My list of great horror movie actors and actresses
A roughly ordered list of thespians who's work I have found to be highly commendable that I have seen in horror movies or horror themed tv shows. I will try to order it somewhat over time.
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- Actor
- Make-Up Department
- Director
Mr. Bradley was born on September 7th 1954 in Liverpool, England. Since his school days Bradley has been close friends with Clive Barker. In the seventies Bradley and Clive Barker founded the progressive theatre group "Dog Company". While Barker worked on writing with his friend Peter Atkins (script-writer for several Hellraiser films), Bradley started acting. Bradley made it to the Movie Monster Hall Of Fame with his role as the cenobite, Pinhead, who he portrayed in eight of the Hellraiser movies.- Jenette Goldstein is a true chameleon. She is so effective as an actress, it is nearly impossible to recognize her from role to role. Jenette spent most of her childhood in Los Angeles. Born to theater-loving parents, she attended fine arts-oriented schools, and was the young star of the drama classes. She often competed in citywide drama competitions with soon-to-be famous peers Val Kilmer, Gina Gershon, Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham. To hone her craft after high school, Jenette studied at London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and at Circle in the Square Theater in New York City, mastering drama theory, physicality, dialects and the classics. It was in London, while performing in local theater productions, where Jenette answered an audition request for American actors with British Equity cards. Thinking it was another play or a small film, she read for a tough, macho Latina character, named 'Vasquez' And shot to fame in James Cameron's iconic film Aliens (1986). Cameron was so pleased with Jenette's creativity and strong work ethic, he recast her as 'Janelle' in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and a cameo role as the loving 'Irish Mother' in the epic Titanic (1997).
Her resume is testament to her range and versatility: Vampy killer Diamondback in Near Dark (1987), good cop Meagan Shapiro in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Patti Jean Lynch in The Presidio (1988), Alice the Maid in a one-scene role in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), etc.
In addition to film, Jenette has made several appearances on the small screen. She guest-starred on such award-winning shows as Six Feet Under (2001), L.A. Law (1986), Strong Medicine (2000) and ER (1994) - where she guest-starred on the 100th anniversary show as a grieving mother, and in a separate episode opposite Anthony Edwards, as a heroic flight nurse. It was only after Jenette was hired for the second role that the show's producers realized she had done the show before.
Jenette has continued working in theater throughout her career, appearing in plays in New York, London and Los Angeles. She has performed the classics, William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," to more contemporary pieces, such as Arthur Miller's "After The Fall," which won the 2002 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Production. Currently, Jenette is excited about her latest creation: a one-woman show she is writing herself. - Actress
- Director
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Juliette Lewis has been recognized as one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile actors of her generation since she first stunned audiences and critics alike with her Oscar-nominated performance as "Danielle Bowden" in Cape Fear (1991). To date, she has worked with some of the most revered directors in the industry, including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Lasse Hallström, Oliver Stone, and Garry Marshall. Whether lending dramatic authenticity or a natural comedic flair to her roles, Lewis graces the screen with remarkable range and an original and captivating style.
Lewis was born in Los Angeles, Californa, to Glenis (Duggan) Batley, a graphic designer, and Geoffrey Lewis, an actor. By the age of six, she knew she wanted to be a performer. At twelve, Lewis landed her first leading role in the Showtime miniseries Home Fires (1987). After appearing in several TV sitcoms including The Wonder Years (1988), she made her move to film, starring with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) and with Jennifer Jason Leigh in the drama Crooked Hearts (1991). At 16, Lewis starred opposite Brad Pitt in the critically acclaimed television movie Too Young to Die? (1990), catching the attention of Martin Scorsese, who cast her in his thriller Cape Fear (1991). Her powerful scenes with Robert De Niro captured the quiet complexities of adolescence and earned her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actress". Her auditorium scene with De Niro went down in movie history as one of cinema's classic scenes.
Lewis next worked with Woody Allen in Husbands and Wives (1992), playing a self-assured college coed with a penchant for older men and, particularly, her married professor. She quickly followed suit with a succession of starring roles in a variety of blockbusters and critically acclaimed projects including Kalifornia (1993), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), and Natural Born Killers (1994), Oliver Stone's controversial media satire about two mass murderers who become legendary folk heroes. Lewis's other credits include the Nora Ephron comedy Mixed Nuts (1994), with Steve Martin and Adam Sandler; the sci-fi action film Strange Days (1995) with Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett; Quentin Tarantino's vampire tale From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) with George Clooney; The Evening Star (1996) with Shirley MacLaine; the Garry Marshall-directed The Other Sister (1999), and Todd Phillips' Old School (2003), co-starring opposite Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell as well as Starsky & Hutch (2004). In addition to her film career, Lewis has continued to add roles to her growing list of television credits with a performance in Showtime's My Louisiana Sky (2001), for which she secured an EMMY nomination, and a starring role in the Mira Nair-directed HBO's film Hysterical Blindness (2002), alongside Uma Thurman and Gena Rowlands.
After a six-year hiatus from film to pursue her burgeoning music career exclusively, Lewis announced her return to acting with a handful of upcoming movies. Juliette starred alongside Elliot Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig and Jimmy Fallon in the comedy Whip It (2009). The film was released by Fox Searchlight on October 2nd, 2009. Directed by Drew Barrymore, the film tells the story of an ex-beauty pageant contestant that leaves her crowns behind after joining a roller derby team. Lewis plays "Iron Maven", the star of a top derby team. Next, she joined the cast of the acclaimed European animated thriller Metropia (2009), as the voice of "Nina". She also appeared in the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), opposite Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, and Patrick Wilson. The film tells the story of a single mother (Aniston) who decides to have a child using a sperm donor. Juliette plays "Debbie Epstein", the best friend of Aniston's character. Lewis also appears in Sympathy for Delicious (2010), Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut. The film follows a paralyzed DJ, struggling to survive on the streets of LA who turns to faith healing and mysteriously develops the ability to cure the sick. Juliette plays "Ariel", costarring alongside Orlando Bloom, Mark Ruffalo, and Laura Linney. The film took home the US Dramatic Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, Juliette Lewis appears in the indie-drama Conviction (2010), which stars Hilary Swank, Melissa Leo, Minnie Driver, and Sam Rockwell. She plays "Roseanna Perry" in the true story of an unemployed single mother (Swank) who saw her brother begin serving a life sentence in 1983 for murder and robbery. The role has won Lewis praise from audiences and critics, alike, for her performance, with USA Today saying, "Juliette Lewis has an indelible role" and the San Francisco Chronicle saying "Her character work should be studied in schools. Just remarkable". In addition to Conviction (2010), Lewis also makes a cameo in Todd Phillips's comedy, Due Date (2010), starring Robert Downey Jr., Michelle Monaghan, and Zach Galifianakis.
Beginning in 2004, Juliette took a hiatus from acting to embark on a musical journey. After six years, two full length albums and countless high profile tours and festival gigs with her band, 'Juliette & the Licks', Juliette set out on a solo career. Releasing "Terra Incognita" last fall, the album has taken her all across the world from Europe to Japan to Turkey, Australia, North America and Canada. For more information on Juliette Lewis' music, please visit her MySpace page. Juliette Lewis resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Producer
Joshua Daniel Hartnett was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Wendy Anne (Kronstedt) and Daniel Thomas Hartnett, a building manager. His father is of Irish and German descent, and his mother is of Swedish and Norwegian ancestry. Hartnett graduated from South High School in Minneapolis in June of 1996, then attended SUNY Purchase in New York. By April of 1997, he was offered the role of Michael Fitzgerald in the short-lived American television series Cracker: Mind Over Murder (1997). Josh started off doing small plays and national commercials, but broke into the big-screen movie business with his starring roles in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), The Faculty (1998), and Pearl Harbor (2001).- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Rebecca Ferguson was born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in its Vasastaden district. Her father is Swedish. Her mother, Rosemary Ferguson, is British, of Scottish and Northern Irish descent, and moved to Sweden at the age of 25. Rebecca attended an English-speaking school in Sweden and was raised bilingual, speaking Swedish and English. As a student, she attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm and graduated in 1999.
She came into prominence with her breakout role of upper-class girl Anna Gripenhielm in the soap-opera Nya tider (1999), when she was 16 years old.
She lives in the seaside town of Simrishamn, on the Swedish south coast. Ferguson has said she wanted to get away from city life and the public spotlight following her soap opera success. Swedish director Richard Hobert, spotted her at the town market in 2011, which led to her starring in his film A One-Way Trip to Antibes (2011).
Ferguson taught Argentinian Tango at a dance company in Sweden for a few years.
In 2013, Rebecca played Queen Elizabeth Woodville in the BBC historical drama The White Queen (2013), for which she got a Golden Globe nomination.
In 2015, Ferguson played Ilsa Faust, the female lead in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015). Her co-star, Tom Cruise, chose her for the film after having seen her in the mini-series The White Queen (2013). Her performance in the movie was highly praised and Rebecca will reprise her role in the sixth Mission: Impossible film.
In 2016, she starred in Despite the Falling Snow (2016), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) and The Girl on the Train (2016).
Her other projects are Dune, Life (2017), The Snowman (2017), The Greatest Showman (2017), The Lady and the Panda and Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Roy Dupuis was born on April 21, 1963, in New Liskeard, Ontario. He spent a significant portion of his childhood (from early infancy until he was eleven years old) in Amos, which is in a region of Québec called Abitibi. For the next three years, he lived in Kapuskasing, Ontario, where he learned to speak English. His father (now deceased) was a traveling salesman for Canada Packers, a meat company (now part of Maple Leaf Foods). His mother is a piano teacher. He has a younger brother and an older sister. When he was fourteen, after his parents divorced, his mother moved the family to Sainte-Rose, Laval, Québec (in the greater Montréal area), where he finished high school. After high school, he studied acting in Montréal, at the National Theatre School of Canada (L'École nationale de théâtre du Canada), graduating in 1986.
Acting was not Roy Dupuis' first career choice. He was studying physics in high school, but seeing Ariane Mnouchkine's film Molière (1978) interested him in acting. His entry into drama school was accidental. A friend had been invited to audition for admission to the National Theatre School of Canada, but her counterpart, who had also been invited to audition, changed his mind and backed out. She asked Roy Dupuis to take his place, and he agreed to help out and went along, posing as the original candidate. Although he himself was not really the one invited to audition, he impressed the school's director so much that she invited him to apply formally for admission to the school, and he was accepted. After his graduation in 1986, and a few years of successful experience acting in the theater, in 1988, he began to be offered substantial roles in films and TV.
The relative anonymity that he enjoyed during those early years ended when 80% of the population of Québec watched the enormously-popular classic period serial drama Les filles de Caleb (1990) (Emilie), turning him into a celebrity overnight and gaining him several awards for his performance as Emilie's husband, Ovila Pronovost. His next major role was as a journalist in the Canadian TV series Scoop (1992), which ran for four seasons (1991 until 1995). In 1991 Dupuis also starred in his first major film role, as the gay hustler, Yves, in Jean Beaudin's internationally acclaimed Being at Home with Claude (1992), which was Canada's official selection at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Other leading roles in French followed, and increasingly English language roles too, including Becker in Screamers (1995), his entry into mainstream US cinema.
For the next five years, from 1996 to 2000, he spent most of his time in Toronto, making the TV series Nikita (1997-2001), which was shown in more than 50 countries around the world. When the final season finished production at the end of 2000, Roy returned to Montréal, for a few months' rest, before starting work again on French-Canadian projects made closer to home. The TV mini-series Le dernier chapitre (2002), about biker gang warfare, was filmed in French and English versions simultaneously. Then he teamed up again with "Chili's Blues" director Charles Binamé to star as in the romantic role of Alexis Labranche, the heroine's love interest, in a remake of another period Québec classic, Séraphin: Heart of Stone (2002), which became the province's highest-grossing film.
In 2003, he participated in multiple projects, combining leading roles with occasional supporting roles. In Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions (2003) (The Barbarian Invasions), which has enjoyed even greater international success than Jesus of Montreal (1989), Dupuis again played a minor part as a police drug-unit detective. Released in 2004 to 2005 were six more films in which he performed. His role as Alexandre in Mémoires affectives (2004) brought him his first major film-acting awards.
He recently reprised the part of French-Canadian hockey hero Maurice "Rocket" Richard (for the third time) in the film The Rocket (2005) directed by Charles Binamé to large acclaim. He has also completed an independent film, That Beautiful Somewhere (2006), which is based on the 1992 novel "Loon," by Bill Plumstead; screened in major film festivals beginning in August 2006, it was broadcast on Canadian pay television later in 2006 and opened in April 2006.
Beginning in June 2006, he began filming the film _Shake Hands with the Devil (2006)_ on location in Kigali, Rwanda, a film about the Rwandan Genocide, in which Dupuis portrays Roméo Dallaire, being based on Dallaire's autobiographical memoir, in close consultation with Dallaire. The main filming finished in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August 2006. After being screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2007, and the Atlantic Film Festival on September 13, it opens on September 28, 2007.
In October 2006, in Québec, he began filming Emotional Arithmetic (2007), starring alongside Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Plummer, Susan Sarandon, and Max von Sydow. The film is the closing feature for the Toronto International Film Festival on September 15, 2007.
Roy Dupuis lives in the countryside outside of Montréal. While, in the past, he enjoyed sky-diving and still enjoys golf, he has become more occupied with learning to sail and renovations on his home and sailboats.
For over a decade, until June 2006, he actively supported the Mira Foundation, which provides guide dogs for visually-impaired children and adults and service dogs for those with other disabilities. A few years ago, he co-founded the Rivers Foundation to protect the rivers of Canada from exploitation by hydro-electric developments, serves as its co-president, and concentrates considerable time on developing it when he is not working professionally.- Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 5, 1934, actor Zakes Mokae was initially a jazz saxophonist. Moving to England in 1961, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and became one of the most distinguished thespians in South Africa for over two decades.
Mokae was one of the few actors capable of crossing the divided racial sections, punctuated by his collaborations with white writer Athol Fugard. Together they founded the radical theater group The Rehearsal Room in the 50s that specifically dealt with his country's injustices. In fact, over the years his performances in "The Blood Knot," "Boesman and Lena," "A Lesson from Aloes" and "Master Harold...and the Boys," have been universally applauded.
He fled the racist apartheid policies in South Africa in 1969 and migrated to America, subsequently winning a Tony award in 1982 for "Master Harold..." and proceeded to perform in American films to somewhat lesser acclaim, including A Dry White Season (1989), A Rage in Harlem (1991) and Waterworld (1995). TV appearances included strong appearances on such programs as "Law & Order," "Dream On," "Oz," "X-Files," "The West Wing" and "Monk."
In later years, Mokae moved to Las Vegas and served as artistic director for the Nevada Shakespeare Company. 75-year-old Mokae died there from complications of a stroke on September 11, 2009. - Marley Eve Shelton was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Eagle Rock, CA. She is the daughter of Carol (Stromme), a teacher and singer, and Christopher Shelton, who worked as a director and producer. She has three sisters: Koren Shelton, Erin Shelton and Samantha Shelton. Both of her parents were involved in local theater projects, but as a teen, Marley was never interested in life on the stage. While at Eagle Rock High School, she was a varsity cheerleader, was voted Prom Queen and held part-time jobs at stores like "Contempo" and "Wet Seal". Shelton first captured the attention of film-goers as "Margaret", Tobey Maguire's love interest, in New Line's critically-acclaimed film, Pleasantville (1998), and has continued to appear in roles that show her versatility as an actress, including in Jerry Bruckheimer's Eleventh Hour (2008) on CBS. Shelton attended UCLA, where she majored in Film and Theatre. She supported herself through small parts in feature films, television movies and episodic appearances. Her "hobby" grew into a passion while she studied acting with Larry Moss and, as a result, she decided to pursue a career as an actress. Shelton made her feature debut in Grand Canyon (1991). Since then, she has starred in numerous box office hits, including The Sandlot (1993), Never Been Kissed (1999), The Bachelor (1999), Valentine (2001), Sugar & Spice (2001), Bubble Boy (2001), Just a Kiss (2002), Uptown Girls (2003), Don't Come Knocking (2005), Sin City (2005), Grindhouse (2007), Nixon (1995), Warriors of Virtue (1997), A Perfect Getaway (2009), W. (2008), Women in Trouble (2009) and The Mighty Macs (2009), Elektra Luxx (2010), Scream 4 (2011) and Decoding Annie Parker (2013). Shelton resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Beau Flynn, and their two daughters.
- Actress
- Director
Alycia Jasmin Debnam-Carey was born on July 20, 1993. She is an actress from Australia. She grew up in Sydney, and graduated from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in 2011 where she was a percussionist. In 2010, in partnership with the Berlin Philharmonic, she and around 40 other musicians worked together, composed a piece together in a two week program. In her last year of school, Debnam-Carey took her HSC exams and managed to get top band in six of her courses. Debnam-Carey also received the Premier's award for receiving 90's in 6 subjects.
Alycia has been acting since she was eight. She starred in a short feature called Martha's New Coat (2003). She has also appeared in Dance Academy (2010), McLeod's Daughters (2001), among other television productions.
She began to make her mark in Hollywood when she traveled to the U.S. for the first time at age 18. She starred as the youngest cast member in Next Stop Hollywood (2013), a six-part documentary that followed six Australian actors as they competed for roles during the U.S. TV pilot season. Her mom, Leone Carey, is a television writer, and she accompanied Alycia on her journey. The documentary aired in 2013 on ABC1 in Australia.
Alycia has since starred in major film productions, such as Into the Storm (2014). In addition, she has had large roles in many Australian short films, and in 2013 landed the lead role in the TV movie The Devil's Hand (2014). She starred in the unaired AMC pilot Galyntine (2014), but unfortunately the series was not picked up.
In 2014 Alycia began to guest-star in the second season of The CW's TV show The 100 (2014) as Commander Lexa. During San Diego Comic Con in July of 2015 it was announced that Lexa and Alycia would indeed return. On December 1, 2014, it was announced that she had been cast as Alicia (originally named Ashley), one of the lead roles, in the AMC series Fear the Walking Dead (2015), the official companion series and prequel to The Walking Dead (2010).- Actor
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William Mapother was born on April 17, 1965 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA as William Reibert Mapother Jr. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in English. He is the co-founder of the film finance marketplace Slated. He is known for his work on Lost (2004), In the Bedroom (2001) and Another Earth (2011).- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Barbara Crampton was born in Levittown, New York. Growing up in Vermont, she spent the majority of her childhood summers traveling the country with a roadside carnival that her father worked for. Crampton began acting in school plays in seventh grade and subsequently studied drama in high school. She earned a BA in Theater Arts from Castleton State College and, following graduation, portrayed "Cordelia" in an American Theater of Actors production of "King Lear" in New York.
The young actress then moved to Los Angeles and, in 1983, made her TV debut with a recurring role on the popular daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives (1965). The following year she had a brief, but memorable role in Brian De Palma's Body Double (1984), which was followed by the 1985 comedy Fraternity Vacation (1985). Barbara achieved enduring cult popularity as college coed Megan Halsey in Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985) and, after making a splash in the horror genre, successively starred in From Beyond (1986), Chopping Mall (1986), Puppet Master (1989), and Castle Freak (1995), among others.
Outside of horror, Barbara had recurring roles on daytime television soap operas Guiding Light (1952); The Bold and the Beautiful (1987), and The Young and the Restless (1973), for which won a Soap Opera Digest Award.
Years after retiring from acting to raise a family, Crampton returned to film in 2011 with a role in Adam Wingard's You're Next (2011). She subsequently appeared in number of new films, the majority of which were horror. Highlights of her return include The Lords of Salem (2012), We Are Still Here (2015), and Beyond the Gates (2016).
Crampton's hobbies include skiing, yoga, horseback riding, running, working out with weights, and shopping for antiques at flea markets. She lives outside of San Francisco with her husband, Robert Bleckman, and their two children.- Actor
- Producer
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Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents encouraged him to leave school and pursue his acting goals rather than be unhappy. McGregor studied drama for a year at Kirkcaldly in Fife, then enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama for a three-year course. He studied alongside Daniel Craig and Alistair McGowan, among others, and left right before graduating after snagging the role of Private Mick Hopper in Dennis Potter's six-part Channel 4 series Lipstick on Your Collar (1993). His first notable role was that of Alex Law in Shallow Grave (1994), directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge and produced by Andrew Macdonald. This was followed by The Pillow Book (1995) and Trainspotting (1996), the latter of which brought him to the public's attention.
