ZiMAD, a mobile game developer, has announced a partnership with LIFE, the world-renowned magazine. In its first collaboration with a digital puzzle and gaming company, the LIFE Picture Collection will be sharing highlights from its vast and important photographic archive. And Magic Jigsaw Puzzles players will be able to relive the most spectacular moments in history, piece by piece.

LIFE’s debut features one of the most famous stars of the 20th century: Marilyn Monroe. You will find colorful and creative images by LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ed Clark, JR Eyerman, Michael Rougier and more featuring the world’s most famous blonde in the new puzzle set.

“We are happy that now our players have the unique opportunity to ‘witness’ the greatest events and plunge into the heart of history by playing their favorite puzzle game,” said ZiMAD CEO Dmitry Bobrov. “Magic Jigsaw Puzzles is the world’s largest digital collection of puzzles, and LIFE is one of the greatest private photographic archives in the United States. Through digitalization, such a partnership contributes to sharing of the cultural heritage of an entire generation.”

The new LIFE-themed puzzle sets will be free for all players. ZiMAD is also planning to update the collection with more images from the LIFE archive.

Collect your first puzzle now:
Google Play Store
App Store

The post LIFE Debuts Digital Jigsaw Puzzles With ZiMAD appeared first on LIFE.

But for all those successes, Brando had not yet made the cover of LIFE — a magazine that prided itself on capturing and reflecting the nations’ obsessions and interests, week after week after week. In 1952, that oversight was remedied, as legendary photographer Margaret Bourke-White shot a portrait session with Brando, capturing the 28-year-old star in a casual, playful mood.

For reasons lost to time, Bourke-White’s photos — discovered in LIFE’s archives and marked with the sole descriptive phrase, “cover tries” — were never published in the magazine. (Though Bourke-White’s portraits never saw the light of day, Brando ultimately did grace the cover of LIFE, making his first appearance in character as Antony from Julius Caesar in the April 20, 1953, issue. He’d appear on the cover three more times.)

It is difficult to look at the face of the young Brando without feeling the influence of his most iconic performances, from On the Waterfront to The Godfather. Here, meet the young Brando at his most charismatic and mysterious, seen through the lens of one of LIFE’s greatest photographers, in a series of photos that never ran in the magazine.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando: First LIFE Cover

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952 appeared first on LIFE.

In October 1948, Taylor, who was only 16, arrived in a low-cut dress at Halsman’s New York City portrait studio, which still exists and is home to the Halsman Archive. “In my studio Elizabeth was quiet and shy. She struck me as an average teen-ager, except that she was incredibly beautiful,” Halsman reflected in his book Halsman: Sight and Insight.

Halsman had his one-of-a-kind hand-built 4×5 view camera ready to go with both black-and-white and color film.

“On a purely technical level, he pointed out that two sides of my face photographed differently,” Taylor would later recall. “One side looked younger; the other more mature. In posing for Halsman, I became instantly aware of my body.”

Taylor had worn her own dazzling earrings, but she didn’t wear a necklace. During the sitting, Halsman borrowed his wife Yvonne Halsman’s blue triangle pendant necklace and placed it around Elizabeth’s neck. This subtle decision added a level of impact to the portrait. The necklace was later passed down to Halsman’s daughter Irene.

In Taylor’s 1988 autobiography, Elizabeth Takes Off: On Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Self-Image, and Self-Esteem, she described the effect the portrait session had on her self-image: “[Halsman] was the first person to make me look at myself as a woman… After my session with Halsman, I was much more determined to control my screen image. I wanted to look older so I insisted on cutting my hair. In 1949 I went from portraying Amy in Little Women, another child-woman to playing a full-fledged romantic lead in The Conspirator. At barely seventeen, I grew up for all America to see.“

Halsman ran into Taylor a few weeks later in Hollywood and when approached by him, she couldn’t remember where they had met.

“She could have not hurt me more,” he would later reflect. “Her words showed again how important a photograph can be and how unimportant the photographer who made it.”

Color portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, Oct. 1948.

Philippe Halsman Halsman Archive

Color portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, Oct. 1948.

Philippe Halsman Halsman Archive

A black-and-white outtake from Halsman’s shoot with Elizabeth Taylor, Oct. 1948.

Philippe Halsman Halsman Archive

A black-and-white outtake from Halsman’s shoot with Elizabeth Taylor, Oct. 1948.

Philippe Halsman Halsman Archive

Halsman’s portrait of Taylor as it originally appeared in color the Feb. 21, 1949 issue of LIFE.

The post Elizabeth Taylor: A Life-Changing Portrait appeared first on LIFE.

“Whenever Poitier walks on stage, excitement walks on with him,” wrote entertainment editor Tom Prideaux. “He seems to be taking it easy most of the time but with the hidden tension of a coiled spring. In appearance he veers between man and boy. His open grin and handsomely boyish head set off a powerful body. He can be as appealing as a child or show a shattering range of deep adult emotion. Today, acting and Poitier seem made for each other.”

Poitier died on January 6, 2022 at the age of 94. Here, LIFE presents some of the magazine’s most striking images of the star, who appeared in its pages in a 1950 story about the film No Way Out, went on to be featured on the cover in 1966 and became a mainstay of the magazine’s coverage of Hollywood as well as the civil rights movement. As these pictures make clear, Poitier’s career has been one of breadth as well as depth.

“It has been a long journey,” as Poitier said when he accepted his Oscar in 1964, “to this moment.”

Sidney Poitier in a scene from the film “Cry The Beloved Country”, 1952.

