One Hit Wonder Directors
This is a list of directors in order of birth date who directed only one popular or successful feature length film. It is NOT a list of directors who made only one "good" film or only one film. Directors with no birth date listed are in alphabetical order at the end.
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- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Robert Wiene was born on 24 April 1873 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a writer and director, known for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Das wandernde Licht (1916) and The Knight of the Rose (1925). He died on 17 July 1938 in Paris, France.The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920)- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Benjamin Christensen was born on 28 September 1879 in Viborg, Denmark. He was a director and writer, known for Blind Justice (1916), Häxan (1922) and The Devil's Circus (1926). He was married to Karen Winther, Sigrid Stahl and Ellen Arctander. He died on 2 April 1959 in Copenhagen, Denmark.Häxan- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Victor Heerman was one of four brothers. His mother was a theatrical costumer. His father abandoned the family, and his mother moved the family to New York from London around the turn of the century to take a job as David Belasco's head costumer. Heerman moved to Los Angeles in 1911 to get into the movie business. He worked for Mack Sennett, among others, writing and directing two-reelers. While working for Douglas Fairbanks on a location shoot in Arizona, he met Sarah Y. Mason, one of 11 children of a railroad employee. She wanted to join the production as an actress, but although quite beautiful, she couldn't act--even though this was in the silent era. She did come to Hollywood as a kind of script girl/production assistant. Heerman and Mason were soon married and had two children, Catherine (born 2/5/22) (godparents Mary Pickford and Fairbanks) and Victor Heerman Jr. Heerman and Mason worked as a writing team (winning an Oscar for best screenplay adaptation for Little Women (1933)). Heerman was also active as a director (Animal Crackers (1930)).Animal Crackers (1930)- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
In 1920, Merian C. Cooper was a member of volunteer of the American Kosciuszko Squadron that supported the Polish army in the war with Soviet Russia, where he met best friend and producing partner Ernest B. Schoedsack. On 26 July 1920, his plane was shot down, and he spent nearly nine months in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. He escaped just before the war was over. He was decorated by Marshall Jozef Pilsudski with the highest military decorations: Virtuti Military. He had a successful career in the military and in the movie business.King Kong (1933)- Director
- Editor
- Actor
Making his stage debut in 1898 at age four, Alexander Hall entered films in 1914 as an actor. Leaving the film industry to serve in the American army in World War I, he returned from military service in 1917 and re-entered the business, but this time as an editor and assistant director. He made his directorial debut in 1932, specializing in comedies. He turned out a number of light, sophisticated comedies, the best known of which is the charming fantasy Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).Here Comes Mr. Jordan- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Had been out of work and was pretty much broke when he killed himself. He borrowed Buster Keaton's gun and after eating a meal that he could not pay for, shot himself. There are two stories; One says it was in the restroom of the cafe on Santa Monica Blvd, and the other story states he did it in the phone booth. His last real work was directing Buster Keaton on his local Los Angeles tv show on KTTV. This was in the early fifties and it was live. The show ran for just a year, but was popular. KTTV was having money problems and could not keep it on the air. The few tapes that survived show Keaton doing his typical gags, many that had been re-worked from his past glory.The General (1926)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Director Alan Crosland was born in New York City on August 10, 1894, into an upper-middle class family, which soon moved to East Orange, NJ, where Alan was reared. His family's finances allowed for him to spend part of his elementary education in England, where he acquired a curious Anglo-American accent that he would affect for the rest of his life. With a restless personality that was complemented by a sharp intellect and a smooth tongue, Crosland had an uncanny ability to befriend even the most disagreeable people around him (a talent he would put to good use in Hollywood). He attended Dartmouth College but left before graduation, deciding he wanted to become a journalist, and eventually landed a job with the New York Globe, writing articles and short stories on the side for movie magazines. From 1912 he began to moonlight with the nearby Edison Company as an actor and stage manager. He performed a variety of duties there, eventually directing the studio's last feature, The Unbeliever (1918), shortly before being drafted into the US Army during World War I. He served out the Great War in the Army Photo Service. After the armistice he signed with a smaller independent company, Select, one he had briefly worked with prior to the war, remaining with them on ten more pictures through 1922. During this period he gained an enviable reputation for effectively directing some of the most temperamental stars of the day. He was of the few directors who actually liked Erich von Stroheim and obtained effective performances from the notoriously hammy (yet undeniably talented) Lionel Barrymore.
He signed with Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan in 1923, where the reviews for Under the Red Robe (1923) placed him solidly in the ranks of Hollywood's top directors. He became the first director a studio wanted when shooting a big-budget, prestigious historical drama, especially if it starred a difficult actor that might be inclined to spin costs out of control. With his reputation growing, Crosland lived life to the hilt, thoroughly enjoying the 1920s Hollywood lifestyle; he was frequently seen around town looking always dapper in the latest flashy cars and inside the latest hot spot with a dazzling starlet.
After a brief stint at Paramount, Crosland signed with Warner Brothers and was assigned to projects by Darryl F. Zanuck just when the studio was in the midst of a make-or-break gamble on sound with its Vitaphone sound-on-disk system. At that time Warner Brothers was considered almost a "Poverty Row" studio, well below the ranks of MGM, Universal and Paramount. It had acquired an unenviable reputation in Hollywood as having only two major stars, one of whom was a German Shepherd named Rin-Tin-Tin and the other the temperamental, hard-drinking John Barrymore, who was hauled out for its few prestige pictures. One of the five combative brothers who ran the studio, Sam Warner, saw sound as the way to eliminate the need for theatrical orchestras and establish what he felt was Warner's rightful place within the film industry. Crosland's reputation for handling both spectacle and difficult stars made him the obvious choice to direct the studio's first tentative stab at sound, Don Juan (1926), which was the first film to contain synchronized music and sound effects. It was a moderate success and he was picked for an even more ambitious project, The Jazz Singer (1927), a part-talkie, on which the studio's entire fortunes rested. Crosland was chosen to direct the maudlin story largely on his ability to work with the notoriously difficult Al Jolson, after George Jessel (who had starred in the Broadway production) walked out over a pay dispute. The $500,000 production had only 281 spoken words (mostly incidental to the songs and ad-libbed by Jolson) but it ignited the public's voracious appetite for talkies and grossed $3,000,000, a blockbuster in those days.
Hollywood was soon caught up in a war between competing sound technologies: Warner's Vitaphone and Fox's superior Western Electric sound-on-film process. Meanwhile, studios faced enormous conversion costs and uncertainties over their stars' abilities to transition to sound. By 1928 the silent film had reached the pinnacle of its artistic achievement and the early talkies, by comparison, appeared crude. While some studios--most notably MGM (whose parent Loew's faced monumental costs related to converting its extensive theater network)--adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward both the public acceptance of sound and choosing a system, Warner's saw talkies in the form of its Vitaphone as its salvation. In Crosland's world of 1927-29, it should be remembered that sound cameras were fixed and muffled, large microphones had to be cleverly hidden and actors were often justifiably terrified of how their voices would be received. Unfortunately the Vitaphone process seriously limited the ability to edit a film, resulting in stagy long takes, and with its cumbersome electro-mechanical hardware and fragile records that would often break in transit, it was soon obvious that Fox's sound-on-film system was vastly superior (Warner's would quietly admit technological defeat in 1931 and convert).
Technology issues aside, the Vitaphone propelled Warner Brothers solidly into the ranks of the A-list studios and, infused with cash, it acquired Fox's First National theatrical network by 1930, a crucial business move that greatly expanded the studio's distribution capabilities and enabled it to ride out huge losses it would incur from 1931-34. It was during this all-too-brief transition period that Alan Crosland was the most experienced sound director in town. He directed another part-talkie hit, Glorious Betsy (1928), starring Dolores Costello, a return to his favored costume spectacle.