He is now one of the most critically acclaimed actors of his generation, and portrays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first three Star Wars episodes. McGregor is married to French production designer Eve Mavrakis, whom he met while working on the television series Kavanagh QC (1995). They married in France in the summer of 1995, and have four daughters. McGregor formed a production company, with friends Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee, Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Damon Bryant, Bradley Adams and Geoff Deehan, called "Natural Nylon", and hoped it would make innovative films that do not conform to Hollywood standards. McGregor and Bryant left the company in 2002. He was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to drama and charity.
Ewan made his directorial debut with American Pastoral (2016), an adaptation of Philip Roth's book, in which Ewan also starred.
In 2018 McGregor won an Golden Globe for his work in the TV Series Fargo.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jane Levy was born in California, USA. Jane attended Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, California. While in school, she was on the hip hop dancing team and was captain of the soccer team. During that time, she also appeared in Community Theater productions of Annie and The Wizard of Oz. She attended Goucher College for a semester. After that, she attended the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City.
Levy's parents and siblings supported her in her career. She moved back to Los Angeles after two years of living in New York City. Levy was cast as "Mandy Milkovich" in a five-episode role on the Showtime series Shameless (2011) within a few weeks of returning to the West Coast. In March 2011, she landed the first lead role of her career on the sitcom Suburgatory (2011), with Jeremy Sisto and Cheryl Hines. On May 9, 2014, Suburgatory (2011) was canceled by ABC after three seasons.
Levy was named by both TV Guide and TheInsider.com as one of the breakout stars of 2011, and was included on the top eleven list of funniest women compiled by AOL. Forbes named her as one of the handful of entertainment stars on their list of 30 under 30 who are "reinventing the world" (a list of the brightest stars of the future). She appeared in two films in 2012, Fun Size (2012) and Nobody Walks (2012). Released before Halloween, Fun Size (2012) co-starred Victoria Justice and comedian Chelsea Handler. While filming it, Levy was disappointed that she failed to meet co-star Johnny Knoxville, as he was on set for the one week of shooting that she was not.
Levy later starred in the 2013 remake of the horror classic Evil Dead (2013), as the drug-dependent Mia, replacing Lily Collins, who had originally been cast. The following year, she starred in two independent films, About Alex (2014) and Bang Bang Baby (2014). In 2015, Levy co-starred opposite Rene Russo in Frank and Cindy (2015). In 2016, she starred in her Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez's horror film Don't Breathe (2016), the story of friends who break into the house of a wealthy blind man. That same year, she co-starred with Lucas Till in Monster Trucks (2016), Paramount Animation's first live-action/CGI film, directed by Chris Wedge.
In 2017, Levy appeared in I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) directed by Macon Blair, and will star in zombie comedy Office Uprising (2018). She played the female lead in the The Pretenders (2018), a romantic drama directed by James Franco. Also in 2017, Levy appeared in the Showtime series Twin Peaks (2017).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jocelin Donahue is an American actress best known for her lead role in Ti West's critically acclaimed horror film The House of the Devil and for playing young Lorraine in Insidious: Chapter 2. She has played leading roles in many independent films including The Frontier, a noir crime thriller from director Oren Shai. In 2016 Donahue also worked with director Terrence Malick on his film Knight of Cups and starred opposite Martin Freeman as a rookie FBI agent on the Crackle series StartUp.
As a commercial actress, she has appeared in numerous national and international campaigns including ads for Levi's, Apple, AT&T and General Motors. In campaigns for Ketel One and Old Navy, she worked with directors David O. Russell and Roman Coppola.
Donahue is a native of Bristol, Connecticut and a graduate of New York University with a degree in Sociology. She lives in Los Angeles and has been married to the artist Greg Santos since 2006.- Actor
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William Lambert Moseley (born November 11, 1951) is an American film actor and musician who has starred in a number of cult classic horror films, including House of 1000 Corpses (2003), Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) and The Devil's Rejects (2005). His first big role was in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) as Chop Top. On the HBO TV series Carnivàle (2003), Moseley had a recurring role as camp cook "Possum". He has released records with guitarist Buckethead in the band Cornbugs, as well as featuring on the guitarist's solo work.- Actress
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Isabelle Fuhrman is a critically acclaimed actress who can next be seen in Kevin Costner's HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA, opposite Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Houston, Giovanni Ribisi and Luke Wilson.
In 2021, Fuhrman starred as Alex Dall in Lauren Hadaway's directorial debut, THE NOVICE. Her performance garnered awards buzz, with critics calling Fuhrman's turn "a Daniel Day-Lewis transformation" and "the year's best performance". For THE NOVICE, she won the Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Both viewers and critics applauded Fuhrman for her dedication to the part, calling it "riveting," "explosive," "decisive," "defining," "searing," "human" and "honest."
In 2022, Fuhrman returned to her iconic role as 'Esther' in ORPHAN: FIRST KILL and made cinema history for reprising a role she played as a child, 13 years after the original film's release. The prequel received high marks from film critics, with Fuhrman's performance again being lauded.
Fuhrman started her impressive acting career at the young age of seven in Atlanta, GA and made her screen debut in the drama HOUNDDOG opposite Dakota Fanning. She was only ten when she was cast as the star of the 2009 cult horror classic ORPHAN, after an exhaustive nationwide search of young actresses to portray the lead in the Warner Bros. collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way and Joel Silver's Dark Castle Entertainment. Her breakout performance was hailed as "awards-worthy," "mind-blowing," and "one of the most momentous examples of acting from a child performer in years." Holding her own against Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard in the film, Fuhrman displayed impressive range and this elevated her to the forefront of her craft. Never to shy away from meaty roles, Fuhrman signed onto the blockbuster franchise THE HUNGER GAMES at just 14, she joined the cast of Showtime's critically acclaimed series, MASTERS OF SEX, playing Virginia's (Lizzy Caplan's) whip-smart sparring partner of a daughter, she voiced award-winning Studio Ghibli's FROM UP ON POPPY HILL, and even led an an-female cast in Erica Schmidt's off-Broadway adaptation of MAC BETH. All while balancing her studies at Stanford University's EPGY OHS and two intensive courses at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Fuhrman's upcoming releases include Julia Stiles' directorial debut WISH YOU WERE alongside Jennifer Grey and Kelsey Grammar, Andy Tennant's UNIT 234, opposite Don Johnson, LITTLEMOUTH, opposite Dennis Quaid and Josh Hutcherson, and Justine Batreman's-directed FACE.
In addition to her work in front of the screen, Fuhrman has her own production company, WHAT IF? Productions, which she started in 2019 and has been writing and developing her own projects.
Fuhrman currently resides in Los Angeles and is an ultra marathon runner, triathlete, skilled guitar player, western-horseback rider, singer, gourmet cook and certified holistic birth doula.- Freddie Stroma was born on 8 January 1987 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Pitch Perfect (2012) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010). He has been married to Johanna Braddy since 30 December 2016.
- The talented, unpredictable, opinionated, and uniquely beautiful Jenny Wright was born March 23, 1962 in New York City. Her father was an artist and her mother was a teacher. They instilled a love of the arts and a strong devotion to self education in Jenny at an early age. Her parents later separated, and Jenny moved to Cambridge, New York to live with her mother and two sisters. After her sisters left for college, Jenny and her mother moved back to New York City. Once back home, Jenny decided to pursue acting, and enrolled herself in the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. There, she immediately captured the attention of modeling and casting agents. At the age of 16, Jenny modeled for artists Antonio Lopez and Salvador Dalí. She then went on to act on stage, in an off Broadway play, "Album", with Kevin Bacon. In 1980, Jenny made a brief appearance in the TV film Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case (1980) with Mickey Rourke. She continued to act on stage, even garnering rave reviews for her portrayal of Dorcus Fray in Joseph Papp's Broadway production of "Plenty". In 1982, Jenny was cast in The World According to Garp (1982), after impressing director George Roy Hill with her blend of sensuality and innocence. Jenny then arrived in London for "Pink Floyd: The Wall", where she played an abused groupie. She then quickly followed up with four months in Utah for the TV documentary/drama, "The Executioner's Song," which proved to be a more substantial role. Jenny returned to New York afterwards, and back to the stage and took a break from films. She went back to films in 1984, for "The Wild Life" with Eric Stoltz and Chris Penn. Jenny also made appearances in films such as "St. Elmo's Fire" (1984) and "Out of Bounds" (1986). By appearing in films with actors such as Rob Loew and Anthony Michael Hall, Jenny was put in the 'Brat Pack' category. It was something she found to be uncomfortable, and wanted to shake off. Thus, Jenny's film choices became edgier, starting with Near Dark in 1987. With her girl next door look, large soulful eyes, and sensuality, Jenny made the role of sweet yet dangerous Mae her most memorable part of her career. She credits director Kathryn Bigelow with creating the film's mood and atmosphere, which makes "Near Dark" a stand-out film in the vampire genre. While "Near Dark" didn't fare too well at the box office, it did receive cult status, bringing Jenny independent,'left of center' film roles. Finally, Jenny successfully rid herself of the 'Brat Pack' label. She went on to teen roles in the critically acclaimed film The Chocolate War (1988) and in the off-beat "Twister" (1988). Those roles then gave way to conventional parts in the mainstream films "Young Guns II" (1990) and "The Lawnmower Man" (1992). After that, Jenny quit the film business.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Jake Weber has worked in film, theatre and television. His film credits include Zach Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead, Martin Brest's remake of Meet Joe Black, Jonathan Mostow's U-571, Mike Newell's Pushing Tin, Tarsem Singh's The Cell, Marshall Herskovitz's Dangerous Beauty, Alan J. Pakula's The Pelican Brief, Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us, and Larry Fessendon's Wendigo. His first job was in Oliver Stone's Born on the 4th of July. Most recently, he can be seen in Learning to Drive opposite Patricia Clarkson as well as Terrence Malick's Song to Song.
He was a series regular on Mind of the Married Man (HBO), American Gothic (CBS), Something Wilder (CBS), starring Gene Wilder, and, for 7 years, Medium (NBC), starring Patricia Arquette. Jake recurred in 2 seasons of Hell on Wheels, and guested in Joe Swanberg's Easy for Netflix as well as Secrets and Lies on ABC. Most recently, he has a series regular on Homeland.
A theatre veteran, he has appeared extensively on and off Broadway and regionally at Williamstown Theatre Festival and Arena Stage.
He attended Juilliard in New York City, A.S. Neil's Summerhill School in England, Middlebury College in Vermont, where he studied English and Political Science, and The Moscow Art Theatre in the then Soviet Union.
He was born in London. Weber has one son, Waylon, born in 2006. In 2017, he married his longtime partner, Korri Culbertson Weber.- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Actor and singer-songwriter Alicia Witt has been acting since the age of 7, when she made her film debut in David Lynch's sci fi classic Dune. She will next be seen starring opposite Nicholas Cage in the thriller Longlegs, set for a 2024 worldwide theatrical release. She also just appeared on Fox's The Masked Singer as Dandelion, winning her first episode with her rendition of Over The Rainbow. Recent sightings include psychological drama Fuzzy Head (2023); I Care A Lot (2021) on Netflix, starring Rosamund Pike and Dianne Wiest; as a killer in Lifetime Network's true crime drama The Disappearance of Cari Farver (2022) and as Zelda on the final season of Orange Is The New Black.
Alicia is also a familiar face to Christmas audiences for her 10 holiday movies, many of which have featured her original music and continue to air every year.
Witt spent 5 weeks in the Billboard Top 30 AC Radio chart with her single Chasing Shadows, off her 2021 album The Conduit, which she co-produced alongside Jordan Lehning and Bill Reynolds. Her newest release is 2023's Witness, led by the title track, which debuted in April. A classically trained former competitive pianist, Alicia's music has been described as 'sharply personal, boldly melodic pop originals in the Carole King/Billy Joel vein' and 'touching lost-and-found love ballads' (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Alicia has performed her original piano-driven pop music all over the world, including at the renowned Grand Ole Opry. She has also opened for Ben Folds Five, Rachel Platten, and Jimmy Webb, to name a few. Her 2018 release, 15000 Days, was produced by Grammy-winning producer Jacquire King (James Bay, Norah Jones, Kings of Leon, Dawes). Witt's previous album, Revisionary History, was produced by Ben Folds and was hailed as 'Grey Seal era Elton John, an alt-universe Fiona Apple, and a film noir chanteuse notching her nights in cigarette burns on the fallboard' (NASHVILLE SCENE).
As a musical guest, Alicia has appeared on numerous shows including NPR's Weekend Edition, CBS' Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Queen Latifah Show, and WGBH'S Open Studio on PBS.
TV includes The Walking Dead; Justified; ABC's Nashville; FOX's The Exorcist; Law & Order: Criminal Intent; The Mentalist; Friday Night Lights; The Sopranos; Cybill; Ally McBeal; and Twin Peaks.
Films include Two Weeks' Notice, Last Holiday, The Upside of Anger, Mr. Holland's Opus, Urban Legend, Four Rooms, 88 Minutes, and Vanilla Sky.
Witt's first book, Small Changes, came out in Fall 2021 from Harper Horizon. The book is an inspiring, welcoming and simple yet effective guide to health, happiness and sustainable living. Instead of promoting a rigid diet, Small Changes offers readers a stress-and-judgment-free approach for enacting easy, incremental changes across all areas of life.
On stage, Witt starred in Neil LaBute's Tony nominated play Reasons to Be Pretty at the Geffen Playhouse. She also appeared at London's Royal Court theatre in Terry Johnson's Piano/Forte and made her West End debut with The Shape of Things. She has performed at Williamstown Theatre Festival and has made many appearances in the 24-Hour Plays on Broadway and the 24-Hour Musicals off-Broadway.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Actor-Director Colin Cunningham has been nominated for 3 GEMINI'S (Canada's Oscar) for 'Best Actor' and has been nominated for 11 'Best Actor' LEO AWARDS (Canada's Emmy) for which he won 3. As a Director, he made the 'short list' for an Academy Award Nomination in the Madison Graie produced, CENTIGRADE. His work has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, TIME magazine and Rolling Stone.
Series regs include Steven Spielberg's FALLING SKIES, AMC's PREACHER and Universal's BLOOD DRIVE. And, Kevin Costner's highly anticipated 2 part epic saga, HORIZON.
Sometimes referred to as Canada's Gary Oldman, Cunningham has built a reputation as a true chameleon. For 5 Seasons, Cunningham starred alongside Noah Wyle and Will Patton in the Steven Spielberg / Dreamworks produced series "Falling Skies," for TNT. Cunningham played "John Pope," the rogue survivor of the alien attack that has hit the world.
He is also infamously known as the mischievous ring master Julian Slink in SYFY's "Blood Drive." The New York Times lauded, "The real attention-getter here is Colin Cunningham... It's hard to make an impression in a series that is so insane, but Mr. Cunningham manages it."
The American born Cunningham has won critical acclaim on shows such as "Da Vinci's Inquest" [CBC], and "Living in Your Car" for HBO Canada. On the big screen, Cunningham teamed up with Catherine Keener in Courtney Moorehead Balaker's "Little Pink House" [Dada Films], has been pursued by Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Sixth Day" [Columbia Pictures], and put his life on the line for Jennifer Garner in "Elektra" [20th Century Fox]. He has also appeared in multiple Indie favorites, including comedic turns in "Best In Show" with Christopher Guest [Warner Bros.].
In 2009, Cunningham made a name for himself as a director, when he [along with actor/producer Madison Graie] made the short-list for an Academy Award Nomination for their film "Centigrade". The film [in which Cunningham also starred] took over two dozen "Best Of" awards and nominations, and in addition to being considered for an Oscar, it became the first short film in iTunes history to break the Top Ten in Feature Downloads, finding itself right alongside such Hollywood blockbusters as "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".
The film hit numerous Top Ten Lists, including the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Jackson Hole International Film Festival, the Montreal World Film Festival, Short Film Corner [Cannes], Best of Shorts Film Festival [France], and Canadian Film Center [CFC]. Centigrade enjoys the notoriety as one of the most successful short films ever made and is currently being developed into a project for television.
'SELECT' AWARDS LIST BELOW
In addition to acting, he has directed numerous music videos for Country Music Television [CMT] and plays tenor saxophone for the funk/soul band WHAT-THE-FUNK! Cunningham currently resides in New York City.
'Best Actor' - Leo Award in a Television Series - Da Vinci's Inquest 'Best Actor' Leo Award in a Television Series - Fools For Hire 'Best Director' Leo Award - Centigrade 'Best Actor' Leo Award - Centigrade 'Best Actor' - Nomination Leo Award in a Television Series - J-POD 'Best Actor' - Nomination Leo Award in a Television Series - The Collector 'Best Actor' - Nomination Leo Award in a Television Series - Insider Trading 'Best Actor' - Nomination Leo Award in a Television Series - Da Vinci's Inquest 'Best Actor' - Nomination in a Television Series - Big Sound 'Best Actor' - Nomination Genie Award in a Television Series - Less Than Kind 'Best Emerging Director' Vancouver Intl. Film Festival [VIFF].- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Robert Carlyle was born in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth, a bus company employee, and Joseph Carlyle, a painter and decorator. He was raised by his father after his mother left him when he was four. At the age of 21, after reading Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," he enrolled in acting classes at the Glasgow Arts Centre. In 1991, together with four other actors, he founded the Raindog theatre company (named after Tom Waits' album "Rain Dog," one of Carlyle's favorites), a company dedicated to innovative work. Danny Boyle's film Trainspotting (1996) marked his breakthrough.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Jennifer Jason Leigh was born Jennifer Lee Morrow in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of writer Barbara Turner and actor Vic Morrow. Her father was of Russian Jewish descent and her mother was of Austrian Jewish ancestry. She is the sister of Carrie Ann Morrow and half-sister of actress Mina Badie.
Jennifer's parents divorced when she was two. Jennifer worked in her first film at the age of nine, in a nonspeaking role for the film Death of a Stranger (1973). At 14 she attended summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and later landed a role in the Disney TV movie The Young Runaways (1978). She received her Screen Actors Guild membership for an episode of the TV series Baretta (1975) when she was 16. Jennifer performed in several TV movies and dropped out of Pacific Palisades High School six weeks short of graduation for her major role in the film Eyes of a Stranger (1981). Her first major success came as the female lead in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
Jennifer was married to writer/director Noah Baumbach from 2005 to 2013, and the two have a son.- Actor
- Producer
Andrew Daniel Divoff is a Venezuela-born Russian actor and stuntman, best known for playing the evil Djinn in the first two Wishmaster films and the villains Cherry Ganz in Another 48 Hrs., Ernesto Mendoza in A Low Down Dirty Shame, Boris Bazylev in Air Force One, Ivan Sarnoff in CSI: Miami and Mikhail Bakunin in Lost.
He was born on July 2, 1955 in San Tomé, Venezuela. His father is Russian and his mother, who was born in Venezuela, is of Irish descent. He lived in Vilassar de Mar (in Spain) from 1973-77. He lives in the United States. Divoff can speak eight languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Catalan, Portuguese, and Russian. He used to speak Romanian but forgot the language when he had no one with whom to speak it. He also acted in The Hunt for Red October, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers.
Divoff has played many villains in film and on television, usually drug cartel leaders, and is best known for having played the nefarious Djinn in the first two films of the Wishmaster series. His other films include Another 48 Hrs., The Hunt for Red October, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Air Force One and Toy Soldiers. Divoff played the lead role in the Midnight Syndicate's Indie horror flick The Dead Matter. His television guest appearances include The A-Team, JAG and Highlander: The Series. He had a recurring role on Lost as Mikhail Bakunin.
He appeared in "The Cost of Living", and later in "Enter 77" and "Par Avion". He later appeared, in flashbacks, in "One of Us," and reappeared in the episodes "D.O.C.", "The Man Behind the Curtain", "Through the Looking Glass" and "The Package". Divoff's latest work was a recurring role as Ivan Sarnoff on CSI: Miami Season 7 (2008-09). He also appeared in Air Force One.
