As Good as It Gets 1997 premiere
Saturday December 6th, Regency Village Theatre 961 Broxton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024
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- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
James L. Brooks was born on 9 May 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He was previously married to Holly Holmberg Brooks and Marianne Catherine Morrissey.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lillian (Gold) and Harry Hoffman, who was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. He was raised in a Jewish family (from Ukraine, Russia-Poland, and Romania). Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955, and went to Santa Monica City College, where he dropped out after a year due to bad grades. But before he did, he took an acting course because he was told that "nobody flunks acting." Also received some training at Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. Decided to go into acting because he did not want to work or go into the service. Trained at The Pasadena Playhouse for two years.- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actor
Art Garfunkel was born on 5 November 1941 in Forest Hills, New York, USA. He is a music artist and actor, known for Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Rebound (2009) and Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980). He has been married to Kim Garfunkel since 18 September 1988. They have two children. He was previously married to Linda Grossman.- Actress
- Composer
- Producer
The daughter of Grateful Dead devotee and first manager Hank Harrison and psychotherapist Linda Caroll, Courtney Love was born Courtney Michelle Harrison in San Francisco, California in 1964. Love spent her early years living in hippie communes in Oregon and at schools in Europe and New Zealand, under the care of her mother and other family members.
By age 16, Love became legally emancipated and traveled throughout Europe, living off of a small trust fund left behind by her grandmother. Love eventually returned to Portland, Oregon, still pursuing music, and then moved around to various locations in the United States before making her break into the industry.
As a musician, she played in early incarnations of Babes In Toyland and Faith No More, as well as acting in bit parts for some Alex Cox films. In 1989, she started her own band, Hole, and in 1992 married Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, giving birth to their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, that same year. After Cobain's suicide in 1994, and the release of Hole's second album "Live Through This", Love continued to thrill her fans and enrage her detractors with her on- and off-stage antics.
By 1998, Hole had released their third studio album, "Celebrity Skin", and Love had attracted cinematic notoriety for her performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which not only garnered her a Golden Globe nomination, but recognition as a serious performer.
Early into the millennium, Hole broke up, and Love took some supporting roles in films such as Trapped (2002), but her rocky past and propensity toward drug addiction eventually caught up with her, sending her through a whirlwind of numerous health and legal issues.
After unsuccessful stints in and out of drug rehabilitation centers, Love was ordered by the L.A. county court to three months in lock down rehab, which came to an end in 2006. Love soon after released a scrapbook-like diary recounting her life, titled "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love", and continued writing music, testifying her sobriety to the press and public.
In 2009, after losing custody of daughter Frances Bean Cobain for unrelated reasons, Love re-formed Hole with an entirely new lineup, and soon after released the band's first album in ten years, titled "Nobody's Daughter".- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
American actor, filmmaker and activist Edward Harrison Norton was born on August 18, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts, and was raised in Columbia, Maryland.
His mother, Lydia Robinson "Robin" (Rouse), was a foundation executive and teacher of English, and a daughter of famed real estate developer James Rouse, who developed Columbia, MD; she passed away of brain cancer on March 6, 1997. His father, Edward Mower Norton, was an environmental lawyer and conservationist, who works for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Edward has two younger siblings, James and Molly.
From the age of five onward, the Yale graduate (majoring in history) was interested in acting. At the age of eight, he would ask his drama teacher what his motivation in a scene was. He attended theater schools throughout his life, and eventually managed to find work on stage in New York as a member of the Signature players, who produced the works of playwright and director Edward Albee. Around the time when he was appearing in Albee's Fragments, in Hollywood, they were looking for a young actor to star opposite Richard Gere in a new courtroom thriller, Primal Fear (1996). The role was offered to Leonardo DiCaprio but he turned it down. Gere was on the verge of walking away from the project, fed up with the wait for a young star to be found, when Edward auditioned and won the role over 2000 other hopefuls. Before the film was even released, his test screenings for the part were causing a Hollywood sensation, and he was soon offered roles in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Edward won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Primal Fear (1996). In 1998, Norton gained 30 pounds of muscle and transformed his look into that of a monstrous skinhead for his role as a violent white supremacist in American History X (1998). This performance earned him his second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor.
He received his third Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for his work in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). His most prominent roles also include the critically acclaimed Everyone Says I Love You (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Fight Club (1999), Red Dragon (2002), 25th Hour (2002), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Illusionist (2006), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He has also directed and co-written films, including his directorial debut, Keeping the Faith (2000). He has done uncredited work on the scripts for The Score (2001), Frida (2002), and The Incredible Hulk (2008).
Alongside his work in cinema, Norton is an environmental and social activist, and is a member of the board of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization for developing affordable housing founded by his grandfather James Rouse.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman) is a multiple award-winning television, stage and film actress who performs as a comedian, singer, dancer, as well as works as a screenwriter, producer, director, author, and businesswoman. She holds dual British and American citizenship.
Ullman's early appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties (with Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes) and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield). After a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
She emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States where she starred in her own network television comedy series, The Tracey Ullman Show, from 1987 until 1990. She later produced programmes for HBO, including Tracey Takes On... (1996-99), for which she garnered numerous awards. Ullman's sketch comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, ran from 2008 to 2010 on Showtime. She has also appeared in several feature films. Ullman was the first British woman to be offered her own television sketch show in both the United Kingdom and the United States and in 2016 stars in her own BBC sketch comedy show Tracey Ullman's Show, her first project for the broadcaster in over thirty years.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on March 30, 1937. Her ancestry includes English and Scottish.
Shirley was the tallest in her ballet classes at the Washington School of Ballet. Just after she graduated from Washington-Lee High School, she packed her bags and headed for New York. While auditioning for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Me and Juliet", the producer kept mispronouncing her name. She then changed her name from Shirley MacLean Beaty to Shirley MacLaine. She later had a role in "The Pajama Game", as a member of the chorus and understudy to Carol Haney. A few months into the run, Shirley was going to leave the show for the lead role in "Can-Can" but ended up filling in for Haney, who had broken her ankle and could not perform. She would fill in for Carol, again, three months later, following another injury, the very night that movie producer Hal B. Wallis was in the audience. Wallis signed MacLaine to a five-year contract to Paramount Pictures. Three months later, she was off to shoot The Trouble with Harry (1955). She then took roles in Hot Spell (1958) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), completed not too long before her daughter, Sachi Parker (born Stephanie), was born. With Shirley's career on track, she played one of her most challenging roles: "Ginny Moorhead" in Some Came Running (1958), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She went on to do The Sheepman (1958) and The Matchmaker (1958). In 1960, she got her second Academy Award nomination for The Apartment (1960). Three years later, she received a third nomination for Irma la Douce (1963). In 1969, she brought her friend Bob Fosse from Broadway to direct her in Sweet Charity (1969), from which she got her "signature" song, "If My Friends Could See Me Now". After a five-year hiatus, Shirley made a documentary on China called The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir (1975), for which she received an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
In 1977, she got her fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Turning Point (1977). In 1979, she worked with Peter Sellers in Being There (1979), made shortly before his death. After 20 years in the film industry, she finally took home the Best Actress Oscar for Terms of Endearment (1983). After a five-year hiatus, Shirley made Madame Sousatzka (1988), a critical and financial hit that took top prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 1989, she starred with Dolly Parton, Sally Field and Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias (1989). She received rave reviews playing Meryl Streep's mother in Postcards from the Edge (1990) and for Guarding Tess (1994). In 1996, she reprised her role from "Terms of Endearment" as "Aurora Greenway" in The Evening Star (1996), which didn't repeat its predecessor's success at the box office. In mid-1998, she directed Bruno (2000), which starred Alex D. Linz. In February 2001, Shirley worked with close friends once again in These Old Broads (2001), and co-starred with Julia Stiles in Carolina (2003) and with Kirstie Alley in Salem Witch Trials (2002).
MacLaine as her own website which includes her own radio show and interviews, the Encounter Board, and Independent Expression, a members-only section of the site. In the past few years, Shirley starred in a CBS miniseries based on the life of cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash--Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay (2002), and wrote two more books, "The Camino" in 2001, and "Out On A Leash" in 2003. After taking a slight hiatus from motion pictures, Shirley returned with roles in the movies that were small, but wonderfully scene-stealing: Bewitched (2005) with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, In Her Shoes (2005) with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, in which Shirley was nominated for a Golden Globe in the best supporting actress category, and Rumor Has It... (2005) with Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner. Shirley completed filming of Closing the Ring (2007), directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, in 2007. Her latest book is entitled "Sage-ing While Ag-ing"; Shirley's latest film is Valentine's Day (2010), which debuted in theaters on February 12, 2010.- Robert A. Daly has been married to Carole Bayer Sager since 8 June 1996.
- Producer
- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
Amongst Mark Canton's most notable films are 300, 300: Rise of an Empire, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Immortals. 300, based on the Frank Miller graphic novel and directed by Zack Snyder for Warner Bros Pictures, opened in 2007 to record-setting box office numbers, having grossed more than $460 million worldwide and is the highest-grossing March release in the history of the motion picture business. The Spiderwick Chronicles, based on the best-selling children books by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black with Mark Waters (Mean Girls) directing, was released in February 2008 by Paramount Pictures and was the highest-grossing family film of early 2008. Immortals, an epic mythological tale set in war torn ancient Greece, was released on 11/11/11 and has amassed a worldwide gross of almost $250 million.
Canton initially joined Warner Bros. as Vice President of Production, rising to Senior Vice President and President of Worldwide Theatrical Production. During his tenure at the studio, Canton was instrumental in creating the notable Batman, Lethal Weapon and National Lampoon's Vacation film franchises. His creative influence brought some of today's most powerful filmmakers to the fore and some of the studio's most successful films to the screen. The latter included Tim Burton's Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Beetlejuice, the Academy award winning Driving Miss Daisy and Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. Canton also put into production such popular hits as Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Purple Rain, Above the Law, The Witches of Eastwick, The Mission, and Presumed Innocent, among others.
He departed Warner Bros. to join Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia Pictures as Chairman. In the ensuing years, he rose to Chairman of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Companies, with all creative, operational and management responsibility for Columbia Pictures, Triumph Films, Sony Pictures Classics SPE's international theatrical operations and Columbia TriStar's strategic motion picture alliances
Among the films produced under Canton's aegis at Sony were the Academy Award winning As Good as It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt; Oscar-winner Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr.; Men in Black, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones; the Julia Roberts romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding; the thriller Anaconda; and the Wolfgang Peterson film Air Force One starring Harrison Ford.