By mid-1929 it became apparent that a movie could not solely depend on the novelty of sound; hits required production values and a degree of action, an uncomfortable situation given the restrictions of the equipment. At this point Crosland stumbled badly. A primitive attempt at color didn't help On with the Show! (1929), a creaky musical starring a badly miscast Betty Compson and Arthur Lake, a textbook example of claustrophobic filmmaking and Crosland's first real flop. He tripped again with Captain Thunder (1930), one of his worst films. His next two assignments delved into the opera genre with dismal box office returns. His personal life became rocky, with his first marriage to Juanita Fletcher failing in 1930. He hastily wed actress Natalie Moorhead, a union that would last less than five years. Although he would direct more than 20 features--some of them moderately successful--after his career triumph with "The Jazz Singer," Crosland fell from the ranks of A-list directors and settled into directing B-level pictures.
Early in the morning of July 10, 1936, he was driving on Sunset Boulevard when his car hit some road debris and he swerved off the road, flipping twice in a construction zone. He was rushed to the hospital with multiple broken bones and a suspected skull fracture. Within four days he contracted pneumonia and his condition was downgraded by his doctor. He died on July 16, 1936, just shy of his 42nd birthday. His last film, The Case of the Black Cat (1936), was completed by William C. McGann. Crosland was survived by his son (with Juanita Fletcher), Alan Crosland Jr., who became a very successful television director in the 1960s-'70s.The Jazz Singer (1927)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.The Night of the Hunter- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Kurt Neumann was born on 5 April 1908 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Rocketship X-M (1950), The Fly (1958) and She Devil (1957). He was married to Irma Ely Neumann. He died on 21 August 1958 in Hollywood, California, USA.The Fly (1958)- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
An English major who graduated from Waseda University, one of Japan's most prestigious, in 1935, Motoyoshi Oda was promptly accepted into the directors' program at Tokyo's P.C.L. (Photo Chemical Laboratories, a film company later incorporated into Toho Studios). He studied under director Kajiro Yamamoto, as did Akira Kurosawa, Ishiro Honda, and Senkichi Taniguchi. When the latter two trainees were drafted into Japan's war in China, Oda found his career accelerated. He was promoted to director in 1940 with SONG OF KUNYA (Kunya no Uta), after a relatively scant few years of training. Perhaps because of this relative lack of training, and certainly because Oda was not drafted into the army, P.C.L. and Toho kept Oda going as a maker of programmers--trivial pictures that had to be made in order to keep product flowing into the theaters, but which offered little time or room for artistic achievement. Probably his most distinguished credits are LADY FROM HELL (1949, based on a Kurosawa script), TOMEI NINGEN (1954) and the only film he made ever to be shown outside Japan, the second Godzilla film, GOJIRA NO GYAKUSHU (1955). Toho insisted that Oda direct as many as seven movies a year, knowing that he could be trusted to deliver them on time. Over his entire career, Motoyoshi Oda directed fifty movies, not to mention his work as assistant director and second-unit direction on Ishiro Honda's EAGLE OF THE PACIFIC (Taiheiyo no Washi, 1953). No credits are available for Oda after 1957, when he may well have taken an early retirement.Godzilla Raids Again- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
The work of Marcel Camus is characterized by a lyricism which, although central to his fine films of the 1950s and 60s - Fugitive in Saigon (1957), Black Orpheus (1959) and Love in the Night (1968) - later deteriorated into superficial sentimentality. Camus was a professor of painting and sculpture before breaking into film as an assistant to Alexandre Astruc, Georges Rouquier and Jacques Becker, among others. During this period he made his first film, a short documentary called Renaissance Du Havre (1950). Like many French filmmakers whose first chance to direct a feature came in the postwar era, Camus chose to deal explicitly with the issue of personal sacrifice in the context of war. But unlike most of his colleagues who quite naturally dealt with WWII, Camus took as his subject the war in Indochina. Based on a novel by Jean Hougron, Fugitive in Saigon depicts a village caught between two fronts. Its only possibility of survival involves the destruction of a dam on which it depends. Camus then embarked on three films in collaboration with scenarist Jacques Viot. The first, Black Orpheus, brought him international acclaim. Winner of the 1959 grand prize at Cannes and an Academy Award as best foreign language film, this exotic modern adaptation of the Greek legend portrays its Orpheus (Breno Mello) as a streetcar conductor who meets his Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) and lives out his legendary destiny during the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The next two Camus-Viot collaborations, Os Bandeirantes (1960) and L'oiseau de paradis (1962), were generally well received, but neither lived up to the expectations created by Black Orpheus. Love in the Night (1968), an affecting portrait of nocturnal Paris, proved successful, but Un été sauvage (1970) was generally recognized as an inauthentic and superficial evocation of young people on vacation in Saint-Tropez. Camus then returned to the subject of war, this time with a gentle comedy about a Normandy restaurant owner who becomes a hero of the Resistance in spite of himself. Le mur de l'Atlantique (1970) offered a rich role for comic actor Bourvil, but was essentially a routine commercial product. This unfortunate trend continued with Bahia (1976), and some unexceptional work for French TV.Black Orpheus- Director
- Writer
- Actor
The pre-eminent American photojournalist of sub-Saharan descent. An acclaimed photographer for Life magazine from the late 40s through late 60s, he turned to directing films, his second of which, the blaxploitation movie Shaft (1971), achieved success at the box office. In 1989 his first film effort, The Learning Tree (1969), was selected among the first 25 films so honored, by the U.S. Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry for all time.Shaft (1971)- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Christian Nyby, the television and movie director who achieved acclaim as a film editor before moving into the director's chair, was born on September 1, 1913, in Los Angeles, California. He made his reputation as a cutter during the 1940s, when he worked with the great helmer Howard Hawks, winning his sole Academy Award nomination for the editing of Hawks' classic Western Red River (1948) (1948). Nyby first collaborated with Hawks as an editor at Warner Bros., on the director's adaptation of his friend Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not (1944) (1944). He edited The Big Sleep (1946), both the original 1944 version and the recut version that put more emphasis on stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that was released in 1946.
In a real-life scenario similar to Robert Wise's cutting of Orson Welles's second masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Nyby had to cut Red River (1948) on his own when director/producer Hawks had to go to Europe to complete another assignment. Nyby had to shorten Hawks' original cut, and also eliminate scenes that producer Howard Hughes thought plagiarized his own Western The Outlaw (1943), which Hawks had worked on. Though the film became regarded as a genre classic in the original Nyby cut, the original cut that Nyby had made under Hawks' supervision survived and was released during the 1960s, further burnishing the reputation of the film.
Nyby moved to the directors' chair for producer Hawks for the sci-fi movie The Thing from Another World (1951). Although The Thing is rightly regarded as a classic, credit for the direction of the film generally is attributed to Hawks as he reportedly was on the set everyday as the producer, and the film bears his "auteurist" stamp. Furthermore, Nyby's subsequent directorial output in film and on TV was mediocre, unlike this, his debut. Some believe the Hawks was ashamed to put his name on such a lowly genre piece (sci-fi was despised, critically, until Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) a generation later, and that film, one of the great classics of cinema, initially engendered hostile reviews from critics). Another theory is that Hawks helmed the film himself but let Nyby, who was on the set learning the ropes of direction, take the director's credit on the picture to receive membership in the Directors Guild. Whatever the truth, "The Thing" -- Nyby's greatest accomplishment as a director -- generally is credited to Hawks in fact or in spirit, so much is his style evident in the picture.
