The Grifters 1991 (NY) premiere
Wednesday January 23rd, Loews Festival Theatre 6 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
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- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, he has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. John was born in Evanston, Illinois, to an Irish-American family. With the exception of mom Nancy (née Carolan), a former math teacher, the Cusack clan is all show business: father Dick Cusack was an actor and filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Bill Cusack and Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade. Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17, acting alongside Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the romantic comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a member of Anthony Michael Hall's geek brigade in Sixteen Candles (1984), put him on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like The Sure Thing (1985) and Better Off Dead (1985). Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything (1989). A year later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in The Grifters (1990).
The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he founded in 1988 (modeling it after Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years later, Cusack's high school friends Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first feature was the sharply written comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the girl he stood up on prom night (Minnie Driver). In an instance of life imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent (or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business decisions. He followed that with Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder case.
Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when he turned up in the fiercely original Being John Malkovich (1999). Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven self in High Fidelity (2000), another New Crime production. He worked with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis to adapt Nick Hornby's popular novel (relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically linked with several celebs, including Driver, Alison Eastwood, Claire Forlani and Neve Campbell. He's also something of a family man, acting frequently opposite sister Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Anjelica Huston was born on July 8, 1951 to director and actor John Huston and Russian prima ballerina Enrica 'Ricki' Soma. Huston spent most of her childhood overseas, in Ireland and England, and in 1968 first dipped her toe into the world of show business, taking on the lead role of her father's movie A Walk with Love and Death (1969). However, before it was released, her mother died in a car accident, at 39, and Huston relocated to the United States, where the very tall, exotically-beautiful young woman modeled for several years.
While modeling, Huston made sporadic cameo appearances in a couple films, but decided to pursue it as a career in the early '80s. She prepared herself by reaching out to acting coach Peggy Feury and began to get roles. The first notable part was in Bob Rafelson's remake of the classic noir movie The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) (in which Jack Nicholson, with whom Huston had been living since 1973, was the star). After a few more years of on-again, off-again supporting work, her father perfectly cast her as calculating, imperious Maerose, the daughter of a Mafia don whose love is scorned by a hit man (Nicholson again) in his film adaptation of Richard Condon's Mafia-satire novel Prizzi's Honor (1985). Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance, making her the first person in Academy Award history to win an Oscar when a parent and a grandparent (her father and grandfather Walter Huston) had also won one.
Huston thereafter worked prolifically, including notable roles in Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987), Barry Sonnenfeld's film versions of the Charles Addams cartoons The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), in which she portrayed Addams matriarch Morticia, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). Probably her finest performance on-screen, however, was as Lilly, the veteran, iron-willed con artist in Stephen Frears' The Grifters (1990), for which she received another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress. A sentimental favorite is her performance as the lead in her father's final film, an adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead (1987) -- with her many years of residence in Ireland, Huston's Irish accent in the film is authentic.
Endowed with her father's great height and personal boldness, and her mother's beauty and aristocratic nose, Huston certainly cuts an imposing figure, and brings great confidence and authority to her performances. She clearly takes her craft seriously and has come into her own as a strong actress, emerging from under the shadow of her father, who passed away in 1987. Huston married the sculptor Robert Graham in 1992. The couple lived in Venice Beach until Graham's death in 2008.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Annette Bening was born on May 29, 1958 in Topeka, Kansas, the youngest of four children. Her family moved to California when she was young, and she grew up there. She graduated from San Francisco State University and began her acting career with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, eventually moving to New York where she acted on the stage (including a Tony-award nomination in 1987 for her work in the Broadway play "Coastal Disturbances") and got her first film roles, in a few TV movies.
As is so often the case, her first big-screen role was in a forgettable movie, this one The Great Outdoors (1988), in which she had little screen time. However, her next work onscreen was in Milos Forman's Valmont (1989), a film adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' "Les Liaisons Dangereuses". Unfortunately, de Laclos' story had also just served as the source of a more Hollywoodized and successful movie version, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which had been released the previous year, and Foreman's treatment went little noticed. Bening's career turned an important corner the following year when she co-starred with Anjelica Huston and John Cusack in Stephen Frears's powerful, entertaining screen adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel The Grifters (1990), and her artful turn as a con artist gained her the first of several Academy award nominations. On the strength of this performance Warren Beatty cast Bening as Virginia Hill, Bugsy Siegel's fiery actress moll, in his Bugsy (1991), the story of Siegel's founding of Las Vegas. Although the movie itself did not fare well, it resulted in a relationship with Beatty which led to Bening's pregnancy and then her marriage to Beatty in 1992 - it was the second marriage for Bening, who had been separated from her first husband since 1986 but did not finalize her divorce until 1991. The couple then collaborated on the extravagant flop Love Affair (1994), though the next year her career rebounded with her turn as Queen Elizabeth in the highly-regarded 1995 production of Richard III (1995). Notable performances have since included an obsessive, pushy real estate agent in American Beauty (1999), and as the eponymous character in István Szabó's screen adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novel Being Julia (2004) - both were duly noted by the Academy, with Oscar nominations.