A native of New York, Canton is a UCLA graduate (magna cum laude) and a member of UCLA's National Honor Society for American Studies. He delivered the 2011 commencement address at UCLA's School of History. In addition to serving on the UCLA Board of Councilors and the Deans Advisory Board for the School of Theatre, Film, and Television, Canton was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute and Founder and is Chairman Emeritus of AFI's Third Decade Council. In recent years, he has been Honorary Chair of the prestigious Ischia Global Film & Music Festival and the Los Angeles, Italia Film Festival.- Producer
- Production Manager
- Writer
Jeffrey Katzenberg was born on 21 December 1950 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and production manager, known for Shrek (2001), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Just Like Heaven (2005). He has been married to Marilyn Katzenberg since 1975. They have two children.- Producer
- Executive
Barry Diller is the Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and the Chairman and Senior Executive of Expedia Group. From 1995 to late 2010, Mr. Diller served as the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of IAC. Since December 1992, beginning with QVC, Mr. Diller has served as chief executive for a number of predecessor companies engaged in media and interactivity prior to the formation of IAC. From October 1984 to April 1992, Mr. Diller served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox, Inc. and was responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company in addition to Fox's motion picture operations.
Before joining Fox, Mr. Diller served for 10 years as the Chairman and Chief Executive of Paramount Pictures Corporation. In March 1983, in addition to Paramount, Mr. Diller became President of the conglomerate's newly formed Entertainment and Communications Group, which included Simon & Schuster, Inc., Madison Square Garden Corporation and SEGA Enterprises, Inc. Prior to joining Paramount, Mr. Diller served as Vice President of Prime Time Television for ABC Entertainment. His broadway credits include To Kill A Mockingbird; The Iceman Cometh; Carousel; Three Tall Women; A Doll's House, Part 2; The Humans; and Betrayal. Through his foundation Mr. Diller has supported projects for Roundabout Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, The Public Theater, and Motion Picture & Television Fund, and creating Little Island, a park and performance center in the Hudson River.
He serves on the boards of The Coca-Cola Company and MGM Resorts International. He is also a member of The Business Council.- Producer
- Actor
Calley was born the son of a car salesman in Jersey City, New Jersey, and attended Columbia University before briefly serving in the Army. At NBC, he started in the mail room and moved up through the ranks from from 1951-57 in a still-young TV industry, from sale and production before settling in as director of nighttime programming. Later at Henry Jaffe Enterprises, he developed and produced musical programming; soon after he served the Ted Bates Advertising Agency as its radio and TV programming VP, until 1960.
Eventually it was at Filmways, where Calley hit his stride and either developed or produced appealing fare from Catch-22 (1970) to The The Americanization of Emily (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and The Loved One (1965). When Warner Bros., merged with Filmways later in the '60s, Calley was promoted to executive VP of worldwide production, later rising to president and then vice chairman, under Frank Wells.
In addition to All the President's Men (1976), Calley's Warner Bros. years featured hits like Superman (1978), Chariots of Fire (1981) and Woodstock (1970). However, after falling victim to an unhappy marriage and burnout from his involvement in the making of over 120 films at Warner's, he all but dropped out of Hollywood for the next 10 years, moving away from the studio scene to pursue the life of a "virtual hermit" first at his huge home on Fishers's Island, New York, and then in rural Connecticut.
Eventually in the 1990s, Calley returned as one of the producers of Merchant-Ivory's The Remains of the Day (1993), which led to the only Oscar nomination in his half-century career.
Also in 1993, Calley was persuaded to return to the executive suite in an effort to resurrect faded United Artists. His credit for doing so was linked to his shepherding the latest James Bond feature, big-budget GoldenEye (1995), as well as his decision to support the low-budget Leaving Las Vegas (1995).
Ultimately, it was when he once again teamed with director Mike Nichols (of 'Catch-22' fame) that he scored his greatest triumph at UA, with The Birdcage (1996), a comedy that grossed well over $100 million.
However, that same year, Calley moved on from MGM/UA to Sony Pictures Entertainment as its president and COO, where he managed to achieve another turnaround. Two years later, having met his latest challenge, he returned to producing, once again hitting the mark with Nichols's Closer (2004), and then with the The Da Vinci Code (2006) original and its' sequel Angels & Demons (2009).
In 2009, Calley received recognition from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences when he won the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award and was celebrated as 'one of the most trusted and admired figures in Hollywood.
When film executive and producer John Calley died on September 13, 2011, Variety described him as a "studio lion." In his 50-year career, he headed three different major movie studios and helped fashion dozens of popular as well as influential pictures, including The Exorcist (1973), 'Catch-22,' 'All the President's Men' and 'The Da Vinci Code.' Calley was renowned as a brilliant, almost scholarly executive, who was candid, humorous and low-key, yet his productions ran the gamut of budgets and genres.- Producer
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- Visual Effects
Chris Lee is known for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Superman Returns (2006) and S.W.A.T. (2003).- Producer
- Executive
Lucy Fisher is known for The Great Gatsby (2013), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Jarhead (2005). She has been married to Douglas Wick since 1986.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Danny DeVito has amassed a formidable and versatile body of work as an actor, producer and director that spans the stage, television and film.
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. was born on November 17, 1944, in Neptune, New Jersey, to Italian-American parents. His mother, Julia (Moccello), was a homemaker. His father, Daniel, Sr., was a small business owner whose ventures included a dry cleaning shop, a dairy outlet, a diner, and a pool hall.
While growing up in Asbury Park, his parents sent him to private schools. He attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel grammar school and Oratory Prep School. Following graduation in 1962, he took a job as a cosmetician at his sister's beauty salon. A year later, he enrolled at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts so he could learn more about cosmetology. While at the academy, he fell in love with acting and decided to further pursue an acting career. During this time, he met another aspiring actor Michael Douglas at the National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Connecticut. The two would later go on to collaborate on numerous projects. Soon after he also met an actress named Rhea Perlman. The two fell in love and moved in together. They were married in 1982 and had three children together.
In 1968, Danny landed his first part in a movie when he appeared as a thug in the obscure Dreams of Glass (1970). Despite this minor triumph, Danny became discouraged with the film industry and decided to focus on stage productions. He made his Off-Broadway debut in 1969 in "The Man With the Flower in His Mouth." He followed this up with stage roles in "The Shrinking Bride," and "Lady Liberty." In 1975, he was approached by director Milos Forman and Michael Douglas about appearing in the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which would star Jack Nicholson in the leading role. With box office success almost guaranteed and a chance for national exposure, Danny agreed to the role. The movie became a huge hit, both critically and financially, and still ranks today as one the greatest movies of all time. Unfortunately, the movie did very little to help Danny's career. In the years following, he was relegated to small movie roles and guest appearances on television shows. His big break came in 1978 when he auditioned for a role on an ABC sitcom pilot called Taxi (1978), which centered around taxi cab drivers at a New York City garage. Danny auditioned for the role of dispatcher Louie DePalma. At the audition, the producers told Danny that he needed to show more attitude in order to get the part. He then slammed down the script and yelled, "Who wrote this sh**?" The producers, realizing he was perfect for the part, brought him on board. The show was a huge success, running from 1978 to 1983.
Louie DePalma, played flawlessly by Danny, became one of the most memorable (and reviled) characters in television history. While he was universally hated by TV viewers, he was well-praised by critics, winning an Emmy award and being nominated three other times. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Danny maintained his status as a great character actor with memorable roles in movies like Romancing the Stone (1984), Ruthless People (1986), Throw Momma from the Train (1987) and Twins (1988). He also had a great deal of success behind the camera, directing movies like The War of the Roses (1989) and Hoffa (1992). In 1992, Danny was introduced to a new generation of moviegoers when he was given the role of The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot in Tim Burton's highly successful Batman Returns (1992). This earned him a nomination for Best Villain at the MTV Movie Awards. That same year, along with his wife Rhea Perlman, Danny co-founded Jersey Films, which has produced many popular films and TV shows, including Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Man on the Moon (1999) and Erin Brockovich (2000). DeVito has many directing credits to his name as well, including Throw Momma from the Train (1987), The War of the Roses (1989), Hoffa (1992), Death to Smoochy (2002) and the upcoming St. Sebastian.
In 2006, he returned to series television in the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005). With a prominent role in a hit series, Devito's comic talents were now on display for a new generation of television viewers. In 2012, he provided the title voice role in Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012).
These days, he continues to work with many of today's top talents as an actor, director and producer.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Garry Shandling was born on 29 November 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Larry Sanders Show (1992), It's Garry Shandling's Show. (1986) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). He died on 24 March 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
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Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through the '00s.
Nicholson was born on April 22, 1937, in Neptune, New Jersey. He was raised believing that his grandmother was his mother, and that his mother, June Frances Nicholson, a showgirl, was his older sister. He discovered the truth in 1975 from a Time magazine journalist who was researching a profile on him. His real father is believed to have been either Donald Furcillo, an Italian American showman, or Eddie King (Edgar Kirschfeld), born in Latvia and also in show business. Jack's mother's ancestry was Irish, and smaller amounts of English, German, Scottish, and Welsh.
Nicholson made his film debut in a B-movie titled The Cry Baby Killer (1958). His rise in Hollywood was far from meteoric, and for years, he sustained his career with guest spots in television series and a number of Roger Corman films, including The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).
Nicholson's first turn in the director's chair was for Drive, He Said (1971). Before that, he wrote the screenplay for The Trip (1967), and co-wrote Head (1968), a vehicle for The Monkees. His big break came with Easy Rider (1969) and his portrayal of liquor-soaked attorney George Hanson, which earned Nicholson his first Oscar nomination. Nicholson's film career took off in the 1970s with a definitive performance in Five Easy Pieces (1970). Nicholson's other notable work during this period includes leading roles in Roman Polanski's noir masterpiece Chinatown (1974) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which he won his first Best Actor Oscar.
The 1980s kicked off with another career-defining role for Nicholson as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Shining (1980). A string of well-received films followed, including Terms of Endearment (1983), which earned Nicholson his second Oscar; Prizzi's Honor (1985), and The Witches of Eastwick (1987). He portrayed another renowned villain, The Joker, in Tim Burton's Batman (1989). In the 1990s, he starred in such varied films as A Few Good Men (1992), for which he received another Oscar nomination, and a dual role in Mars Attacks! (1996).