Nyby went on to direct B-movies such as the uninspired ode to the Marine Corps and battlefield sacrifice First to Fight (1967) (1967) and episodic television, never again showing the promise he had as director of "The Thing." He died on September 17, 1993, two weeks after turning 80 years old.The Thing From Another World- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Gabriel Axel was born on 18 April 1918 in Århus, Denmark. He was a director and actor, known for Babette's Feast (1987), The Red Mantle (1967) and Christian (1989). He was married to Lucie Axel Moerch. He died on 9 February 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.Babette's Feast- Additional Crew
- Writer
- Director
Jerome Robbins was one of the founding members of the Ballet Theatre when it was formed in 1940 portraying a variety of roles for several years before devising his own creations such as 'Fancy Free' about 3 sailors on leave in New York which marked a long association with Leonard Bernstein. With Jerome in one of the leading roles it opened at the Metropolitan Opera House in April 1944 and quickly established Jerome and Leonard as important talents particularly when the play was turned into the film'On the Town' Among ballets Jerome staged for the New York City Ballet, of which he became company director are 'Pied Piper','The Cage',and 'Inter Play'. In 1958 he formed his own company 'Ballets: USA which did tours of Europe and the Middle East, New York and a national tour. Several members of the company were in the film West Side Story which Jerome staged fir Broadway, the National Company and London.West Side Story (1961)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1920, Wolf Rilla was the son of German actor Walter Rilla. When Nazi leader Adolf Hitler came to power, the elder Rilla--who was Jewish--moved his family to London, England.
After completing his education, Wolf went to work for the BBC World Review in 1942, and in the late 1940s transferred to the network's newly created television service. He stayed there for a few years, but his passion was for films, and in 1952 he struck out on his own, making his debut as a writer/director with Glad Tidings! (1953). After making several more independent low-budget features, he hooked up with Group 3, a production company formed by Michael Balcon, John Baxter and John Grierson. His first film for them was The End of the Road (1954), with Finlay Currie. His next film for the company, Navy Heroes (1955), about a shell-shocked war veteran, garnered positive critical reviews, and his later comedy Bachelor of Hearts (1958) was a box-office success.
In 1960 Rilla, who by this time was working for MGM's British operation, directed what would become his best-known film, the tense and chilling Village of the Damned (1960), based on John Wyndham's novel "The Midwich Cuckoos", a tale of a sinister group of alien children taking over a small British town. Rilla not only directed the film but, with Ronald Kinnoch (writing as "George Barclay") and Stirling Silliphant, also wrote it. The film was a tremendous success, making more than $1.5 million in the US alone--on an $82,000 budget--and spawned a less-successful sequel, Children of the Damned (1964). Rilla directed his father Walter, along with George Sanders, in Cairo (1963), a somewhat anemic remake of John Huston's classic The Asphalt Jungle (1961), with the plot changed to a heist of King Tut's jewels in a Cairo museum.
Rilla occasionally crossed over to television in the 1950s, and by the mid-'60s most of his work occurred in that medium. He was also a lecturer at the International Film School in London, and wrote a very well-received guide to screenwriting, "A-Z of Movie Making", in 1970. He was an officer in the British Directors Guild as well as the film technicians' trade association ACTT. He retired from the film industry and, with his wife, bought and operated a hotel/restaurant, Le Moulin de la Camandoule, in Fayence in Provence, France.Village of the Damned (1960)- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Sergei Bondarchuk was one of the most important Russian filmmakers, best known for directing an Academy Award-winning film epic War and Peace (1965), based on the book by Lev Tolstoy, in which he also starred as Pierre Bezukhov.
He was born Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk on September, 25, 1920, in the village of Belozerka, Kherson province, Ukraine, Russian Federation (now Belozerka, Ukraine). He was brought up in Southern Ukraine, then in Azov and Taganrog, Southern Russia. Young Bondarchuk was fond of theatre and books by such authors as Anton Chekhov and Lev Tolstoy. He made his stage debut in 1937, on the stage of the Chekhov Drama Theatre in the city of Taganrog, then studied acting at Rostov Theatrical School. In 1942 his studies were interrupted by the Nazi invasion during WWII. Bondarchuk was recruited in the Red Army and served for four years until he was discharged in 1946. From 1946 - 1948 he attended the State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (VGIK), graduating as an actor from the class of Sergey Gerasimov. In 1948 he made his film debut in Povest o nastoyashchem cheloveke (1948) then co-starred in The Young Guard (1948).
For his portrayal of the title character in Taras Shevchenko (1951) he was awarded the State Stalin's Prize of the USSR, and was designated People's Artist of the USSR, becoming the youngest actor ever to receive such honor. Then he starred in the internationally renowned adaptation of the Shakespeare's Othello (1956), in the title role opposite Irina Skobtseva as Desdemona. Bondarchuk expressed his own experience as a soldier of WWII when he starred in The Destiny of a Man (1959), a war drama based on the eponymous story by Mikhail Sholokhov, which was also Bondarchuk's directorial debut that earned him the prestigious Lenin's Prize of the USSR in 1960.
Bondarchuk shot to international fame with War and Peace (1965), a powerful adaptation of the eponymous masterpiece by Lev Tolstoy. The 7-hour-long film epic won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and brought Bondarchuk a reputation of one of the finest directors of his generation. The most expensive project in film history, War and Peace (1965) was produced over seven years, from 1961 to 1968, at an estimated cost of $100,000,000 (over $800,000,000 adjusted for inflation in 2010). The film set several records, such as involving over three hundred professional actors from several countries and also tens of thousands extras from the Red Army in filming of the 3rd two-hour-long episode about the historic Battle of Borodino against the Napoleon's invasion, making it the largest battle scene ever filmed. Bondarchuk also made history by introducing several remote-controlled cameras that were moving on 300 meter long wires above the scene of the battlefield. Having earned international acclaim for War and Peace (1965), he starred in the epic The Battle of Neretva (1969) with fellow Russian, Yul Brynner, and Orson Welles, whom he would direct the following year.
By the late 1960s Bondarchuk was one of the most awarded actor and director in the Soviet Union. However, he was still not a member of the Soviet Communist Party, a fact that brought attention from the Soviet leadership under Leonid Brezhnev. Soon Bondarchuk received an official recommendation to join the Soviet Communist Party, an offer that nobody in the Soviet Union could refuse without risking a career. At that time he was humorously comparing his situation with the historic Hollywood trials of filmmakers during the 50s. Bondarchuk was able to avoid the Communist Party in his earlier career, but things changed in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, so in 1970, he accepted the trade-off and joined the Soviet Communist Party for the sake of protecting his film career. In 1971 he was elected Chairman of the Union of Filmmakers, a semi-government post in the Soviet system of politically controlled culture. Eventually he evolved into a politically controlled figure and turned to making such politically charged films as Red Bells (1982) and other such films. Later, during the liberalization of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, Bondarchuk was seen as a symbol of conservatism in Soviet cinema, so in 1986 he was voted out of the office.
Bondarchuk was the first Russian director to make a big budget international co-production with the financial backing of Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis, such as Waterloo (1970), a Russian-Italian co-production vividly reconstructing the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars. This was his first English-language production, but several Soviet actors were cast, e.g. Sergo Zakariadze and Oleg Vidov. In this film, Orson Welles, his co-star in The Battle of Neretva (1969) made a cameo as the old King Louis XVII of France. But this time Bondarchuk was unable to control the advances of Rod Steiger, and the film was a commercial flop in Europe and America, albeit it gained the favor of critics.
After his dismissal from the office of Chairman of the Union of Cinematographers he started filming Tikhiy Don (2006) based on the eponymous novel by the Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Sholokhov, with Rupert Everett as the lead. At the end of filming, just before post-production, Bondarchuk learned about some unfavorable details in his contract, causing a bitter dispute with the producers over the rights to the film and bringing much pain to the last two years of his life. Amidst this legal battle the production was stopped and the film was stored in a bank vault, and remained unedited and undubbed for nearly fourteen years. The production was completed by Russian television company "First Channel", and aired in November 2006.
In his career that spanned over five decades, Sergei Bondarchuk had credits as actor, director, writer, and co-producer in a wide range of films. He suffered a heart attack and died on October 20, 1994, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, next to such Russian luminaries as Anton Chekhov and Mikhail A. Bulgakov. His death caused a considerable mourning in Russia. Bondarchuk was survived by his second wife, actress Irina Skobtseva and their children, actress Alyona Bondarchuk, and actor/director Fedor Bondarchuk, and actress Natalya Bondarchuk, his daughter with his first wife, actress Inna Makarova.
