Cinderella (1950, 1987 Reissue - Universal Studios, Buena Vista Distribution, Walt Disney Productions, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and Embassy International Pictures)
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- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In the political turmoil in the 60's, Gilliam feared he would become a terrorist and decided to leave the USA. He moved to England and landed a job on the children's television show Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967) as an animator. There he met meet his future collaborators in Monty Python: Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Michael Palin. In 2006 he renounced his American citizenship.Director and Writer- Producer
- Additional Crew
Martha De Laurentiis formed the Dino De Laurentiis Company (DDLC) in 1980 with her partner and husband, Dino De Laurentiis. Over the past 33 years, Martha produced, executive produced, and co-produced over 40 films and miniseries. Now known as the De Laurentiis Company, the enterprise has overseen the construction and management of three major international film studios: the Screen Gem Studios in Wilmington, NC; the Warner Bros. / Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast of Australia; and the CLA-De Laurentiis studios in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
DLC is based on the Universal Pictures lot, where it holds a long-standing first-look deal. In addition to producing the smash hit Hannibal for NBC, DLC is developing a diverse slate of projects for both film and television, including a Barbarella series with Nicolas Winding Refn for Gaumont International TV and Canal Plus, a series based on the novel Gateway by Frederik Pohl, a feature film entitled The Seventh Day (2021), and a new project based on the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey.Producer (as Martha Schumacher)- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Arnon Milchan (PRODUCER) is widely renowned as one of the most prolific and successful independent film producers of his time, with over 100 feature films to his credit. Born in Israel, Milchan was educated at the University of Geneva. His first business venture was transforming his father's modest business into one of his country's largest agro-chemical companies. This early achievement was a harbinger of Milchan's now-legendary reputation in the international marketplace as a keen businessman.
Soon, Milchan began to underwrite projects in areas that had always held a special interest for him - film, television and theater. Early projects include Roman Polanski's theater production of "Amadeus," "Dizengoff 99," "La Menace," "The Medusa Touch" and the mini-series "Masada." By the end of the 1980s, Milchan had produced such films as Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy," Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" and Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."
After the incredible successes of his films "Pretty Woman" and "The War of the Roses," Milchan founded New Regency Productions and went on to produce countless critical and box office successes including "J.F.K," "A Time to Kill," "Free Willy," "The Client," "Tin Cup," "Under Siege," "The Devil's Advocate," "The Negotiator," "City of Angels," "Entrapment," "Fight Club," "Big Momma's House," "Don't Say a Word," "Daredevil," "Man on Fire," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "What Happens in Vegas," "Love and Other Drugs," "Noah" and "Gone Girl."
In 1998, Milchan received an Academy Award® nomination for producing the film "LA Confidential." He served as producer of back-to-back Academy Award® Best Picture winners "12 Years A Slave" (2013) and "Birdman" (2014), 2015's multiple Oscar® winners "The Revenant" (2015) and "The Big Short" (2015) and 2019's Golden Globe® and Oscar® winning "Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)".
Along the way, Milchan partnered with Twentieth Century Fox and has taken advantage of the growing television and new media marketplace. Milchan has also successfully diversified his company's activities within the sphere of entertainment, most specifically in the realm of television through Regency Television ("Malcom in the Middle" and "The Bernie Mac Show"), and sports where the company was once the largest shareholder of PUMA, the worldwide athletic apparel and show conglomerate based in Germany, which was later sold after a successful re-branding in 2003.Producer- Producer
- Production Manager
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Raffaella De Laurentiis was born on 28 June 1954 in Italy. She is a producer and production manager, known for Dune (1984), DragonHeart (1996) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004).Producer- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Producer
John Pomeroy was born on 26 March 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a producer, known for The Secret of NIMH (1982), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and An American Tail (1986).Producer- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Production Manager
Dino De Laurentiis left home at age 17 to enrol in film school, supporting himself as an actor, extra, propman, or any other job he could get in the film industry. His persistence paid off, and by the time he reached his 20th birthday he already had one produced film under his belt. After serving in the Italian army during World War II, De Laurentiis went back into film production, and in 1946 scored a critical and commercial international hit with Bitter Rice (1949) ("Bitter Rice"). He later married its star, Silvana Mangano. De Laurentiis eventually formed a partnership with producer Carlo Ponti, and the team had a string of hits, including several by director Federico Fellini. After the partnership dissolved, De Laurentiis embarked on a plan to build his own studio facilities, which would enable him to make the kind of massive spectacles he wanted to make. The studio complex, called Dinocitta', eventually was forced to close down due to a combination of hard times in the Italian film industry and a string of flops by De Laurentiis himself. De Laurentiis eventually sold the property to the Italian government and moved his base of production to the United States. He again opened up a film production complex in Wilmington, North Carolina, called DEG Studios, but was eventually forced by economic conditions to sell that, too. De Laurentiis has had some critical successes since his move to the U.S. (Ragtime (1981)), but most of his U.S. productions have been critically lambasted, although several have been commercial successes.Executive Producer- Producer
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- Director
Roy Edward Disney began working for the Walt Disney Company as an assistant film editor on the True-Life Adventure film in 1954. In 1967, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the company. In 1984, he returned to the company as vice chairman of the board, and head of the animation department. On October 16, 1998, in a surprise presentation made at the newly unveiled Disney Legends Plaza at the company's headquarters, Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner presented him with the prestigious Disney Legends Award.Executive Producer- Producer
- Actor
Jake Eberts was born on 10 July 1941 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was a producer and actor, known for Open Range (2003), The Name of the Rose (1986) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989). He was married to Fiona. He died on 6 September 2012 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Executive Producer- Actor
- Writer
Charles McKeown was born in March 1946 in Dudley, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and Spies Like Us (1985). He was previously married to Erika Langmuir.Writer- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Producer
Tom Stoppard was born on 3 July 1937 in Zlín, Czechoslovakia [now in Czech Republic]. He is a writer and producer, known for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Brazil (1985) and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). He has been married to Sabrina Guinness since 2014. He was previously married to Miriam Stoppard and Jose Ingle.Writer- Charles Perrault was a French writer from Paris, and an early member of the Académie Française (French Academy). He was a pioneer in the then-new literary genre of the fairy tale, publishing "Stories or Tales from Past Times" (Histoires ou contes du temps passé, 1697). He combined elements from older folk tales with fantasy depictions of contemporary French society. His most popular fairy tales were "Bluebeard" (Barbe Bleue), "Cinderella" (Cendrillon), "Little Red Riding Hood" (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge), "Puss in Boots" (Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté), and "Sleeping Beauty" (La Belle au bois dormant). Perrault was a main influence on the Brothers Grimm, who published German variations of some of his tales. Several of his tales have received multiple adaptations in film, television, and theatre.
In 1628, Perrault was born to an affluent bourgeois family. He was the seventh child of Pierre Perrault and Paquette Le Clerc. His most notable brothers were the pioneering hydrologist Pierre Perrault (c. 1608-1680) and the architect, physician and anatomist Claude Perrault (1613-1688).
Perrault was trained in law, but chose to follow a career in government service. In 1663, Perrault was appointed as the first secretary of the "Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres", a learned society whose initial task was to compose or obtain Latin inscriptions to be copied on public monuments and medals. The society was founded by the influential minister of state Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), and Perrault served as Colbert's administrative aide.
In 1669, Perrault proposed to Louis XIV of France (1638 -1715, reigned 1643-1715) the construction of a group of 39 fountains in the labyrinth of Versailles. Each fountain would represent one of Aesop's fables. The fountains were constructed between 1672 and 1677. Once the work was completed, Perrault published guidebook for the labyrinth.
In 1674, Perrault wrote a book in defense of the opera "Alceste" (1674) by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687). The opera was an adaptation of the Greek play "Alcestis" (438 BC) by Euripides. Traditionalists denounced Lully for deviating too much from the story of the original work, while Perrault defended the merits of Lully's work. The controversy over the opera led to the so-called "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns". Traditionalist and modernist scholars of the French court were arguing over whether ancient literature was superior to modern works, or whether modern literature had far surpassed its predecessor. Perrault became a leader of the modernist faction.
In 1682, Perrault faced mandatory retirement from his government posts at the age of 56. Colbert wanted to replace Perrault with one of his own sons, and was no longer interested in advancing Perrault's career. Following Colbert's death, Perrault found himself targeted by Colbert's surviving political rivals.
In 1686, Perrault made his first attempt to write "serious" epic poetry. He wrote an epic about the life of the Roman writer and bishop Paulinus of Nola (c. 354-431). The poem was poorly received, and Perrault was ridiculed by the satirist Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux (1636-1711).
In 1691, Perrault experimented with the fairy tale genre by writing the novella "La Marquise de Salusses ou la Patience de Griselidis". In 1693, he wrote the fairy tale "The Ridiculous Wishes". In the story, an impoverished couple are granted three wishes by an ancient god, but waste the opportunity to improve their life through poorly-thought wishes. In 1694, Perrault wrote the fairy tale "Donkeyskin". In the story, a widowed king wants to marry his own daughter (who resembles her mother), but the unwilling girl is protected by her fairy godmother. These stories were more warmly received by Perrault's associates.
In 1695, Perrault compiled the first edition of "Stories or Tales from Past Times". He collected his imaginative fairy tales, concluding each of them with a "rhymed, well-defined and cynical moral". In 1697, the work received its first printed edition. It became widely popular, with eight reprints in Perrault's lifetime.
In 1699, Perrault published his translation of the fables compiled by the Italian writer Gabriele Faerno (1510-1561). This translation was popular in England during the 18th century, and was used as a school textbook. It was Perrault's last significant work. Perrault died in 1703, at the age of 75. Most of his works fell out of fashion during the decades following his death, but his fairy tales remained in print. They have remained popular for centuries, ensuring an enduring fame for Perrault.Based on the Original Classic "Cinderella" - Writer
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Bill Peet was born on 29 January 1915 in Grandview, Indiana, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Dumbo (1941) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He was married to Margaret Brunst. He died on 11 May 2002 in Studio City, California, USA.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Writer
- Music Department
- Director
Erdman Penner was born on 17 January 1905 in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a writer and director, known for Sleeping Beauty (1959), Cinderella (1950) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). He died on 10 November 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Writer
- Animation Department
- Director
As his writing partner, Winston Hibler, once put it, "Perhaps Ted's greatest talent was his own unique brand of humor. It was warm, gentle humor; there was never a barb in it. And his was the key, to Ted's whole personality. He was the kindest man I ever knew. He lived with laughter and without malice. He was generous in all things. His talents could be had for the asking. No job was too small, none too big. And this all adds up to the fact that through his talents and his personal virtues. Ted was able to achieve two of the goals he set for himself in life: he made good pictures and he made good friends." Ted Sears was a man of multiple talents. Born in 1900, he spent most of his childhood in New York. As a teenager he attended a trade school in Manhattan where he learned a variety of lettering techniques - since he planned on becoming a sign painter. Even though art and drawing were his first loves, his most lasting interests, early on he convinced himself he would never be an exceptional artist, and he also knew he had to help support his parents and four sisters. However, trying out various jobs was not a problem; he was good at almost everything, and so he lettered title cards for silent movies, worked with trick photography, drew ads- and even made props for early two-reel comedies, joining silent comic
In 1931, Walt Disney hired Ted on a long term contract not as an animator but as a senior writer, (the Disney company's first) and in the twenty-seven years that followed no one ever challenged his position. He had found a niche that suited him, surrounded by the most talented and colorful personalities in animation, writing dialogue and story lines for virtually every important production the Disney Studio made: "Snow White," "Pinocchio," "Bambi," "Dumbo," "Fantasia," "Saludos Amigos," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan" (for which he wrote song lyrics), "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping beauty." As part of the Disney's company's original story department he is one of the men attributed in the creation of storyboarding now an industry standard for not just animated film but also live action. He also co-wrote narration for many of the Disney nature films with Winston Hibler, and later did a number of the Disney TV shows. He had writing credits on perhaps a dozen Oscar and Emmy winning productions.
To amuse himself, Ted still drew for his friends and made props for the plays his daughter appeared in - he also produced his family's Christmas cards which employed his old love for trick photography an special effects - these holiday cards took months to prepare and were awaited with great anticipation by over three hundred recipients. (he lettered the envelopes individually, turning each name into calligraphy.)
When Ted died in the summer of 1958, he left his mark on the Disney films, their quality in part springing from his belief in what he did, his many gifts, and the satisfaction that came from working with the finest talents in the animation business.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Songwriter ("A Boy Is a Curious Thing"), auhor, director, producer and actor, educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Between 1928 and 1938 he was a Broadway stage actor and appeared in several films, and from 1938 to 1942 he was a writer for radio, films and stage productions, and later television. Joining ASCAP in 1954, his chief musical collaborators included William Lava, Walter Schumann, Paul Smith, Gill George, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Oliver Wallace. His other popular-song compositions include "I'll Remember", "I Wonder", "Following the Leader", "Stingaree", "Now to Sleep", "Together Time", "Break of Day", and "We'll Smoke the Blighter Out".Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Writer
- Art Department
- Director
Homer Brightman was born on 1 October 1901. He was a writer and director, known for Cinderella (1950), The Magical World of Disney (1954) and Fun and Fancy Free (1947). He died on 30 January 1988 in Kirkland, Washington, USA.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Writer
- Animation Department
Harry Reeves was born in 1906. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). He died in 1971.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Animation Department
- Writer
- Art Department
Ken Anderson was born on 17 March 1909 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Robin Hood (1973) and The Aristocats (1970). He was married to Polly Anderson. He died on 13 December 1993 in La Cañada Flintridge, California, USA.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Writer
- Art Department
Joe Rinaldi was born on 1 August 1914 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Dumbo (1941). He died on 25 November 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Story- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Prolific songwriter ("Heartaches", "Allegheny Moon"), composer, author and drummer. He came to the USA in 1908 and was educated at Franklyn High School in Seattle, Washington. He led his own band in Seattle, then came to New York in 1928 where he was a drummer in night club orchestras. Journeying to England in 1934, he wrote the London stage scores for "This'll Make You Whistle", "Going Greek", and "Hide and Seek". Joining ASCAP in 1930, his chief musical collaborators included Al Goodhart, Maurice Sigler, Ed Nelson, Sammy Lerner, Dick Manning, Jerry Livingston, Milton Drake, Mack David, Mann Curtis, Leo Corday, Leon Carr, Bob Merrill, and Walter Kent. His other popular-song compositions include "I Apologize", "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear", "Fit as a Fiddle", "Black-Eyed Susan Brown", "Jimmy Had a Nickel", "Who Walks in When I Walk Out?", "I Saw Stars", "Why Don't You Practise What You Preach?", "Little Man You've Had a Busy Day", "Roll Up the Carpet", "I'm in a Dancing Mood", "Without Rhythm", "There Isn't Any Limit to My Love", "Everything Stops For Tea", "From One Minute to Another", "I Can Wiggle My Ears", "Say the Word", "Everything's in Rhythm With My Heart", "Let's Put Some People to Work", "Gangway", "Lord and Lady Whoozis", "She Shall Have Music", "Romance Runs in the Family", "Apple Blossoms and Chapel Bells", "Goodnight, Wherever You Are", "The Story of a Starry Night", "Close to You", "O Dio Mio", "What's the Good Word, Mr. Bluebird?", "I Must Have One More Kiss, Kiss, Kiss", "I Ups to Her and She Ups to Me", "Mairzy Doats", "Fuzzy Wuzzy", "I'm a Big Girl Now", "I Had Too Much to dream Last Night", "Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba", "There's No Tomorrow", "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo", "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "If I Knew You were Comin' I'd Have Baked a Cake", "Takes Two to Tango", "Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea", "Papa Loves Mambo", "Don't Stay Away Too Long", "Hot Diggity", "Mama, Teach Me to Dance", "Ivy Rose", "Are You Really Mine?", "Oh, Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again", "Secretly", "Hawaiian Wedding Song", "You're Cheatin' Yourself", and "If You Smile at the Sun".Original Songs- Music Department
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- Producer
Composer, songwriter ("Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White", "Bimbombey", "Blue and Sentimenta") and author, educated at Cornell University and St. John's University Law School. He wrote many themes for television and films. Joining ASCAP in 1934, his chief musical collaborators included Jerry Livingston, Al Hoffman, Alex Kramer, Joan Whitney, Frankie Carle, Count Basie, Burt Bacharach, Ernest Gold, Elmer Bernstein, Frank De Vol and Henry Mancini. His other popular-song compositions include "Oh, Oh, What Do You Know About Love?", "Just a Kid Named Joe", "Moon Love", "On the Isle of May", "Bermuda Buggyride", "Falling Leaves", "A Sinner Kissed an Angel", "It's Love, Love, Love", "Lili Marlene", "I'm Just a Lucky So-And-So", "Candy", "Spellbound", "Chi-Baba Chi-Baba", "At a Candlelight Cafe", "Sunflower", "La Vie en Rose", "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine", "It Only Hurts for a Little While", "I Like It, I Like It", "The Call of the Faraway Hills", "My Own True Love", "Baby, It's You", "So This Is Love", "The Unbirthday Song", "The Willow", "Room for One More", "Take Me", and "Young Emotions".Original Songs- Music Department
- Composer
- Sound Department
Versatile American composer and songwriter, who frequently worked on Broadway in collaboration with the lyricist Mack David. Livingston studied piano and theory at the University of Arizona and arrived on the music scene as a sideman with a Denver dance band. After briefly leading his own orchestra on campus, he set out for New York in 1932 where he found further employment as a pianist. Livingston fronted another big band in 1940, but the venture only lasted a year. He then traded in his baton and established his own music publishing house.
