George M. Cohan (b. 07/04/1878 d. 12/05/1942)

Actor, dramatist, and director, born in Providence, RI. He began in vaudeville as a child in his family's act, the Four Cohans, and was writing for the act by the age of 15. As an actor he is remembered in such roles as the father in O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! (1935), and as a writer of such songs as "Yankee Doodle Dandy', which featured in his musical Little Johnny Jones (1904), and which gave the title of the film made of his life.