As a tribute to Sergei Bondarchuk, his son, Fedor Bondarchuk called him "a father and my teacher," and dedicated his directorial debut, 9th Company (2005), set in war-torn Afghanistan, whereas Sergei's directorial debut was set in WWII.War and Peace (1966)- Producer
- Director
- Animation Department
George Dunning was born on 17 November 1920 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a producer and director, known for Yellow Submarine (1968), The Apple (1963) and The Flying Man (1962). He died on 15 February 1979 in London, England, UK.Yellow Submarine- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
- Writer
Newt Arnold was born on 22 February 1922 in Palo Alto, California, USA. He was an assistant director and actor, known for The Godfather Part II (1974), WarGames (1983) and Blade Runner (1982). He was married to Judy Arnold and Peg Yorkin. He died on 12 February 2000 in Encino, California, USA.Bloodsport- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Colorado-born Herk Harvey majored in theater at Kansas University, directing and acting in stage productions and later returning to the school in a teaching capacity. He broke into the film business as an actor in some of the movies being made by Centron Corporation of Lawrence, Kansas, an educational and industrial film production company for which he subsequently went to work as a director. In 1961 he took a working vacation from Centron to try his hand at feature filmmaking, producing, directing and co-starring in the creepy horror film Carnival of Souls (1962), shot in Kansas and Utah.Carnival of Souls- Editor
- Director
- Editorial Department
Having started out in the film industry as a clapper boy, by the 40's he was working in the editing department and by the 50's he was an assistant editor then a fully fledged editor. In 1962 as editor on the first James Bond film, Dr No, he helped to create a new fast style which put it's mark on action editing. From then on he was associated with all the early Bond films working his way up to second unit director then his directorial debut with 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' in 1969.On Her Majesty's Secret Service- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Claude Lanzmann was born on 27 November 1925 in Bois-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for Shoah (1985), The Four Sisters (2018) and Israel, Why (1973). He was married to Dominique Lanzmann-Petithory, Angelika Schrobsdorff and Judith Magre. He died on 5 July 2018 in Paris, France.Shoah- Director
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Irvin S. Yeaworth began his career in radio, singing (at age ten) on the first radio station in the world, KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He later became a radio and TV producer. His first feature, "Twice Convicted", was shot in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, in the early 1950s (several years later new footage was added and it was re-titled The Flaming Teenage (1956)). He directed three sci-fi films in the late '50s/early '60s (The Blob (1958), 4D Man (1959), Dinosaurus! (1960)), then went back to his first love: making religious films (some with Billy Graham. He also worked in amusement and theme park pavilion design and production.The Blob (1958)- Director
- Actor
Robert Moore was born on 7 August 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Murder by Death (1976), The Cheap Detective (1978) and Rhoda (1974). He died on 10 May 1984 in New York City, New York, USA.Murder by Death- Actor
- Producer
- Director
This tall, sandy-haired, mustachioed actor from Texas, born Justus McQueen, adopted the name of the character he portrayed in his first film, Battle Cry (1955). Jones, with his craggy, gaunt looks, first appeared in minor character roles in plenty of WWII films including The Young Lions (1958), The Naked and the Dead (1958), Hell Is for Heroes (1962) and Battle of the Coral Sea (1959). However, 1962 saw him team up with maverick director Sam Peckinpah for the first of Jones' five appearances in his films. Ride the High Country (1962) saw Jones play one of the lowlife Hammond brothers. Next he appeared alongside Charlton Heston in Major Dundee (1965), then Peckinpah cast him, along with his real-life friend Strother Martin, as one of the scummy, murderous bounty hunters in The Wild Bunch (1969). Such was the chemistry between Jones and Martin that Peckinpah teamed them again the following year in The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and Jones' final appearance in a Peckinpah film was in another western, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). Two years later Jones directed the cult post-apocalyptic film A Boy and His Dog (1975) starring a young Don Johnson. He has continued to work in Hollywood, and as the lines on his craggy face have deepened, he turns up more frequently as crusty old westerners, especially in multiple TV guest spots. He turned in an interesting performance as a seemingly good ol' boy Nevada cowboy who was actually a powerful behind-the-scenes player in state politics who leaned on Robert De Niro's Las Vegas mob gambler in Martin Scorsese's violent and powerful Casino (1995).A Boy and His Dog- Director
- Editor
- Additional Crew
A solid and reliable filmmaker with frequent flairs of brilliance, Mackenzie gave up a career in acting because of a desire to control what he was doing. He assisted Ken Loach on his classic early TV plays such as Cathy Come Home (1966), which inspired him and gave him the best training a TV director could dream of. It also taught him how to work with local people when filming on location and how to work quickly. But his interest was more in storytelling than political filmmaking and he began directing himself, with fabulous results.
He made three features early in his career, the best being Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971), a superb Hitchcockian thriller which proved his skill at suspense, something his no-one seemed to remember for another ten years. He returned to TV to enjoy the golden age on Play for Today (1970), and formed a fruitful collaboration with Scottish writer Peter McDougall for four brilliant films. The first, Just Another Saturday (1975), won the Prix Italia. Mackenzie also directed Dennis Potter's Double Dare (1976) superbly and produced a huge body of work including Red Shift (1978), A Passage to England (1975) and Shutdown (1973).
He always showed a brilliant ability to draw honest and natural performances from his actors, and frequently cast comedians or singers. He moved to features decisively with The Long Good Friday (1980) but a decade spent in Hollywood proved unfulfilling, artistically. Although he never achieved the recognition he richly deserved, Mackenzie was one of Britain's finest filmmakers.The Long Good Friday- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Mel Stuart was born on 2 September 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 (2000) and The Making of the President 1960 (1963). He was married to Roberta Frances Silberman and Harriet Rosalind Dolin. He died on 9 August 2012 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory- Director
- Writer
- Actress
Vera Chytilová was born on February 2, 1929, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). She studied philosophy and architecture in Brno for two years, then worked as a technical draftsman, a designer, a fashion model, a photo re-toucher, then worked as a clapper girl for Barrandov Film Studios in Prague. There she continued as a writer, actress, and assistant director.
She was denied a scholarship, or even a recommendation from Barrandov, but she took the admissions tests at FAMU and was accepted. From 1957-1962 she studied film directing under Otakar Vávra, who also taught Jirí Menzel, Milos Forman, Jan Nemec, and Ivan Passer. In 1962 she graduated as director from Film Academy (FAMU) in Prague. Her graduation film 'Strop' (Ceiling 1962) and the following film 'Pytel blech' (A Bagful of Fleas 1963) were "staged" improvisations with non-actors. In 1966 Chytilova and her husband, 'Jaroslav Kucera', made a witty surrealist comedy Daisies (1966), which was immediately banned, but then was released in 1967, and won the Grand Prix at the Bergamo Film Festival. She remained in Czechoslovakia after the events of 1968, when her colleagues Milos Forman, Jan Nemec, and Ivan Passer emigrated. Her films were often "shelved" for reasons of political censorship. For six years Chytilova was banned from making films. In 1976 she wrote a letter of complaint to President Gustav Husak, describing her artistic position. After some behind-the-scenes influence by her supporters, Chytilova was allowed to make a low-budget Hra o jablko (1977), which won a Silver Hugo at Chicago Film Festival.
Chytilova belongs among the foremost directors of the 1960's Czech New Wave, which was influenced by both the French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism. Her films were acclaimed for visual experimentation and for bold unmasking of the moral problems of contemporary society. Her art belongs to what Sergei Eisenstein described as "intellectual cinema", that embraces the mix of "avant-garde", "cinema verite", "formalism", "feminism", or "happening" and, with a good deal of humor, it spreads beyond definitions. Chytilova's films often present a multi-layered plethora of visual associations that encourages the viewer to make active interpretations. She survived through the political turbulences in Czechoslovakia and has been a highly original and uncompromising filmmaker.Daisies- Director
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- Producer
Monte Hellman was born on July 12, 1929, in New York City, where his parents were visiting, but he grew up in Los Angeles. He studied drama at Stanford University--on an NBC scholarship--and film at UCLA. After a few years directing in summer theater, Hellman hooked up with legendary "B" movie producer Roger Corman in the late 1950s. Corman helped finance Hellman's production of "Waiting For Godot", the the first time that Samuel Beckett's play had been staged in Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Times said it was "directed with wisdom, devotion and perception." Hellman made his film directorial debut with Beast from Haunted Cave (1959) and directed portions of Corman's The Terror (1963).