Bening has great poise and screen presence and, at her best, can turn in a very strong performance. Although her resume often features long stretches of mediocre productions before the next good part turns up, when it does, it proves worth the wait. Bening has four children with Beatty.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Pat Hingle (real name: Martin Patterson Hingle) was born in Miami, Florida, the son of a building contractor. His parents divorced when Hingle was still in his infancy (he never knew his father) and his mother supported the family by teaching school in Denver. She then began to travel (with her son in tow) in search of more lucrative work; by age 13 Hingle had lived in a dozen cities. The future Tony Award nominee made his "acting debut" in the third grade, playing a carrot in a school play ("At that time it didn't seem like much of a way to make a living!", he recalled). Hingle attended high school in Texas and in 1941 entered the University of Texas, majoring in advertising. After serving in the Navy during WW II, he went back to the university and got involved with the drama department as a way to meet girls. With his wife Alyce (whom he first met at the university), Hingle moved to New York and began to get jobs on the stage and on TV. The apex of his stage career was "J.B." by poet Archibald Macleish, with Hingle in the title role as a 20th-century Job. It was during the run of "J.B." that Hingle took an accidental plunge down the elevator shaft of his New York apartment building, sustaining near-fatal injuries in the 54-foot fall. He was near death for two weeks (and lost the little finger of his left hand); his recovery took more than a year. In more recent years, Hingle has played Commissioner Gordon in the "Batman" movies.
Just prior to his death, he resided in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, with his wife, Julia.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Henry Burk Jones was born in New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Helen (Burk) and John Francis Xavier Jones, and the grandson of Pennsylvania Representative Henry Burk, a Prussian immigrant. He graduated from St. Joseph's College. His Broadway debut was in 1938 in Maurice Evans' "Hamlet" (Reynaldo and the second gravedigger). He served in the army in World War II. His highly-reviewed stage appearances included the murdered handyman in "The Bad Seed," which he reprised in the film version (The Bad Seed (1956)), and the part of Louis Howe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's confidant in Sunrise at Campobello (1960). Though very ordinary in appearance ("The casting directors didn't know what to do with me. I was never tall enough or good looking enough to play juvenile leads"), he had a long and varied career on Broadway, in movies and television. His parts included a wide range of second-string roles (ministers, judges, janitors), often with a dark and even frightening underside. His television career, which included over 150 appearances, began early, in 1950. Though his movies included such well-known titles as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Grifters (1990), and Dick Tracy (1990) no doubt his most recognizable screen performance was in the brief role of the methodical, nearly cruel coroner in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). He lived in Santa Monica, CA, and died 17 May 1999, aged 86, at the UCLA Medical Center.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Graduated from the University of Tulsa with a BFA. A successful illustrator, Sartain's artistic credits range from record cover designs such as Leon Russell's "Will O' the Wisp" to illustrations for nationally published magazines. Sartain created and hosted Tulsa's first late night off-the-wall comedy program, "Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi's Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting". Guest stars included Gary Busey and 'Jim "Buck" Millaway'. Following "Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi's Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting", Sartain has maintained a successful acting career in television and motion pictures.- J.T. Walsh was born on 28 September 1943 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Breakdown (1997), Sling Blade (1996) and Needful Things (1993). He was married to Susan West. He died on 27 February 1998 in La Mesa, California, USA.
- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Scorsese earned a B.S. degree in film communications in 1964, followed by an M.A. in the same field in 1966 at New York University's School of Film. During this time, he made numerous prize-winning short films including The Big Shave (1967), and directed his first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967).
He served as assistant director and an editor of the documentary Woodstock (1970) and won critical and popular acclaim for Mean Streets (1973), which first paired him with actor and frequent collaborator Robert De Niro. In 1976, Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), also starring De Niro, was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and he followed that film with New York, New York (1977) and The Last Waltz (1978). Scorsese directed De Niro to an Oscar-winning performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), which received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is hailed as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. Scorsese went on to direct The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995) and Kundun (1997), among other films. Commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema, Scorsese completed the four-hour documentary, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), co-directed by Michael Henry Wilson.
