Men with 6 letters in first name and surname
Same rules as the women list, except I also include deceased people and people I don't like.
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American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer James Rouse, who developed Columbia, MD; she passed away of brain cancer on March 6, 1997. His father, Edward Mower Norton, was an environmental lawyer and conservationist, who works for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Edward has two younger siblings, James and Molly.
From the age of five onward, the Yale graduate (majoring in history) was interested in acting. At the age of eight, he would ask his drama teacher what his motivation in a scene was. He attended theater schools throughout his life, and eventually managed to find work on stage in New York as a member of the Signature players, who produced the works of playwright and director Edward Albee. Around the time when he was appearing in Albee's Fragments, in Hollywood, they were looking for a young actor to star opposite Richard Gere in a new courtroom thriller, Primal Fear (1996). The role was offered to Leonardo DiCaprio but he turned it down. Gere was on the verge of walking away from the project, fed up with the wait for a young star to be found, when Edward auditioned and won the role over 2000 other hopefuls. Before the film was even released, his test screenings for the part were causing a Hollywood sensation, and he was soon offered roles in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Edward won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Primal Fear (1996). In 1998, Norton gained 30 pounds of muscle and transformed his look into that of a monstrous skinhead for his role as a violent white supremacist in American History X (1998). This performance earned him his second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor.
He received his third Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for his work in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). His most prominent roles also include the critically acclaimed Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Fight Club (1999), Red Dragon (2002), 25th Hour (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Illusionist (2006), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He has also directed and co-written films, including his directorial debut, Keeping the Faith (2000). He has done uncredited work on the scripts for The Score (2001), Frida (2002), and The Incredible Hulk (2008).
Alongside his work in cinema, Norton is an environmental and social activist, and is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing founded by his grandfather James Rouse.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Steven Frederic Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, to Patricia Anne (Fisher), a medical technician, and Samuel Seagal, a high school math teacher. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and his mother had English, German, and distant Irish and Dutch, ancestry. The enigmatic Seagal commenced his martial arts training at the age of seven under the tutelage of well-known karate instructor and author Fumio Demura, and in the 1960s commenced his aikido training in Orange County, CA, under the instruction of Harry Ishisaka. Seagal received his first dan accreditation in 1974, after he had moved to Japan to further his martial arts training. After spending many years there honing his skills, he achieved the ranking of a 7th dan in the Japanese martial art "aikido" and was instructing wealthy clients in Los Angeles when he came to the attention of Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz.
Ovitz saw star value in the imposing-looking Seagal. The high-octane action movie genre was in full swing in the late 1980s, and Seagal's debut movie, "Above the Law", was wildly received by action fans and actually received some complimentary critical reviews. He followed up "Above the Law" with another slam-bang thriller, Hard to Kill (1990), as a cop shot in an ambush by the mob who revives from a coma to take his revenge. The movie also starred Seagal's wife at the time, leggy Kelly LeBrock, who was married to him from 1987 to 1996 and is the mother of three of his children. His next outing was battling voodoo-using Jamaican drug "posses" in the hyper-violent Marked for Death (1990), before returning to fight psychotic mob gangster William Forsythe in the even more punishing Out for Justice (1991). Seagal was by now enormously popular, and his next movie, the big-budgeted Under Siege (1992), set aboard the battleship USS Missouri and also starring Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, was arguably his best film to date, impressing both fans and critics alike.
Seagal's fighting style was rather different from that of other on-screen martial arts dynamos such as Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who were predominantly fighters from striking arts background such as karate or tang soo do. However, aikido is built around using an opponent's inertia and body weight to employ various locks, chokes and holds that incapacitate him. Seagal carries himself differently, too, and often appears wearing Italian designer clothes and usually favors an all-black outfit, generally with a three-quarter-length coat with an elaborate trim. Additionally, Seagal's on-screen characters were often seemingly benign or timid individuals; however, when the going gets rough they reveal themselves to be deadly ex-CIA operatives, or retired Special Forces soldiers capable of enormous destruction!
As his box-office drawing power grew, Seagal began to infuse his film projects with his personal and spiritual beliefs, especially concerning the abuse of the environment. He appeared as an oil fire expert who turns against his corrupt CEO (played by Michael Caine) in On Deadly Ground (1994) to save the Eskimo population from an oil disaster; in Fire Down Below (1997) he plays an environmental agency troubleshooter investigating the dumping of toxic waste in Kentucky coal mines, and in the slow-moving The Patriot (1998) he plays a medical specialist trying to stop a lethal virus unleashed by an extremist group.
Action fans struggled to come to terms with social messaging being built into bone-crunching fight films; however, Seagal's box-office clout remained fairly strong, and more traditional chopsocky projects followed with the "buddy cop" film The Glimmer Man (1996), then almost a cameo role as a Navy SEAL alongside CIA analyst Kurt Russell before Seagal is sucked out of a jet at 35,000 feet in Executive Decision (1996).
In 1999 Seagal took a different turn in his film projects with the surprising genteel Prince of Central Park (2000), about a child living inside NYC's most famous park. He returned to more familiar territory with further high-voltage, guns-blazing action in Exit Wounds (2001), Half Past Dead (2002), Out for a Kill (2003) and Belly of the Beast (2003).
Unbeknownst to many, in 1997 Seagal publicly announced that one of his Buddhist teachers, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, had accorded Seagal as a tulku, the reincarnation of a Buddhist Lama. This initial announcement was met with some disbelief until Penor Rinpoche himself gave a confirmation statement on Seagal's new title. Seagal has repeatedly discussed his involvement in Buddhism and how he devotes many hours studying and meditating this ancient Eastern religion.
While his box-office appeal has somewhat declined from his halcyon blockbusters of the mid-'90s, Seagal still has a very loyal fan base in the action movie genre and continues to remain a highly bankable star.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Patton Oswalt has been headlining at comedy clubs all over the United States since 1996, as well as appearing in his own standup specials on Comedy Central and HBO. He was chosen as Entertainment Weekly's "It" comedian in 2002. He is a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993). His other television credits include appearances on Seinfeld (1989) and NewsRadio (1995).
As a writer, Oswalt spent two seasons on Mad TV (1995) and has also written for the MTV Music Video Awards. He is currently writing screenplays and has appeared in the feature films Starsky & Hutch (2004), Man on the Moon (1999) and Magnolia (1999).- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Wesley Trent Snipes was born in Orlando, Florida, to Marian (Long), a teacher's assistant, and SMSGT Wesley Rudolph Snipes, an aircraft engineer. He grew up on the streets of the South Bronx in New York City, where he very early decided that dance and the theatre were to be his career. He attended the High School for the Performing Arts (popularized in Fame (1980)). But dreams of the musical theater (and maybe a few commercials) faded when his mother moved to Orlando, Florida before he could graduate. Fortune would have it that he along with two friends and his "Drama class" teachers Mr. S Porro and K. Rugerio, would start a bus-n-truck theatre company (Struttin Street Stuff) be instrumental in his high schools (Jones High) induction into the International Thespian Society, Orlando Chapter and help lay the foundation for what would become Dr. Phillips High Schools theatre arts program. Musical theatre rooted Snipes performed song-n-dance, puppetry, and acrobatics in city parks, dinner clubs, and performing arts centers around central Florida. As a recipient of a Victor Borge Scholarship, Snipes left Orlando and entered the world-renowned professional theatre arts program at SUNY Purchase in New York, now Purchase College, where he honed his theatrical performance and martial arts skills. Graduating with a BFA, he went on to co-star in a few soap operas and nighttime dramas, peppered in between critical acclaim performances Broadway. It was there in a Broadway theater An agent saw him on stage and invited him to audition for his first feature film role.
Goldie Hawn Wildcats (1986). Athletic roles such as that gave way to dramatic roles such as that gave way to tough guy roles as in New Jack City (1991), and to the action hero in Passenger 57 (1992). Wesley feels that at least with the Hollywood heavyweights he must be doing something right - Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper and Sean Connery all had veto power over casting and all approved his role. Wesley also founded Amen Ra Films Production Company, and is a Multi System Combat Arts Black Belt Holder IT Technologist & VC.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
Justin Drew Bieber was born on March 1, 1994 at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario, Canada and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. He is the son of Pattie Mallette and Jeremy Bieber. He is of French-Canadian, Irish, German, English, and Scottish descent. He has three younger half-siblings via his father.
Growing up, he showed a strong interest in music and taught himself to play many instruments, including, guitar, drums, piano and trumpet. His mother began posting videos of him performing musically on YouTube. The videos soon built up a fan following and caught the attention of talent agent Scooter Braun. Braun was able to secure an impromptu audition with Usher, who was impressed and helped Bieber to sign a record deal.
In 2009, his first single, "One Time", was a worldwide hit and was certified Platinum in Canada and the United States. This was followed by his debut EP album, "My World", which was also an international success. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut record chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2010, he released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0. He also released a successful concert film, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011).
In 2012, he released his third studio album, Believe. In 2015, he released his fourth studio album, Purpose.
He has won a Grammy Award and an American Music Award. He has been listed numerous times by Forbes magazine among the "Top Ten Most Powerful Celebrities in the World."
He has sold an estimated 140 million records, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Thomas Ellis Gibson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, as the youngest child of four to Charles M. and Beth Gibson. His mother was a social worker and his father was a progressive Democratic lawyer and state legislator. At a young age Thomas became interested in theater, and began performing in children's plays. He spent a summer as an intern at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival when he was 18, and the following year he began studying at Juilliard School Drama Division as a member of Group 14. He made his NY stage debut in David Hare's A Map of the World at the NY Shakespeare Festival, and went on to perform in many plays both off and on Broadway. He has also worked extensively in films and on television. He was twice nominated for a Golden Globe for his work on Dharma and Greg. Mr. Gibson is also an accomplished director both in the theater and on television. He also recently produced and starred in a short film that he co-wrote with his son JP, The Writer's Bible, which JP also directed and produced.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Adrian Pasdar was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Rosemarie Pasdar (née Sbresny), who owns a travel agency, and Homayoon Pasdar, a prominent heart surgeon. His father is Iranian and his mother, who was born in Germany, is of German, and some Polish, descent. At the age of 2, his father moved the family to Powelton, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. In high school, he excelled at football, eventually leading to a football scholarship at the University of Florida in 1983. Football may have been a promising future, had it not been for a terrible accident during his freshman year that left his face scarred and his legs badly injured. A very driven Adrian finished his freshman year in a wheelchair, doing intensive physical therapy and turning his attention to campus stage productions and rediscovered a childhood interest in writing and acting. No longer able to play football, he dropped out of school and returned home, taking a job with a theater group "People's Light and Theatre Company". Here, he worked on sound, lighting and set construction. While constructing a set, he cut off the end of his left thumb. Adrian, having the ability to turn tragedy into triumph, used his medical compensation to pay for attendance at the famous Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. At the age of 19, he auditioned for a role in Top Gun (1986). Director Tony Scott was so impressed that he wrote the part of "Chipper" just for him. This led to bigger roles in Solarbabies (1986), Streets of Gold (1986), and Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 cult vampire movie Near Dark (1987), with Adrian in the lead role of "Caleb Colton". He also appeared in Vital Signs (1990). Adrian has always been an actor ahead of his time, opting for roles in independent and cable movies long before they were considered fashionable for feature actors to do. In 1992, feeling completely out-of-touch with reality, Adrian left Hollywood to return to New York. He worked as a cashier for room and board, while taking the occasional small part, such as "Frankie" in Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993). Another major break came in 1995, when Adrian was cast as the title character on the short-lived Fox series Profit (1996). He continues to act in supporting roles and has now added directing to his already impressive body of work. He wrote and directed the short film Beyond Belief (1999) and also directed a feature film entitled Cement (2000).Full name: Adrian Kayvan Pasdar- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Dieter Bohlen was born on 7 February 1954 in Berne, Lower Saxony, Germany. He is a composer and actor, known for Deutschland sucht den Superstar (2002), Bang Boom Bang - Ein todsicheres Ding (1999) and Daniel the Wizard (2004). He was previously married to Verona Pooth and Erika Sauerland.No comment- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
In 1979 Thomas Anders won a music competition of the radio station "Radio Luxembourg", (a highly noted and respected competition in those days) and was offered a recording contract with CBS. In 1980, at the age of 17, he released his first single "Judy". Several singles followed which were produced by Daniel David. In 1981 Thomas had his debut on TV in the Michael Schanze Show "Hätten sie heut' Zeit für uns", where he performed the song "Du weinst um ihn". In 1983 producer Dieter Bohlen recorded a German cover version of the song "Pick up phone" (F.R. David). At that time Thomas was an artist at HANSA, (today BMG Berlin), Dieter asked him to come to the recording studio in Hamburg to record the song together. Dieter Bohlen was enthusiastic about his voice. As a result he produced several German songs with Thomas, for example "Wovon träumst Du denn?", which peaked at 16 on the German Pop-Charts, "Endstation Sehnsucht" and "Heißkalter Engel" (German version of "Send Me An Angel" by Real Life).
In autumn 1984, Dieter Bohlen wrote the song "You're my heart, you're my soul", which was the debut song for Dieter and Thomas. Modern Talking was born. "You're my heart, you're my soul" went to the top of the charts and remained there for 6 weeks. The songs of the Pop-Duo were a huge success worldwide, nearly every song became a hit and things happened really fast. Soon, Modern Talking was the most successful German Pop-Duo and they got several gold and platinum records.
In autumn 1987 they broke up. Anders recorded six albums when he first pursued a solo career. Highly successful abroad between 1989 and 1995, he worked with well-known producers like Gus Dudgeon, Peter Wolf, Paul Muggleton & Mike Paxman and along with famous artists like Glen Meiderios, Judie Tzuke, Marta Sanchez, the Pointer Sisters and Three Degrees (with whom he sang a duet). Also he wrote the title song for an Argentinean series. These days he regularly thrills up to 85,000 fans per concert internationally in places like Cape Town, Hong Kong, Singapore, Santiago de Chile, Moscow etc.
In 1993 Thomas experienced something new, when he got a part in the Swedish Movie "Stockholm Marathon". He also wrote the title song for that movie. Lately he has been working on his new solo album for some time and plans to release it in the spring of 2004.No comment, again- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Thomas Dekker is a 30 year veteran of the film and television industry. At the age of 5, he landed a national commercial and a brief stint on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless". This lead to a slew of guest starring and recurring roles on popular television series of the time such as "Seinfeld", "ER" and "The Nanny" before he landed his first leading role in John Carpenter's 1995 film "Village of the Damned" opposite the late Christopher Reeve. It was this experience at the age of 6 that cemented Dekker's love and commitment to acting and placed him squarely in line with science fiction and genre fare. Concurrent with performances in both the feature film "Star Trek: Generations" and the TV series "Star Trek: Voyager", Dekker also began work as a voice actor. He would eventually play the voice of Littlefoot in "The Land Before Time" film series and Feivel in "An American Tail" film series, both for Universal Studios. At the age of 9, he was cast in his first series regular role as Nick Szalinski on Disney's "Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show", which ran for 3 seasons from 1997 to 2000. Immediately following the series, Dekker played the lead role of Jason Calloway in FOX's unaired comedy pilot "The No. 1 Show" co-starring Tina Fey and directed by SNL's Beth McCarthy Miller.
In 2006, Dekker landed the role of Zac, best friend to Hayden Panettiere's cheerleader Claire, in the popular NBC show "Heroes". However, Dekker left the series mid season to portray the iconic character of John Connor on FOX's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" opposite Lena Headey and Garret Dillahunt. The show was a critical and commercial success and garnered Dekker much praise for his sensitive, complex portrayal of the teen/future savior of the world. Between seasons of the series, Dekker played the romantic lead in Nick Cassavete's "My Sister's Keeper" alongside Cameron Diaz, Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin and he wrote and directed the expressionist drama "Whore" starring Megan Fox, Lena Headey and Rumer Willis. Upon the completion of "Terminator" in 2010, Dekker had lead roles in the cult film "All About Evil" with Natasha Lyonne, New Line's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" opposite Rooney Mara and Jackie Earle Haley, Gaby Dellal's ensemble drama "Angel's Crest" with Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Piven and Elizabeth McGovern and Gregg Araki's festival breakout "Kaboom" co-starring Haley Bennett, Roxane Mesquida and Juno Temple. The film was the first to receive the Queer Palm at Cannes and was a national sensation in France.
After receiving accolades at Toronto, Deauville, BFI London, San Francisco, Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals, Dekker won the coveted role of the legendary Lance Loud in HBO's "Cinema Verite", a biopic about the Louds, the first family to receive a reality TV show based on their lives in the 1970s. The Emmy nominated film was directed by Berman & Pulcini and co-starred Diane Lane, Tim Robbins, Patrick Fugit and the late James Gandolfini. Following this, Dekker returned to television as the male lead in Kevin WIlliamson's supernatural series "The Secret Circle" for the CW before continuing more film work with the festival hit "Enter the Dangerous Mind" starring Jake Hoffman and Nikki Reed, Catherine Hardwicke's erotic thriller "Plush" (which he also co-scored), "Squatters" with Gabriella Wilde, Luke Grimes and Richard Dreyfuss and "Lost in the White City", a Tel Aviv set drama co-starring Haley Bennett.