Divoff is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he honed his skills in the study of languages, the result seeing him speak eight languages fluently. Andrew is a SAG actor and film producer with more than a hundred movies and television appearances to his credit. He has a driving passion for environmental issues, and has used his celebrity status, putting purpose ahead of profit, for several environmental causes. Andrew is a founder of Verdant Resource, Inc., a flexible purpose corporation dedicated to location, retrieval and provision of resources found throughout planet Earth, and promoting their use in a sustainable way of life employing verdant methods. He is also a partner in a private water utility, Alpine Village Water Company, LLC in Pinyon, California. Divoff was married to Russian actress Raissa Danilova in 1992 but they divorced in 1998. Divoff resides in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Producer
Kelli Maroney is an American actress whose career spans several decades, with 72 production credits, including 31+ films and over 540 hours of television. She first came to recognition as the bad seed Lolita "Kimberly Harris" in the ABC Daytime drama Ryan's Hope, winning the plum role only two weeks after arriving in NYC to attend classes at The National Shakespeare Company Conservatory. She soon found herself acting opposite the likes of Joan Fontaine and Christopher Reeve as they made guest appearances on the show. She went on to take over the role of sex-kitten manipulator "Tina Lord" on ABC's One Life to Live. Kelli also gained notice for her portrayal of the exasperated cheerleader "Cindy Carr/Spirit Bunny" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a film that for many epitomized the 80s. Today Kelli's cheerleader costume is on display in the Universal Studios Museum. Strong female leading roles, notably MAC-10-toting cheerleader "Samantha Belmont" in the zombie apocalypse classic Night of The Comet, the sweet Killbot-slaying "Alison Parks" in Choppin Mall, "Jamie" in the underground slasher The Zero Boys, teen psychotic-killer "Jolene" in Slayground, and several other well-received films quickly earned Kelli her seat at the table as a Final Girl in the horror genre. She also guest-starred in a variety of prime-time ABC, NBC, and CBS shows, including the ever-popular Murder, She Wrote. Kelli has said that her most fulfilling role to date is the schizophrenic femme fatale "Merrie/Meredith" in Showtime's noir thriller Face Down (written and directed by Night of the Comet's Thom Eberhardt), playing opposite Joe Mantegna, J.K. Simmons, and Adam Ant. Other streaming highlights include Kelli's channeling Tammy Faye Baker on HBO's True Blood and playing herself in Adult Swim's Tim and Eric's Awesome Show-Great Job! alongside Patrick Duffy. Current on-demand films include Scare Package II on Shudder, The Wild Man, and Exorcism at 60,000 Feet (with horror icons Lance Henriksen, Adrienne Barbeau, and Bill Moseley), The Deep Ones (a modernized film adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story) Night Caller, (the 70s-inspired shocker with Steve Railsback and Lew Temple), and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama II. Slated for release in 2023 include The Wild Man, Scalper, The Old Ones, and Staycation, a film in which she both appears and has a co-producer credit. Kelli's first job as executive co-producer was the 1999 festival award-winning short film Sam and Mike (in which she also co-starred). The experience ignited her love of film festivals, and she remains deeply committed to championing independent filmmakers. Her work from 2019 to the present has garnered festival awards in and for short films and full-length features which include Best Actress (Kelli Maroney) Best Ensemble Cast, Best Film, and other department-specific awards for creative teams. Kelli is featured in CNN's The Movies: The 80s! She is also interviewed in six documentaries: In Search of Darkness: I, II, and III; Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time; Direct to Video: A Study of the Independent Film Scene of the 1990s; and Mental Health and Horror: A Documentary, debuting in 2023. Kelli is a strong advocate for mental health awareness and animal welfare. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Dan Ulin, and two rescue cats.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Raymond Herbert "Ray" Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor. Some of his best-known roles include Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990), henchman Leon C. Nash in RoboCop (1987), Jack Taggart Sr. in Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), the Devil in the CW television series Reaper (2007), Donald Wadsworth in Suburban Gothic (2014).
Wise was born in Akron, Ohio, graduated from Garfield High School in 1964 and attended Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He is of Romanian descent on his mother's side.- Actress
- Music Artist
- Producer
Ruby Wylder Rivera Modine is an American actress, singer/songwriter, and music producer. As an actor, Modine has shown range in drama, comedy, action, and romance. Modine is also a voice actor and has lent her voice to a variety of films, television, and commercials. Modine's music can be found on all streaming platforms.- Born in Tokyo on July 27th 1972, Takako Fuji started her career when she joined En Theatrical Campany when she was studying acting at Aoyama Gakuin University. She was mainly playing on the stage or voice-over, and had the screen debut in 2003 as Kayako Saeki in "Ju-On" directed by Takashi Shimizu. Her specialty is dancing modern ballet, and speaking English.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Skeet Ulrich is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in popular 1990s films, including Billy Loomis in Scream (1996) and Scream (2022), Chris Hooker in The Craft (1996) and Vincent Lopiano in As Good as It Gets (1997). Since 2017, he has starred as Forsythe Pendleton "F.P." Jones II on The CW's Riverdale. His other television roles include Johnston Jacob "Jake" Green Jr. in the television series Jericho, and LAPD Detective Rex Winters, a Marine veteran from the Law & Order franchise.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Michael Ironside has made a strong and indelible impression with his often incredibly intense and explosive portrayals of fearsome villains throughout the years. He was born as Frederick Reginald Ironside on February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ironside was a successful arm wrestler in his teenage years. His initial ambition was to be a writer. At age fifteen, Michael wrote a play called "The Shelter" that won first prize in a Canada-wide university contest; He used the prize money to mount a production of this play. Ironside attended the Ontario College of Art, took acting lessons from Janine Manatis, and studied for three years at the Canadian National Film Board. Ironside worked in construction as a roofer prior to embarking on an acting career.
Ironside first began acting in movies in the late 1970s. He received plenty of recognition with his frightening turn as deadly and powerful psychic Darryl Revok in David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981). He was likewise very chilling as vicious misogynistic psychopath Colt Hawker in the underrated Visiting Hours (1982). Other memorable film roles include weary Detective Roersch in the sadly forgotten thriller Cross Country (1983), the crazed Overdog in the immensely enjoyable Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983), the hard-nosed Jester in the blockbuster smash Top Gun (1986), ramrod Major Paul Hackett in Extreme Prejudice (1987), loner Vietnam veteran "Ben" in Nowhere to Hide (1987), the ferocious Lem Johnson in Watchers (1988), and lethal immortal General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening (1991).
Moreover, Ironside has appeared in two highly entertaining science fiction features for Paul Verhoeven: At his savage best as the evil Richter in Total Recall (1990) and typically excellent as the rugged Lieutenant Jean Rasczak in Starship Troopers (1997). Ironside showed a more tender and thoughtful side with his lovely and touching performance as a hardened convict who befriends a disabled man in the poignant indie drama gem Chaindance (1991); he also co-wrote the script and served as an executive producer for this beautiful sleeper. Michael was terrific as tough mercenary Ham Tyler on the epic miniseries V (1984), its follow up V: The Final Battle (1984), and subsequent short-lived spin-off series.
Ironside also had a recurring role on the television series SeaQuest 2032 (1993). Among the television series he has done guest spots on are The A-Team (1983), Hill Street Blues (1981), The New Mike Hammer (1984), The Hitchhiker (1983), Tales from the Crypt (1989), Superman: The Animated Series (1996), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993), The Outer Limits (1995), ER (1994), Smallville (2001), ER (1994), Desperate Housewives (2004), Justice League (2001) and Masters of Horror (2005). More recently, Ironside garnered a slew of plaudits and a Gemini Award nomination for his outstanding portrayal of shrewd biker gang leader Bob Durelle in the acclaimed Canadian miniseries The Last Chapter II: The War Continues (2003).
In addition to his substantial film and television work, Ironside has also lent his distinctive deep voice to TV commercials and video games.- Actress
- Music Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Michelle Gomez is a Scottish actress. She gained recognition for her roles in the comedy series The Book Group (2002-2003), Green Wing (2004-2007), and Bad Education (2012-2013). She went on to appear as Missy in the long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who (2014-2017), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
From the age of five, Linda Blair had to get used to the spotlight, first as a child model and then as an actress, when out of 600 applicants she was picked for the role of Regan, the possessed child, in The Exorcist (1973). Linda quickly rose to international fame, won the Golden Globe, and seemed to be set to take the Academy Award for that role, but when it leaked how some parts of the role were not performed by her (the demonic voice was dubbed by Mercedes McCambridge, and eight seconds of a stunt dummy were used) that dream broke, and with that disappointment probably came the first blow to what looked like the beginning of an A-list career.
Over the next few years she had no trouble securing lead roles in a number of pictures, including the highly successful television films Born Innocent (1974) (the #1 TV movie of that year) and Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), as well as the Exorcist sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). However, when she was peer pressured into buying cocaine at the age of 18, it led to an arrest and subsequent sentencing to three years probation. The much-publicized drug bust caused Linda to be blacklisted in Hollywood, and her career was soon reduced to B-movies and occasional TV guest appearances only.
Although her career never returned to its former glory, Linda proved to be a good sport about embracing the change, and out of the '80s emerged lead roles in two cult classics: the women-in-prison film Chained Heat (1983) and the femme fatale vigilante action film Savage Streets (1984). She continued acting in numerous films throughout the '80s and '90s, including the Exorcist spoof Repossessed (1990). In 1997, she also took to the Broadway stage and starred as "Rizzo" in the revival of "Grease." She received widespread mainstream attention again in the 2000's with the theatrical re-release of the Exorcist, followed by a hosting job on the hit Fox Family TV series Scariest Places on Earth (2000), which ran for six years and followed Linda as she visited notorious "haunted" locations around the world.
Linda was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Elinore, a real estate agent, and James, an executive headhunter. She has a brother, Jimmy, and a sister, Debbie. Linda has been a Hollywood icon for over 40 years, but it is her first love of animals that has ultimately taken center stage in her life. She now runs the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, a non-profit 501C3 tax deductible organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abused, neglected, and abandoned animals from the harsh streets of the Los Angeles area, as well as from the overcrowded and overwhelmed city and county animal shelters. She works and lives on the 2-acre rescue sanctuary full-time in California, which was featured on The Today Show in a segment titled "From Devil to Angel." Of course, she also makes frequent appearances at horror fan conventions to celebrate the legacy of The Exorcist (1973) .- Actor
- Producer
- Animation Department
Jason Isaacs was born in Liverpool. He studied law at Bristol University but fell in love with the theatre and directed, produced and appeared in dozens of productions there, at the National Student Theatre Festival and at the Edinburgh Festival. He graduated in 1985 but then attended the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and began working in 1988.
Jason's notable roles include Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, Mr. Darling/Captain Hook in Peter Pan (2003), and many soldiers: Col. William Tavington in Roland Emmerich's The Patriot (2000), Captain Steele in Ridley Scott's Blackhawk Down, Major Briggs in Paul Greengrass's Green Zone, Captain Waggoner in Fury, Captain Lorca in Star Trek: Discovery, Field Marshall Zhukov in Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin and Rear-Admiral Godfrey in John Madden's Operation Mincemeat. He was Hap in the cult series The OA, Maurice in the WW2 film Good (2008) and Jay in the multi-award winning MASS. He has made many TV series in Britain and the US and has won or been nominated for a Golden Globe, International Emmy, BAFTA, Critics Choice, Peabody, Satellite and many other awards.
On stage he was Louis Ironson in the original productions of Angels in America parts 1 and 2 for the Royal National Theatre and has performed at the Royal Court, Almeida and West End Theatres.
Jason is married to documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt, who he met at drama school and with whom he has two children.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Clare Higgins was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, the second of five children of Paula Cecilia (Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins, who were both teachers, and nursed acting ambitions from childhood. She was sent to a convent school, from which she was expelled, and ran away from home at age seventeen. At nineteen, she gave birth to a son whom she gave up for adoption, but was pleased to be reunited with him in 1995. At 23, she fulfilled her childhood ambition of acting, graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
Clare honed her craft at the Manchester and the Royal Exchange Theatre, where, among her credits, she had leading roles in the plays "The Deep Man", "Measure For Measure" and "A Streetcar Named Desire", in which she played Stella. At the same time, she was busily carving a niche for herself in numerous television plays which include Pride and Prejudice (1980), Unity (1981), Hideaway (1986), Byron: A Personal Tour (1981) and the ten-part The Citadel (1983) by the BBC, along with Cover Her Face (1985) by ITV. She was also a featured regular on the Channel 4 comedy series Up Line (1987). In 1984, she made her feature film debut in Horton Foote's Nineteen Nineteen (1985). She is also known for her roles in the Clive Barker horror films Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, she consolidated her reputation as a dynamic stage actress, both in London and on Broadway, winning three Olivier awards. In the mid-1990s she also trained, successfully, to become a massage therapist and a psychotherapist.
She's played regular characters in Rogue (2013) by DirecTV, The Syndicate (2012), Parade's End (2012), EastEnders (1985) and The Worst Witch (2017) by the BBC, along with Homefront (2012) by ITV.- Actor
- Soundtrack
This latterly white-haired Canadian character actor had a natural predilection for portraying historical figures. Kenneth Welsh was born in Edmonton, Alberta. After college he studied drama at the National Theatre School in Montreal. He then acted on the Shakespearean stage in Ontario for several years before making his screen debut for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1963. His early TV appearances displayed a natural affinity for period drama with appearances in Henry V (1966), The Great Detective (1979), The Three Musketeers (1969) (starring as D'Artagnan) and F.D.R.: The Last Year (1980) (as Thomas E. Dewey). As his accomplishments grew, he became more prolific: by the mid-80s, Welsh found himself in increasing demand as supporting player in mainstream U.S. TV shows like Spenser: For Hire (1985), The Twilight Zone (1985) and The X-Files (1993). Ultimately, the role for which he became best known was that of Windom Earle, the ex-FBI agent and partner of Dale Cooper in David Lynch's iconic series Twin Peaks (1990). Until his untimely passing in May 2022, the ever versatile Welsh continued to amass numerous TV and movie credits, alternating appearances in both the U.S. and Canada, his distinguished looks ideally suited to high ranking authority figures: General Harry Crerar in Dieppe (1993), Lord Beaverbrook in Above and Beyond (2006), Harry S. Truman in Hiroshima (1995) and (latterly) Admiral Senna Tal in Star Trek: Discovery (2017). On the big screen his many roles have included the (fictional) erstwhile Vice-President of the U.S. Raymond Becker in the apocalyptic science fiction drama The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Dr. Jeff Wagner in Marvel's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Among Welsh's other sci-fi credits have been The Outer Limits (1995) (Dr. Vazquez), Stargate: Atlantis (2004) (Jamus) and The Expanse (2015) (as the sympathetic Earth ambassador to Mars Franklin DeGraaf).
Welsh was awarded Canada's equivalent of the Emmy, the Gemini Award, on four occasions (1988, 1990, 1992 and 1998), among a total of six nominations. In October 2003, he received further honours by becoming a Member of the Order of Canada.- Actress
- Producer
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Mary Elizabeth Winstead is an actress known for her versatile work in a variety of film and television projects. Possibly most known for her role as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), she has also starred in critically acclaimed independent films such as Smashed (2012), for which she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination, as well as genre fare like Final Destination 3 (2006) and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (2007).
Winstead was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina but largely raised in Sandy, Utah, which is where she discovered a love for the performing arts. She grew up training to be a ballerina and attended the Joffrey Ballet School training program at the age of 12. It was also around this time that she began to pursue a career in acting and soon started working steadily in television and film.
Winstead is also a recording artist and performs under the name "Got a Girl" alongside producer Dan the Automotor.- Actor
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Curly haired and with a fast-talking voice, Jesse Eisenberg is a movie actor, known for his Academy Award nominated role as Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 film The Social Network. He has also starred in the films The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, The Education of Charlie Banks, 30 Minutes or Less, Now You See Me and Zombieland. Additionally, he played Lex Luthor in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Jesse Adam Eisenberg was born on October 5, 1983 in Queens, New York, and was raised in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey. His mother, Amy (Fishman), is a professional dressed-up clown who performed at children's birthday parties for a living in their hometown of East Brunswick for 20 years. His father, Barry Eisenberg, ran a hospital before moving on to become a college professor. Jesse has two sisters, Kerri and Hallie Eisenberg, who was a popular child star. His family is Jewish (his ancestors came to the U.S. from Poland, Russia, and Ukraine).
He attended East Brunswick High School, but he didn't really enjoy school. From age 10, he performed in children's theater. Jesse had his first professional role in an off-Broadway play, "The Gathering". Before fame, he made his first television appearance role that came in 1999 when he was 16 with a show on Fox's Get Real (1999), but the show was canceled in 2000. In his senior year of high school, he had landed his first film leading role in the 2002 film Roger Dodger (2002). He won an award for "Most Promising New Actor" at the San Diego film festival.
Jesse attended the New School University, New York, where he was a liberal arts major, with a focus on Democracy and Cultural Pluralism. He also studied at The New School in New York City's Greenwich Village. He applied and was accepted to New York University but declined enrollment to complete a film role. He has been playing the drums since he was age 8.
His breakthrough role came in Zombieland (2009). In 2010, he was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards for his role of Facebook's creator, Mark Zuckerberg, in the film, The Social Network (2010). He also voiced Blu, a rare blue macaw, in the film Rio (2011), and its sequel Rio 2 (2014). He starred alongside Aziz Ansari in the 2011 comedy 30 Minutes Or Less, and played himself in the 2013 comedy film He's Way More Famous Than You (2013).- Actor
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A tall, wavy-haired US actor with a deep, resonant voice, Clancy Brown has proven himself a versatile performer with first-class contributions to theatre, feature films, television series and even animation.
Clarence J. Brown III was born in 1959 in Urbana, Ohio, to Joyce Helen (Eldridge), a concert pianist, conductor, and composer, and Clarence J. "Bud" Brown, Jr., who helped manage the Brown Publishing Company, the family-owned newspaper started by Clancy's grandfather, Clarence J. Brown. Clancy's father and grandfather were also Republican congressmen from the same Ohio district, and Clancy spent much of his youth in close proximity to Washington, D.C. He plied his dramatic talents in the Chicago theatre scene before moving onto feature film with a sinister debut performance bullying Sean Penn inside a youth reformatory in Bad Boys (1983). He portrayed Viktor the Monster in the unusual spin on the classic Frankenstein story in The Bride (1985), before scoring one of his best roles to date as the evil Kurgan hunting fellow immortals Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery across four centuries of time in Highlander (1986).
Brown played a corrupt American soldier in the Walter Hill-directed hyper-violent action film Extreme Prejudice (1987), another deranged killer in Shoot to Kill (1988) and a brutal prison guard, who eventually somewhat "befriends" wrongfully convicted banker Tim Robbins, in the moving The Shawshank Redemption (1994). His superb vocal talents were in demand, and he contributed voices to animated series, including Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (1995), Street Sharks (1994), Gargoyles (1994) and Superman: The Animated Series (1996). Brown then landed two more plum roles, one as a "tough-as-nails" drill sergeant in the science fiction thriller Starship Troopers (1997), and the other alongside Robin Williams in the Disney comedy Flubber (1997).
The video gaming industry took notice of Clancy's vocal abilities, too, and he has contributed voices to several top selling video games, including Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (2001), Lands of Lore III (1999), Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (2002) and Crash Nitro Kart (2003). His voice is also the character of cranky crustacean Mr. Eugene H. Krabs in the highly successful SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) animated series and films, and he contributed voices to The Batman (2004), Jackie Chan Adventures (2000) and Justice League (2001) animated series. A popular and friendly personality, Clancy Brown continues to remain busy both through his vocal and acting talents in Hollywood.- Valentina Vargas is a Chilean-born French actress. She developed most of her career in France, where she was raised.
Vargas began her career in the dramatic art within the workshop of Tania Balachova in Paris and also later at the Yves Pignot School of Los Angeles. Her cinematographic career started via the filming of three French movies, namely Pierre Jolivet's Strictly Personal (1985), Luc Besson's The Big Blue (1988) and Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose (1986). Over the years, Vargas also worked with Samuel Fuller in Street of No Return (1989), Miguel Littín in Los Náufragos (1994) and Alfredo Arieta in Fuegos (1987).
Vargas is trilingual in Spanish, French and English. This has enabled her to pass without notice in films as varied as the cinematic horror film Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) where she played the Cenobite Angelique, to the comedy Chili con carne (1999) of Thomas Gilou. She appeared opposite Jan Michael Vincent (Dirty Games (1989)), Malcolm McDowell and Michael Ironside (Southern Cross (1999)), and James Remar (Die Tigerin (1992)).
