Birthdays: December 23
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Manelck de la Parra (known as Mane de la Parra) was born in Mexico City on December 23rd, 1982. Actor, musician, composer and singer; he started at 15 years old his musical studies with singing and guitar classes. Then he traveled to the U.S. to study at Berklee College of Music, where he graduated on the major in Music in 2005. He was awarded by this same institution as distinguished alumni in 2009. Mane was also awarded by BMI on 2013 for his composition "El Mentiroso" sung by Banda Carnaval, which stayed for 14 consecutive weeks in the top 5 of the Billboard chart of Regional music. Mane has composed songs with Jorge Villamizar, Miguel Luna and Marco Godoy. These and other Mane's songs, have been recorded by very popular and successful artists such as Margarita, la Diosa de la Cumbia, Julión Álvarez, Napoleón, Francisco Céspedes, Rayito Colombiano, Aaron y su Grupo Ilusión, Grupo Cañaveral, among many others. In 2011 Mane was invited to participate in the concert of the Philarmonic of the Americas Orchestra, conducted by his sister Alondra de la Parra in the Auditorio Nacional of Mexico City. Mane has taken his music to the most important carnivals and regional fairs of Mexico and has done concerts in some of the most important venues in Mexico like the Teatro Metropolitan and Teatro Diana in Guadalajara. Mane is currently promoting his most recent album "Girando" produced by Warner Music. In 2013, Mane participated in Univision's "Mira Quien Baila" where he get the finals.
As an actor, Mane has participated in the main roles in: Verano de Amor (2009) Niña de mi Corazón (2010) Esperanza del Corazón (2011-2012) Cachito de Cielo (2012) La MalQuerida (2012 - 2013) Corona de Lágrimas (2014) Amor de Barrio (2015) El Vuelo de la Victoria (2017)
In film, Mane has performed in: El Cielo en tu Mirada in the main role along with Aislinn Derbez, Jaime Camil and Natalia Lafourcade. El Origen de los Guardinas (Voice Over in Spanish for Latin America) A la Mala Juán Apóstol, El Más Amado (Mane as Juan)
Mane has also participated in theater in the role of Emmanuel Mijares, the main of one of the most successful plays in Mexico "Mentiras"
To stay in touch directly with Mane, his verified social networks are: Twitter, facebook and Instagram: ManeDeLaParra- Actor
- Producer
Adnan Haskovic was born on 23 December 1984 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. He is an actor and producer, known for Snowpiercer (2013), Legends (2014) and Twice Born (2012).- Akihito was born on 23 December 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. He has been married to Michiko since 10 April 1959. They have three children.
- After wartime naval service, Alan North began his show business career as a stage manager in New York. He first worked on Broadway in "Plain and Fancy", doubling up as understudy for the small part of Isaac Miller. The play had a successful run between 1955 and 1956 (461 performances) and this led to further acting work in diverse productions, ranging from musical comedy to straight dramatic parts, both on and off Broadway. Alan last appeared as a quaint curmudgeonly character in "Lake Hollywood" at the Signature Theater in 1999.
Early in his career, Alan, an avid baseball fan, hosted a television program for the Baltimore Orioles as well as doing a regular sports broadcast at WRC-TV in Washington. However, he did not become a regular feature on the screen until the early 1970's, when he appeared in two big budget films, Plaza Suite (1971) and Serpico (1973). After that, Alan became a more familiar presence on the small screen, invariably portraying cops, priests and academics. He is most fondly remembered as the perpetually vague Chief Ed Hocken in the hilarious, sadly short-lived, spoof Police Squad! (1982), starring Leslie Nielsen. Alan was given some very funny lines to deliver and he did so in a perfect dead-pan manner. He was not afforded the chance to repeat his role for the 'Naked Gun' series (the studio insisted on a higher marquee value actor, casting Academy Award-winner George Kennedy instead).
Alan North died of cancer at the age of 79 in January 2000. - Additional Crew
- Actor
Alberto Testa was born on 23 December 1922 in Turin, Italy. He was an actor, known for Romeo and Juliet (1968), Laudes Evangelii (1961) and The Kiss of Death (1974). He died on 4 October 2019 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Alison Moir was born on 23 December 1966 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. She is an actress and director, known for A Little Princess (1995), Concussion (2015) and The Last Word (2008). She is married to Brett Markinson. They have two children.- Actress
- Writer
- Composer
Alison Sudol is an actress, musician and author based in Los Angeles. Alongside a successful music career, Alison starred in the two-time Golden Globe-winning Amazon hit 'Transparent', USA network's 'DIG' from the creators of 'Homeland' and 'Heroes' and Rafael Palacio's show 'The Force'. Alison plays Queenie in the new Harry Potter spin-off 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'.- Ana Casares was born on 23 December 1930 in Stanislawów, Stanislawówskie, Poland (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). She was an actress, known for Trampa para un soñador (1980), 1001 Nights (1968) and Two Undercover Angels (1969). She died on 13 March 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Anatole Taubman was born in Zurich, Switzerland and is of Russian-Polish-Slovakian-Austrian-and-former-East-Prussian blood. In 1991 he made his baccalauréat at the renowned Gymnasium of the Benedictine boarding school of the monastery Einsiedeln and in 1994 he graduated from the reputable drama-school 'Circle in the Square' in NYC. He's fluent in five languages (English, French, Swiss-German, German and Italian) and is also truly cosmopolitan in his work. Taubman has starred and co-starred in over 50 feature films and TV productions. Since 1998, he has been busy working and with international success in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and for the USA throughout Europe and beyond. Among other credits Anatole Taubman is best known for his impressive English-language TV work in Band of Brothers (HBO), Servants (BBC), POW (ITV), Spooks VI (BBC), Waking The Dead VII - Pièta (BBC) or The Tudors II (Showtime) and established himself as a fine character actor in feature films like Mein Name is Bach (CH/D), Luther (D), Marmorera (CH), Fay Grim (USA), Snipers Valley (D), Secret Défense (F), Taken / 96 Hours (F / USA) and in 2009 Pope Joan (D), Same Same But Different (D) or in Chanel & Stravinsky (F).
Anatole Taubman is a member of the German Film Academy and of the European Film Academy. Anatole Taubman is Spokesperson for UNICEF Switzerland. - Director
- Writer
- Producer
Anh Hung Tran was born on 23 December 1962 in Da Nang, Vietnam. He is a director and writer, known for The Scent of Green Papaya (1993), Norwegian Wood (2010) and The Taste of Things (2023). He is married to Nu Yên-Khê Tran.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ann Pennington was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Her family, who were Quakers, moved to Camden, New Jersey when she was a child. She took dancing lessons from ballerina Catherine Littlefield. At the age of seventeen she made her Broadway debut in the musical. She joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1913. With her long, red hair and great legs she quickly became one of the show's most popular dancers. Her nickname was "The Girl With The Dimpled Knees." Ann became best friends with fellow dancer Fanny Brice. In 1916 she had a starring role in the silent movie Susie Snowflake. Then she appeared in the films The Rainbow Princess, The Antics of Ann, and Sunshine Nan. After six years with the Follies she left to join George's White's Scandals. She began a romance with the show's producer George White. Ann also dated actor Buster West and boxer Jack Dempsey.
While performing in the Scandals she introduced the Black Bottom Dance to Broadway audiences. She returned to the Ziegfeld Follies in 1923. By this time the petite dancer was earning more than $1000 a week. Off stage she was known for her great wit and her generosity. Her biggest vice was betting at the racetrack. In 1929 she appeared in five films including Tanned Legs and Gold Diggers Of Broadway. During the 1930s her popularity started to wane and she performed in vaudeville. Ann had bit parts in the films Unholy Partners and China Girl. Her final stage appearance was a 1946 benefit show for the Armed Forces. After retiring she moved into a modest New York hotel and stayed out of the spotlight. She turned down most interview requests saying "I'd rather be thought of as the way I used to be." Ann spent most of her time socializing with friends and doing charity work. On November 4, 1971 she died from a stroke at the age of seventy-seven. She was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anna Maria Perez de Tagle was born on December 23, 1990 in San Francisco, California as Anna Maria Francesca Enriquez Perez de Tagle. She's 1 of today's hottest triple threats, w/ an extensive list of accomplishments like acting, singing & dancing. She has opened for the Jonas Brothers Asia tour in 2012 & starred in Godspell on Broadway. She has been featured on shows such as Late Show with David Letterman (1993), The View (1997) & The Rosie Show (2011). She was also featured in a sold-out concert that took place May 7, 2012 on board the Hornblower Hybrid in New York City, benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
She was voted Best Featured Female Artist in a Musical at the 2012 Broadway World Awards.
She starred in Camp Rock (2008) & Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010) as Ella, then guest starred in Baby Daddy (2012) as Jenna. She also had a recurring role in Hannah Montana (2006) as Ashley Dewitt.
In 2009, she stole the screen in Fame (2009) as Joy. In 2010, she toured w/ Demi Lovato & The Jonas Brothers in North as well as South America. She served as an opener & performer.
At the Ronald Reagan Centennial Birthday Celebration, former 1st lady Nancy Reagan requested her to perform 2 of her favorite Broadway songs in front of hundreds of dignitaries at the Ronald Reagan Library: I Dreamed A Dream from Les Misérables & Someone Like You from Jekyll & Hyde.
She enjoys working w/ the Children's Hospital of L.A., St. Jude's Research Hospital & the American Diabetes Association as well as singing, dancing, working out & reading.
She resides in NYC & L.A.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anne O'Neal was born on 23 December 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Gun Crazy (1950), The Bishop's Wife (1947) and Borrowed Trouble (1948). She died on 24 November 1971 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A bundle of bright sunshine and unabashed energy, lovely musical actress Barbara Ruick delighted audiences for over two decades. The brown-eyed singer/actress who admittedly came up short in the dancing department nevertheless toyed with top musical stardom in mid-1950s films and almost nabbed it. A vivacious beauty whose sparkling, fresh-faced appeal reminded one instantly of a Mitzi Gaynor or Vera-Ellen, Barbara's untimely death at age 41 robbed Hollywood of a tried-and-true talent.