Although a glimpse at the darker side of Nicholson's acting range reappeared in The Departed (2006), the actor's most recent roles highlight the physical and emotional complications one faces late in life. The most notable of these is the unapologetically misanthropic Melvin Udall in As Good as It Gets (1997), for which he won his third Oscar. Shades of this persona are apparent in About Schmidt (2002), Something's Gotta Give (2003), and The Bucket List (2007). In addition to his Academy Awards and Oscar nominations, Nicholson has seven Golden Globe Awards, and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. He also became one of the youngest actors to receive the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award in 1994.
Nicholson has six children by five different women: Jennifer Nicholson (b. 1963) from his only marriage to Sandra Knight, which ended in 1966; Caleb Goddard (b. 1970) with Five Easy Pieces (1970) co-star Susan Anspach, who was automatically adopted by Anspach's then-husband Mark Goddard; Honey Hollman (b. 1982) with Danish supermodel Winnie Hollman; Lorraine Nicholson (b. 1990) and Ray Nicholson (b. 1992) with minor actress Rebecca Broussard; and Tessa Gourin (b. 1994) with real estate agent Jennine Marie Gourin. Nicholson's longest relationship was the 17 nonmonogamous years he spent with Anjelica Huston; this ended when Broussard announced she was pregnant with his child.- Actress
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Helen Hunt began studying acting at the age of eight with her father, respected director and acting coach Gordon Hunt. A year later she made her professional debut and afterwards worked steadily in films, theatre and television.- Actor
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Greg Kinnear was born on June 17, 1963, in Logansport, Indiana, USA to Edward Kinnear, a career diplomat with the US State Department, and Suzanne (nee Buck) Kinnear, a homemaker. He has two brothers -- James, vice president-investments at Wachovia Securities in Arizona who was born in 1957, and Steve, a business manager with the Billy Graham Training Center in North Carolina who was born in 1959. His family moved often, including Lebanon and Greece. While a student in Athens, Greg first ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show "School Daze With Greg Kinnear".
Returning to college in the States, he attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, graduating in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He headed out to Los Angeles, landing his first job as a marketing assistant with Empire Entertainment. He auditioned to be an MTV VJ, but was not selected and became an on-location reporter for the channel. He had bit parts on L.A. Law (1986) and Life Goes On (1989). He would later become the creator, co-executive producer, and host of Best of the Worst (1991) (1990-91). His breakthrough was as first host of Talk Soup (1991) (1994), when he left the show for the NBC late-night talk show, Later (1994).
In 1994, Kinnear had his first big screen role, as a talk show host in the Damon Wayans comedy Blankman (1994). In 1995 he won the role of David Larrabee in Sydney Pollack's remake of Billy Wilder's 1954 classic Sabrina (1995). Next was the lead in the 1996 comedy Dear God (1996). In 1997, he was cast in James L. Brooks's blockbuster comedy-drama As Good as It Gets (1997), receiving an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. In his next film, the romantic comedy A Smile Like Yours (1997), he starred opposite Lauren Holly as part of a couple trying to have a baby. The film met with lukewarm reviews and a low box office.
His next film, You've Got Mail (1998), struck gold. He played Meg Ryan's significant other, a newspaper columnist. Next he played Captain Amazing in Mystery Men (1999). His more recent films have Nurse Betty (2000), Loser (2000), and Someone Like You (2001).- Music Department
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Tony Danza is an American actor, perhaps best known for starring on some of television's most beloved and long-running series, including "Taxi" (1978-1983) and "Who's the Boss?" (1984-1992).
Danza was born in Brooklyn, New York to Anne (Cammisa), a bookkeeper, and Matty Iadanza, a garbageman. His mother was an Italian immigrant, and his father was also of Italian descent. He grew up in Malverne, Long Island and received a wrestling scholarship to the University of Dubuque in Iowa, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history education. Before finding a teaching job, he earned his living as a professional boxer and envisioned himself as the next Rocky Graziano. Changing his name to "Dangerous" Tony Danza, he entered the New York Golden Gloves in 1975. Shortly afterward, on Aug. 13, 1976, he started his professional boxing career. Fighting as a middleweight, Danza became a crowd favorite for his walk-in slugging style. He compiled a record of 9-3 with nine knockout victories, seven in the first round.
During a gym workout, Tony was discovered for the part of Tony Banta on the ABC TV show Taxi (1978). Danza still hoped to be a world champion and scored knockouts in 1978 and 1979, but when he was unable to secure a title shot, he retired from boxing and totally dedicated himself to his acting career. "Taxi" was critically acclaimed, earning him a place in television history and making him a household name. He followed "Taxi" with a starring role in the classic ABC comedy series Who's the Boss? (1984), which ran for eight seasons and broke all syndication records. He became known for his lovable sitcom persona.
Danza received an Emmy nomination for a guest-starring role in The Practice (1997) and acclaim for his performance in the Broadway revival of "The Iceman Cometh" by Eugene O'Neill. He also starred in the comedy series Hudson Street (1995) and The Tony Danza Show (1997), for which he was executive producer. His additional television credits include an acclaimed performance opposite George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon in the remake of the film classic 12 Angry Men (1997), and the television movies The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon (1998), Noah (1998), The Girl Gets Moe (1997), North Shore Fish (1997), and Deadly Whispers (1995).
Among his motion-picture credits are Angels in the Outfield (1994), She's Out of Control (1989), A Brooklyn State of Mind (1998), Glam (1997), and Illtown (1996). He also wrote, directed, and starred in the short film Mamamia (1995).
Eventually Tony explored his love for the stage, and among his many stage credits is his exciting run on Broadway in Mel Brooks' hit musical "The Producers", playing Max Bialystock (2006-2007), and his reprise of the role in the Las Vegas production at Paris Las Vegas (2007).
For his theatrical debut in "Wrong Turn at Lungfish" (1993), he earned an Outer Critic's Circle Award nomination. Other stage credits include the critically acclaimed "The Iceman Cometh", opposite Kevin Spacey, Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play "A View from the Bridge", and "I Remember You". Most recently, Tony returned to the stage in the pre-Broadway run of the much-buzzed-about and highly-acclaimed smash hit musical "Honeymoon In Vegas", which he starred in at the Paper Mill Playhouse along with Tony Award nominee Rob McClure ("Chaplin"), and Brynn O'Malley ("Annie"). With music and lyrics by Tony Award winner, Jason Robert Brown ("Parade", "The Last Five Years"), the musical is written by Andrew Bergman ("Fletch", "The Freshman", "Blazing Saddles", "Soap Dish", "The In-Laws") and based on his hit Castle Rock/New Line comedy of the same title. Both the show and Tony's performance received amazing reviews, including a love letter from The New York Times that compares Tony's performance to "the cooler-than-cool spirit" of Frank Sinatra.
He garnered accolades performing in his song-and-dance stage show, which debuted in Atlantic City in 1995. He later took it on the road to major venues throughout the country, from Las Vegas to New York.
In 2013, Tony returned to the big screen and received great buzz and fantastic reviews for his performance as Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character's father in Gordon-Levitt's much-buzzed-about and acclaimed directorial debut, "Don Jon". The film, which stars Gordon-Levitt, Danza, Julianne Moore, Brie Larson, and Scarlett Johansson, was released in theaters in the fall of 2013.
In 2009-2010, Tony took on his most challenging role yet: teaching tenth-grade English at Philadelphia's Northeast High School. His experience working as a real teacher was taped and aired on A&E last year in the form of the critically-acclaimed seven-part documentary series, Teach.
In September 2012, Crown Publishers (a division of Random House) released Tony's book, "I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High", a much-buzzed-about and critically acclaimed reflection of his experience teaching for a year. The book premiered on the New York Times Best Sellers list at number 16 and stayed on the list for two months. The paperback edition hit bookstores in September of 2013. In 2010, AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with more than 35 million readers, presented Tony with their Inspire Award. The Inspire Awards pay tribute to extraordinary people who inspire others to action through their innovative thinking, passion and perseverance. In December of 2012, Tony was among the iconic celebrities who participated in the Weinstein Company's historic concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden. He was featured in the documentary about the concert, released by the Weinstein Company in the fall of 2013, in which Tony reminds people of the forgotten motto of America, "E pluribus unum", or "out of many one", or as Tony's father would say "we're all in this together, pal".
With great belief in the spirit of that motto, Tony participates in many charity efforts. In April 2013, USAToday honored Tony at their annual National Make A Difference Day Awards for his commitment to helping others through his numerous charity efforts.
Danza is married to Tracy Robinson and has three children.- Actor
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Anthony Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, on July 19, 1962, to a well-blended family. He is the youngest of five children, and the son of Erika Kem (Weber), a landscape painter and artist, and Peter Edwards, an architect. His mother was of German descent, and his father was of English, Irish, Scottish, and Spanish-Mexican ancestry.
Edwards's parents encouraged him to act at age 16, which eventually led him to attending a summer workshop in London before graduating from high school. Returning to the United States, Edwards worked in commercials, jobs that helped him pay his education at The University of Southern California, where he studied acting. However, he dropped out of college and, in that same year, he had a small role in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), starring Sean Penn. The movie was a box office smash and Edwards was looking forward to doing more films. His first movie role was that of teen-aged "John Muldowney" in Heart Like a Wheel (1983) and his first starring role as nerdy "Gilbert Lowell", in Revenge of the Nerds (1984).
Edwards didn't need to worry about being typecast as a socially-challenged loser. After starring in The Sure Thing (1985) and Gotcha! (1985), he landed another big-time successful movie Top Gun (1986), in which he played Tom Cruise's ill-fated easy-going navigator/best friend, Lt. Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. As Cruise rode Top Gun (1986) into the Hollywood stratosphere, Edwards also found his flight to stardom, at the same time. After Top Gun (1986), he reprised his role as Gilbert in the movie Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987), before he starred in Summer Heat (1987). He also starred in Mr. North (1988), and Miracle Mile (1988), although they weren't too successful.