Hellman joined forces with frequent collaborator Jack Nicholson for two pictures shot back-to-back in the Philippines: Back Door to Hell (1964) and Flight to Fury (1964), then re-teamed with Nicholson for two existential westerns filmed in Utah under similar conditions: The Shooting (1966) and Ride in the Whirlwind (1966). After editing several films for Corman, including The Wild Angels (1966), Hellman directed what many consider to be his best work, Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), which starred Warren Oates and featured singer James Taylor and The Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson in dramatic roles. It was included in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2012.
Hellman's next film was Cockfighter (1974), an adaptation of Charles Willeford's novel, also starring Oates. Hellman collaborated with the actor once more on the European western China 9, Liberty 37 (1978). After completing Avalanche Express (1979) following the death of its original director, Mark Robson. Hellman made Iguana (1988) and the darkly humorous Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989).
Hellman's work was a major influence on Quentin Tarantino, and he served as executive producer on Tarantino's directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs (1992). After a lengthy absence from the screen, he returned to directing with the short Stanley's Girlfriend (2006), included in the horror anthology Trapped Ashes (2006), and the feature film Road to Nowhere (2010), which won a Special Golden Lion at Venice: the award was presented by jury president Tarantino, who introduced Hellman as "a great cinematic artist and a minimalist poet".
Hellman was one of 70 directors asked to contribute a 90-second movie to _Venice 70: Future Reloaded (2013), which opened the 70th Venice Film Festival in 2013. His latest project is "Love or Die", which is scheduled to commence shooting in Lisbon, Portugal, in March 2014.
-------------- Biography by Woodyanders. Corrected by A. Nonymous. Revised, corrected and updated by Brad Stevens, author of 'Monte Hellman: His Life and Films', in 2014. Corrected by A. Nonymous.Two-Lane Blacktop- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Robin Hardy was born on 2 October 1929 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Wicker Man (1973), Forbidden Sun (1988) and The Fantasist (1986). He was married to Victoria. He died on 1 July 2016 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK.The Wicker Man (1973)- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Richard C. Sarafian was born on 28 April 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Vanishing Point (1971), Bugsy (1991) and Blue Streak (1999). He was married to Helen Joan Altman. He died on 18 September 2013 in Santa Monica, California, USA.Vanishing Point- Director
- Writer
- Animation Department
Gerald Potterton was born on 8 March 1931 in London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Heavy Metal (1981), The Railrodder (1965) and Yellow Submarine (1968). He died on 23 August 2022 in Cowansville, Québec, Canada.Heavy Metal (1981)- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university, he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Anthony Quayle. He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles in major shows on live television.
Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Defenders (1961), The Outer Limits (1963) and The Twilight Zone (1959). In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966), co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy, with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known variously as "Trekkies" or "Trekkers".
After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds, guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967). He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare, such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western White Comanche (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear, and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Miss Congeniality (2000).
He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series The Practice (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004).
Outside of work, he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health.Star Trek V: The Final Frontier- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
- Director
Yoshimitsu Banno studied at Toho under such directors as Hiromichi Horikawa, Mikio Naruse, Kengo Furusawa and Seiji Maruyama. By 1970 Toho was ready to promote him to full director, and the resulting project, Birth of the Japanese Islands (1970) played at Osaka's Expo 70, attracting record-breaking crowds. Gojira series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka signed him up to help revitalize the series. The result was the famous (or infamous) Gojira vs. Hedora (1971), a passionately avant-garde film which so horrified producer Tanaka that Banno's directorial privileges at Toho were temporarily suspended. He managed to restore his reputation by rewriting and directing second unit for Nosutodoramusu no Daiyogen (1974). He was approached to write and/or direct Gojira movies twice more in the 1970s, but his ideas continued to be too radical for the studio. Eventually he resigned as a director and became an executive in charge of project development, which in recent years has included the highly ambitious JAPAX Project, a 70mm. process meant to compete with the Imax process.Godzilla vs Hedorah- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his screen debut in The Actress (1953), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Friendly Persuasion (1956). Four years later, he appeared in what would be his most noted role, Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), memorializing him into film history forever.Psycho 3- Director
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George Sluizer was born on 25 June 1932 in Paris, France. He was a director and producer, known for The Vanishing (1988), La balsa de piedra (2002) and Dying to Go Home (1996). He was married to Anne Sluizer. He died on 20 September 2014 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.The Vanishing- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Bob Rafelson was an American film director, writer and producer. He is regarded as one of the founders of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s. Among his best-known films are Five Easy Pieces (1970), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981). He was also one of the creators of the pop group and TV series The Monkees (1965).
Rafelson's debut as a director was Head, a feature film starring the Monkees. Co-written with friend Jack Nicholson, and featuring appearances by Nicholson, Victor Mature, Teri Garr, Carol Doda, Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa, Sonny Liston, Timothy Carey, Ray Nitschke, and Dennis Hopper. Rafelson did six films with Jack Nicholson, Head (1968), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Man Trouble (1992), and Blood and Wine (1996).Five Easy Pieces- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Elem Klimov was born on 9 July 1933 in Stalingrad, Nizhne-Volzhskiy kray, RSFSR, USSR [now Volgograd, Volgogradskaya oblast, Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Come and See (1985), Rasputin (1981) and Pokhozhdeniya zubnogo vracha (1965). He was married to Larisa Shepitko. He died on 26 October 2003 in Moscow, Russia.Come and See- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
Gordon Parks Jr. was born as Gordon Roger Parks in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, the son of photographer and filmmaker Gordon Alexander Parks and Sally Alvis. He is best remembered for the successful if controversial crime film "Super Fly" (1972). He worked as a musician and photographer, early on using the name Gordon Rogers to distinguish himself from his father. He served as a cameraman on his father's first directorial effort, "The Learning Tree" (1969), and did both still and motion picture photography for other movies including "The Godfather" (1971) before directing his own project, "Super Fly" (1972). He made several subsequent films but none were as successful as his first. He was killed in a plane crash in Nairobi, Kenya, 3 April 1979, while making a film entitled "Revenge" that was more than half-finished at the time.Super Fly (1972)- Director
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- Producer
Perry Henzell was born on 7 March 1936 in Port Maria, St. Mary, Jamaica. He was a director and writer, known for The Harder They Come (1972), No Place Like Home (2006) and Camera Three (1955). He was married to Sally Densham. He died on 30 November 2006 in Treasure Beach, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica.The Harder They Come- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Peter Collinson was born on 1 April 1936 in Lincolnshire, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for The Italian Job (1969), The Long Day's Dying (1968) and Up the Junction (1968). He was married to Lisa Shane and Ann Collinson. He died on 16 December 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.The Italian Job (1969)- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a young age and first appeared in a slew of 1950s television shows, including Medic (1954), Cheyenne (1955) and Sugarfoot (1957). His first film role was in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), quickly followed by Giant (1956) and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). Hopper actually became good friends with James Dean and was shattered when Dean was killed in a car crash in September 1955.