In 1949, Livingston moved to Hollywood, where he enjoyed an immensely successful career for the next decade, writing catchy theme music for classic TV shows like Cheyenne (1955), Bourbon Street Beat (1959), Bronco (1958) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958). He also wrote the Bugs Bunny intro song "This is It"; the novelty hit "Mairzy Doats"; the ballads "Talk of the Town", "Under a Blanket of Blue" and "Invitation to a Dance"; the Oscar-nominated theme song for The Hanging Tree (1959) and the "The Ballad of Cat Ballou" (from the comedy western Cat Ballou (1965). He also co-wrote the Johnny Mathis hit "The Twelfth of Never" with Paul Francis Webster.
Livingston was a former president of the Songwriters Guild of America.Original Songs- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Leonard Rosenman was born on 7 September 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Barry Lyndon (1975) and La La Land (2016). He was married to Judie Gregg, Lyn Furr, Kay Scott and Adele Bracker. He died on 4 March 2008 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.Original Score Composer
Also Song Producer & Arranger and Orchestra Arrangements for "So This Is Love"- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and founding his own orchestra at the age of 20. After writing scores for Orson Welles's radio shows in the 1930s (including the notorious 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast), he was the obvious choice to score Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941), and, subsequently, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), although he removed his name from the latter after additional music was added without his (or Welles's) consent when the film was mutilated by a panic-stricken studio. Herrmann was a prolific film composer, producing some of his most memorable work for Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he wrote nine scores. A notorious perfectionist and demanding (he once said that most directors didn't have a clue about music, and he blithely ignored their instructions--like Hitchcock's suggestion that Psycho (1960) have a jazz score and no music in the shower scene). He ended his partnership with Hitchcock after the latter rejected his score for Torn Curtain (1966) on studio advice. He was also an early experimenter in the sounds used in film scores, most famously The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), scored for two theremins, pianos, and a horn section; and was a consultant on the electronic sounds created by Oskar Sala on the mixtrautonium for The Birds (1963). His last score was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) and died just hours after recording it. He also wrote an opera, "Wuthering Heights", and a cantata, "Moby Dick".Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Original Score- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Alfred Newman is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music.
From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Academy Awards and was nominated 45 times, contributing to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Newman composed the scores for over 200 motion pictures. Some of his most famous scores include All About Eve (1950), Anastasia (1956), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Song of Bernadette (1943), Captain from Castile (1947), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), How the West Was Won (1962), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and his final score, Airport (1970), all of which were nominated for or won Academy Awards. He is perhaps best known for composing the fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of 20th Century Fox's productions.
Newman was highly regarded as a conductor, and arranged and conducted many scores by other composers, including George Gershwin, Charles Chaplin, and Irving Berlin. He also conducted the music for many film adaptations of Broadway musicals (having worked on Broadway for ten years before coming to Hollywood), as well as many original Hollywood musicals.
He was among the first musicians to compose and conduct original music during Hollywood's Golden Age of movies, later becoming a respected and powerful music director in the history of Hollywood.Based on the 1950 animated film "Cinderella" Original Score- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
William Ross is a prolific award-winning composer and arranger whose work has spanned feature films, the recording industry and television. He recently completed the score to Universal Pictures' first CGI-animated film, The Tale of Despereaux (2008), and has composed music for such films as Ladder 49 (2004), The Game of Their Lives (2005), Tuck Everlasting (2002), The Young Black Stallion (2003), and My Dog Skip (2000). He also adapted and conducted the score to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).
His work in television includes the score to the critically acclaimed mini series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) and the Emmy-winning music for the Tiny Toon Adventures (1990)' episode "Fields of Honey."
Mr. Ross has arranged music for a remarkable list of artists including Barbra Streisand, Céline Dion, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, Kenny G, Sting, Quincy Jones, David Foster, Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston, to mention just a few. The records on which he has worked have sold over 250 million copies combined in the United States.
He has served as Music Director and Conductor for many artists and occasions, including Barbra Streisand's historic 2006 and 2007 concert tours and the The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) ceremony, for which he received his second Emmy Award.
His arrangements have been featured in many films and include such hits as Andrea Bocelli's "God Bless Us Everyone" from Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009), Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" from the motion picture Titanic (1997); "Believe," sung by Josh Groban in the film The Polar Express (2004); "The Prayer" with Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion from Quest for Camelot (1998); and the Academy Award Nominated song "Run To You" sung by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard (1992).
Arrangements by Mr. Ross have been a part of the opening ceremonies of several Super Bowls along with the opening and/or closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Calgary (1988), Atlanta (1996), Salt Lake City (2002), Torino (2006) and Vancouver (2010). He was awarded an Emmy Award in 2009 for Outstanding Original Music for his work on the song "Hugh Jackman Opening Number," featured during the The 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009) ceremony.
Mr. Ross is the recipient of four Emmy Awards, two BMI Film Music Awards and was nominated for an Annie Award.Score Arranger, Adaptation, Orchestrator and Conductor
Also Orchestra Arrangements and Conductor for "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes"- Casting Director
- Casting Department
Janet Hirshenson is known for Parenthood (1989), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Home Alone (1990).Casting, C.S.A.- Casting Director
- Casting Department
- Actress
Jane Jenkins was born on 5 June 1943 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is a casting director and actress, known for A Beautiful Mind (2001), A Few Good Men (1992) and Apollo 13 (1995).Casting, C.S.A.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their lives' work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High School in 1976, and attended one year at the Golden West College, where she studied to become a court reporter. But it was while working as a supermarket checker at Vons, a large Southern California grocery chain, that she realized her true calling. She was married to actor/director Peter Horton ("Gary" of Thirtysomething (1987)) in 1981. They were later divorced, and she then had a three year relationship with actor Fisher Stevens. When that didn't work out, Pfeiffer decided she didn't want to wait any longer before having her own family, and in March of 1993, she adopted a baby girl, Claudia Rose. On November 13th of the same year, she married lawyer-turned-writer/producer David E. Kelley, creator of Picket Fences (1992), Chicago Hope (1994), The Practice (1997), and Boston Public (2000). On August 5, 1994 their son, John Henry was born.as Cinderella (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Kevin Michael Costner was born on January 18, 1955 in Lynwood, California, the third child of Bill Costner, a ditch digger and ultimately an electric line servicer for Southern California Edison, and Sharon Costner (née Tedrick), a welfare worker. His older brother, Dan, was born in 1950. A middle brother died at birth in 1953. His father's job required him to move regularly, which caused Kevin to feel like an Army kid, always the new kid at school, which led to him being a daydreamer. As a teen, he sang in the Baptist church choir, wrote poetry, and took writing classes. At 18, he built his own canoe and paddled his way down the rivers that Lewis & Clark followed to the Pacific. Despite his present height, he was only 5'2" when he graduated high school. Nonetheless, he still managed to be a basketball, football and baseball star. In 1973, he enrolled at California State University at Fullerton, where he majored in business. During that period, Kevin decided to take acting lessons five nights a week. He graduated with a business degree in 1978 and married his college sweetheart, Cindy Costner. He initially took a marketing job in Orange County. Everything changed when he accidentally met Richard Burton on a flight from Mexico. Burton advised him to go completely after acting if that is what he wanted. He quit his job and moved to Hollywood soon after. He drove a truck, worked on a deep sea fishing boat, and gave bus tours to stars' homes before finally making his own way into the films. After making one soft core sex film, he vowed to not work again if that was the only work he could do. He didn't work for nearly six years, while he waited for a proper break. That break came with The Big Chill (1983), even though his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor -- he was remembered by director Lawrence Kasdan when he decided to make Silverado (1985). Costner's career took off after that.as Prince Charming (voice)- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The lovely Susannah York, a gamine, blue-eyed, cropped-blonde British actress, displayed a certain crossover star quality when she dared upon the Hollywood scene in the early 1960s. A purposefully intriguing, enigmatic and noticeably uninhibited talent, she was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher on January 9, 1939 in Chelsea, London, but raised in a remote village in Scotland. Her parents divorced when she was around 6. Attending Marr College, she trained for acting at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, winning the Ronson Award for most promising student. She then performed classical repertory and pantomime in her early professional career.
Making an impression on television in 1959 opposite Sean Connery in a production of "The Crucible" as Abigail Williams to his John Proctor, the moon-faced beauty progressed immediately to ingénue film roles, making her debut as the daughter of Alec Guinness in the classic war drama Tunes of Glory (1960). She emerged quickly as a worthy co-star with the sensitively handled coming-of age drama Loss of Innocence (1961), the more complex psychodrama Freud (1962), as a patient to Montgomery Clift's famed psychoanalyst, and the bawdy and robust 18th century tale Tom Jones (1963), with Susannah portraying the brazenly seductive Sophie, one of many damsels lusting after the bed-hopping title rogue Albert Finney.
Susannah continued famously both here and in England in both contemporary and period drama opposite the likes of Warren Beatty, William Holden, Paul Scofield and Dirk Bogarde. Susannah was a new breed. Free-spirited and unreserved, she had no trouble at all courting controversy in some of the film roles she went on to play. She gained special notoriety as the child-like Alice in her stark, nude clinches with severe-looking executive Coral Browne in the lesbian drama The Killing of Sister George (1968). A few years later, she and Elizabeth Taylor traveled similar territory with X, Y & Zee (1972).
Award committees also began favoring her; she won the BAFTA film award as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her delusional Jean Harlow-like dance marathon participant in the grueling Depression-era film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Her crazy scene in the shower with Oscar-winner Gig Young was particularly gripping and just one of many highlights in the acclaimed film. She also copped a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in Images (1972) playing another troubled character barely coping with reality. On television, she was Emmy-nominated for her beautifully nuanced Jane Eyre (1970) opposite George C. Scott's Rochester.
Susannah's film career started to lose ground into the 1970s as she continued her pursuit of challengingly offbeat roles as opposed to popular mainstream work. The film adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) opposite Rod Steiger and Jean Genet's The Maids (1975) with Glenda Jackson were not well-received. Her performances in such films as Gold (1974), Conduct Unbecoming (1975) which starred another famous York (Michael York), That Lucky Touch (1975), Sky Riders (1976) and The Shout (1978) were overlooked, as were the films themselves. In the one highly popular movie series she appeared in, the box-office smashes Superman (1978) and its sequel Superman II (1980), she had literally nothing to do as Lara, the wife of Marlon Brando's Jor-El and birth mother of the superhero. While the actress continued to pour out a number of quality work assignments in films and television, she failed to recapture her earlier star glow.
Wisely, Susannah began extending her talents outside the realm of film acting. Marrying writer Michael Wells in 1960, she focused on her personal life, raising their two children for a time. The couple divorced in 1980. In the 1970s, she wrote the children's books "In Search of Unicorns" and "Lark's Castle". She also found time to direct on stage and wrote the screenplay to one of her film vehicles Falling in Love Again (1980). On stage Susannah performed in such one-woman shows as "Independent State", 'Picasso's Women", "The Human Voice" and "The Loves of Shakespeare's Women", while entertaining such wide and varied theatre challenges as "Peter Pan" (title role), "Hamlet" (as Gertrude), "Camino Real", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Private Lives", "Agnes of God" and the title role in "Amy's View".
At the age of 67, Susannah showed up once again on film with a delightful cameo role in The Gigolos (2006), and seemed ripe for a major comeback, perhaps in a similar vein to the legendary Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren. Sadly, it was not to be. Diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, the actress died on January 15, 2011, six days after her 72nd birthday. Her final films, Franklyn (2008) and The Calling (2009), proved that she still possessed the magnetism of her earlier years.as Lady Tremaine (voice)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Diane Lane was born on January 22, 1965, in New York. She is the daughter of acting coach Burton Eugene "Burt" Lane and nightclub singer/centerfold Colleen Farrington. Her parents' families were both from the state of Georgia. Diane was acting from a very young age and made her stage debut at the age of six. Her work in such acclaimed theater productions as "The Cherry Orchard" and "Medea" led to her being called to Hollywood. She was 13 when she was cast by director George Roy Hill in his wonderful 1979 film A Little Romance (1979), opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. The film only did so-so commercially, but Olivier praised his young co-star, calling her the new Grace Kelly. After her well-received debut, Diane found herself on magazine covers all over the world, including "Time", which declared her the "new young acting sensation". However, things quietened down a bit when she found herself in such critical and financial flops as Touched by Love (1980), Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980), Movie Madness (1982), Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982) and, most unmemorably, Six Pack (1982), all of which failed to set her career on fire.
She also made several TV movies during this period, but it was in 1983 that she finally began to fulfill the promise of stardom that had earlier been predicted for her. Acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola took note of Diane's appeal and cast her in two "youth"-oriented films based on S.E. Hinton novels. Indeed, Rumble Fish (1983) and The Outsiders (1983) have become cult classics and resulted in her getting a loyal fan base. The industry was now taking notice of Diane Lane, and she soon secured lead roles in three big-budget studio epics. She turned down the first, Splash (1983) (which was a surprise hit for Daryl Hannah). Unfortunately, the other two were critical and box-office bombs: Walter Hill's glossy rock 'n' roll fable Streets of Fire (1984) was not the huge summer success that many had thought it would be, and the massively troubled Coppola epic The Cotton Club (1984) co-starring Richard Gere was also a high-profile flop. The back-to-back failure of both of these films could have ended her career there and then -- but thankfully it didn't. Possibly "burned out" by the lambasting these films received and unhappy with the direction her career was taking, she "retired" from the film business at age 19, saying that she had forgotten what she had started acting for. She stayed away from the screen for the next three years. Ironically, the two films that were the main causes of her "retirement" have since grown in popularity, and "Streets of Fire" especially seems to have found the kind of audience it couldn't get when it was first released.