Edwards began working in TV movies and continued to star in more box office movies such as Hawks (1988), How I Got Into College (1989), Downtown (1990), Pet Sematary II (1992), Landslide (1992) and Delta Heat (1992). The '90s won Edwards his best reviews for his recurring role of the quirky "bubble man" Mike Monroe on the popular television series Northern Exposure (1990). He was nominated for a Cable Ace Award in HBO's Sexual Healing (1993), and the following year, he starred in Charlie's Ghost Story (1995), before he played law clerk "Clint Von Hooser" in the John Grisham movie The Client (1994). This led to his most prominent role, as easy-going charismatic physician "Dr. Mark Greene" on the very popular TV series ER (1994).
For his work on ER (1994), he was nominated for an Emmy Award four times For Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, but has never won. However, he has won a Golden Globe Award For Best Performance by an Actor-in-a-TV-Series, and was nominated four times, and also has two Screen Actor's Guild Awards. Prior to playing Dr. Greene, he also played bank breaker turned cold-blooded killer, "Dick Hickock" in the TV movie remake of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1996), which was the best TV movie of the 1996-97 season. During Edwards' hiatus on ER (1994), he went back to the box office circuit to star and to produce the movie Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1999), a complex movie which wasn't a big hit. Edwards, once again, returned to the set of ER (1994), and this time, he signed up for a salary that almost no actor could be paid, so his decision was to stay on the show for 3 more years and possibly to save the money in order to spend a lot of family time and to work on directing later.
His first big roles after ER (1994) were that of "Brains" in the movie Thunderbirds (2004), and as "Jim Paretta" in The Forgotten (2004). In the many years that he starred on ER (1994), that show gave him more success in working on and off the set. Also, it gave him a spiritual blessing that so many popular actors have had over the years.- Producer
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Nick Reed is known for Claire (2019), The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (2013) and Age of the Living Dead (2018).- Animation Department
Kerstin Meyer is known for Werner - Beinhart! (1990) and Der kleene Punker (1992).- Actor
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As a seasoned actor, writer, producer, and stand-up comedian, Paul Reiser continues to add to his list of accomplishments. In addition to co-creating and starring on the critically acclaimed NBC series, Mad About You (1992), which garnered him Emmy, Golden Globe, American Comedy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, his successes also include his book, "Couplehood", which sold over two million copies and reached the number one spot on "The New York Times" best-seller list, and "Babyhood", his follow-up book, which features his trademark humorous take on the adventures of being a first-time father, which also made "The New York Times" best-seller list. He also wrote follow-up bestseller Familyhood.
Born and raised in New York City, Reiser was drawn to Greenwich Village clubs, which featured, among others, George Carlin, Robert Klein and David Steinberg. He subsequently attended college at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he majored in music (piano and composition) and participated in drama classes. During his university years, he was active in student theater productions at the Hinman Little Theater, an on-campus community theater organization located in Hinman College, his dorm community. Reiser later began performing as a comedian at the Improv and Comic Strip during university summer breaks.
Remembered for notable performances in films, such as Diner (1982), Aliens (1986), Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), The Marrying Man (1991), Bye Bye Love (1995) and One Night at McCool's (2001). More recently, he starred in two original movies for Showtime - Strange Relations (2001) opposite Julie Walters, Chazz Palminteri's Women vs. Men (2002), opposite Joe Mantegna and Christine Lahti. His first original screenplay also became his next film The Thing About My Folks (2005), also starring Peter Falk, Olympia Dukakis and Elizabeth Perkins.
Reiser's development company, "Nuance Productions", has produced several projects for NBC television including, My 11:30 (2004), starring Jeff Goldblum and Donna Murphy - which Reiser co-wrote with Steven Sater. Also in the works - for the Showtime cable network - is a mock-documentary about "The Smothers Brothers" and their battles with television network censorship in the late 1960s. Since then, he has maintained a lower profile, working more as an executive producer and writer than as an actor.
In 2003, Reiser made his stage debut in Woody Allen's directorial play debut Writer's Block. He also paired with Steven Soderbergh to star in the Amazon Original Series Red Oaks.
Reiser tours the country performing to sold-out venues and was recently voted one of Comedy Central's "Top 100 Comedians of All Time."- Actor
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Matthew Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to Suzanne Marie (Langford), a Canadian journalist, and John Bennett Perry, an American actor. His ancestry includes English, Irish, German, Swiss-German, and French-Canadian.
Perry was raised in Ottawa, Ontario, where he became a top-ranked junior tennis player in Canada. However, after moving to Los Angeles at the age of 15 to live with his father, he became more interested in acting. In addition to performing in several high school stage productions, he remained an avid tennis player. Perry ranked 17th nationally in the junior singles category and third in the doubles category. Upon graduating from high school, Perry intended to enroll at the University of Southern California. However, when he was offered a leading role on the television series, Boys Will Be Boys (1987), he seized the opportunity to begin his acting career.
Perry appeared in the hit comedy film The Whole Nine Yards (2000), as the neighbor of a hit man, played by Bruce Willis. His other feature film credits included Fools Rush In (1997), A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), She's Out of Control (1989) and Parallel Lives (1994). He also co-starred with Chris Farley in the buddy comedy Almost Heroes (1998) and in the romantic comedy, Three to Tango (1999), opposite Neve Campbell. Perry resided in Los Angeles. He enjoyed playing ice hockey and softball in his spare time.- Music Department
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David Foster was born on 1 November 1949 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is a composer and producer, known for St. Elmo's Fire (1985), The Secret of My Success (1987) and The Bodyguard (1992). He has been married to Katharine McPhee since 28 June 2019. They have one child. He was previously married to Yolanda Hadid, Linda Thompson, Rebecca L. McCurdy and B.J. Cook.- Producer
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Steve Stabler is currently Chairman and CEO of Commotion Pictures, an independent film production and distribution company. He has been directly involved in the development, finance, production, acquisition, marketing, and distribution of more than 100 motion picture and television projects. Including full-length motion pictures "Dumb & Dumber", "Kingpin", Beverly Hills Ninja", and "Threesome" which together have grossed over one billion dollars in worldwide receipts. Throughout his career, Stabler has established a reputation for putting value on the screen.
Prior to establishing Commotion Pictures, Stabler co-founded and was Chairman and CEO of Destination Film Distribution Company, Inc., a domestic film distribution company with one hundred employees in production, marketing and distribution. While at Destination, Stabler produced and/or distributed "Bats", starring Dina Meyer, "Eye of the Beholder", starring Ashley Judd and Ewan McGregor, "Drowning Mona", starring Danny DeVito and Bette Midler. "Buying the Cow", "Slackers", "Thomas and The Magic Railroad" starring Alec Baldwin and "Beautiful" directed by Sally Field starring Minnie Driver.
From 1985 to 1996, Steve Stabler was Co-Chairman and CEO of Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA), an entertainment company focused on the production, and worldwide marketing and distribution of independent films and television properties. Through groundbreaking agreements with the International Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees (IATSE), me Director's Guild of America (DGA) and the Teamsters Union, Stabler's projects have remained competitive with companies making films non-union at the same budget levels. The Company grew from a start-up to fifty employees. In 1996, MPCA was sold to Metromedia International Group where he served as Senior Executive Vice President in charge of marketing, distribution and production for Orion Pictures with responsibility for over four hundred employees. While serving in this capacity at Orion, he produced, marketed and. distributed ten films before Orion was purchased by MGM /UA in July of 1997.
He has recently completed feature films for the R.L. Stein book series "Mostly Ghostly" for Universal Pictures and best selling game "Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonlands" for Paramount Pictures.
Stabler received his B.A. in Motion Picture/Television Production from U.C.L.A. in 1976, his M.F.A. in Motion Picture/Television Production from U.C.L.A. in 1996 and his JD from Loyola Law School in 1981.- Producer
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Sidney Ganis was born on 8 January 1940 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Akeelah and the Bee (2006), Iron Man (2008) and Little Nicky (2000).- Actor
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John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one named 'The Kids'. When he married Lori A. Depp, he took a job as a ballpoint-pen salesman to support himself and his wife. A visit to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, however, happened to be a blessing in disguise, when he met up with actor Nicolas Cage, who advised him to turn to acting, which culminated in Depp's film debut in the low-budget horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where he played a teenager who falls prey to dream-stalking demon Freddy Krueger.
In 1987 he shot to stardom when he replaced Jeff Yagher in the role of undercover cop Tommy Hanson in the popular TV series 21 Jump Street (1987). In 1990, after numerous roles in teen-oriented films, his first of a handful of great collaborations with director Tim Burton came about when Depp played the title role in Edward Scissorhands (1990). Following the film's success, Depp carved a niche for himself as a serious, somewhat dark, idiosyncratic performer, consistently selecting roles that surprised critics and audiences alike. He continued to gain critical acclaim and increasing popularity by appearing in many features before re-joining with Burton in the lead role of Ed Wood (1994). In 1997 he played an undercover FBI agent in the fact-based film Donnie Brasco (1997), opposite Al Pacino; in 1998 he appeared in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), directed by Terry Gilliam; and then, in 1999, he appeared in the sci-fi/horror film The Astronaut's Wife (1999). The same year he teamed up again with Burton in Sleepy Hollow (1999), brilliantly portraying Ichabod Crane.
Depp has played many characters in his career, including another fact-based one, Insp. Fred Abberline in From Hell (2001). He stole the show from screen greats such as Antonio Banderas in the finale to Robert Rodriguez's "mariachi" trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003). In that same year he starred in the marvelous family blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), playing a character that only the likes of Depp could pull off: the charming, conniving and roguish Capt. Jack Sparrow. The film's enormous success has opened several doors for his career and included an Oscar nomination. He appeared as the central character in the Stephen King-based movie, Secret Window (2004); as the kind-hearted novelist James Barrie in the factually-based Finding Neverland (2004), where he co-starred with Kate Winslet; and Rochester in the British film, The Libertine (2004). Depp collaborated again with Burton in a screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and later in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Off-screen, Depp has dated several female celebrities, and has been engaged to Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. He was married to Lori Anne Allison in 1983, but divorced her in 1985. Depp has two children with his former long-time partner, French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis: Lily-Rose Melody, born in 1999 and John Christopher "Jack" III, born in 2002. He married actress/producer Amber Heard in 2015, divorcing a few years later.- Actor
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Cuba Gooding Jr. was born on January 2, 1968, in The Bronx, New York. His mother, Shirley (Sullivan), was a backup singer for The Sweethearts. His father, Cuba Gooding, was the lead vocalist for the R&B group The Main Ingredient, which had a hit with the song "Everybody Plays The Fool". His paternal grandfather was from Barbados.