After her performance in Bloody Mallory (2002) where she played "Lady Valentine/Carmina Belladone", she turned to playing roles for television. Initially she played in a version of Dangerous Liaisons (2003) directed by Josée Dayan. She starred in this production with Catherine Deneuve, Rupert Everett, Leelee Sobieski and Nastassja Kinski. - Actor
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One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend Arnould Herbert Hurt, an Anglican clergyman and mathematician, his quiet shyness betrayed an early passion for acting. First enrolled at the Grimsby Art School and St. Martin's School of Art, his focus invariably turned from painting to acting.
Accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960, John made his stage debut in "Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger" followed by "The Dwarfs." Elsewhere, he continued to build upon his 60's theatrical career with theatre roles in "Chips with Everything" at the Vaudeville, the title role in "Hamp" at the Edinburgh Festival, "Inadmissible Evidence" at Wyndham's and "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs" at the Garrick. His movie debut occurred that same year with a supporting role in the "angry young man" British drama Young and Willing (1962), followed by small roles in Appuntamento in Riviera (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966) and The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967).
A somber, freckled, ravaged-looking gent, Hurt found his more compelling early work in offbeat theatrical characterizations with notable roles such as Malcolm in "Macbeth" (1967), Octavius in "Man and Superman" (1969), Peter in "Ride a Cock Horse" (1972), Mike in '"The Caretaker" (1972) and Ben in "The Dumb Waiter" (1973). At the same time he gained more prominence in a spray of film and support roles such as a junior officer in Before Winter Comes (1968), the title highwayman in Sinful Davey (1969), a morose little brother in In Search of Gregory (1969), a dim, murderous truck driver in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a skirt-chasing, penguin-studying biologist in Cry of the Penguins (1971), the unappetizing son of a baron in The Pied Piper (1972) and a repeat of his title stage role as Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974).
Hurt shot to international stardom, however, on TV where he was allowed to display his true, fearless range. He reaped widespread acclaim for his embodiment of the tormented gay writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp in the landmark television play The Naked Civil Servant (1975), adapted from Crisp's autobiography. Hurt's bold, unabashed approach on the flamboyant and controversial gent who dared to be different was rewarded with the BAFTA (British TV Award). This triumph led to the equally fascinating success as the cruel and crazed Roman emperor Caligula in the epic television masterpiece I, Claudius (1976), followed by another compelling interpretation as murderous student Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1979).
A resurgence occurred on film as a result. Among other unsurpassed portraits on his unique pallet, the chameleon in him displayed a polar side as the gentle, pathetically disfigured title role in The Elephant Man (1980), and as a tortured Turkish prison inmate who befriends Brad Davis in the intense drama Midnight Express (1978) earning Oscar nominations for both. Mainstream box-office films were offered as well as art films. He made the most of his role as a crew member whose body becomes host to an unearthly predator in Alien (1979). With this new rush of fame came a few misguided ventures as well that were generally unworthy of his talent. Such brilliant work as his steeple chase jockey in Champions (1984) or kidnapper in The Hit (1984) was occasionally offset by such drivel as the comedy misfire Partners (1982) with Ryan O'Neal in which Hurt looked enervated and embarrassed. For the most part, the craggy-faced actor continued to draw extraordinary notices. Tops on the list includes his prurient governmental gadfly who triggers the Christine Keeler political sex scandal in the aptly-titled Scandal (1989); the cultivated gay writer aroused and obsessed with struggling "pretty-boy" actor Jason Priestley in Love and Death on Long Island (1997); and the Catholic priest embroiled in the Rwanda atrocities in Shooting Dogs (2005).
Latter parts of memorable interpretations included Dr. Iannis in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the recurring role of the benign wand-maker Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), the tyrannical dictator Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta (2005) and the voice of The Dragon in Merlin (2008). Among Hurt's final film appearances were as a terminally ill screenwriter in That Good Night (2017) and a lesser role in the mystery thriller Damascus Cover (2017). Hurt's voice was also tapped into animated features and documentaries, often serving as narrator. He also returned to the theatre performing in such shows as "The Seagull", "A Month in the Country" (1994), "Afterplay" (2002) and "Krapp's Last Tape", the latter for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
A recovered alcoholic who married four times, Hurt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen in 2004, and Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 2015. That same year (2015) he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In July of 2016, he was forced to bow out of the father role of Billy Rice in a then-upcoming London stage production of "The Entertainer" opposite Kenneth Branagh due to ill health that he described as an "intestinal ailment". Hurt died several months later at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, England on January 15, 2017, three days after his 77th birthday.- Actress
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Melissa Leo is an American actress. She is known for her Academy Award-winning performance in the 2010 film The Fighter (2010). She was born on September 14, 1960, in New York City. Leo starred as the mother of boxer Micky Ward in the 2010 film The Fighter, also starring Mark Wahlberg. The role garnered her both Golden Globe (Best Supporting Actress) and Oscar awards. Other accolades include award nominations for the film Frozen River (2008) and the HBO series Mildred Pierce.- Jordan Ladd was born on 14 January 1975 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Death Proof (2007), Never Been Kissed (1999) and Cabin Fever (2002). She was previously married to Conor O'Neill.
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Actor Stanley Tucci was born on November 11, 1960, in Peekskill, New York. He is the son of Joan (Tropiano), a writer, and Stanley Tucci, an art teacher. His family is Italian-American, with origins in Calabria.
Tucci took an interest in acting while in high school, and went on to attend the State University of New York's Conservatory of Theater Arts in Purchase. He began his professional career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in 1982, and then made his film debut in Prizzi's Honor (1985).
In 2009, Tucci received his first Academy Award nomination for his turn as a child murderer in The Lovely Bones (2009). He also received a BAFTA nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for the same role. Other than The Lovely Bones, Tucci has recently had noteworthy supporting turns in a broad range of movies including Lucky Number Slevin (2006), The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Tucci reached his widest audience yet when he played Caesar Flickerman in box office sensation The Hunger Games (2012).
While maintaining an active career in movies, Tucci received major accolades for some work in television. He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in TV movie Winchell (1998), an Emmy for a guest turn on Monk (2002), and a Golden Globe for his role in HBO movie Conspiracy (2001).
Tucci has also had an extensive career behind the camera. His directorial efforts include Big Night (1996), The Impostors (1998), Joe Gould's Secret (2000) and Blind Date (2007), and he did credited work on all of those screenplays with the exception of Joe Gould's Secret (2000).
Tucci has three children with Kate Tucci, who passed away in 2009. Tucci married Felicity Blunt in August 2012.- Actress
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Born as Emma Chukker and raised in San Diego, California, Emma Caulfield began studying drama at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theatre, where she won the distinguished honor of "Excellence in Theatre Arts". She picked up her drama studies once again at The American School in Switzerland (TASIS) in London, all before finishing high school.
Caulfield, an award-winning actress known for her starring role as the young and beautiful demon-turned-mortal "Anya" on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) starting in 1999. Her role was initially conceived only as a guest demon-of-the-week appearance in a December 1998 episode, but she was called back for a few more guest spots when Joss Whedon recognized her talent. She appeared in most of the episodes the following season and, after that, was promoted to a full-time series regular. She has starred in numerous films, including the hit indie sci-fi/rom-com film Timer (2009) as the central character, Oona Leary, a woman on the verge of her 30th birthday who trusts that an implanted timer device will tell her the exact moment she will meet her true love.
Caulfield starred in the ensemble indie film Telling of the Shoes (2014) as "Alex", the quietly suffering wife of a man with a deep secret. She garnered praise in the role of Sarah in the short film Hollow (2007), picking up a Best Actress award at the Beverly Hills Short Film Festival. She starred as "Caitlin Green" in the Revolution Studios' thriller, Darkness Falls (2003). She also starred alongside Chaney Kley as a young woman attempting to take care of her troubled 8-year-old brother plagued by night terrors. Left to her own resources, Caitlin must tackle the legendary evil that haunts their small town in the dark.
Caulfield spent 2010 juggling two shows, Gigantic (2010) and Life Unexpected (2010), in heavily recurring arcs. She is also a writer and producer. In August 2009, she and her writing partner Camilla Ransten launched the successful web comic, Contropussy. A decidedly female-driven satire that showcases human behavior through the eyes of animals. She is also the co-creator, executive producer and star of the hit web series Bandwagon: The Series (2010).- Actress
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Scout Taylor-Compton began acting with a featured role in the A.F.I. film A.W.O.L (2006) starring David Morse. Since then, her performances in seven independent films, over fifteen student films, and three music videos formed a firm foundation that led to her leading role in MGM's Sleepover (2004). Joe Nussbaum the director of George Lucas in Love (1999) also directed the teenage adventure film, which also stars Alexa PenaVega and Mika Boorem.
Just prior to Sleepover, Scout completed a role in Jennifer Garner's film 13 Going on 30 (2004). She can also be seen in the Hallmark movie Audrey's Rain (2003), the film 7 Songs (2003) , with Chris Eigeman , and the Power Up Film Chicken Night (2001), in which Scout, displaying another facet of her talent, sings the theme song.
On the small screen, in 2003 Scout landed her first series pilot role in Class Actions (2004) the hour-long legal drama for Lifetime Television also starring Diane Venora, who plays Scout's mother in the series. In 2004 Scout booked a leading role in the new Bravo Series, Hidden Howie: The Private Life of a Public Nuisance (2005), starring Howie Mandel.
Currently she is awaiting the Network's decision on the pick-up of her most recent pilot booking, Disney's "That's So Raven Spin-Off," where she plays the series regular role of Lauren, big sister of Alyson Stoner.
Other television guest credits include recurring roles on Unfabulous (2004), The Guardian (2001), Charmed (1998), and Gilmore Girls (2000) plus appearances on Cold Case (2003), The Division (2001), The Lyon's Den (2003), ER (1994), Ally McBeal (1997), an upcoming episode of That's So Raven (2003) and several stints on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992). She was nominated in 2004 for a Young Artist Award for her work on "Gilmore Girls," and was again nominated in 2005 for her lead role in "Sleepover" and recurring role on CBS's "The Guardian."
Scout's voice-over credits include a recent looping for Disney's Sky High (2005) starring Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston. Other voice over credits include two films with Academy Award winning actors including The Core (2003), starring Hilary Swank, and I Am Sam (2001), starring Sean Penn, as well as work in the film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Scout was also the narrator for Chicken Night (2001). On stage she has played the title roles in the musicals Annie/Annie Warbucks and the drama Anne Frank.
Recently Scout flew to New Jersey where she filmed a leading role in the feature film titled Tomorrow Is Today (2006). Currently Scout is in the studio, avidly working on her first album, and in August will be shooting a film for with Allan Kayser, who played Bubba on Mama's Family (1983).
She continues her training in acting, dance, and voice with top coaches, currently recording her first rock album. She also participates in charity projects for disabled and disadvantaged children as a Celebrity Youth Member of Kids With a Cause. Her hobbies and interests include writing songs, playing drums, surfing, and hanging out with her friends. As if that were not enough to keep her busy, Scout hopes to soon acquire a monkey, and a Chihuahua.- Actor
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Dynamically entertaining heavyset US actor with piercing eyes, William Forsythe has a superb talent for playing some truly unlikable and downright nasty characters that dominate the films in which he appears! If you're cast as the hero against Forsythe's villain, then you have your work cut out for you, as Forsthye's raw energy and menace on screen is second to none. He started out in a couple of minor film roles and guest appearances in high-rated TV shows including CHiPs (1977), Hill Street Blues (1981) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He quickly moved into high-quality feature films, including playing a small-time hoodlum in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), an hilariously funny performance as a bumbling jail escapee alongside John Goodman in the knockout Raising Arizona (1987) and as a renegade soldier in Extreme Prejudice (1987).
The energetic Forsythe portrayed comic book villain "Flattop" in Dick Tracy (1990), was foolish enough to tangle with vengeful cop Steven Seagal in the hyper-violent Out for Justice (1991) and locked horns with ex-NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth in the biker action film Stone Cold (1991). With his expertise in playing icy villains, Forsythe was perfect to portray Prohibition mobster Al Capone in the short-lived '90s revival of the classic '60s crime show, The Untouchables (1993), and he continued the motif of playing edgy, nefarious individuals in the thought-provoking The Waterdance (1992), the oily film noir piece Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), as real-life mobster Sammy Gravano, aka "The Bull", in Gotti (1996) and supporting another ex-NFL player's foray into film acting, when L.A. Raider Howie Long debuted in Firestorm (1998).
Forsythe has remained perpetually busy in the new century with a plethora of feature film, telemovie and TV series appearances, and has developed a minor cult following amongst film fans for his attention grabbing dramatic skills - check out his performances in City by the Sea (2002), The Devil's Rejects (2005) and Halloween (2007).- The evil screen villain Angus Scrimm, most famous as "The Tall Man" in Don Coscarelli's Phantasm (1979) and its sequels, grew up in Kansas City, but in his teens moved to California and studied drama at USC under William C. de Mille (brother of Cecil B. DeMille). His film debut came as another "Tall Man" he played Abraham Lincoln in an educational film made by Encyclopaedia Brittanica, which led him to a steady career in theater, television and film. His big-screen debut was in Jim, the World's Greatest (1975), directed by then 18-year-old Coscarelli. During this time he was using his birth name, Lawrence Rory Guy. He adopted the stage name Angus Scrimm three years later for his performance in Coscarelli's horror/sci-fi opus "Phantasm", which would mark Scrimm's permanent impression upon modern cinema. His role as the infamous Tall Man has earned him the praise of critics worldwide, as well as a large following of fans. His success in the "Phantasm" films has been parlayed into numerous other malevolent roles including the evil Dr. Sin Do in The Lost Empire (1984), Vlad the Vampire King in Subspecies (1991) and the nefarious Dr. Lyme opposite Nicolas Cage and Charlie Sheen in Deadfall (1993). Scrimm did intriguing double duty as the diabolical Seer and the angelic Systems Operator in Mindwarp (1991), co-starring Bruce Campbell. He did a shock cameo in the Italian film Fatal Frames (1996), opposite Stefania Stella and Donald Pleasence, and managed a gleeful parody of himself as the hulking henchman in Transylvania Twist (1989). Scrimm has not limited his career efforts to simply acting, however. As a journalist he has written and edited for "TV Guide", "Cinema Magazine", the now-defunct "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner" and other publications. He has also written liner notes for thousands of LPs and CDs, for just about every genre from classical music to jazz, from Frank Sinatra and The Beatles to Artur Rubinstein and Itzhak Perlman. He won a Grammy award for best album liner notes.
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A bizarre, gloriously one-of-a-kind Hollywood gypsy and self-affirmed outcast, San Francisco-born actress Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian Creamer) was a teenager when she made her stage debut in "Time Out for Ginger" in 1962. A product of the entertainment industry, her father was a top agent at one time with the William Morris firm. She built up her resumé in summer stock and regional plays usually cast in standard ingénue roles. Her nascent career took an abrupt shift in direction, however, when, as a member of New York's Lincoln Repertory Company, she was cast in an array of seamy, salty-tongued, highly dysfunctional character parts. After striking performances on and off Broadway in such fare as "The Rimers of Eldritch" (1967), "A Cry of Players" (1968), "The Time of Your Life" (1969) and "Camino Real" (1970) Hollywood took keen notice of this special talent and, in the early 1970s, began to cast her in their more offbeat projects.
In only her fourth film, Susan earned an Academy Award nomination for her powerhouse portrayal of a cynical, low-life boozer girlfriend opposite Stacy Keach's has-been boxer in John Huston's potent but highly depressing Fat City (1972). Pulling out all the stops after this, she continued to show her fearless attraction toward the dark side throughout the late 1970s with flashy roles in lesser quality material such as The Killer Inside Me (1976), Andy Warhol's Bad (1977), Islands in the Stream (1977), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), and September 30, 1955 (1977) as various harridans and grotesques. The 1980s proved no different with manic behavior on full display in Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), Forbidden Zone (1980), Liar's Moon (1981), Fast-Walking (1982), Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981), Big Top Pee-wee (1988) and underground director John Waters' more mainstream film Cry-Baby (1990), many of which have now achieved cult status.
Toned down a bit for TV, she nevertheless demonstrated in both the one-season series Open All Night (1981) and on MacGruder and Loud (1985) that she wasn't about to change. When her TV and movie career started to simmer down, the Los Angeles-based actress opted for the avant-garde stage with such productions as "Why Hannah's Skirt Won't Stay Down" (1986), "Landscape of the Body" (1987), "The Geography of Luck" (1989) and her trenchant one-woman piece "My Rotten Life: A Bitter Operetta" (1989), which she performed over a long period of time.
Real-life tragedy struck in late April of 2000 when Susan contracted a near-fatal illness. Both of her legs had to be amputated below the knee as a result of multiple blood clots due to a rare blood disease -- thrombocythemia. Never say die, she valiantly tried to maintain a positive outlook, and continued to perform on occasion while going through rehabilitation. She also spent time writing and painting before passing away on June 16, 2012. A wild, boisterous trooper, she was the definitive underground raconteur for those who desired the more sordid side of Hollywood.- Actor
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Max Schreck was born in Berlin. He worked in an apprenticeship until his father's death before enrolling into a school for acting. He toured the country with his peers and was a member of several theaters until he became a part of Max Reinhardt's group of innovative German actors. He played mostly out of the norm characters, the elderly and the grotesque, because of his talent and passion for make-up and costume fabrication. Although film was a challenge in which he excitedly and hopefully participated, he had small roles in films that are scarcely available, and his real career was in German theatre. He played hundreds of roles in his lifetime. He was married to Fanny Normann, a fellow performer whom he met a short time after his actor's education and shared many times with on stage. They had no children. He died on the morning of February 20th, 1936 from a heart attack.- Actress
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Shawnee Smith has consistently put her versatile talents to use in the film, television, theatrical and musical arenas with much success. Her impressive career includes a co-starring role on an award-winning television show, which is now strong in syndication, and a variety of memorable roles in hit feature films. She also toured America and the U.K. fronting a rather extreme rock band called "Fydolla Ho". Smith was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, to Patricia Ann (Smoak), an oncology nurse, and James H. "Jim" Smith, a financial planner and U.S. Air Force pilot. Shawnee's achievements began early in her career when she appeared in the movie Annie (1982). As a young actress, she was awarded the Youth in Film Award for Best Actress in a television film for her role in the CBS drama Crime of Innocence (1985). She was honored with the Dramalogue Critics Award for her performance in the theatrical production "To Gillian on her 37th Birthday". In the same year, she received rave reviews for her co-starring role with Richard Dreyfuss at the Huntington Hartford Theatre in "The Hands of its Enemy". Shawnee then starred in The Blob (1988) for Columbia Pictures, in the hit comedy Summer School (1987) for Paramount Pictures and in Who's Harry Crumb? (1989), also for Columbia Pictures. Those roles would be followed by appearances in such highly-acclaimed films as Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Armageddon (1998), Desperate Hours (1990) and Breakfast of Champions (1999). Shawnee's television credits are equally as impressive, with a list that includes a regular role on the hit CBS comedy Becker (1998) as well as series regular roles on The Tom Show (1997) and Arsenio (1997). She appeared in the CBS television movies Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1997), I Saw What You Did (1988) and Face of Evil (1996), as well as the miniseries The Stand (1994) and The Shining (1997). Her recent film projects include The Almost Guys (2004), Saw (2004), a gritty, taut and terrifying film and the sequel Saw II (2005). Satisfied with pushing the extremes in her critically-acclaimed punk/metal band "Fydolla Ho", Shawnee is working on her first solo record with Queens of the Stone Age producer Chris Goss.- Actor
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Jürgen Prochnow is the son of a telecommunications engineer. He has an older brother, Dieter Prochnow, who is also in the acting profession. Jürgen's parents encouraged him initially to study the banking trade. However, their son had other ideas and began working on the side as an extra and a gaffer at a theater in Düsseldorf. He eventually commenced acting studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in 1963. His graduation three years later was followed by a first theatrical engagement in Osnabrück. Between 1971 and 1975, Prochnow was a member of the ensemble of the Schauspielhaus Bochum under the direction of Peter Zadek.