His long-cherished project, Gangs of New York (2002), earned numerous critical honors, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004) won five Academy Awards, in addition to the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Picture. Scorsese won his first Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), which was also honored with the Director's Guild of America, Golden Globe, New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and Critic's Choice awards for Best Director, in addition to four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Scorsese's documentary of the Rolling Stones in concert, Shine a Light (2008), followed, with the successful thriller Shutter Island (2010) two years later. Scorsese received his seventh Academy Award nomination for Best Director, as well as a Golden Globe Award, for Hugo (2011), which went on to win five Academy Awards.
Scorsese also serves as executive producer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010) for which he directed the pilot episode. Scorsese's additional awards and honors include the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1995), the AFI Life Achievement Award (1997), the Honoree at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 25th Gala Tribute (1998), the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), The Kennedy Center Honors (2007) and the HFPA Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010). Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have worked together on five separate occasions: Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Charles Napier was born in the tiny community of Mt. Union, near Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, to Linus Pitts Napier, a tobacco farmer and postman, and his wife, Sara, on April 12, 1936. He attended public school in Scottsville. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1954. He rose to the rank of E-5 (Sgt.) while serving as company clerk with Company A 511th Airborne Infantry, 11th Airborne Division. He was a lively character actor who usually played edgy military types and menacing bad guys. His film debut was in Russ Meyer's Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1969).
Napier went on appearing in other Meyer movies, including the homicidal Harry Sledge in Supervixens (1975) and also became a regular playing smaller roles for Jonathan Demme. His memorable portrayals of tough guys included the scheming intelligence officer in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and the short-tempered front man in The Blues Brothers (1980).- Noelle Harling is known for The Grifters (1990), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and T.J. Hooker (1982).
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Paul Adelstein was born on 29 April 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Land of the Lost (2009) and The Menu (2022). He was previously married to Liza Weil.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Jeremy Piven was born on 26 July 1965 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Entourage (2004), Serendipity (2001) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997).- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Character actor Stephen Tobolowsky was born on May 30, 1951 in Dallas, Texas. Over the past three decades, Tobolowsky has racked up a lengthy list of roles in movies and television across many different genres.
While Tobolowsky initially attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas with the intention of studying geology, he was quickly drawn in to acting there. He later attended the University of Illinois for one year.
Tobolowsky worked primarily in theater during his early career, and wrote and directed a few plays including "Two Idiots in Hollywood" and "True Stories". His film career took off in the 1980s, though, thanks to roles in The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), Nobody's Fool (1986), Spaceballs (1987), and Mississippi Burning (1988). Since then, Tobolowsky has appeared in many popular movies including Bird on a Wire (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Groundhog Day (1993), Radioland Murders (1994), Murder in the First (1995), Mr. Magoo (1997), The Insider (1999), Memento (2000), Freaky Friday (2003), Garfield: The Movie (2004) and Wild Hogs (2007). He has also done a substantial amount of voice work, most recently taking on the role of Uncle Ubb in The Lorax (2012).
Tobolowsky has been even more prolific in television over the past few decades. He's appeared on a diverse range of shows including Seinfeld (1989), Mad About You (1992), Chicago Hope (1994), The Practice (1997) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), and has had recurring roles on CSI: Miami (2002), Deadwood (2004), Heroes (2006), Californication (2007) and Glee (2009).
Tobolowsky is married to fellow actor Ann Hearn.- 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").- Cute, tiny, and prolific little old lady character actress Frances Bay worked constantly in both films and TV shows alike after making her debut at the age of 59 in life with a small part in the comedy Foul Play (1978) in 1978.
She frequently portrayed eccentric elderly women and good-hearted grandmothers in all kinds of pictures and television programs. Frances acted several times for David Lynch: she's Kyle MacLachlan's sweet doddery aunt in Blue Velvet (1986), a gruff, profane whorehouse madam in Wild at Heart (1990), and the spooky Mrs. Tremond in the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990) and its spin-off feature Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Frances popped up in two movies for director Stuart Gordon: she's a kind witch in The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and a fortune teller in Edmond (2005).