The process of rebuilding her career was a slow and gradual one. First came the obscure and very sexy straight-to-video thriller Lady Beware (1987), followed by the critically acclaimed but little seen The Big Town (1987) with Matt Dillon and Tommy Lee Jones. In the former, Diane plays a very mysterious and sexy stripper and her memorable strip sequence is a highlight of the film. Despite her sexy new on-screen image, it wasn't until 1989's smash hit TV mini-series Lonesome Dove (1989) that Diane made another big impression on a sizable audience. Her performance in the hugely popular and critically acclaimed western epic as a vulnerable "whore with a heart" won her an Emmy nomination and much praise. Film producers were interested in her again. Another well-received TV production, Descending Angel (1990), was followed by smaller roles in major films like Richard Attenborough's Chaplin (1992) and Mike Binder's Indian Summer (1993), and larger parts in small independent films like My New Gun (1992), Vital Signs (1990) and Knight Moves (1992). Indeed, the latter two films co-starred her then-husband, Christopher Lambert, with whom she had a daughter named Eleanor.
Diane was now re-established in Hollywood and started to appear in higher-profile co-starring roles in some big-budget, major movies like Walter Hill's Wild Bill (1995), the Sylvester Stallone actioner Judge Dredd (1995), the Robin Williams's comedy Jack (1996) and Murder at 1600 (1997) co-starring Wesley Snipes. However, all of these still did not quite make Diane a "big-name star" and, by 1997, she found herself, possibly by choice, back in smaller, personal projects.
Her next role as a frustrated 1960s housewife in the independent hit A Walk on the Moon (1999) deservedly won her rave notices and, at last, gave her career the big lift it needed. The cute but tear-jerking comedy My Dog Skip (2000) also proved to be a small-scale success. However, it was the £330-million worldwide grossing blockbuster hit The Perfect Storm (2000) that finally made Diane Lane the household name that she always should have been.
After the worldwide success of "The Perfect Storm", she was more in demand than ever. She played Leelee Sobieski's sinister junkie guardian in the slick thriller The Glass House (2001), and co-starred with Keanu Reeves in the #1 smash hit Hardball (2001). However, her greatest career moment was still to come with her lead role in the enormous critical and commercial hit Unfaithful (2002), in which she superbly portrayed Richard Gere's adulterous wife. Her performance won the respect of critics and audiences alike, as well as many awards and nominations including Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.
Her follow-up films including Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), Must Love Dogs (2005), Hollywoodland (2006), Secretariat (2010), and the blockbuster, Man of Steel (2013), were all received and her performances were highly praised. She won further Best Actress Golden Globe nominations for her roles in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) and Cinema Verite (2011).
She is very well regarded within the industry, adored by film fans, and has a credibility and quality that is all too rare today. Her immense talent at playing human and real characters, her "drop dead gorgeous" beauty and down-to-earth grittiness guarantees that she will stay on top, and she guarantee has already shown the kind of resilience that will keep her working for a long, long time.as Anastasia Tremaine (voice)- Actress
- Art Department
Connecticut native Kim Greist spent her late teen years in Europe as a professional model. She returned to the US at age 20 and launched an acting career in the off-Broadway comedy "Second Prize: Two Months in Leningrad"; her later stage credits included appearances in the New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1984, Greist made her movie bow in the scuzzy horror epic C.H.U.D. (1984); the following year, she was cast in what remains her best film role, the elusive blonde fantasy girl of futuristic bureaucrat Jonathan Pryce in director Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985). Greist has continued to appear in films and television into the 1990s, with substantial roles in such productions as Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and Roswell (1994).as Drizella Tremaine (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jonathan Pryce was born on 1 June 1947 in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Two Popes (2019), The Wife (2017) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). He has been married to Kate Fahy since April 2015. They have three children.as Grand Duke (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Director
The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he proved the doubters wrong, becoming one of the most notable film actors of his generation, with a host of great movies to his name. This arguably culminated in his greatest acclaim in 1988, when Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as an Irish cop in The Untouchables (1987), stealing the thunder from the movie's principal star Kevin Costner. Connery was polled as "The Greatest Living Scot" and "Scotland's Greatest Living National Treasure". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man of the Century."
Thomas "Sean" Connery was born on August 25, 1930 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh. His mother, Euphemia Maclean, was a cleaning lady, and his father, Joseph Connery, was a factory worker and truck driver. He also had a, Neil Connery, a plasterer in Edinburgh, who was eight years younger. Before going into acting, Sean had many different jobs, such as a milkman, lorry driver, a laborer, artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, coffin polisher and bodybuilder. He also joined the Royal Navy, but was later discharged because of medical problems. At the age of 23, he had a choice between becoming a professional soccer player or an actor, and even though he showed much promise in the sport, he chose acting and said it was one of his more intelligent decisions.
No Road Back (1957) was Sean's first major movie role, and it was followed by several made-for-TV movies such as Anna Christie (1957), Macbeth (1961) and Anna Karenina (1961) as well as guest appearances on TV series, and also films such as Hell Drivers (1957), Another Time, Another Place (1958), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) and The Frightened City (1961). In 1962 he appeared in The Longest Day (1962) with a host of other stars.
His big breakthrough came in 1962 when he landed the role of secret agent James Bond in Dr. No (1962). He played James Bond in six more films: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983).
After and during the success of the Bond films, he maintained a successful career as an actor and has appeared in films, including Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Wind and the Lion (1975), Time Bandits (1981), Highlander (1986), The Name of the Rose (1986), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Rising Sun (1993), The Rock (1996), Finding Forrester (2000) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).
Sean married actress Diane Cilento in 1962 and they had Sean's only child, Jason Connery, born on January 11, 1963. The couple announced their separation in February 1971 and filed for divorce 2½ years later. Sean then dated Jill St. John, Lana Wood, Magda Konopka and Carole Mallory. In 1975 he married Micheline Roquebrune and they stayed married, despite Sean's well-documented love affair with Lynsey de Paul in the late '80s. Sean had three stepchildren through his marriage to Micheline, who was one year his senior. He is also a grandfather. His son, Jason and Jason's ex-wife, actress Mia Sara had a son, Dashiell Connery, in 1997.
Sean Connery died at the age of 90 on October 31, 2020, in Nassau, the Bahamas, where he resided for many years.as The King (voice)- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Angela Lansbury was born in 1925 into a prominent family of the upper middle class living in the Regent's Park neighborhood of London. Her father was socialist politician Edgar Isaac Lansbury (1887-1935), a member of both the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Labour Party. Edgar served as Honorary Treasurer of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (term 1915), and Mayor of Poplar (term 1924-1925). He was the second Communist mayor in British history, the first being Joe Vaughan (1878-1938). Lansbury's mother was Irish film actress Moyna Macgill (1895-1975), originally from Belfast. During the first five years of Angela's life, the Lansbury family lived in a flat located in Poplar. In 1930, they moved to a house located in the Mill Hill neighborhood of north London. They spend their weekends vacationing in a farm located in Berrick Salome, a village in South Oxfordshire.
In 1935, Edgar Lansbury died from stomach cancer. Angela reportedly retreated into "playing characters", as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss. The widowed Moyna Macgill soon became engaged to Leckie Forbes, a Scottish colonel. Moyna moved into his house in Hampstead.
From 1934 to 1939, Angela was a student at South Hampstead High School. During these years, she became interested in films.. She regularly visited the local cinema, and imagined herself in various roles. Angela learned how to play the piano, and received a musical education at the Ritman School of Dancing.
In 1940, Lansbury started her acting education at the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, located in Kensington, West London. She made her theatrical debut in the school's production of the play "Mary of Scotland" (1933) by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959). The play depicted the life of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587, reigned 1542-1567), and Lansbury played one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting.
Also in 1940, Lansbury's paternal grandfather, George Lansbury, died from stomach cancer. When the Blitz started, Moyna Macgill had reasons to fear for the safety of her family and few remaining ties to England. Macgill moved to the United States to escape the Blitz, taking her three youngest children with her. Isolde was already a married adult, and was left behind in England.
Macgill secured financial sponsorship from American businessman Charles T. Smith. She and her children (including Angela) moved into Smith's house in Mahopac, New York, a hamlet in Putnam County. Lansbury was interested in continuing her studies, and secured a scholarship from the American Theatre Wing. From 1940 to 1942, Lansbury studied acting at the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, located in New York City. She appeared in performances organized by the school.
In 1942, Lansbury moved with her family to a flat located in Morton Street, Greenwich Village. She soon followed her mother in her theatrical tour of Canada. Lansbury secured her first paying job in Montreal, singing at the nightclub Samovar Club for a payment of 60 dollars per week. Lansbury was 16 years old at the time, but lied about her age and claimed to be 19 in order to be hired.
Lansbury returned to New York City in August, 1942, but Moyna Macgill soon moved herself and her family again. The family moved to Los Angeles, where Moyna was interested in resurrecting her film career. Their first home there was a bungalow in Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills.
Lansbury helped financially support her family by working for the Bullocks Wilshire department store in Los Angeles. Her weekly wages were only 28 dollars, but she had a secure income while her mother was unemployed. Through her mother, Lansbury was introduced to screenwriter John Van Druten (1901-1957), who had recently completed his script of "Gaslight" (1944). He suggested that young Lansbury would be perfect for the role of Nancy Oliver, the film's conniving cockney maid. This helped secure Lansbury's first film role at the age of 17, and a seven-year contract with the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She earned 500 dollars per week, and chose to continue using her own name instead of a stage name.
In 1945, Lansbury married actor Richard Cromwell (1910-1960), who was 15 years older than she. The troubled marriage ended in a divorce in 1946. The former spouses remained friends until Cromwell's death.
In 1946, Lansbury started a romantic relationship with aspiring actor Peter Shaw (1918-2003), who was 7 years older than her. Shaw had recently ended his relationship with actress Joan Crawford (c. 1908-1977). The new couple started living together, while planning marriage. They wanted to be married in the United Kingdom, but the Church of England refused to marry two divorcees. They were married in 1949, in a Church of Scotland ceremony at St. Columba's Church, located in Knightsbridge, London. After their return to the United States, they settled into Lansbury's home in Rustic Canyon, Malibu. In 1951, both Lansbury and Shaw became naturalized citizens of the United States, while retaining their British citizenship.
Meanwhile, Lansbury continued appearing in MGM films. She appeared in 11 MGM films between 1945 and 1952. MGM at times loaned Lansbury to other film studios. She appeared in United Artists' "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami" (1947), and Paramount Pictures' "Samson and Delilah" (1949). In 1948, Lansbury made her debut in radio roles, followed by her television debut in 1950.
In 1952, Lansbury requested the termination of her contract with MGM, instead of its renewal. She felt unsatisfied with her film career as an MGM contract player. She then joined the East Coast touring productions of two former Broadway plays. By 1953, Lansbury had two children of her own and was also raising a stepson. She and her family moved into a larger house, located on San Vincente Boulevard in Santa Monica. In 1959, she and her family moved into a house in Malibu. The married couple were able to send their children to a local public school.
Meanwhile she continued her film career as a freelance actress, but continued to be cast in middle-aged roles. She regained her A-picture actress through well-received roles in the drama film "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958) and the comedy film "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958). She also appeared regularly in television roles, and became a regular on game show "Pantomime Quiz" (1947-1959).
In 1957, Lansbury made her Broadway debut in a performance of "Hotel Paradiso". The play was an adaptation of the 1894 "L'Hôtel du libre échange" ("Free Exchange Hotel"), written by Maurice Desvallières (1857-1926) and Georges Feydeau (1862-1921). Lansbury's role as "Marcel Cat" was critically well received. She continued appearing in Broadway over the next several years, most notably cast as the verbally abusive mother in "A Taste of Honey". She was cast as the mother of co-star Joan Plowright (1929-), who was only four years younger.
In the early 1960s, Lansbury was cast as an overbearing mother in "Blue Hawaii" (1961). The role of her son was played by Elvis Presley (1935-1977), who was only 10 years than her. The film was a box office hit, it finished as the 10th-top-grossing film of 1961 and 14th for 1962 on the "Variety" national box office survey. It gained Lansbury renewed fame, at a difficult point of her career.
Lansbury gained critical praise for a sympathetic role in the drama film "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960), and the role of a manipulative mother in the drama film "All Fall Down" (1962). Based on her success in "All Fall Down", she was cast in a similar role in the Cold War-themed thriller "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). She was cast as Eleanor Iselin, the mother of her co-star Laurence Harvey (1928-1973), who was only 3 years younger than she. This turned out to be one of the most memorable roles in her career. She received critical acclaim and was nominated for a third time for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The award was instead won by Patty Duke (1946-2016).
Lansbury made a comeback in the starring role of Mame Dennis in the musical "Mame" (1966), by Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) and Robert Edwin Lee (1918-1994). The play was an adaptation of the novel "Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade" (1955) by Patrick Dennis (1921-1976), and focused on the life and ideas of eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis. The musical received critical and popular praise, and Lansbury won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Lansbury gained significant fame from her success, becoming a "superstar".
Her newfound fame led to other high-profile appearances by Lansbury. She starred in a musical performance at the 1968 Academy Awards ceremony, and co-hosted the 1968 Tony Awards. The Hasty Pudding Club, a social club for Harvard students. elected her "Woman of the Year" in 1968.
Lansbury's next theatrical success was in 1969 "The Madwoman of Chaillot" (1945) by Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944). The play concerns an eccentric Parisian woman's struggles with authority figures. Lansbury was cast in the starring role of 75-year-old Countess Aurelia, despite her actual age of 44. The show was well received and lasted for 132 performances. Lansbury won her second Tony Award for this role.
In 1970, Lansbury's Malibu home was destroyed in a brush fire. Lansbury and her husband decided to buy Knockmourne Glebe, an 1820s Irish farmhouse, located near the village of Conna in rural County Cork.
Her film career reached a new height. She was cast in the starring role of benevolent witch Eglantine Price in Disney's fantasy film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971). The film was a box-office hit; it was critically well received, and introduced Lansbury to a wider audience of children and families.
In 1972, Lansbury returned to the British stage, performing in London's West End with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1973, Lansbury appeared in the role of Rose in London performances of the musical "Gypsy" (1959) by Arthur Laurents. It was quite successful. In 1974, "Gypsy" went on tour in the United States. with the same cast. For her role, Lanbury won the Sarah Siddons Award and her third Tony Award. The musical had its second tour in 1975.
Tired from musicals. Lansbury next sought Shakespearean roles in the United Kingdom. From 1975 to 1976, she appeared as Queen Gertrude in the National Theatre Company's production of Hamlet. In November 1975, Lansbury's mother Moyna Macgill died at the age of 79. Lansbury arranged for her mother's remains to be cremated, and the ashes scattered near her own County Cork home.
In 1976, Lansbury returned to the American stage. In 1978, Lansbury temporarily replaced Constance Towers (1933-) in the starring role of Anna Leonowens (1831-1915) in The King and I. While Towers was on a break from the role, Lansbury appeared in 24 performances.
In 1978, Lansbury appeared in her first film role in seven years, as the novelist and murder victim Salome Otterbourne in the mystery film "Death on the Nile" (1978). The film was an adaptation of the 1937 novel by Agatha Christie (1890-1976); Otterbourne was loosely based on real-life novelist Elinor Glyn (1864-1943). The film was a modest box-office hit, and Lansbury befriended her co-star Bette Davis (1908-1989).