She was born on December 23, 1932 in sunny Pasadena, California, the daughter of show biz professionals. Father Mel Ruick was a well respected radio actor and announcer while mother Lurene Tuttle earned equal distinction as a radio player and (later) reliable TV and film performer playing a lovely assortment of fluttery matrons and mothering types. Deeply influenced by her parents' obvious success and fulfillment, the blonde and starry-eyed Barbara started acting on radio and TV as a Hollywood High School teenager. One of her first jobs was in the chorus of Chico Marx's TV show despite the fact she was a lackluster dancer.
Following other TV work, the just-turned-21 Barbara earned the attention of MGM and signed a long-term contract with the topnotch studio. She dutifully apprenticed in starlet parts with bit or not billed roles in both musical and dramatic outings including Invitation (1952), Scaramouche (1952) and Fearless Fagan (1952). Slightly better parts were handed to her in the films You for Me (1952), Above and Beyond (1952) and Apache War Smoke (1952). The last movie mentioned co-starred future husband Robert Horton, known for his rugged appearances in numerous westerns. The twosome married in Las Vegas in 1953.
The next couple of years were quite frustrating for Barbara at MGM. After finally earning a second female lead role in the film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953) alongside Bobby Van, Debbie Reynolds and Bob Fosse, MGM inexplicably reverted her right back to playing bit parts again in such offerings as Confidentially Connie (1953), I Love Melvin (1953) and The Band Wagon (1953). She finally retreated from both MGM and Hollywood and returned to New York to concentrate on TV. She earned a slew of assignments including a number of variety show appearances. On series TV she was a bright and breezy regular for such stalwarts as Ezio Pinza, Jerry Colonna and Johnny Carson. She also proved her dramatic mettle on such programs as The New Loretta Young Show (1962), Public Defender (1954) and The Lineup (1954).
Out of nowhere Barbara was ushered back to Hollywood for the most important film role of her career. In Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic Carousel (1956), it seemed that stardom was just within reach after winning the cute and flighty Carrie Piperidge role alongside Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. Ruick shined in the well-mounted 20th Century-Fox production while offering a lovely rendition of "When I Marry Mr. Snow". Instead of this success propelling Barbara into other films, it would be her last movie for nearly two decades. She also recorded for Columbia Records around this period but, other than a couple of novelty items, none of her songs ever made it to the top of the charts.
Divorced from actor Horton in 1956, Barbara married Academy Award-winning composer and Boston Pops conductor John Williams that same year. They had one daughter and two sons. The boys went on to have musical careers of their own; their daughter became a doctor. She continued to thrive on TV in the late 50s. In 1965 angular Barbara and plump Pat Carroll camped it up and nearly stole the proceedings as the evil stepsisters with their uproarious version of "The Stepsisters Lament" in Rodgers & Hammerstein's star-studded musical special Cinderella (1965) starring Lesley Ann Warren.
Barbara was little seen in the ensuing years but did pop up for a small role as a barmaid in the comedy film California Split (1974) showcasing the then-hot film stars Elliott Gould and George Segal. Barbara died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 3, 1974 in Reno, Nevada. Although her musical gifts were shamefully underused by MGM in the early 1950s, her comeback role in Carousel (1956) will endure and remain a film treasure.- Actress
- Composer
- Director
Beatriz Luengo makes her debut as a director in this documentary. She is an actress and 3 times Grammy Winner as a musician. She has been recognized by the European Union for the "European Border Breakers Awards" due to her success in Europe, especially in France. Involved with various social causes, she is one of the most recognized voices in Spain on the empowerment of women. She is also a writer, her first book "El despertar de las Musas" (Badass Muses) has become a bestseller in Europe and has been translated into several languages. She is also a songwriter for other artists like Christina Aguilera, Camila Cabello, Ricky Martin, Daddy Yankee, Ozuna and Ruben Blades among others. As one of the creators of the song "Patria y Vida" she decided to film the historical circumstances around this movement knowing that it was an impressive story to tell. The lyrics of the song became part of the Congressional Records of the United States to ensure that future generations will always remember what music is capable to do for freedom, and then she turned the story into a documentary.- Actress
- Director
Belinda Lang was born on 23 December 1953 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for 2point4 Children (1991), Sister Boniface Mysteries (2022) and This England (2022). She has been married to Hugh Fraser since 15 October 1988. They have one child.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Ben Kaplan is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He was born in West Hartford, Connecticut but grew up in Columbia, Missouri. At a young age, Ben showed a love for performing and film. In high school, he began filming sketches and short films with friends. While in college at the University of Missouri, he began performing stand-up comedy and improv. In 2009, Ben was a semi-finalist in Rooftop Comedy's National College Stand-Up Comedy Contest. He was also a frequent finalist and semi-finalist in the Midwest's Last Comic Standing. After graduating from college, he moved to Los Angeles to continue his career.- Billy Hank Hooker was born on 23 December 1943 in Vallejo, California, USA. He is an actor, known for Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and Lethal Weapon (1987).
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bradford Jackson, real-name Herman Budlow, was born on December 23, 1928 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In his childhood during the 1930s he was billed as "The World's Youngest Magician". In 1953, after leaving the service, he signed a contract with Universal-International Studio. Brad Jackson's best-known roles are in the sci-fi classic, "It Came From Outer Space", and, Roger Corman's "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent".- Writer
- Producer
Chin Y. Lee graduated from National Southwest Associated University, Kunming, China, in 1940 with Bachelor of Arts degree. He entered the United States in 1943, attended Yale University, and by 1947 Lee earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Lee's first novel, "The Flower Drum Song: A Novel of San Francisco's Grant Avenue," was published in 1957. The novel formed the basis of Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and the subsequent film.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actress
Carla Bruni was born on 23 December 1967 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. She is a composer and actress, known for Midnight in Paris (2011), 500 Days of Summer (2009) and The Lake House (2006). She has been married to Nicolas Sarkozy since 2 February 2008. They have one child.- Carlos Andrés Gómez was born on 23 December 1981 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Inside Man (2006), The L Word (2004) and The Third Month Termination (2014).
- Carolien Spoor was born on 23 December 1987 in The Hague, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. She is an actress, known for Bella Donna's (2017), Goede tijden, slechte tijden (1990) and Zwarte tulp (2015). She has been married to Jon Karthaus since 3 September 2016. They have two children.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles Herbert was a mildly popular 1950s child actor with a trademark sulky puss and thick, furrowed eyebrows, who was known for playing inquisitive kids besieged by alien beings, including a robot, as well as by a human fly and several house-haunting ghosts. He racked up over 20 films, 50 TV shows and a number of commercials during his youthful reign.
He was born Charles Herbert Saperstein on December 23, 1948, in Culver City, Los Angeles, California, to Pearl Jean (Diamond) and Louis Saperstein. His mother was an Austrian Jewish immigrant, while his paternal grandparents were Russian Jews. Noticed by a Hollywood talent agent while riding a bus with his mother, Charles began his career at age four, on a 1952 TV show entitled "Half Pint Panel".
Elsewhere on TV, he showed up regularly on series fronted by such stars as Robert Cummings and Gale Storm. This period was marked by amazingly high-profiled performances such as his blind child on the Science Fiction Theatre (1955) episode, The Miracle Hour (1956). On the feature film front, Charles made an inauspicious debut in the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz comedy, The Long, Long Trailer (1954). Although director Vincente Minnelli had handpicked him for the role, his part was completely deleted from the movie. Other tyke roles turned out more positively and in a variety of genres, including the film noir pieces, The Night Holds Terror (1955) and The Tattered Dress (1957), the dramas, Ransom! (1956) and No Down Payment (1957), and the comedies, Houseboat (1958) and Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960). His most recognized genre, however, was sci-fi, and he appeared in a number of films that are now considered classics of that genre. He started off in a bit part as a boy playing tug-of-war with a dead sailor's cap in The Monster That Challenged the World (1957). Up front and center, he came into his own playing the young son of dead scientific genius Ross Martin, whose brilliant brain is transplanted into what becomes the robot-like The Colossus of New York (1958). He loses another dad (David Hedison) to a botched experiment in The Fly (1958), also starring iconic master of macabre Vincent Price. Lastly, Charles headed up the cast in the somewhat eerie but rather dull and tame William Castle spookfest, 13 Ghosts (1960). Castle handpicked Charles for the child role and even offered the busy young actor top-billing over the likes of Donald Woods, Rosemary DeCamp, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner and Margaret Hamilton if he would appear in his movie. In this haunted house setting, Castle's trademark gimmick had audiences using 3-D glasses in order to see the ghostly apparitions.
He had another leading role in the fantasy adventure, The Boy and the Pirates (1960), then film offers for Charles completely stopped. Growing into that typically awkward teen period, he was forced to subsist on whatever episodic roles he could muster up, including bits on Wagon Train (1957), Rawhide (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Family Affair (1966) and My Three Sons (1960). By the end of the 1960s, however, Charles was completely finished in Hollywood, having lost the essential adorableness that most tyke stars originally possessed. Unable to transition into adult roles, his personal life went downhill as well. With no formal education or training to do anything else and with no career earnings saved, he led a reckless, wanderlust life and turned to drugs. Never married, it took him nearly 40 years (clean and sober since October, 2005) to turn his life around. During good times and bad, however, he has appeared from time to time at sci-fi film festivals.
Charles Herbert died of a heart attack on October 31, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Cheryl Howard was born on 23 December 1953 in Glendale, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Splash (1983), A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Ransom (1996). She has been married to Ron Howard since 7 June 1975. They have four children.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Chet Baker started his career in the late forties. He became famous with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet in 1952. His solo in "My funny valentine" is a classic of the west coast jazz in the fifties. When Mulligan was arrested in 1953, Chet led the group until 1955, when he went to Europe. He also sang on many records. In Europe he recorded with many musicians in different countries. His career was interrupted many times for personal problems with drugs and he was arrested many times for his addiction. In 1974 he come back to music after three years in obscurity, playing in a concert in Carnegie Hall with his old friend, Gerry Mulligan. After this he started a "new career", but his problems with drugs were continuous. His death today is a mystery, one possibility is suicide but another says he was killed by trafficants in Amsterdam, Holland.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Christian Potenza was born on 23 December 1972 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and producer, known for The Tuxedo (2002), Total Drama All Stars (2013) and The Rocker (2008). He was previously married to Edie Inksetter.- Trained at The Rose Bruford College (B.A. Hons Acting) & with The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. English actor Christopher Pizzey got recognition on the BBC as comedy lead, Mr. Stephen in The BAFTA nominated "The Basil Brush Show". As well as many other television roles, Christopher also appeared in London's West End. most notable roles were; JACK in "Into The Woods" at the Donmare Warehouse along side Damian Lewis and as Officer Randall Shuck in the Olivier Award nominated show "A Comedy About A Bank Robbery" with the multiple award winning company "Mischief Theatre". He continues to work on stage and screen and at the time of writing can be seen on Amazon Prime in the role of Charles Hardwick in the Feature Film "The Postcard Killings" directed by Danis Tanovic and starring Jeffery Dean Morgan. Christopher has also just finished filming the role of Eric in "Marriage" directed by Stefan Golaszewski starring Sean Bean and Nicola Walker for the BBC.