In 2014, Dekker began his role as Rainn WIlson's right hand man "Valentine" on FOX's dark comedy crime series "Backstrom" from "Bones" creator Hart Hanson. Following the series, Dekker pivoted his attention back to his writing/directing interests and made his second feature film "Jack Goes Home", a semi-autobiographical thriller starring Rory Culkin, Lin Shaye and Britt Robertson. The film premiered to standing ovations at the SXSW Film Festival and received worldwide distribution from eOne/Momentum. Next, Dekker made a cameo in Catherine Hardwicke's "Miss Bala" starring Gina Rodriguez and Ismael Cruz Cordova and appeared in "Body Brokers" with Melissa Leo, Michael K. Williams, Jack Kilmer and Alice Englert.
Dekker's latest turn was the role of cut-throat executive "Travis Denton" in Lionsgate/Roku Channel's series "Swimming With Sharks" opposite Diane Kruger, Kiernan Shipka, Finn Jones and Donald Sutherland. Written by Kathleen Robertson and directed by Tucker Gates, the series is based on the 1994 cult classic film of the same name and had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. Dekker will next appear in the film "Little Dixie" alongside Frank Grillo, Beau Knapp, Annabeth Gish and Eric Dane.
Dekker is currently in pre production on his third feature film as writer/director and as a musician, he most recently released his fourth studio album "Tasma" in August last year. He resides in southern California.
04/19/2022- Actor
- Producer
- Sound Department
Jeremy Lee Renner was born in Modesto, California, the son of Valerie (Tague) and Lee Renner, who managed a bowling alley. After a tumultuous yet happy childhood with his four younger siblings, Renner graduated from Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College. He explored several areas of study, including computer science, criminology, and psychology, before the theater department, with its freedom of emotional expression, drew him in.
However, Renner recognized the potential in acting as much through the local police academy as through drama classes. During his second year at Modesto Junior College, Renner role-played a domestic disturbance perpetrator as part of a police-training exercise for an easy $50. Deciding to shift his focus away from schoolwork, Renner left college and moved to San Francisco to study at the American Conservatory Theater. From there he moved to Hawaii and, in 1993, to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Renner devoted himself to theater, most notably starring in and co-directing the critically acclaimed "Search and Destroy." He pursued other projects during this time as well, landing his first film role in 1995's National Lampoon's Senior Trip (1995). After several commercials and supporting roles in television movies and series, Renner captured the attention of critics with his gripping, complex portrayal of the infamous serial killer in the 2002 film Dahmer (2002). Renner's performance, which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, is especially remarkable for painting a humane and sympathetic, yet deeply disturbing, portrait of the title character.
In 2003, Renner took a break from small indie films to work on his first commercially successful movie, S.W.A.T. (2003), with Colin Farrell. In 2005, he played the leading role in Neo Ned (2005) as an institutionalized white supremacist in love with a black girl, winning the Palm Beach International Film Festival's best actor award. Renner's pivotal supporting roles in 2005's 12 and Holding (2005) and North Country (2005) earned him accolades from critics, and his 2007 turn in Take (2007) garnered him the best actor award at California's Independent Film Festival. Also in 2007, Renner played a leading role in the horror film 28 Weeks Later (2007) as well as a supporting role in the underrated Western epic The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), with Casey Affleck, Brad Pitt, and Sam Rockwell.
Renner's depiction of Jeffrey Dahmer in 2002 caught the attention of director Kathryn Bigelow, and, in 2008, she cast him in his most famous role as Sergeant First Class William James in The Hurt Locker (2008). Renner's performance as a single-minded bomb specialist scored him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. He also earned best actor nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards, the Screen Actors Guild, and the BAFTA Awards, as well as wins in this category from several film critics groups.
In 2009, Renner starred in the short-lived TV series, The Unusuals (2009), and in 2010 he played the chilling but loyal criminal Jem in Ben Affleck bank-heist thriller The Town (2010). In the fall of 2010, Renner began filming Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). He has also since starred in The Avengers (2012), American Hustle (2013), and Kill the Messenger (2014).
Renner's strengths as an actor derive not only from his expressive eyes but also from his ability to thoroughly embody the characters he portrays. His visceral depiction of these individuals captivates audiences and empowers him to steal scenes in many of his films, even when playing a minor role. Renner gravitates toward flawed, complicated, three-dimensional characters that allow him to explore new territory within himself.
In addition to his work as an actor, Renner continues to cultivate his lifelong love of music. A singer, songwriter, and musician, he performed with the band Sons of Ben early in his career. Scenes in Love Comes to the Executioner (2006), North Country (2005), and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) briefly showcase Renner's singing talents.
Despite traveling the world for film roles and, recently, as a United Nations Goodwill Peace Ambassador to raise awareness for mine-clearing efforts in Afghanistan, Renner remains close to his roots. In 2010, Modesto Junior College presented him the Distinguished Alumnus award in recognition of his body of work as an actor. He also headlined at a benefit for Modesto's Gallo Center for the Arts in the fall of 2010.
Renner maintains a sense of humility and gratitude, even in the wake of his recent successes and recognition. He keeps himself grounded by renovating and restoring old and rundown iconic Hollywood homes, an enterprise he began back in his early days in Los Angeles. He values loyalty and a sense of both age and history, and enjoys the opportunity to help conserve these qualities in a town that favors the young and the new.- Actor
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- Camera and Electrical Department
Gerard James Butler was born in Paisley, Scotland, to Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookmaker. His family is of Irish origin. Gerard spent some of his very early childhood in Montreal, Quebec, but was mostly raised, along with his older brother and sister, in his hometown of Paisley. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he and his siblings were raised primarily by their mother, who later remarried. He had no contact with his father between the ages of two and 16 years old, after which time they became close. His father passed away when Gerard was in his early 20s. Butler went on to attend Glasgow University, where he studied to be a lawyer/solicitor. He was president of the school's law society thanks to his outgoing personality and great social skills.
His acting career began when he was approached in a London coffee shop by actor Steven Berkoff, who later appeared alongside Butler in Attila (2001), who gave him a role in a stage production of "Coriolanus" (later, Butler played Tullus Aufidius in a big screen Coriolanus (2011). After that, Butler decided to give up law for acting. He was cast as Ewan McGregor's character "Renton" in the stage adaptation of Trainspotting. His film debut was as Billy Connolly's younger brother in Mrs. Brown (1997). While filming the movie in Scotland, he was enjoying a picnic with his mother near the River Tay when they heard the shouts of a young boy, who had been swimming with a friend, who was in some trouble. Butler jumped in and saved the young boy from drowning. He received a Certificate of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society. He felt he only did what anyone in the situation would have done.
His film career continued with small roles, first in the "James Bond" movie, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and then Russell Mulcahy's Tale of the Mummy (1998). In 2000, Butler was cast in two breakthrough roles, the first being "Attila the Hun" in the USA Network mini-series, Attila (2001). The film's producers wanted a known actor to play the part but kept coming back to Butler's screen tests and decided he was their man. He had to lose the thick Scottish accent, but managed well. Around the time "Attila" was being filmed, casting was in progress for Wes Craven's new take on the "Dracula" legacy. Also wanting a known name, Butler wasn't much of a consideration, but his unending tenacity drove him to hounding the producers. Eventually, he sent them a clip of his portrayal of "Attila". Evidently, they saw something because Dracula 2000 (2000) was cast in the form of Butler. Attila's producers, thinking that his big-screen role might help with their own film's ratings, finished shooting a little early so he could get to work on Dracula 2000 (2000). Following these two roles, Butler developed quite a fan base, and began appearing on websites and fancasts everywhere.
Since then, he has appeared in Reign of Fire (2002) as "Creedy" and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003) as "Terry Sheridan", alongside Angelina Jolie. The role that garnered him the most attention from both moviegoers and movie makers, alike, was that of "Andre Marek" in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel, Timeline (2003). Butler played an archaeologist who was sent back in time with a team of students to rescue a colleague. Last year, he appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera (2004), playing the title character in the successful adaptation of the stage musical. It was a role that brought him much international attention. Other projects include Dear Frankie (2004), The Game of Their Lives (2005) and Beowulf & Grendel (2005).
In 2007, he starred as Spartan "King Leonidas" in the Warner Bros. production 300 (2006), based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, and Shattered (2007), co-starring Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello, which aired on network TV under the title, "Shattered". He also starred in P.S. I Love You (2007), with Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank.
In 2007, he appeared in Nim's Island (2008) and RocknRolla (2008), and completed the new Mark Neveldine / Brian Taylor film, Gamer (2009). His next films included The Ugly Truth (2009), co-starring Katherine Heigl, which began filming in April 2008, The Bounty Hunter (2010), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Chasing Mavericks (2012) and Olympus Has Fallen (2013). In recent years, he has appeared in films such as Gods of Egypt (2016), Geostorm (2017), Den of Thieves (2018), The Vanishing (2018) and Hunter Killer (2018). Butler is related to writer-director Mark Flood.- Kieran Kyle Culkin was born September 30, 1982 in New York City, New York. He is the son of Kit Culkin, a former stage and child actor, and Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Macaulay Culkin, Quinn Culkin, Christian Culkin, and Rory Culkin. His mother, who is from North Dakota, is of German and Norwegian descent. His father, from Manhattan, has Irish, German, English, Swiss-German, and French ancestry.
Culkin started working in 1990. He worked with his brother, Mac several times. His debut was playing Mac's cousin, Fuller, in Home Alone (1990). He went on to do lots of films on his own. He starred in Father of the Bride (1991) playing Steve Martin's young son. Then a few years later they offered him a special role in The Mighty (1998). After his wonderful performance, he went on to bigger movies like The Cider House Rules (1999) and Music of the Heart (1999). - Actor
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Jeremy Michael London and his twin brother Jason London were born in San Diego, California, and were raised in Oklahoma and DeSoto, Texas. Jeremy was the first of the two to start auditioning, but it was Jason who nabbed the first role in the movie The Man in the Moon (1991). Jason also got a role in the dramatic series I'll Fly Away (1991), starring alongside Sam Waterston, but had to turn it down because of another job. So Jeremy auditioned for the role and got it instead. Jeremy has blue-green eyes and brown hair.- Actor
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- Music Department
Javier Bardem belongs to a family of actors that have been working on films since the early days of Spanish cinema.
He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, to actress Pilar Bardem (María del Pilar Bardem Muñoz) and businessman José Carlos Encinas Doussinague. His maternal grandparents were actors Rafael Bardem and Matilde Muñoz Sampedro, and his uncle is screenwriter Juan Antonio Bardem. He got his start in the family business, at age six, when he appeared in his first feature, "El picaro" (1974) (A.K.A. The Scoundrel). During his teenage years, he acted in several TV series, played rugby for the Spanish National Team, and toured the country with an independent theatrical group. Javier's early film role as a sexy stud in the black comedy, Jamón, Jamón (1992) (aka Ham Ham) propelled him to instant popularity and threatened to typecast him as nothing more than a brawny sex symbol. Determined to avert a beefcake image, he refused similar subsequent roles and has gone on to win acclaim for his ability to appear almost unrecognizable from film to film. With over 25 movies and numerous awards under his belt, it is Javier's stirring, passionate performance as the persecuted Cuban writer, Reynaldo Arenas, in Before Night Falls (2000) that will long be remembered as his breakthrough role. He received five Best Actor awards and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal.Brother of Carlos Bardem- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Carlos Bardem was born on 7 March 1963 in Madrid, Spain. Carlos is an actor and writer, known for Cell 211 (2009), Scorpion in Love (2013) and Assassin's Creed (2016).Brother of Javier Bardem- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Mickey Rourke was born Phillip Andre Rourke, Jr. on September 16, 1952, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Annette Elizabeth (Cameron) and Philip Andre Rourke. His father was of Irish and German descent, and his mother was of mostly English and French-Canadian ancestry. When he was six years old, his parents divorced. A year later, his mother married Eugene Addis, a Miami Beach police officer, and moved to Miami Shores, Florida. After graduating from Horace Mann Junior High School, Rourke's family moved to a house located on 47th Street and Prairie Avenue in Miami Beach. In 1969 Rourke attended Miami Beach Senior High School, where he played second-string first baseman under coach Skip Bertman. He also acted in a school play, "The Serpent," directed by legendary "Teacher To The Stars" Jay W. Jensen.
In 1971 he graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School, and after working for a short time as a bus boy at the famed Forge Restaurant on Miami Beach, Rourke moved back to New York to seek out a career in acting.
Rourke's teenage years were more aimed toward sports more than acting. He took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career. At the age of 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as an 118-pound bantamweight, defeating Javier Villanueva. Some of his early matches were fought as Andre Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach, soon joining the Police Athletic League boxing program. In 1969 Rourke, now weighing 140 pounds, sparred with former World Welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez. Rodriguez was the number one-rated middleweight boxer in the world and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion in this sparring match.
In 1971, at the Florida Golden Gloves, Rourke received another concussion from a boxing match. Doctors told him to take a year off and rest. In 1972 Rourke knocked out Ron Robinson in 18 seconds and John Carver in 39 seconds. On Aug. 20, 1973, Rourke knocked out 'Sherman "Big Train"' Bergman' in 31 seconds. Shortly after, Rourke decided to retire from amateur boxing.
From 1964 to 1973, Rourke compiled an amateur boxing record of 27 wins (17 by knockout) and 3 defeats. At one point, he reportedly scored 12 consecutive first-round knockouts. As an amateur, Rourke had been friendly with pro-boxer Tommy Torino. When Rourke decided to return to boxing as a professional in 1991, Torino promoted some of Rourke's fights. Rourke was trained by former pro-boxer Freddie Roach at Miami Beach's 5th Street Gym and the Outlaw Boxing Club Gym in Los Angeles. He made $250 for his pro debut, but by the end of his second year of boxing, he had earned a million dollars. In June 1994, Rourke appeared on the cover of World Boxing Magazine. He sparred with world champions James Toney, John David Jackson, and Tommy Morrison.
Rourke wished to have 16 professional fights and then fight for a world title. However, he retired in 1994 after eight bouts and never got his desired title fight. His boxing career resulted in severe facial injuries that required a number of operations to repair his damaged face. Rourke went back to acting but worked in relative obscurity until he won a Golden Globe Award for his role as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler (2008). He was nominated for Best Actor, as well, but lost.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Oliver Hudson was born on 7 September 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Black Christmas (2006), Walk of Shame (2014) and Executive Decision (1996). He has been married to Erinn Bartlett since 9 June 2006. They have three children.- Actor
- Producer
Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuela-born Russian actor and stuntman, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the first two Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Ernesto Mendoza in A Low Down Dirty Shame, Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.
He was born on July 2, 1955 in San Tomé, Venezuela. His father is Russian and his mother, who was born in Venezuela, is of Irish descent. He lived in Vilassar de Mar (in Spain) from 1973-77. He lives in the United States. Divoff can speak eight languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Catalan, Portuguese, and Russian. He used to speak Romanian but forgot the language when he had no one with whom to speak it. He also acted in The Hunt for Red October, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers.
Divoff has played many villains in film and on television, usually drug cartel leaders, and is best known for having played the nefarious Djinn in the first two films of the Wishmaster series. His other films include Another 48 Hrs., The Hunt for Red October, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers. Divoff played the lead role in the Midnight Syndicate's Indie horror flick The Dead Matter. His television guest appearances include The A-Team, JAG and Highlander: The Series. He had a recurring role on Lost as Mikhail Bakunin.
He appeared in "The Cost of Living", and later in "Enter 77" and "Par Avion". He later appeared, in flashbacks, in "One of Us," and reappeared in the episodes "D.O.C.", "The Man Behind the Curtain", "Through the Looking Glass" and "The Package". Divoff's latest work was a recurring role as Ivan Sarnoff on CSI: Miami Season 7 (2008-09). He also appeared in Air Force One.
Divoff is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he honed his skills in the study of languages, the result seeing him speak eight languages fluently. Andrew is a SAG actor and film producer with more than a hundred movies and television appearances to his credit. He has a driving passion for environmental issues, and has used his celebrity status, putting purpose ahead of profit, for several environmental causes. Andrew is a founder of Verdant Resource, Inc., a flexible purpose corporation dedicated to location, retrieval and provision of resources found throughout planet Earth, and promoting their use in a sustainable way of life employing verdant methods. He is also a partner in a private water utility, Alpine Village Water Company, LLC in Pinyon, California. Divoff was married to Russian actress Raissa Danilova in 1992 but they divorced in 1998. Divoff resides in Los Angeles.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Xavier Naidoo was born on 2 October 1971 in Mannheim, Germany. He is a music artist and actor, known for A Cure for Wellness (2016), The Voice of Germany (2011) and Lapislazuli - Im Auge des Bären (2006).Hate him.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Zeljko Ivanek was born on 15 August 1957 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is an actor and producer, known for Seven Psychopaths (2012), Argo (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Jensen Ross Ackles, better known as simply Jensen Ackles, was born on March 1, 1978, in Dallas, Texas, to Donna Joan (Shaffer) and actor Alan Ackles. He has English, German, and Scottish ancestry. Jensen grew up in Richardson, Texas, together with his older brother, Joshua, and a younger sister, Mackenzie. Jensen graduated from Dartmouth Elementary School in 1990, he graduated from Apollo Junior High School in 1993, and LV Berkner High School in 1996.
Jensen is a sports junkie. He loves football, lacrosse, baseball and basketball. He even played on the baseball and lacrosse teams in high school. The 6' 1" actor first started modeling when he was just 2 years old. When he turned 4, he started appearing in TV commercials for Nabisco, RadioShack and Wal-Mart. He caught the acting bug because he was mostly influenced by his father, who was an actor in Dallas. He used to watch his father study scripts, and that taught him a few things about the industry. During his later years in high school, he started taking theater classes, where he claimed he was the only "jock" in that department. When he was just a sophomore, a friend of Jensen had asked him to attend a local acting seminar. Two guys, Craig Wargo, and an agent, 'Michael Einfeld', were interested in Jensen's talent and wanted him to go to Los Angeles with them.