In 1979, Lansbury was cast in the role of meat pie seller Mrs. Lovett in the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (1979), by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler (1912-1987). The musical was loosely based on the penny dreadful serial novel "The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance" (1846-1847), which first depicted fictional serial killer Sweeney Todd. Lansbury remained in the role for 14 months, and was then replaced by Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003). Lansbury won her fourth Tony Award for this role. She returned to the role for 10 months in 1980.
Lansbury's next prominent film role was that of Miss Froy in "The Lady Vanishes" (1979), a remake of the 1938 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980). She was next cast in the role of amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple in the mystery film "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980), an adaptation of the novel "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" (1962) by Agatha Christie. The novel was loosely inspired by the life of Gene Tierney (1920-1991). The film was a modest commercial success. There were plans for at least two sequels, but they ended in development hell.
In 1982, Lansbury was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, She appeared at the time in the new play "A Little Family Business" and a revival of "Mame", but both shows were commercial failures. In film, Lansbury voiced the witch Mommy Fortuna in the animated fantasy film "The Last Unicorn" (1982). The film was critically well received, but was not a box-office hit.
Lansbury played Ruth in the musical comedy "The Pirates of Penzance" (1983), a film adaptation of the 1879 comic opera by William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900). The film was a box office bomb, earning about 695,000 dollars.
Lansbury's next film role was that of Granny in the gothic fantasy film "The Company of Wolves" (1984), based on a 1979 short story by Angela Carter (1940-1992). Lansbury was cast as the grandmother of protagonist Rosaleen (played by Sarah Patterson), in a tale featuring werewolves and shape-shifting. The film was critically well received, but barely broke even at the box office.
At about that time, Lansbury appeared regularly in television films and mini-series. Her most prominent television role was that of Jessica Fletcher in the detective series "Murder, She Wrote" (1984-1996). Jessica was depicted as a successful mystery novelist from Maine who encounters and solves many murders. The character was considered an American counterpart to Miss Marple. The series followed the "whodunit" format and mostly avoided depictions of violence or gore.
The series was considered a television landmark for having an older female character as the protagonist. It was aimed primarily at middle-aged audiences, but also attracted both younger viewers and senior citizen viewers. Ratings remained high for most of its run. Lansbury rejected pressure from network executives to put her character in a relationship, as she believed that Fletcher should remain a strong single female.
In 1989, Lansbury co-founded the production company Corymore Productions, which started co-producing the television series with Universal Television. This allowed Lansbury to have more creative input on the series. She was appointed an executive producer. By the time the series ended in 1996, it tied with the original "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-1980) as the longest-running detective drama series in television history.
Her popularity from "Murder, She Wrote" made Lansbury a much-sought figure for advertisers. She appeared in advertisements and infomercials for Bufferin, MasterCard and the Beatrix Potter Company.
Lansbury's highest-profile film role in decades was voicing the character of singing teapot Mrs. Potts in Disney's animated fantasy film "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Lansbury performed the film's title song, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
During the late 1980s and 1990s, Lansbury lived most of the year in California. In 1991, she had Corymore House, a farmhouse at Ballywilliam, County Cork, built as her new family home. She spend Christmases and summers there.
Following the end of "Murder, She Wrote", Lansbury returned to a career as a theatrical actress. She temporarily retired from the stage in 2001, to take care of her husband Peter Shaw, whose health was failing. Shaw died in 2003, from congestive heart failure at the couple's Brentwood, California home. Their marriage had lasted for 54 years (1949-2003).
Lansbury felt at the time that she could not take on any more major acting roles, but that she could still make cameos. She moved back to New York City in 2006, buying a condominium in Manhattan. Her first prominent film role in years was that of Aunt Adelaide in the fantasy film "Nanny McPhee" (2005). She credits her performance in the film with pulling her out of depression, a state of mind which had lasted since her husband's death.
Lansbury returned to performing on the Broadway stage in 2007, after an absence of 23 years. In 2009, she won her fifth Tony Award. She shared the record for most Tony Award victories with Julie Harris (1925-2013). In the 2010s, she continued regularly appearing in theatrical performances. In 2014, she returned to the London stage, after an absence of nearly 40 years.
In 2015, Lansbury received her first Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress. At age 89, she was among the oldest first-time winners. Also in 2015, November 2015 was awarded the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
In 2017, she was cast as Aunt March in the mini-series "Little Women". The mini-series was an adaptation of the 1868-1869 novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). The series lasted for 3 episodes, and was critically well received.
In 2018, Lansbury gained her next film role in Disney's fantasy film "Mary Poppins Returns" (2018), a sequel to "Mary Poppins". Lansbury was cast in the role of the Balloon Lady, a kindly old woman who sells balloons at the park. The films was a commercial hit, earning about 350 million dollars at the worldwide box office.
In 2019, Lansbury performed at a one-night benefit staging of Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895). a farce satirizing Victorian morals. She was cast in the role of society lady Lady Bracknell, mother to Gwendolen Fairfax.
By 2020, Lansbury was 95 years old, one of the oldest-living actresses. She has never retired from acting, and remains a popular icon.as Fairy Godmother (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Patrick Wayne Swayze was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas, to Patsy Swayze (née Yvonne Helen Karnes), a choreographer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze, a chemical plant engineer draftsman. His mother owned a dance school in Houston, where Patrick was also a student. His father passed away in 1982. He graduated from Waltrip High School in Houston, and attended San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas. He married actress/dancer Lisa Niemi on June 12, 1975, whom he had known when she was 15 and a student at his mother's dance school. His New York City dance training included the Harkness Ballet School and Joffrey Ballet School. He first danced professionally as "Prince Charming" in "Disney on Parade". After a stint as "Danny Zuko" in the original Broadway production of "Grease", he made his film debut with a small role in Skatetown U.S.A. (1979). He made his television debut in 1981 on M*A*S*H (1972), as a soldier diagnosed with leukemia.
After many supporting roles in films and a lead role in the TV mini-series North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985), he landed his breakthrough role as dance instructor "Johnny Castle" in the hit film Dirty Dancing (1987), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He received a second nomination for his portrayal of "Sam Wheat" in the blockbuster Ghost (1990). Ghost (1990) was the highest-grossing film of 1990, and at one point, the fourth highest-grossing film of all time. Unfortunately, he did not capitalize on its success. His subsequent films like City of Joy (1992), Tall Tale (1995), Black Dog (1998), and Waking Up in Reno (2002) did not fare well with critics or audiences. In December 2003, he returned to Broadway as a replacement for the lead role of "Billy Flynn" in the acclaimed revival of John Kander & Fred Ebb's musical, "Chicago". The production also went on tour in several cities of the United States, including Los Angeles. In January 2008, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He fought the illness for well over a year and was able to continue working, but died on September 14, 2009.as Jaq (voice)- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Candy was one of Canada's greatest and funniest character actors. His well-known role as the big hearted buffoon earned him classics in Uncle Buck (1989) and Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). His career has handed him some dry spells but Candy always rebounded.
Born in Newmarket, Ontario, in the year 1950, Candy was the son of Evangeline (Aker) and Sidney James Candy. His mother was of Ukrainian and Polish ancestry. Candy found his passion for drama while attending a community college. In 1971 Candy made his TV debut in an episode of Police Surgeon (1971) co-starring Sharon Farrell, John Hamelin, and Nick Mancuso. Candy then found a number of bit parts in other Canadian television shows and also in such small films as Tunnel Vision (1976) and Find the Lady (1976). However, his big success came at the age of twenty-seven, when he became part of the comedy group "Second City" in Toronto. Alongside such soon-to-be Canadian stars as Catherine O'Hara (one of Candy's lifelong friends), Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, and Harold Ramis, Candy was also part of the television show the group inspired. SCTV (1976) earned Candy a reputation for his quirky humor and his uncanny imitations of others.
After the television series, Candy appeared alongside fellow Canadian Dan Aykroyd in the Steven Spielberg flop 1941 (1979). However, other jobs followed and Candy landed a role, once again with Aykroyd, in the successful classic The Blues Brothers (1980). Candy played a parole officer who is part of the chase after Jake and Elwood Blues. The film was a hit and Candy followed up accordingly.
Candy acted in the smash hit Stripes (1981) where he played a dopey, overweight recruit affectionately nicknamed 'Ox'. After the success of Stripes (1981), Candy returned to the Second City with the other former stars, in SCTV Network (1981). Candy also hosted "Saturday Night Live" before landing himself a role in the Ron Howard film Splash (1983), a romantic comedy about a mermaid who washes ashore and learns to live like a human. Candy played a sleazy womanizing brother to the character played by Tom Hanks. The film was a bigger success than even Stripes (1981) and a number of people have said that Splash (1983) was his breakout role.
He took a second billing in the comedic film Brewster's Millions (1985) where a man must spend thirty million in order to inherit three hundred million from his deceased relative. Candy played the man's best friend, who accidentally gets in the way as much as helping out. Candy continued making films tirelessly, including the film Armed and Dangerous (1986) where he and Eugene Levy play characters who become security guards.
1987 was an especially good year to Candy, giving him two classic roles: Barf the Mawg in the Mel Brooks comedy Spaceballs (1987) and the bumbling salesman Del Griffith alongside Steve Martin's uptight character in the John Hughes film Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). The latter film is a golden classic and is one of Candy's greatest films. He followed up immediately with The Great Outdoors (1988), once again alongside Dan Aykroyd. Candy landed another classic role in the film Uncle Buck (1989) which was about a bumbling uncle who must look after his brother's three children.
Although he was in the smash hit Home Alone (1990), Candy's career fell into a slump, turning out unsuccessful films in the early nineties. This caused him to change his strategy by taking more serious roles. The first of these serious roles was the corrupt lawyer Dean Andrews in the 'Oliver Stone' film JFK (1991). The film was a big success, and Candy moved on from this victory to make the film Cool Runnings (1993) about the first Jamaican bobsled team.
Candy was well known for his size, six feet two and weighing around 300 pounds. However, he was very sensitive about the subject and in the nineties tried to lose weight and quit smoking. He was aware that heart attacks were in his family: both his father and his grandfather died of heart attacks and Candy wanted to prevent that happening to him as best he could.
In the mid-nineties Candy filmed the Michael Moore comedy Canadian Bacon (1995) then went to Mexico to film the western spoof Wagons East (1994). It was in Mexico that Candy had a heart attack and passed away in March 1994. Canadian Bacon (1995) was released a year after his death and is his last film.
Candy was loved by thousands of people who loved his classic antics in Splash (1983) and The Great Outdoors (1988). He was well-known for his roles in Stripes (1981) and Uncle Buck (1989) and he himself never forgot his Canadian background.as Gus (voice)- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of legendary actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She got her big break at acting in 1978 when she won the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). After that, she became famous for roles in movies like Trading Places (1983), Perfect (1985) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988). She starred in one of the biggest action films ever, True Lies (1994), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. Curtis also appeared on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), and starred in Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) as the title role. Her first starring role was opposite Richard Lewis on the ABC situation comedy Anything But Love (1989). In 1998, she starred in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) in which she reprised her role that made her famous back in 1978.
Jamie Lee served as an honorary chairperson for the Building Resilience for Young Children Dealing with Trauma program held at the Shakespeare Theatre - Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. She was an inspiration for the youth that were celebrated. Curtis was also given an award from US Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman for her work on behalf of children through her charities and children's books.as Perla (voice)- Actor
- Sound Department
- Music Department
Frank Welker was born in Colorado. He followed his dream to California, and started a voice acting career which has spanned over five decades and hundreds of credits. Frank has worked with fellow voice actors Casey Kasem, Nicole Jaffe, Don Messick, Heather North, and Stefanianna Christopherson on Hanna-Barbera's iconic Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969), voicing Fred Jones, among other Scooby credits over the years. He has also worked with Kurt Russell, Peter Cullen, and Michael Bay.as Bruno, Additional Special Vocal Effects (voice)- Actress
- Director
Katherine Marie Helmond was born on July 5, 1929, in Galveston, Texas. After her parents divorced, she was raised by her mother, Thelma (nee Malone) Helmond, and her maternal grandmother, both of Irish Catholic descent. She attended Catholic school, and appeared in numerous school plays and pageants. She took a job at a local theater while still in high school, hammering and sawing the scenery, cleaning the bathrooms and pulling the curtain.
After her stage debut in "As You Like It", she worked in New York theatres during the 1950s and 1960s. She operated a summer theatre in the Catskills for three seasons and also taught acting in university theatre programs. She made her TV debut in 1962 but had to wait another 10 years until her breakthrough came in the 1970s. She stayed busy on TV as well as on stage and earned a Tony nomination for "The Great God Brown" (1973) on Broadway. She honed her acting abilities with Alfred Hitchcock in Family Plot (1976) and in numerous TV series, notably in ABC's cult sitcom Soap (1977), for which she had four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe. On the big screen she starred in Brazil (1985) as Jonathan Pryce's mother who is addicted to plastic surgery and snooping in her son's messed-up life.
In 1983 she studied at the Directing Workshop of the American Film Institute and then directed four episodes of the series Benson (1979) as well as episodes of Who's the Boss? (1984). She also picked up Emmy nominations for her role as Mona Robinson, a liberated grandmother in "Who's the Boss?", and as Lois in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). Although Helmond was a bona-fide TV star since her "Soap" days, she continued working on stage in the 2000s and was acclaimed for her performances in "The Vagina Monologues".
Katherine Helmond was married twice. She had no children. She turned to Buddhism in later years. She shared her time between her home in Los Angeles and homes in New York and London.as Narrator (voice)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Composer
Rodger Bumpass was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 20, 1951. He attended Little Rock Central High School where he received his first training in theater. He attended Arkansas State University where he majored in radio-TV and minored in theater. He worked at the campus radio station and also at Jonesboro's Raycom Media owned ABC-affiliated television station, KAIT-TV, where he had multiple duties as announcer, film processor, cameraman, audio technician, and technical director.
In 1977 he won a role in the National Lampoon's music and comedy road show That's Not Funny, That's Sick and toured with them until 1978. That same year, he appeared in the TV special Disco Beaver from Outer Space for HBO. In 1979, Bumpass was cast as the leading role in a National Lampoon film to be called Jaws 3, People 0 in which he would have a love scene with Bo Derek. However, the film was canceled due to objections by the creators of the movie Jaws. In 1980, Bumpass created the character of 'Fartman' to appear on the National Lampoon LP The White Album, which later inspired the Howard Stern character by the same name.
Bumpass is best known to present-day viewers as the voice of Squidward Tentacles and various incidental characters on the Nickelodeon animated comedy series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is also known for voicing The Chief from Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Dr. Light on Teen Titans, and Professor Membrane on Invader Zim.Though he has been voicing and acting in films since the 60s, and had also appeared on stage through the mid 70s until the late 80s.Bumpass has over 693 film credits, according to IMDb. In 2012, Bumpass received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for his role as Squidward on SpongeBob SquarePants.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Casting Department
Lara Cody was born on 8 September 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Akira (1988), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) and Vampire Hunter D (1985).as Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
For over three decades, Nancy Cartwright has given voice to a spikey-headed-10-year-old boy even though she's a grown woman; she's often been arrested for truancy and vandalism, yet she maintains a spotless criminal record; and finally, she's repeated the fourth-grade dozens of times in spite of earning her college degree. How has she managed to live this double life? Read on, man.