Yale Joel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier at the prayer pilgrimage in Washington D.C., 1957.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier with his wife at home, 1959.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier in the play “A Raisin in the Sun”, with Ruby Dee, 1959.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier in “A Raisin in the Sun,” 1959.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The “Raisin in the Sun” party at Sardis with Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, 1959.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier in a scene from “Porgy and Bess,” 1959.

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Folk singer Odetta at a civil rights rally at the Statue of Liberty with Sidney Poitier, 1960.

Al Fenn The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier spoke at a pre-Inaugural gala for President John F. Kennedy, 1961.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier in a TV program, “Strolling Twenties,” a story about Harlem of that era, 1965.

Henry Groskinsky The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier during the filming of “The Lost Man,” 1968.

Charles Bonnay The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

The post Sidney Poitier: Actor and Activist appeared first on LIFE.

The nine-page photo essay that Shaw produced for LIFE’s December 7, 1953 issue, like the outtakes seen in this gallery, provides some hint of what made Hepburn different: rather than trailing her at parties or even in front of the camera, the photographer focused on her workaday life. She got up early for work, went to the studio, got ready to film Sabrina (referred to by the title of the play on which it’s based, Sabrina Fair, in the story), practiced ballet and got ready for another day of work. The most glamorous parts of the day, the actual filming, were elided in favor of behind-the-scenes prep. But the day was a fitting subject for a photo essay, the magazine noted, “not because there is anything so remarkable about it but because whatever Audrey does, she looks pretty remarkable doing it.”

As for the question of whether Hepburn would be more than a one-hit wonder, the years have provided an unassailable answer. In the decades that followed the release of Sabrina, Hepburn become one of the 20th century’s most iconic stars, and it was just as photographer Shaw predicted. In a note at the beginning of the issue, he commented that she was a “monster” when it came to productivity and that the studio technicians who worked with her guessed that she would have a long and illustrious career.

“We can tell,” they told Shaw, “when someone has got it.”

Audrey Hepburn, 1953.

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Original caption: “Dinner alone is usually eaten on floor where she squats easily because of lifelong ballet training. While eating she often reads classical drama, with heavy helping of Shaw and Shakespeare.”

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Original caption: Being made up, Audrey has the contours of her eyes skillfully emphasized. They are naturally large, tilted at the corners, with heavy brows.”

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Audrey Hepburn, 1953.

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Audrey Hepburn, 1953.

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Audrey Hepburn, 1953.

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Audrey Hepburn on the set of Sabrina.

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Audrey Hepburn, 1953.

© Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com

Audrey Hepburn photo essay that ran in LIFE magazine, December 7, 1953.

Mark Shaw LIFE Magazine

Audrey Hepburn photo essay that ran in LIFE magazine, December 7, 1953.

Mark Shaw LIFE Magazine

Audrey Hepburn photo essay that ran in LIFE magazine, December 7, 1953.

Mark Shaw LIFE Magazine

Audrey Hepburn photo essay that ran in LIFE magazine, December 7, 1953.

Mark Shaw LIFE Magazine

Audrey Hepburn photo essay that ran in LIFE magazine, December 7, 1953.

Mark Shaw LIFE Magazine

The post Intimate Pictures of Audrey Hepburn at Home in 1953 appeared first on LIFE.

So went the editor’s note about Peck’s 1947 LIFE cover by Nina Leen, cementing in the minds of readers that he was the handsome, wholesome hero at the heart of the Hollywood dream. He was still 15 years away from the role that would win him an Oscar and solidify his legacy, but he was already as respected as he was beloved.

The actor, born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, began his career in the theater in the early 1940s, exempted from the draft thanks to a back injury. Though he was often penniless during those years and sometimes slept on the street, the launching of his film career brought swift success. After releasing his first movie, Days of Glory, in 1944, he went on to receive four Academy Award nominations in the next five years. His fifth would be the one he finally took home.

Though the pages of LIFE are filled with glowing reviews of Peck’s performances, the legacy he left behind transcends the bounds of stage and screen. Peck, who died in 2003, is remembered as every bit the decent soul as his version of Atticus Finch was. As TIME’s late film critic Richard Corliss wrote in his obituary for the actor:

It’s dangerous to confuse an actor with his movie roles. But by all accounts the reel and the real Gregory Peck were close kin. He was a model of probity, a loyal friend to colleagues in distress, a father confessor to the Hollywood community. He chaired the National Society of This, the American Academy of That. He was laden with official honors: Lyndon Johnson gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Richard Nixon put him on his Enemies List. Peck received perhaps his sweetest laurel last week when the reclusive [Harper] Lee, on hearing of his death, said, “Gregory Peck was a beautiful man. Atticus Finch gave him the opportunity to play himself.”

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Gregory Peck smoking a pipe for a scene in the movie “The Yearling.” 1947.

Walter Sanders The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck and Ann Todd, starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Paradine Case. 1947.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of Gregory Peck in New York City, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner watching Walter Huston as he gambles in scene from film “The Great Sinner.” 1949.

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Peck at the beach in his birthplace of La Jolla, California, 1949.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck costumed as WWII American Air Forces bomber pilot for movie “Twelve O’Clock High.” 1950.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward on the set of the 1951 film “David and Bathsheba.”

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck on a set in Hollywood, California. 1955.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck in promotional shot for the film “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” 1956.

J. R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Gregory Peck: How an Actor Became an Icon of Moral Decency appeared first on LIFE.