Jensen had to say no to the offer and admitted at one point, he thought they would forget about him but, eventually, when he went to Los Angeles, he still managed to get help from them. Prior to that, Jensen actually planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist, before he decided to move to Los Angeles to give acting a try. In 1996, he managed to secure guest roles on several TV shows, which included Wishbone (1995), Mr. Rhodes (1996) and Sweet Valley High (1994). Jensen's big break came when he was cast in the NBC soap opera, Days of Our Lives (1965), as Eric Brady in 1997. He won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer in 1998, and was nominated three times in 1998, 1999, and 2000 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Days of Our Lives (1965). After spending about three years on a soap set, he left Days of Our Lives (1965) and went on to appear in the mini-series Blonde (2001), which was about the life of Marilyn Monroe, playing Eddie G. He also auditioned for the role of Clark Kent on Smallville (2001), but lost the part to Tom Welling, instead.
Not giving up hope, he went for a few auditions and managed to secure a guest role on the popular James Cameron TV series, Dark Angel (2000), as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the brother of main character Max/X5-452, who was played by Jessica Alba. His character died in the episode, but Jensen eventually returned to the show as a regular in the second season as Ben's clone, Alec/X5-494 and continued on until the show's cancellation in 2002. In 2003, he joined the cast of Dawson's Creek (1998), playing the role of C.J., Jen Lindley's lover. He also filmed episodes of the TV series, Still Life (2003), playing the role of Max Morgan, not knowing that the series was actually dropped. He also had a small role in the short film, The Plight of Clownana (2004), playing the role of Jensen. That same year, he was offered the part of Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling (2003). Jensen, however, turned down the role which was later offered to another actor, Eric Christian Olsen. He was subsequently cast on Smallville (2001), as Assistant football coach Jason Teague, the new love interest of Lana Lang. In 2005, Jensen managed to earn a lead role in the movie, Devour (2005), playing the role of Jake Gray. Jensen also earned the opportunity to work his father, actor Alan Ackles, who happened to play his character's father, Paul Kilton. The movie, however, received mixed reviews from the public.
That same year, Jensen joined the cast of the CW series, Supernatural (2005), where he plays the role of Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam, who is played by Jared Padalecki, are brothers who drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, sometimes with their father, John Winchester, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It was reported that the creator of the show, Eric Kripke, mentioned that the show will last for a maximum of five seasons. In 2006, Jensen took on a role in the Independently filmed comedy/drama movie, Ten Inch Hero (2007), which explores the theme of honesty and the flaw of judging by appearances. In 2007 the film began a limited run at number of film festivals including the Newport Beach Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival and the Santa Cruz Film Festival but never made it into major mainstream theatrical release. In the Spring of 2008 Ten Inch Hero was released onto DVD exclusively through Blockbuster. Jensen however, received high praise for his work as Priestly, who one of the movie's more quirky characters.
From June 5-10 in 2007 Jensen had his professional stage debut as Lt. Daniel Kaffee in "A Few Good Men" at Casa Manana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, working along side Lou Diamond Phillips. This proved to be another successful acting venture for Jensen, as critics were impressed with his work in this role. During his free time, Jensen enjoys golfing, horseback riding, scuba diving and photography. He is also a big fan of country music. His favorite musician is Garth Brooks. He even sang back-up vocals on good friend Steve Carlson's albums "Spot in the Corner" and "Rollin' On." In the summer of 2008 Jensen traveled to Kittaning, PA to film the horror/thriller movie, My Bloody Valentine (2009), which was filmed in the cutting edge Real D technology, Jensen played the lead role of Tom Hanniger and starred alongside Jaime King and Kerr Smith.
Jensen splits his time between Vancouver, British Columbia where he films Supernatural (2005) and his home in Austin, Texas.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Oscar-winning character actor Martin Landau was born on June 20, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York. At age 17, he was hired by the New York Daily News to work in the promotions department before he became a staff cartoonist and illustrator. In his five years on the paper, he served as the illustrator for Billy Rose's "Pitching Horseshoes" column. He also worked for cartoonist Gus Edson on "The Gumps" comic strip. Landau's major ambition was to act and, in 1951, he made his stage debut in "Detective Story" at the Peaks Island Playhouse in Peaks Island, Maine. He made his off-Broadway debut that year in "First Love".
Landau was one of 2,000 applicants who auditioned for Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in 1955; only he and Steve McQueen were accepted. Landau was a friend of James Dean and McQueen, in a conversation with Landau, mentioned that he knew Dean and had met Landau. When Landau asked where they had met, McQueen informed him he had seen Landau riding on the back of Dean's motorcycle into the New York City garage where he worked as a mechanic.
Landau acted during the mid-1950s in the television anthologies Playhouse 90 (1956), Studio One (1948), The Philco Television Playhouse (1948), Kraft Theatre (1947), Goodyear Playhouse (1951), and Omnibus (1952). He began making a name for himself after replacing star Franchot Tone in the 1956 off-Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," a famous production that helped put off-Broadway on the New York theatrical map.
In 1957, he made a well-received Broadway debut in the play "Middle of the Night." As part of the touring company with star Edward G. Robinson, he made it to the West Coast. He made his movie debut in Pork Chop Hill (1959), but scored on film as the heavy in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller North by Northwest (1959), in which he was shot on top of Mount Rushmore while sadistically stepping on the fingers of Cary Grant, who was holding on for dear life to the cliff face. He also appeared in the blockbuster Cleopatra (1963), the most expensive film ever made up to that time, which nearly scuttled 20th Century-Fox and engendered one of the great public scandals, the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton love affair that overshadowed the film itself. Despite the difficulties with the film, Landau's memorable portrayal in the key role of Rufio was highly favored by the audience and instantly catapulted his popularity.
In 1963, Landau played memorable roles in two episodes of the science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits (1963), The Bellero Shield (1964), and The Man Who Was Never Born (1963). He was Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Mr. Spock on Star Trek (1966), but the role went to Leonard Nimoy, who later replaced Landau on Mission: Impossible (1966), the show that really made Landau famous. Landau originally was not meant to be a regular on the series, which co-starred his wife Barbara Bain, whom he had married in 1957. His character, Rollin Hand, was supposed to make occasional, recurring appearances, on Mission: Impossible (1966), but when the producers had problems with star Steven Hill, Landau was used to take up the slack. Landau's characterization was so well-received and so popular with the audience, he was made a regular. Landau received Emmy nominations as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for each of the three seasons he appeared. In 1968, he won the Golden Globe award as Best Male TV Star.
Eventually, he quit the series in 1969 after a salary dispute when the new star, Peter Graves, was given a contract that paid him more than Landau, whose own contract stated he would have parity with any other actor on the show who made more than he did. The producers refused to budge and he and Bain, who had become the first actress in the history of television to be awarded three consecutive Emmy Awards (1967-69) while on the show, left the series, ostensibly to pursue careers in the movies. The move actually held back their careers, and Mission: Impossible (1966) went on for another four years with other actors.
Landau appeared in support of Sidney Poitier in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970), the less-successful sequel to the Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night (1967), but it did not generate more work of a similar caliber. He starred in the television movie Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (1972) on CBS, playing a prisoner of war returning to the United States from Vietnam. The following year, he shot a pilot for NBC for a proposed show, "Savage." Though it was directed by emerging wunderkind Steven Spielberg, NBC did not pick up the show. Needing work, Landau and Bain moved to England to play the leading roles in the syndicated science-fiction series Space: 1999 (1975).
Landau's and Bain's careers stalled after Space: 1999 (1975) went out of production, and they were reduced to taking parts in the television movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981). It was the nadir of both their careers, and Bain's acting days and their marriage were soon over. Landau, one of the most talented character actors in Hollywood, and one not without recognition, had bottomed out career-wise. In 1983, he was stuck in low-budget sci-fi and horror movies such as The Being (1981), a role far beneath his talent.
His career renaissance got off to a slow start with a recurring role in the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill (1983), starring Dabney Coleman. On Broadway, he took over the title role in the revival of "Dracula" and went on the road with the national touring company. Finally, his career renaissance began to gather momentum when Francis Ford Coppola cast him in a critical supporting role in his Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), for which Landau was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. He won his second Golden Globe for the role. The next year, he received his second consecutive Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his superb turn as the adulterous husband in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). He followed this up by playing famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in the TNT movie Max and Helen (1990). However, the summit of his post-Mission: Impossible (1966) career was about to be scaled. He portrayed Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood (1994) and won glowing reviews. For his performance, he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Martin Landau, the superb character actor, finally had been recognized with his profession's ultimate award. His performance, which also won him his third Golden Globe, garnered numerous awards in addition to the Oscar and Golden Globe, including top honors from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. Landau continued to play a wide variety of roles in motion pictures and on television, turning in a superb performance in a supporting role in The Majestic (2001). He received his fourth Emmy nomination in 2004 as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Without a Trace (2002).
Martin Landau was honored with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.
Martin Landau died in Los Angeles, California on July 15, 2017.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows, including Medic (1954), Cheyenne (1955) and Sugarfoot (1957). His first film role was in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), quickly followed by Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Hopper actually became good friends with James Dean and was shattered when Dean was killed in a car crash in September 1955.
Hopper portrayed a young Napoléon Bonaparte (!) in the star-spangled The Story of Mankind (1957) and regularly appeared on screen throughout the 1960s, often in rather undemanding parts, usually as a villain in westerns such as True Grit (1969) and Hang 'Em High (1968). However, in early 1969, Hopper, fellow actor Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern, wrote a counterculture road movie script and managed to scrape together $400,000 in financial backing. Hopper directed the low-budget film, titled Easy Rider (1969), starring Fonda, Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson. The film was a phenomenal box-office success, appealing to the anti-establishment youth culture of the times. It changed the Hollywood landscape almost overnight and major studios all jumped onto the anti-establishment bandwagon, pumping out low-budget films about rebellious hippies, bikers, draft dodgers and pot smokers. However, Hopper's next directorial effort, The Last Movie (1971), was a critical and financial failure, and he has admitted that during the 1970s he was seriously abusing various substances, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He appeared in a sparse collection of European-produced films over the next eight years, before cropping up in a memorable performance as a pot-smoking photographer alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979). He also received acclaim for his work in both acting and direction for Out of the Blue (1980).
With these two notable efforts, the beginning of the 1980s saw a renaissance of interest by Hollywood in the talents of Dennis Hopper and exorcising the demons of drugs and alcohol via a rehabilitation program meant a return to invigorating and provoking performances. He was superb in Rumble Fish (1983), co-starred in the tepid spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (1983), played a groovy school teacher in My Science Project (1985), was a despicable and deranged drug dealer in River's Edge (1986) and, most memorably, electrified audiences as foul-mouthed Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic David Lynch film Blue Velvet (1986). Interestingly, the offbeat Hopper was selected in the early 1980s to provide the voice of "The StoryTeller" in the animated series of "Rabbit Ears" children's films based upon the works of Hans Christian Andersen!
Hopper returned to film direction in the late 1980s and was at the helm of the controversial gang film Colors (1988), which was well received by both critics and audiences. He was back in front of the cameras for roles in Super Mario Bros. (1993), got on the wrong side of gangster Christopher Walken in True Romance (1993), led police officer Keanu Reeves and bus passenger Sandra Bullock on a deadly ride in Speed (1994) and challenged gill-man Kevin Costner for world supremacy in Waterworld (1995). The enigmatic Hopper continued to remain busy through the 1990s and into the new century with performances in All the Way (2003), The Keeper (2004) and Land of the Dead (2005).
As well as his acting/directing talents, Hopper was a skilled photographer and painter, having had his works displayed in galleries in both the United States and overseas. He was additionally a dedicated and knowledgeable collector of modern art and had one of the most extensive collections in the United States. Dennis died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday.- Actor
- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
Ronald Reagan had quite a prolific career, having catapulted from a Warner Bros. contract player and television star, into serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, the governorship of California (1967-1975), and lastly, two terms as President of the United States (1981-1989).
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, to Nelle Clyde (Wilson) and John Edward "Jack" Reagan, who was a salesman and storyteller. His father was of Irish descent, and his mother was of half Scottish and half English ancestry.
A successful actor beginning in the 1930s, the young Reagan was a staunch admirer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (even after he evolved into a Republican), and was a Democrat in the 1940s, a self-described 'hemophiliac' liberal. He was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947 and served five years during the most tumultuous times to ever hit Hollywood. A committed anti-communist, Reagan not only fought more-militantly activist movie industry unions that he and others felt had been infiltrated by communists, but had to deal with the investigation into Hollywood's politics launched by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, an inquisition that lasted through the 1950s. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigations of Hollywood (which led to the jailing of the "Hollywood Ten" in the late '40s) sowed the seeds of the McCarthyism that racked Hollywood and America in the 1950s.
In 1950, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas (D-CA), the wife of "Dutch" Reagan's friend Melvyn Douglas, ran as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate and was opposed by the Republican nominee, the Red-bating Congressman from Whittier, Richard Nixon. While Nixon did not go so far as to accuse Gahagan Douglas of being a communist herself, he did charge her with being soft on communism due to her opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Nixon tarred her as a "fellow traveler" of communists, a "pinko" who was "pink right down to her underwear." Gahagan Douglas was defeated by the man she was the first to call "Tricky Dicky" because of his unethical behavior and dirty campaign tactics. Reagan was on the Douglases' side during that campaign.
The Douglases, like Reagan and such other prominent actors as Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, were liberal Democrats, supporters of the late Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, a legacy that increasingly was under attack by the right after World War II. They were NOT fellow-travelers; Melvyn Douglas had actually been an active anti-communist and was someone the communists despised. Melvyn Douglas, Robinson and Henry Fonda - a registered Republican! - wound up "gray-listed." (They weren't explicitly black-listed, they just weren't offered any work.) Reagan, who it was later revealed had been an F.B.I. informant while a union leader (turning in suspected communists), was never hurt that way, as he made S.A.G. an accomplice of the black-listing.
Reagan's career sagged after the late 1940s, and he started appearing in B-movies after he left Warner Bros. to go free-lance. However, he had a eminence grise par excellence in Lew Wasserman, his agent and the head of the Music Corp. of America. Wasserman, later called "The Pope of Hollywood," was the genius who figured out that an actor could make a killing via a tax windfall by turning himself into a corporation. The corporation, which would employ the actor, would own part of a motion picture the actor appeared in, and all monies would accrue to the corporation, which was taxed at a much lower rate than was personal income. Wasserman pioneered this tax avoidance scheme with his client James Stewart, beginning with the Anthony Mann western Winchester '73 (1950) (1950). It made Stewart enormously rich as he became a top box office draw in the 1950s after the success of "Winchester 73" and several more Mann-directed westerns, all of which he had an ownership stake in.
Ironically, Reagan became a poor-man's James Stewart in the early 1950s, appearing in westerns, but they were mostly B-pictures. He did not have the acting chops of the great Stewart, but he did have his agent. Wasserman at M.C.A. was one of the pioneers of television syndication, and this was to benefit Reagan enormously. M.C.A. was the only talent agency that was also allowed to be a producer through an exemption to union rules granted by S.A.G. when Reagan was the union president, and it used the exemption to acquire Universal International Pictures. Talent agents were not permitted to be producers as there was an inherent conflict of interest between the two professions, one of which was committed to acquiring talent at the lowest possible cost and the other whose focus was to get the best possible price for their client. When a talent agent was also a producer, like M.C.A. was, it had a habit of steering its clients to its own productions, where they were employed but at a lower price than their potential free market value. It was a system that made M.C.A. and Lew Wasserman, enormously wealthy.
The ownership of Universal and its entry into the production of television shows that were syndicated to network made M.C.A. the most successful organization in Hollywood of its time, a real cash cow as television overtook the movies as the #1 business of the entertainment industry. Wasserman repaid Ronald Reagan's largess by structuring a deal by which he hosted and owned part of General Electric Theater (1953), a western omnibus showcase that ran from 1954 to 1961. It made Reagan very comfortable financially, though it did not make him rich. That came later.
In 1960, with the election of the Democratic President John F. Kennedy, the black and gray lists went into eclipse. J.F.K. appointed Helen Gahagan Douglas Treasurer of the United States. About this time, as the civil rights movement became stronger and found more support among Democrats and the Kennedy administration, Reagan - fresh from a second stint as S.A.G. president in 1959 - was in the process of undergoing a personal and political metamorphosis into a right-wing Republican, a process that culminated with his endorsing Barry Goldwater for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964. (He narrated a Goldwater campaign film played at the G.O.P. Convention in San Francisco.) Reagan's evolution into a right-wing Republican sundered his friendship with the Douglases. (After Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, Melvyn Douglas said of his former friend that Reagan turned to the right after he had begun to believe the pro-business speeches he delivered for General Electric when he was the host of the "G.E. Theater.")
In 1959, while Reagan was back as a second go-round as S.A.G. president, M.C.A.'s exemption from S.A.G. regulations that forbade a talent agency from being a producer was renewed. However, in 1962, the U.S. Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy successfully forced M.C.A. - known as "The Octopus" in Hollywood for its monopolistic tendencies - to divest itself of its talent agency.