Twitter: @chrispizzey Instagram: @christopherpizzey - Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Corey Haim was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Judy Haim, an Israeli-born data processor, and Bernie Haim, a clothing sales representative. He has a sister, Carol, and a half-brother, Daniel. His family is Jewish. He was raised mostly in Willowdale.
Corey appeared in 26 episodes of the early 1980s Canadian series The Edison Twins (1982). He broke into the film industry in 1984, playing a young child caught up in a family war in the movie Firstborn (1984). The following year, he starred in the TV movie A Time to Live (1985), for which he received a Young Artist Award, appeared in the comedies Secret Admirer (1985) and Murphy's Romance (1985), and had the leading role, Marty Coslaw , in the Stephen King werewolf film Silver Bullet (1985). Lucas (1986), in which he starred alongside Kerri Green and Winona Ryder, showed his acting abilities, with praise coming particularly from Roger Ebert.
In 1987, he had a breakthrough when he played one of the major roles, Sam Emerson, in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys (1987). He later starred in the comedy films License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989), the horror movie Watchers (1988), and the science fiction action drama Prayer of the Rollerboys (1990). Many of his 1990s and 2000s roles were in direct-to-video releases, and he also had a cameo in the action film Crank: High Voltage (2009). His last two films were The Hostage Game (2010) and Decisions (2011).
He died suddenly on March 10, 2010 in Burbank, California, of pneumonia.- Stunts
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Dan Shea was born on December 23, 1954 in Ontario Canada. He is best known for his work as a stunt coordinator and second unit directing including Breakthrough (2019), The Magicians (TV Series 2016-2019), The Mountain Between Us (2017) and Psych (TV Series 2006-2014). As well as performing on X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), I, Robot (2004) and Paycheck (2003).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Daryl Wein is an award-winning filmmaker. He is represented by CAA and Rain Management.
He directed "Something from Tiffany's" in 2022 starring Zoey Deutch and Kendrick Sampson for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and Amazon Studios.
He co-wrote/co-directed/co-produced/DP'd/edited, "How It Ends"; released by MGM and had its World Premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival starring Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Olivia Wilde, Helen Hunt, Fred Armisen, Nick Kroll, Lamorne Morris.
His narrative feature film, "White Rabbit", had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 starring Vivian Bang (Swedish Dicks) and Nana Ghana (LA Woman Rising). Daryl was the executive producer of "Band Aid" (IFC Films), starring Zoe Lister-Jones, Adam Pally and Fred Armisen, which had its World Premiere at Sundance in 2017.
He co-wrote and directed, "Lola Versus", for Fox Searchlight starring Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Zoe Lister-Jones (Breaking Upwards), Joel Kinnaman (Robocop), Hamish Linklater (The Future), Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment), and Bill Pullman (Independence Day).
His debut narrative feature film, "Breaking Upwards" with Zoe Lister-Jones (Lola Versus), Julie White (Transformers), Peter Friedman (The Savages), Olivia Thirlby (Juno), and Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), was an official selection in the Narrative Competition at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival. IFC Films released the film theatrically and on VOD in 2010.
His political drama "Blueprint" (Deauville Film Festival) was released by The Orchard. His agricultural thriller, "Consumed", starring Zoe Lister-Jones, Griffin Dunne, and Danny Glover can be seen on Netflix and was championed by Erin Brockovich.
In TV, Wein directed for the Golden Globe-winning show "Mozart in the Jungle" for Amazon, as well as digital projects for Vice and Refinery29. His pilot "Awokened" starring David Walton, Michaela Watkins, Jeremy Sisto, Lamorne Morris, Majandra Delfino, Zoe Lister-Jones premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. He recently directed for Season 2 of "Single Parents" for ABC.
Wein's feature length documentary, "Sex Positive," won the Grand Jury Prize at the L.A. Outfest Film Fest, and was an official selection at the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival, London Film Festival, Boston Independent Film Festival, among thirty other film festivals around the world. Regent Releasing distributed the film theatrically in North America, and the film has been released in 8 foreign countries on broadcast and theatrically, most notably at the BFI in London.
In 2006 Daryl co-wrote and directed, "Unlocked," a short psychological drama starring Olivia Thirlby (Juno) and executive produced by Stephen Daldry (The Reader, Billy Elliot). The film was an Official Selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as the Gijon Film Festival in Spain and 20 other film festivals. It was voted one of the "Best Short Films in the World" by Indy Mogul.
He is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Executive
David Foster was born in 1929 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and executive, known for The Core (2003), The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Thing (1982). He was married to Jackie Ann Pattiz. He died on 23 December 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
After graduated from Istanbul University theater department conservatory of municipality, she acted as a Professional actress at Gonul Ulku-Gazanfer Ozcan theater. In 1987 she was selected the TV star of the year by MGD. In 1993 at Antalya Film Festival she achieved the Altin Portakal reward by her role in Tersine Dunya. In 1995 (after Suna Pekuysal she was the second actress who won this award) she won Ismail Dumbullu reward also in 1996, 1997 and 1998 at Altin Kelebek competition she won the comedian actress reward of the year. Also at 1996 and 1997 she won the comedian actress of MGD. Demet Akbag appeared in BKM Cast since the foundation, also acted at Bir Demet Tiyatro and Olumsuz Ask TV shows. She appeared as leading actress for the following cinema movies "Vizontele", "Vizontele Tuuba", "Organize Isler" "Neredesin Firuze", "O.... Cocuklari", "Eyvah Eyvaah" and "Eyvaah Eyvaah2". She won Altin Portakal with "Vizontele" and she won Sadri Alisik and Siyad rewards with "Neredesin Firuze" .- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Devin Lytle was born on 23 December 1988 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for A Very Potter Musical (2009), Me and My Dick (2009) and Post Grad. (2013).- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a local newspaper in his spare time.
After the Second World War, he met a producer who financed his short films. One of these, Buio in sala (1950), was bought by Carlo Ponti. At that point, Risi decided to become a movie director. So he went to Rome and wrote the plot of Poor But Beautiful (1957) which made him famous. But the film that changed his life forever was The Easy Life (1962). At the opening night, Risi and producer Mario Cecchi Gori were waiting outside the movie theater. They were worried because no viewers had been coming to see the movie. So Risi went back home with much disappointment. However, the next day all the tickets were sold out and Risi became a star.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Eddie Vedder was known in San Diego for being a surfer and a singer in the progressive rock band Bad Radio, where he sang in the 80's until he departed to join Pearl Jam in 1990. Right before Eddie left Bad Radio, they opened for Andy Summers at the Bucchanal in San Diego. After the show, Eddie jumped off stage to talk to a pal of his, who had predicted Bad Radio winning at a competition in the late 80's. Eddie was poor and desperate, and found strong encouragement in the words of his friend Boris, who predicted once again his huge success. Boris Acosta is now a film producer and director.- Actress
- Writer
A slender, striking, red-haired, freckle-faced American leading lady, Mary Elizabeth Hartman was born in Boardman, Ohio on December 23, 1943, as the middle of three children born to building contractor Bill C. Hartman (May 7, 1914, Ohio - October 26, 1964, Youngstown, Ohio) and housewife Claire Mullaly (October 13, 1918, Youngstown, Ohio - October 28, 1997, Youngstown, Ohio). Hartman had an older sister named Janet and a younger brother named William. Hartman grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and appeared in the play "A Clearing in the Woods" in the Youngstown Playhouse.
After graduating from Boardman High School in 1959, Hartman took a job at a Brooks Brothers store in Cleveland, and then attended Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh in 1961, where she met her future husband Gill Dennis two years later. While in summer school in 1963, Hartman participated in "Bus Stop" with Ann B. Davis, who suggested that Hartman try Broadway. In 1964, Hartman left for New York, where she starred in the play "Everybody Out, the Castle is Sinking". While in New York, she landed the role of Selina D'Arcy, a blind, abused, uneducated white girl who falls in love with a compassionate black man played by Sidney Poitier in the racially charged drama "A Patch of Blue (1965)". For this role, she was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe award. A week after she finished that film, Hartman began six months on location in New York as an upperclass collegiate in "The Group (1966)". Hartman married Dennis in 1968.
Other roles followed, such as a go-go dancer in Francis Ford Coppola's film "You're a Big Boy Now (1966)", a lonely, unmarried, handicapped woman in "The Fixer (1968)", a nurse who tends to Clint Eastwood in "The Beguiled (1971), "Intermission (1973)" and Pauline Pusser, the wife of sheriff Buford Pusser in "Walking Tall (1973)". Hartman also appeared in a television pilot of "Willow B: Women in Prison (1980)" (aka "Cages" ) and made numerous television appearances. She appeared in more plays, such as "Our Town" in 1969, also appearing in "The Glass Menagerie", "The Madwoman of Chaillot", "Bus Stop" and "Beckett". She also completed a road tour of the play, "Morning's at Seven".
Hartman's life was plagued by acute depression and insecurity; Hartman spent a year at the Institute of Living in Hartford in 1978. After her role as Mrs. Brisby in "The Secret of NIMH (1982)", Hartman retired from acting, and divorced her husband in 1984. Hartman was also frequently a patient at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, where her sister Janet took care of her.
