Fred W. Applegate; Script Supervisor

Fred William Applegate, 92, who made movies for 40 years, from silents to Hollywood’s “golden era.” A native of Red Oak, Iowa, who grew up in Anaconda, Mont., Applegate came to Los Angeles as a youth, hoping the climate would improve his health. Still in high school, he talked his way into working on the labor gang for the Pickford Fairbanks Studio. In 1925, he began a 40-year career at Warner Bros. studios. Sound was beginning, creating a new job category for Applegate to develop as he wished--script supervisor. He handled the complications that arose when dialogue was added to scripts written for the silent screen. Applegate created many script record-keeping techniques involved in matching action with dialogue, and trained many top actors to speak on screen. Among the actors he worked with over the years were James Cagney, Errol Flynn, Jack Benny, Humphrey Bogart, Jane Wyman, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Myrna Loy. On June 18 in Tiburon, Calif., of Alzheimer’s disease.