When Reagan was tipped by the California Republican Party to be its standard-bearer in the 1965 gubernatorial election against Democratic Governor Pat Brown, Lew Wasserman went back in action. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and though Wasserman was a liberal Democrat, having an old friend like Reagan who had shown his loyalty as S.A.G. president in the state house was good for business. Wasserman and his partner, M.C.A. Chairman Jules Styne (a Republican), helped ensure that Reagan would be financially secure for the rest of his life so that he could enter politics. (At the time, he was the host of "Death Valley Days" on TV.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Universal sold Reagan a nice piece of land of many acres north of Santa Barbara that had been used for location shooting. The Reagans sold most of the ranch, then converted the rest of it, about 200 acres, into a magnificent estate overlooking the valley and the Pacific Ocean. The Rancho del Cielo became President Reagan's much needed counterpoint to the buzz of Washington, D.C. There, in a setting both rugged and serene, the Reagans could spend time alone or receive political leaders such as the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, and others.
Reagan was known to the world for his one-liners, the most famous of them was addressed to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall" said Reagan standing in front of the Berlin Wall. That call made an impact on the course of human history.
Ronald Reagan played many roles in his life's seven acts: radio announcer, movie star, union boss, television actor-cum-host, governor, right-wing critic of big government and President of the United States.- Actor
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One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the American Workshop. De Niro first gained fame for his role in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), but he gained his reputation as a volatile actor in Mean Streets (1973), which was his first film with director Martin Scorsese. He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Godfather Part II (1974) and received Academy Award nominations for best actor in Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978) and Cape Fear (1991). He received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980).
De Niro has earned four Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, for his work in New York, New York (1977), opposite Liza Minnelli, Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999) and Meet the Parents (2000). Other notable performances include Brazil (1985), The Untouchables (1987), Backdraft (1991), Frankenstein (1994), Heat (1995), Casino (1995) and Jackie Brown (1997). At the same time, he also directed and starred in such films as A Bronx Tale (1993) and The Good Shepherd (2006). De Niro has also received the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010.
As of 2022, De Niro is 79-years-old. He has never retired from acting, and continues to work regularly in mostly film.- Actor
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Best known for his portrayal of troubled high school football star "Tim Riggins" on NBC's acclaimed television series, Friday Night Lights (2006), actor Taylor Kitsch has scored big with audiences and critics on both the big and small screens.
Taylor Kitsch was born on April 8, 1981 in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, to Susan (Green), who worked for the BC Liquor Board, and Drew Kitsch, who worked in construction. He grew up in Vancouver. During his childhood, he aspired to become an actor, which eventually was the real reason behind his move to New York. There, Taylor pursued his dreams by studying the art of acting with coach Sheila Grey. Not too long after that, Taylor was cast in several film and television roles, such as John Tucker Must Die (2006), Snakes on a Plane (2006) and Kyle XY (2006).
Moving to New York in 2002 was the prize that Taylor received after being scouted by modeling scouts in Canada. Taylor was signed to "IMG Models" and became a regular face for the famous clothing lines, "Abercrombie & Fitch" and also "Diesel". Taylor was also signed under "Untitled Entertainment" during his two years stay in the city. While Taylor was living in New York, he found time to become a certified personal trainer and nutritionist. In the year 2004, Taylor decided that it was time for him to move to Los Angeles to learn more about the acting course. Taylor stayed in Los Angeles for about eight months and did some print work with "Nous Modeling Management". It wasn't too long until Taylor realized that he didn't want to be in Los Angeles. Taylor thought that things were running a little bit too fast for him, then making the decision to move back to Vancouver for the summer of 2005 to spend more time with his family. In 2006, Taylor then signed with "Endeavour".
What shot him to bigger fame was his role in the movie, The Covenant (2006), with actors Steven Strait, Toby Hemingway and Chace Crawford. In the stylish thriller from Lakeshore Entertainment and Sony Screen Gems, four young witches do battle with a powerful, centuries-old supernatural force. In "The Covenant", fans got to know who Taylor really is. Even though the movie wasn't as successful as people hoped it would be, Taylor became more recognized since acting in the movie. In the movie, fans also got to see a more fit and toned version of Taylor.
Fortunately, after "The Covenant", casting directors from the football teen drama, Friday Night Lights (2006), saw the talent that Taylor had. They eventually hired Taylor to play the role of "Tim Riggins", one of the Dillon Panthers' main players. On "Friday Night Lights", Taylor managed to show his acting skills to fans and television critics who were very impressed with Taylor's acting skills. USA Today called the series "one of the best-acted, best-written, best-produced shows on television". After receiving fame and gaining a big fan base from "Friday Night Lights", Taylor received the acting publicity he had always been waiting for.
During the show's summer hiatus, Taylor filmed the feature Gospel Hill (2008), alongside Julia Stiles, Danny Glover, Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Giancarlo Esposito, the film focuses on the bigoted former sheriff of a southern town and a one-time civil rights worker whose intersecting lives are still haunted by events that took place decades earlier. Old wounds are reopened as residents of a black neighborhood are forced out of their homes to make way for a multi-million dollar development.
In February 2008, he signed on to play "Gambit" in the "X-Men" franchise spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). He subsequently starred in the films The Bang Bang Club (2010), John Carter (2012), Battleship (2012), and Savages (2012). Despite being famous, Taylor is still a very humble guy and has said that he'd prefer to skip the whole tabloid craze. During his free time, he enjoys doing charity work and listening to music, especially those in the country genre. With all the success and a humble attitude, we're pretty sure that Taylor is going to be one of the "Must Watch" stars for the coming years.
When he's not on set, Kitsch pursues children's charity work and enjoys spending time with family and friends.- Actor
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Born and raised in Southern California, Dustin Ingram upheld the family tradition and began his acting career on stage at age five when he tripped over a red streamer during the finale of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." A Barrymore Award winning actor, Dustin frequently returns to the stage to satiate his theatrical appetite. When he isn't acting, he's writing music and performing in his one-man-band under the name TsunamiGrind.- Actor
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Antwon Tanner was born on 14 April 1975 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Coach Carter (2005), Never Die Alone (2004) and Chase (2010).- Actor
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Oliver Cooper was born on December 2, 1989 in Toledo, Ohio. In 2009, at the age of 19, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actor and quickly landed an internship at CONAN. While taking an acting class, a fellow classmate told him that Warner Brothers was looking for fresh young faces to star in the Todd Phillips produced Project X and that Cooper would be perfect. With no representation, Oliver enlisted his friend, a former child star, Shaun Weiss, to help him secure an audition. Judd Apatow, who had worked with Weiss on Heavyweights, put in a call to the casting office. With a head shot taken on a cell phone camera, and against-all-odds, Cooper landed one of the lead roles in his very first audition. His debut performance as Costa earned him two MTV Movie Award nominations for Best Comedic Performance and Best On-Screen Dirtbag.
Following up on the success of Project X, Oliver booked a supporting role in Runner Runner opposite Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck as well as a season arc on the popular Showtime series Californication as Levon, the illegitimate son of David Duchovny and Heather Graham's characters.
In 2013 Cooper co-wrote and produced Four Dogs with his frequent collaborator Joe Burke who also directed the film. It premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival to rave reviews and is available to stream on Amazon Prime. Shortly thereafter he developed a pilot for Comedy Central called The King of Chicago, which he co-wrote with Cody Oz and produced alongside Scott Stuber.
Oliver has since gone on to star in many shows and movies highlighted by his role as Wheeler, the stoner with a heart of gold, in the three season Amazon series Red Oaks, produced by Steven Soderbergh and directed by David Gordon Green. In 2018 Cooper appeared in Jason Reitman's The Front Runner alongside Hugh Jackman as young campaign aid Joe Trippi; and as Todd Krizelman, co-founder of the globe.com in Matthew Carnahan's National Geographic mini series Valley Of The Boom. Oliver also made a memorable appearance in season 2 of David Fincher's critically acclaimed Netflix series, Mindhunter, as infamous serial killer David Berkowitz aka The Son of Sam.- Oliver Phelps was born about 13 minutes before his twin brother, James Phelps. He has always loved acting and appeared in many high school drama productions. In 2000 he and his brother were picked to play Fred (James) and George (Oliver) Weasley in the film adaptations of the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.
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Barret Spencer Oliver is an American photographer and former child actor. He is best known for his role as Bastian Balthazar Bux in the film adaptation of Michael Ende's novel The Neverending Story, followed by roles in D.A.R.Y.L., Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return. Oliver had minor roles in television and film, until starring as Bastian in the 1984 movie The NeverEnding Story. Subsequently, he was cast as the lead in Tim Burton's short film Frankenweenie and as the android "Daryl" in the 1985 film D.A.R.Y.L., a part for which he won a Saturn Award.- Actor
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Oliver began his career in the film industry at the age of ten, starring in "Poltergeist", executive-produced by Steven Spielberg. After acting in various film and television roles, he moved behind the camera. At the age of fifteen, he wrote, directed and produced The Crystal, which won first prize at the French "Les Mesnil-le-Roi" Film Festival. Upon graduating from the University of Southern California Film School's Production Program, he wrote, directed and produced close to fifty industrial, short and feature films. His feature teen comedies, "Dumped" and "Wild Roomies," both were released to DVD internationally in all world markets. Additionally, the Hallmark Channel recently produced Oliver's screenplay "You've Got A Friend," which aired to the best ratings ever for a June original movie premiere in the history of the network. Oliver will also direct Treasure Entertainment's "Prom Date," another teen comedy scheduled to go into production in mid 2010.- Director
- Actor
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Oliver Parker was born on 6 September 1960 in London, England, UK. He is a director and actor, known for Johnny English Reborn (2011), Othello (1995) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002).- Travis Oliver was born in Belgium. He is known for Footballers Wive$: Overtime (2005), North & South (2004) and The Last Enemy (2008).
- Martin McCann grew up with a brother and sister in the Falls Road, Divis Flats area of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In 2006 Lord Richard Attenborough cast McCann in his film, "Closing the Ring" (2007) after seeing him play Alex in a stage production of A Clockwork Orange. He was invited to LA to audition for 'The Pacific' the HBO miniseries, and was cast as R.V. Burgin.
In early 2010, he filmed in Belfast for the new music-comedy Killing Bono, a film about the life of one of Bono's classmates who tries to make it in the music business, only to have his failures and frustrations magnified by the continued rise U2. McCann plays the role of Bono. He has performed on stage in Ireland and on tour.
In 2011 he won the Irish Film and Television Award for best male performance in a feature film for 'Swansong: Story of Occi Byrne'. He was also nominated as a 2015 'BAFTA Breakthrough'.
His past film credits include the Netflix Original film 'Calibre', Film Four's '71, 'The Survivalist', Michael Lennox's Oscar Nominated and BAFTA winning short film'Boogaloo and Graham' and Terrence Malicks's 'The Last Planet'.
Martin has become Patron of the charity YouthAction Northern Ireland. - Actor
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Keaton Simons was born on 20 July 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Sky High (2005), Feast (2005) and The Legends of Nethiah (2012).- Actor
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Rodney Roldan was born on July 20th, 1977 in New York, New York, USA as Rodney Manuel Roldan. He is known for Imperium (2016), Battledogs (2012), and A Gifted Man (2011). He is a current member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation for Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), and Actors Equity Association (AEA).- Actor
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Thomas Lennon is a writer and actor from Oak Park, Illinois. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he was a member of the influential sketch comedy group The State. The State's hit television series ran on MTV for three seasons and received an Ace Award nomination for best comedy series. After his work on The State, he and his writing partner, Robert Ben Garant, created two more popular series: Viva Variety, which ran for three seasons and was also an Ace nominee for best comedy series, and Reno 911!, on which he also played Lieutenant Jim Dangle. Reno 911! ran for six seasons on Comedy Central. As an actor, Lennon has appeared in the films Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Dark Knight Rises, Le Divorce, Heights, Conversations with Other Women, Memento, 17 Again, I Love You, Man, Cedar Rapids, Knight of Cups, Bad Teacher, Harold and Kumar 3D and What to Expect When You're Expecting. On television he has been seen in How I Met Your Mother, Sean Saves the World, The Odd Couple, Drunk History, The Santa Clarita Diet and Lethal Weapon. In 2018, Lennon will appear in the feature films: A Futile and Stupid Gesture, Puppet Master, Half Magic, Dog Days and Clint Eastwood's The 15:57 to Paris. As a television writer, his credits include: The State, Reno 911!, Viva Variety and Strangers with Candy. On IFC's 2008 list of The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time, Lennon is the author of four: Monkey Torture, Porcupine Racetrack, Mind Match and $240 Worth of Pudding. Lennon and Garant have written numerous feature films together, including Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Reno 911!: Miami, The Pacifier, Balls of Fury and Hell Baby. In addition to writing films, Lennon and Garant co-authored, Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, a book about the studio system that Anna Kendrick called "The Best Book about Hollywood... Hilarious and insanely accurate." New York Times, By the Book December 1, 2016 Lennon lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Jenny Robertson, and their son, Oliver.- Music Department
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Thomas Newman is an American film score composer. He was born in Los Angeles. His father was notable film score composer Alfred Newman (1900-1970). The Newman family is of Russian-Jewish descent, and includes several other well-known musicians. Thomas' mother Martha Louis Montgomery (1920-2005) wanted her sons to have a musical education. Thomas attended regular lessons in violin as a child. An older Thomas received his musical education while attending the University of Southern California and Yale University. Thomas Newman graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1977, and a Master of Music in 1978.
Thomas originally composed music for theatrical productions in Broadway, working with his mentor Stephen Sondheim. His uncle Lionel Newman asked him to compose music for the television series "The Paper Chase" (1978-1979, 1986), which was Thomas' first credit in a television production.
In the 1980s, Thomas first worked in film. Composer John Williams, a close family friend, hired Thomas to work in the music department for space opera film "Return of the Jedi" (1983). Thomas' main work in the film was orchestrating the music in a scene where character Darth Vader dies. Afterwards, Thomas was approached by film producer Scott Rudin and hired to work as a film score composer in his own right. His first work in the field was the film score of romantic drama "Reckless" (1984).
While he worked regularly as a film score composer during the 1980s, Thomas reportedly felt he had to retrain himself for a hard and demanding job. It reportedly took him 8 years to not feel fraudulent in his efforts. In 1994, Thomas received his first Academy Award nominations, for the film scores of "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) and "Little Women" (1994). He lost the Award to rival composer Hans Zimmer, who had been nominated for the film score of the animated film "The Lion King" (1994).
Newman was an established and increasingly famous composer in the 1990s. He received further Academy Award nominations, although he never actually won. Among his more notable works was the film score of the drama film "American Beauty" (1999), which earned Thomas both a Grammy and a BAFTA award. Newman had a good working relationship with the film's director Sam Mendes. Mendes has kept hiring Thomas as the composer for most of his films. The main exception being the comedy-drama film "Away We Go" (2009), which did not have a film score.
In the 2000s, Thomas continued working in high-profile films, such as "Road to Perdition" (2002), "Finding Nemo" (2003), and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events". By 2006, he had been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, while never winning it. He started joking about his lack of victories in public.
In 2008, Thomas was nominated for two Academy Awards, for both the film score and an original song for the animated film "WALL-E" (2008). He won neither, though the hit song "Down to Earth" earned him a Grammy Award. He continues to work regularly in the 2010s. Among his more acclaimed works were the film scores for spy film "Skyfall" (2012) and period drama "Saving Mr. Banks" (2013). He has continued being nominated for Academy Awards. As of 2020, he has been nominated 15 times for the Academy Award. He is the most nominated living composer to have never actually won an Academy Award, tied with Alex North. He has won a total of 5 Grammy awards.- Actor
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Thomas Hobson was born on 8 June 1982. He is an actor and producer, known for That Girl Lay Lay (2021), Ghosts of the Ozarks (2021) and Sherman's Showcase (2019).- Actor
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Justin Bartha was born on 21 July 1978 in West Bloomfield, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for National Treasure (2004), Gigli (2003) and The Hangover (2009). He has been married to Lia Smith since 4 January 2014. They have one child.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Daniel Henney was born on 28 November 1979 in Carson City, Michigan, USA. He is an actor, known for Big Hero 6 (2014), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Last Stand (2013).- Actor
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Daniel, started his acting career before the age of six in late 1997. His first ventures were a series of commercials that include The Royal Canadian Mint, Bounce, General Mills, Hallmark Cards, Cottonelle, Oscar Mayer, Toys R Us and many more.
In 1998 Daniel was cast in a HBO movie called "Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within". He began to learn his craft by working with Timothy Hutton. He gained further valuable experience by working with Shelley Long in "Vanished Without a Trace (NBC)", James Garner and Julie Andrews in "One Special Night (CBS)", Marcia Gay Harden in "Guilty Hearts (CBS)", and with Jennifer Lopez in "Angel Eyes".
Daniel is mostly known for his role as "Edwin", Derek's younger brother in the family show "Life With Derek". The show started filming in 2004 and completed its run seventy episodes later in 2007. Filming of "Derek Goes On Vacation" was completed at the beginning of October, 2009 and will be released in early 2010.
During his career Daniel has been featured on "Entertainment Tonight (Canada)", "Canada AM (CTV)" "Sky TV (Britain)" and "The Zone (YTV)".
In 2003 Daniel was nominated in the Young Artist category for "Best Performance in a TV Movie", in a supporting role in Mom's on Strike. He was also nominated in 2006 for "Best Young Ensemble Performance" for Life With Derek and in 2008 for "Best Performance in a TV series" for his supporting role as Edwin Venturi.