Cuba's father moved the family to Los Angeles in 1972, only to leave them a few years later. Despite this setback, Cuba was able to maintain a positive outlook and overachieved throughout school. He attended four different high schools and was elected class president in three of them. While at high school, Cuba met and fell in love with Sara Kapfer, whom he later lived with for seven years before tying the knot in March 1994.
Following high school, Cuba studied Japanese martial arts for three years before turning his focus toward acting. Early on, he landed guest starring roles on shows like Hill Street Blues (1981) and MacGyver (1985). His first major role was in the 1991 box office surprise Boyz n the Hood (1991). He followed this success with supporting roles in major films like A Few Good Men (1992), Lightning Jack (1994) and Outbreak (1995).
In 1996, Cuba was cast as an arrogant but loyal football player in the Tom Cruise-Cameron Crowe film Jerry Maguire (1996). The film became a huge box office smash and earned Cuba an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His "Show Me The Money" line in the movie became a nationwide catchphrase. The role elevated him to superstar status, as many of Hollywood's top producers began to "show him the money" to appear in their films.
Since Jerry Maguire (1996), Cuba has managed to keep busy with a wide range of roles alongside many of Hollywood's biggest stars. Most recently, he won critical support for his portrayal of a mentally handicapped man in the heartwarming film Radio (2003), another movie about football. In 2002, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He resides in Studio City, California.- Music Artist
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Roger Daltrey is noted as a founder of the legendary rock band The Who. After leaving London's Acton County Grammar School in 1963, he formed a skiffle band called The Detours, then displayed an early genius by putting together unusual elements into a world-class performance. The unusual elements included Daltrey on vocals, John Entwistle on bass and Pete Townshend on lead guitar. In 1965 they added drummer Keith Moon, and the fabulous line-up was complete. The band was remarkable for the synthesis of personalities: Townshend's art-school sensibilities; Daltrey's down-to-earth interpretation; and Entwistle's and Moon's skill as performers. They were first noted for deafening shows and for smashing their instruments in ferocious displays of auto-destructive art, but they went on to considerable chart success through original songs written by Townshend and the more humor-oriented Entwistle. Townshend wrote the first rock mini-opera for their second album, and after their first tour of America, the band presented the full-length rock opus Tommy, which shattered barriers and established The Who as a major artistic force in the world of music. Daltrey released his first solo album in 1973, and followed that with a number of solo chart successes. He also established a stage and (somewhat offbeat) film career after starring in the movie of Tommy (1975). He pursued films more steadily after the death of drummer Moon, and turned to production with the drama McVicar (1980). The band continued to perform sporadically with different drummers and John Bundrick on keyboard, but returned to full force in the 1990s with the addition of Zak Starkey on drums. Though Townshend is noted as the songwriter and lead guitarist of The Who, Daltrey remains the genius who drives their performances. His energy and stage presence established The Who at the monumental Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Isle of Wight music festivals, and his instincts for production carved their path through the era of stadium rock. The filmography of musical performances stand as the best evidence of Daltrey's brilliance as both a musician and a stage performer.- Music Artist
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Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969 in The Bronx, New York City, New York to teacher Lupe López and computer specialist David López. The two Puerto Ricans were brought to the continental United States during their childhoods and eventually met while living in New York City. Their daughters would have a stable, middle-class upbringing.
Jennifer always dreamed of being a multi-tasking superstar. As a child, she enjoyed a variety of musical genres, mainly Afro-Caribbean rhythms like salsa, merengue, and bachata, and mainstream music like pop, hip-hop, and R&B. Although she loved music, the film industry also intrigued her. Her biggest influence was the Rita Moreno musical, West Side Story (1961). At 5, Jennifer began taking singing and dancing lessons. Aside from being a budding entertainer, Jennifer was also a Catholic schoolgirl, attending eight years at a Catholic elementary school named Holy Family, located in The Bronx, before graduating from all-girls prep school Preston High School after a four-year stay. At school, Jennifer was an amazing athlete and participated in track and field and tennis. She spent most of her upbringing in a two-story house in the Castle Hill neighborhood.
At 18, Jennifer moved out of her parents' home. After high school, she briefly worked in a law office and took dance classes at night. During this time, she continued dance classes at night. Her big break came when she was offered a job as a fly girl on Fox's hit comedy In Living Color (1990). After a two-year stay at In Living Color (1990) where actress Rosie Perez served as choreographer, Lopez then went on to dance for famed singer-actress Janet Jackson. Her first major film was Gregory Nava's My Family/Mi familia (1995), and her career went into overdrive when she portrayed late Tejana singer Selena in Selena (1997).- Actor
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As a film character actor, Klugman was the epitome of the everyman. He was one of the pioneers of television acting in the 1950s, and is best remembered for his 1970s TV work as Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple (1970) and as the medical examiner on Quincy M.E. (1976).- Actress
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Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Ukrainian Jewish and Romanian Jewish. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California which had no electricity. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary. Her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady", an anthology of writings on the drug experience in literature, which included one piece by Louisa May Alcott. Ryder would later play the lead role of Josephine March in the adaptation of this author's novel Little Women (1994).
Ryder moved with her parents to Petaluma, California when she was ten and enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At age 13, she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom (1986), but did not get the role. However, director David Seltzer spotted her and cast her in Lucas (1986). When telephoned to ask how she would like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels album was playing the background. Ryder was selected for the role of Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) and Mermaids (1990) back-to-back. She said she did not want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence (1993), which was directed by Martin Scorsese, whom she believes to be "the best director in the world".- Actress
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Helen Slater was born in Bethpage, New York, to Alice Joan (Citrin), a lawyer and peace activist, and Gerald Slater, a television executive. She was raised in Massapequa, Long Island, New York, and is of Eastern European Jewish descent. Appearing in many shows as a child, she attended the New York High School of Performing Arts, graduating in 1982. Having made her acting debut in Amy & the Angel (1982), co-starring with James Earl Jones and Matthew Modine. Helen took her career very seriously. Within months of her graduation, she attended auditions for the upcoming spin-off of the famous Superman (1978) franchise, Supergirl (1984). It was to be shot in England at Pinewood Studios, where the first "Superman" movies were filmed. Slater even spoke to Christopher Reeve about playing a superhero to assure herself she could do it. After being the first to present herself for audition, she was cast as the lead in the film and her career took off. Although Supergirl (1984) received mixed reviews, most critics were impressed with Helen's abilities. In fact, the critics' consensus was that she did a better job at keeping a secret identity (a mousy schoolgirl) than Reeve did as Clark Kent. In her next film, she was cast as a modern-day "Joan of Arc" in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) with Yeardley Smith and Peter Coyote. The film, though not particularly successful, has managed to attract a somewhat cult following. She next appeared in one of her best-received roles, that of the female half of the bumbling husband-and-wife team that kidnaps Bette Midler in the comic blockbuster, Ruthless People (1986), and scored again in the hit The Secret of My Success (1987). Both roles helped to cement her status as an actress of note. Next, she and her friend, Melanie Mayron, starred in the feminist comedy, Sticky Fingers (1988), a critical but not financial success. It was in this film and her next, Happy Together (1989), that she was able to prove that she could do comedy as well as drama. She went on to do more feature films such as City Slickers (1991), A House in the Hills (1993) and Lassie (1994), before making regular appearances on television. Her regional stage credits include appearances in such plays as "Grease" and "Shakespeare and Friends". On Broadway, she starred in "Responsible Parties" and "Almost Romance". She also attended classes at both NYU and UCLA, trying to broaden her acting abilities. On television, she has appeared in Caroline in the City (1995), as well as many others. She also became a spokeswoman for Preference by L'Oreal in both TV and print ads. She is an accomplished pianist and now has an album out called "One of These Days". She co-founded the New York theater group, The Naked Angels, with her friend Gina Gershon. In 1990, she married award-winning editor Robert Watzke and they have a daughter, born in 1995. She stepped out of the limelight for a couple of years, appearing mainly in the occasional TV show, but came back strong in 2003, showing moviegoers and TV audiences how great an entertainer she really is.- Actress
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Arabella Field was born in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), American Horror Story (2011) and Seinfeld (1989). She was previously married to Brian Gerber.- Carroll Baker was born on May 28, 1931 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a traveling salesman, William W. Baker. She attended community college for a year and then worked as a dancer and magician's assistant. After a brief marriage, she had a small part in Easy to Love (1953), did TV commercials, and had a bit part on Broadway. She studied at the Actors Studio and was married to director Jack Garfein (one daughter, Blanche Baker). Warner Brothers, sensing a future Marilyn Monroe, cast her in Giant (1956), Baby Doll (1956) (Oscar nomination for her thumb-sucking role), The Carpetbaggers (1964) and Harlow (1965) (title role). Moving to Italy, she made films there and in England, Germany, Mexico and Spain . After returning to American films, she married Donald Burton in 1982 and resided in Hampstead, London in the 1980s. They remained together until Burton's death from emphysema in their home in Cathedral City, California in 2007.