As the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy quite literally breathed life into one the most groundbreaking characters in entertainment history. But she is also responsible for an array of other characters on The Simpsons, making her a versatile performer who's proved invaluable to the longest-running scripted show of all time.
Not that her career begins and ends in Springfield-far from it. Nancy has lent her voice to a myriad of other animated touchstones, from Kim Possible to Rugrats, as well as live-action films, video games, radio and commercials.
Kettering, Ohio is the place where a young Nancy discovered her knack for voices and sound effects. In high school, she was a member of the theater department; played in the orchestra and marching band; and entered public speaking competitions. After winning the National District Tournament's "Humorous Interpretation" category-twice-the judges steered her towards cartoon voices.
By 1976, before attending Ohio University on a full scholarship, Nancy was already doing professional voice work for WING radio in her hometown. It really paid off in full when a rep from Warner Bros. Records visited the station and shared a list of animation industry contacts. She zeroed in on the superstar among them: Daws Butler, an industry legend who supplied the voices of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Elroy Jetson, and dozens of other beloved characters Nancy grew up watching.
Nancy left Ohio in 1978 and transferred to UCLA so she could be closer to her mentor and the animation industry. Each Sunday, she would catch the bus to Daws' home in Beverly Hills for lessons. They lasted all afternoon-a real dream-in-the-making.
Soon Butler brought her into the fold at Hanna-Barbera, where she met front-running voice actors and directors. Within a couple months, Nancy was cast as "Gloria" of the Richie Rich cartoon series. She the girlfriend of the show's titular character-a genuine Hollywood voice-acting job. No more bus rides for our Miss Nancy-now she was ridin' in style in a '68 Opel Kadette that looked like a smashed potato and appropriately named "Spud". It floored at 40 mph, but Nancy didn't care-she had her own wheels!
After that, she was on her way to becoming one of the most legendary voice actors of our generation... but she didn't know it, just yet.
Nancy signed with a talent agency, completed her theater degree, and promptly landed her first feature film role, in Joe Dante's Twilight Zone: The Movie. More voice acting parts followed: the cartoon series Pound Puppies, Popeye and Son and My Little Pony, plus voice-over background work in Silverado (1985), Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Color Purple (1985), to name a few. Even minor parts, like the shoe that got dipped in acid in the hybrid live-action/animated classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) represented opportunities to expand her range.
Meanwhile, an animator named Matt Groening was working on a series of shorts, slated to run as interstitials for The Tracey Ullman Show. His concept involved a dysfunctional family with three kids. Initially, Nancy planned to audition for the role of the classic middle child, Lisa, but felt unmoved by Groening's character description. She was drawn to the troublemaker son, Bart, and asked to audition for that role instead. The rest is history as she was cast on the spot.
It was a fine addition to her résumé. Then, two years after Groening's original shorts debuted on The Tracey Ullman Show, a breakthrough: Fox greenlit the sketches as a standalone half-hour animated sitcom. The Simpsons premiered on December 17, 1989. Early episodes centered around Bart, and he proved to be the show's breakout star. His slacker antics and catchphrases begged to be quoted-and licensed. Less than six months after the show's debut, The New York Times reported on "Bartmania," quoting exasperated retailers who couldn't get enough merchandise to meet demand. Bart-and, by proxy, Nancy-had officially been catapulted into the zeitgeist.
Cartwright is also the unique voice behind several other Simpsons' characters, including Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Kearney, Database and Maggie. In keeping with her history of playing popular characters on such animated series as Snorks; Animaniacs; and Pinky and The Brain, Nancy also became a hit with the millennials as the voice of Chuckie in Rugrats and Rufus-the naked mole rat-in Kim Possible.
In the middle of all this animation, Nancy had immersed herself in a scene study class for theatrical/film productions. Her curiosity and drive to create memorable characters led her on an adventure to Italy to find legendary Italian director, Federico Fellini. His "La Strada" intrigued our young actress so much that upon her return, she developed her journey as a one-woman show, garnering a DramaLogue Award in 1996. Fast-forward to 2017 when In Search of Fellini, the film, went on to achieve official selections with 9 film festivals. The New York Times raved that ISOF is "a charming drama about the love of movies and youthful passion." The film won Best Director, Best Actress and Best Film in the Ferrara Film Festival 2017.
Some of her work on television series and movies includes Fame, Empty Nest, Cheers, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Twilight Zone-The Movie and Godzilla, as well as a lead in the TV movie Marian Rose White.
In 1992, Nancy won a Prime Time Emmy® for outstanding Voice-Over performance for The Simpsons. Three years later, she coveted The Annie Award for Voice Acting in the Field of Animation also for The Simpsons. In 2004, Nancy was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Kim Possible and again in 2020 for The Simpsons.
In 2001, Nancy co-created and produced The Kelly's-one of the first critically-acclaimed digital animated series in conjunction with Turner Broadcasting and NASCAR. At a top speed of 158.2 mph, Nancy is no spectator in the world of fast cars. Emboldened to continue writing and producing, Nancy penned her first episode of The Simpsons titled Girl's In the Band. It aired in the Spring of 2019 and was one of the highest-rated episodes of the season- Ay Caramba!
In 2004, Nancy's audiobook, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, was nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. The release of the audiobook led to her one-woman show that premiered at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004 to SRO crowds for the entire run of the production. The new-and-improved edition of her audiobook, I'm Still a 10-Year-Old Boy will be available late 2021. In 2020 Nancy co-created a new production company in addition to Spotted Cow Entertainment. She called the new venture CRE84U, a production company dedicated to producing international content for television with long-time partner, Monica Gil-Rodriguez, and partners Carolina and Jaime Aymerich.
Always with the sincere compassion to give back, Nancy has been the honorary mayor of her community for the past 16 years. She is the recipient of the Fernando Award presented to those whose community support is above and beyond. She has supported many non-profit organizations that focus on helping children, such as Famous Fone Friends, The Way to Happiness Foundation and The Citizens Commission on Human Rights. She also received the prestigious Icon Award from The Make-A-Wish Foundation. An accomplished self-taught fine artist, Cartwright has created dozens of reverse-style paintings on Lucite. Although this reverse-painting technique dates back thousands of years, it was the The Simpsons that motivated her to duplicate this animation technique that was popularized in 1937 with Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Her work has been featured on over 300 billboards, bus wraps and bus shelter posters with the purpose of introducing parents and caretakers to the Know More About Drugs Alliance.
Since its inception in 2004, Nancy has been the proud co-founder of Happy House, a non-profit organization dedicated to "Building Better Families". Through extensive outreach and the help of countless volunteers, Happy House is implementing a character-building program, How to Make Good Choices, to hundreds of children across California. Nancy is equally committed to helping those in her hometown where she has established a perpetual scholarship for forensic students to attend Ohio University. In June 2012, Ohio University bestowed upon Nancy an Honorary Degree Citation - Doctor of Communication in recognition of achievement in her field as an actress, as a philanthropist and through her scholarship endowment established at Ohio University.
In 2020, Nancy became the first ever voice-actor to be featured on MasterClass-- a platform where members learn from the best across multiple disciplines. Joining the likes of "Masters" James Cameron, Ron Howard and Annie Leibovitz, Nancy's class introduces aspiring voice-actors to the voice-over medium.
Clearly, Nancy Cartwright's journey is inimitable. She's at once a cultural icon and a face in the crowd, a megastar who walks the streets without being mobbed...an anonymous celebrity. Not too shabby for a spunky kid from Kettering, Ohio.
So, don't have a cow, man!as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Although versatile character actor and voice extraordinary Henry Corden will forever be associated with, and fondly remembered for, providing the bellicose, gravel-toned rasp of cartoon immortal Fred Flintstone, he enjoyed a long and varied career prior to this distinction, which took up most of his later years.
Born in Montreal, Canada, on Tuesday, January 6, 1920, his family moved to New York while he was still a child. Henry received his start on stage and radio before heading off to Hollywood in the 1940s. He made his film debut as a minor heavy in the Danny Kaye vehicle, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), as Boris Karloff's bestial henchman, and continued on along those same lines, often in uncredited/unbilled parts. A master at dialects, he was consistently employed as either an ethnic Middle Eastern villain or some sort of streetwise character (club manager, salesman) in 1950s costumed adventures and crime yarns, both broad and serious.
He seldom made it into the prime support ranks, however, with somewhat insignificant parts in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Viva Zapata! (1952), Scaramouche (1952), I Confess (1953), King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), Jupiter's Darling (1955) and The Ten Commandments (1956). On TV, he could regularly be found on both drama ("Perry Mason", "The Untouchables") and light comedy ("My Little Margie," "Mister Ed"). A heightened visibility on TV included playing Barbara Eden's genie father on "I Dream of Jeannie" and as the contentious landlord "Mr. Babbitt" on "The Monkees".
Henry made a highly lucrative move into animation in the 1960s supplying a host of brutish voices on such cartoons as "Johnny Quest", "The Jetsons", "Secret Squirrel", "Atom Ant", "Josie and the Pussycats", and "The Harlem Globetrotters". He inherited the voice of Fred Flintstone after the show's original vocal owner, Alan Reed, passed away in 1977. He went on to give life to Flintstone for nearly three decades on various revamped cartoon series, animated specials and cereal commercials. He was performing as Flintstone, in fact, until about three months prior to his death of emphysema at the age of 85 on Wednesday, May 19, 2005.
Married four times, he was survived by wife Angelina; two daughters (from his first marriage), and three stepchildren (from his last union).as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Peter Cullen is a Canadian-American voice actor who is widely known for voicing Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise as well as the Michael Bay film series. He is also known for providing the vocal effects of the Predator from the 1987 film of the same name, Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, Monterey Jack from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and KARR in Knight Rider.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Brian Cummings was born on 4 March 1948 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA. He is an actor, known for Beauty and the Beast (1991), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). He has been married to Carla McNally since 1981. They have eight children.as Footman, Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Joan Gerber was born on 29 July 1935 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She was an actress, known for DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990), Charlotte's Web (1973) and DuckTales (1987). She was married to Frank Dowse. She died on 22 August 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Sound Department
- Music Department
Barbara Goodson is a "lifer" in show biz. Truly in love with all aspects of this wild & crazy craft. Was aware of her mimicry skills early on in life when she imitated family members & caught on to the positive attention it gave her & the pleasure & camaraderie it gave to others. She delights in the task of putting her own stamp on a character whether it be dramatic, musical, comedic &/or in film, cartoons, v/o, nightclubs, stage, TV, etc.
Stuck in a tiny woman's body has always been her challenge since she's always felt much bigger than her under 5' stature & has been recognized for her powerful vocal range playing many nasty yet amusing "bad ladies" on & off screen.
She has no intention of ever retiring...& continues to dream of working with more of the 'heavy weights' & being cast in meaningful, well received & lucrative projects. Believes acting is a blessed career that can move mountains. It's not for sissies & contains a community of (mostly) evolved, concerned humans. She is proud to have had the modicum of success she has achieved & looks forward to more.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bob Holt started his career in front of the cameras with a film role in 1950, playing Octavius Caesar in Julius Caesar followed by another role in 1959 in The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery. He moved on to primarily voice acting in 1968 providing all of the voices for a film short called Johnny Learns His Manners. Throughout the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's, Bob provided voices for main and supporting characters in numerous animated television series and films including many based on the works of Dr. Seuss. Arguably the most enchanting work of this period was his providing the main voice in 1976 of Avatar in Ralph Bakshi's film Wizards and in the 1984 Joe Dante film Gremlins where Bob provided the voices of Mogwai and other various Gremlins. Bob past away from a heart attack on August 2, 1985. His last full performance, not including samples taken from previous projects, was as the voice of Rodney in The Adventures of the American Rabbit which was released in 1986 after his passing.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Born an entertainer, Casey reigns from Michigan, the same birthplace for fellow Shaggy voice actor Matthew Lillard (whom both Casey and Matthew do a very fine, smashing job voicing the iconic character). Debuted as a radio operator and legendary disc jockey in his early days, he was the greatest and most likely the best one seen in recent years. Having an iconic voice and a set of vocal cords, Casey pleased the audience through radio and voice. Casey hit the big time in the early 60's with voicing both major and minor roles in television series, until Hanna-Barbera released, then later debuted, the same role he characterized his career off of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, in which he had the pleasure of working with legendary voice actors Don Messick and Hal Smith. For over 3 decades, he co-founded and hosted American Top 40, which aired the top songs of the week. In his later years, he spent his time with his friends and family, in the way he could showcase with love, passion, and voicing. He died on June 15th, 2014. He was 82 years old. He will be forever missed in the hearts of fans around the world.as Additional Voices (voice)- Jim MacGeorge was born on 9 October 1928 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), Get Smart (1965) and Bionic Six (1987). He was married to Victoria Utica Loranger. He died on 16 January 2021 in the USA.as Additional Voices (voice)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Kenneth Mars was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (1972), and Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987), and Shadows and Fog (1991).as Additional Voices (voice) (as Ken Mars)- Actress
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Mitzi McCall was born on 9 September 1932 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Ice Age (2002), World's Greatest Dad (2009) and Crimson Peak (2015). She has been married to Charlie Brill since 25 January 1960. They have one child.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Music Department
- Sound Department
Julie McWhirter was born on 12 October 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. She is an actress, known for Dynomutt Dog Wonder (1976), The Smurfs (1981) and The Flintstone Kids (1986). She has been married to Rick Dees since 29 April 1978. They have one child.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Don Messick is a legendary voice actor who spent his entire adult-hood in entertainment. He started out wanting to be a ventriloquist. Thankfully for cartoon lovers that career didn't pan out. How do you think his potential career would've stacked up against Edgar Bergen and later, Paul Winchell? No matter, Messick made his way to the hallowed halls of MGM in the early '50s on the recommendation of another voice actor, Daws Butler. At the time, MGM/Tex Avery were doing the theatrical "Droopy" cartoons. Bill Thompson, known for his hilarious voices on the radio show 'Fibber McGee and Molly', borrowed his Wallace Wimple voice and applied it to Droopy. Whenever Thompson couldn't make it to a session, MGM would ask Daws Butler to fill-in. Daws had been working for MGM since the mid '40s. Later, Daws apparently grew tired of the role and suggested Don Messick be Bill Thompson's fill-in. Butler, it's been said, literally squeezed his cheeks together to try and get that sound for Droopy while Messick simply thickened his tongue and loosened his jaws. Messick made the rounds and did every voice-over role large and small in this era. In 1957 Hanna-Barbera started their own company after departing from MGM...Daws Butler and Don Messick were the two voice actors the animation titans employed during the early days. Don was always heard as the "second banana" character or a walk-on. At various times he was the villain. His voice was heard as the 'narrator' on all of the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons. On "Ruff and Reddy", the duo's first made-for-TV cartoon series, Don was heard as "Ruff" the cat and as the Droopy-sounding "Professor Gizmo". Messick was also the narrator who interracted with the duo and got caught up in the action much like a soap opera announcer on radio. Daws was "Reddy", the dog, among other nameless characters in the show. In this 1957-1966 time span, Don Messick was cast as Daws Butler's voice partner and as the cartoon narrator. "Boo-Boo" was the little friend of "Yogi Bear" who lived in Jellystone Park. Yogi stole "pic-a-nic" baskets while Boo-Boo always tried, unsuccessfully, to steer Yogi to a more safer life always reminding him "the Ranger isn't going to like it, Yogi". The Ranger in question was "Ranger Smith", the park ranger who always chased and stopped Yogi's latest schemes. Messick gave voice to the Ranger. Daws was Yogi. In other programs, Messick was heard as "Pixie Mouse" to Daws Butler's "Dixie Mouse" and "Mr. Jinx". On "Snagglepuss", Messick was always heard as the villain, mostly the befuddled "Major Minor". Daws was Snagglepuss. In Huckleberry Hound, Daws was the star character while Messick usually did the narration as well as played a villain. Messick would later provide the voices of "Astro" and "RUDI" on the Jetsons. As a versatile voice actor, Messick performed a dozen wacky space aliens on the space cartoons of the mid '60s. The gibberish of "Gloop" and "Gleep" on the Herculoids cartoon was Messick. "Blip", "Igoo", "Zorak", "Tundra", and "Zoc" are just a few of the characters that Messick groaned or grunted for in the outer space cartoons...his most famous non-verbal voice is the snickering dog, "Muttley"...later called "Mumbley". "Richochet Rabbit", "Vapor Man", "Falcon 7", "Dr. Benton Quest", and "Multi-Man" are other voices from Messick in that era. In 1969 he provided the voice for his most famous role, "Scooby-Doo". Throughout the '70s and beyond, Messick gave voice to this cowardly great dane. In 1980 he became the voice of nephew, "Scrappy-Doo", while in later versions Daws Butler was on hand as "Scooby-Dum". On the 1977 Laff-a-Lympics cartoon, Messick not only announced the show but he performed some of the characters too. "Papa Smurf" became Messick's biggest original character in the '80s but he remained busy providing voices for his older characters in new Hanna-Barbera productions. Daws Butler and Mel Blanc were also living off their famed characters by reprising the voices in numerous made-for-TV cartoon movies and Saturday morning TV in the late '70s on into the next decade. Messick remained a much-used voice actor and in 1988 ABC announced "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo". Messick was back in the role and voiced the character until it's demise in 1990. His friend and voice partner, Daws Butler, passed away in 1988. In 1989 Mel Blanc passed away leaving Don Messick, June Foray, Stan Freberg, and Paul Winchell as the remaining link to the classic era. In 1989 The Smurfs went out of production. On the new Tiny Toon Adventures, Messick was heard as "Hamton Pig", a role he remained with until his mysterious retirement in 1996 at the age of 69 which was later revealed to be a result of a stroke. Don Messick died in 1997, closing a chapter in animation history in the process.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actor
- Music Department
- Camera and Electrical Department
Patrick Pinney (born June 30, 1952) is an American actor/voice actor. Born in Los Angeles, CA. Pinney attended college at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where he had many friends including assistant director Michele Panelli Venetis and San Francisco Bay area costumer Alison Barnwell Morris, with whom he costarred in "The Deputy" at the UOP Rotunda Theatre. He studied theatre along with producer / director Dennis Jones at University of the Pacific in Stockton where the two of them were room mates. As well as performing in theaters in the United States, he had also done theaters in Europe. He came to Los Angeles. Some time later, he played three characters in a play. Afterwards he was approached by a producer who offered him work in animation. It was a role in a Hanna-Barbera animation. From there he made the transition from a serious stage actor to voice. He has also done work on Harry & the Hendersons.