Hopper portrayed a young Napoléon Bonaparte (!) in the star-spangled The Story of Mankind (1957) and regularly appeared on screen throughout the 1960s, often in rather undemanding parts, usually as a villain in westerns such as True Grit (1969) and Hang 'Em High (1968). However, in early 1969, Hopper, fellow actor Peter Fonda and writer Terry Southern, wrote a counterculture road movie script and managed to scrape together $400,000 in financial backing. Hopper directed the low-budget film, titled Easy Rider (1969), starring Fonda, Hopper and a young Jack Nicholson. The film was a phenomenal box-office success, appealing to the anti-establishment youth culture of the times. It changed the Hollywood landscape almost overnight and major studios all jumped onto the anti-establishment bandwagon, pumping out low-budget films about rebellious hippies, bikers, draft dodgers and pot smokers. However, Hopper's next directorial effort, The Last Movie (1971), was a critical and financial failure, and he has admitted that during the 1970s he was seriously abusing various substances, both legal and illegal, which led to a downturn in the quality of his work. He appeared in a sparse collection of European-produced films over the next eight years, before cropping up in a memorable performance as a pot-smoking photographer alongside Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now (1979). He also received acclaim for his work in both acting and direction for Out of the Blue (1980).
With these two notable efforts, the beginning of the 1980s saw a renaissance of interest by Hollywood in the talents of Dennis Hopper and exorcising the demons of drugs and alcohol via a rehabilitation program meant a return to invigorating and provoking performances. He was superb in Rumble Fish (1983), co-starred in the tepid spy thriller The Osterman Weekend (1983), played a groovy school teacher in My Science Project (1985), was a despicable and deranged drug dealer in River's Edge (1986) and, most memorably, electrified audiences as foul-mouthed Frank Booth in the eerie and erotic David Lynch film Blue Velvet (1986). Interestingly, the offbeat Hopper was selected in the early 1980s to provide the voice of "The StoryTeller" in the animated series of "Rabbit Ears" children's films based upon the works of Hans Christian Andersen!
Hopper returned to film direction in the late 1980s and was at the helm of the controversial gang film Colors (1988), which was well received by both critics and audiences. He was back in front of the cameras for roles in Super Mario Bros. (1993), got on the wrong side of gangster Christopher Walken in True Romance (1993), led police officer Keanu Reeves and bus passenger Sandra Bullock on a deadly ride in Speed (1994) and challenged gill-man Kevin Costner for world supremacy in Waterworld (1995). The enigmatic Hopper continued to remain busy through the 1990s and into the new century with performances in All the Way (2003), The Keeper (2004) and Land of the Dead (2005).
As well as his acting/directing talents, Hopper was a skilled photographer and painter, having had his works displayed in galleries in both the United States and overseas. He was additionally a dedicated and knowledgeable collector of modern art and had one of the most extensive collections in the United States. Dennis died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010, less than two weeks after his 74th birthday.Easy Rider- Director
- Producer
- Actor
James Frawley was born on 29 September 1936 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Muppet Movie (1979), The Big Bus (1976) and The Monkees (1965). He was married to Cynthia Margaret. He died on 22 January 2019 in Indian Wells, California, USA.The Muppet Movie- 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.Quartet- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Richard Marquand was born on 22 September 1937 in Llanishen, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Nowhere to Run (1993) and Jagged Edge (1985). He was married to Carol Bell and Josephine Marquand. He died on 4 September 1987 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK.Return of the Jedi- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi was born on 9 January 1938 in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. He was a director and editor, known for House (1977), Turning Point (1994) and The Discarnates (1988). He was married to Kyôko Ôbayashi. He died on 10 April 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.House- Director
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Joe Pytka was born on 4 November 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a director and cinematographer, known for Pepsi: Archaeology (1985), Space Jam (1996) and Hallmark: Dance Cards (1991).Space Jam- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Peter Hunt was born and raised in Pasadena, California. His career began at age eight on the stage of the Pasadena Playhouse. He went on to study at the Hotchkiss School, Yale, and the Yale School of Drama, where he received a Master's Degree. Before becoming a director, he worked for a number of years in the New York theater and elsewhere as a lighting designer.1776 (1972)- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Ruggero Deodato was born on May 7, 1939, in Potenza, Italy, and grew up outside Rome. One of his close friends at the time was Renzo Rossellini, the son of famed Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Knowing Ruggerio's love for the movies, Renzo persuaded him to work as a second unit director on some of his father's productions. From 1958-67 Deodato worked as a second unit director for several cult film directors such as Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti), Riccardo Freda and Joseph Losey. Deodato's directorial debut was the action-fantasy Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964), replacing Margheriti who quit the production. Deodato's claim to fame was the spaghetti western Django (1966). His career took off in 1968 when he directed a number of films based on comic-book characters and musicals. It was while shooting one of these films that Deodato met, and later married, Silvia Dionisio.
From 1971-75 Deodato worked in television, directing the series All'ultimo minuto (1971) as well as TV commercials, including ones for Esso Oil, Band-Aid and Fanta. Deodato returned to filmmaking with an erotic melodrama and a police thriller. At the same time his marriage fell apart. In 1977 Deodato directed the notorious Last Cannibal World (1977) and later Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Deodato traveled to New York City and directed the disturbing thriller House on the Edge of the Park (1980), a semi-follow-up to Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972). Deodato made House on the Edge of the Park (1980) in just 19 days on a tiny budget. He then returned to directing action and horror flicks.
Deodato lives in Rome with his current partner, Micaela Rocco, and still works in movies and occasional TV series. He is rumored to be planning a sequel to "Cannibal Holocaust".Cannibal Holocaust- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Souleymane Cissé was born on 21 April 1940 in Bamako, Mali. He is a director and writer, known for Yeelen (1987), Baara (1978) and The Wind (1982).Yeelen- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Like William Girdler, Oliver Hellman or even Ed Wood, Sean S. Cunningham had a successful career of starting films cheap and fast. Originally from New York, Cunningham had a vast knowledge of directing films and came to Hollywood. He started about the same time Wes Craven did. Cunningham meets Craven and decided to make a comedy-romance film called Together (1971). Then they both shocked the world with the rape and ultra-violence of The Last House on the Left (1972). Craven directed the flick and Cunningham financed and produced. However Cunningham wanted to get a mix of comedy and horror and made Case of the Full Moon Murders (1973) and then started other comedy films like Manny's Orphans (1978) and Here Come the Tigers (1978) . Struggling in Hollywood Cunningham saw John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and wanted to make a follow up type film but would possibly regret it. Cunningham brought Friday the 13th (1980) into the cinema in 1980, a year of many other horror films. Friday the 13th (1980) was a shocking, gory and violent film about camp counselors being slashed by a killer and had Betsy Palmer in the lead role. Little did Cunningham know that Friday the 13th would have never ending sequels. Cunningham gladly avoided all of them and Friday the 13th remains one of the most popular horror films in history. Instead Cunningham wanted to make it big when he brought a best-selling novel to the screen, A Stranger Is Watching (1982) with Rip Torn, but it was a disappointment. Cunningham went downhill with the over sexed teen comedy Spring Break (1983) and The New Kids (1985). Cunningham then produced House (1985) and several of its sequels. Cunningham next entered the world of underwater terrors after The Abyss (1989) was released. Cunningham did a follow up called DeepStar Six (1989), but it was a flop, however it beat another 1989 underwater thriller Leviathan (1989) at box office receipts. Cunningham was finished with directing and moved on to producing films and teaching. He produced House III: The Horror Show (1989), My Boyfriend's Back (1993) and Friday the 13th's last sequel Jason Goes to Hell (1993). Cunningham then did yet another follow up to Friday the 13th with Jason X (2001).Friday the 13th (1980)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Roslyn, New York. His father was a journalist and encouraged him to write and to type. Michael gave up studying English at Harvard University, having become disillusioned with the teaching standards--the final straw came when he submitted an essay by George Orwell that was given a "B-." After giving up English and spending a year in Europe, Michael returned to Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Havard Medical School to train as a doctor. Several times, he was persuaded not to quit the course but did so after qualifying in 1969.