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Harry Robinson Hamlin is an American actor of stage, television and films. He was born in 1951, in Pasadena, California, to Berniece (Robinson), a socialite, and Chauncey Jerome Hamlin, Jr., an aeronautical engineer. He graduated from Yale University in 1974 with degrees in Drama and Psychology and was later awarded a Master of Fine Arts in acting from The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Though awarded an ITT-Fullbright scholarship in acting in 1977 he opted instead to make his feature film debut in Stanley Donen's comedy spoof "Movie Movie" opposite George C. Scott for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination. Best known for his roles a Perseus in "Clash of the Titans" with Lawrence Olivier and Michael Kusac in the Emmy winning TV series "LA Law", he is the son of Chauncey Jerome Hamlin Jr. who helped design the Saturn V rocket with Dr.Wernher Von Braun at Rocketdyne and North American Aviation. He is the grandson of Chauncey Jerome Hamlin who founded the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. Chauncey Hamlin was also a president of the American Association of Museums and created the International Council of Museums.- Actress
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Lisa Deanna Rinna was born on July 11, 1963 in Newport Beach, California and raised in Medford, Oregon to Lois Rinna & Frank Rinna, she has an older half-sister: Nancy Rinna. As an actress, she is best known for her roles as Billie Reed on the NBC daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives (1965) and Taylor McBride on Fox's television drama, Melrose Place (1992). Since 2014, Rinna has been a cast member on Bravo's hit reality television series, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2010). Other television credits include being a contestant on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice and ABC's Dancing with the Stars, as well as guest-starring roles on Entourage, The Middle, Veronica Mars, Community & 8 Simple Rules. Rinna made her Broadway debut in Chicago as Roxie Hart on June 2007. She was the host of Soapnet's talk show, SoapTalk (2002) for which she earned four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Rinna has also written three books: Starlit, The Big, Fun, Sexy Sex Book and The New York Times best-seller Rinnavation. Her other ventures include a fashion line for QVC named The Lisa Rinna Collection and the cosmetics collection Rinna Beauty.- Actor
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Stephen Dorff was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Nancy and Steve Dorff, a composer. Chosen from over 2000 young men from around the world, he auditioned and won the coveted role of "PK" in John G. Avildsen's The Power of One (1992) in 1992, starring opposite Morgan Freeman, John Gielgud and Fay Masterson. For his performance, he was awarded the Male Star of Tomorrow Award from the National Association of Theater Owners.
Dorff then amassed an impressive list of screen credits, chief among them New Line's Blade (1998), in which he starred opposite Wesley Snipes and won the "Best Villain" at both the MTV Movie and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. He also co-starred with Susan Sarandon in HBO's Earthly Possessions (1999), based on Anne Tyler's novel about an unlikely romance between a young, fumbling bank robber and his hostage. He also starred in Scott Kalvert's street gang drama, Deuces Wild (2002), for MGM and as the champion of bad cinema in the John Waters comedy, Cecil B. Demented (2000), co-starring Melanie Griffith.
Additional credits include XIII: The Conspiracy (2008), Entropy (1999), Blood and Wine (1996) with Jack Nicholson, and opposite Harvey Keitel in City of Industry (1997). He starred as the fifth Beatle, Stuart Sutcliffe, in Iain Softley's Backbeat (1994), and as the notorious Candy Darling in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).
His 2000s credits include Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (2006), Robert Ludlum's Covert One: The Hades Factor (2006), .45 (2006) with Milla Jovovich, Shadowboxer (2005) with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren, and the Disney thriller, Cold Creek Manor (2003), with Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone for director Mike Figgis.
Stephen appeared as disillusioned Hollywood actor and single father Johnny Marco in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere (2010), which won a Golden Lion at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. In 2009, Dorff teamed with Somewhere producer G. Mac Brown on Michael Mann's gangster drama Public Enemies (2009), starring opposite Johnny Depp and Christian Bale.
Dorff was most recently cast in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel Leatherface (2017) and the fantasy family film Albion: Rise of the Dannan (2016) _.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
James Adam Belushi was born June 15, 1954, in Chicago, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his mother was also of Albanian descent. The third of four children - his brother was comedian John Belushi - he grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. A high school teacher, impressed by his improvisational skills while giving speeches, convinced him to be in a school play. After that, he joined the school's drama club. Today, if asked why he got involved in acting, he will jokingly say, "Because of girls. In the drama club, there were about 20 girls and six guys. And the same thing with choir - more girls!". He attended the College of DuPage and Southern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts.
In 1977, he joined Chicago's Second City improv troupe and remained for three years. In 1979, Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for Second City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV pilot Who's Watching the Kids (1978) for Paramount and, then, for a role in the series Working Stiffs (1979) (co-starring Michael Keaton). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975) for two years. Jim came to national attention in About Last Night (1986), playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre's production of David Mamet's Obie-award winning play "Sexual Perversity in Chicago". He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Jennifer Sloan, their daughter Jamison and a son, Robert Belushi, from his first marriage.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Zuniga was born in San Francisco, California to Agnes A. Zuniga (née Janawicz) and Joaquin Alberto Zuniga Mazariegos. Her mother is a Unitarian minister, of Polish and Finnish descent, and her father, originally from Guatemala, was an emeritus professor of philosophy at California State University, East Bay. Zuniga has two sisters: Jennifer Zuniga and Rosario Zúñiga.
In her early teens, Zuniga expressed interest in acting, and attended the Young Conservatory program of the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco. After her parents divorced, Zuniga moved with her mother and sister from Berkeley, California to Reading, Vermont, where she spent the remainder of her teenage years. Zuniga graduated from Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1980, after which she returned to California and enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles to study theater arts. After leaving college, Zuniga was close friends and roommates with fellow actress Meg Ryan.
Zuniga made her film debut in a supporting part in the slasher film The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982), while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She was then cast in the 1984 horror film The Initiation (1984), opposite Vera Miles and Clu Gulager. This was followed by a lead role, opposite John Cusack, in Rob Reiner's film, The Sure Thing (1985).
In 1986, she starred as Princess Vespa in Mel Brooks' memorable cult comedy Spaceballs (1987), followed by a supporting part in the science fiction horror sequel, The Fly II (1989). From 1992 to 1996, Zuniga portrayed Jo Reynolds on the wildly popular soap opera Melrose Place (1992), which garnered Zuniga wider mainstream exposure. Her role on the series would be followed by numerous appearances on television series, including a lead role as Shelly Pierce on American Dreams (2004) from 2004 to 2005, and a recurring on the popular CW series, One Tree Hill (2003), as Victoria Davis, a role which she played from 2008 until 2012.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Hank Azaria is an American comedian and actor from Queens, New York. He is known for voicing several characters in The Simpsons including Apu, Chief Wiggum, Moe, Bumblebee Man, Lou and Superintendent Chalmers. The latter became well-known due to the "Steamed Hams" scene. He also acted in Godzilla, The Smurfs and Mystery Men.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on March 30, 1937. Her ancestry includes English and Scottish.
Shirley was the tallest in her ballet classes at the Washington School of Ballet. Just after she graduated from Washington-Lee High School, she packed her bags and headed for New York. While auditioning for Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Me and Juliet", the producer kept mispronouncing her name. She then changed her name from Shirley MacLean Beaty to Shirley MacLaine. She later had a role in "The Pajama Game", as a member of the chorus and understudy to Carol Haney. A few months into the run, Shirley was going to leave the show for the lead role in "Can-Can" but ended up filling in for Haney, who had broken her ankle and could not perform. She would fill in for Carol, again, three months later, following another injury, the very night that movie producer Hal B. Wallis was in the audience. Wallis signed MacLaine to a five-year contract to Paramount Pictures. Three months later, she was off to shoot The Trouble with Harry (1955). She then took roles in Hot Spell (1958) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), completed not too long before her daughter, Sachi Parker (born Stephanie), was born. With Shirley's career on track, she played one of her most challenging roles: "Ginny Moorhead" in Some Came Running (1958), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She went on to do The Sheepman (1958) and The Matchmaker (1958). In 1960, she got her second Academy Award nomination for The Apartment (1960). Three years later, she received a third nomination for Irma la Douce (1963). In 1969, she brought her friend Bob Fosse from Broadway to direct her in Sweet Charity (1969), from which she got her "signature" song, "If My Friends Could See Me Now". After a five-year hiatus, Shirley made a documentary on China called The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir (1975), for which she received an Oscar nomination for best documentary.
In 1977, she got her fourth Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Turning Point (1977). In 1979, she worked with Peter Sellers in Being There (1979), made shortly before his death. After 20 years in the film industry, she finally took home the Best Actress Oscar for Terms of Endearment (1983). After a five-year hiatus, Shirley made Madame Sousatzka (1988), a critical and financial hit that took top prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 1989, she starred with Dolly Parton, Sally Field and Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias (1989). She received rave reviews playing Meryl Streep's mother in Postcards from the Edge (1990) and for Guarding Tess (1994). In 1996, she reprised her role from "Terms of Endearment" as "Aurora Greenway" in The Evening Star (1996), which didn't repeat its predecessor's success at the box office. In mid-1998, she directed Bruno (2000), which starred Alex D. Linz. In February 2001, Shirley worked with close friends once again in These Old Broads (2001), and co-starred with Julia Stiles in Carolina (2003) and with Kirstie Alley in Salem Witch Trials (2002).
MacLaine as her own website which includes her own radio show and interviews, the Encounter Board, and Independent Expression, a members-only section of the site. In the past few years, Shirley starred in a CBS miniseries based on the life of cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash--Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay (2002), and wrote two more books, "The Camino" in 2001, and "Out On A Leash" in 2003. After taking a slight hiatus from motion pictures, Shirley returned with roles in the movies that were small, but wonderfully scene-stealing: Bewitched (2005) with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, In Her Shoes (2005) with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, in which Shirley was nominated for a Golden Globe in the best supporting actress category, and Rumor Has It... (2005) with Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner. Shirley completed filming of Closing the Ring (2007), directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, in 2007. Her latest book is entitled "Sage-ing While Ag-ing"; Shirley's latest film is Valentine's Day (2010), which debuted in theaters on February 12, 2010.- Rebecca Broussard was born on 3 January 1963 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She is an actress, known for Die Hard (1988), Mars Attacks! (1996) and The Two Jakes (1990). She has been married to Alex Kelly since 2001. She was previously married to Richard Perry.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Throughout her illustrious career, Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage and television, in concert, and on recordings. She is one of the most critically-acclaimed Broadway performers, having received nominations for seven Tony Awards, winning two, and eight Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards. Recently, she has been starring on Broadway as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the hit musical, Hello, Dolly!
Bernadette was born Bernadette Lazzara on February 28, 1948 in Queens, New York City, to Marguerite (Maltese) and Peter Lazzara, a bread delivery truck driver. She is of Sicilian descent.
Bernadette first performed on the stage as a child and then a teenage actor in the 1960s, and in film and television in the 1970s. She was praised for this early work and for appearances on The Muppet Show (1976), The Carol Burnett Show (1991) and in other television work, and for her roles in films like Silent Movie (1976), The Jerk (1979), Pennies from Heaven (1981) and Annie (1982). In the 1980s, she returned to the theatre, where she became one of the best-known Broadway stars over the next three decades. She also has recorded six solo albums and several singles, as well as many cast albums, and performs regularly in her own solo concert act. Peters is particularly noted for her starring roles in stage musicals, including "Song and Dance", "Sunday in the Park with George", "Into the Woods", "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Gypsy", becoming closely associated with composer Stephen Sondheim.