Other notable film roles include a snippy librarian in The Attic (1980), a mysterious blind nun in the offbeat Nomads (1986), another librarian in In the Mouth of Madness (1994), and Adam Sandler's loving grandmother in the hit comedy Happy Gilmore (1996). Frances had the unique distinction of guesting on the final episodes of the TV shows Happy Days (1974), Who's the Boss? (1984), and Seinfeld (1989).
Among the many TV series Bay had guest spots on are Charmed (1998), ER (1994), Matlock (1986), The X-Files (1993), Murder, She Wrote (1984), The Commish (1991), L.A. Law (1986), Hill Street Blues (1981), Touched by an Angel (1994), The Golden Girls (1985), and Amazing Stories (1985).
She won a Gemini Award for her performance in the Disney TV program Avonlea (1990). Frances was also in the music video for Jimmy Fallon's "Idiot Boyfriend." In addition to her substantial movie and TV credits, Bay also acted in both Off-Broadway stage productions and regional theater; these plays include "Finnegan's Wake," "Grease," "Genuis," "The Caucasion Chalk Circle," "Number Our Days," "Uncommon Women," "Sarcophagus," and "The Pleasure of His Company." Frances won two DramaLogue Awards and was nominated for a Los Angeles Dramatic Critics' Award.
In 2002 Bay was the unfortunate victim of an automobile accident which resulted in having part of her right leg amputated. Her husband Charles sadly died in 2002 as well.
In real life Frances Bay was a very practical and unassuming woman with an avid love for jazz music. - Actor
- Writer
Sandy Baron was born Sanford Beresofsky in Brooklyn, New York on May 5, 1936. Raised in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood, the young Sandy attended public schools and participated in accelerated classes. A graduate of Brooklyn College, he spent his early years working summers in the Catskill Mountain resorts that were the breeding grounds of many Jewish comedians. Baron made his Broadway debut in "Tchin-Tchin" on Oct 25, 1962. His next play, Bertolt Brecht's "Arturo Ui" with Christopher Plummer in the title role, was a flop, lasting but eight performances in November 1963. His next appearance on the Great White Way, in the comedy "Generation," was more successful, playing for over half a year in the 1965-1966 season.
In 1964, Sandy -- already a seasoned Catskill comic and nightclub performer -- released a 13-track album on Roulette Records, "The Race! Race!" The album jacket pronounced it a "rollicking comedy album about hate, prejudice, bigotry and other such nonsense." He established a national reputation that year on the television comedy series That Was the Week That Was (1963), the American version of the hit British TV show, both of which starred David Frost. He followed it up with a lead role in the TV series Hey, Landlord (1966), playing a stand-up comedian.
In the 1970s, he made regular appearances on the The Mike Douglas Show (1961) and the The Merv Griffin Show (1962). Baron played Lenny Bruce in the show "Lenny" at Hollywood's Aquarius Theater in 1972, and eventually replaced Cliff Gorman in New York in what would prove to be his last Broadway appearance.
Baron appeared as himself in Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose (1984), the director's homage to borscht-belt comedy. In the 1990s, he appeared as Jack Klompus, the nemesis of Jerry Seinfeld's father on the hit TV series Seinfeld (1989). He replaced Al Lewis as Grandpa Munster in the TV movie The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas (1996). His last movie appearance was in Stephen Frears' The Hi-Lo Country (1998).
Sandy Baron died of emphysema on January 21, 2001 in a nursing home in Van Nuys, California. A memorial celebration was held on July 22, 2001 at Hollywood's Ivar Theater.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Juliet Landau is an actress, director, producer and writer. As an actress, highlights include her role as "Drusilla" on Joss Whedon 's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) & spin-off Angel (1999), and co-starring in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) as "Loretta King". She played the recurring role of Rita Tedesco on Amazon's number one series, Bosch (2014) in season 5. She's recurring as "Cordelia" on TNT's Claws (2017) .
Juliet just helmed her visionary feature film directorial debut, A Place Among the Dead (2020). Modern Films is distributing it worldwide. Release date is Nov, 9th, 2020. Starring Juliet Landau with Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Robert Patrick, Lance Henriksen, Joss Whedon and Anne Rice (appearing for the first time ever in a movie).
Also in the works and partially completed is The Undead Series (2016). Think Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012)... This is Vampires in Coffins Getting Blood!... The only series ever to gather the A-list of the genre together. Every one of the talented artists in A Place Among the Dead (2020) came back to participate in her series, as did Tim Burton, Willem Dafoe and many other notables.