During his medical-student days, he wrote novels secretly mainly under the pseudonym of John Lange in reference to his almost 6ft 9 height. (Lange in German means long) One novel, "A Case of Need," written under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson, (Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th century dwarf) contained references to people at Harvard Medical School, but he couldn't hide his identity when the novel won an award that had to be collected in person. After giving up medicine, Michael moved to Hollywood, California, in the early 1970s and began directing movies based on his books, his first big break being Westworld (1973).Westworld (1973)- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Actor
Kenshô Yamashita was born on 8 July 1944 in Kagoshima, Japan. He was an assistant director and director, known for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994), 19 (1987) and Jishin rettô (1980). He died on 16 August 2016 in Japan.Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Fran Rubel Kuzui was born on 21 January 1945 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a producer and director, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Orgazmo (1997) and Angel (1999). She is married to Kaz Kuzui.Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Jim Sharman spent much of his young life at the circus, where his father and grandfather ran a travelling boxing sideshow. Taking an interest in theatre, he attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, graduating in 1966. Sharman became interested in directing experimental theatre. While directing the Sydney production of Hair in 1970, he met a young architectural student named Brian Thomson, who would become his longtime set designer. His local production of Jesus Christ Superstar caught the attention of lyricist Tim Rice, who brought him and Thomson to London in 1972 to stage the production, which included Richard O'Brien. Directing the stage production of "The Rocky Horror Show" gave Sharman the opportunity to direct its film version The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and its sequel Shock Treatment (1981). Sharman went on to become one of Australia's most respected theatre directors.The Rocky Horror Picture Show- Producer
- Director
- Executive
Robert Greenwald is president of Brave New Films, a nonprofit film company that he founded after a career in commercial television and film to motivate and educate viewers on the most pressing issues of the day.
Brave New Films distributes its work for free through social media and in concert with nonprofit partners and movements. The group's movies and videos have been screened around the world and viewed over tens of millions of times and counting.
At Brave New Films, Greenwald has directed and produced gripping full-length documentaries and exposés, as well as shorter documentary films and videos. His latest documentary, Suppressed: The Fight to Vote, tells the story of rampant voter suppression in Georgia's 2018 midterm elections.
Greenwald's investigative documentary shorts include Healing Trauma: Beyond Gangs and Prisons on Los Angeles' Homeboy Industries, 16 Women and Donald Trump on President Trump's serial abuse of women, and Immigrant Prisons on America's system of privately-run immigrant detention centers.
Previous feature-length investigative documentaries include Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA, Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, War on Whistleblowers, Koch Brothers Exposed, Rethink Afghanistan, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and Uncovered: The War on Iraq.
Greenwald and Brave New Films' work has been featured widely in the media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and many more.
Before launching Brave Films in 2005, Greenwald produced and/or directed more than 65 TV movies, miniseries and films as well as major theatrical releases. His early body of work includes Steal This Movie!, Breaking Up, A Woman of Independent Means and The Burning Bed.
Greenwald has earned 25 Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award and the Robert Wood Johnson Award. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute.Xanadu- Writer
- Producer
- Director
W.D. Richter was born on 7 December 1945 in New Britain, Connecticut, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Stealth (2005) and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984).The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Franc was born in Norton, near Stockton on Tees and on leaving St John's School at Billingham he went to work at Smith's Dock in Middlesbrough but soon gained a scholarship to the London Film School. From there he moved into the film side of tv commercials and freelancing and his productions of The Fight, a BBC documentary about the preparation for the Bugner -Frazer fight. Television productions such as Auf Wiedersehen Pet brought more acclaim and Quadrophenia, his first feature film achieved cult status in Amereica. This success led 20th Century Fox to offer him a three picture deal that brought a four year stay in Beverley Hills. The mid 1980's saw completion of a 14 million dollar blockbuster The Bride loosely based on May Shelley's Frankenstein tale starring Sting and Jennifer Beals. Since then Franc has maintained his run of successes with both film and television productions.Quadrophenia- Director
- Producer
- Cinematographer
Ross McElwee was born on 21 July 1947 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Sherman's March (1985), Bright Leaves (2003) and Photographic Memory (2011). He is married to Hyun Kyung Kim. He was previously married to Marilyn Levine.Sherman's March- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Paul Brickman was born on 23 April 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Risky Business (1983), True Crime (1999) and Uprising (2001).Risky Business- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Jack Bender was born on 25 September 1949 in the USA. He is a producer and director, known for Lost (2004), From (2022) and Alias (2001). He is married to Laura Owens. They have two children.Child's Play 3- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Steven Lisberger was born on 24 April 1951 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Tron (1982), Tron: Legacy (2010) and Tron: Ares (2025).Tron- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Fritz Kiersch was born on 23 July 1951 in Alpine, Texas, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Children of the Corn (1984), Tuff Turf (1985) and Into the Sun (1991).Children of the Corn (1984)- Music Artist
- Composer
- Actor
David Byrne is an Oscar winning composer, songwriter and singer, best known for being frontman of the New Wave/punk band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Born in Scotland but raised in the United States in Maryland, Byrne began performing musically in high school.
Byrne attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) between 1970 and '71. He dropped out to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art before dropping out for good in 1972. He returned to Providence and started a band in 1973 called The Artistics with Chris Frantz, whom he knew at RISD. The band broke up in May '74 and Byrne moved to New York, followed by Frantz and his girlfriend Tina Weymouth in September. The three started performing as Talking Heads in 1975. The band was one of the major acts of the punk and new wave scene of the 1970s.
Byrne won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for his soundtrack to the movie The Last Emperor (1987) in 1988, the same year Talking Heads ceased to function. Except for a brief reunion in 1991, the band stopped recording together in '88 as Byrne launched a solo career. Talking Heads were inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.True Stories- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Roberto Benigni was born on 27 October 1952 in Manciano La Misericordia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and Down by Law (1986). He has been married to Nicoletta Braschi since 26 December 1991.Life is Beautiful- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Mary Harron (born January 12, 1953) is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. She gained recognition for her role in writing and directing several independent films, including I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), American Psycho (2000), and The Notorious Bettie Page (2005). She co-wrote American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page with Guinevere Turner. Although Harron has denied this title, she has been thought to be feminist filmmaker due to her film on lesbian feminist Valerie Solanas, in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), and a queer story-line within her teenage Gothic horror, The Moth Diaries (2011).American Psycho- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Bill Paxton was born on May 17, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was the son of Mary Lou (Gray) and John Lane Paxton, a businessman and actor (as John Paxton). Bill moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where he found work in the film industry as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his film debut in the Corman film Crazy Mama (1975), directed by Jonathan Demme. Moving to New York, Paxton studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. After landing a small role in Stripes (1981), he found steady work in low-budget films and television. He also directed, wrote and produced award-winning short films including Barnes & Barnes: Fish Heads (1980), which aired on Saturday Night Live (1975). His first appearance in a James Cameron film was a small role in The Terminator (1984), followed by his very memorable performance as Private Hudson in Aliens (1986) and as the nomadic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987). Bill also appeared in John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), as Wyatt Donnelly's sadistic older brother Chet. Although he continued to work steadily in film and television, his big break did not come until his lead role in the critically acclaimed film-noir One False Move (1991). This quickly led to strong supporting roles as Wyatt Earp's naive younger brother Morgan in Tombstone (1993) and as Fred Haise, one of the three astronauts, in Apollo 13 (1995), as well as in James Cameron's offering True Lies (1994).
Bill died on February 25, 2017, in Los Angeles, from complications following heart surgery. He was 61.Frailty- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in 1958 and now deceased) and John David (born in 1969). He has been married six times and has four children: daughter Amanda Brumfield, with Melissa Lee Gatlin (now Parish); sons William and Harry, both with Pietra Dawn Cherniak; and daughter Bella with Connie Angland.