Peters continues to act in films and on television, where she has been nominated for three Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards, winning once. Her career boasts an impressive list of television credits, which includes Amazon Prime's highly popular, Mozart in the Jungle, which won the 2016 Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy or Musical series. She also co-stars in the new CBS All Access series, The Good Fight, a spin-off of the network's popular series, The Good Wife. One of Broadway's most critically acclaimed performers, Peters has won numerous accolades including being the recipient of three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe, three Grammy nominations, three Emmy nominations and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Peters' albums include the Grammy nominated I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Sondheim, Etc.: Bernadette Peters Live at Carnegie Hall, and Bernadette Peters Loves Rodgers & Hammerstein, in addition to numerous Grammy Award winning Broadway Cast recordings. Peters devotes her time and talents to numerous events that benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Her "pet project" Broadway Barks, co-founded with Mary Tyler Moore, is an annual, star-studded dog and cat adoption event that benefits shelter animals throughout the New York City area. She is a New York Times bestselling author who has penned three children's books, Broadway Barks, Stella Is a Star and Stella and Charlie: Friends Forever. All of her proceeds from the sale of these books benefit Broadway Barks.
She had a four-year romantic relationship with comedian Steve Martin and was married to investment adviser Michael Wittenberg for over nine years until he was killed in a helicopter crash on September 26, 2005. Peters is known for her charitable work, including as a founder of the Broadway Barks animal charity. Peters resides in New York with her rescue dogs, Charlie and Rosalia.- Art Department
- Additional Crew
Michael Wittenberg was born in 1962 in New York, USA. Michael is known for The Chumscrubber (2005) and The Last Shot (2004). Michael was married to Bernadette Peters. Michael died on 26 September 2005 in Podgorica, Montenegro.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lois Chiles is a former supermodel-turned-actress who gave elegant performances in a variety of films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Her motion picture debut role was as Robert Redford's sexual endeavor in the old-fashioned Hollywood melodrama, The Way We Were (1973). Shortly after, she starred opposite Clifton Davis in the indie blaxploitation film, Together for Days (1972); they portrayed a mixed-race couple enduring societal disapproval and political pandemonium. She also appeared as the irreverent socialite Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby (1974), in which she starred alongside Mia Farrow and, again, Robert Redford.
Chiles delivered a series of pivotal characters particularly as a woman who mysteriously falls into a state of unconsciousness after entering the hospital for an early term abortion in Coma (1978), and as an impudent heiress and murder victim in the center of Death on the Nile (1978).
Chiles' most recognized role is the sophisticated NASA astronaut, scientist, and "Bond girl", Dr. Holly Goodhead opposite Roger Moore's James Bond in Moonraker (1979). It is worth noting that Goodhead was different than any previous "Bond girl", in that she was dignified and not so much sexualized. Sadly, that same year, just as Chiles' career was at its height, she lost her youngest brother to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which resulted in her three-year hiatus from acting. Her career never fully recovered and she struggled to find roles that necessitated her individuality but she persevered and received positive reviews for her continued performances in film and television, particularly in Sweet Liberty (1986), Broadcast News (1987), Creepshow 2 (1987), Diary of a Hitman (1991) and Curdled (1996).
In recent years, she's appeared in a few television sitcoms, participated in interviews recalling her experience as a "Bond girl", and taught an acting class at the University of Houston.- Actor
- Producer
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Jesse James was born in Southern California to Shane and Jaime. He started acting when his father was getting head-shots of himself taken. Shane asked the photographer, who was also a manager, to take photos of Jesse. The photographer/manager agreed and was amazed by the vibrant personality of the boy, so he signed Jesse. Shortly. Shortly after, the 5-year old, skinny, blonde Jesse received the role of "Spencer", in As Good as It Gets (1997), despite the role calling for an "overweight red-headed 12 year old". For this role, he won the Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award, for Best Performance by a Child Actor in a Comedy in 1998. Achieving underground critical acclaim for his portrayal of "Tommy Miller", a disturbed teenager with violent tendencies in The Butterfly Effect (2004), Jesse has continued strongly with his career, recently venturing into the independent film community.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky, to Ersel (Moberly), a cook, and Sheridan Harry Stanton, a barber and tobacco farmer. He lived in Lexington, Kentucky and graduated from Lafayette Senior High School with the class of 1944. Drafted into the Navy, he served as a cook in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and was on board an LST during the Battle of Okinawa. He then returned to the University of Kentucky to appear in a production of "Pygmalion", before heading out to California and honing his craft at the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse. Stanton then toured around the United States with a male choir, worked in children's theater, and then headed back to California.
His first role on screen was in the tepid movie Tomahawk Trail (1957), but he was quickly noticed and appeared regularly in minor roles as cowboys and soldiers through the late 1950s and early 1960s. His star continued to rise and he received better roles in which he could showcase his laid-back style, such as in Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), and in Alien (1979). It was around this time that Stanton came to the attention of director Wim Wenders, who cast him in his finest role yet as Travis in the moving Paris, Texas (1984). Next indie director Alex Cox gave Stanton a role that brought him to the forefront, in the quirky cult film Repo Man (1984).
Stanton was now heavily in demand, and his unique look got him cast as everything from a suburban father in the mainstream Pretty in Pink (1986) to a soft-hearted, but ill-fated, private investigator in Wild at Heart (1990) and a crazy yet cunning scientist in Escape from New York (1981). Apart from his film performances, he was also an accomplished musician, and "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" and their unique spin on mariachi music played together for well over a decade. They toured internationally. He became a cult figure of cinema and music and when Debbie Harry sang the lyric, "I want to dance with Harry Dean..." in her 1990s hit "I Want That Man", she was talking about him. Stanton remained consistently active on screen, lastly appearing in films including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999) and The Man Who Cried (2000).- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Born on January 5, 1962 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Susan Elizabeth "Suzy" Amis first worked as a Ford model before she began acting in the 1980s. She made her film debut in the comedy film Fandango (1985), opposite Kevin Costner. After that, Amis next had roles in Rocket Gibraltar (1988), Where the Heart Is (1990), Rich in Love (1992) and The Ballad of Little Jo (1993). She later appeared in Blown Away (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995) and Titanic (1997) in which she played Rose DeWitt Bukater's granddaughter Lizzy Calvert. That same year, she starred opposite Tom Selleck in the television Western Last Stand at Saber River (1997) and appeared in the horror film Nadja (1994). Amis retired from acting after her last appearance in the science fiction action film Judgment Day (1999).
In 2005, Amis founded Muse Elementary, a Reggio-inspired, independent, non-profit school in the Topanga, California area of Los Angeles.- Paula Ravets has been married to Paul Reiser since 21 August 1988. They have two children.
- Actress
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Michelle Phillips first became known as a member of the pop group The Mamas and the Papas. She sang the Mamas and Papas song "Dedicated To The One I Love" on a 1987 episode of Knots Landing (1979) in her role as Anne Matheson. She is the mother of singer Chynna Phillips and actor Austin Hines. Michelle's longest relationship was the 18 years she spent with Dr. Steven Zax, until his death in 2017.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Offbeat comic actress and voice specialist Yeardley Smith has made a virtue out of her distinctive looks, small figure, and child-like nasal tones. Lending vocal life to the animated role of "Lisa Simpson," the intelligent, caring, saxophone-droning, vegetarian member of the Simpson family, has been her bread-and-butter job for over a remarkable 30 years.
While Yeardley is American, she was born Martha Maria Yeardley Smith on July 3, 1964, in Paris, France where her father served as a correspondent with UPI. By the time she was two, she and her family had moved to Washington, D.C., where she was raised. A shy, introverted child, she started her pixie-like young career as a teenager at a nearby dinner theater where she played "Tinkerbell" in a musical adaptation of "Peter Pan". After receiving her high school diploma, she apprenticed for a time at the famed Arena Stage, then headed off to New York and bigger things.
Yeardley understudied the role of "Debbie" on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing", starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close, then took over the part for eight months. Small film offers started coming her way with Heaven Help Us (1985) and The Legend of Billie Jean (1985), so in 1986, she headed West and settled. After some work on the LA stage with "Boys and Girls/Men and Women" (1987) and "How the Other Half Loves" (1988) and a recurring role on the ground-breaking gay comedy, Brothers (1984), Yeardley won the part of daughter "Lisa Simpson". The animated character was launched on the sketch TV comedy series, The Tracey Ullman Show (1987). Two years later, she spun off into The Simpsons (1989) and still going strong after 20 years.
Yeardley has made the TV rounds on-camera as well with amusing guest appearances on Dharma & Greg (1997) (recurring), "Murphy Brown," "Empty Next" and "Mama's Family." She also had regular role for three seasons as "Louise" on Herman's Head (1991). Other film supports during that time included roles in City Slickers (1991), Jingle All the Way (1996) and As Good as It Gets (1997).
Yeardley continues to be quite active well into the millennium. In 2004, Yeardley performed front-and-center in her own one-woman autobiographical show entitled "More" in New York. Other comedic and occasional dramatic film parts include the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back by Midnight (2004), an animated full-length The Simpsons Movie (2007), Waiting for Ophelia (2009), High School (2010), Tug (2010), Virginia (2010), The Chaperone (2011), Miles (2016), All Square (2018), Love & Debt (2019) and Gossamer Folds (2020). On TV, Yeardley appeared as a guest on "Becker," "The Big Bang Theory," "Hot in Cleveland" and "Mom."
Married and divorced twice, Yeardley's first husband was actor Christopher Grove.- Actor
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Danny Nucci was born on 15 September 1968 in Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria. He is an actor and director, known for Titanic (1997), Crimson Tide (1995) and Alive (1993). He has been married to Paula Marshall since 12 October 2003. They have one child. He was previously married to Terre Bridgham.- Actress
- Composer
- Music Department
Danielle Brisebois was born on 28 June 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and composer, known for Begin Again (2013), All in the Family (1971) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979). She has been married to Nick Lashley since 2 August 2008. They have two children.- Maxine Bahns was born in 1971 in Vermont, the daughter of a German-American father and a Chinese-Brazilian mother. Maxine left home at 16 and traveled to Barcelona, Valencia, Paris and Rome. Returning to New York, she attended NYU, where she majored in Latin and Greek language and literature, also attending acting classes at Three Arts Studios. During this time, she auditioned for Edward Burns' The Brothers McMullen (1995) and was cast as the female lead opposite Edward Burns. Over the next few years, she has appeared in various low budget independent films, such as She's the One (1996), Dangerous Curves (2000), Cutaway (2000), Vice (2000), and Spin Cycle (2000).