On June 10, 1987, Hartman called her doctor and told him that she had been feeling despondent. Just before noon that same day, Hartman committed suicide by throwing herself out of her fifth-floor studio flat window at the King Edward Apartments in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Oakland. She was 43 years old.- Actor
- Composer
Elpidio Herrera was born on 23 December 1947 in Atamisqui, Santiago del Estero, Argentina. He was an actor and composer, known for La savia del algarrobo (2000), 7 Salamancas (2013) and Aire de chacarera (2012). He died on 30 May 2019 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina.- Actress
- Casting Director
- Composer
Elvy was born in Los Angeles County, California, USA. She is an actress and casting director, known for The Office (2005), Resident Alien (2021) and Mildred Pierce (2011).- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Born in London, Eric Blore came out of college and started his working life as an insurance agent. But while touring in Australia he took an interest in the stage and theater. He gave up his insurance job and turned to acting after returning to England. With his elfish long, straight nose, squint-eyed demeanor and a crisp voice, he successfully began a career starring in many shows and revues, focusing on traditional British comedy. Encouraged further, in 1923 he came to New York and was almost immediately using his London stage experience on Broadway. Though there were a few dramatic parts, he inevitably played comic roles in musical comedies and revues (in some of which he also received billing as a lyricist) regularly from 1923 to 1933. He would return once again some ten years later to take on multiple roles for Ziegfeld Follies of 1943. No stranger to film, as early as 1920 he had tried his hand in British cinema. And in 1926 he did the US silent version of The Great Gatsby (1926) that starred Warner Baxter. His familiar role as a head waiter began with his first Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film, Flying Down to Rio (1933). With a foot still on Broadway, in 1933 he played the waiter in the stage version of The Gay Divorcee and was then tapped to reprise the role in the film version with Fred and Ginger. Blore had been perfecting his basic comic characters since his London days -- a leering English gentlemen, brusque/wise-acre butler or waiter or other service provider -- with a lockjawed British accent. These characters accompanied by Blore's flawlessly timed delivery were thoroughly applicable and effective as he moved permanently to Hollywood character acting. He played a fair spectrum of other roles, even in a few rare dramas, such as the adventure The Soldier and the Lady (1937) and Island of Lost Men (1939).
Blore was very busy with movies from 1934 through most of the 1940s. He appeared in five of the nine Fred and Ginger dance musicals. Some of his best mugging and scripted lines were in Top Hat (1935) and Shall We Dance (1937) of that series. He was also cast very effectively as valet/butler Jamison in the screen adaptations of the Wolfe Kaufman Lone Wolf mystery novel series. There were eleven films between 1940 and 1947, with all but the last three starring the dashing, sonorous-voiced Warren William (who had a greater profile than 'The Great Profile', John Barrymore) as Michael Lanyard. This was a popular series with first-rate scripts and good production values to keep the public coming back for more. Blore was also invited into the company of stock players ruled over by zany comedy director Preston Sturges. Though Blore only did two films for Sturges, his role in the first of these, The Lady Eve (1941), was a Blore tour de force. Playing the suave confidence man, Pearly, to his old bunko acquaintances Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Coburn, he took the role of pseudo-wealthy Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith out to fleece the local American business gentry. His scene with a gullible Henry Fonda taking in Sir Alfred's concocted story of Stanwyck's being a twin daughter of the lady of the manor by way of her coachman is a delight, punctuated with Blore interrupting perplexed Fonda's questions with a loud shhhhhhh of silence at each.
Inevitably, the parts started to become less frequent. Several of Blore's 1940s movies were with lesser known up-and-comers or older stars such as himself. Still, he enjoyed a variety of roles, including the opportunity of animation immortality when Disney chose him for the voice of Mr. Toad in the classic short The Wind in the Willows (1949). But for two widely spaced appearances, Blore essentially retired by 1955.
And as sometimes is the case when personalities move into obscurity, their deaths are prematurely announced. Such was the case with Blore when the New Yorker journalist Kenneth Tynan reported him as having already passed on. Blore's lawyer raised a flurry, as did the editor of the New Yorker, who claimed the periodical had never had to print a retraction. The night before the highly profiled retraction appeared, Blore indeed passed away. And the next morning the New Yorker was the only publication with the wrong information. It seems likely Blore would have been particularly tickled with the irony of this last comedic bit in honor of his passing.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Erika Ringor was born on 23 December 1974 in Inglewood, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Love & Basketball (2000), King Richard (2021) and Moonlight (2007).- Estella Warren was a synchronized swimmer from the age of 7 until 17 in her native Canada. She moved away from home at 12 to train for the Canadian National Team. She was the Canadian National Champion for three years and represented her country at the World Aquatic Championship, where she placed second. A talent scout who came to a charity high school fashion show in which she appeared was impressed enough with her to take a Polaroid of her and send it to a New York City modeling agency. She was almost immediately signed to a modeling contract, and eventually appeared in "Sports Illustrated", "Vogue", "Vanity Fair" and two TV commercials for Chanel #5 perfume, both directed by Luc Besson. She decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, and has appeared in films with such stars as Sylvester Stallone.
- Ethel Rojo was born on 23 December 1937 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. She was an actress, known for Esa pícara pelirroja (1963), No toca botón (1987) and Así es mi México (1963). She was married to Gerardo González. She died on 24 June 2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Eugene Record was born on 23 December 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a composer, known for Taxi (2004), Get Carter (2000) and Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). He was married to Barbara Acklin and Jackie Record. He died on 22 July 2005 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, actor Finn Wolfhard stars as Mike Wheeler in the critically acclaimed Netflix Original Series Stranger Things (2016). The hit series has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series; two MTV Movie & TV Awards for Show of the Year; an AFI award for TV Program of the Year; and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama Television Series. To date, the world-famous series has received 30 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series.
His first role was in the 2013 independent film Aftermath. After appearing in more independent films such as The Resurrection, Wolfhard moved into roles on television shows The 100 (2014) and Supernatural.
In September 2017, Wolfhard moved to the silver screen, playing the lead role of Ritchie Tozier in the film adaptation of the Stephen King acclaimed novel It (2017). Fans of the novel will remember Wolfhard's role as Trashmouth, part of the Losers Club. The film premiered to critical acclaim, breaking opening weekend box office records in its debut and going on to become the highest grossing horror movie ever. Wolfhard, along with his cast, received the Best On-Screen Team award for "IT" at the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Wolfhard also starred in Dog Days (2018) alongside Vanessa Hudgens and Nina Dobrev. He can also be heard in the Netflix animated series "Carmen Sandiego," which released its second season in October 2019. Wolfhard reprises his role of Richie Tozier in New Line's blockbuster sequel It Chapter Two (2019).
In May 2019, Wolfhard became the new face of Yves Saint Laurent's Fall/Winter 2019 Campaign. Wolfhard starred as Miles in Amblin's haunted house horror film The Turning (2020) opposite Mackenzie Davis and Brooklynn Prince. Wolfhard will star alongside Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon and McKenna Grace in Sony Pictures' highly anticipated Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), a new chapter in the "Ghostbusters" universe, from director Jason Reitman. Wolfhard stars alongside Oscar winning actress Julianne Moore in the comedy-drama feature When You Finish Saving the World (2022), written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and produced by Emma Stone. The mother-son story is inspired by Eisenberg's upcoming Audible Original of the same name, which is debuting in 2020. Wolfhard is also set to star as a lead voice over in the upcoming animated series, "NEW-GEN," based on the comic series distributed by Marvel and created by Chris Matonti, J.D. Matonti, and Julia Coppola.
He co-starred in Warner Bros & Amazon Studios' "The Goldfinch," an adaptation of Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning & New York Times best-selling novel. Wolfhard played the role of Young Boris alongside an all-star cast including Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson and Jeffrey Wright. Lastly, he voiced the character Pugsley Addams in MGM's The Addams Family (2019) animated film. He can also be heard in Netflix's animated series "Carmen Sandiego," which released its second season in October 2019.
In addition to acting, Wolfhard has a passion for music and formed a garage-rock band called Calpurnia. Calpurnia recorded their debut EP which was released in June 2018. The band's first single "City Boy" debuted at No. 23 on Billboard's Alternative Digital Song Chart and hit No. 1 on Spotify's Global Viral 50 playlist. During the bands three-year run, Calpurnia toured across North America and Europe.
In the Fall of 2019, Wolfhard and drummer Malcolm Craig formed The Aubreys. In March 2020, The Aubreys released their first official EP entitled "Soda & Pie." Wolfhard also used his growing platform to host an event and raise funds for Sweet Relief, an organization that helps musicians in need.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Frederic Forrest, the Oscar-nominated character actor, was born two days before Christmas Day in 1936 in Waxahachie, Texas, the same home town as director Robert Benton. Forrest had long wanted to be an actor, but he was so nervous that he ran out of auditions for school plays. Later, at Texas Christian University, he took a minor in theater arts while majoring in radio and television studies. His parents opposed his aspirations as a thespian as it was a precarious existence, but he moved on to New York and studied with renowned acting teacher Sanford Meisner. He eventually became an observer at the Actors Studio, where he was tutored by Lee Strasberg. During this time, he supported himself as a page at the NBC Studios in Rockefeller Plaza.
His theatrical debut was in the Off-Broadway production of "Viet-Rock", an anti-war play featuring music. He became part of avant-garde director Tom O'Horgan's stock company at La Mama, appearing in the infamous "Futz", among other productions. After starring in the off-Broadway play "Silhouettes", Forrest moved with the production to Los Angeles, intent on breaking into movies. While the production ran for three months and was visited by agents bird-dogging new talent, Forrest got no offers and had to support himself as a pizza-baker after the show closed. Eventually, he began auditing classes at Actors Studio West, and director Stuart Millar saw him in a student showcase production of Clifford Odets' "Watiting for Lefty" and cast him in When the Legends Die (1972). He copped a 1973 Golden Globe nomination as "Most Promising Newcomer - Male" for the role.