Pinney has voiced numerous characters. His roles include Cyclops in Disney's Hercules, Wormguy and Idikiukup in the Men and Black Series, and Painty The Pirate from the opening theme of SpongeBob SquarePants. He has also done voice work for Mulan, Toy Story, Aladdin, and Ducktales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.as Additional Voices (voice) (as Pat Pinney)- Actor
- Additional Crew
Michael Rye was born on 2 March 1918 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Two Lost Worlds (1951), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He was married to Patricia Foster. He died on 21 September 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA.as Additional Voices (voice)- Steven Schatzberg was born on 18 February 1943. He was an actor, known for Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine for You (1999), Winnie the Pooh: Baby (2001) and Planetes (2003). He was married to Leslie Daryl Zerg. He died on 30 August 2008 in Ventura, California, USA.as Additional Voices (voice) (as Steve Schatzberg)
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Marilyn Schreffler was born on 14 June 1945 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Fatal Attraction (1987), The Golden Child (1986) and Jaws: The Revenge (1987). She died on 7 January 1988 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Lynne Marie Stewart was born on 14 December 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for The Running Man (1987), American Graffiti (1973) and Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985).as Additional Voices (voice) (as Lynn Stewart)- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Andre Stojka was born on 21 June 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Pom Poko (1994), The Tigger Movie (2000) and Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (1985). He has been married to Leslie Wodin since 15 September 1968. They have one child.as Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Russi Taylor was an American voice actress from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the official voice of Minnie Mouse from 1986 until her death from colon cancer in 2019. She also voiced a lot of minor characters from The Simpsons including Martin Prince, Sherri and Terri. Grey DeLisle-Griffin succeeded her roles from The Simpsons. She was married to Mickey Mouse voice actor Wayne Allwine from 1991 until his death in 2009.as Birds, Lucifer, Additional Voices (voice)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Janet Waldo provided the quintessential voice of the swooning, overly dramatic teenager for numerous generations -- from the 1940s swinging babysitters to the 1960s groovy chick. A bouncy, perennially-youthful brunette, Janet Marie Waldo was born on February 4, 1919, in Grandview, Washington, and began entertaining in church plays as a youth. Urged on by her singer mother, she studied at the University of Washington and performed in plays. She was discovered by none other than Paramount star Bing Crosby, when he and his talent scouts conducted a contest and invited her to try out for it, which she won. Crosby next invited Janet (accompanied by her mother) to California and the rest is history.
Janet met a Paramount talent scout that signed her up for small roles in movies, including the Crosby films, Sing, You Sinners (1938) and The Star Maker (1939). Unable to completely break out of her bit-part cycle as assorted hat-check girls, receptionists, and telephone operators, she did manage a few co-starring roles in such Tim Holt westerns, such as The Bandit Trail (1941) and Land of the Open Range (1942) before setting her career sights on radio in 1943.
It was Crosby himself who introduced her to radio and she fell in love with the medium and its possibilities. As the eternal teen in "Meet Corliss Archer", her voice became a household sound and it was obvious that. her vocal talents would become her biggest moneymaker. She also performed on radio's "One Man's Family", "The Gallant Heart", and "Star Playhouse". She played the cigarette girl on both Red Skelton and Art Linkletter's programs, and teenager Emmy Lou on Ozzie Nelson on both his radio and TV shows. In 1952, she filmed one classic I Love Lucy (1951) episode, The Young Fans (1952) playing an extremely lovesick teenaged girl, who fell for Ricky Ricardo, although she was past 30 at the time.
In 1948 Janet married writer-director-producer Robert E. Lee of "Inherit the Wind" and "Auntie Mame" fame. She curtailed her career activities sharply for some time in order to raise her two children. She even turned down the opportunity to return to her popular role of Corliss Archer when the radio series was revamped for TV in 1951, and Lugene Sanders from the "Life of Riley" series took on the part instead. After sporadic appearances on stage, Janet established herself as one of the top female voice artists in the early 1960s when she gave vocal life to hip high schooler Judy Jetson in the prime-time Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Jetsons (1962), a role that she would go on to play well past the age of 70. Her vocal range led her to become a Hanna-Barbera staple for over three decades, providing hundreds and hundreds of voices, old and young, to both Saturday morning and feature film cartoons. Some of her better known characters include Granny Sweet, Penelope Pitstop, Superman's Lana Lang, the Addams Family's Morticia Addams, the title role in Josie and the Pussycats (1970) and Princess on Sandy Frank's Battle of the Planets (1978).
Janet was a member of the California Artists Radio Theatre (CART) and performed frequently on the smaller L.A. stages over the years. The woman with a thousand voices continued doing radio shows and commercial voice-overs (Electrosol), and making personal appearances. Long married to playwright/TV writer Robert E. Lee until his death in 1994, the couple had two children (Jonathan, Lucy). Diagnosed with a benign but inoperable brain tumor in 2011, she died five years later, age 97, on June 12, 2016, in Encino, California. She is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.as Additional Voices (voice)- Music Department
- Executive
- Soundtrack
Charles Martin Inouye is known for The Book of Life (2014), High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) and Ready Player One (2018).Supervising Music Editor- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer, arranger and conductor, educated in public schools and a music student of Maurice Gold, Frank Saddler and Jeanne Franco. He conducted the DePackh Ensemble from 1928 to 1931, and arranged the Broadway musicals "The Girl Friend" and "Manhattan Mary". He came to Hollywood in 1933 where he scored a number of films. Joining ASCAP in 1946, his popular-song compositions included "Just For You", Evening Song", and "Glory".Orchestrator- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Ralph Ferraro was one of the most versatile and accomplished musicians to work in the entertainment industry. As composer, arranger, conductor and performer, Ferraro amassed an impressive list of accomplishments over a career which spanned seven decades. Within the knowledgable community of fellow musicians, Ralph Ferraro was respected and appreciated for his abilities and professionalism, but public recognition was fleeting, as Ralph Ferraro remained unsung for much of his career. Ralph Albert Ferraro was born on July 3, 1929 in Waterbury, Connecticut. He received his formal musical education at the Manhattan School of Music, and pursued a career as a percussionist with a number of popular swing bands, among these that of Sam Donohue. Following a stint in the U. S. Navy, Ferraro married his boyhood sweetheart, Manuelita (Mani), and they relocated to Rome, when a job opportunity was offered to him there. Over the next eight years, Ralph Ferraro would work in every facet of the musical entertainment field, including films, television, commercial and public productions. As a session percussionist, he performed on many classic film soundtracks recorded in Italy - La Dolce Vita, 81/2, Sodom And Gomorrah, Battle Of Algiers among these. He also performed on the American television series, Combat!, which was recorded there, as well. His meeting and working with that series' composer, Leonard Rosenman would lead to a lengthy collaboration in future years. During this eventful period in Italian cinema, Ferraro progressed from performing to arranging music for numerous Italian composers, among these -Armando Trovajoli, Carlo Rustichelli, Angelo Lavagnino, and Piero Piccioni. Piccioni made almost exclusive use of Ferraro as an arranger for his many film scores of this era. Ralph Ferraro's distinctive orchestral style and colorations can be enjoyed in the Piccioni scores for Il Momento Della Verita, Minnestoa Clay, I Tre Volti and C'Era Una Volta... among others. Ferraro also had the opportunity to compose original music for a number of Italian film and television productions - Lo Scandolo, Il Errore, La Sorella Di Satana (She -Beast), and Treasure Of The Petrified Forest. During this exciting time, the Ferraros were blessed with the birth of two lovely daughters, Francesca and Claudia, and formed life-long friendships with many musical colleagues in Rome -Armando Trovajoli, Piero Piccioni, Allessandro Allessandroni, Ennio Morricone, etc. In 1967, the Ferraros returned to the States, and Ralph became enmeshed in work for the American cinema. Signing on at Universal , he composed numerous episode scores for such television series as The Virginian, Chrysler Theatre, It Takes A Thief, Name Of The Game, and The Men From Shiloh . He also scored his first American film, The King's Pirate, and collaborated with Billy Goldenberg on the adaptation score of Luis Bonfa for River Of Mystery. It was at this time that Ferraro reconnected with Leonard Rosenman, becoming his almost exclusive orchestrator until the composer's withdrawal from film work due to health issues in the mid-1990's. Among the noteworthy collaborations of Ferraro with Rosenman - The Hellfighters, Marcus Welby, M. D., A Man Called Horse, Lord Of The Rings, Cross Creek, Star Trk IV: The Voyage Home Robo-Cop II, and Rosenman's two Oscar-winning adaptation scores, Barry Lyndon and Bound For Glory. Ralph Ferraro also found work orchestrating for other well-known composers as well, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, Bernardo Segall, and John Williams. He worked extensively with composer/arranger Don Costa, and formed a lifelong friendship with Costa and other luminaries, Nick Perito, Gene DePaul and Harry Warren. Their weekly dinner get-togethers were the stuff of legend as these music-masters gathered to discuss and celebrate their love of music. In 1973, Ralph Ferraro was afforded the opportunity to score an independent film which, through name recognition, would probably be the film for which he is best known, Flesh Gordon. This low-budget, soft-core porno spoof of the classic Sci-Fi serial of the 1930's, none-the-less, boasted some of the most stunning and eye-catching visual effects ever seen on film. Created by some of the most talented young effects artists in the business, some years before their individual stars would shine, Flesh Gordon was lifted to a level which the film's producers had not anticipated. The talents of Dennis Muren, Rick Baker, Doug Beswick, Jim Danforth, Greg Jein, Dave Allen , Tom Scherman and others brought the film world-wide attention which it would not have otherwise known. Ralph Ferraro's music, however, is the crowning element which takes the film to its achieved pinnacle. Composed and fully orchestrated in only three days, and recorded with a smaller-than-average orchestra, in a four-hour recording session, Ferraro's score adds the production value needed to make this cinematic effort, a genuine entertainment.His tongue-in-cheek, playful renderings, with an over-the-top melodramatic style that harkens back to the era of silent cliff-hangers,make Flesh Gordon a joy to hear as well as to see. Ralph Ferrao's typically modest response to praise for his effort -" I just did what the film seemed to call for!" Busy with his orchestrating work, Ralph still found time to score three television pilots for Carroll O'Connor's production company in 1980 - Our Place, Riding For The Pony Express, and Bender's Force. None were picked-up by the networks, but they offerred Ferraro the chance to further his range of musical explorations. In 1982, he was commissioned by the Disney Company to create an original musical work which would incorporate the melodies of the song-writing brother-team of Richard and Robert Sherman. this music, to be played throughout Disney's new Epcot Center was entitled, Imagination and is one of the best examples of Ralph Ferraro's musical knowledge and acumen at using an orchestra to its fullest effect. Imagination is a magical musical fantasy which brilliantly displays the Sherman's lyricism as well as giving every instrument in the orchestral pantry, an opportunity to shine in its own right. Later in the decade of the 1980's Ralph Ferraro was commissioned by Jack Elliott, who had formed The New American Orchestra, to compose an original musical piece as a signature anthem for that orchestra. Ferraro's work, La Corrida, had its debut in 1987, with Jack Elliott conducting it in its premiere performance. In the mid-1980's, Ralph Ferraro formed a new collaboration with new rising-star composer, Randy Edelman, starting with MacGuyver and continuing through such titles as Dragonheart,XXX, Beethoven, Miss Congeniality, and Gettysburg, Ralph was kept busy with creating new and colorful sounds for Randel Edelman, until his retirement in 2009. Ralph enjoyed a brief retirement - brief on the grander scale - before passing on to join his Old Friends, Don Costa, Harry Warren, Nick Perito, etc. who had proceeded him, on April 3, 2012. His passing adds another exclamation point (!) to the end of a marvelous and magical music-making time, the like of which will never be seen again.Orchestrator- Music Department
- Additional Crew
- Composer
Christopher Palmer was born on 9 September 1946. He was a composer, known for Enemy Mine (1985), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Cape Fear (1991). He died on 22 January 1995 in London, England, UK.Orchestrator- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Sandy De Crescent is known for Jurassic Park (1993), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and Starship Troopers (1997).Orchestra Contractor- Music Department
Patti Fidelibus is known for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Dick Tracy (1990) and Suburban Commando (1991).Orchestra Contractor (as Patty Fidelibus)- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Bob Bornstein was born on 14 May 1928 in New Jersey, USA. He is known for Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). He was married to Audrey Lowell Bornstein and Audrey Lowell . He died on 18 February 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Music Preparation- Music Department
- Sound Department
- Soundtrack
Dan Wallin was born on 13 March 1927 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for Super 8 (2011), Star Trek (2009) and Howard the Duck (1986). He died on 10 April 2024 in Hawaii, USA.Score Recording and Mixing Engineer (Recorded at Record One Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA and MGM Studios Scoring Stage, Culver City, CA)- Music Department
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Acclaimed Grammy®-nominated choral conductor and Los Angeles Master Chorale (LAMC) Music Director Emeritus Paul Salamunovich, whose artistry touched millions of people around the world through recordings, live performances, college and university clinics, and the numerous film scores on which he conducted and sang, has died at age 86 from multiple complications due to West Nile virus.
