James. Also, in Billy the Kid Returns (1938), he played the slain gunslinger as well.

Gloria Stuart

Gloria Stuart


Turned down Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) because she felt that the material was not to her dramatic acting abilities; however, Darryl F. Zanuck forced her to do the picture, and explained that she would be seen by millions, due to Shirley Temple's popularity. Stuart agreed in a 1998 interview that Zanuck was correct.