Forrest landed a small but very important part in "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974). He and Cindy Williams are the two people having that titular conversation (recorded by Gene Hackman: so Forrest's voice is heard throughout the film). And Coppola wasn't done with him! Playing "Chef" in Apocalypse Now (1979) garnered Forrest the best notices of his career, and he parlayed that into Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations as Best Supporting Actor for The Rose (1979), his second hit that year. He was named Best Supporting Actor by the National Society of Film Critics for both films. Then he was cast as the star in Coppola's "One From The Heart". In Apocalypse Now (1979), his character ("Chef") is yelling for the Playboy Playmates from the crowd, one of whom is played by Colleen Camp, who, four years later, would play his hippie wife in the film Valley Girl (1983).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Fredi Washington was a pioneering African-American actress whose fair skin and green eyes often were impediments to her showing her extraordinary acting skills. Her talent was often overlooked because of people's obsession with her race and color. In the few films in which she acted her enormous talent as an actress couldn't be hidden.
Her first film performance was with Duke Ellington in a musical short, Black and Tan (1929), as a dancer. In Hollywood she was urged to "pass" for fully white by studio heads, who said they would make her a bigger star than Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Constance Bennett and Greta Garbo. Fredi refused. Her best-known role was as the original Peola, in the controversial film Imitation of Life (1934). She appeared with Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones (1933) and in a few other films with her skin darkened. Her best work was on the stage, notably in "Mamba's Daughters" with Ethel Waters. Fredi never made it to the top like her contemporaries Waters, Josephine Baker, and Nina Mae McKinney because she didn't look "black" enough. But Fredi had what it took, as is more than evident in the few films that she did do.
Her best work was as an activist. She was the head of the Negro Actors Guild, helping black performers get a fair chance in the entertainment industry. Hopefully, people who discover her work today will see her beauty and talent shine through and look beyond her skin color, unlike most people of her time.- Composer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Georges Aperghis was born on 23 December 1945 in Athens, Greece. He is a composer and actor, known for The Lovers on the Bridge (1991), Topos (1985) and Far from Vietnam (1967). He was previously married to Edith Scob.- Actor
- Director
Short, dark, rough-looking and-tough-talking Irish-American character actor Gerald Stewart O'Loughlin was born on December 23, 1921, in New York City. Graduating from college with a degree in mechanical engineering, he turned to the stage, however, after contemplating a possible law career. After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, he used the GI bill instead to train in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Throughout the early 1950s O'Loughlin regularly performed in stock and repertory plays. He highlighted his stage career playing Stanley in a national tour of "A Streetcar Named Desire" opposite the incomparable legend Tallulah Bankhead as Blanche. He later impressed once again as mental patient Cheswick opposite Kirk Douglas's Randle McMurphy in 1963's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on Broadway.
Gerald made a very little dent in films at the beginning, what with an offbeat romantic lead role in the low-budget Lovers and Lollipops (1956) and a small role in the more impressive A Hatful of Rain (1957). He later toughened things up with sturdy parts in In Cold Blood (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968) and, especially, Desperate Characters (1971).
Appearing in dramatic anthology programs from the early 1950's and on such 60's programs as "Ben Casey," "Naked City," "Dr. Kildare," "Run for Your Life" and "The Green Hornet," things finally clicked for him on 1970s TV when he nabbed the role of Lt. Ryker in the TV cop series The Rookies (1972) replacing Darren McGavin, who played the same role in the pilot. He went on to play his usual stern self in other less successful TV series -- Automan (1983) and Our House (1986)
O'Loughlin was highly affecting in TV movies as well, especially as the patriarch in the tearjerker Something for Joey (1977) with Geraldine Page. He continued to impress with strong, authoritarian roles in A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story (1978), Women in White (1979), Child's Cry (1986), Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun (1986) and Crime of the Century (1996). He also had sturdy roles in several acclaimed mini-series (Wheels (1978), Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Blind Ambition (1979) and A Matter of Life and Death (1981)), and was spotted over the years in a slew of guest parts on such established programming as "M*A*S*H," "Fame," "Matt Houston," "Riptide," "Murder, She Wrote," "Too Close for Comfort," "Highway to Heaven," "ER, "The Division," "Titans" and "Judging Amy."
86-year-old Gerald made his last appearance in the short film Destinesia (2008) portraying an elderly man desperate to escape the confines of his nursing home. He died of natural causes in Los Angeles on July 31, 2015. His long-time wife, Meryl Abeles O'Loughlin (1933-2007), a casting agent, predeceased him. They had two children. One son, Chris, was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic épée fencing team.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Brash, virile Italian-American lead and supporting "tough guy" Harry Guardino, with dark, wavy hair and a perpetual worried look on his craggy-looking mug, was born Harold Vincent Guardino on December 23, 1925, in Manhattan but raised as a Brooklynite. Serving with the U.S. Navy during World War II, he joined the Merchant Marine.
He would start out in the late 1940s in the school hard knocks, training in dramatic workshops and slumming for nearly half a decade in small, obscure 'tough guy' film bits in early '50s Universal and Columbia pictures including an orderly in the service comedy Up Front (1951); soldiers in both Sirocco (1951) and Purple Heart Diary (1951); and two Tony Curtis films where he was the star--(Son of Ali Baba (1952) and Flesh and Fury (1952)).
After making his Broadway debut in 1953 with a small cadet role in the play "End as a Man," Harry earned his first big break as the Broadway understudy to Ben Gazzara in the acclaimed drama "A Hatful of Rain." He later took over the role and then went on the national tour. Although it did little to elevate his bit part standing in Hollywood, he figured in more prominently on the smaller screen with parts on "I Led Three Lives," "The Millionaire," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Suspect" and several TV anthologies.
Making a play for film once again, Harry received "second lead" status in the family comedy Houseboat (1958), stealing scenes from both stars Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. As Italianate truck driver/handyman Angelo, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for his hilarious supporting turn as the guy who sells Cary the titled boat after completely destroying their other home in a truck accident.
With and without a comic edge, Harry played several other guy-guy co-star types after this in such crime/war stories as Pork Chop Hill (1959), 5 Branded Women (1960), Hell Is for Heroes (1962), Madigan (1968), Dirty Harry (1971) and The Enforcer (1976), the last two pairing him up with Clint Eastwood as his beleaguered superior, Lt. Bressler. At one point, the New Yorker even played "Barabbas" in the classic biblical epic King of Kings (1961) and a scurrilous poacher in the Ivan Tors African adventure Rhino! (1964), just for a distinct change of pace and scenery.
Harry returned to the Broadway stage and was Tony nominated for the play "One More River" in 1960 despite its extremely short run. He would return again again to Broadway throughout the rest of the 1960's in "Natural Affection" (1963), the musical "Anyone Can Whistle," "The Rose Tattoo" (1966) and "The Seven Descents of Myrtle" (1968).
TV, he became more and more, however, the favorite medium of choice. Progressing to top guest parts in such TV programs as "Johnny Staccato," "Checkmate," "The Untouchables," "Dr. Kildare," "Route 66," "Naked City," "The Outer Limits," "Ben Casey," "The Virginian," "Twelve O'Clock High" and "Run for Your Life," Harry was given three short-run series to star or co-star in -- as an overly gregarious newsman in The Reporter (1964); the title government agent Monty Nash (1971); and the perpetually losing district attorney "Hamilton Burger" in The New Perry Mason (1973) revival.
Harry co-starred in dozens of TV projects as a scruffy, hard-nosed, street-smart cop or detective. These included the TV movie The Lonely Profession (1969), plus the shows "McCloud," "The Name of the Game," "Get Christie Love!," "Kojak," "Police Story," "Fantasy Island," "The Sophisticated Gents" and "Murder, She Wrote." He also enjoyed an unlikely outlet in musical theatre in later years, co-starring in the Broadway production of "Woman of the Year" (1981) opposite and as Billy Flynn in stock production of "Chicago."
Harry died of lung cancer on in 1995 at age 69, and was survived by his third wife and four children from various marriages.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Harry Shearer was born in 1943 in Los Angeles, California. His film debut was with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), followed by The Robe (1953). Probably best known for his Saturday Night Live (1975) gigs, his NPR satire program "Le Show" and The Simpsons (1989), where he plays 21 characters. His best film may be This Is Spinal Tap (1984), where he played bass player Derek Smalls. There was also an episode on The Simpsons (1989) where he reprised this role. His film work includes Godzilla (1998), in which "Simpsons" cast members Hank Azaria and Nancy Cartwright also appeared. Shearer has also directed a film, Teddy Bears' Picnic (2001), in which he also stars.- Helen Troy was born on 23 December 1903 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Between Two Women (1937), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and Human Cargo (1936). She was married to Alton Edward. Horton. She died on 1 November 1942 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Hille Darjes was born on 23 April 1943 in Fischerhude, Lower Saxony, Germany. She was an actress, known for Tatort (1970) and Polizeifunk ruft (1966). She was married to Chris Alexander. She died on 23 December 2018 in Worpswede, Lower Saxony, Germany.
- Director
- Producer
- Editor
Holly Dale is one of Canada's premiere directors recognized globally for her outstanding, award-winning television and cinema work crafted over the past twenty-five years. Ms Dale has directed movies, entire mini series, pilots and episodic. She has worked in all genres.
Recently, Ms Dale was taped to be the Producer Director for showrunner Nick Santora's upcoming Netflix/Skydance series FUBAR starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Monica Barbaro and Fortune Feimster. The series will start streaming on Netflix in the Summer of 2023.
Previously Ms Dale was the Producer Director on the Warner Bros/Berlanti Productions series Batwoman for three seasons where she directed 13 episodes.
Ms Dale was also Producer Director of the international sensation Transplant. She block shot the pilot and first 3 episodes of Transplant, creating its stunning visual template. Transplant focuses on a Syrian trauma surgeon who himself is the transplant. The series holds the distinction of becoming the #1 drama series of the year in both its Canadian run and US network run on NBC.
Among many prestigious awards Ms Dale has earned is the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture and Best Director for the groundbreaking hard edged serial killer miniseries Durham County. She was also honoured with a Canadian Screen Award for Best Director for Mary Kills People, a limited series delving into the murky waters of euthanasia which she directed/co-executive produced the entire first season of six hours. Variety selected Mary Kills People as one of their top ten series of the year.
The Directors Guild of Canada has recognized Ms Dale as their Best Director of Drama series on four [4] separate occasions for her work on the acclaimed one hour shows Flashpoint, Durham County, Mary Kills People and most recently for Transplant.