The California native and long-time North Hollywood resident was Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1991 to 2001, Director of Choral Music at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood for 60 years (1949-2009), an esteemed music educator who held academic posts at Mount St. Mary's College and Loyola Marymount University, and an adjunct professor at the USC Thornton School of Music.
His death comes in the midst of the Chorale's 50th Anniversary Season, which opened with a multi-media retrospective concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall highlighting the signature works associated with each of the four music directors who have led the Chorale since its inception in 1964, including for Salamunovich Gregorian chant, works by Maurice Duruflé, Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium and the remarkably prescient hymn The Lord Bless You and Keep You.
The New York Times declared the chorus "one of America's top vocal ensembles" during Salamunovich's final season with the Chorale in 2001. A major force in the resurgence of interest in choral music, he championed such leading contemporary composers as Morten Lauridsen, Dominick Argento, Ariel Quintana and Libby Larsen, helping to expand the depth and breadth of the choral music repertoire. His remarkably fruitful collaboration with Lauridsen, in particular, resulted in the Chorale's Grammy®-nominated recording Lux Aeterna and ultimately helped to propel Lauridsen to become the most frequently performed American choral composer in modern history. Salamunovich also guest-conducted throughout the world and prepared choirs for such notable conductors as Igor Stravinsky, Robert Shaw, Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, Alfred Wallenstein, Sir Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Valery Gergiev and Simon Rattle. In addition, he conducted choral music on the scores for more than 100 film and television projects, including-The Godfather and ER, and sang on the sound tracks of Judgment at Nuremburg, Universal, 1961, and How the West was Won, MGM, 1962, among many others.
"All of us in the Los Angeles Master Chorale family mourn the loss of Paul Salamunovich and extend loving condolences to the entire Salamunovich extended family," said LAMC President and CEO Terry Knowles. "Paul's impact on the Chorale was long, deep and powerful. Any success our organization enjoys today is rooted in Paul's artistic leadership. We honor his memory, and we will never forget him."
"Paul was one of a handful of conductors who created and shaped the sound of choral music in America," said LAMC Music Director Grant Gershon, who succeeded Salamunovich at the choir's artistic helm in 2001. "As both a teacher and performer he was hugely influential, and his signature choral sound lives on through the many conductors and choirs that he inspired. In particular, his legendary work with LAMC composer in residence Morten Lauridsen is the epitome of a successful composer-conductor relationship, and together they brought international acclaim to the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He was my friend and colleague, and I have always been hugely grateful for his support and advocacy when I took over the reins of the Chorale. We will miss him. He was a giant in the field of choral music."
Salamunovich, a protégé of legendary choral conductor Roger Wagner, has been inexorably tied to the Los Angeles Master Chorale since the beginning, having been a founding member and Assistant Conductor from its inception until 1977, as well as an integral part of its various choral precursors.
Born on June 7, 1927, in Redondo Beach, California, Salamunovich attended St. James Elementary School, where he sang in a boys choir steeped in Gregorian chant, providing an early foundation for his career and nurturing his life-long passion for Gregorian chant. He had the good fortune of watching Wagner conduct his first concert with the Wagner Men and Boys Choir, which was presented at St. James Parish. When Salamunovich was about 13 years old, his family moved to Hollywood. He began singing for Richard Keys Biggs at the Blessed Sacrament Church and formally met Wagner, who invited him to watch his choir rehearse at St. Joseph's Church in downtown Los Angeles. Salamunovich rode the streetcar to downtown by himself on several occasions to observe Wagner, who took note of the regular visitor and invited him to sing with his choir. Following his graduation from Hollywood High School in 1945, Salamunovich enlisted in the Navy, serving in Pearl Harbor after World War II.
He moved back to Los Angeles after completing his enlistment at age 19 and was asked by Wagner to join his newly formed Los Angeles Youth Chorus, which included among its members 13-year old Marilyn Horne and 14-year old Marni Nixon, and which in 1948 evolved into the Roger Wagner Chorale, of which Salamunovich was a founding member. At Wagner's urging, Salamunovich enrolled at Mt. St. Mary's College to study music and then launched a career in choral conducting. Notably, Salamunovich took over Wagner's choir director post at St. Charles Borromeo Church in 1949 when Wagner left to focus on other conducting interests; Salamunovich retained the post for 60 years until his retirement in 2009. Wagner, impressed by Salamunovich's considerable skills, continued to utilize him and tapped him to be Assistant Conductor of the Roger Wagner Chorale from 1953 to 1977.
Then, in 1964, Wagner - with the support of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce and local businessmen Z. Wayne Griffin, Harrison A. Price, Donald J. Nores and Marshall A. Rutter - formed another new chorus, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which became a founding resident company of the Music Center just as construction on its first home, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, was being completed. Again, Wagner selected Salamunovich, who was a founding member of the independent professional choir, to be its assistant conductor, a position he held until 1977 when Salamunovich resigned to pursue other leading positions he was then being offered.
Although it was expected by many that Salamunovich would succeed Wagner as the Chorale's Music Director, an appointment for which Wagner himself lobbied, Salamunovich's schedule prevented consideration of the possibility and the Board of Directors instead selected Scottish opera conductor John Currie as Wagner's successor. In 1991, after Currie's somewhat turbulent tenure concluded, Salamunovich accepted the position as music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He immediately began rebuilding the Chorale's Wagner era signature "pyramid" choral sound anchored by rich robust bass and capped by shimmering soprano. Having led many of the Chorale's rehearsals while he served as Wagner's assistant, Salamunovich had had an indelible impact on the Chorale's early sound. The press heralded his return and his efforts, stating, "The panache is back; Paul Salamunovich has restored the L.A. Master Chorale to its former glory" (Los Angeles Times).
By the end of Salamunovich's tenure 10 years later in 2001, he was resoundingly lauded for developing the Chorale's "wide dynamic palette" ( Los Angeles Times) and "sterling, precise singing" (Daily Variety). Critics further declared, "For the past decade (the Chorale) has reached new heights under the baton of Music Director Paul Salamunovich" (Pasadena Star-News), and Salamunovich has "sharpened and refined his choral instrument to a virtually unbeatable level" (Los Angeles Times).
But of all of Salamunovich's remarkable accomplishments during his long and productive career, he is most closely associated with the extremely productive relationship he shared with Morten Lauridsen, who served as the Chorale's first composer in residence from 1995 to 2001, and whose critically acclaimed choral "blockbusters" Lux Aeterna, O Magnum Mysterium and Ave Maria, all written for the chorus, are among the works included in the Chorale's 1998 Grammy®-nominated, best-selling recording "Lux Aeterna" conducted by Salamunovich. Under Salamunovich's direction, the lush recording, with its "radiantly beautiful music," (Wall St. Journal) and "affecting emotional pull" (Daily Telegraph), elevated the Master Chorale and Lauridsen to international prominence.
Salamunovich was also noted for his keen interpretations of renowned 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé's works for choir and orchestra. In particular, they collaborated on a 1967 performance of Duruflé's Requiem, Op. 9, for which Salamunovich prepared the St. Charles Borromeo Choir and the composer conducted. Significantly impressed by Salamunovich's talents during their only time working together, Duruflé kept a picture of the two of them that still hangs in his home in Paris, which is curated by the Duruflé Society.
For his final season with the Chorale in 2000-2001, Salamunovich conducted five concerts, including a rare performance of the Mass in C# Minor by Vierne for double organ and choir with renowned organist Frederick Swann at the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. The other concerts, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, featured choral works by Mozart, Britten, Kodály, Parry, Verdi, Argento, Duruflé, Susa, and Pinkham, among others. The Chorale also gave two joint performance of Bach's B Minor Mass with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at UCLA's Royce Hall and the Alex Theatre in Glendale. And for his finale as Music Director, Salamunovich conducted four of his favorite pieces: Verdi's Stabat Mater, Holst's Hymn of Jesus, Neilsen's Hymnus Amoris and, of course, Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. He managed to accomplish all this while successfully battling lymphoma, diagnosed at the beginning of the season.
Following his retirement, Salamunovich continued his close relationship with the Chorale, regularly attending the chorus's concerts and galas, and returned to the Chorale as a guest conductor in a sold-out concert of some of his favorite choral works during the Chorale's second season in Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2005.
As a conductor and former singer, Salamunovich's musical contributions spanned the spectrum from classical, pop and jazz to folk and new age music with such diverse artists as Stan Kenton, Liz Story and Cirque de Soleil. He conducted countless live performances; sang or conducted on more than 20 recordings, including three with the Los Angeles Master Chorale; helped to shape the lives of thousands of students as a faculty member at Loyola Marymount University for 28 years and at Mt. St. Mary's College for 18; provided training to tens of thousands more around the world as an in-demand clinician; and helped provide spiritual fulfillment to countless others as Music Director of the St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood. Salamunovich also served as Conductor in Residence at the University of Western Australia in Perth and the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome.
Salamunovich's other film credits include conducting choral music on the scores of Angels and Demons, First Knight, Air Force One, A.I., Peter Pan, Flatliners and The Sum of All Fears, among many others. Earlier in his career, he sang on the motion picture soundtracks of The Great Imposter, Universal, 1960; The Last Sunset, Universal, 1961;The Spiral Road, Universal, 1963; Captain Newman, M.D., Universal, 1963, Dead Ringer, Warner Bros., 1963;War Lord, Universal, 1965; The Trouble with Angels, Columbia, 1965; Angel in My Pocket, Universal, 1965; and The Last of Sheila, Warner Bros., 1973.
With the choir at St. Charles Borromeo he recorded five albums of sacred music and was featured on Andy Williams' 1969 recording of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as well as on Williams' 1986 NBC-TV Christmas Eve Special hosted by Henry Mancini and Doc Severinsen. In addition, in 1985 the St. Charles Borromeo Choir was invited by the Papal Church Music Society to tour Europe in conjunction with the 8th International Convention of Sacred Music, which included a private audience with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican Palace. In 1987, the church's choir sang at the City of Los Angeles's official reception for the Pope, and the following year it became the first American choir invited to sing High Mass for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul at St. Peter's Square in Rome with the Pope presiding. It holds the distinction of being the only parish choir to be so honored.
Among numerous accolades, Salamunovich received a Papal knighthood as a Knight Commander in the Order of St. Gregory the Great from Pope Paul VI in 1969; the "Distinguished Artist Award" from the Music Center of Los Angeles in 2005; the "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the American Chorale Directors Association in 2000; and the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, known as the "Cross of Honour," the highest medal that can be awarded by the Papacy to the laity in 2013. He was inducted into the Loyola Marymount Faculty Hall of Fame in 2012. He also holds honorary doctorates from Loyola Marymount University and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
Salamunovich is survived by his wife of nearly 64 years, Dottie, sons John of Houston, Texas, Stephen of Seattle, Washington, Joseph of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and Thomas of Vail, Colorado. He is also survived by his older brother Joseph of Studio City, son-in-law, Gordon Goodman, daughters-in-law Claire, Sheila, Meredith and Nancy Salamunovich, 11 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. His daughter, Nanette, preceded him in death in 1977.Choir Arrangements and Conductor- Music Artist
- Actress
- Producer
Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, director and producer and one of the most successful personalities in show business. She is the only person ever to receive all of the following: Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, National Endowment for the Arts, and Peabody awards, as well as the Kennedy Center Honor, American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement honor and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Chaplin Award.
She was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942 to Diana Kind (née Ida Rosen), a singer turned school secretary, and Emanuel Streisand, a high school teacher. Her father died when she was 15 months old. She has a brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister, Roslyn Kind, from their mother's remarriage. As a child she attended the Beis Yakov Jewish School in Brooklyn. She was raised in a middle-class family and grew up dreaming of becoming an actress (or even an actress / conductor, as she happily described her teenage years at one of her concerts).
After a period as a nightclub singer and off-Broadway performer in New York City she began to attract interest and a fan base, thanks to her original and powerful vocal talent. She debuted on Broadway in the 1962 musical comedy "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" by Harold Rome, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a New York Drama Critics Poll award. The following year she reached great commercial success with her first Columbia Records solo releases, "The Barbra Streisand Album" (multiple Grammy winner, including "Best Album of the Year") and "The Second Barbra Streisand Album" (her first RIAA Gold Album); these albums, mostly devoted to composer Harold Arlen, brought her critical praise and, most of all, public acclaim all over the US. In 1964 she had another smash Broadway hit when she portrayed legendary Broadway star Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill; the show's main song, "People", became her first hit single and she appeared on the cover of Time magazine. After many TV appearances as a guest on various music and variety shows (such as an episode of The Judy Garland Show (1963), for which she was nominated for an Emmy), she signed an exclusive contract with CBS for a series of annual TV specials. My Name Is Barbra (1965) (which won an Emmy) and Color Me Barbra (1966) were extremely successful.
After a brief London stage period and the birth of her son Jason Gould (with then-husband Elliott Gould), in summer 1967 she gave a memorable free concert in New York City, "A Happening in Central Park", that was filmed and later broadcast (in an edited version) as a TV special; then she flew to Hollywood for her first movie, Funny Girl (1968), a filming of her stage success. The picture, directed by William Wyler, opened in 1968 and became a hit in the US and abroad, making her an international "superstar" and multiple award winner, including the Best Actress Oscar. After a series of screen musicals, such as Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly! (1969) and Vincente Minnelli's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), she wanted to try comedies, resulting in such films as The Owl and the Pussycat (1970) and What's Up, Doc? (1972). She turned to dramas and turned out Up the Sandbox (1972) and the classic The Way We Were (1973), directed by Sydney Pollack and co-starring Robert Redford. The song "The Way We Were" (written by Marvin Hamlisch and Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman) became one of her biggest hits and most memorable and famous songs.
She returned to TV for a new special conceived as a musical journey covering many world musical styles, Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments (1973), then returned (for contractual reasons) to her Fanny Brice role in a sequel to her hit "Funny Girl" film, Funny Lady (1975), and the next year turned out one of her most personal film projects, A Star Is Born (1976), one of the biggest hits of the year for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress and her second Oscar, for the song "Evergreen". Always extremely busy on the discography side, averaging one album a year throughout the '70s and '80s, she had a string of successful singles and albums, such as "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (duet with Neil Diamond), "Enough is Enough" (with Donna Summer), "The Main Event" (from her film The Main Event (1979) with her friend Ryan O'Neal) and the album "Guilty", written for her by The Bee Gees' Barry Gibb, which sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
She debuted as a director with the musical drama Yentl (1983), in which she also portrayed a Jewish girl who is forced to pass herself off as a man to pursue her dreams. The movie received generally positive reviews and the beautiful score by Michel Legrand and lyricists Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman stands up as one of Streisand's finest musical works. The film received several Oscar nominations, winning in two categories, but she was not nominated as Best Director, which disappointed both her and her fans, many of whom consider this the Academy's biggest "snub".