On screen from 1971, he made his debut on the big screen in (what was also Wolfgang Petersen's first film) the thriller One or the Other (1974). Prochnow commanded the lead as a struggling student who blackmails his sociology professor (Klaus Schwarzkopf) after discovering that the academic had attained his credentials by means of a plagiarised doctoral thesis. Dire consequences ensue. That same year, Petersen also directed Prochnow in an episode of the hit police series Tatort (1970). In the New German Cinema of the 1970s, the charismatic Prochnow was given ample opportunities to shine, as he did in the title role of the prison drama The Brutalization of Franz Blum (1974) and in Volker Schlöndorffs political drama The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) as a deserter wanted by the police and whose flight sparks a series of fateful events. During this period, the actor's stock-in-trade screen personae were laconic, taciturn types, often loners, yet men of integrity and strong emotional centres.
Prochnow's breakthrough to international stardom came via Wolfgang Petersen's brilliant maritime war drama Das Boot (1981). Prochnow took the nominal lead and was top-billed as the cool-headed, sympathetic veteran U-boat commander Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, a kind of father figure to his crew and affectionately known as 'the old man'. A contemporary New York Times reviewer commented "The captain of the U-boat is played by Jurgen Prochnow, a remarkable actor who has also worked with Mr. Petersen on four other films. Mr. Prochnow's sad, solemn face rarely changes, but his pale eyes are extraordinarily alive. As the captain, he becomes a source of spiritual strength for his crewmen, even though his own cynicism is readily apparent". While the story of Das Boot was fictionalized, it was in part based on the exploits of a real Lehmann-Willenbrock, who did, in fact, captain U-96 (as one of four commands). He was decorated with the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves (one of the highest honours bestowed) and survived the war to become captain of Germany's nuclear freighter Otto Hahn.
In the wake of Das Boot, Prochnow received many offers from Hollywood, his craggy features and military bearing getting him frequently typecast as callous villains in action films: he was Eddie Murphy's nemesis Maxwell Dent in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), a brutal Norman knight in Robin Hood (1991), vicious gangster Charlie Dowd in Hurricane Smith (1992), the unhinged author of horror novels Sutter Cane in John Carpenter 's supernatural thriller In the Mouth of Madness (1994) and Judge Griffin, the chief villain of the piece who frames Sylvester Stallone for murder in Judge Dredd (1995). Prochnow also reunited with Wolfgang Petersen who directed him again in the box-office blockbuster Air Force One (1997) in the role of a rogue eastern European dictator bent on reigniting the Cold War. In season eight of the TV series 24 (2001), Prochnow featured as Jack Bauer's elusive antagonist Sergei Bazhaev, leader of a secret Russian crime syndicate.
On the side of the white hats, Prochnow has portrayed the ambitious banker André Vernet in The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the poorly received biographical drama See Arnold Run (2005) (Prochnow had once even been under consideration to play Arnie's iconic Terminator role). He has also been active in German films and television, including a role as an unscrupulous businessman attempting to market a pharmaceutical product with known harmful side-effects in The Dark Side of the Moon (2015). On stage, he has essayed Etzel, king of the Huns in Siegfried's Erben at the 2018 Nibelungen Festival in Worms.
As a voice-over actor, Prochnow has been the German voice for Sylvester Stallone in several films (including Rocky (1976) and Rocky II (1979). He has also dubbed most of his own English-language roles into German. His awards include a Bambi in 1988 for his messianic role in The Seventh Sign (1988), a Golden Kamera as Best German Actor for Das Boot and a Jupiter Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
Prochnow adopted American citizenship in 2004, regularly commuting between Los Angeles and Munich. The actor's first wife was Isabel Goslar (daughter of Jürgen Goslar) who worked on Das Boot as a script supervisor and continuity manager. His second wife was the actress Birgit Stein who died in a motorcycle crash in Utah four years after her divorce from Prochnow in 2018. Since March 2015, Prochnow has been married to the Austrian actress Verena Wengler.- Producer
- Actress
- Costume Designer
Charlize Theron was born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg area, in South Africa, the only child of Gerda Theron (née Maritz) and Charles Theron. She was raised on a farm outside the city. Theron is of Afrikaner (Dutch, with some French Huguenot and German) descent, and Afrikaner military figure Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle.
Theron received an education as a ballet dancer and has danced both the "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker". There was not much work for a young actress or dancer in South Africa, so she soon traveled to Europe and the United States, where she got a job at the Joffrey Ballet in New York. She was also able to work as a photo model. However, an injured knee put a halt to her dancing career.
In 1994, her mother bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, and Charlize started visiting all of the agents on Hollywood Boulevard, but without any luck. She went to a bank to cash a check for $500 she received from her mother, and became furious when she learned that the bank would not cash it because it was an out-of-state check. She made a scene and an agent gave her his card, in exchange for learning American English, which she did by watching soap operas on television.
Her first role was in the B-film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995), a non-speaking part with three seconds of screen time. Her next role was as Helga Svelgen in 2 Days in the Valley (1996), which landed her the role of Tina Powers in That Thing You Do! (1996). Since then, she has starred in movies like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and The Italian Job (2003). On February 29, 2004, she won her first Academy Award, a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Monster (2003).- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Physically imposing, intense Yaphet Kotto was one of the few actors of his generation to succeed in breaking racial stereotypes in Hollywood. He was born in Harlem, New York, the son of Gladys, a nurse and army officer, and Abraham Kotto, a businessman-turned-construction worker. His father was a Cameroonian immigrant, of royal ancestry (his great-grandfather had been a king in pre-colonial days), and his mother's family was from Antigua and Panama. Yaphet, whose first name means "beautiful" in Hebrew, was raised in the Jewish faith. After his parents divorced, he was brought up by his grandparents in the tough Bronx district of New York. He also had an aunt in showbiz who ran a dance academy. Among her alumni were Marlon Brando and James Dean. In fact, it was Brando's performance in On the Waterfront (1954) which inspired Kotto to go into acting.
He began acting on stage in 1958 with little theatrical experience, making his debut in the title role of Othello, a role he eventually reprised on screen in 1980. He also appeared on Broadway as understudy to James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope. After joining the Actor's Studio, Kotto commenced his screen career and soon gathered critical recognition with several edgy performances across diverse genres. From playing a barkeeper in 5 Card Stud (1968) and a thief in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), he moved on to juicier supporting roles as the evil Kananga/Mr. Big in the James Bond thriller Live and Let Die (1973), Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the telemovie Raid on Entebbe (1976) and the ill-fated Nostromo engineer Parker in Alien (1979). Kotto also starred as a street-smart Detroit car worker in Blue Collar (1978) and had a recurring role as a senior detective on television's long-running crime series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993) (in addition to penning several scripts for the show). He was even on a Paramount shortlist for the coveted role of Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), alongside Mitchell Ryan and Roy Thinnes). He apparently spurned the role for fear of being typecast, but came to rueing that decision in later years. For the same reason Kotto had also turned down the part of Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise (which went to Billy Dee Williams).
Kotto died on March 15 2021 in Manila, Phillipines at the age of 81.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
American stage, screen and television actress, and comedian Carol Kane (b. Carolyn Laurie Kane, June 18, 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio), was born to Elaine Joy (née Fetterman), a jazz singer and pianist, and Michael Myron Kane, an architect. Her family is Jewish (from Russia, Poland, and Austria). Due to her parents' divorce, Carol spent most of her childhood in boarding schools until 1965. She also attended Professional Children's School in Upper West Side New York, and made her professional theater debut in a 1966 production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) starring Tammy Grimes. Kane, just 14 years old.
At 20 years old, Kane landed the lead role in William Fruets World War II film, Wedding in White (1972). Kane starred as Jeannie Dougall, a teenager whom after is raped is left with a moral dilemma when she discovers that the incident has left her pregnant. The actress received a surprise Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 1974 independent film, Hester Street (1975); Times of Israel describes Kane's character, Gitl, as "a straight-from-the-shtetl immigrant who, with her young son, joins her husband (Steven Keats) who is already halfway assimilated in New York's Lower East Side; the push and the pull between tradition and change drive the story to its bittersweet conclusion."
The following decade, from 1980-1983, she appeared on the television series Taxi (1978). Kane portrayed Simka Dahblitz-Gravas, wife of Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman). She received two Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe nomination for her work in the series. Over the years, Kane racked up tons of credits from Taxi and The Princess Bride (1987), to Scrooged (1988), and more recently, the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015); the actress is making audiences laugh by playing Lillian Kaushtupper, in a recent interview, Kane described Lillian as "a hardworking landlady in Harlem who is very attached to the life in New York as she's known it."- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Mary Woronov was born on December 8, 1943, at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. A surgeon's stepdaughter, she was raised in Brooklyn Heights and attended Cornell University as a sculpting major. After a class trip to Andy Warhol 's Silver Factory, she joined Warhol's entourage and starred in a number of his underground films and appeared as a go-go dancer in the Velvet Underground's Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows. She left the Factory in the late 1960s and, after recovering from a heavy methamphetamine addiction, spent two years in Europe with a friend; during this time, Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, and with the altered Factory dynamic, "there was nothing to go back to." She supported herself with work in off-Broadway and off-off- Broadway theater, then "got scared and got married" to director/producer Theodore Gershuny. She appeared in three of his films, Kemek (1970), Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), and Sugar Cookies (1973). After the marriage broke up, Woronov moved to Los Angeles at the invitation of friend Paul Bartel, where she appeared on the daytime soap Somerset (1970) and had a memorable role in Bartel's Death Race 2000 (1975). Her best and most famous role came in 1982, with the part of Mary Bland in Bartel's black comedy Eating Raoul (1982). A major cult figure as an actress, she is also an accomplished painter and writer, having published three books--Wake for the Angels: Paintings and Stories, the autobiography Swimming Underground: My Years in the Warhol Factory, and the novel Snake.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Francis Elliott "Fran" Kranz is an American film, television and Broadway actor. Kranz was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He started acting in third and fourth grade, and knew from a very young age that he wanted to become an actor. He graduated from Harvard-Westlake School in 1999 and later from Yale University in 2004, where he was a member of the improve comedy group The Ex!t Players. He is best known for his portrayal of Topher Brink in the science fiction drama series Dollhouse. He had prominent roles in the films The Cabin in the Woods and Much Ado About Nothing. In 2012, he played Bernard in Death of a Salesman beginning a career on Broadway that continued with 2014's You Can't Take It with You.- With a mysterious past and a mouth marred by burns, Reggie Nalder has a unique, if under appreciated, place in the history of cinema.
Nalder was born Alfred Reginald Natzler in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ida (Herzog), from Safov, and Sigmund Natzler. His parents were from Jewish families The year of his birth has been a matter of speculation. While his obituary in the New York Times claimed 1922, photographic evidence has revealed that it was significantly earlier; most sources now cite 1911. Little is known about his early years. His mother was a beautiful actress who appeared in German films between 1919 and 1929. Nalder himself was an Apache dancer and stage actor in the 1920s and 1930s, and the anecdotes he occasionally shared with friends hint at a colorful career even before his life in films. Photos of Nalder from this period, which surfaced after his death, reveal a handsome young man in his early 20s, almost unrecognizable as the man we know from celluloid.
The burns that scarred the lower third of his face and forever cast him as a villain are also a source of uncertainty; Nalder had at least three different explanations for them. Whatever the true cause, it was this disfigurement which bestowed upon him a permanent place in the annals of film. His career was punctuated by two definite high points. The first was his role as Rien, the leering assassin of Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). His second great triumph was as the horrifyingly effective vampire Barlow in the TV mini-series Salem's Lot (1979). In between he had some memorable film and television appearances -- the cold Russian operative in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the yellow-jacketed gunman in Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), a part written especially for him, the lecherous witch-hunter Albino in Adrian Hoven's notorious Mark of the Devil (1970), the title character in the The Return of Andrew Bentley (1961), and the alien Shras, Andorian ambassador, in the classic Star Trek episode Journey to Babel (1967).
Though small, Nalder's role in Casanova (1976) was also a source of personal pride. Along the way were many forgotten roles, and a few of which he himself was embarrassed (he insisted on being credited as Detlef Van Berg in the sex films Dracula Sucks (1978) and Blue Ice (1985)). However dubious the quality of some of the films in which he appeared, his gaunt face, expressive eyes, and soft, haunting voice never fail to absorb. In real life, Nalder was soft-spoken man of considerable culture and taste who knew four languages and enjoyed the opera ("Tosca" was reputedly his favorite). He died of bone cancer at a Santa Monica nursing home on November 11, 1991. With him went the truth behind "The Face That Launched a Thousand Trips" and the keys to much of his mystery-shrouded past.
Reggie Nalder may be far from a household name, and he may have appeared in many films of questionable artistic merit. But he has provided film buffs with indelible cinematic images and characterizations for which he was singularly well-equipped. Whether you were chilled by the methodical killer behind the curtain at the Albert Hall in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" or terrified by the shining eyes of the vampire of "Salem's Lot," you -- along with cinema-goers the world over -- have felt the icy touch of Reggie Nalder. - Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Rubén Blades was born on 16 July 1948 in Panama City, Panama. He is an actor and composer, known for Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), The Counselor (2013) and Safe House (2012). He has been married to Luba Mason since 2006. He was previously married to Lisa Lebenzon.- Actor
- Producer
Brion James was born February 20, 1945, in Redlands, California, to Ida Mae (Buckelew) and Jimmy James. The family soon moved to Beaumont, California (between Los Angeles and Palm Springs), where his parents built and operated a movie theater, where stars such as Gene Autry would occasionally stop by. After graduating from Beaumont High School in 1962, Brion attended San Diego State University, majoring in theater arts. Upon graduation he moved to New York to study acting while working a variety of jobs to support himself in the early years. He also did a stint in the National Guard. He and fellow actor Tim Thomerson served in the army together and later made several films together. A veteran of over 100 television and 120+ movie roles, James is best remembered for roles such as the replicant Leon in Blade Runner (1982), Gen. Munro in The Fifth Element (1997), Big Teddy in Cabin Boy (1994), Max Jenke in House III: The Horror Show (1989) (his personal favorite) as well as countless other parts in films like Southern Comfort (1981), The Player (1992), Tango & Cash (1989), 48 Hrs. (1982), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Enemy Mine (1985) and Silverado (1985). Brion is survived by two brothers, Craig James of Scottsdale, Arizona, Chester James of Beaumont, California and their families.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Sam Neill was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, to army parents, an English-born mother, Priscilla Beatrice (Ingham), and a New Zealand-born father, Dermot Neill. His family moved to the South Island of New Zealand in 1954. He went to boarding schools and then attended the universities at Canterbury and Victoria. The 6-foot tall star has a BA in English Literature. Following his graduation, he worked with the New Zealand Players and other theater groups. He also was a film director, editor and scriptwriter for the New Zealand National Film Unit for 6 years.
Sam Neill is internationally recognised for his contribution to film and television. He is well known for his roles in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) and Jane Campion's Academy Award Winning film The Piano (1993). Other film roles include The Daughter (2015), Backtrack (2015) opposite Adrien Brody, MindGamers (2015), United Passions (2014), A Long Way Down (2014), Escape Plan (2013), The Hunter (2011) with Willem Dafoe, Daybreakers (2009), Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), Little Fish (2005) opposite Cate Blanchett, Skin (2008), Dean Spanley (2008), Wimbledon (2004), Yes (2004), Perfect Strangers (2003), Dirty Deeds (2002), The Zookeeper (2001), Bicentennial Man (1999) opposite Robin Williams, The Horse Whisperer (1998) alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, Sleeping Dogs (1977), and My Brilliant Career (1979).
He received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the NBC miniseries Merlin (1998). He also received a Golden Globe nomination for One Against the Wind (1991), and for Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983). The British Academy of Film and Television honoured Sam's work in Reilly by naming him Best Actor. Sam received an AFI Award for Best Actor for his role in Jessica (2004).
Other television includes House of Hancock (2015), Rake (2010), Doctor Zhivago (2002), To the Ends of the Earth (2005), The Tudors (2007) with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Crusoe (2008), Alcatraz (2012) and recently in Old School (2014) opposite Bryan Brown, Peaky Blinders (2013) alongside Cillian Murphy and The Dovekeepers (2015) for CBS Studios.- Actress
- Director
Rebecca Gayheart was born on 12 August 1971 in Hazard, Kentucky, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Jawbreaker (1999), Nothing to Lose (1997) and Urban Legend (1998). She has been married to Eric Dane since 29 October 2004. They have two children.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Soundtrack
Tall, gaunt, and particularly effective in horror and drama films, British actor Julian Sands was born in Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, to Brenda and William Sands. He came to the attention of NBC when the network cast him in the TV miniseries The Sun Also Rises (1984) and then with Anthony Hopkins in the television film A Married Man (1983). Sands also got noticed for his very small roles in Privates on Parade (1983) and The Killing Fields (1984). It wasn't until his funny and romantic role opposite Denholm Elliott in A Room with a View (1985) and then his unusual role in Gothic (1986) that he garnered audience acclaim.
He continued work on screen in Vibes (1988), Impromptu (1991) and Steven Spielberg's Arachnophobia (1990), until his most remembered role as Warlock (1989), directed by Steve Miner. The film was a major success and he returned for the sequel, Warlock: The Armageddon (1993). Other credits include Naked Lunch (1991), Tale of a Vampire (1992) and the title role in Dario Argento's The Phantom of the Opera (1998). Sands has more recently been in Stephen King's Rose Red (2002) and was occasionally seen on the English stage.
Sands disappeared on January 13, 2023 after going for a hike near the Mount Baldy area of California's San Bernardino Mountains. Local authorities and search and rescue teams conducted over six weeks of multiple ground and aerial searches, which were unsuccessful. On June 24, 2023, hikers near Mount Baldy discovered human remains. On June 27, 2023, local authorities confirmed the remains to be those of Sands. He was 65 years old.- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Barbara Linnea Quigley was born in Davenport, Iowa, on May 27, 1958 to Heath and Dorothy Quigley. Her Mother was a housewife and her Father a noted Chiropractor and psychologist. After moving with her family to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, the short, petite Linnea began working at a Jack Lalanne Spa. There she was encouraged to try modeling and acting. She soon began getting small parts in commercials and B-movies, such as "Stone Cold Dead" (1979) and "Wheeler" (1975). Her breakout role was in "The Return of the Living Dead" (1985), which has gone on to become a cult classic, and established her firmly as "Queen of the Bs". Her reign was supreme in the late 1980s with such films as "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama" (1988), "Night of the Demons (1988), and "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers" (1988) In 2001 Linnea moved to Florida to be closer to her ailing parents who had settled there after her father retired. As of this writing she resides in south Florida with her beloved dogs. She is a devoted animal rights advocate, and also leads a strict Vegan lifestyle. Linnea continues to appear in, and produce films. She also appears at Horror Conventions around the globe, where she is a fan favorite. She has written two books about her life in the B-movie industry, "Bio & Chainsaw," in 1992 and "I'm Screaming as Fast as I Can" in 1995. After more than 35 years and more than 125 films, Linnea Quigley is still "America's Scream Queen".- John Speredakos was born on 11 August 1962 in New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for The Mind's Eye (2015), Wendigo (2001) and Crumb Catcher (2023).
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Clu Gulager was born William Martin Gulager in Holdenville, Hughes County, Oklahoma. His nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time Clu was born. He grew up on his uncle's ranch as a cowhand and when he was old enough he joined the United States Marine Corps for a stint from 1946-1948. He got the acting bug being in army plays so when he left he used the GI Bill of Rights to study acting. During this time he met his wife, actress Miriam Byrd-Nethery. They wed in 1952 and had two children: John (born 1957) and Tom (born 1965) The couple was married for more than 50 years until her death in 2003 from cancer.
Gulager's career started off as bit parts on popular western shows usually playing the heavy. Shows like Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, Laramie, Riverboat. He scored big with The Untouchables as "Mad Dog Coll", which led to him being offered the role of "Billy the Kid" on The Tall Man from 1960-1962, which also starred Barry Sullivan as "Pat Garrett". The show was pulled after two seasons reportedly because the powers that were didn't like kids seeing Billy the Kid as a hero.
His next big break was playing Deputy Emmett Ryker on The Virginian from 1964-1968. During this time he also fared very well as Lee Marvin's sidekick in the 1964 TV film The Killers, which was considered too violent for TV so it went to theaters. Having being burned out being a TV star he tried to break into films, mostly as a character actor. His stand out films were The Last Picture Show (1971, playing Ellen Burstyn's lover), McQ (1974) with John Wayne, and A Force of One (1979) with Chuck Norris, with whom he would later work in the 1990s on Walker, Texas Ranger.