Other acting work includes starring opposite Whoopi Goldberg in Theodore Rex (1995) as well as starring in over 20 other films, appearing in many more, guest-starring frequently on television, extensive voiceover work in features, tv, video games and garnering rave reviews for her roles in the theater.
Juliet's previous directorial efforts include two short subjects. Take Flight: Gary Oldman Directs Chutzpah (2009). explored Gary Oldman's creative process and was produced by Gary. Dream Out Loud featured interviews with Guillermo del Toro, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rian Johnson. Both projects were produced with her husband Deverill Weekes, under the Miss Juliet Productions banner.
Landau co-wrote two issues of the Angel (1999) comic book for IDW Publishing . She is now penning the companion coffee table book to The Undead Series (2016) called Book Of The Undead.- Additional Crew
- Producer
- Production Manager
- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
Jim Painten is known for My Life and Times (1991), Moonlighting (1985) and My So-Called Life (1994).- Writer
- Actor
Donald E. Westlake was born on 12 July 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Grifters (1990), Payback (1999) and The Stepfather (2009). He was married to Abigail Adams, Sandra Foley and Nedra Henderson. He died on 31 December 2008 in San Tancho, Mexico.- Music Department
- Composer
- Additional Crew
Elmer Bernstein was educated at the Walden School and New York University. He served in the US Army Air Corps in World War II, writing scores for the service radio unit. He also wrote and arranged musical numbers for Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. A prolific and respected film music composer, he was a protégé of Aaron Copland, who studied music with Roger Sessions and Stefan Wolpe. Bernstein worked in various artistic endeavors, including painting and the theatre and also performed as an actor and dancer. Among his early composition work were scores for United Nations radio programs and television and industrial documentaries. His original scores for films range over an enormous variety of styles, with his groundbreaking jazz score for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), light musical comedies such as his Oscar-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) score, and perhaps his most familiar score, for the western The Magnificent Seven (1960). Between 1963 and 1969, Bernstein served as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
A few years before before his death, he acquired something of a cult status among fans of English football when his familiar main theme for The Great Escape (1963) was adopted by them and hummed and played, lustily, during matches.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Oliver Stapleton, BSC, has worked with a wide array of critically acclaimed filmmakers to make some of the UK & Hollywood's best stories. His career spans decades, with a diverse slate of films from "My Beautiful Laundrette" in 1984, to Michael Hoffman's "Dear Mr Vidal" in 2018.
Oliver's collaborations with directors like Lasse Hallström and Stephen Frears prove him a cinematic force to be reckoned with. "The Cider House Rules," from 1999, marked his first collaboration with Hallström, and they have since made a total of five films together. He has worked with Frears on seven films, beginning with "My Beautiful Laundrette." He's also worked with Michael Hoffman five times, including the two-time Academy Award-winning epic, "Restoration" in 1995. The shortlist of actors he has worked with is very impressive: Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, Anette Benning, Michelle Pheiffer (2), Jennifer Aniston & Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Joachim Phoenix, to name a few.
Oliver has a way of touching every genre in the industry, with films like the musical "Absolute Beginners" of 1986, the 1988 sci-fi comedy "Earth Girls Are Easy," (which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination) to Guillermo Del Torro's "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" (2010) . He began his career shooting documentaries and music videos, and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography for his work with the band, A-Ha, for "Take On Me." He has also worked on many video projects with great musicians, such as David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Eddie Grant and The Human League, to name a few.
His approach is to treat every film as though it is his first and uncover the appropriate style for the movie in collaboration with the Director. He has conducted many epic and legendary masterclasses at Camerimage in Poland, and is co-head of Cinematography at the National Film and Television School in the UK.- Editor
- Sound Department
- Editorial Department
Mick Audsley was born in 1949 in London, England, UK. He is an editor, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and The Avengers (1998). He has been married to Joke van Wijk since 1987. They have two children.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois, to Joe Anne (Choisser), who owned a local newspaper, and Daniel Leon Malkovich, a state conservation director. His paternal grandparents were Croatian. In 1976, Malkovich joined Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, newly founded by his friend Gary Sinise. After that, it would take seven years before Malkovich would show up in New York and win an Obie in Sam Shepard's play "True West". In 1984, Malkovich would appear with Dustin Hoffman in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman", which would earn him an Emmy when it was made into a made-for-TV movie the next year. His big-screen debut would be as the blind lodger in Places in the Heart (1984), which earned him an Academy Award Nomination for best supporting actor. Other films would follow, including The Killing Fields (1984) and The Glass Menagerie (1987), but he would be well remembered as Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Playing against Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in a costume picture helped raise his standing in the industry. He would be cast as the psychotic political assassin in Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire (1993), for which he would be nominated for both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe. In 1994, Malkovich would portray the sinister Kurtz in the made-for-TV movie Heart of Darkness (1993), taking the story to Africa as it was originally written. Malkovich has periodically returned to Chicago to both act and direct.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Eight time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close was born and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Elizabeth Mary H. "Bettine" (Moore) and William Taliaferro Close (William Close), a prominent doctor. Both of her parents were from upper-class families.