In 1985 her album "The Broadway Album" was an unexpected runaway success, winning a Grammy Award and helping to introduce a new generation to the world of American musical theater. In 1986 she performed in a memorable concert, after 19 years of stage silence, "One Voice". She returned to the screen in Nuts (1987), a drama directed by Martin Ritt, in the role of a prostitute accused of murder who fights to avoid being labeled "insane" at her trial. In 1991 she appeared in The Prince of Tides (1991), which many consider to be the pinnacle of her screen career, playing a psychiatrist who tries to help a man (Nick Nolte) to find the pieces of his past life. The film received seven Oscar nominations (but again NOT for Best Directing), but she did receive a nomination from the DGA (Directors Guild of America) for Best Director. In 1994 she returned to the stage after 27 years for a series of sold-out concerts (for the televised version of one of these, she won another Emmy).
In the 1990s she broke several personal records: with two #1 albums ("Back to Broadway" in 1993 and "Higher Ground" in 1997) and became the only artist to achieve a #1 album on the Billboard charts in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (she extended this record into the 21st century in 2009 with the jazz album "Love is the Answer"). In 1996 she starred in her third picture as director, The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), with Jeff Bridges and Lauren Bacall. The film had a "the girl got the guy" ending, and the same happened to her in real life--the next year she married well known TV actor James Brolin.
In 2000 she focused her career again on concerts ("Timeless") and in 2006-07 with a European tour. She made only two more films--a supporting role as a sex therapist mother in the Ben Stiller comedy Meet the Fockers (2004) and its sequel, Little Fockers (2010), alongside Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. She published a book, "Passion for Design", in 2010 and celebrated her friendship with the Bergmans with an entire album of their songs, "What Matters Most" (2011), that debuted in the top 10.
After a long break from filming, she returned in a starring role for the 2012 holiday season with The Guilt Trip (2012), a mother/son picture co-starring Seth Rogen and directed by Anne Fletcher, and is working on putting together a film version of the well-known Jule Styne musical "Gypsy". In almost 50 years of career, Streisand has contributed to the show business industry in a personal and unique way, collecting a multi-generational fan base; she has a powerful and recognize vocal range, and a raucous and often self-deprecating sense of humor, which doesn't prevent her from showing the serious and dramatic sides of her personality. Her strong political belief in social justice infuses her professional career and personal life, and she makes no bones about what she believes; her willingness to put her money where her mouth is has resulted in some truly vicious attacks by many who hold opposite political views, but that hasn't stopped her from acting on her beliefs. She has been honored with the Humanitarian Award from the Human Rights Campaign, an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Brandeis University in 1995, an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2013 and the bestowing by the government of France the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She supports many humanitarian causes through the Streisand Foundation and has been a dedicated environmentalist for many years; she endowed a chair in environmental studies in 1987 and donated her 24-acre estate to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. In addition, she was the lead founder for the Clinton Climate Change Initiative. This effort brought together a consortium of major cities around the world to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. She is a leading spokesperson and fund-raiser for social and political causes close to her heart and has often dedicated proceeds from her live concert performances to benefit programs she supports.Song Performer and Producer for "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes"
Barbra Streisand performs courtesy of Columbia Records- Music Department
- Producer
- Composer
Considered to be one of the greatest minds in music and television history, Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. was born on March 14, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of Sarah Frances (Wells), a bank executive, and Quincy Delight Jones, Sr., a carpenter.
Jones found his love for music while he was enrolled in grade school at Seattle's Garfield High School, this is also where he had met Ray Charles whom he later worked and became friends with. In 1951, Quincy Jones had won a scholarship to the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Jones however dropped out when he got the opportunity to tour with Lionel Hampton's band as a trumpeter and conductor. Jones also worked for the European production of Harold Arlen's blues opera, Free and Easy in 1959. After Jones had worked on several projects overseas he returned to New York where he composed and arranged, and recorded for artists such as Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Dinah Washington, LeVern Baker, and Big Maybell. Jones was working with these artists while holding an executive position at Mercury Records, being one of the very few African Americans at the time to have such a position.
In 1963, Quincy Jones won his first Grammy award for his Count Basie arrangement of "I Can't Stop Loving You". In 1964, by the request of director Sidney Lumet, Jones composed the music for his movie, The Pawnbroker. This would be the first of many Jones composed for film scores. By the mid-1960's Quincy Jones became the conductor and arranger for Frank Sinatra's orchestra. Jones also conducted and arranged one of Sinatra's most memorable songs, Fly Me To The Moon. Jones appeared on a lot of film credits for his music such as The Slender Thread, Walk, Don't Run, In Cold Blood, In The Heat Of The Night, A Dandy In Aspic, Mackenna's Gold, and The Italian Job. In 1972 Quincy Jones was the theme song composer for the hit-sitcom, Sanford And Son.
Quincy Jones in 1978 worked on music for the Wiz, this is where he met icon, Michael Jackson. Jackson at the time was looking for a producer, Jones recommended some producers but in the end asked Jackson if he could do it, Jackson said yes. In 1982 as a result of this partnership, Jones had formed a tapestry with Jackson which was unbreakable it was called, Thriller. The Thriller album sold more than 100 million records world-wide. Jones continued working with Jackson with his Bad album in 1987. However after Jones recommended Jackson seek other producers to update his music. Jones referred Jackson to producer, Teddy Riley. This ended a partnership between two-greats, Jackson and Jones would never collaborate again.
In 1981 Jones had an album called, The Dude. In 1985 Jones scored the film adaptation of The Color Purple. Jones also was a philanthropist, in 1985 gathering multiple stars to participate in the song We Are The World to help raise money to help the victims of the Ethopian disaster.
In 1990 Jones composed a theme song for the new sitcom which was centered around Will Smith, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Jones was also the executive producer of the show.
Quincy Jones will forever be remembered as someone who helped sculpt music in every form, he refined music and through the music he helped sculpt brought messages of peace, justice, love, funk, and hope.Song Producer for "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes"- Music Department
- Producer
- Sound Department
Phil Ramone was born on 5 January 1934 in South Africa. He was a producer, known for Flashdance (1983), Ghostbusters (1984) and Walkabout (1971). He was married to Karen Ichiuji-Ramone and Karen. He died on 30 March 2013 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Song Producer for "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes"- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Michael Bolton, the multiple Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and social activist, has sold more than 65 million albums and singles worldwide. He continues to tour the world every year, all while writing, recording and taping for a wide array of projects spanning music, film, television and branded entertainment. Known for his soulful voice and poignant lyrics, his timeless charm and good looks have also earned him a spot in several "People Magazine's Sexiest Man" issues, including slots in the "Sexiest Man Alive" issue. Bolton remains committed to humanitarian causes, especially through the Michael Bolton Charities as well as other philanthropic organizations.
Michael was born Michael Bolotin in New Haven, Connecticut, to Helen (Gubin) and George Bolotin.. He has a brother, Orrin, and a sister, Sandra. His grandparents on both sides were Russian Jewish immigrants.
Bolton's signature success was seized with the album Soul Provider, selling more than 12.5 million copies world-wide, and showcasing several chart-toppers including the #1 hit single "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You," which earned Michael his first Grammy. This pivotal album also includes the hit singles "When I'm Back on My Feet" Again," "How Can We Be Lovers," "Soul Provider," and of course the Grammy-nominated "Georgia on My Mind."
Soon after, Bolton released the #1 album Time, Love & Tenderness, which has sold over 16 million copies world-wide, and features his Grammy Award-winning vocal performance of the #1 blockbuster hit "When A Man Loves a Woman." This album also produced the hit singles: "Love Is a Wonderful Thing," "Time, Love and Tenderness" and "Missing You Now," as well as the Dylan co-write "Steel Bars."
Bolton followed this up with a collection of soulful classics on Timeless, delivering the hit singles "To Love Some Somebody" and "Reach Out I'll Be There." Timeless sold over 7 million copies worldwide. From his next album, The One Thing, came Michael's massive single "Said I Loved You...But I Lied," which spent 12 weeks at #1 on the AC charts and earned him another Grammy-nomination.
In recognition of his artistic achievements, Michael won 2 Grammys for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance (nominated four times), 6 American Music Awards, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a songwriter, he has earned over 24 BMI & ASCAP Awards, including Songwriter of the Year, 9 Million-Air awards, and the Hitmakers Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Internationally renowned, Michael has recorded and performed with musical icons that have inspired and influenced his own career. He joined Luciano Pavarotti on stage in a highly praised rendition of "Vesti La Giubba," and pays homage to the Italian tenor when performing the aria "Nessun Dorma" at each of his concerts while on tour. He has sung with Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Renee Fleming and played guitar with BB King. Bolton earned a Grammy-nomination for "Georgia on my Mind," and was invited to sing the classic song to Ray Charles when Ray was honored at the International Jazz Hall of Fame Awards in 1997.
A diverse and prolific songwriter, Bolton has worked with some of the greatest songwriters and producers of our time, including Lady Gaga, Diane Warren, Desmond Child, David Foster, Walter Afanasieff, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, John "Mutt" Lange, Dann Huff, A.R. Rahman, Phil Ramone, and Ne Yo, among others. He is one of the very few artists to have co-written with the legendary Bob Dylan, resulting in the mega hit, "Steel Bars." Michael has penned songs that have been recorded and performed by a diverse list of over 100 artists, ranging from country western legend Conway Twitty to hip hop superstar Kanye West featuring Jay Z and John Legend. Other greats who have performed Bolton's songs include Mark Anthony, Wynonna Judd, Joe Cocker, Peabo Bryson, Kenny Rogers, and Patti LaBelle. Michael has written #1 hit singles impacting the careers of artists such as Laura Branigan ("How Am I Supposed to Live Without You"), KISS ("Forever"), Barbra Streisand ("We're Not Making Love Anymore"), Cher ("I Found Someone"), and Kenny G ("By the Time this Night is Over").
Michael has always balanced a love for writing new songs with a passion for covering the classics. On his breakthrough album The Hunger, Bolton authored the #1 single "That's What Love is All About" and sang his chart topping version of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay," which was a hit on four radio formats. That album was certified double Platinum and shipped 4 million copies worldwide.
To date, Michael has seen nine studio albums rank in the Top Ten, with 9 #1 singles. His most recent album Songs of Cinema, a selection of iconic film soundtrack songs, was released alongside an original Netflix production Michael Bolton's Big Sexy Valentine's Day Special, which ranked among the network's top fifty best comedies upon debut.
Michael has always been attracted to a wide array of musical categories, from Sinatra favorites (Bolton Swings Sinatra), to classical arias (My Secret Passion), which achieved #1 on the classical charts for 6 consecutive weeks. His most recent studio album features an authentic approach to Motown and soulful classics, as well as original songs written in the same vein.
Michael's songs and performances have been featured in numerous television and film soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated theme song "Go the Distance" from Walt Disney's blockbuster animated film Hercules and the recent Russell Crowe film Fathers & Daughters. He also executive produced the documentary Terror at Home addressing Domestic Violence in America, and was Emmy-nominated for writing the title song "Tears of The Angels". Michael is completing a feature-length documentary, Gotta Keep Dreamin about the 21st Century Renaissance of Detroit.
Bolton was first drawn to Detroit to explore Hitsville USA, the roots of his greatest musical influences, but what he realized there was so much more. Told through the eyes of Michael's own discovery over the course of filming for 3 years, the film celebrates the golden age of Detroit - featuring its native entertainment legends like Francis Ford Coppola, Jerry Bruckheimer, Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, Alice Cooper and many more - and reveals the landscape of the new Detroit being built by entrepreneurial moguls Dan Gilbert, Michael Ilitch, Big 3 as well as young innovators across new industries. The comeback of Detroit is poised to be the greatest turnaround story of American history. This is the story of the American Dream.
Michael became a viral sensation in The Lonely Island's Emmy nominated video, "Captain Jack Sparrow" that launched on Saturday Night Live and has racked up nearly 160 million views on YouTube. He then partnered with Funny Or Die to release a spoof on the cult-classic Office Space. Bolton continued his comedic appearances in several episodes of CBS's hit series Two and a half Men, the hit Fox network show Glee, HBO's hit series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and has ongoing campaigns with American Greetings. In his autobiography, "The Soul of it All" (Hachette/Center Street), Bolton states he is just teeing off on the back nine of his career.
For his dedication to social activism, Michael has been honored with several Humanitarian awards - including the Martin Luther King Award granted by the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.), the Lewis Hine Award from The National Child Labor Committee, the Muhammed Ali Humanitarian Award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, and the Frances Preston Lifetime Achievement Award. Michael is especially proud of the initiatives carried out by his own foundation, the The Michael Bolton Charities, now in its 24th Year of advocating on behalf of women and children at risk.Song Performer for "So This Is Love"
Michael Bolton performs courtesy of Columbia Records- Actress
- Music Department
- Writer
Melissa Manchester attended the Manhattan School of Music and Arts, where she learned to play the piano and the harpsichord. Her father is a bassoon player in the New York Metropolitan Opera orchestra. In the early 1970s, Melissa studied songwriting at New York University School of the Arts in New York City, under the direction of Paul Simon, and at 15 she started recording commercial jingles. She was only one of nine applicants accepted at Simon's class out of more than 100 applicants. She also sang with Bette Midler and sang backup for her before going solo. In 1982 she won the Best Female Vocalist of the Year award. She is married to Kevin De Remer.Song Performer for "So This Is Love"
Melissa Manchester performs courtesy of MCA Records- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Jonathan Cain was born on 26 February 1950 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Independent Lens (1999), Armageddon (1998) and The Terminator (1984). He has been married to Paula White since 25 April 2015. He was previously married to Elizabeth Yvette Fullerton and Tane McClure.Song Producer for "So This Is Love"- Composer
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Keith Diamond was born on 11 March 1950 in Trinidad, British West Indies [now Trinidad and Tobago]. He was a composer and writer, known for Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991), Austenland (2013) and Street Hawk (1985). He died on 18 January 1997 in Manhattan, New York, USA.Song Producer for "So This Is Love"- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Paul Buckmaster was born on 13 June 1946 in London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Scream 2 (1997) and The World's Fastest Indian (2005). He died on 7 November 2017 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Orchestra Arrangements for "So This Is Love"- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in 1914, raised in Norfolk, Nebraska, Thurl Ravenscroft served as a navigator in the US Army Air Transport Command in World War II before settling in Hollywood. An accomplished singer, he performed with The Sportsmen Quartet, The Mellowmen Quartet, The Johnny Mann Singers, The Norman Luboff Choir, and many major stars, including Jim Nabors and Elvis Presley. He was best known, however, for his mellifluous voice-overs, and he voiced Tony the Tiger in countless advertisements for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes in both English and Spanish. In 1996 he and his wife June retired to southern California, although he still did occasional work as Tony. He died in 2005 of prostate cancer.Special Thanks- Betty Lou Gerson was born on 20 April 1914 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Cinderella (1950) and Cats Don't Dance (1997). She was married to Louis Rocco Lauria and Joe Ainley. She died on 12 January 1999 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Special Thanks
- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Director
Simon Wells was born on 19 October 1961 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is a director, known for The Time Machine (2002), The Prince of Egypt (1998) and Flushed Away (2006). He has been married to Wendy Wells since June 1988. They have two children.Special Thanks- Writer
- Director
- Animation Department
John Musker is an American animated film director who collaborates with Ron Clements. They directed various Disney animated films including The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and Moana. The Little Mermaid and Aladdin are seminal films he co-directed because they brought back life to Disney animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Special Thanks- Writer
- Director
- Animation Department
Ron Clements is an American animated film director who collaborates with John Musker. They directed various Disney animated films including The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog and Moana. The Little Mermaid and Aladdin are seminal films he co-directed because they brought back life to Disney animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Special Thanks