Gulager was also cast in San Francisco International Airport, with Lloyd Bridges, which failed big time. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he was in almost every show around, playing bit parts. Then the unthinkable happened: he found a second career as a horror film actor; he followed the footsteps of other TV actors who were stuck in TV hell, like Doug McClure (his costar from The Virginian) and Christopher George. Both men found new careers in B-movies and late night horror films. Gulager finally got a lead part in Dan O'Bannon's cult classic The Return of the Living Dead (1985). He also was in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985).
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he appeared in TV and in the occasional horror flick. In 2005 he started acting in his son's horror films -- the Feasts movies and Piranha DD in his 80s. Not letting age get in his way, he was a horror fan favorite and still showed up at conventions at almost 90.- Actress
- Writer
Best known as Hammer Films' most seductive female vampire of the early 1970s, the Polish-born Pitt possessed dark, alluring features and a sexy figure that made her just right for Gothic horror! Ingrid Pitt (born Ingoushka Petrov) survived World War II and became a well-known actress on the East Berlin stage, however, she did not appear on screen until well into her twenties. She appeared in several minor roles in Spanish films in the mid 1960s, mostly uncredited, before landing the supporting role of undercover agent "Heidi", assisting Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton defeat the Third Reich in Where Eagles Dare (1968).
Her exotic looks and eastern European accent came to the notice of Hammer executives who cast Pitt as vampiress "Mircalla" in the sensual horror thriller The Vampire Lovers (1970). The film was a box office success with its blend of horror and sexual overtones, and Pitt was a beautiful, yet ferocious bloodsucker. Next up, Pitt was cast by Amicus Productions as another gorgeous vampire in the episode entitled "The Cloak" in the superb The House That Dripped Blood (1971). This time, Ingrid played an actress appearing in horror films alongside screen vampire Jon Pertwee, but then later reveals herself to be a real vampire keen on recruiting fresh blood.
Ingrid donned the fangs for her third vampire film in a row, Countess Dracula (1971) which was loosely based around the legend of the 16th century bloodthirsty Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Whilst not as successful, as the two prior outings, Ingrid Pitt had firmly established herself as one of the key ladies of British horror of the 1970s. She then appeared in the underrated at the time - now widely regarded as a classic - The Wicker Man (1973) as an uncooperative civil servant annoying Edward Woodward in his search for a missing child. Further work followed in The Final Option (1982), as "Elvira" in the adaptation of the John le Carré Cold War thriller Smiley's People (1982), Wild Geese II (1985) and The Asylum (2000).
Ingrid Pitt made regular appearances at horror conventions and fan gatherings, had penned several books on her horror career, and she relished talking to fans about her on screen vampiric exploits. Ingrid's fan club is known as the "Pitt of Horror"! A much loved and genuine cult figure of modern horror cinema, she died on November 23, 2010, just two days after her 73rd birthday.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Brian Earl Thompson was born on August 28, 1959 in Ellensburg, Washington. Raised on the Columbia River in Longview, he learned the value of academics and athletics, as the son of two teachers and the second of six siblings. His interest in acting was first sparked during his senior year of high school with the role of the Russian ballet instructor, Boris Kolenkhov, in the comedy "You Can't Take it With You". Under the pretense of attending Central Washington University to play football and study business management, he quietly auditioned for every available play, treading the boards for a dozen school productions, from musicals and operas to the more lighthearted fare of Neil Simon.
Earning a scholarship to the University of California-Irvine, he sailed through a three-year Master of Fine Arts program, learning from such theatrical luminaries as playwright Edward Albee, Robert Cohen and Jerzy Grotoswski, and supplementing his education through work with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. He began to audition theatrically before graduation, and by that time, he had his SAG card, an agent and five professional credits, including James Cameron's The Terminator (1984), where he and Bill Paxton's clothes were forcibly removed by a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger. About a year after Arnold took Brian's clothes, Sylvester Stallone wanted a hack at Brian as well. After seven auditions and a screen test, Brian earned the right to get impaled on a meat hook, then burned alive, Stallone's Cobra (1986). This began a string of credits that has left Thompson in and around some of Hollywood's biggest and most projects.
Brian has tackled two superhero roles as well: first, Conan the Librarian (1999), starring red in the title role, a PBS special to encourage kids to read. He also earned critical acclaim playing the larger-than-life role of Hercules in Jason and the Argonauts (2000). Probably the first role that demanded use of his classical background as well as his 6' 3" muscled frame. Brian says that no gym can claim him as a member, and that his physique is kept honed by years of windsurfing and kitesurfing. Taking a curiously "musical" approach to his craft, the actor continually seeks fresh rhythms for each new role. Brian verifies his well-rounded nature with a resume that lists such special skills as martial arts (black belt Hapkido), piano and sushi rolling. He currently resides at home with his son Jordan and daughter Daphne.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Former Oakland Raiders/Kansas City Chiefs football star who rose to prominence as one of the first African-American male action stars of the "blaxploitation" genre of the early 1970s, who has since gone on to a long and illustrious career as an actor, director, writer, and producer! Burly, yet handsome 6' 3" Williamson first came to attention in the TV series Julia (1968) playing love interest, Steve Bruce. However, his rugged, athletic physique made him a natural for energetic roles and he quickly established himself as a street wise, tough guy in films including That Man Bolt (1973), Black Caesar (1973), and Mean Johnny Barrows (1975). Talented Williamson established his own production company "Po 'Boy Productions" in 1974, which has produced over 40 movies to date. Like many young American stars of the 1960s and '70s, Williamson was noticed by Italian producers who cast him in a slew of B-grade action movies that occupied a lot of his work in the 1980s. From the late '80s onwards, much of his work has been of the "straight to video" fare (often playing police officers), but none could deny he has kept actively busy in movies and TV for over three decades, both in front of and behind the camera. More recently, indie director Robert Rodriguez cast him alongside FX guru Tom Savini as two vampire killing bikers, in his bloody action film From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), and he has most recently appeared on screen (displaying his wonderful comedy skills) playing grumpy Captain Dobey in Starsky & Hutch (2004).- Elizabeth Kaitan was born on July 19, 1960 in Hungary. She was brought to New York City by her mother at the age of eight.
Kaitan moved to Manhattan at age 18 in order to fulfill her lifelong ambition of being an actress in motion pictures. She studied her craft at the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts and was a member of the repertory company the American Theatre of Arts for several years (Kaitan acted in works by William Shakespeare as well as contemporary dramas). In addition, Kaitan kept herself afloat by doing modeling work for the Bonnie Kay Agency in New York City.
She made her film debut in the raucous comedy Waitress! (1982) and got her SAG card by doing a one-line bit part as a German girl in Woody Allen's Zelig (1983). Elizabeth moved to Los Angeles, California in 1984. She alternated between lead and supporting roles in a bunch of entertainingly trashy low-budget exploitation features in the horror, action, comedy and science fiction genres. Kaitan appeared as Candy in the "Vice Academy" film series. Her other memorable parts include Jennifer Statson in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987), Daria in Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987), one of the titular airheads in Assault of the Killer Bimbos (1988), Julie Johnson in Necromancer (1988), Robin in Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988), and Gretchen Hope in Roller Blade Warriors: Taken by Force (1989). Kaitan was particularly impressive in a dual starring role as both frustrated unhappy housewife Beth and more uninhibited fantasy lover Liza in the steamy Night Club (1989). Moreover, she occasionally popped up in minor parts in such mainstream films as The Lonely Guy (1984), Twins (1988), and Spy Hard (1996). Alas, she voluntarily quit acting in the late 1990s and married a Los Angeles sheriff's deputy. Kaitan now works as a secretary for controversial conservative political activist David Horowitz. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Signifying intelligence, eloquence, versatility and quiet intensity, one of the more important, critically acclaimed black actors to gain a Hollywood foothold in the 1970s was Paul Winfield. He was born in 1939 in Dallas, Texas, where he lived in his early years before moving with his family to Los Angeles' Watts district. He showed early promise as a student at Manual Arts High School, earning distinction with several performance awards. As a senior, he earned his first professional acting job and extended his theatrical education with a two-year scholarship to the University of Portland in Oregon. Subsequent scholarships led to his studies at Stanford and Los Angeles City College, among other colleges. He left U.C.L.A. just six credits short of his Bachelor's degree.
Paul's first big break came in 1964 when actor/director Burgess Meredith gave him a role in Le Roi Jones' controversial one-act play "The Dutchman and the Toilet". Director Meredith cast him again four years in "The Latent Heterosexual" with Zero Mostel. Although he won a contract at Columbia Pictures in 1966 and built up his on-camera career with a succession of television credits, he continued to focus on the legitimate stage. A member of the Stanford Repertory Theatre, he concentrated on both classic and contemporary plays. In 1969, Paul joined the Inner City Cultural Center Theatre in Los Angeles for two years, which offered a drama program for high school students.
In the late 1960s, Paul redirected himself back to performing on television and in films with guest work in more than 40 series on the small screen, including a boyfriend role on the first season of the landmark black sitcom Julia (1968) starring Diahann Carroll. In films, he was given a featured role in the Sidney Poitier film The Lost Man (1969), and earned comparable roles in R.P.M. (1970) and Brother John (1971) before major stardom occurred.
1972 proved to be a banner year for Paul after winning the male lead opposite Cicely Tyson in the touching classic film Sounder (1972). His towering performance as a sharecropper who is imprisoned and tortured for stealing a ham for his impoverished family earned him an Oscar nomination for "Best Actor" -- the third black actor (Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones preceded him) to receive such an honor at the time.
From there a host of films and quality television roles began arriving on his doorstep. In mini-movies, Paul portrayed various historical/entertainment giants including Thurgood Marshall, Don King and baseball's Roy Campanella, and was Emmy-nominated for his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in King (1978) with Sounder co-star Cicely Tyson as wife Coretta. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he earned solid distinction in such prestige projects as Backstairs at the White House (1979), Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (another Emmy nomination), The Sophisticated Gents (1981), The Blue and the Gray (1982), Sister, Sister (1982), James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985), Under Siege (1986) and The Women of Brewster Place (1989).
Although the big screen did not offer the same consistent quality following his breakthrough with Sounder, he nevertheless turned in strong roles in Conrack (1974), Huckleberry Finn (1974), A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977) (again with Ms. Tyson), Damnation Alley (1977), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and White Dog (1982).
Surprisingly, Paul never achieved the promise of a Sidney Poitier-like stardom and his roles diminished in size. Relegated to character roles, he still appeared in such quality television as Breathing Lessons (1994), although he was not the major focus. After two nominations, he finally won the Emmy for a guest performance as a judge on Picket Fences (1992). Paul's showier work at this period of time included the film Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999) and a surprise cross-dressing cameo as Aunt Matilda in Relax... It's Just Sex (1998).
On stage, Paul graced such productions as "Richard III" (at New York's Lincoln Center Theatre), "Othello", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "The Seagull", "A Few Good Men", "Happy Endings" and "Checkmates", which became his sole Broadway credit. Paul also served as Artist in Residence at the University of Hawaii and subsequently at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
In his final years, Winfield narrated the A&E crime series City Confidential (1998), appeared as a teacher in a television adaptation of his earlier success Sounder (2003), and enjoyed a recurring role as Sam for many years on the series Touched by an Angel (1994).
Suffering from obesity and diabetes in later life, Paul Winfield passed away from a heart attack at age 64 in 2004, and was survived by a sister, Patricia. His longtime companion of 30 years, set designer and architect Charles Gillan Jr. predeceased him by two years.- Actress
- Composer
Nicki Aycox lived a full artistic life since the age of nine, when she fell in love with the family piano and began playing music. By the time she had reached her preteens Nicki was performing Beethoven for audiences all around Oklahoma, until her family had a huge financial setback and was forced to sell her piano. Nicki said that this sad circumstance played a major role in her shift to the theater. Like a lot of kids her age she began performing in her high school theater, and also in drama competitions. She won state titles in different categories, and became very comfortable with being in front of an audience. She once said that she was on stage long before she ever actually sat in an audience. After high school graduation she attended the University of Oklahoma and began serious academic study. Soon, however, she found herself driving to California to enroll in the theater department at Long Beach State. While working two jobs and participating in the theater department, Nicki found little time to study and take a full class load. In her second year at Long Beach State Nicki was able to sign with a small agency in Hollywood, and thus began her career as a professional performer - a career which began relatively quickly compared to most. She was working small bit parts on several popular networks and shows within a year of making the move from Oklahoma to Los Angeles. In the beginning of her career Nicki acted opposite actor Stephen Rae in an HBO film called "Double Tap", as well as appearing in shows like "Third Rock from the Sun", NBC's "Providence", David Kelley's "Ally McBeal", and in the X-Files episode "Rush" in 1999. That role from the TV show led to a role in the second "X-Files" film "I Want to Believe" in 2008. In a time when an unspoken difference between "film" actors and "television" actors existed, Aycox did not allow this rule to apply to her.
Her work during these early years included guest spots on "CSI", and "Dark Angel", a recurring role n NBC's "ED" playing the wild and crazy sister of Julie Bowen. At some points Nicki would be pulling double duty playing roles on different shows. She played the sister of Katherine Morris on CBS's "Cold Case", while shooting the series "LAX" with Heather Locklear. By 2005, Aycox was made a series regular on shows such as FX's "Over There" created by Steven Bochco and Chris Gerolmo. She moved on from there to play a very memorable role as a psychotic serial killer in an episode of "Criminal Minds" titled "The Perfect Storm". The following year Nicki appeared in the Halle Berry film "Perfect Stranger". One of her most widely known roles was that of Meg Masters in "Supernatural".
In the years 2009-2013 Aycox enjoyed success as a series regular as Jamie Allen in the Bruckheimer series "Dark Blue". Next she was cast as Lisa Matthews in the Indie film "Lifted", directed by Oscar nominated director Lexi Alexander. Around this time she also awarded a best actress award by the Buffalo Niagara film festival for her portrayal as a German woman fighting to save her sanity in the World War II film "Christina". Her co-star, Stephen Lang, was also awarded for his role as Inspector Reinheart. Aycox spent her final years reclaiming her love of music, playing the guitar and singing for audiences, as well as continuing her acting career.
Aycox revealed on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with leukemia in March 2021. She passed away on November 16th, 2022.- Actor
- Make-Up Department
- Special Effects
Actor/SFX wizard/stuntman/director Tom Savini was born in Pittsburgh. Inspired by the film Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), a young Savini became fascinated with the magic and illusion of film. He spent his youth in his room creating characters by tirelessly practicing make-up. Later, as a combat photographer in Vietnam, Savini saw first-hand the gruesome carnage for which he later gained fame, simulating it on screen.
He has acquired a remarkable cult following among film fans, primarily due to his ground-breaking SFX in the "splatter movie" explosion of the early 1980s. Along with fellow special make-up legends Dick Smith and Rob Bottin, Savini was one of the key SFX people behind the startling make-up & EFX seen in the fantasy/horror genre films of the 1980s-'90s. Savini was heavily influenced by the remarkable silent-era actor Lon Chaney, and he sought to emulate the amazing theatrical make-up effects that were a hallmark of Chaney's career. In Savini's insightful book "Grande Illusions", he speaks of his early attempts at applying prosthetics to his face using "spearmint gum", having misinterpreted that he was meant to actually use "spirit gum"! His first work was in low-budget fare, providing SFX and make-up for independently made horror films such as Deranged (1974) and Martin (1977).
He really caught the attention of horror buffs with his grisly effects in the cult George A. Romero-directed zombie film Dawn of the Dead (1978), and then in the controversial slasher film Friday the 13th (1980), the movie generally identified as the kickstart for the aforementioned "splatter movie" genre. Savini also contributed the incredible EFX & make-up to other splatter thrillers such as Maniac (1980), The Burning (1981), Creepshow (1982) and Romero's third "Dead" film, Day of the Dead (1985) (for which he won a Saturn Award). In 1990, Savini directed his feature film debut Night of the Living Dead (1990), the remake of the original zombie-classic.
Not content with only being behind the lens, however, Savini has appeared in dozens of films, and can be seen demonstrating his capable acting skills as "Morgan, the Black Knight" in Knightriders (1981), as "Blades", one of the biker gang members in Dawn of the Dead (1978) and as "Sex Machine", another leather-clad biker--but this time with a groin-mounted gun--in the wild vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Cassandra Peterson was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She began her career at age 17 as the youngest showgirl in Las Vegas history in the show "Vive Les Girls" at the Dunes Hotel. After receiving advice from "The King" himself, Elvis Presley, she traveled to Europe where she pursued a career as a singer and actor. She worked in several Italian films, including Federico Fellini's Roma (1972) and performed throughout Europe as lead singer of an Italian rock band.
Upon returning to the United States, she toured the country as star of her own musical-comedy show, "Mama's Boys". She eventually settled in Hollywood, where she spent four and a half years with L.A.'s foremost improvisational comedy group, The Groundlings. In 1981, she auditioned for the role of horror hostess on a local Los Angeles television station. Her show, Elvira's Movie Macabre (1981), and her newly created character, Elvira, became an overnight sensation.
Cassandra has used Elvira's celebrity status to bring attention to many worthy causes and organizations over the years, including her well-known work for animal welfare and raising money and awareness for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. In addition to co-writing and performing in both the local L.A. and nationally syndicated television versions of "Movie Macabre", she co-wrote, produced and starred in two feature films, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) and Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001). In 2010, she returned to syndicated television in a reboot of her original series, Elvira's Movie Macabre (2010). She returned in 2014 in a similar show format for Hulu's 13 Nights of Elvira. Her latest endeavors include producing, writing and starring in Elvira's 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special, Special - a 2021 four-hour special streaming on Shudder, and Dr. Elvira, a Halloween promotional mini-series for Netflix.
Cassandra Peterson has spent over four decades solidifying the Elvira brand that has become synonymous with Halloween and the horror genre.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
John C. McGinley's path to stardom is a story that reads like a classic Hollywood script. While an understudy in New York in the Circle-In-The-Square production of John Patrick Shanley's "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," he was spotted by director Oliver Stone and soon after was cast in "Platoon," the first of a long list of collaborations between Stone and McGinley which includes "Wall Street," "Talk Radio," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Nixon" and "Any Given Sunday."
He stars as the title character in IFC's scripted comedy-horror series, "Stan Against Evil," on which he also serves as a producer. John C. stars as disgruntled former police sheriff 'Stanley Miller,' a sour, aging bulldog who has recently lost his position as head honcho due to an angry outburst at his wife's funeral. When the new sheriff opens his eyes to the plague of angry demons haunting their small New Hampshire town, 'Stan' begrudgingly joins an alliance with her to fight them off.
John C.'s deep commitment to independent films has driven him to star in and complete production on three upcoming motion pictures in 2016 alone! James Gunn's "The Belko Experiment," Paul Shoulberg's "The Good Catholic" and Richard Dresser's "Rounding Third."
He is an audience favorite for his hilarious portrayal of 'Dr. Perry Cox' in the Emmy-nominated medical comedy series, "Scrubs," which ended its successful nine season run in 2010. He starred for two seasons in TBS's workplace comedy series "Ground Floor," which reunited him with creator Bill Lawrence ("Scrubs"). John C. played 'Mr. Mansfield,' the critical boss to hot-shot young banker 'Brody' (Skylar Austin). He also made a memorable arc on season 6 of USA Networks' hit drama series "Burn Notice."
John C.'s impressive career in film spans a diverse range of characters in over seventy films to date, including such features as the recent "Get A Job," "Alex Cross," "Wild Hogs," "Identity," "The Animal," "The Rock," "Nothing to Lose," "Set It Off," "Seven," "Office Space," "Mother," "Wagons East," "Surviving the Game," "On Deadly Ground," "Point Break," "Highlander II," "A Midnight Clear" and "Fat Man and Little Boy." He also previously starred opposite Ice Cube in Sony/Revolution Studios' feature, "Are We Done Yet?," the sequel to the hit comedy "Are We There Yet?" He recently received critical acclaim for his role as Brooklyn Dodgers' radio broadcaster 'Red Barber' in Warner Bros.' "42," the life story of Jackie Robinson and his history-making signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
As a testament to his passion for the independent film community, John C. has appeared in director Eriq La Salle's "Crazy As Hell" and director Scott Silver's "Johns." He also worked on "Truth or Consequences, N.M.," Kiefer Sutherland's feature directorial debut and on "Colin Fitz," a film John C. co-produced which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. He starred in director D.B. Sweeney's independent feature, "Two Tickets to Paradise," which received raves on the festival circuit. For his performance in the later film, John C. was awarded Method Fest's Festival Director's Award, which is awarded for special recognition/excellence in film.