He graduated the Vancouver Film School in 2011 with a focus on screenwriting.AKA Daniel Magder- Director
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Walter Salles was born on 12 April 1956 in Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a director and producer, known for Central Station (1998), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and Terra Estrangeira (1995). He is married to Maria Klabin. They have one child.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tracey Walter was born on 25 November 1947 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He is an actor, known for Repo Man (1984), Batman (1989) and Conan the Destroyer (1984).- Actor
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Walter Koenig began his acting career in 1962 as an uncredited Sentry in the TV series Combat! (1962), and in the following few years had bit roles in several television shows, until he landed the role that would catapult his career in ways he could never have imagined, as Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek's Original Series (Star Trek (1966)). He went on to reprise that role in all 7 of the original Star Trek movies (The 7th movie, Star Trek: Generations (1994) was mostly ST: The Next Generation, but had the original series section at the beginning, and Kirk at the end), as well as voicing the same character in several of the video games. He has continued to reprise that character in several different Star Trek video's, and TV series, rising in rank to Lieutenant, Commander, Captain and Admiral through the years (his most recent being Admiral Chekov in the pilot of Star Trek: Renegades (2015), which never launched, but that evolved to Renegades (2017), a 2 part, crowd-funded, fan-made mini series that also stars fellow Original Series star Nichelle Nichols (as a character NOT named 'Uhura'). Since it was Fan-Made (and to avoid violating studio rights) they couldn't use the Star Trek Character's names, like Uhura or Chekov, so they simply called him 'The Admiral'. (however the uniforms and technology are remarkably Star Trek like.)
He also had a recurring role of the quintessential scoundrel Bester on the television series Babylon 5 (1993). He has been the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He once again played Bester in the spin-off series Crusade (1999).
In between filming the 4th and 5th Star Trek films he took his first leading role in the video feature, Moontrap (1988). In an interactive state-of-the-art video game from Digital Pictures called Maximum Surge (1996), Koenig played as Drexel, another scoundrel.
Walter worked in the low budget feature film Drawing Down the Moon (1997) from Chaos Productions, and has star billing as a German psychologist in the martial arts picture, Sworn to Justice (1996). A one character piece that Koenig wrote and performed entitled "You're Never Alone when You're a Schizophrenic" was a finalist in the 1996 New York Film Festival awards. Koenig filmed a guest appearance as himself on the CBS situation comedy Almost Perfect (1995), did sketch comedy on the Comedy Central series "Viva Variety" (1996) and performed on an ESPN sports commercial that aired in the spring of 1998. Walter also hosted a cult movie marathon for Comedy Central. It played once a week for the course of a month.
Koenig's autobiography, "Warped Factors - A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe" was released through Taylor Publishing on April 1, 1998. The audio tape reading of the book by the author has been released through Dove Video in January 1999. Koenig performed as the Shadow Guy in an episode of Diagnosis Murder (1993) and went to New York to perform in a new radio broadcast version of "War of the Worlds" in tribute to both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles. From "The Girls of Summer" to "The Boys in Autumn", Koenig's stage career spans thirty years and includes stops in New York with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Quince) and "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (Oldest Son). In Chicago, he guested in "Make a Million" (Johnny) opposite Jackie Coogan and on the road -- from Arizona to Philadelphia -- Mark Lenard (Sarek: Spock's father) and he performed in the short plays "Box and Cox" (Box) and "Actors" (Dave). They also toured in a two character play, "The Boys in Autumn", the comedy-drama about the reunion of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn forty years later.
By himself, Koenig also starred as Larry the Liquidator in "Other People's Money" in Reno, Nevada. His Los Angeles productions include "Steambath" (God), "The White House Murder Case" (Captain Weems), "Night Must Fall" (Danny), "La Ronde" (Gentleman), "The Typist and the Tiger" (Paul), and "The Deputy" (Jacobson) among almost two dozen others ("Blood Wedding", "The Collection", et al.). Directorial credits include "Hotel Paradiso" for Company of Angles, "Beckett" for Theatre 40, "America Hurrah!" at the Oxford Theater, "Twelve Angry Men" at the Rita Hayworth Theatre, "Matrix" at the Gascon Theatre Institute, and "Three by Ten" at Actor's Alley. Walter has performed in the television movies Antony and Cleopatra (1984) (Pompey) opposite Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave as well as the MOW's Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971) and The Questor Tapes (1974).
Walter has written for the television series The Powers of Matthew Star (1982), What Really Happened to the Class of '65? (1977), Family (1976), Land of the Lost (1974), and the animated Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) series. This actor-writer has seen publication with the non-fiction "Chekov's Enterprise" and the satiric fantasy novel "Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot". He also created the three issues of the comic book story "Raver" published by Malibu Comics. Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing privately at UCLA, The Sherwood Oaks Experimental Film College and at the California School of Professional Psychology. Most recently, he has been an instructor at the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
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For many years Walter Huston had two passions: his career as an engineer and his vocation for the stage. In 1909 he dedicated himself to the theatre, and made his debut on Broadway in 1924. In 1929 he journeyed to Hollywood, where his talent and ability made him one of the most respected actors in the industry. He won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).- Walter Gotell was born on 15 March 1924 in Bonn, Germany. He was an actor, known for Moonraker (1979), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and A View to a Kill (1985). He was married to Celeste F. Mitchell and Yvonne Hills. He died on 5 May 1997 in London, England, UK.
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Johnny Walter, the son of a investigative-news producer and a biology professor, started pursuing acting at the age of 13 while growing up in Miami, FL. He attended New World School of the Arts, a performing arts high-school, and acted in a variety of theatrical productions ranging from "The Government Inspector" to "The Crucible"; where he would play the tragically flawed John Proctor. In 2000, following graduation, Johnny applied and was accepted into The Goodman Theatre School for his BFA. While there, he built up a diverse resume including roles in "Romeo and Juliet", "Brighton Beach Memoirs", and "Three Sister". He subsequently went on to perform and study in various workshops within the Chicago theatre community, working at theatre's from Chicago Shakespeare Theatre to the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
After pursuing theatre for over 10 years, Johnny decided to take a sabbatical from performing to travel and start to gain 'life-experience'. He ended up moving to be closer with his family in Austin, TX and learned a variety of skill-trades while retaining vast knowledge; such as becoming a welder, a teacher, a fish-monger, a clinical-assistant, and a carpenter. He believed that in order to fully achieve understanding about people, you have to experience what people do and who they are. After 3-4 years of living without his art, it was time to dive back into his passion.
2010 was a good year for Johnny, not just because it was the year he decided to go back into the art-form he loved, but it was also the year he had his first film debut in the Horror-flick Boneboys (2012). Since then, Johnny's film and television career has taken off.- Actor
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Albert Brooks was born on 22 July 1947 in Beverly Hills, California, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Drive (2011), Broadcast News (1987) and Defending Your Life (1991). He has been married to Kimberly Shlain since 15 March 1997. They have two children.- Actor
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Miguel Ferrer was an American actor known for playing Morton from RoboCop, Shan Yu from Mulan, Martian Manhunter from Justice League: The New Frontier, Slade Wilson from Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Death from Adventure Time, Sesa Refumee from Halo 2 and Vice President Rodriguez from Iron Man 3. He passed away in January 2017 due to throat cancer. He is survived by his wife and three children.- Actor
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The son of a Lancashire bookmaker, Albert Finney came to motion pictures via the theatre. In 1956, he won a scholarship to RADA where his fellow alumni included Peter O'Toole and Alan Bates. He joined the Birmingham Repertory where he excelled in plays by William Shakespeare. A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Finney understudied Laurence Olivier at Stratford-upon-Avon, eventually acquiring a reputation as 'the new Olivier'. He first came to critical attention by creating the title role in Keith Waterhouse's "Billy Liar" on the London stage. His film debut soon followed with The Entertainer (1960) by Tony Richardson with whom had earlier worked in the theatre. With the changing emphasis in 60s British cinema towards gritty realism and working-class milieus, Finney's typical screen personae became good-looking, often brooding proletarian types and rebellious anti-heroes as personified by his Arthur Seaton in Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). His exuberant defining role, however, was in the bawdy period romp Tom Jones (1963) in which Finney revealed a substantial talent for comedy. In the same vein, he scored another hit opposite Audrey Hepburn in the charming marital comedy Two for the Road (1967).
By 1965, Finney had branched out into production, setting up Memorial Enterprises in conjunction with Michael Medwin. In 1968, he directed himself in Charlie Bubbles (1968) and three years later produced the Chandleresque homage Gumshoe (1971), in which he also starred as Eddie Ginley, a bingo-caller with delusions of becoming a private eye. From 1972 to 1975, Finney served as artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. His intermittent forays to the screen confirmed him as a versatile international actor of note, though not what one might describe as a mainstream star. His roles have ranged from Ebenezer Scrooge in the musical version of Scrooge (1970) to Daddy Warbucks in Annie (1982) and (in flamboyant over-the-top make-up) Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974). He appeared as Minister of Police Joseph Fouché in Ridley Scott's superb period drama The Duellists (1977) and as a grandiloquent Shakespearean actor in The Dresser (1983) for which he received an Oscar nomination. For the small screen Finney essayed Pope John Paul II (1984) and was a totally believable Winston Churchill in the acclaimed The Gathering Storm (2002). His final movie credit was in the James Bond thriller Skyfall (2012).
Finney was five-times nominated for Academy Awards in 1964, 1975, 1984, 1985 and 2001. He won two BAFTA Awards in 1961 and 2004. True to his working-class roots, he spurned a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000, later explaining his decision by stating that the 'Sir thing' "slightly perpetuates one of our diseases in England, which is snobbery". Albert Finney was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2011. He died on February 7 2019 at a London hospital from a chest infection at the age of 82. Upon his death, John Cleese described him as "the best" and "our greatest actor".- Actor
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The only son of Green Acres (1965) star Eddie Albert and Mexican actress/dancer Margo, Edward Laurence Albert managed to come out from under his father's strong shadow and make a gallant showing of his own as a gifted thespian. Born in Los Angeles on February 20, 1951, Edward's multi-cultural heritage and talented gene pool allowed him to become a man of many talents: songwriter, drummer, singer, photographer and, most importantly, activist.
Growing up, he inherited an early interest in music and the performing arts. He made an auspicious film debut at the age of 14 in The Fool Killer (1965) co-starring as a young runaway who teams up with a tormented Civil War veteran (Anthony Perkins), a teaming that leads to murder. A strong, mature role for such a youngster, his next film appearance wouldn't come about until seven years later. In the meantime Edward attended Oxford University and was studying psychology at UCLA when offered the breakthrough of a lifetime.
Signed up to play the difficult role of blind Don Baker--played on Broadway by Keir Dullea--who yearns for freedom away from his domineering mom (Oscar winner Eileen Heckart) and finds it in the arms of a liberated lass named Jill (Goldie Hawn) in Butterflies Are Free (1972), Edward easily captured the hearts of millions with his tender, life-affirming performance. Edward walked home with the cinema's Golden Globe Award as "Male Newcomer of the Year." A confident, intelligent actor with a serene handsomeness and 1000-watt smile who just happened to possess the most magnetic pale eyes this side of Meg Foster, Edward was on a seemingly strong path to film stardom. Although he never found a comparable success to "Butterfly," he did follow it up with another theater comedy favorite, 40 Carats (1973), in which he had a dalliance with older actress Liv Ullmann. He also played Charlton Heston's military son in Midway (1976), followed by highly visible roles in The Domino Principle (1977) and The Greek Tycoon (1978).
When film stardom did not pan out, Edward saw TV as a welcoming medium and made up for his sudden lack of star power with wonderful turns in major TV minimovies, notably The Last Convertible (1979). By the 1980s he had started making the rounds in formula low-budget action films and usually fared best when his flashy villainous side came into view. While such obvious movie titles as The House Where Evil Dwells (1982), Fist Fighter (1988), Demon Keeper (1994) and Stageghost (2000) pointed out the lack of quality in his offerings, it did provide a steady income and visibility. He also made frequent guest appearances on such shows as Falcon Crest (1981), L.A. Law (1986), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993) that kept him in the public eye. A solid regular as both good guy and bad guy on series TV, he gave his life (and, it seems, his paycheck) to the Beast after three seasons on Beauty and the Beast (1987) and, in contrast, played the dastardly Dr. Bennett Devlin on the daytime soap Port Charles (1997) for its first three seasons. Edward also used his vocal talents in animation involving such superhero icons as The Fantastic Four (1978), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994) and "The Power Rangers".
From his father and mother Edward developed a deep love and appreciation for the land and the diversity of cultures. As such, he divided his time between acting work and activism just as his father had done. Having owned a ranch in Malibu for over 30 years, he was a strong, positive influence and passionate spokesperson when it came to environmental and cultural affairs. In recent years he served on the California Coastal Commission and California Native American Heritage Commission.
Long married to lovely British-born actress Katherine Woodville, the couple's daughter, Thais, continued the family musical tradition as a singer/songwriter for the rock group Sugar in Wartime. Following his mother's passing from brain cancer in 1985, Edward became a selfless caregiver to his aging father, who began to develop early signs of Alzheimer's disease in the 1990s. His father lived for more than a decade in declining health, dying in May 2005. In early 2005, Edward discovered he too was seriously ill after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He died surrounded by family on September 22, 2006, at the relatively young age of 55.- A stage actor from 1927, Albert Dekker was an established Broadway star when he made his film debut ten years later. Tall and with rugged good looks, he often played aggressive character roles, a prime example being his double-crossing gang leader in the classic The Killers (1946). From 1944-46 he served a term in the California legislature representing the Hollywood district. As he got older Dekker, unlike many actors, turned to the stage rather than television, and achieved great success there and on the college lecture circuit. His last role, in The Wild Bunch (1969), was one of his most memorable: the tough railroad detective Harrigan, who hires a murderous group of bounty hunters to track down and kill a gang of outlaws who've been robbing his company's trains.
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Albert and Allen Hughes began making movies at age 12, but their formal film education began their freshman year of high school when Allen took a TV production class. They soon made a short film entitled How To Be A Burglar and people began to take notice. Their next work, Uncensored videos, was broadcast on cable, introducing them to a wider audience. After high school Albert began taking classes at LACC Film School: two shorts established the twins' reputation as innovative filmmakers and allowed them to direct Menace II Society (1993), which made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and grossed nearly 10 times as much as its $3 million budget. After following up with Dead Presidents (1995) they directed the feature-length documentary American Pimp (1999) .- Actor
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John Joseph Lydon, more popularly known by his former stage name, Johnny Rotten, is an English singer, songwriter and author. He is best known as the frontman of the British punk band Sex Pistols, one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music. The band originally lasted from 1975 to 1978, but had various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. John is also the lead singer of the avant-garde post-punk band Public Image Ltd (PiL), which he founded and fronted from 1978 to 1993, and again since 2009.
Known for his no-nonsense way of talking, rebellious image and fashion style, Lydon was seen as a figurehead of the burgeoning punk movement in the 1970s, and, having been a prominent figure in British popular culture for over four decades, in 2002 he was named among the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote.AKA Johnny Rotten- Actor
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Edward Bunker was born on 31 December 1933 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Reservoir Dogs (1992), Runaway Train (1985) and The Longest Yard (2005). He was married to Jennifer Steele. He died on 19 July 2005 in Burbank, California, USA.- Actor
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Edward Arnold was born as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider in 1890, on the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of German immigrants, Elizabeth (Ohse) and Carl Schneider. Arnold began his acting career on the New York stage and became a film actor in 1916. A burly man with a commanding style and superb baritone voice, he was a popular screen personality for decades, and was the star of such film classics as Diamond Jim (1935) (a role he reprised in Lillian Russell (1940)) Arnold appeared in over 150 films and was President of The Screen Actors Guild shortly before his death in 1956.- Actor
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Edward Akrout is a Franco-British actor and artist. Raised in an ethnically diverse background, he grew up between France and England and then lived in different countries, including Romania and throughout Latin America. He studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, graduating in 2008. He is mostly known for his roles as the Dauphin in the BBC series, "The Hollow Crown" and Edward Steichen in "Rodin" part of the Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival 2017.- Edward Finlay (also known as Eddie or Eduardo Finlay) was born and raised, first generation, in Miami, FL, from native Cuban parents, who fled Cuba as political refugees in the late 1950s. He is one of four siblings; two brothers and a sister. His ancestry consist of Spanish and Scottish origin. Eddie grew up watching a lot of movies with his family. Movies that inspired his imagination and fantasy of becoming an actor/ artist included collections from the Star Wars series, the Indiana Jones series, and the Superman series, with Christopher Reeve. He loved the stories and imagination that these types of movies brought out in him. Eddie attended Cristopher Columbus High School in South Florida where he loved playing sports, but never got involved in theatre until he received an opportunity to audition for the lead role in the play Splender in the Grass, to play Bud Stamper, for the sister school, theater program, at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. He won the role, and fell in love with the journey, and the process, of performing and storytelling. From that point on, he made the decision to get involved in the acting business. He was already a successful fashion model, doing campaigns such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Versace, Panama Jack, editorials for Vogue, and more. He began to figure out how to transition from the modeling business into show business with a little help from the film and television department at his modeling agency, as well as help from world known photographer Bruce Weber. Eddie booked his first series regular on a show called Miami Sands; a TV soap opera that showed mostly in Europe.. The show was a great beginning and training ground for him. During the duration of filming Miami Sands, Eddie landed a Guest Star on a show called S-Club 7 as well. He also later got involved with a local theatre company and performed in musicals and plays at the Gusman Theatre in Downtown Miami, and The Jackie Gleason Theatr. He performed plays and musicals such as Grease(as Danny Zucko), Copelius( as Dr. Copelius), Hercules(as Hercules). He later moved to Los Angeles, where he auditioned for pilot season. He trained at John Kirby Studios, Lesley Kahn Studios, and later at Ivanna Chubbuck Studios. He was then cast as a lead/ series regular on another TV series "Ocean Ave.", working along actress Megan Fox(Tranformers), and Rebecca Ferguson(M:I-Rogue Nation). During the duration of filming Ocean Ave., Eddie was cast to work with Michael Bay on Bad Boys 2, and landed a supporting role on 2 Fast 2 Furious, playing Agent Jason Dunn, working with director John Singleton, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, and Eva Mendes. As Eddie's journey continued, he was cast in Guest Stars, Co-Stars, Leads, and Supporting roles in other film and television productions such as Modern Family, Medium, CSI:NY, CSI: Cyber, NCIS:LA, Honeymoon with Mom, Watercolors, Fortress, and After the Rain(Reach). He also was cast as a series regular to play FBI agent, Harrison Pearce, with a mysterious past and inner conflict, on the show South Beach on Hulu; also just finishing filming a supporting role, playing Henry Navas, on the film Vandal(2017). Eddie currently resides in Los Angeles with his lovely wife, where his journey continues and grows as an artist.