Glenn was a noted Broadway performer when she was cast in her award-winning role as Jenny Fields in The World According to Garp (1982) alongside Robin Williams. For this role, a breakthrough in film for Close, she later went on to receive an Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The following year she was cast in the hit comedy The Big Chill (1983) for which she received a second Oscar Nomination, once again for Supporting Actress in the role of Sarah Cooper. In her third film, Close portrayed Iris Gaines a former lover of baseball player Roy Hobbs portrayed by Robert Redford, in one of the greatest sports films of all time, The Natural (1984). For a third time, Close was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Close went on to star in films like The Stone Boy (1984), Maxie (1985) and Jagged Edge (1985). In 1987 Close was cast in the box office hit Fatal Attraction (1987) for which she portrayed deranged stalker Alex Forrest alongside costars Michael Douglas and Anne Archer. For this role she was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress. The following year Close starred in the Oscar Winning Drama Dangerous Liaisons (1988) for which she portrayed one of the most classic roles of all time as Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil, starring alongside John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. For this role she was nominated once again for the Academy Award and BAFTA Film Award for Best Actress. Close was favorite to win the coveted statue but lost to Jodie Foster for The Accused (1988). Close had her claim to fame in the 1980s. Close starred on the hit Drama series Damages (2007) for which she has won a Golden Globe Award and two Emmy Awards. In her career Close has been Oscar nominated eight times, won three Tonys, an Obie, three Emmys, two Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.- Writer
- Music Department
- Actress
Songwriter ("New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "The Party's Over", "Just in Time"), author and actress. educated at New York University with a Bachelor of Science degree. While a student, she acted with the Washington Square Players. She was a member of the Revuers, a night club act which also included Judy Holliday and Adolph Green. She wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Wonderful Town" (which garnered a Tony award from the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing in 1953), "Peter Pan", and "Do Re Mi". She was also the co-librettist for "On The Town", "Billion Dollar Baby", "Two in the Aisle", "Bells Are Ringing", "Say, Darling", "Subways Are For Sleeping", and "Fade Out - Fade In". She appeared with Adolph Green on stage in "A Party", and on television. Joining ASCAP in 1945, her chief lyrics, libretto and screenplay collaborator was Adolph Green, and her chief musical collaborators were Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, Morton Gould, and Andre Previn. Her other popular-song compositions include "I Get Carried Away", "I Can Cook, Too", "Some Other Time", "Lucky to Be Me", "Bad Timing", "Ohio", "A Little Bit in Love", "It's Love", "A Quiet Girl", "The French Lesson", "If You Hadn't But You Did", "Give a Little, Get a Little", "There Never Was a Baby Like My Baby", "Long Before I Knew You", "Never-Never Land", "Something's Always Happening on the River", "Dance Only With Me", "Adventure", "Make Someone Happy", "Fireworks", "Ride Through the Night", "Comes Once in a Lifetime", "I'm Just Taking My Time", "Now", "Fade Out - Fade In", and "Get Acquainted".- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Richard Dreyfuss is an American leading man, who has played his fair share of irritating pests and brash, ambitious hustlers.
He was born Richard Stephen Dreyfus in Brooklyn, New York, to Geraldine (Robbins), an activist, and Norman Dreyfus, a restaurateur and attorney. His paternal grandparents were Austro-Hungarian Jewish immigrants, and his mother's family was Russian Jewish.