Highlights of the many extraordinary series Holly has guest directed include Dexter, The Americans, Chris Carter's X-Files, Joan Allen's The Family, Dick Wolf's Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Law & Order:SVU, Halle Berry's Extant, Bradley Cooper's Limitless, Marvel's Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D, Steven Spielberg's Falling Skies as well as 12 individual hours of the Jerry Bruckheimer anthological series Cold Case, to name just a few.- Producer
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Holly Madison is most widely recognized for starring in the E! hit reality television series, The Girls Next Door (2005), and her own spin off series Holly's World (2009).
Her experiences over the years prompted her to write her two New York Times Best-Selling memoirs, "Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny" and "The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice and the Road to Reinvention." In addition to her two starring television roles, Holly Madison has made guest appearances on several iconic television series including; CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), Entourage (2004), General Hospital (1963) and in movies such as Scary Movie 4 (2006) and The House Bunny (2008).
In 2009, Not long after competing on the eighth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars (2005), Holly was cast as the lead performer in the Broadway-meets-burlesque Las Vegas spectacular, "Peepshow", conceived by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell. While starring in the show, Madison became the face of the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, first appearing in their summer ad campaign of 2009. Throughout her nearly four-year run in "Peepshow" (2009-2012), Holly not only played the title character "Bo Peep" but eventually took on the singing role of "Goldie Locks" in the storybook-themed production.
In 2010, following a few guest correspondent assignments on E!'s "Live from the Red Carpet" Pre-Shows, Holly became the Las Vegas correspondent for the entertainment news program, Extra (1994).
Holly Madison welcomed her first child, Rainbow Aurora Rotella, with fiancé Pasquale Rotella, on March 5, 2013 during which they filmed a one-hour Mother's Day special, titled Holly Has a Baby (2013), allowing viewers to follow Holly to the hospital for the big event, which aired on Mother's Day 2013.
Holly and her fiance Pasquale were married at Disneyland in September of 2013 and welcomed their second child, Forest Leonardo Antonio Rotella on August 7, 2016.
Holly splits her time between Los Angeles and Las Vegas with her family.- Actor
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ike Jones was a producer, actor, screenwriter and second-unit director best known as being the "secret" husband of movie star Inger Stevens, whom he claimed he had married in Mexico in 1961 after Stevens' apparent suicide in 1970. The marriage supposedly was kept secret in order not to damage Stevens career, as she was white and he was black.
Sammy Davis Jr.'s romance with Kim Novak in the late 1950s had been terminated by the intervention of Columbia Pictures production chief Harry Cohn (Novak's boss), who used his mob connections to threaten Davis. When Davis married May Britt in 1960, her once promising career stalled, so such concerns were legitimate. Since the marriage had been secret, Jones had to battle in court for his rights to Stevens' estate (worth an estimated $110,000 (approximately $800,000 in 2022 dollars). His claim was supported by Stevens' brother.
Born Isaac Lolette Jones in Santa Monica, California, on December 23, 1929 he was the first African American graduate from the UCLA film school when he took his diploma in 1952. He also became the first African American to produce an A-List Hollywood movie when he produced A Man Called Adam (1966) in 1966. He would also be the first person to receive the Oscar Micheaux Award, named after the trail-blazing African American producer, director and writer, by the Producers Guild of America in 1995.
Ike had played college football at UCLA and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1953, but he was set on making a career in the movies. He made his debut as an actor in '53 in The Kid from Left Field (1953) and also appeared in The Joe Louis Story (1953), on which he also toiled as an assistant director. His acting career was over by 1960 (though it revived briefly in the period 1973-75), as he became the head of Nat 'King' Cole's Kell-Cole Productions. He has made his bones as an executive working at the Hill-Hecht-Lancaster production company in the 1950s and then as vice president of Harry Belafonte's Harbel Productions.[5]
He made cinema history when Sammy Davis, Jr. hired him to produce A Man Called Adam (1966). He only produced one more production, the 1978 TV movie A Woman Called Moses (1978) starring Cicely Tyson as Harriet Tubman, and served as an executive producer on the 1981 TV movie The Oklahoma City Dolls (1981).- Actor
- Cinematographer
Ivo Canelas was born on 23 December 1973 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is an actor and cinematographer, known for O Mistério da Estrada de Sintra (2007), Liberdade 21 (2008) and The Art of Stealing (2008).- Jacqueline Bracamontes was born on 23 December 1979 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She is an actress, known for Rubí (2004), Entrenando a mi papá (2015) and Alegrijes y rebujos (2003). She has been married to Martin Fuentes since 1 October 2011. They have six children.
- Actor
- Editor
- Producer
New York-born James Gregory gave up a career as a stockbroker for one as an actor, and began on the Broadway stage. He made his film debut in 1948. Gregory specialized in playing loud, brash, tough cops or businessmen. One of his better roles was as the detective out to get Capone in Al Capone (1959). He also played Dean Martin's boss in three of the four cheesy "Matt Helm" spy films. Memorable as the opinionated, loudmouthed Inspector Luger in the television series Barney Miller (1975).- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Born Maurice William Elias in Los Angeles, James Stacy is the son of a Lebanese immigrant father and an American-born mother of Irish-Scottish descent. As a teen, Stacy first aspired to play professional football but settled on a career in the movies after a friend coaxed him into taking some acting classes.
Adopting the screen name James Stacy after his cousin Stacy and one of his movie idols, James Dean, he made his film debut in an uncredited role as a reporter in Sayonara (1957), starring Marlon Brando. Garnering little work or recognition in film, he turned to TV. Although he made notable appearances on The Donna Reed Show (1958) and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), it wasn't until 1968 that he gained his first big break, playing a young gunfighter on the TV series, Lancer (1968).
Although the show was canceled in 1970, Stacy continued to land smaller roles on TV. In 1973, he lost his left arm and left leg in a serious motorcycle accident that claimed the life of his girlfriend. The resultant medical bills wiped out his savings, but his ex-wives and his Hollywood friends rallied round and threw a benefit for him. Two years later, he made his professional comeback as a newspaper editor in the Western film, Posse (1975), in a role created expressly for him by the film's director, Kirk Douglas. Stacy was nominated twice for an Emmy: for Just a Little Inconvenience (1977) in 1977 and Cagney & Lacey (1981) in 1986. He retired in 1991.
Stacy's personal life was turbulent. Twice-divorced, he was briefly married to actress and singer Connie Stevens (1963-66) and, even more briefly, to actress Kim Darby (1968-69), with whom he had a daughter, Heather Elias.
Stacy is portrayed by Timothy Olyphant in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019).- Actress
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Jasmine Hester was born on 23 December 1988 in San Diego, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for 9-1-1 (2018), The Neighborhood (2018) and Chronicles of Jessica Wu (2017).- The fourth and youngest child of Horace and Robina Kelly, Jean Brooks spent her early years in her native Texas before relocating to Costa Rica with her mother after her father's death. Her time in Costa Rica enabled her to become fluent in Spanish, and she began her professional career as a singer with Enric Madriguera and Orchestra in New York City. She had a small role in the New York City-filmed The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) and the second lead in a state play, "Name Your Poison" (1938), with Lenore Ulric. She was signed by an independent film production company that had gone under by the time she got to Hollywood. She spent several years at Universal as a leading lady in "B" pictures, including several Johnny Mack Brown westerns, but her option was dropped in late 1941. By this time she had married writer (later director) Richard Brooks and, with a certain Broadway hoofer having just signed at MGM, dropped the Kelly and became Jean Brooks. She signed with RKO, where film buffs know her for her three appearances for cult producer Val Lewton, particularly her stunning performance as a haunted devil worshiper in The Seventh Victim (1943).
Her clipped delivery and intense, forceful acting style made her a promising bet for stardom, but RKO lost interest in her by mid-'44 and her roles got gradually smaller until she was dropped in 1946. She and Brooks divorced (his later studio biographies omitted her name as one of his ex-wives). For many years she was listed as a "Lost Player" championed in several magazine articles by writer Doug McClelland. She was eventually located in San Francisco, where she had moved after her film career petered out, and was employed as a classified ad solicitor on the "San Francisco Examiner" newspaper. She had married a printer named Thomas Leddy. Her death at the Kaiser Hospital in Richmond, California, in 1963 of complications resulting from cirrhosis marked a sad ending for a stylish and talented performer who didn't get the breaks she deserved, both personally and professionally. - Actress
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Jennifer Hoffman was born on 23 December 1980 in Gouda, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. She is an actress and producer, known for Westenwind (1999), De luizenmoeder (2018) and Deep Shit (2021).- Jennifer Van Dyck was born in St. Andrews, Scotland and raised in Princeton, NJ. She graduated from Brown University with a double major in Religious Studies and Theatre Arts. She began her career at Trinity Rep under the leadership of Adrian Hall. Richard Jenkins directed her there in Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Other People's Money. She is a long time New Yorker and lives with her husband, actor Jonathan Walker.
Recent work includes guest leads on The Blacklist and Law&Order: SVU and plays by Sinan Unel (Chatal at the Huntington Summer Workshop), Howard Barker (The Castle at PTP/Atlantic Stage 2), A.R. Gurney (The Dining Room at Westport Playhouse).
Jennifer has had an extensive collaboration with playwright/actor Charles Busch and director Carl Andress creating numerous roles in various productions. Other favorite playwright collaborations include new plays by Bathsheba Doran, Sarah Schulman, Karen Zacarias, Keith Bunin, Ellen McLaughlin, Catherine Filloux, Douglas Post and Ken Weitzman.
Broadway: Hedda Gabler, Dancing at Lughnasa, Two Shakespearean Actors, The Secret Rapture. Off Broadway: Charles Busch's Judith of Bethulia at TNC, The Divine Sister at the Soho Playhouse, The Third Story at MCC, The Picture Box (NEC), Orson's Shadow (Barrow St.) The Breadwinner, The Second Man (Keen Company), Suzan Lori-Parks' 365Days/365 Plays (Barrow St./The Public), Hesh (Naked Angels), A Cheever Evening, Man in His Underwear, Gus and Al (all at Playwrights Horizons).
Recent film and television work: The Blacklist, Royal Pains, Person of Interest, Elementary, Too Big to Fail, Michael Clayton, Across the Universe, various Law & Order episodes, L&O: SVU, L&O:CI, Fringe, New Amsterdam.