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Arnold Vosloo was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to stage actor parents, Johanna Petronella Vorster and Johannes J. Daniel Vosloo. He is an Afrikaaner (of mostly Dutch, as well as German, Swiss-German, Danish, and French, descent).
Vosloo quickly established a fine reputation as an actor in his native South Africa, winning several awards there for his theater work, including "More Is 'n Lang Dag", "Don Juan" and "Torch Song Trilogy". A regular performer with South Africa's State Theatre, he also played leading roles in "Savages", "Twelfth Night" and "Hamlet". His film career in the RSA brought him The Dalro Award as Best Actor for both Maneuvers (1984) and Circles in a Forest (1989), and the Dalro Best Actor Nomination for the film version of More Is 'n Lang Dag.
After moving to the United States, he appeared in "Born In The R.S.A." at Chicago's Northlight Theatre and starred with Al Pacino and Sheryl Lee in a Circle In The Square Uptown production of "Salome" (his character's name was "Jokanaan"). The latter running for a total of 18 performances only between June 28, 1992 and July 2, 1992. Vosloo's film credits include Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), John Woo's Hard Target (1993) (produced by James Jacks and Sean Daniel), Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996), both directed by Bradford May, and George Miller's Zeus and Roxanne (1997). Equally at home on the television screen, Vosloo appeared in American Gothic (1995) for Fox and Nash Bridges (1996) for CBS.- Producer
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Arnold Rifkin was born on 16 June 1946 in New York, USA. He is a producer and executive, known for Tears of the Sun (2003), Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Hostage (2005).- Actor
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Justin Arnold's on-screen performances have been favored at Sundance, Slamdance, SXSW, Berlin, Fantastic Fest, DIFF & more. Highlights are at the helm of Academy Award winning director Spike Jones in collaboration with Arcade Fire's, Scenes from the Suburbs. Also, Justin stars in Whiskey Myers, Bury My Bones. Justin Arnold is a multifaceted actor, writer, filmmaker & musician. Notable works in fiction, A Dog Outside at Night in a Fight and Three Gloves Broken at the Base of an Ugly Mountain. Justin writes, directs, stars and scores the soundtrack for Mother Fucker, a short super-16mm film debut selected by the Dallas International-FF, Lonestar-FF & The Arthouse-FF. Justin is producing an EP album of modern-day hill-country blues ballads to be featured in an off-Broadway musical as well as the feature adaptation of his short film, Mother Fucker.- Justin Cooper was born on 17 November 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor, known for Liar Liar (1997), General Hospital (1963) and Brother's Keeper (1998).
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- Justin has been a working actor since the ripe old age of 11, when he first captured audiences in the title role of "The Little Prince." Today, he is a 19-year veteran of Hollywood, with an Emmy under his belt.
Preferring to stay out of the limelight when he isn't working, he has many other interests, including the stock market. He also enjoys golfing and playing the blues on his electric guitar. Scuba diving is a hobby that he's fallen in love with in the last few years. When they can, Justin and his fiancée Reina love traveling to exotic destinations and exploring the marine life. - Justin Deeley was born on 1 February 1986 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He is an actor, known for Geography Club (2013), Couples Retreat (2009) and Fear the Walking Dead (2015).
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Justin Gaston was born on August 12, 1988 in Pineville, Louisiana, USA. He is an actor, singer and model. He was a contestant on Nashville Star on season 6. He finished 10th overall out of 12 contestants. He left his hometown at the age of at age 17 to pursue a career in acting. Gaston first found work as a model for 2(x)ist underwear, Christian Audigier, Adidas, International Jock, Hugo Boss, and other notable labels.
He is best known for starring on NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives.- Justin Silver is known for The Sinner (2017), Dogs in the City (2012) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001).
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Justin Lazard was born on 30 November 1967 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Species II (1998), Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) and Second Chances (1993).- Actor
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Veteran actor and director Robert Selden Duvall was born on January 5, 1931, in San Diego, CA, to Mildred Virginia (Hart), an amateur actress, and William Howard Duvall, a career military officer who later became an admiral. Duvall majored in drama at Principia College (Elsah, IL), then served a two-year hitch in the army after graduating in 1953. He began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1955, studying under Sanford Meisner along with Dustin Hoffman, with whom Duvall shared an apartment. Both were close to another struggling young actor named Gene Hackman. Meisner cast Duvall in the play "The Midnight Caller" by Horton Foote, a link that would prove critical to his career, as it was Foote who recommended Duvall to play the mentally disabled "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). This was his first "major" role since his 1956 motion picture debut as an MP in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), starring Paul Newman.
Duvall began making a name for himself as a stage actor in New York, winning an Obie Award in 1965 playing incest-minded longshoreman "Eddie Carbone" in the off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge", a production for which his old roommate Hoffman was assistant director. He found steady work in episodic TV and appeared as a modestly billed character actor in films, such as Arthur Penn's The Chase (1966) with Marlon Brando and in Robert Altman's Countdown (1967) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969), in both of which he co-starred with James Caan.
He was also memorable as the heavy who is shot by John Wayne at the climax of True Grit (1969) and was the first "Maj. Frank Burns", creating the character in Altman's Korean War comedy M*A*S*H (1970). He also appeared as the eponymous lead in George Lucas' directorial debut, THX 1138 (1971). It was Francis Ford Coppola, casting The Godfather (1972), who reunited Duvall with Brando and Caan and provided him with his career breakthrough as mob lawyer "Tom Hagen". He received the first of his six Academy Award nominations for the role.
Thereafter, Duvall had steady work in featured roles in such films as The Godfather Part II (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Network (1976), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976). Occasionally this actor's actor got the chance to assay a lead role, most notably in Tomorrow (1972), in which he was brilliant as William Faulkner's inarticulate backwoods farmer. He was less impressive as the lead in Badge 373 (1973), in which he played a character based on real-life NYPD detective Eddie Egan, the same man his old friend Gene Hackman had won an Oscar for playing, in fictionalized form as "Popeye Doyle" in The French Connection (1971).
It was his appearance as "Lt. Col. Kilgore" in another Coppola picture, Apocalypse Now (1979), that solidified Duvall's reputation as a great actor. He got his second Academy Award nomination for the role, and was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most versatile actor in the world. Duvall created one of the most memorable characters ever assayed on film, and gave the world the memorable phrase, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"
Subsequently, Duvall proved one of the few established character actors to move from supporting to leading roles, with his Oscar-nominated turns in The Great Santini (1979) and Tender Mercies (1983), the latter of which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Now at the summit of his career, Duvall seemed to be afflicted with the fabled "Oscar curse" that had overwhelmed the careers of fellow Academy Award winners Luise Rainer, Rod Steiger and Cliff Robertson. He could not find work equal to his talents, either due to his post-Oscar salary demands or a lack of perception in the industry that he truly was leading man material. He did not appear in The Godfather Part III (1990), as the studio would not give in to his demands for a salary commensurate with that of Al Pacino, who was receiving $5 million to reprise Michael Corleone.
His greatest achievement in his immediate post-Oscar period was his triumphant characterization of grizzled Texas Ranger Gus McCrae in the TV mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989), for which he received an Emmy nomination. He received a second Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Stalin (1992), and a third Emmy nomination playing Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996).
The shakeout of his career doldrums was that Duvall eventually settled back into his status as one of the premier character actors in the industry, rivaled only by his old friend Gene Hackman. Duvall, unlike Hackman, also has directed pictures, including the documentary We're Not the Jet Set (1974), Angelo My Love (1983) and Assassination Tango (2002). As a writer-director, Duvall gave himself one of his most memorable roles, that of the preacher on the run from the law in The Apostle (1997), a brilliant performance for which he received his third Best Actor nomination and fifth Oscar nomination overall. The film brought Duvall back to the front ranks of great actors, and was followed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for A Civil Action (1998).
Robert Duvall will long be remembered as one of the great naturalistic American screen actors in the mode of Spencer Tracy and his frequent co-star Marlon Brando. His performances as "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), "Jackson Fentry" in Tomorrow (1972), "Tom Hagen" in the first two "Godfather" movies, "Frank Hackett" in Network (1976), "Lt. Col. Kilgore" in Apocalypse Now (1979), "Bull Meechum" in The Great Santini (1979), "Mac Sledge" in Tender Mercies (1983), "Gus McCrae" in Lonesome Dove (1989) and "Sonny Dewey" in The Apostle (1997) rank as some of the finest acting ever put on film. It's a body of work that few actors can equal, let alone surpass.- Actor
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Robert Taylor is one of Australia's busiest actors with an illustrious career spanning over international film and television. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of the title role of Walt Longmire in Netflix's record breaking drama series Longmire, which recently released its sixth and final season. Graduating from the prestigious West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) Robert has since appeared as the lead opposite French star, Nadia Fares in the international feature Storm Warning, directed by Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend) for Dimension films in the USA. He also featured in Rogue, from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) was the lead in Coffin Rock (Head Gear Films, UK) and in 2013 filmed a supporting role in Rupert Glasson's What Lola Wants opposite Sophie Lowe and wrapped a key role opposite Hugo Weaving in the feature film, Healing (dir. by Craig Monahan). Prior to this, he appeared as Kiron in the NBC telemovie Hercules in 2005, and worked with acclaimed American director, Peter Bogdanovich in The Mystery Of Natalie Wood (ABC Network, USA). Robert starred in the series role of Vincent in the BBC series Ballykissangel, and had a lead role opposite Guy Pearce, and Rachel Griffiths in the feature film The Hard Word. Robert's work on international blockbusters include, starring as Skip Taylor along side Chris O'Donnell in Vertical Limit (dir. Martin Campbell - Casino Royale, GoldenEye), and Agent Jones alongside Hugo Weaving in The Matrix (dir. Larry & Andy Wachowski). In a career spanning over 30 years, he has also starred in many productions in Australia and the USA such as Killing Time (TV1), Mr & Mrs Murder (TEN Network), Twentysomething (ABC TV); Satisfaction; Underbelly - Tell Them Lucifer Was Here (Screentime); Ned Kelly; After The Rain; First Daughter; Tales of The South Seas; Muggers; Twisted Tales; The Feds; Stingers; Phage, and Nash's Vision (USA). In 2015, Robert starred alongside Will Smith and Margot Robbie in feature film Focus directed by Glenn Fircarra and John Requa. Australian feature films The Menkhoff Method directed by David Parker, Turkey Shoot Reloaded directed by Jon Hewitt and Grant Scicluna's feature Downriver were all released in 2016 also. Robert recently featured in Kong: Skull Island, and the Australian Feature Film, Don't Tell directed by Tori Garrett, opposite Rachel Griffiths, Jack Thompson, Aden Young and Jacqueline McKenzie. Robert will next be seen in the action sci-fi feature The Meg, directed by Jon Turteltaub, and opposite Jason Statham for Warner Bros due for worldwide release this August. This year, he just completed filming the independent US feature film Into The Ashes opposite Frank Grillo, and Blood Vessel opposite Alyssa Sutherland.- Actor
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Robert Francis Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in New York City, the son of show business parents, Marcella Frances (Gaudel) and Gerald Walter Vaughn. His father was a radio actor and his mother starred on stage. Robert came to the public's attention first with his Oscar-nominated role, in The Young Philadelphians (1959). The next year, he was one of the seven in the western classic The Magnificent Seven (1960). Despite being in such popular films, he generally found work on television. He appeared over 200 times in guest roles in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It was in 1963 that he received his first major role in The Lieutenant (1963). Robert took the role with the intention of making the transition from being a guest-star actor to being a co-star on television. It was due to his work in this series that producer Norman Felton offered him the role of Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964).
Four extremely successful years (1964-68) followed as the series became one of the most popular television series of the 1960s. It made Vaughn an international television star, but he wanted to embark on a career in film, and did so soon after the series ended in 1968 by co-starring in Bullitt (1968) with Steve McQueen. Now working in film full-time, he starred in The Bridge at Remagen (1969) and The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970), before making a change by going back to television, this time in England. He took a lead role in the series The Protectors (1972) and stayed in England for the first half of the 1970s. He returned to the United States in the mid-1970s and embarked on a very successful run of television miniseries roles that resulted in his receiving an Emmy Award in 1978 for Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977) and a nomination the following year for Backstairs at the White House (1979).
The 1970s proved a important time in Robert's life, as in 1974, he married actress Linda Staab, and completed his thesis on Hollywood blacklisting during the McCarthy "Red Scare" era, published in 1972 as "Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting". During the 1980s, he mixed television with film. Roles in such films as S.O.B. (1981), Superman III (1983), The Delta Force (1986) and Black Moon Rising (1986) were highlights. In television, he appeared in many successful series, most notably in The A-Team (1983) and Emerald Point N.A.S. (1983).
He continued with a diverse range of projects, appearing on stage on numerous occasions. The 1990s saw the same variety of roles. Made-for-TV movies were a popular choice for him, as well as such series as As the World Turns (1956), The Nanny (1993) and Law & Order (1990). He had a role in the 1998 series remake of the classic film in which he appeared, The Magnificent Seven (1998). He also appeared in major features such as Joe's Apartment (1996) and BASEketball (1998), and in smaller roles in subsequent years.
Robert died of acute leukemia on November 11, 2016 in Ridgefield, Connecticut. His last acting credit, Gold Star (2017), was released the year of his death.- Actor
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R.J. Wagner was born 1930 in Detroit, the son of a steel executive. His family moved to L.A. when he was six. Always wanting to be an actor, he held a variety of jobs (including one as a golf caddy for Clark Gable) while pursuing his goal, but it was while dining with his parents at a Beverly Hills restaurant that he was discovered by a talent scout. After making his uncredited screen debut in The Happy Years (1950), Wagner was signed by 20th Century Fox, which carefully built him up toward stardom. He played romantic leads with ease, but it was not until he essayed the two-scene role of a shell-shocked war veteran in With a Song in My Heart (1952) that studio executives recognized his potential as a dramatic actor. He went on to play the title roles in Prince Valiant (1954) and The True Story of Jesse James (1957), and portrayed a cold-blooded murderer in A Kiss Before Dying (1956). In the mid-'60s, however, his film career skidded to a stop after The Pink Panther (1963). Several years of unemployment followed before Wagner made a respectable transition to television as star of the lighthearted espionage series It Takes a Thief (1968). He also starred on the police series Switch (1975), but Wagner's greatest success was opposite Stefanie Powers on the internationally popular Hart to Hart (1979), which ran from 1979 through 1984 and has since been sporadically revived in TV-movie form (another series, Lime Street (1985), was quickly canceled due to the tragic death of Wagner's young co-star, Samantha Smith). Considered one of Hollywood's nicest citizens, Robert Wagner has continued to successfully pursue a leading man career; he has also launched a latter-day stage career, touring with Stefanie Powers in the readers' theater presentation "Love Letters". He found success playing Number Two, a henchman to Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and its sequels, and in 2007, he began playing Teddy Leopold, a recurring role on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003). Wagner is married to Jill St. John and lives in Aspen.- Actor
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Robert began his acting career when he was eight years old by enrolling in an after school drama program sponsored by Trinity Repertory Company. Later that year he landed a role as Turkey Boy in Trinity's production of A Christmas Carol. Since that time Robert has performed a variety of roles on stage. Recently, Robert has turned his efforts to film. Robert's first principal role was in Bride Wars where he played Robert. Shortly thereafter he earned a role as Young Dave's Pal in the movie Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Robert's role as Rowley in Fox's three-movie franchise Diary of A Wimpy Kid (2010,2011) is perhaps his most recognized role to date. The third installment, Dog Days, was released in August 2012.
Robert landed his first voiceover role as Bob in the Tim Burton directed movie Frankenweenie which was released in October 2012. In April 2012, Robert played Young Curly in the movie The Three Stooges. In 2013, Robert played Kyle in the Faxon/ Nash directed movie The Way, Way Back. Also during 2013, Robert had his first experience in motion-capture 3D CGI as he played Derek in the motion-capture version of Tarzan. In 2015, Robert played Jake alongside Bailey Madison in the Indie feature Annabelle Hooper and The Ghosts of Nantucket. In 2016, Robert landed the role of Jack Black's son Dave in the feature film The Polka King. The film also also stars Jenny Slate, Jackie Weaver and Jason Schwartzman.