John C. is a partner at McGinley Entertainment Inc., an independent film production company with several projects currently in development. John C. first worked both sides of the camera, serving double duty as actor and producer for the romantic comedy "Watch It!" (with Peter Gallagher and Lili Taylor).
He received stunning reviews for his starring role in Dean Koontz's gripping and highly rated suspense drama, "Intensity," a four-hour original film for FOX-TV. He executive-produced and starred opposite John Cusack in HBO Pictures' western, "The Jack Bull," directed by John Badham; and he appeared in HBO NYC's "The Pentagon Wars."
In addition to film and television, John C.'s background is heavily rooted in theater. He received stellar reviews for his starring performance as 'Dave Moss' in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Glengarry Glen Ross." According to Newsday, "John C. McGinley is especially dazzling as the hothead who plans the office crime." The play also starred Al Pacino and Bobby Cannavale and ran through January 20, 2013.
He was previously featured on Broadway in "Requiem for a Heavyweight" and off-Broadway in "The Ballad of Soapy Smith" and the original cast production of Eric Bogosian's "Talk Radio," both at the renowned Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. He often cites Papp as the most instrumental force behind his career.
In May 2005, John C. was invited and honored to deliver the keynote address at the commencement ceremony for the University of California San Francisco's (UCSF) School of Medicine, one of the top medical schools in the nation.
As the father of Max, his eighteen-year-old son with Down syndrome, John C. is committed to building awareness and acceptance of people with Down syndrome. He serves as an Ambassador for Special Olympics and is a board member of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation. John C. is also one of the original creators, in conjunction with Special Olympics, of the groundbreaking "Spread the Word to End the Word" national campaign to eradicate the "R" word (retard). He has blogged repeatedly on the Huffington Post, advocating acceptance and awareness of people with special needs as well as the importance of eliminating the "R" word.
He can be seen in high profile commercial campaigns for Speed Stick (as Coach Speedman), Halls Cough Drops (as Tough Love/menthol-lyptus and Soft Love/honey-lemon) and Carhartt (as the voice of founder Hamilton Carhartt).
John C. resides in Los Angeles and enjoys stand-up paddle surfing, weight lifting and golf. He married Nichole Kessler on April 7, 2007 at the couple's home in Malibu and they now have two young daughters Billie Grace and Kate Aleena, in addition to big brother Max.- Nancy Anne Allen was born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City, the youngest of three children. Her father, Eugene Allen, was a New York police lieutenant. At a young age, she trained for a dancing career at the High School of Performing Arts, and then attended Jose Quintano's School for Young Professionals. In dozens of television commercials from the age of 15, Nancy made her first film appearance in The Last Detail (1973) with Jack Nicholson. Three years later, she furnished the standard for all future bitch-goddess teenagers as Chris Hargensen in Stephen King's Carrie (1976), taken to the big screen by director Brian De Palma. Nancy then married De Palma in 1979. She next appeared in Steven Spielberg's I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978); for the next few years, she appeared only in De Palma's films: Home Movies (1979), Dressed to Kill (1980), and she starred with John Travolta in Blow Out (1981).
After her divorce from De Palma in 1984, Nancy's film opportunities were supposedly narrowed, but then she surprised the whole world when she performed as Officer Anne Lewis in the sci-fi cult film RoboCop (1987), along with Peter Weller. Here, she furnished another standard as a tough but at the same time feminine policewoman, whose sex would not interfere with her actions. After the success of Robocop (1987), she performed as Patricia Gardner in the second sequel Poltergeist III (1988). She came back in RoboCop 2 (1990) and in order to get more involved with her character, Nancy learned martial arts and police training for real. She returned again in RoboCop 3 (1993), though her co-star Peter Weller did not this time. In 1993, Nancy joined several other veteran stars in Acting on Impulse (1993), and married co-star Craig Shoemaker, in the same year. A few years later, she divorced Craig and some time after she married again.
She later appeared in some diverse films: Dusting Cliff 7 (1997), Secret of the Andes (1998), Circuit (2001), and she had a guest appearance in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998). Her last performance was for the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), in the episode "Escape" aired on December 2, 2003. Allen has appeared in a number of documentaries about her most famous films, including Dressed to Kill (1980), Carrie (1976), Blow Out (1981), Poltergeist III (1988), and the RoboCop trilogy. She also hosted Andrew J. Kuehn's horror film documentary Terror in the Aisles (1984), along with Donald Pleasence.
Interested in projecting the image of a strong but at the same time feminine woman, she managed to get away from the victim roles she was always offered, she also was able to get away from the stereotype of the beautiful but dumb woman in most action films. She is an environmentalist that traded her Volvo car for an Hybrid car in order to furnish the example. She is also an activist against breast cancer along with her friend actress Wendie Jo Sperber, who created the foundation WeSpark. Her last appearance on television was on the Inside E! story of her co-star John Travolta and the A&E Biography of Travolta - both appearances in 2004. Nowadays, Allen lives a quiet life along with her family and friends somewhere in the United States. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
New York City-bred actor Glynn Russell Turman, born on January 31, 1947, who enjoyed his first taste of success as a young teenager, originating the role of "Travis Younger" on Broadway in Lorraine Hansberry's landmark play "A Raisin in the Sun" in 1959 opposite Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Diana Sands as his various family members. While he did not play the role when it transferred to film in 1961, he intensified his studies at Manhattan's renowned High School of Performing Arts.
Upon graduation, Glynn apprenticed in regional companies throughout the country including Tyrone Guthrie's Repertory Theatre in which he performed in late 60s productions of "Good Boys," "Harper's Ferry," "The Visit" and "The House of Atreus." He made his Los Angeles stage debut in Vinnette Carroll's "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground" and earned TV marks for appearances in "Daktari," "Julia," "Room 222," a featured part in the TV movie Carter's Army (1970), and a regular role on the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1964). An impressive 1974 performance in "The Wine Sellers" earned him a Los Angeles Critics Award nomination and a Dramalogue Award. The play was entitled "What The Wine Sellers Buy" when he played it earlier on Broadway. He won his first NAACP Image Award for his work in the play "Eyes of the American."
A writer and stage director as well, Glynn received his second NAACP Image award for his directing of "Deadwood Dick" at the Inner City Cultural Center. He segued these directing talents to TV where he helmed several episodes of "The Parenthood," "Hanging with Mr. Cooper" and "The Wayans Bros," among others. He also directed during his seasons of steady employment on A Different World (1987), in which he played the role of Colonel Taylor for five seasons (1988-1993). The show's theme song was sung by his late ex-wife, legendary "Queen of Soul" artist Aretha Franklin. They divorced in 1984 after six years.
Glynn began his film career in the 1970s with such "blaxploitation" flicks as Honky (1971), Five on the Black Hand Side (1973), Together Brothers (1974) and Thomasine & Bushrod (1974), then advanced to the cult classic Cooley High (1975), plus The River Niger (1976) and A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977). TV-movies included the prestigious Centennial (1978), Attica (1980) and Minstrel Man (1977), for which he won his third NAACP Image Award, Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad (1994), Buffalo Soldiers (1997) and Freedom Song (2000). In the midst of these early movie roles, he was once considered to play "Han Solo" in the original "Star Wars" film.
A regular fixture on the smaller screen, Glynn appeared in a host of guest appearances during this time included "The Mod Squad," "The Rookies," "The Blue Knight," "The Paper Chase," "The Greatest American Hero," "Fame," "T.J. Hooker," "Hail to the Chief," "The Redd Foxx Show," "Matlock," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Touched by an Angel."
The actor has also participated in such mainstream, audience-favorite, adrenalin-packed movies as Gremlins (1984), Out of Bounds (1986), Deep Cover (1992), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Subterfuge (1996), Sahara (2005), Burlesque (2010), Super 8 (2011) and Bumblebee (2018) along with the more critically acclaimed films Kings of the Evening (2008), Race (2016) and Windows on the World (2019) have also come across his path. Adept at professional roles, Glynn has enjoyed recurring roles into the millennium on such TV series as The Wire (2002) (as a mayor); Episode #1.422 (as a judge); and Mr. Mercedes (2017) (as another judge).
Glynn has returned from time to time to the theatre (2013, "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"). The father of four children from his first and present third marriages (between singer Franklin).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola in Long Beach, California, the son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (whose brother is director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang. He is of Italian (father) and Polish and German (mother) descent. Cage changed his name early in his career to make his own reputation, succeeding brilliantly with a host of classic, quirky roles by the late 1980s.
Initially studying theatre at Beverly Hills High School (though he dropped out at seventeen), he secured a bit part in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) -- most of which was cut, dashing his hopes and leading to a job selling popcorn at the Fairfax Theater, thinking that would be the only route to a movie career. But a job reading lines with actors auditioning for uncle Francis' Rumble Fish (1983) landed him a role in that film, followed by the punk-rocker in Valley Girl (1983), which was released first and truly launched his career.
His one-time passion for method acting reached a personal limit when he smashed a street-vendor's remote-control car to achieve the sense of rage needed for his gangster character in The Cotton Club (1984).
In his early 20s, he dated Jenny Wright for two years and later linked to Uma Thurman. After a relationship of several years with Christina Fulton, a model, they split amicably and share custody of a son, Weston Cage (b. 1990). He also has a son with his ex-wife, Alice Kim Cage.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Rose Byrne was born in Balmain, Sydney, Australia. She is the daughter of Jane, a primary school administrator, and Robin Byrne, a semi-retired statistician and market researcher.
She landed her first role in a movie, Dallas Doll (1994), when she was 15 years old.
Since then, Rose has appeared in a variety of Australian televisions shows including Heartbreak High (1994), Echo Point (1995), and the film Two Hands (1999) alongside Heath Ledger. After this, she appeared in various movies like The Date (1999), My Mother Frank (2000), and Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967 (2000) for which she obtained the Female Volpi Cup at the Venice Festival in 2000.
Her first experience on a big-budget movie came when she played handmaiden, Dormé, to Natalie Portman, Padmé Amidala, in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). In 2003, she starred, coincidentally, as Rose Mortmain in the adaptation of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle (2003). In 2004, she acted in Wicker Park (2004) with Diane Kruger and Josh Hartnett. Here, she heard Wolfgang Petersen was looking for an actress for Briseis in his next movie Troy (2004) with Brad Pitt, she got the part and was recognised as one of the most promising actresses in Hollywood.
After Troy (2004), she played Edith in a TV adaptation of Casanova (2005). In September 2005, she started to act in Sunshine (2007), a Danny Boyle movie, where she plays the pilot in a space mission.- Actor
- Producer
- Make-Up Department
Xander's father was a painter and his mother a school teacher who sewed, providing him with costumes (his preference over toys). School plays and Community Theater were next. An experimental theater troupe in the area (which was an offshoot from Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater in New York) took Xander under their wing when he was 16. He credits this group for shaping him as both a person and an actor, committed to taking risks and remaining open to the unknown. Xander went to Hampshire College, the progressive brainchild of Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and the University of Massachusetts. He would continue in the theater at Hampshire, studying and doing plays at each of the other schools, all of which were there in the area.
A move to New York after college brought him access to private teachers from the Royal Academy of the Arts, the Moscow Arts Theater and HB Studios. Later in Los Angeles, Xander would spend time with Lee Strasberg at The Actor's Studio during the last years of his life.
Xander worked in Regional and Repertory Theaters in addition to off-Broadway while living in New York but, despite a classically trained theater background, he was increasingly drawn to the subtleties of film acting. A play, written by the great southern novelist Reynolds Price, called "Early Dark" had such a cinematic feel to it, that an agent saw the film acting potential in Xander and encouraged him to make the move out west.
Soon Mommie Dearest (1981) provided Xander with his film debut in the role of "Christopher Crawford", and simultaneously gave his career a slightly cultish twist. Alex Cox with Sid and Nancy (1986), James Cameron with Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Bernard Rose with Candyman (1992), Todd Haynes with Safe (1995), Mike Figgis with Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Andrew Niccol with Gattaca (1997) all helped to further associate Xander as an actor in his own rather unusual category.
Xander's choices were often determined by the opportunity to learn from directors he admired, certainly all those listed above fell into that category. Clint Eastwood with The Rookie (1990), Ron Howard with Apollo 13 (1995), Rob Reiner with A Few Good Men (1992), Michael Mann with Heat (1995), Wolfgang Petersen with Air Force One (1997), Steven Spielberg with Amistad (1997) are obvious examples of others Xander actively sought to work with and learn from.
From obscure independent movies where Xander could play lead roles to the big budget studio movies where he might often play smaller character-driven parts, an education was taking place. Just as working with older directors like Michael Cacoyannis on The Cherry Orchard (1999) and Robert M. Young on Human Error (2004) (aka "Human Error") brought insights to ways of working that are being lost in pop cultures tendency to slide toward slickness. Not to mention bringing him to places like Bulgaria and China along the way.
Perhaps because a life in the foreign services, or espionage was seen as a road not taken, living on location in foreign countries, working as an actor, has somewhat fulfilled the impulse. As early as 1987, a film took Xander to Nicaragua while the Contra War was taking place. It was during this three month shoot on the film Walker (1987) (starring Ed Harris) that Xander got an offer to do a film with his friend, director Jon Hess, in Chile for the following three months. Taking him straight from the revolutionary left-wing Sandanistas to Pinochet's fascist, right-wing regime.
In 2001, an offer came in to play a part on a TV pilot called 24 (2001). It was another shady agent-type, and reluctant to repeat his performance from Air Force One (1997) as the turncoat secret serviceman, Xander almost passed on the job. Fortunately for him, he said yes. He met his future wife, Sarah Clarke during the first day of filming. His character, "George Mason", was just a guest star in the pilot, but the producers liked what Xander brought to it and continued to write more episodes for him. By the second season, it had become perhaps the most interesting, leveled character Xander had ever gotten to play. Sarah and Xander were married in 2002 and had their daughters, Olwyn in 2006 and Rowan in 2010.
Other favorite roles of late have been "Arlen Pavich", the middle management dweeb, in Niki Caro's North Country (2005), and the Irish hooligan/railway foreman in David Von Ancken's Seraphim Falls (2006) and, more recently, "The King of Sodom" in Harold Ramis' Year One (2009), "Sonny" in David Pomes' Cook County (2008), the recovering meth head coming out of prison to discover the life he had left (and destroyed), and crazy "Uncle Doug" in David Wike's Out There (2006) (aka "Out There").- Actress
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Taissa Farmiga is an American actress, and the younger sister of Academy Award nominee Vera Farmiga, who is 21 years her senior. She was born in Readington Township, New Jersey, USA, to Ukrainian-born parents Michael and Lubomyra (Spas) Farmiga.
Unlike her older sister, Taissa initially had no interest in becoming an actor. However, she was persuaded to make her acting debut in Vera's directorial debut film Higher Ground (2011). Also playing the lead, Vera wanted to cast someone who was physically similar to play the younger version of her character. Taissa was 15 years old and, apart from a second grade school play, had no previous acting experience. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and Taissa's performance received critical acclaim. It was after Sundance that Taissa officially decided to pursue acting. At age 16, she landed a leading role as Violet Harmon in the Fox horror series American Horror Story (2011).
Farmiga has since starred in films from a range of genres, including Sofia Coppola's crime film The Bling Ring (2013), Jorge Dorado's psychological thriller Anna (2013), Todd Strauss-Schulson's horror comedy The Final Girls (2015), Hannah Fidell's romantic drama 6 Years (2015), Ti West's western In a Valley of Violence (2016), and Warren Beatty's comedy-drama Rules Don't Apply (2016).- Actor
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Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.
He was the son of Teunke Hauer (née Mellema) and Arend Hauer, actors who operated an acting school. As his parents were often touring, he and his three sisters were raised by a nanny. A bit of a rebel during his childhood, he chafed at the rules and rigors of school and was often getting into mischief. His grandfather had been the captain of a schooner and at age fifteen, Hauer ran away to work on a freighter for a year. Like his great-grandfather, Hauer was color-blind, which prevented him from furthering his career as a sailor.
Upon his return he attended night school and started working in the construction industry. When he again bombed at school, his parents enrolled him in drama classes. An amateur poet, he spent most of his time writing poetry and hanging out in Amsterdam coffee houses instead of studying. He was expelled for poor attendance and afterward spent a brief period in the Dutch navy.
Deciding he didn't like military life, Hauer honed his acting skills trying to convince his superiors he was mentally unfit and was sent to a special home for psych patients. It was an unpleasant place, but Hauer remained there until he had convinced his ranking officers that the military really did not need him.- Actress
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Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy (born 16 April 1996) is a British-American actress. She is best known for her roles as Beth Harmon in The Queen's Gambit (2020), Thomasin in the period horror film The Witch (2015), as Casey Cooke in the horror-thriller Split (2016), and as Lily in the black comedy thriller Thoroughbreds (2017). She has been the recipient of the Cannes Film Festival's Trophée Chopard and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Anya was born in Miami, the youngest of six children. Her father is Scottish who was born in South America, and her mother is Spanish-English who was born in Zambia in Africa, to an English diplomat father and a Spanish mother from Barcelona. Anya lived her childhood between Argentina and England. Her father was a banker and a powerboat racer, and her mother is a psychologist. Anya was raised in Argentina until the age of six, then moved to London, where the family lived in Victoria. She attended Northlands School in Buenos Aires, then preparatory school Hill House and Queen's Gate School in London, and is also a former ballet dancer. Anya's dream of becoming an actress came when she was very young and it finally became possible when she was offered a modeling job. It wasn't long until Taylor-Joy received her first part in the Show Business. When she was fourteen, she used her savings to move to New York, and at 16, she left school to pursue acting.
Anya's outstanding performance as Thomasin in Robert Eggers' period horror film The Witch (2015), and the positive reviews it got at the Sundance festival revealed her incredible potential to the world; it was widely released and viewed in 2016. She then starred as the title character in the thriller Morgan (2016), directed Luke Scott and also starring Kate Mara. She also starred in Vikram Gandhi's film Barry, which focused on a young Barack Obama in 1981 New York City. Taylor-Joy played one of Obama's close friends. In 2017, she headlined M. Night Shyamalan's horror-thriller film Split (2016), playing Casey Cooke, a girl abducted by a mysterious man with split personalities. In 2019, she reprised her role as Casey in the film Glass. Anya was also the lead actress in the music video for Skrillex's remix of GTA's song Red Lips. She was nominated for the 2017 BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Taylor-Joy is attached to star in Nosferatu, a remake of the film of the same name, to be directed by Eggers in her third collaboration with him. She will also star in The Sea Change.- Actor
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).
Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.
After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.
Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).
Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.
Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.- Actress
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Born in Bristol, England, Veronica is the older sister of the popular child actress Angela Cartwright. In her early career, Veronica was cast in a number of popular movies such as William Wyler's The Children's Hour (1961), Spencer's Mountain (1963) and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). As such, she was cast as "Jemima Boone" in the popular television series Daniel Boone (1964), which ran from 1964 to 66. Her career after "Daniel Boone" may have been influenced by Hitchcock, since she appeared in both the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and the horror classic Alien (1979). On television, she appeared twice as Lumpy's younger sister, "Violet Rutherford" and once as "Peggy MacIntosh" on Leave It to Beaver (1957) and had a small role in the television movie Still the Beaver (1983).
Cartwright also appeared in Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985), Tanner '88 (1988) and had a recurring role on L.A. Law (1986). Her big screen features included The Right Stuff (1983), Flight of the Navigator (1986) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987). Veronica worked on the stage in "Electra", "Talley's Folly", "Homesteaders", "Butterflies are Free" and "The Triplet Connection". Alternating between television and big screen movies in the 90s, Cartwright has appeared in such films as Hitler's Daughter (1990) and Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995).- Actor
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David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early age (he wrote and published eerie short stories, thus following his father's path) and for music (playing classical guitar until he was 12), Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Literature after switching from the science department. He reached the cult status of horror-meister with the gore-filled, modern-vampire variations of Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977), following an experimental apprenticeship in independent film-making and in Canadian television programs.