Her regional credits include Trinity Rep, Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Berkshire Playwrights Lab.
Jennifer's narration work encompasses radio plays for the BBC, documentary work for PBS and hundreds of audiobooks in a wide range of genres. She has received three Audiofile Magazine Earphones Awards, three Audie nominations and Salon.com's Best of 2013 for her narration of "Notes From No Man's Land" by Eula Biss. - Jernej Sugman was born on 23 December 1968 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. He was an actor, known for Short Circuits (2006), Zvenenje v glavi (2002) and Sweet Dreams (2001). He died on 10 December 2017 in Podljubelj, Slovenia.
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Jess Harnell is an American actor and singer from New Jersey. He provided the voices of Wakko Warner from Animaniacs, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon from Spyro: A Hero's Tail, Scary Terry from Rick & Morty, Ki-Adi Mundi and Darth Maul from Star Wars video games, Captain Hero from Drawn Together, Ironhide from Transformers, Dr. Finkelstein from The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge and Kingdom Hearts, the Plumber from Ratchet & Clank and the announcer of America's Funniest Home Videos.- Actress
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Joan Severance was born and raised in Houston, Texas. At the age of 18 and at the sole urging of John Casablancas of Elite models, she went to Paris, France to begin a modeling career that would turn out to be well worth the price of the ticket Casablancas sent her. Within months she graced the covers of all the international magazines and was doing shows for all the top designers. She landed campaigns for Chanel and Versace. After eight months she moved to NYC to pursue the US market and was quick to land several national commercials for Windsong perfume, Breck shampoo, Clairol, English Leather, L'oreal, Revlon and Maybeline.
After several dozen commercials and a very high profile editorial career, she quit the modeling industry to head to Hollywood. Within weeks, she had a manager, an agent and was studying with several different acting coaches. It was six months later that she landed her first role on a major television series for CBS called Wiseguy (1987), starring Ken Wahl and Kevin Spacey. It was only a matter of time that director Arthur Hiller cast her in See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and her costar from Wiseguy, Kevin Spacey. That same year, she did Bird on a Wire (1990) with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, and No Holds Barred (1989) with Hulk Hogan. Later starring in several films, including Zalman King's Lake Consequence (1993) with Billy Zane.
She has appeared in over fifteen films. She has worked with Robert Urich on Aaron Spelling's Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998) and with Ann-Margret on Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story (1998) for Lifetime. Ms. Severance has been in many popular TV shows, like Masters of Sex (2013), One Tree Hill (2003), and CSI: Miami (2002).
Her hobbies include interior, landscape and fashion design, cooking, reading, entertaining, writing and anything to do with horses. Severance has finished her first book, "Manifest Your Mate: a Journal for Attraction". Science, health and the unknown spark her interests. She has a gourmet cooking degree from Roger Verge from The Moulin du Mougin in the South of France, owned and was the chef of a restaurant in upstate New York, owned a catering company in New York, and has taught commercial acting classes.
Ms. Severance has a Bachelors Degree in Natural Health. She desires to develop a television talk show aimed at a younger audience about alternative and holistic lifestyles choices. Ms. Severance created, txTylz®, a communication game, and is developing it for a mobile app.- John Callahan was born on 23 December 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for All My Children (1970), eCupid (2011) and Dinocroc vs. Supergator (2010). He was married to Eva LaRue and Linda Freeman. He died on 28 March 2020 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.
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Actor / director John Cromwell was born December 23, 1887, in Toledo, OH. He made his Broadway debut on October 14, 1912, in Marian De Forest's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" at the Playhouse Theatre. The show was a hit, running for a total of 184 performances. Cromwell appeared in another 38 plays on Broadway between February 24, 1914--when he appeared in Frank Craven's "Too Many Cooks" at the 39th Street Theatre (a hit show he co-directed with Craven that ran for a total of 223 performances)--and October 31, 1971, when he closed with "Solitaire/Double Solitaire" at the John Golden Theatre after 36 performances. In addition to "Cooks", Cromwell directed or staged 11 plays and produced seven plays on Broadway. Among the highlights of his Broadway acting career were his multiple appearances as a Shavian actor. He was "Charles Lomax" in the original Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" in 1915 (Guthrie McClintic, who married Katharine Cornell in 1921 and became a notable Broadway director, played a butler) and as "Capt. Kearney" in the revival of "Captain Brassbound's Conversion" the following year (McClintic played "Marzo"). He also appeared as "Brother Martin Ladvenu" in Katharine Cornell's 1936 "Saint Joan", directed by McClintic, and played "Freddy Eynsford Hill" in Cedric Hardwicke's 1945 revival of "Pygmalion", starring Gertrude Lawrence as "Eliza Doolittle" and Raymond Massey as "Henry Higgins".
As for William Shakespeare, he played "Paris" to Katharine Cornell's "Juliet" and Maurice Evans' "Romeo" in McClntic's "Rome and Juliet" in 1935, and appeared as "Rosenkrantz" in McClintic's 1936 Broadway staging of "Hamlet", with John Gielgud in the title role, Lillian Gish as "Ophelia" and Judith Anderson as "Gertrude". He also appeared as "Lennox" in the 1948 revival of Shakespeare's "Scottish Play", with Michael Redgrave as "Macbeth" and Flora Robson as "Lady Macbeth" (young actors also featured in the play who went on to renown were Julie Harris, Martin Balsam and Beatrice Straight). Cromwell won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1952 for "Point of No Return", in which he supported Henry Fonda, and appeared as the father, "Linus Larabee Sr.", in "Sabrina Fair" the next year.
With the advent of sound pictures, Cromwell went "Hollywood" in 1929, appearing in The Dummy (1929) in support of Ruth Chatterton and Fredric March. He also co-directed two talkies with A. Edward Sutherland that year, Close Harmony (1929) and The Dance of Life (1929) (he had a bit part as a doorman in the latter). After learning the craft of directing, he directed The Mighty (1929) with George Bancroft, in which he made innovative use of sound. He also directed Jackie Coogan in Tom Sawyer (1930) the next year. He made his name with Ann Vickers (1933) in 1933 and Of Human Bondage (1934) in 1934, two films he shot for RKO based on novels by the preeminent writers Sinclair Lewis and W. Somerset Maugham. Both movies ran into censorship trouble. Lewis' "Ann Vickers" featured Irene Dunne as a reformer and birth control advocate who has a torrid extramarital affair. The novel had been condemned by the Catholic Church, and the proposed movie adaptation proved controversial. The Studio Relations Committee, headed by James Wingate (whose deputy was future Production Code Administration head Joseph Breen, a Roman Catholic intellectual) condemned the script as "vulgarly offensive" before production began. The SRC, which oversaw the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association's Production Code, refused to approve the script without major modifications, but RKO production chief Merian C. Cooper balked over its excessive demands. Though studio head B.B. Kahane protested the SRC's actions to MPPDA President Will Hays, the studio agreed to make "Ann Vickers" an unmarried woman at the time of her affair, thus eliminating adultery as an issue, and the film received a Seal of Approval. The battle over "Ann Vickers" was one of the reasons the more powerful PCA was created in 1934 to take the place of the SRC.
Joseph Breen, now head of the PCA, warned that the script for W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" was "highly offensive" because the prostitute "Mildred", whom the protagonist, medical student "Philip Carey", falls in love with, comes down with syphilis. Breen demanded that Mildred be turned into less of a tramp, that she be afflicted with tuberculosis rather than syphilis and that she be married to Carey's friend whom she cheats on him with. RKO gave in on every point, as the PCA, unlike the SRC, had the ability to levy a $25,000 fine for violations of the Production Code. Despite the changes, chapters of the Catholic Church's Legion Of Deceny condemned the film in Chicago, Detroit, Omaha and Pittsburgh. Despite a picket line manned by local priests in Chicago, Cromwell's film broke all records at the Hippodrome Theater when it played there in August 1934. Five hundred people had to be turned away opening night. It seemed that wherever the Legion of Decency had condemned the film, it played to capacity crowds. In 1935 Breen ruled that "Of Human Bondage" would have to be changed if RKO wished to re-release it.
Other major films Cromwell directed include Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Algiers (1938), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Since You Went Away (1944) and Anna and the King of Siam (1946). In 1951 he directed The Racket (1951) starring Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, and Robert Ryan; he had appeared in the original staging of the Broadway play by Bartlett Cormack on which the movie was based back in 1927.
Busy on Broadway in the 1950s, it was seven years before he directed another film, The Goddess (1958), with a screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky and starring Kim Stanley. He directed two more minor films before calling it quits as a movie director in 1961. As a director, Cromwell eschewed flashy camera work, as he felt it detracted from both the story and the actors' performances. Late in his life director Robert Altman cast Cromwell as an actor in two of his films, 3 Women (1977) and A Wedding (1978).