In addition to theater, and film, Robert currently is a returning guest star on CBS's Elementary, where he plays the role of one of Sherlock's "irregulars" known as Mason. He has s also appeared on television as a guest star on ABC's The Middle, and as the lead on two episodes of The Hub Network's The Haunting Hour.
Robert is passionate about reading, acting, history, watching movies, and reading and writing his own screenplays. He also loves swimming, tennis, and playing video games.
Robert is a freshman at Brown University majoring in theater, film studies and screenwriting.- Actor
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Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also found work in movies such as The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Scarface (1983) and Big (1988). Always in demand, Loggia worked until his death, at 85, from complications of Alzheimer's.- Actor
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Born Spangler Arlington Brugh, Robert Taylor began displaying a diversity of talents in his youth on the plains of Nebraska. At Beatrice High School, he was a standout track athlete, but also showed a talent for using his voice, winning several oratory awards. He was a musician and played the cello in the school orchestra. After graduating he thought of music as a vocation and started studying music at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. In the early 1930s he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and study medicine. He enrolled at Pomona College but also joined the campus theater group and found himself in many lead roles because of his handsome features. He was inspired to go on to the Neely Dixon Dramatic School, but about a year after graduating from Pomona, he was spotted by an MGM talent scout and given a contract in 1934. That same year, he appeared in his first movie, on loan-out to Fox for a Will Rogers entry, Handy Andy (1934). He also did an MGM short, Buried Loot (1935), for its "Crime Does Not Pay" series, which provided good exposure. However, the next year he did even better by being cast as the lead, again on loan-out, this time to then struggling Universal Pictures, in Magnificent Obsession (1935) with Irene Dunne, the story of a happy-go-lucky party guy who inadvertently causes blindness to the young lady he wishes to impress and then becomes a doctor in order to cure her. The movie was a big hit, and Taylor had a taste of instant box-office stardom. Along with his good looks, Taylor already showed solid dramatic skill. However, critics viewed of him as a no-talent flash-in-the-pan getting by on his looks (a charge levied at his closest contemporary comparison, Tyrone Power over at Fox). He had to endure some brutal reviews through his first years in Hollywood, but they would soon fade away. In 1935 alone, he appeared in seven films, and by the end of the year, he was at the top of his form as a leading man and being offered substantial scripts. The next year he appeared with Greta Garbo in Camille (1936), and for the remainder of the decade MGM's vehicles for him--not to mention a pantheon of top actresses--clicked with audiences. On a personal level, despite his impressive family background and education, Taylor would often strike those who met him as a mental lightweight. Intellectually inclined actress Luise Rainer was shocked when she struck up a conversation with him at a studio function in 1937 when, after asking him what his goals were, he sincerely replied that his most important goal was to accumulate "a wardrobe of ten fine custom-tailored suits." That he usually comes across on screen as having a confident, commanding presence is more of a testimony to his acting talent than his actual personality. He held rigid right-wing political beliefs that he refused to question and, when confronted with an opposing viewpoint, would simply reject it outright. He rarely, if ever, felt the need to be introspective. Taylor simply felt blessed to be working behind the walls of MGM. His affection for the studio would blind him to the fact that boss Louis B. Mayer masterfully manipulated him for nearly two decades, keeping Taylor's salary the lowest of any major Hollywood star. But this is also indicative of how much trust he placed in the hands of the studio's leaders. Indeed, Taylor remained the quintessential MGM company man and would be rewarded by remaining employed there until the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s, outlasting its legend, Clark Gable. Though not quite considered treasures to be locked away in film vaults, Taylor's films during the first five years of his career gave him the opportunity to explore a wide spectrum of romantic characters, playing young officers or doctors more than once. Some noticeable examples of the variety of roles he took over a year's time were his chip-on-the-shoulder Lee Sheridan in A Yank at Oxford (1938), ladies' man/boxer Tommy McCoy in The Crowd Roars (1938) and cynical southern gentleman Blake Cantrell in Stand Up and Fight (1939). Taylor would truly become a first-rate actor in the following decade. By the 1940s, he was playing edgier and somewhat darker characters, such as the title roles in Billy the Kid (1941) and smooth criminal Johnny Eager (1941). With the arrival of the war, Taylor was quick to make his contribution to the effort. As an actor, he made two memorable combat movies: Stand by for Action (1942) and the better known (and for the time, quite graphic) Bataan (1943). From 1943 to 1946, he was in the US Naval Air Corps as a lieutenant, instructing would-be pilots. He also found time to direct two flight instruction training films (1943) and other training films for the Navy. Rather didactic in his ultra-conservative political beliefs, he became involved in 1947 as a "friendly witness" for the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating "Communist subversion" in the film industry. Anyone who knew Taylor knew he was an arch conservative but doubted that he could articulate why. He publicly stated that his accepting a role in Song of Russia (1944) was bad judgment (in reality, it was against his nature to balk at any film assignment while at MGM) and that he considered the film "pro-Communist." He also--rather unwittingly--fingered fellow actor Howard Da Silva as a disruptive force in the Screen Actors Guild. Although he didn't explicitly accuse Da Silva of being a Communist, his charges of "disruption" had the same effect, and the veteran actor found himself blacklisted by the studios for many years. After the war and through the remainder of the decade, Taylor was getting action roles to match his healthy box office draw, but there were fewer of them being offered. He was aging, and though he had one of his best known roles as the faith-challenged Gen. Marcus Vinicius in the monster hit Quo Vadis (1951), he was now being seen more as a mature lead. MGM, now under the aegis of Dore Schary, made the decision to move a significant amount of production to England to cut costs and opted to film several big-budget costume epics there starring Taylor. With Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1952), he was back (as once before in 1949) with the dazzling young Elizabeth Taylor pining for him as the exotic young Jewish woman Rebecca, effectively pulling off a role ideally suited for an actor a decade younger. With a great script and lots of action (forget about the mismatch of some matte backdrops!), the movie was a smash hit. He had a new look--rakish goatee and longer hair--that fit the youthful illusion. The movie did so well that MGM opted for a follow-up film based on the King Arthur legend, Knights of the Round Table (1953). It was not quite as good, but Taylor had the same look, and it worked. To his credit, Taylor continued to push for challenging roles in his dramatic output; the old "pretty face" stigma still seemed to drive him. He played an intriguing and most unlikely character in Devil's Doorway (1950)--an American Indian (dark-stained skin with blue eyes!) who wins a Medal of Honor for heroism in the Civil War but comes home to his considerable land holdings to encounter the continued racial bigotry and envy of his white neighbors. It contained pushing-the-envelope dialog with many thought-provoking scenes dealing with the social plight of the Indian. Taylor did several noteworthy pictures after this film (e.g., the edgy Rogue Cop (1954)) and was even more swashbuckling in one of the lesser known of Sir Walter Scott's romantic novels, Quentin Durward (1955), again successful in a younger-man role. Though his contract with MGM expired in 1958, he accepted a few more films into the 1960s. He put on some weight in his 50s, and the effects of heavy chain smoking began to affect his looks, but Taylor successfully alternated between starring film roles and television, albeit at a somewhat reduced pace. He founded his own production company, Robert Taylor Productions, in 1958 and moved comfortably into TV work. From 1959 to 1962, he was the star of the TV series The Detectives (1959), and when Ronald Reagan bowed out of TV's popular western anthology Death Valley Days (1952) for a political career, Taylor took over as host and sometime actor (1966-1968) until his death from lung cancer at the age of only 57.- Actor
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Robert Wisdom graces each of his diverse screen roles with a powerful, profound and cool presence-- from his commercial hits to his bold and proactive performances in a variety of new features. He starred on HBO's The Wire, generating wide critical praise. Wisdom appeared in The Hawk is Dying at the Sundance Film Festival, starring Paul Giamatti, Michelle Williams and Michael Pitt. In addition, Wisdom had a pivotal role in the Oscar-Award winning film Ray starring Jamie Foxx. Wisdom's versatility can be seen in films such as Storytelling opposite Selma Blair, Duplex opposite Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller, Barbershop 2: Back in Business with Cedric the Entertainer and The Forgotten starring Julianne Moore. Wisdom has also appeared in the independent feature, Coastlines, directed by Victor Nunez. He also spent five months doing improvisation work to shape his character for director Michael Radford's Dancing at the Blue Iguana co-starring Daryl Hannah and Jennifer Tilly. Wisdom's success can also be seen on the television, including the critically acclaimed series Cracker, opposite Robert Pastorelli. His other credits include If These Walls Could Talk with Demi Moore and Sahara. His guest appearances include ER, NYPD Blue, Dharma and Greg, Judging Amy, and Boomtown.
Wisdom was raised in Washington, D.C., the middle of three children of Jamaican parents. He attended St. Alban's School in D.C., then graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in history and economics. Wisdom's passion is world music and he plays several percussion instruments, including Cuban drums, and has traveled the world following his passion.- Director
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Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started exploring the art of exploring sound with the cheap tape recorders available at the time. He was then sent to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri where he attended through Junior College. In 1945, he enlisted in the US Army Air Forces and became a copilot of a B-24. After his discharge from the military, he became fascinated by movies and he and his first wife, LaVonne Elmer, moved to Hollywood, where Altman tried acting (appearing in the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)), songwriting (he wrote a musical intended for Broadway, "The Rumors are Flying"), and screen-writing (he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Bodyguard (1948) and wrote the story (uncredited) for Christmas Eve (1947)), but he could not get a foot hold in Tinseltown. After a brief fling as publicity director with a company in the business of tattooing dogs, Altman finally gave up and returned to his hometown of Kansas City, where he decided he wanted to do some serious work in filmmaking. An old friend of his recommended him to a film production company in Kansas City, the Calvin Co., who hired him in 1950. After a few months of work in writing scripts and editing films, Altman began directing films at Calvin. It was here (while working on documentaries, employee training films, industrial and educational films and advertisements) that he learned much about film making. All in all, Altman pieced together sixty to sixty-five short films for Calvin on every subject imaginable, from football to car crashes, but he kept grasping for more challenging projects. He wrote the screenplay for the Kansas City-produced feature film Corn's-A-Poppin' (1955), he produced and directed several television commercials including one with the Eileen Ford Agency, he co-created and directed the TV series The Pulse of the City (1953) which ran for one season on the independent Dumont network, and he even had a formative crack at directing local community theater. His big-screen directorial debut came while still at Calvin with The Delinquents (1957) and, by 1956, he left the Calvin Co., and went to Hollywood to direct Alfred Hitchcock's TV show. From here, he went on to direct a large number of television shows, until he was offered the script for M*A*S*H (1970) in 1969. He was hardly the producer's first choice - more than fifteen other directors had already turned it down. This wasn't his first movie, but it was his first success. After that, he had his share of hits and misses, but The Player (1992) and, more recently, Gosford Park (2001) were particularly well-received.- Actor
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Robert Conrad was a graduate of Northwestern University, spending his first few years out of school supporting himself and his family by driving a milk truck and singing in a Chicago cabaret. Conrad befriended up-and-coming actor Nick Adams during this period, and it was Adams who helped Conrad get his first Hollywood work in 1957. A few movie bit parts later, Conrad was signed for a comparative pittance by Warner Bros. studios, and in 1959 was cast as detective Tom Lopaka on the weekly adventure series Hawaiian Eye. Upon the 1963 cancellation of this series, Conrad made a handful of Spanish and American films and toured with a nightclub act in Australia and Mexico City. Cast as frontier secret agent James West in The Wild Wild West (1965) in 1965, Conrad brought home $5000 a week during the series' first season and enjoyed increasing remunerations as West remained on the air until 1969. There are those who insist that Wild Wild West would have been colorless without the co-starring presence of Ross Martin, an opinion with which Conrad has always agreed. The actor's bid to star in a 1970 series based on the venerable Nick Carter pulp stories got no further than a pilot episode, while the Jack Webb-produced 1971 Robert Conrad series The D.A. was canceled after 13 episodes. When Roy Scheider pulled out of the 1972 adventure weekly Assignment: Vienna, Conrad stepped in--and was out, along with the rest of Assignment: Vienna, by June of 1973. Conrad had better luck with 1976's Baa Baa Black Sheep, aka Black Sheep Squadron, a popular series based on the World War II exploits of Major "Pappy" Boyington. Cast as a nurse on this series was Conrad's daughter Nancy, setting a precedent for nepotism that the actor practiced as late as his tenth TV series, 1989's Jesse Hawkes, wherein Conrad co-starred with his sons Christian and Shane.
Though few of his series have survived past season one, Conrad has enjoyed success as a commercial spokesman and in the role of G. Gordon Liddy (whom the actor admired) in the 1982 TV movie Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982). As can be gathered from the Liddy assignment, Conrad's politics veered towards conservatism; in 1981, he and Charlton Heston were instrumental in toppling Ed Asner and his liberal contingent from power in the Screen Actors Guild.
As virile and athletic as ever in the 1990s, Robert Conrad continued to appear in action roles both on TV and in films; he also maintained strong ties with his hometown of Chicago, and could be counted on to show up at a moment's notice as a guest on the various all-night programs of Chicago radio personality Eddie Schwartz.- Director
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Gregor Jordan was born in 1966 in Sale, Victoria, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Two Hands (1999), Ned Kelly (2003) and Buffalo Soldiers (2001).- Actor
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Gregor Fisher, born Gregor McKenzie, was raised in Neilston by adoptive parents Cis and John Leckie. His first regular television appearance was in 1978 when he appeared alongside Rikki Fulton in the BBC sketch show Scotch & Wry (1978). As he became more recognized, he was in demand for more television work. In 1986, he was cast in Naked Video (1986) (which itself started as a radio show entitled 'Naked Radio') alongside the likes of Andy Gray, Elaine C. Smith and Tony Roper, among others. This show saw the creation of some of his finest characters such as string-vested drunkard 'Rab C. Nesbitt', and 'The Baldy Man', the vain half-wit with an unconvincing comb-over. His talent for visual comedy was not unnoticed by the production team, particularly not by writer Phil Differ, who wrote for him 'The Man In The Photo Booth' (which was a direct lift from the 'photo booth' sketch in 'Naked Video' featuring 'The Baldy Man'). Incidentally, the 'Rab C. Nesbitt' character became so popular that in 1988 he was awarded his own show Rab C. Nesbitt (1988) which has since notched up ten series, ending with a special episode in 2014. The well-loved Scottish actor currently lives in France with his wife, actress Vicki Burton.- Actor
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Martin Klebba was born on 23 June 1969 in Troy, Michigan, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Electric State (2024), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Knee High P.I. (2003). He has been married to Michelle Dilgard since 18 June 2011.- Actor
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Martin Sam Milner was born December 28, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Jerre Martin, originally from Oregon, was a dancer with the Paramount Theater circuit. His father, Sam Gordon Milner, a Polish Jewish immigrant, was a film distributor. The Milners moved to Seattle when Martin was a baby and to Los Angeles soon after. At age 15, Martin's father got him an agent and he was chosen to play the role of "John Day" in Life with Father (1947), Warner Bros.' version of Clarence Day, Jr.'s popular Broadway play. Milner contracted polio shortly after filming was completed and his career was put on hold for a year as he recovered from the illness. After graduating from North Hollywood High School and studying for one year at the University of Southern California, Milner worked steadily in films during the years 1949-1960. He appeared in films such as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Marjorie Morningstar (1958) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957). He put his career on hold again when he was inducted into the Army in 1952 for two years. Shortly after joining the Army, he was assigned to the Human Research Division, where he directed military training films and served as Master of Ceremonies for a touring show based at Fort Ord, California. Milner married television actress and singer Judy Jones in 1957 and they have four children--Amy, Molly, Stuart, and Andrew.
Milner met Jack Webb during the filming of Halls of Montezuma (1951) and later worked with him on his "Dragnet" radio show as well as the TV series Dragnet (1951). Milner appeared as 17-year-old high school student "Stephen Banner" in the episode "The Big Producer" in 1952. According to Webb's biography "Just the Facts, Ma'am", Webb owed Milner money from a card game. When Webb called him to the studio to pay him back, he offered Milner a role in the "Dragnet" radio show. After that, Webb continued to find roles for Milner until he offered him the role of "Pete Malloy" on Adam-12 (1968). Milner continued to appear in films throughout the 1970s and 1980s and made many guest appearances on television shows such as Murder, She Wrote (1984), the "Columbo" made-for-TV movies, MacGyver (1985), and Diagnosis Murder (1993). Milner was an avid fisherman and has been co-host of the syndicated radio talk show "Let's Talk Hook-up" since 1993. He also hosts fishing trips through "Let's Talk Hook-Up."