On moving to Los Angeles, Maxine became involved in triathlons and, in 2001, she competed in the Hawaii Ironman Championships. She has also competed in numerous other triathlons, such as the Wildflower 1/2 Ironman and the Keauhou 1/2 Ironman. She has appeared on the covers of Runner's World, Triathlete Magazine, and Fit magazine. - Judson Mills was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in northern Virginia in a house built by George Washington. Washington was a young surveyor in the area and the home is a historical landmark. Mills grew up hunting and fishing, and was most interested in sports, particularly football.
Judson attended High Mowing in Wilton, New Hampshire, a private school, for his junior and senior year. It is a Waldorf school and rich with history and the arts. Not until his senior year did he involve himself in the theater. He was pushed into performing in his first play and received a standing ovation for his relatively brief cameo.
This approval met Judson's liking and he began pursuing a career in acting. Judson first attended Barry University, a liberal arts college in Miami, Florida, but quickly realized that training in New York was what he needed if he really wanted to succeed.
He moved to Long Island with the intention of attending the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He auditioned and was accepted. Only 250 people are accepted for the first year of their program, and of those, only 60 are asked back to the second, final year. After two years at AADA, and only two weeks before graduation, Mills was thrown. His bold, reckless personality would prove to be an asset as well as a handicap throughout his career.
While being made an example of for his tardiness and absences was humbling, it also fueled his drive. Two weeks later As the World Turns (1956) called AADA looking for an actor for a summer romance storyline. They spoke to a faculty member who was a friend and fan who recommended him for the audition. Judson audition and gained the role
Mills spent two and a half years on the show, laying the foundation for the rest of his career. He was then signed for an episode of Law & Order (1990). Realizing California had more career options, he left everything behind and moved to Hollywood.
The cocky young actor landed a role in a made-for-TV movie starring Alyssa Milano and Jamie Luner shortly after arrival. But again, Mills brash attitude and wild personal life continued to be his worst enemies. Over the next decade, Mills appeared on upwards of 30 TV shows including NYPD Blue (1993), JAG (1995), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), The X-Files (1993), and CSI: Miami (2002). He also broke into feature films, starting in independents like American Perfekt (1997) with Paul Sorvino, Robert Forester, Amanda Plummer, and David Thewlis, Joyride (1997) starring Tobey Maguire, 'Benicio DelToro', and Adam West. Judson's first starring role was as surfer/pitcher Hog Ellis, in the third installment in the Major League trilogy, Major League: Back to the Minors (1998). He also went on to work with such greats as Cuba Gooding Jr., in Chill Factor (1999), Sir Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser in the Academy Award-nominated Gods and Monsters (1998), and Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton in Disney's Mighty Joe Young (1998). He also spent two years in Dallas with Chuck Norris filming the last 52 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). Connection with the Norris family (Chuck, his brother Aaron, and son Eric) proved to be valuable when after finishing Walker, they continued working together filming the movie of the week The President's Man: A Line in the Sand (2002). The movie drew 16 million viewers opposite the Golden Globe Awards. Talk of a spin-off series was shelved due to 9-11.
Judson lives in Los Angeles with his two sons, Jagger with wife Morgan and Dalton with ex-wife Julie. He is very close to his mother and father, who have been married nearly 40 years, as well as his brother and sister-in-law. - Actor
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Harry Shearer was born in 1943 in Los Angeles, California. His film debut was with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), followed by The Robe (1953). Probably best known for his Saturday Night Live (1975) gigs, his NPR satire program "Le Show" and The Simpsons (1989), where he plays 21 characters. His best film may be This Is Spinal Tap (1984), where he played bass player Derek Smalls. There was also an episode on The Simpsons (1989) where he reprised this role. His film work includes Godzilla (1998), in which "Simpsons" cast members Hank Azaria and Nancy Cartwright also appeared. Shearer has also directed a film, Teddy Bears' Picnic (2001), in which he also stars.- Actor
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Jay Mohr, born in Verona, New Jersey, USA, wanted to be a comedian all of his life. He performed stand-up comedy at colleges, comedy clubs, and such television forums as An Evening at the Improv (1981) and Two Drink Minimum (1994). He first gained national attention while a cast member on Saturday Night Live (1975), where he became known for his impersonations of such people as Sean Penn and Christopher Walken.- Actress
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Equally at home on stage and on screen, award-winning actress Loretta Devine has created some of the most memorable roles in theatre, film and television.
Devine first captured national attention in the role of Lorrell, one of the three original "Dreamgirls" in Michael Bennett's classic award-winning Broadway musical of the same name. She followed that performance with a fiery portrayal of Lillian in Bob Fosse's critically acclaimed stage production "Big Deal." Subsequent work in George C. Wolfe's "Colored Museum" and "Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill," cemented Devine's status as one of the most talented and versatile stage actresses.
Film roles soon followed including a poignant turn as a single mother opposite Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett and Gregory Hines in Waiting to Exhale (1995) which earned Devine her first NAACP Image Award for 'Best Supporting Actress.' Devine also won an NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Penny Marshall's The Preacher's Wife (1996). Devine received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress for her work in "Women Thou Art Loosed." Devine was featured in the Academy Award-winning film "Crash" and the hit movie of "Dreamgirls." Some of her additional film credits include appearances in the successful "Urban Legend" franchise, "I Am Sam" opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn, "Kingdom Come," "What Women Want," "Punks," "Hoodlums," "Down in the Delta" and "Stanley and Iris."
Devine's more recent film credits include co-starring roles in "This Christmas" and "First Sunday" both of which opened Number 1 at the box office. Devine voiced the character of "Delta" in Disney's "Beverly Hills Chihuahua." She appeared with Chris Rock in Sony Screen Gems remake of "Death at a Funeral" and "Lottery Ticket" for Alcon/Warner Brothers. Devine portrayed "The Woman in Green" in Tyler Perry's adaptation of Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls." In 2011, Devine starred in two leading roles in the film "Jumping the Broom" with Paula Patton, Laz Alonso and Angela Bassett and in the Tyler Perry directed film "Madea's Big Happy Family," both films earned top spots at the box office, respectively. Devine followed up her box office hits with a strong lineup of independent films including Robert Townsend's "In The Hive" which earned Devine a NAACP Image Award nomination for "Best Actress in a Motion Picture", "You're Not You" alongside Hilary Swank, James Franco's "The Sound and the Fury" and the Kristen Wiig dramedy, "Welcome to Me."
On television, Devine became a critical darling in her Emmy award-winning role as "Adele" on ABC's hit medical drama "Grey's Anatomy." Devine's credits include numerous series roles on shows such as "The Cosby Show" spin-off "A Different World," Eddie Murphy's stop-motion animated series "The PJs," David E Kelly's "Boston Public," ABC's "Eli Stone" and alongside Jennifer Love-Hewitt on Lifetime's "The Client List." She most recently starred on NBC's critically acclaimed sitcom "The Carmichael Show" and co-starred in the 3rd season of BET's "Being Mary Jane" as the titular character's main antagonist, "Cece." Devine continues to voice "Hallie the Hippo" on Disney Channel's Peabody Award-Winning animated series, "Doc McStuffins," and will next star in the Netflix family series, "FAMILY REUNION" which will feature an all-black cast and crew.
With a career spanning three decades, Devine has earned much praise and accolades for her work on both the big and small screen. For her work as "Adele" on "Grey's Anatomy," Devine earned both a Primetime Emmy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, a Gracie Allen Award for "Outstanding Female Actor in a Featured Role," a nomination for "Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series" from the Critics' Choice Television Awards and a NAACP Image Award and a NAACP Image Award nomination. In total, Devine has won nine NAACP Image Awards and has received a record twenty-four nominations. Devine has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Pan African Film Festival and the NAACP Theatre Awards and the Thespian Award from the LA Femme International Film Festival.
Devine graduated from the University of Houston and later received a Master of Fine Arts from Brandeis University. She also received a Doctorate of Humane Letters as well as a Distinguished Alumni Award from The University of Houston.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Craig Bierko was born on 18 August 1964 in Rye Brook, New York, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and Scary Movie 4 (2006).- Actress
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- Soundtrack
Shirley Knight was an American actress who appeared in more than 180 feature films, television movies, television series, and Broadway productions in her career playing leading and character roles.
She was a member of the Actors Studio. Knight was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).
In 1976, Knight won a Tony Award for her performance in Kennedy's Children, a play by Robert Patrick. In later years, she played supporting roles in many films, including Endless Love (1981), As Good as It Gets (1997), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), and Grandma's Boy (2006). For her performances on television, Knight was nominated eight times for a Primetime Emmy Award (winning three), and she received a Golden Globe Award.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Self-proclaimed troublemaker Owen Cunningham Wilson was born in Dallas, to Irish-American parents originally from Massachusetts. He grew up in Texas with his mother, Laura (Cunningham), a photographer; his father, Robert Andrew Wilson, an ad exec; and his brothers, Andrew Wilson (the eldest) and Luke Wilson (the youngest). Expelled from St. Mark's School of Texas (Dallas, TX) in the tenth grade, Wilson finished his sophomore year at Thomas Jefferson School and then headed to a military academy in New Mexico. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he met his future mentor and friend, Wes Anderson. They wrote a screenplay, Bottle Rocket (1996), and sent it to their family friend, screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson, who sent it to producer Polly Platt, who gave it to James L. Brooks, who gave the Texans $5 million to make it into a feature film. Despite critical praise, Bottle Rocket (1996) only grossed one million dollars. After making the film, Wilson moved to Hollywood, setting up house with his two brothers and Anderson. Fairly quickly, Owen found himself acting in a series of big budget films, such as The Cable Guy (1996), The Haunting (1999), Anaconda (1997) and Breakfast of Champions (1999). This led to more work, such as Shanghai Noon (2000), Meet the Parents (2000) and Behind Enemy Lines (2001). He's known not only for his nose, which has been broken several times, but also for his 'free wheeling ways' with a script. He co-wrote the film The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with his oft partner Wes Anderson.