John Cromwell died on September 26, 1979, in Santa Barbara, CA.- Writer
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John Sullivan was born on 23 December 1946 in Balham, London, England, UK. He was a writer and producer, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), Dear John (1988) and The Green Green Grass (2005). He died on 23 April 2011 in Surrey, England, UK.- Actor
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Binghamton native Jon Donahue has amassed a dizzying list of credits over the years, and has solidified his reputation as one of Hollywood's nicest, most charming and versatile actors. Growing up in the quiet town of Binghamton, Jon was surrounded by the Hollywood lore of many of the town's famous residents, including "The Twilight Zone" creator, Rod Serling. As a freshman at Seton Catholic Central, he joined the stage production of "Arsenic and Old Lace," playing the character of 'Mr. Gibbs', and cementing his love of acting and entertaining. As further testimony to his love of entertainment, he started working at the concession stand at the local movie theatre and was managing the theatre by the age of 18. Rushing through the rain one night with a reel of film for the single screen theatre, he dropped it in a puddle of water but was still able to salvage the film, "Joe Versus The Volcano". Little did he know at the time, but it would be the beginning of his long standing and fruitful collaboration with the film's star, Tom Hanks. Bursting with talent and eager to make his mark, Jon subsequently moved to Orlando to work at Universal Studios, where he would proudly defend boatloads of unsuspecting tourists from "Jaws" with a handy 40mm grenade launcher. Steven Spielberg himself would later remark to Donahue on the set of the Academy Award winning "Bridge Of Spies", "Now we are working together again on dry land!" His energy and talent was soon recognized by Nickelodeon Studios, where he was brought on in the sought after role of the 'Gakmeister', maker of the studios famous GAK and trademark green slime. After he was done with his slime making days, he returned to Binghamton where his 'Gakmeister' role was immediately recognized by the hiring manager at his hometown local CBS affiliate, WBNG-TV. After Jon was offered a behind-the-scenes production job there, he convinced the news manager to let him do an on-air segment when the Nickelodeon traveling show came to town. The segment was a smashing success and he was soon the on-air Feature Reporter, where he would write, produce and host his own segments. During his time with WBNG, he interviewed actors Gregory Hines and Jon Stewart, among others. Encouraged by this success, Jon moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full time. He began to seriously study and hone his craft at the award-winning Playhouse West in North Hollywood, founded by actors Jeff Goldblum and Robert Carnegie, where he studied the Sandy Meisner technique, following in the footsteps of Playhouse West alumni and screen icons Michelle Pfeiffer and James Franco. He also trained with "E.T." actress Dee Wallace at her studio in Burbank. He was then encouraged by Robin Williams to enroll at the prestigious Upright Citizens Brigade Improvisational and Sketch Comedy Training Center. This led Jon to a television and film career where he has worked for some of the world's most renowned directors including Mike Nichols, Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass and Ron Howard. Jon is a regular collaborator with Tom Hanks, including his most recent role as 'Richard Savage' in the SONY film "Inferno", where he is starring alongside Hanks and working under legendary director Ron Howard. Prior to his role in "Inferno", Donahue worked with Spielberg and Hanks on the Academy Award winning "Bridge Of Spies". Jon also worked with Hanks and Mike Nichols on "Charlie Wilson's War". Donahue showcased his tremendous acting range while working with Ray Romano on the Emmy nominated TNT comedy "Men of a Certain Age" and in the Cameron Crowe/SHOWTIME original series "Roadies." Jon is frequently recognized by his youngest fans from his voice work as 'Antonio' the K-9 German Shepherd in the hit Disney film "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2". Jon lives in Los Angeles, and while not busy filming, he enjoys hiking in the local mountains, watching movies with his friends and adding to his vintage movie poster collection.- Actor
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Born in Summitville, Indiana. A 1976 graduate of Butler University, he honed his acting skills at Christian Theological Seminary Reportory Theater at Butler. He was active in many Indiana venues including The Brown County Playhouse, The Black Curtain Dinner Theatre, and Starlight Musicals. Moved to New York and then Hollywood. His biggest break was his appearance in "Brubaker" where he became friends with Robert Redford. This led to his role in "The Natural."- Actor
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José Greco was born on 23 December 1918 in Montorio nei Frentani, Molise, Italy. He was an actor, known for Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Sombrero (1953) and Ship of Fools (1965). He was married to Ana Borger-Greco. He died on 31 December 2000 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.- Josh Cowdery was born on 23 December 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is an actor and executive, known for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), Wrath of Man (2021) and Belgravia: The Next Chapter (2024).
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Judy Strangis was born on 23 December 1949 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (1976), The Krofft Supershow (1976) and CBS Schoolbreak Special (1984). She has been married to Jayson Sher since 28 November 1987.- Actress
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Julia Sporre was born on 23 December 1992. She is an actress, known for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), The Square (2017) and Millennium (2010).- Kane Richmond was born on 23 December 1906 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lost City (1935), Spy Smasher (1942) and Brick Bradford (1947). He was married to Marion Burns. He died on 22 March 1973 in Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Kumar Pallana was born on 23 December 1918 in Indore, Indore State, Central India Agency, British India. He was an actor, known for The Terminal (2004), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and Bottle Rocket (1996). He was married to Ranjana Jethwa. He died on 10 October 2013 in Oakland, California, USA.
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Well known for her high level of camp and her energetic performances, La Lupe was one of the Spanish-language world's greatest performers. Born in Cuba to a poor family, La Lupe began her life as a schoolteacher in Havana at her father's request. However music was in her blood, and against his wishes she entered a singing competition on the radio where she won first place. Later she joined the singing group "Trio Los Tropicales" and made many successful club debuts throughout Havana. When La Lupe went solo, her performances at Havana's La Red night club caused quite a stir, an impact that leaked slowly to the rest of the island. Overnight La Lupe had become a source if wonderment, controversy and a national celebrity.
Her first recordings, which included Spanish versions of Rock hits by Paul Anka and other American authors, as well as Cuban standards, made the hit parades of radio stations across the country. Her unique voice, combined with extravagant performance antics, made her a smash in the Cuban music scene. However, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, La Lupe felt that she could no longer live in a country that did not accept her singing style, which was officially classified as anti-revolutionary. She left Cuba for Mexico in 1962, where she sought to relaunch her career, but was never accepted. Later she moved to New York, where she met fellow Cuban musician Mongo Santamaría. Both teamed up with to make the album make "Mongo Introduces La Lupe" in 1963. That album made her a star and later she joined the legendary musician Tito Puente to record four successful albums which confirmed and cemented her enormous popularity.
Voted the best singer by the Latin press in 1965 & 1966, La Lupe went on to become one of the top two divas of salsa music (the other was Celia Cruz). It was during these years that she recorded some of her greatest songs, especially those written by Puerto Rican composer C. Curet Alonso, such as "La Tirana" and "Puro Teatro". In the 1970's La Lupe saw her career decline somewhat. First she was banned from television from Puerto Rico after she tore her clothes off during an awards ceremony on national television. Next, her record label, Tico Records, was purchased by Fania Records, and company executives decided to focus their energies on the less controversial Celia Cruz. Although she had several hits during that decade, she slowly faded into obscurity. In the 1980's, La Lupe, retired from the industry, found herself destitute. Her husband's medical bills, her large donations to the African-based religion of "Santeria", and her personal problems often left her and her family homeless. She became paralyzed following a domestic accident and was healed in a Pentecostal church. After this, she converted to Pentecostalism and recorded Christian oriented material in the late 80s. She continued her faith activities by funding a ministry she named La Lupe in Christ which allowed her to preach to Pentecostal communities until her death in 1992.
La Lupe never saw the surge in her popularity after her death, especially after the legendary Spanish director, Pedro Almodovar chose her song, "Puro Teatro," to be the closing song of his Oscar nominated hit film, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". Fania re-released her recordings on their Tico labels during that decade, and many of her records went platinum throughout Spain and Latin America. Considered by many to be a combination of Bette Midler meets Judy Garland with a dash of Eartha Kitt, La Lupe's largest fan base is primarily the gay Latin community. Many drag performers imitate her and she is considered to be the Judy Garland of the Spanish-language world due to her torrid love affairs, heavy drug use, poor financial management and her bout with bipolar-ism. Doubtless, La Lupe is one of the most remarkable musical divas the world has ever known.- Lara Stone was born on 23 December 1983 in Geldrop, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. She is an actress, known for Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016), En moi (2016) and The Ever Changing Face of Beauty (2012). She was previously married to David Walliams.
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Lauren Drummond was born on 23 December 1987 in Greater Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Flight (2012), Holby City (1999) and The Royal (2003).- Writer
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Leonard Stern was born on 23 December 1922 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Get Smart (1965), He & She (1967) and I'm Dickens, He's Fenster (1962). He was married to Gloria Stroock and Julie Adams. He died on 7 June 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Liliana Pécora is known for Hagamos el humor (1991), Soy paciente (1986) and La estación de Landriscina (1992).
- Lisandro Carret is known for Fiesta y bronca de ser joven (1992), El amor tiene cara de mujer (1994) and Hotel, hotel (2004).
- Luisito Domínguez is known for No hay 2 sin 3 (2004) and Premios Martín Fierro 2007 (2007).
- Producer
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- Actor
Luke Matheny was born on 23 December 1976 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a producer and director, known for God of Love (2010), Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street (2014) and Ghostwriter (2019).- María Fernanda Yepes was born on 23 December 1980 in Medellin, Colombia. She is an actress, known for Línea de Tiempo (2023), Sin Senos No Hay Paraíso (2008) and La Teniente (2012).
- María Santos is known for La fuga (1937), Melodías de América (1942) and Margarita, Armando y su padre (1939).
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Marián Geisberg was born on 23 December 1953 in Piestany, Czechoslovakia. He was an actor, known for Rudý kapitán (2016), The Magic Quill (2018) and Muzika (2008). He was married to Anicka. He died on 10 November 2018 in Bratislava, Slovakia.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Mark Wheeler was born on 23 December 1947 in Hennepin, Minnesota, USA. He is an actor, known for Apollo 13 (1995), Backdraft (1991) and Far and Away (1992).- Marta Longo is known for Manuela (1991).
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Martha Byrne was born on 23 December 1969 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for As the World Turns (1956), Crisis (2014) and Gotham the Series (2009). She has been married to Michael McMahon since 12 November 1994. They have three children.- Writer
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Martin is an innovative wildlife filmmaker, zoologist (Duke University Graduate), and is dedicated to teaching people about wild creatures and working for the preservation of endangered species. In 1990, Martin and his brother Chris Kratt founded The Earth Creatures Company, which specializes in wildlife entertainment. Martin and brother Chris have authored eight wildlife books for children (including Creatures in Crisis and Where're the Bears?) published by Scholastic. They are recipients of an Award of Appreciation for their on-going commitment and public service on behalf of conservation and environmental education by US Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt.- Born in Beckenham, Kent, English character actor Maurice Denham first came to public notice in the 1940s on radio, appearing on many of the most popular comedy series of the day in a variety of characters. His debut in films came in 1947 with The Smugglers (1947). His talents came to the forefront in the animated feature Animal Farm (1954), in which he voiced all of the animal characters. A prolific actor, his familiar sharp features and bald head appeared in dozens of films over the following years, often as charming but slightly 'barmy' characters and well-bred cads, although he was more than capable of playing straight drama, as he did in the war picture Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as a naval officer helping to hunt down and sink the German battleship. He began appearing regularly in television in the 1970s and also worked steadily on the stage.
He died of natural causes at age 92 in London, England. - Actress
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Mercedes Grower was born on 23 December 1980 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Brakes (2016).