Apart from the Webb connection, Milner starred as "Tod Stiles" in his own groundbreaking CBS-TV series, Route 66 (1960). The series was notable for its coast-to-coast location shooting, eloquent scripts by co-creator Stirling Silliphant and others, impressive guest casts, and a distinctive theme song by Nelson Riddle. The series allowed Milner to explore a range of characterizations as his nomadic travels in a Corvette convertible took him from job to job all over the United States, where he dug deeply into the lives of the people he encountered there -- with traveling companions "Buz Murdock" (George Maharis) and, after Maharis left the show, "Lincoln Case" (Glenn Corbett).- Martin Henry Balsam was born on November 4, 1919 in the Bronx, New York City, to Lillian (Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, a manufacturer of women's sportswear. He was the first-born child. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his mother was born in New York, to Russian Jewish parents. Martin caught the acting bug in high school where he participated in the drama club. After high school, he continued his interest in acting by attending Manhattan's progressive New School. When World War II broke out, Martin was called to service in his early twenties. After the war, he was lucky to secure a position as an usher at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. By 1947, he was honing his craft at the Actors Studio, run at that time by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. His time at the Actors Studio in New York City allowed him training in the famous Stanislavsky method. Despite his excellent training, he had to prove himself, just like any up and coming young actor. He began on Broadway in the late 1940s. But, it was not until 1951 that he experienced real success. That play was Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo". After his Broadway success, he had a few minor television roles before his big break arrived when he joined the cast of On the Waterfront (1954). In the 1950s, Martin had many television roles. He had recurring roles on some of the most popular television series of that time, including The United States Steel Hour (1953), The Philco Television Playhouse (1948), Goodyear Playhouse (1951) and Studio One (1948). In 1957, he was able to prove himself on the big-screen once again, with a prominent role in 12 Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda. All of Martin's television work in the 1950s did not go to waste. While starring on an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Hitchcock was so impressed by his work, that he offered him a key supporting role of Detective Milton Arbogast in Psycho (1960). His work with Hitchcock opened him up to a world of other acting opportunities. Many strong movie roles came his way in the 1960s, including parts in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Cape Fear (1962) and The Carpetbaggers (1964). One of the proudest moments in his life was when he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for A Thousand Clowns (1965). It was soon after that he began accepting roles in European movies. He soon developed a love for Italy, and lived there most of his remaining years. He acted in over a dozen Italian movies and spent his later life traveling between Hollywood and Europe for his many roles. After a career that spanned more than fifty years, Martin Balsam died of natural causes in his beloved Italy at age 76. He passed away of a stroke at a hotel in Rome called Residenza di Repetta. He was survived by his third wife Irene Miller and three children, Adam, Zoe and Talia.
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Born and raised in West Berlin, Rudolf moved with his family from Berlin to Paris to Italy, arriving in the United States a short time after his high school graduation from the Universite de Paris. While studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, he landed his first professional role in the Susan Seidelman short film The Dutch Master, which was nominated for a 1994 Academy Award. He went on to appear in the off-Broadway plays Murder In Disguise, The Dumb Waiter, and Front Page.- Actor
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Barney Martin was born on 3 March 1923 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Arthur (1981), The Producers (1967) and Seinfeld (1989). He was married to Catherine Martin. He died on 21 March 2005 in Studio City, California, USA.- Actor
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Martin Jarvis OBE is one of Britain's most versatile leading actors. His distinguished career continues to encompass just about every aspect of the entertainment industry: film, television, theatre, radio and audio recording. He is also the author of two bestselling books: a hilarious autobiography Acting Strangely and a compelling account of his award-winning time on Broadway in 2001: Broadway, Jeeves - The Diary of a Theatrical Adventure, both published by Methuen. In 2010 he starred as Vincent Hogg in a new production of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Cracked in ITV/WGHB's popular 'Miss Marple' series. In 2009, he starred in BBC2's comedy/drama Taking the Flak, receiving outstanding reviews for his performance as national treasure tv journalist David Bradburn. He stars in the feature film Neander Jin - Return of the Neanderthal Man (US/ Germany co-production, 2010) as Peter Blodnik, network mogul.
Alongside his screen and theatre career he is a prolific director of radio drama and, with his wife, actress/director Rosalind Ayres, produces plays and readings for BBC. His award-winning productions include Shadowlands, David Mamet's Keep Your Pantheon, Ayckbourn's Man of the Moment and Ian Fleming's Dr No. He has homes in London and Los Angeles. He trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England), where he won the Vanbrugh Award and the Silver Medal. He is an Associate of RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England). He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's New Years Honors List for his services to drama.
In 2006, he appeared at the Santa Fe Arts Festival in New Mexico in Wilde's The Canterville Ghost with Shirley Maclaine and Ali McGraw. Earlier in the same year, he starred in Honour at Wyndham's Theatre, London giving an acclaimed performance opposite Dame Diana Rigg. On screen that year he played Leonard in BBC-TV's modern version of "Much Ado About Nothing" and (in 2005) starred as "Malvolio" in "Twelfth Night" at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. He received a Theatre World Award on Broadway in 2001 for his title role performance in "By Jeeves" which he also filmed. His West End, National, Almeida and Donmar theatre appearances include works by Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Michael Frayn, Harold Pinter CH, Somerset Maugham, Sir George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. He played Jack Worthing opposite Dame Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell in Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" at the National Theatre in the 1980s directed by Sir Peter Hall, and premiered Pinter's "Other Places" in the National's Cottesloe Theatre. Pinter directed him in the leading role of Hector in Giraudoux's "The Trojan War Will Not Take Place."
He met Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the National and subsequently went on to star in his "Woman in Mind," "Henceforward," "Just Between Ourselves" and "By Jeeves." His Screen credits include leading roles in the British/Australian mini-series "Bootleg," "Inspector Lynley Mysteries," "Lorna Doone," Frayn's "Make and Break," "Ike - The War Years" (with Robert Duvall) and "The Bunker" (with Sir Anthony Hopkins.) He was "Linus" in Sir Richard Eyre's film, "Absence of War written by Sir David Hare. He has guest starred (very often as villains) in "Inspector Morse," "Frost," "Lovejoy," "Casualty," "Murder Most Horrid," "Dr Who," "Space Above and Beyond," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Walker: Texas Ranger" in the US. He played monstrous Neil Biddle in "Sex 'N' Death" and was a memorable television Uriah Heep in "David Copperfield" on British television. First major screen role: 'Jon' in the multi-award winning "The Forsyte Saga." He followed this with many 'classic serials' including "The Way of All Flesh (in which he starred as Ernest Pontifex), "Nicholas Nickleby" (title role), "The Moonstone," "Little Women" and "The Pallisers." His feature films include the psychological thriller "Framed" (2007), "Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War," James Cameron's "Titanic," "Kid With the X-Ray Eyes," "Buster," "The Last Escape," and "Taste the Blood of Dracula."
His voice can be heard in numerous television animation series as well as feature films including "Flushed Away" and "Eragon." He has narrated "Peter and the Wolf at the Barbican" and appeared with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra as Narrator for Egmont and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." At the Chichester Festival Theatre he starred with Sir John Gielgud in "Paradise Lost," with Googie Withers CBE and Susan Hampshire OBE in "The Circle" and with concert pianist Lucy Parham in "Beloved Clara." Jarvis & Ayres Productions, which he founded with his wife, Rosalind Ayres, has produced many award-winning dramas and readings for BBC Radio, National Public Radio in America and for audio books. Their work includes outstanding interpretations of plays by Sir George Bernard Shaw, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter CH, Michael Frayn, David Mamet, Hugh Whitemore, Robert Shearman, Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, and many more. British and American stars who have been associated with J&A productions include, in the UK: Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Diana Rigg, Alfred Molina, Richard E. Grant, Michael York OBE, Richard Briers CBE, Pauline Collins OBE, Janie Dee, Fiona Shaw CBE, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Patricia Hodge, Twiggy Lawson, Natascha McElhone, Martin Freeman, Barry Humphries CBE, Phil Collins and in the US: Brendan Fraser, Elaine Stritch, Teri Garr, Stacy Keach, Shirley Knight, Hector Elizondo, Bruce Davison, Matthew Wolf, Eric Stoltz, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ed Begley Jr, Ed O'Neill and Gregory Peck. Directors of J&A dramas include: David Mamet, Michael Grandage, David Grindley, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, Pete Atkin, Rosalind Ayres. Their productions have received Audie and Earphone awards in the US.
In September 2006, he directed Teri Garr, Michael York OBE and Alfred Molina in an acclaimed production of "Pack of Lies" for BBC Radio 4. He and Fiona Shaw CBE starred for five years in the popular BBC series "Our Brave Boys." His Just William audio and radio recordings are world wide best sellers. He was the subject of BBC TV's This Is Your Life in 1999.- Actor
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Steven Strait was born on March 23, 1986 in New York City, New York, the son of Jean (Viscione) and Richard Dyer Strait. He is of half English and half Italian descent. As a child, Steven grew up in Greenwich Village with his family. He attended Xavier High School and enrolled himself at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting to pursue his dream as an actor.
But before he was recognized as an actor, Steven got early recognition as a model while he was a teenager. Steven modeled for Details, Pop, Spoon, Surface and even Vogue as a teen model. He's also worked with famous photographers such as Bruce Weber, Ellen Von Unwerth and also Herb Ritts. Working with Weber got Steven featured in his 2001 book, "All-American: Short Stories".
Acting didn't come naturally for Steven. Even though most actors out there knew that they wanted to act as a kid, Steven actually didn't enjoy acting. He first learned about acting when he was with a family member at the age of eleven. Steven's parents thought acting could very well be Steven's career and they decided to enroll him in classes at the Village Community School.
Not too long later, Steven caught the acting bug. He eventually got the chance to perform live and that was when Steven thought he could actually make something he enjoyed a lifetime career. This passion eventually brought him to work at the Stella Adler Acting Studio and the Black Nexus Acting Studio, which are both situated in New York City.
When he turned 18, Steven graduated from Xavier High School and he moved to California with hopes of pursuing a real career in acting. It was only a matter of time. When Steven went to his first audition, he received an acting job which was a role in the movie, Sky High (2005). "Sky High" marked Steven's acting debut in the movie industry.
Steven then signed on to do the movie, Undiscovered (2005), about a group of teenagers who aspire to be famous. "Undiscovered" wasn't a big hit at the box-office but critics enjoyed watching Steven playing the role of "Luke Falcon". The movie also starred another movie newcomer, songstress Ashlee Simpson.
The time finally came when Steven was asked to star in the horror movie, The Covenant (2006), playing the role of "Caleb Danvers", a prep school student who comes from a wealthy family. In the cast, Steven worked with actors Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemingway, Sebastian Stan, and Chace Crawford. The Covenant (2006) was a big hit in certain parts of the globe and fans got to learn more about Steven's acting talent. The critics were also impressed with Steven.
The year 2008 is probably Steven's busiest year since he started acting. Steven signed on to do a couple of movies in 2007 and promotion work for his movies will start from March 2008 onwards. Critics are also already excited to see Steven's work in the movie, 10,000 BC (2008), also starring Camilla Belle. He appeared in the MTV Production movie, Stop-Loss (2008), as "Michael Colson". Steven recently completed working on a movie named City Island (2009) in New York.
Aside from participating in fashion and acting, Steven is also known to most people as a singer. Steven has performed a few songs in the soundtrack album of Sky High (2005) and Undiscovered (2005).
Steven, so far, has proved that he is a multi-tasking star in the business. Even though he may seem to be famous, Steven claims that he tries to keep himself grounded from all the fame. At 22, this star has already impressed most entertainment critics, whether in modeling, acting or singing.- Writer
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Steven Moffat was born on 18 November 1961 in Paisley, Scotland, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Doctor Who (2005), Sherlock (2010) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011). He has been married to Sue Vertue since 1999. They have two children. He was previously married to Maggie.- Actor
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Steven was born in London, Ontario Canada to a Polish German mother and Canadian father whose family lineage descends from the Weskarini Algonquin First Nation people of La Petite Nation (Little Nation) from Western Quebec, Canada.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Steven was nominated for a Hollywood Discovery Award at the Hollywood Film Awards for his short film, Vodka, Winter and The Cry of Violin, for which he starred, wrote, directed and produced. The film, based on a true story about a Polish couple's perilous twilight plight to save their only son from a Nazi German labor camp during the last winter of WWII, was awarded 'Best International Short' at the New York Film Festival.
Steven made his comedy debut in the summer blockbuster White Chicks becoming a fan favorite as Party Boy alongside the Wayans Brothers. That same year, Steven would receive critical acclaim as Young Eddie in Mitch Albom's, The Five People You Meet In Heaven, for which he starred opposite Academy Award Winner Jon Voight, Academy Award Nominee's Jeff Daniels, Ellen Burstyn and Emmy Winner Michael Imperioli, based on the New Times Best Selling novel.
Steven has performed on stage including multiple stints in the title role of Hamlet and made his foray into the Los Angeles theater scene starring opposite Academy Winner's Al Pacino and Dianne Wiest and Academy Award Nominee, Jessica Chastain in August Strindberg's classic, The Father.
Having taken a much needed hiatus to complete work on his feature film script Sheepdog that focuses on the plight of combat veterans assimilating back into civilian life, Steven recently returned to the small screen as Liam Cullen as a season two series lead on Netflix's Between co-starring Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy. The following year, Steven joined the cast of Robert Zemeckis' big budget documentary-drama, Medal of Honor..
Steven returned behind the camera in early 2020, to direct himself in the feature film The Secret of Sinchanee for which he also wrote and produced. The film is executive produced by Joe Newcomb (Dallas Buyers Club), and co-stars former NFL'er and Green Beret Nate Boyer and actresses Tamara Austin (Walking Dead) and Laila Lockhart Kraner (Gabby's Dollhouse, Black-ish). The film made its UK premiere at the 2021 Raindance Film Festival in London and was an official selection at 12 International Film Festivals, garnering 3 Wins and 8 Nominations. In October 2021, on a micro-production budget, the film was released worldwide via Vertical Entertainment. The New York Times claimed, "Grayhm's feature debut is a slow-burn thriller that deftly weaves issues of mental illness and family traumas into a cautionary tale set on sacred land. Logan Fulton...makes rural Massachusetts look simultaneously like a winter wonderland and a hellscape."
In 2020, Steven founded Team House Studios. A Film and TV Production company committed to empowering military veterans in front and behind the camera through real hands on training, aimed to create an equal opportunity environment for all genders and backgrounds. The Secret of Sinchanee is the first film released under the new banner that employed 11 US military veterans and one Gold Star Sister.
Steven is currently in pre-production on his feature film Sheepdog that focuses on the plight of US veterans returning home from combat.- Actor
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Steven Wright was born on 6 December 1955 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Natural Born Killers (1994), So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) and Reservoir Dogs (1992).- Actor
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Steven Skyler is known for Power Rangers Samurai (2011), My American Dream (2016) and The Max Decker Sausage Company (2016).- Writer
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Attended Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University) as a playwriting major. Barbara Bosson (his second wife), Michael Tucker, Bruce Weitz and Charles Haid were classmates; he and Tucker drove cross-country to Hollywood for full-time jobs at Universal, where Bochco would remain for 12 years.
In 1978, he moved to MTM Enterprises, who after several attempts gave him carte Blanche to create a show similar to Fort Apache the Bronx (1981) (Hill Street Blues (1981)). In 1985, MTM fired him, in part for his inability to keep HSB on budget. After creating L.A. Law (1986) and Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989) for NBC, he struck a $15M deal with ABC in 1987 to create 10 series pilots over 10 years.- Director
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Writer/Director Andrew Wagner graduated from Brown University with degrees in Creative Writing and Psychology. He attended NYU's Graduate Film School where his short, The Hardest Hit, won the Francois de Menil Scholarship. He moved to Los Angels to write Waccabuc, a screenplay for United Artists, and then became a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute where he received a Masters in Fine Arts and his thesis film, The Last Days of Hope and Time, won the Franklin J. Shaffner Fellowship for excellence in directing. Andrew adapted The Man Who Gave Up His Name -from the collection of novellas, Legends of the Fall, by Jim Harrison - which he developed at the Sundance Writer's Lab. He went on to direct the independent shorts, South Main and Counting, and write Splitting, The Halfcourt, Hunting the Vicious, and Southern Man.
Andrew's first feature film, The Talent Given Us, was an Official Selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The Talent Given Us also won the Jury Prize at the CineVegas Film Festival and Best First Feature at Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival. It went on to play theatrically in over 30 cities and made the New York Times' and other critics' Best Films of 2005 lists. Andrew was a Breakthrough Director nominee at the 2005 Gotham Awards.
Starting Out In The Evening, Andrew's second feature, starring Frank Langella, Lili Taylor, and Lauren Ambrose, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions. Frank Langella was voted Best Actor of 2007 by the Boston Critics Association and was Runner-Up for Best Actor in voting by critics associations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas/Ft. Worth. Starting Out In The Evening was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of 2007 by the National Board of Review and made over 30 critics' Best Films of 2007 lists, including A.O. Scott's and Stephen Holden's of the New York Times, and Roger Ebert's of the Chicago Sun-Times. It was nominated for two Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead and Best Screenplay.- Odilon Wagner was born on 24 October 1954 in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brazil. He is an actor, known for Corpo a Corpo (1984), Por Amor (1997) and Avenida Paulista (1982).
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Andrew Wilson was born on 22 August 1964 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Whip It (2009), Time Trap (2017) and Idiocracy (2006).- Writer
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New Zealand-born screenwriter-director Andrew Niccol began his career in London, successfully directing TV commercials before moving to Los Angeles in order to make films "longer than 60 seconds." He interested high-powered producer Scott Rudin in his The Truman Show (1998) script, but Rudin was not willing to gamble on a rookie director, particularly when Jim Carrey came aboard, swelling the budget to about $60 million. Peter Weir helmed instead, bringing a complementary vision which lightened the material somewhat, and the clever satire, which followed a cheerful insurance man (Carrey) as he slowly realizes that all the people in his life are just actors in a TV show, opened to critical raves. Since the deal for "Truman" came together slowly, Niccol actually made his screenwriting and directing debut with Gattaca (1997) (1997), a superb, well-acted sci-fi movie that raised issues of genetic engineering in a totalitarian environment.