Richard worked his way up through bit parts (The Graduate (1967), for one) and TV before gaining attention with his portrayal of Baby Face Nelson in John Milius' Dillinger (1973). He gained prominence as a college-bound young man in American Graffiti (1973) and as a nervy Jewish kid with high hopes in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974). By the latter part of the 1970s Dreyfuss was established as a major star, playing leads (and alter-egos) for Steven Spielberg in two of the top-grossing films of the that decade: Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). He won a Best Actor Oscar in his first romantic lead as an out-of-work actor in The Goodbye Girl (1977). Dreyfuss also produced and starred in the entertaining private eye movie The Big Fix (1978). After a brief lull in the early 1980s, a well-publicized drug problem and a string of box-office disappointments (The Competition (1980), Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981), The Buddy System (1984)), a clean and sober Dreyfuss re-established himself in the mid-'80s as one of Hollywood's more engaging leads. He co-starred with Bette Midler and Nick Nolte in Paul Mazursky's popular Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986). That same year he provided the narration and appeared in the opening and closing "bookends" of Rob Reiner's nostalgic Stand by Me (1986). He quickly followed that with Nuts (1987) opposite Barbra Streisand, Barry Levinson's Tin Men (1987) in a memorable teaming with Danny DeVito, and Stakeout (1987) with Emilio Estevez. Dreyfuss continued working steadily through the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, most notably in Mazursky's farce Moon Over Parador (1988), Spielberg's Always (1989), Postcards from the Edge (1990) and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). He appeared as a member of an ensemble that included Holly Hunter, Gena Rowlands and Danny Aiello in the romantic comedy Once Around (1991) and as a pop psychiatrist, the author of several successful self-help books, who is driven to the edge by nutcase Bill Murray in the popular comedy What About Bob? (1991). Dreyfuss has also remained active in the theater ("Death and Maiden", 1992) and on TV. In his next project he starred the thriller Silent Fall (1994) with John Lithgow and Linda Hamilton, being the film debut of Liv Tyler, Steven Tyler's daughter (Aerosmith's lead vocals). Just later Dreyfuss made Another Stakeout (1993), sequel of Stakeout (1987) where was team again with Emilio Estevez accompanied of Rosie O'Donnell, the adaptation of Neil Simon's play Lost in Yonkers (1993) and followed with a supporting turn as the querulous political opponent in The American President (1995). Dreyfuss received some of the best notices of his career as a determined, inspiring music teacher coping with a deaf son and the demands of his career in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995). Closing the 20th century he was in Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) with Andy Garcia, the crime comedy Mad Dog Time (1996) as the mob boss Vic, the screwball comedy Krippendorf's Tribe (1998) about an anthropologist who creates a false lost New Guinea tribe for not losing his job in the university, TV movie Lansky (1999) about the infamous mob boss to end, the too TV movie Fail Safe (2000) playing The President, and The Crew (2000), about four older mobsters retired in Miami, partnering with Hollywood legends Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassel.
His start in the 21st century was with the adaption of Luis Sepúlveda's novel The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (2001), playing an old man to must to hunt a female jaguar turned crazy. It was followed by the supporting apparition in the comedy Who Is Cletis Tout? (2001) and another TV movie about 1981 Ronald Reagan's shooting The Day Reagan Was Shot (2001). After the short-lived TV series The Education of Max Bickford (2001) about a teacher in a women's college where his daughter is student, Dreyfuss returned to cinema in Silver City (2004) and the box-office bomb Poseidon (2006) with Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum and Josh Lucas. Playing former vice-president Dick Cheney in the Oliver Stone's biopic W. (2008) and Irv, the cunning tourist in Greece turned in assistant of a troubled tour guide in My Life in Ruins (2009), Dreyfuss participated in low-budget productions as Leaves of Grass (2009) and The Lightkeepers (2009), for making a cameo in the wild and crazy Piranha 3D (2010) about prehistoric men-eater piranhas that make a bloodbath in a spring break. Returning to first line playing evil Alexander Dunning in the actioner RED (2010), his further productions included Paranoia (2013) as Liam Hemsworth's father partnering Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman, road movie Cas & Dylan (2013) opposites Tatiana Maslany and the biopic TV mini-series Madoff (2016) about the infamous multi-billion-dollar and hustler Bernie Madoff. Tireless and always implied in new projects, Dreyfuss played George, the funny online date of Candice Bergen in Book Club (2018), the comedy and road movie The Last Laugh (2019) with Chevy Chase, and the set in wilderness thriller Daughter of the Wolf (2019) with Gina Carano and Brendan Fehr. Making his 73rd birthday in 2020, Dreyfuss is an example of talent, diversity and love for his work, touching not only all the genres in cinema but leaving an unforgettable footprint at any of them.- Actress
- Stunts
Jeramie Rain was born on August 23, 1948 in Charleston, West Virginia. After appearing on episodes of General Hospital (1963) and The Doctors (1963), she gained international recognition in 1972 for her convincing portrayal of the sadistic Sadie in Wes Craven's controversial debut film The Last House on the Left (1972). Her other roles include the cheerleader Jane in The Abductors (1972) and Willie Mae in Preacherman Meets Widderwoman (1973). Outside of acting, Rain has also worked as a writer and producer at NBC, at both the Rockefeller Center and Los Angeles locations. In 1983, Jeramie married actor Richard Dreyfuss; she had three children with Dreyfuss prior to divorcing him in 1995. In the early 90s, Jeramie founded "Mother's Touch", which is a Los Angeles-based charity that helps out children diagnosed with serious illnesses. She was interviewed in the retrospective documentary, Celluloid Crime of the Century (2003). Rain now works as producer and scriptwriter for daytime television programs in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Called "The Iron Man of The Mask", Franc D'Ambrosio was awarded the distinction as the "World's Longest Running Phantom". This accomplishment was immortalized in a cemented hand ceremony and Franc retained this title for over a decade.