Cronenberg gained popularity with the head-exploding, telepathy-based Scanners (1981) after the release of the much underrated, controversial, and autobiographical The Brood (1979). Cronenberg become a sort of a mass media guru with Videodrome (1983), a shocking investigation of the hazards of reality-morphing television and a prophetic critique of contemporary aesthetics. The issues of tech-induced mutation of the human body and topics of the prominent dichotomy between body and mind were back again in The Dead Zone (1983) and The Fly (1986), both bright examples of a personal film-making identity, even if both films are based on mass-entertainment materials: the first being a rendition of a Stephen King best-seller, the latter a remake of a famous American horror movie.
With Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991), the Canadian director, no more a mere genre movie-maker but a fully realized auteur, got the acclaim of international critics. Such profound statements on modern humanity and ever-changing society are prominent in the provocative Crash (1996) and in the virtual reality essay of eXistenZ (1999), both of which well fared at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. In the last two film projects Spider (2002) and A History of Violence (2005), Cronenberg avoids expressing his teratologic and oneiric expressionism in favor of a more psychological exploration of human contradictions and idiosyncrasies.- Actor
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Thomas Jane is an American actor who is known for portraying Frank Castle from the 2004 Marvel Comics film The Punisher and the 2012 fan film Dirty Laundry. He also was in Boogie Nights, The Thin Red Line, Deep Blue Sea, The Predator, 1922, The Mist and Evening Raga of the West.- Actress
- Producer
Kristen Nora Connolly is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Dana in the 2011 film The Cabin in the Woods, Christina Gallagher on the Netflix series House of Cards and Jamie Campbell on the CBS series Zoo. Connolly began her career with recurring roles on several CollegeHumor digital shorts. She appeared as an extra on the films Mona Lisa Smile, Meet Dave, and The Happening. She has also appeared on two CBS daytime soap operas with recurring roles on Guiding Light and As the World Turns.
She first gained mainstream recognition in 2012, after starring as the main protagonist Dana in the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard film The Cabin in the Woods. She also starred in the horror film The Bay. In 2013, she had a starring role as Christina Gallagher on the Netflix series House of Cards alongside Kevin Spacey. On September 1, 2014 the A&E Houdini miniseries premiered with 3.7 million viewers, Connolly plays Bess Houdini with Academy Award-winning Adrien Brody playing Harry Houdini. Connolly also portrayed Jamie, a passionate journalist in the CBS drama-thriller series Zoo and co-starred as Lena in the drama series The Whispers. In 2014 she portrayed Petra Anderson in the drama thriller film A Good Marriage, based on Stephen King's short story of the same name.- Actor
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Tobin Bell is an American actor with a career in film, television and theater spanning three decades. He was born in Queens, New York and raised in Weymouth, Mass. His mother is the British actress Eileen Bell. He is perhaps best known for his role as the iconic villain "Jigsaw" in the Saw film series...for which he received MTV Award nominations in 2007 & 2009. He's a graduate of Boston University and has a Masters Degree in Education from Montclair State University. He studied acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.- Actor
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Keith David is a classically trained actor, winning 3 Emmys out of 6 nominations as well as being nominated for a Tony award. He starred in the recently concluded TV series "Greenleaf" for Oprah Winfrey's OWN network. Upcoming films include "Horizon Line" with Allison Williams ("Get Out") and "Black As Night," for Amazon.
In "Greenleaf" Keith portrayed 'Bishop James Greenleaf', the charismatic and God-fearing leader of the Calvary Fellowship and the patriarch of the family. The series followed the unscrupulous world of the Greenleaf family, their scandalous secrets and lies, and their sprawling Memphis megachurch. The series was praised for its push and pull dynamic, its hypocrisy, and its compelling characters. Keith's stellar performance was best stated by The Hollywood Reporter, "... Keith David ...is perfectly cast as Bishop Greenleaf. Whether he's playing to the congregation at the altar or getting conspiratorial in a smaller venue, this is an unusually great and meaty role for David."
On the big screen, Keith co-starred with Chadwick Boseman in "21 Bridges". Prior credits include "Night School" with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish and "Tales from the Hood 2". Additional titles include the Academy award-winning films "Crash" and "Platoon." He is widely recognized for appearing in the highly-acclaimed films Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", "Requiem for a Dream", "Men at Work", "They Live", "There's Something About Mary", and "The Thing."
Other recent TV credits include an upcoming appearance on "Creepshow," "NCIS: New Orleans", "Blackish," MacGyver", and "Fresh Off the Boat". Earlier credits include "Community", "Enlisted", "ER", and "Mister Roger's Neighborhood". On Broadway, Keith starred in August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" and "Jelly's Last Jam" for which he garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical.
Keith's work as a voice actor has made him a household name. His rich and powerful voice has been featured in national commercials, award shows, documentaries, video games, and animation. His work in narration has earned him three Emmys for Ken Burns' "Jackie Robinson", "The War", and "Unforgivable Blackness - The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson". Some of his other voice acting credits include countless fan favorites such as "Adventure Time", "Bojack Horseman," "Rick & Morty", "Spawn", and "Gargoyles". Keith has lent his voice to many video game titles. Recently he portrayed the character "Spawn" in the reboot of the "Mortal Kombat" video game. Other appearances include the "Halo" series (games 2, 3, and 5), the "Saint's Row" series (games 1, 2, and 4), as well as the "Mass Effect" series (games 1,2, and 3).
Born and raised in New York by his parents Lester and Dolores, Keith became interested in the arts at a very young age. After appearing in his school's production of "The Wizard of Oz", he knew this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He enrolled in New York's High School of the Performing Arts and continued his studies at The Juilliard School. After graduation, he was immediately hired by Joseph Papp as an understudy for the role of Tullus Aufidius in William Shakespeare's "Coriolanus." His work with Mr. Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival launched his incredible career.
In addition to his versatile acting and voiceover work, Keith is also a remarkable singer. He's has been touring in 2 shows, "Too Marvelous for Words", in which he portrays the legendary singer Nat King Cole, and a show about the incredible Blues singer Joe Williams, "Here's to Life."
Twitter: @ImKeithDavid Instagram: @SilverThroat Facebook: @ImKeithDavid- Actress
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Gina Philips, born Gina Dawn Consolo, is a native Floridian. She has one sibling, Bobby Consolo, and was raised in Miami by her parents, Fredi and Robert. None of them have been involved in the entertainment industry. She dropped out the University of Pennsylvania one class shy of earning her degree to take up acting as a full-time career.
After starting in guest roles on television, and eventually moving into independent and made-for-tv movies, Philips eventually established recurring roles on David E. Kelley's Ally McBeal (1997) and Boston Public (2000) She has also ventured into the mainstream horror genre as the lead in Victor Salva's Jeepers Creepers (2001). Playing the role of Trish brought a lot of attention and exposure to the doe-eyed beauty's ability to play strong, sometimes sarcastic, female leads, but she declined to reprise her role in the sequel. Philips continued to split her time between television and film. She has now segued into producing as well. She was in Love and Debate (2006) alongside Sean Astin, which she both produced and starred in.- Actress
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The second of four children, Australian actress Melissa George was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1976. The daughter of Pamela, a nurse, and Glenn George, a construction worker, Melissa initially expressed interest in various forms of dance rather than acting. During her childhood, George studied tap, ballet, and jazz, later transitioning into professional rollerskating - similar to figure skating on ice.
By age 16, George had won several awards at various National Rollerskating Championships in Australia, and subsequently began modeling after dropping out of high school. George met a casting agent while doing modeling work, and was given a role on the popular Australian soap opera Home and Away (1988); George moved to Sydney and worked on the show for three years until deciding to pursue other projects.
In 1996, George left Australia and moved to Los Angeles in search of bigger roles. She garnered various supporting parts in films such as Dark City (1998) and Steven Soderbergh's crime thriller The Limey (1999), before landing a key part in David Lynch's acclaimed neo noir mystery film, Mulholland Drive (2001). While in Bali in 1998, George met future husband, Chilean filmmaker Claudio Dabed; the two were married in late 2000.
The early 2000s would have George playing bit parts in several American television shows, including Friends (1994) and Monk (2002), ultimately landing a recurring role on the hit Alias (2001) alongside Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan. Through the later part of the decade, George had roles in various horror and thriller films, beginning with the 2005 version of The Amityville Horror (2005), as well as the commercially-successful thriller Derailed (2005) alongside Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston and Vincent Cassel.
George finished the decade with several more horror films, including Turistas (2006) and 30 Days of Night (2007), as well as independent horror titles such as The Killing Gene (2007), The Betrayed (2008) and Triangle (2009). George was also active in television work, landing a role on the popular medical drama Grey's Anatomy (2005). Her greatest critical success would come with a role on In Treatment (2008), playing the love interest of Gabriel Byrne, which would garner her a Golden Globe nomination in 2009.
Though a veteran of television in both Australia and the United States, George has achieved considerable success in her film career, which has hardly spanned over a decade.- Actor
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He is an acclaimed Canadian voice and motion capture artist for the hit game Grand Theft Auto V (2013) in the role of Trevor Philips. He was nominated in numerous events for the role including a VGX nomination for Best Voice Actor.
He was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on November 4, 1973. Before fame, He first appeared on screen as part of a promotion for the National Film Board of Canada. He made his professional debut in an episode of Law & Order (1990). In an amazing trivia, He had roles on television series such as Unforgettable as Larry Yablonski and Broad City as a creepy locksmith. He appeared in a season 3 episode of the James Caviezel starring CBS drama Person of Interest (2011).
Ogg began his acting career in an advertisement for the National Film Board of Canada, before working in various theater productions. Following this, he became more focused on a career in sports, before an injury prevented him from pursuing such a career. After moving to New York, Ogg began acting professionally, starring in television shows such as Law & Order (1990) and Third Watch (1999), in addition to some theater work and voice acting. After taking a break from acting so that he could build a house, Ogg was hired by Rockstar Games to as the voice actor and motion capture artist for Trevor Philips in their video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013). Following the release of the game, Ogg's character was critically acclaimed, and he later had various public appearances, due to his portrayal.- Actor
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Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was attracted to acting, inspired by his favorite aunt, who was a stage actress. While at school, Cushing pursued his acting interest in acting and also drawing, a talent he put to good use later in his first job as a government surveyor's assistant in Surrey. At this time, he also dabbled in local amateur theater until moving to London to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on scholarship. He then performed in repertory theater in Worthing, deciding in 1939 to head for Hollywood, where he made his film debut in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939). Other Hollywood films included A Chump at Oxford (1940) with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Vigil in the Night (1940) and They Dare Not Love (1941). However, after a short stay, he returned to England by way of New York (making brief appearances on Broadway) and Canada. Back in his homeland, he contributed to the war effort during World War II by joining the Entertainment National Services Association.
After the war, he performed in the West End and had his big break appearing with Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing's future partner-in-horror Christopher Lee had a bit part. Both actors also appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their later horror films. During the 1950s, Cushing became a familiar face on British television, appearing in numerous teleplays, such as 1984 (1954) and Beau Brummell (1954), until the end of the decade when he began his legendary association with Hammer Film Productions in its remakes of the 1930s Universal horror classics. His first Hammer roles included Dr. Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958), and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959).
Cushing continued playing the roles of Drs. Frankenstein and Van Helsing, as well as taking on other horror characters, in Hammer films over the next 20 years. He also appeared in films for the other major horror producer of the time, Amicus Productions, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and its later horror anthologies, a couple of Dr. Who films (1965, 1966), I, Monster (1971), and others. By the mid-1970s, these companies had stopped production, but Cushing, firmly established as a horror star, continued in the genre for some time thereafter.
Perhaps his best-known appearance outside of horror films was as Grand Moff Tarkin in George Lucas' phenomenally successful science fiction film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986) was Cushing's last film before his retirement, during which he made a few television appearances, wrote two autobiographies and pursued his hobbies of bird watching and painting. In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his contributions to the acting profession in Britain and worldwide. Peter Cushing died at age 81 of prostate cancer on August 11, 1994.- Actress
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Sarah Paulson was born on December 17, 1974 in Tampa, Florida, to Catharine Gordon (Dolcater) and Douglas Lyle Paulson II. She spent most of her early years in New York and Maine, before settling in Manhattan to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the High School for Performing Arts. Although she made her Broadway debut in "The Sisters Rosensweig" and performed in the off-Broadway "Talking Pictures", she debuted on the small screen in late 1994 in a guest shot on NBC's Law & Order (1990), then, in the following spring, landed her first TV-movie role in CBS' Friends at Last (1995) and finally became a TV series regular by fall 1995.
Best known for her amazing performance in CBS' supernatural drama American Gothic (1995) as the benevolent spiritual guide to her young brother, she was also a regular on the WB series Jack & Jill (1999) as "Elisa Cronkite", the former girlfriend of David "Jill" Jillefsky (Ivan Sergei) as well as the main character in the TV series Leap of Faith (2002), "Faith Wardwell", and as "Audrey" in the TV movie Metropolis (2000). She was also part of the cast of Shaughnessy (1996), The Long Way Home (1998) (as "Leanne Bossert") and Path to War (2002) as Luci Baines Johnson, as well as making notable appearances in Touched by an Angel (1994) playing "Zoe" in Manhunt (2001), 20 October 2001, and Cracker: Mind Over Murder (1997) playing "Nina" in True Romance: Part 1 (1997), 18 September 1997.
Sarah has now played in movies with such stars as Mel Gibson in the romantic comedy What Women Want (2000) (as "Annie", Gibson's secretary), Diane Keaton in the romantic drama The Other Sister (1999) (as "Heather Tate", Keaton's lesbian eldest daughter), Jamie Foxx in Held Up (1999) (as "Mary", a developmentally disabled young woman with an unfaithful boyfriend) and David Hyde Pierce in the romantic comedy Down with Love (2003) (as "Vicky Hiller", Pierce's crush). She also had two major roles in the comedy Bug (2002) and the drama, Levitation (1997), where she starred as a pregnant teenager who searches for her biological mother, with the help of a guardian angel.- Actress
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Margot Kidder was born Margaret Ruth Kidder in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, to Jocelyn Mary "Jill" (Wilson), a history teacher from British Columbia, and Kendall Kidder, a New Mexico-born mining engineer and explosives expert. Margot was a delightful child who took pride in everything she did. At an early age, she became aware of the great emotions she felt towards expressing herself, and caught the acting bug. As a child, she wrote in a diary that she wanted to become a movie star, and that one day it would happen, but she had to overcome something else first. She was aware that she was constantly facing mood swings, but didn't know why. At odd times, she would try to kill herself - the first time was at age 14 - but the next day she would be just fine. Her father's hectic schedule and moving around so much didn't help matters, either, causing her to attend 11 schools in 12 years. Finally, in an attempt to help Margot with her troubles, her parents sent" her to a boarding school, where she took part in school plays, such as Romeo and Juliet", in which she played the lead.
After graduation, Margot moved to Los Angeles to start a film career. She found herself dealing with a lot of prejudice, and hotheads, but later found solace with a Canadian agent. This was when she got her first acting job, in the Norman Jewison film Gaily, Gaily (1969). This led to another starring role in Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), in which she co-starred with Gene Wilder. After some harsh words from the film's director, Margot temporarily left films to study acting in New York, doing television work to pay her bills, but when the money ran out, she decided it was time to make a second try at acting. When she arrived in Hollywood she met up at a screen test with actress Jennifer Salt, resulting in a friendship that still stands strong today. Margot and Jennifer moved into a lofty beach house and befriended other, then unknown, struggling filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg and Susan Sarandon, among others. Late nights would see the hot, happening youngsters up until all hours talking around a fire about how they were all going to change the film industry. It was crazy living and within the Christmas season, Margot had become involved with De Palma, and as a Christmas present he gave her the script to his upcoming film Sisters (1972). Margot and Salt both had the leads in the film, and it was a huge critical success.
The film made branded Margot as a major talent, and in the following years she starred in a string of critically acclaimed pictures, such as Black Christmas (1974), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), 92 in the Shade (1975) - directed by Thomas McGuane, who was also her husband for a brief period - and a somewhat prophetic tale of self-resurrection, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975).
After three years of being a housewife, looking after her daughter Maggie and not working, Margot decided it was time to let her emotions take control and get back into acting. Once her marriage to McGuane was over, she eyed a script that would change her life forever. Her new agent referred her to a little-known director named Richard Donner. He was going to be directing a film called Superman (1978), and she auditioned for and secured the leading female role of Lois Lane. That film and Superman II (1980) filmed simultaneously. After the success of "Superman" she took on more intense roles, such as The Amityville Horror (1979) and Willie & Phil (1980). After that, Margot starred in numerous films, television and theater work throughout the 1980s, including Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). When the 1990s erupted with the Gulf War, Margot found herself becoming involved in politics. She made a stir in the biz when she spoke out against the military for their actions in Kuwait. She also appeared in a cameo in Donner's Maverick (1994).
In 1996, as she was preparing to write her autobiography, she began to become more and more paranoid. When her computer became infected with a virus, this gave her paranoia full rein, and she sank into bipolar disorder. She panicked, and the resulting psychological problems she created for herself resulted in her fantasizing that her first husband was going to kill her, so she left her home and faked her death, physically altering her appearance in the process. After an intervention took place, she got back on her feet and started the mental wellness campaign. Since then, she resumed her career in film, television, and theatre, including appearing in a Canadian stage production of "The Vagina Monologues", and in films like The Clown at Midnight (1998).
Margot died on May 13, 2018, in Livingston, Montana.- Actor
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William Thomas Sadler was born on April 13, 1950 in Buffalo, New York, to Jane and William Sadler. He began his acting career in New York theaters, appearing in more than 75 productions over the course of 12 years. His roles included that of Sgt. Merwin J. Toomey in Neil Simon's Tony Award winning play "Biloxi Blues". He is best remembered for his roles in Die Hard 2 (1990), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995). He is also a television star, appearing in such sitcoms as Roseanne (1988) and Murphy Brown (1988) and such movies-of-the weeks as Charlie and the Great Balloon Chase (1981). Sadler also starred as Sheriff Jim Valenti on the WB science fiction television series Roswell (1999).- Actress
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Karen entered Northwestern University at 18 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Shortly after wards, she appeared as Marcia in the TV series The Second Hundred Years (1967).
The film that made her a star was Easy Rider (1969), where she worked with Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and a supporting actor named Jack Nicholson. She appeared with Nicholson again the next year when they starred in Five Easy Pieces (1970), which garnered an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Karen. Her roles mainly consisted of waitresses, hookers and women on the edge. Some of her later films were disappointments at the box office, but she did receive another Golden Globe for The Great Gatsby (1974). One role for which she is well remembered is that of the jewel thief in Alfred Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot (1976). Another is as the woman terrorized in her apartment by a murderous Zuni doll come to life in the well received TV movie Trilogy of Terror (1975). After a number of forgettable movies, she again won rave reviews for her role in Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Since then, her film career has been busy, but the quality of the films has been uneven.- Actress
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Leslie Louise Bibb was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, on November 17, 1973, and raised in Nelson County, Virginia. Later she and her mother, along with her three older sisters, moved to Richmond, where Leslie attended an all-girls Catholic high school, St. Gertrude.
In 1990 The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) and the Elite Agency held a nationwide modeling search; Leslie's mother took photos of her then 16-year-old daughter and sent them in. Although Leslie wasn't impressed with the photos, the judges--John Casablancas, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Iman--were, and they picked her as the winner.
After finishing her junior year, Leslie flew to New York City and signed a contract with Elite. She modeled over the summer, and went on a trip to Japan. She returned home for her senior year and graduated in 1992, then decided to forgo a full-time modeling career to attend the University of Virginia. After a single semester, however, she dropped out and moved to New York City. She attended the William Esper acting studio for three years and took nine months off in which she did more modeling in Europe. Her photographs have appeared in such magazine as Maxim and FHM.
Leslie had her first film role in the comedy Private Parts (1997), which was followed by her first television series (where she replaced the departed Susan Walters as the female lead) in the second season of The Big Easy (1996) on USA. Unfortunately, the show was canceled just months later.
In 1999 she appeared as the lead character on the WB Network television series Popular (1999). The show was a success among teenagers, and led Leslie to more recognizable film roles, such as The Skulls (2000) and See Spot Run (2001). Most recently she has appeared as intern Erin Harkins in ER (1994).- Suzzanna was born on 14 October 1942 in Buitenzorg, Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies [now Bogor, West Java, Indonesia]. She was an actress, known for Samson and Delilah (1987), Tuan Tanah Kedawung (1971) and Sangkuriang (1982). She was married to Clift Sangra and Dicky Suprapto. She died on 15 October 2008 in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.