D'Ambrosio's resume also includes an Academy Award Nominated film, an Emmy Award Nominated television show, four time Tony nominated Broadway show, Two Grammy Considerations, and a National Theatre Award Nomination.
Early in D'Ambrosio's career, Paramount Pictures sent five talent scouts on an exhausting two year international search. That search ended when they discovered D'Ambrosio in the chorus of his first Broadway show. Francis Ford Coppola immediately cast D'Amborsio as Anthony Corleone, the opera singing son of Al Pacino in Coppola's seven time Academy Award nominated film "Godfather III." Franc had the honor of starring in the film and also sing the Academy Award winning theme song, "Speak Softly Love" (Brucia la Terra) both in the film and on the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. This performance of the award winning song so impressed the late Luciano Pavarotti that it led to an invitation - which was quickly accepted - for him to study with the legendary tenor at his home in Italy.
So began this varied and impressive career. After his note worthy run as "The Phantom Of The Opera" D'Ambrosio caught the eye of Barry Manilow. Manilow personally selected him to create and star as the male lead, "Tony", in the pre-Broadway tour of "Copacabana". The show enjoyed a successful year long tour. His performance earned D'Ambrosio his National Theatre Award nomination for Best Male Performer in a Musical.
D'Ambrosio has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and South America with his critically acclaimed one man shows: "Franc D'Ambrosio's Broadway - Songs From The Great White Way", (debut 2004) and "Franc D'Ambrosio's Hollywood - Songs of The Silver Screen"(debut 2007). D'Ambrosio is also a frequent guest artist with many major American orchestras and symphonies (Pop Series).
With the success of his national and international tours, D'Ambrosio has joined the ranks of the famed Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman as only a handful of Phantom alumni to successfully crossover to solo careers.
Recognized for his vibrant voice and legato singing, D'Ambrosio was invited by the Olympic Champion Brian Boitano to perform as a Special Musical Guest in the skater's NBC special "Brian Boitano's Skating Spectacular". The TV special starred D'Ambrosio and "American Idol" runner-up Diana De Garmo. D'Ambrosio also joined Boitano in his next TV special, "The 2005 Tribute to Movies on Ice." Franc starred as Special Musical Guest with Michael Bolton and "American Idol" Kimberly Locke. His performance of "Music of the Night" skated to by Boitano, received the evening's only standing ovation .
While continuously touring with his popular one man shows, D'Ambrosio found time in 2008 to co-star with Dorothy Hamill in the critically acclaimed "BroadwayOn Ice", produced by Bietak Productions, Inc. D'Ambrosio rounded out the busy year (2008) starring with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra in a spectacular New Years Eve performance.
D'Ambrosio's next creation was "I'll Be Seeing YOUZ... A Bronx Boys Musical Perspective of World War II". The show features more stories from Franc's colorful family and popular war songs from 1939-1946. The show debuted in April 2010.
D'Ambrosio's latest creation is "Christmas In New York". This show shares colorful stories of the city in the Christmas season and is filled with favorite Christmas tunes ranging from the silly - "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" - to the sublime - "Ave Maria". The show debuts in December 2011.
Franc D'Ambrosio is also involved in teaching his craft to young artists. In addition to spending summers in Italy, lecturing for the University Of Cincinnati's College-ConservatoryOf Music (at their famed Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy) he also works with the Cherubini Music Conservatory in Florence Italy and American University in Washington DC.
Franc also participates in numerous lecture series for such prestigious institutions as the New Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts in New York City. While touring the country, D'Ambrosio makes himself available to local school outreach programs across the US and Europe. He offers both lecture and master class formats.