Billy Bob began his artistic career as a musician, playing drums and singing in a band called Tres Hombres, which once opened for Hank Williams Jr.. In 1981, he moved to Los Angeles with childhood friend Tom Epperson to pursue an acting and writing career. On the side, Billy Bob also sought work as a singer and drummer. He and Epperson tried for years to sell their scripts but no one was buying. During those rough times, Billy Bob neglected his health and subsequently landed in the hospital with heart problems due to malnutrition. In 1992, Billy Bob starred in One False Move (1991), a movie he co-wrote with Epperson. The team finally received attention because of this work, which was very well received in Hollywood. His popularity increased steadily, especially after Sling Blade (1996) which he wrote, directed and in which he starred.Sling Blade- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born in Concord, California, to Janet Marylyn (Frager), a hospital worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks, an itinerant cook. His mother's family, originally surnamed "Fraga", was entirely Portuguese, while his father was of mostly English ancestry. Tom grew up in what he has called a "fractured" family. He moved around a great deal after his parents' divorce, living with a succession of step-families. No problems, no alcoholism - just a confused childhood. He has no acting experience in college and credits the fact that he could not get cast in a college play with actually starting his career. He went downtown, and auditioned for a community theater play, was invited by the director of that play to go to Cleveland, and there his acting career started.
Ron Howard was working on Splash (1983), a fantasy-comedy about a mermaid who falls in love with a business executive. Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, which eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks landed the lead role and the film went on to become a surprise box office success, grossing more than $69 million. After several flops and a moderate success with the comedy Dragnet (1987), Hanks' stature in the film industry rose. The broad success with the fantasy-comedy Big (1988) established him as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the film industry as an actor. For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor.
Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in A League of Their Own (1992). Hanks has stated that his acting in earlier roles was not great, but that he subsequently improved. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hanks noted his "modern era of movie making ... because enough self-discovery has gone on ... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top". This "modern era" began for Hanks, first with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and then with Philadelphia (1993). The former was a blockbuster success about a widower who finds true love over the radio airwaves. Richard Schickel of Time magazine called his performance "charming", and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.
In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination. Hanks lost 35 pounds and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for People, Leah Rozen stated, "Above all, credit for Philadelphia's success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia. During his acceptance speech, he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay.
Hanks followed Philadelphia with the blockbuster Forrest Gump (1994) which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks remarked: "When I read the script for Gump, I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life ... I got that from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do." Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump, becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning consecutive Best Actor Oscars.
Hanks' next role - astronaut and commander Jim Lovell, in the docudrama Apollo 13 (1995) - reunited him with Ron Howard. Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. Later that year, Hanks starred in Disney/Pixar's computer-animated film Toy Story (1995), as the voice of Sheriff Woody. A year later, he made his directing debut with the musical comedy That Thing You Do! (1996) about the rise and fall of a 1960s pop group, also playing the role of a music producer.
As of 2022, Hanks is 66-years-old. He has never retired from acting, and has remained active in the film industry for more than four decades.That Thing You Do!- Director
- Writer
- Producer
John Lafia was born on 2 April 1957. He was a director and writer, known for Man's Best Friend (1993), Child's Play (1988) and Child's Play (2019). He was married to Beverly. He died on 29 April 2020 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Child's Play 2- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Lizzie Borden was born on 3 February 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She is a director and writer, known for Working Girls (1986), Born in Flames (1983) and To Die Quietly (1997).Born in Flames- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), Drexl in True Romance (1993), George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017), among many others. For much of his career, he was best-known for playing over-the-top antagonists, such as terrorist Egor Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One (1997), though he has reached a new audience with heroic roles in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight franchises. He is also a filmmaker, musician, and author.
Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England, to Kathleen (Cheriton), a homemaker, and Leonard Bertram Oldman, a welder. He won a scholarship to Britain's Rose Bruford Drama College, in Sidcup, Kent, where he received a B.A. in theatre arts in 1979. He subsequently studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of plays throughout the early '80s, including "The Pope's Wedding," for which he received Time Out's Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985-1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor for 1985. Before fame, he was employed as a worker in assembly lines and as a porter in an operating theater. He also had jobs selling shoes and beheading pigs while supporting his early acting career.
His film debut was Remembrance (1982), though his most-memorable early role came when he played Sex Pistol Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid and Nancy (1986) picking up the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Newcomer. He then received a Best Actor nomination from BAFTA for his portrayal of '60s playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
In the 1990s, Oldman brought to life a series of iconic real-world and fictional villains including Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991), the title character in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), Stansfield in Léon: The Professional (1994), Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element (1997) and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One (1997). That decade also saw Oldman portraying Ludwig van Beethoven in biopic Immortal Beloved (1994).
Oldman played the coveted role of Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), giving him a key part in one of the highest-grossing franchises ever. He reprised that role in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). Oldman also took on the iconic role of Detective James Gordon in writer-director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), a role he played again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Prominent film critic Mark Kermode, in reviewing The Dark Knight, wrote, "the best performance in the film, by a mile, is Gary Oldman's ... it would be lovely to see him get a[n Academy Award] nomination because actually, he's the guy who gets kind of overlooked in all of this."
Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.
In 2011, Oldman portrayed master spy George Smiley in the adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), and the role scored Oldman his first Academy Award nomination. In 2014, he played one of the lead humans in the science fiction action film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) alongside Jason Clarke and Keri Russell. Also in 2014, Oldman starred alongside Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson in the remake of RoboCop (2014), as Norton, the scientist who creates RoboCop.
Aside from acting, Oldman tried his hand at writing and directing for Nil by Mouth (1997). The movie opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize at the festival.
Oldman has three children, Alfie, with first wife, actress Lesley Manville, and Gulliver and Charlie with his third wife, Donya Fiorentino. In 2017, he married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt.
In 2018 he won an Oscar for best actor for his work on Darkest Hour (2017).Nil by Mouth- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Marco Brambilla was born in 1960 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for Heaven's Gate (2021), The Four Temperaments (2020) and Destricted (2006).Demolition Man- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Vincent Gallo. American-born, Buffalo, New York, 1961. Left home, moved to New York City in 1978, and began playing in the experimental musical group, Gray, with artist Jean Michel Basquiat. After leaving Gray, he formed the band, Bohack, and recorded the highly regarded avant-garde industrial noise album, "It Took Several Wives".
During the same period, Gallo also became known in New York City for his very unusual street performances, which were spontaneously executed in public and also witnessed by invited guests in the know. The One-Armed Man, The Man with No Face, Sandman, Boy Hit by a Car, and Boy Cries in Restaurant Window, to name a few. These radical public performances were upsetting and disturbing and were meant to provoke thought, self-reflection and consciousness. Gallo's invited guests could witness his performance's impact in this larger public context.
One invited guest, New York Underground filmmaker, Eric Mitchell, cast Gallo as the lead in his film, The Way It Is (1985), alongside newcomer Steve Buscemi. The Way It Is (1985) was Gallo's first appearance in a feature-length film, though previously he had directed himself in several short films, including If You Feel Froggy, Jump (1980), The Gunlover (1986) and Rocky 10, as well as the collaborations with filmmaker Michael Holman, Vincent Gallo as "Jesus Christ" (used in Julian Schnabel's Basquiat (1996)) and Vampire LeStat.
Since his early performance art days, Gallo has continued to create very conceptual performance pieces. Examples are a series of protesting of protests. Gallo has also created his own website, which upon closer examination, is actually a highly conceptual artwork resonating with his early performance work.
On his website www.vincentgallo.com in the merchandise section, Gallo is selling his sperm and sexual fantasies as conceptual works. Gallo's Internet art questions celebrity, procreation, ego, social agenda, and views of religion, race and sexuality. These public offerings are motivated by extreme sensitivity, concept and thoughtfulness, however their presentation appears crude and offensive. Misinterpretation of this work is common and Gallo is often incorrectly categorized as a racist, sexist, homophobe. Gallo has had over 25 one-man shows of his paintings, including several with famed New York art dealer, Annina Nosei, and 4 museum shows including one at the Hara Museum in Tokyo, Japan.
Gallo has also released several musical albums including 2 on the prestigious Warp Records label-When and Recordings of Music for Film. Gallo wrote, composed and performed the original music for the films Buffalo '66 (1998), The Agent (1990) and Promises Written in Water (2010).
In the 1980s, Gallo reached the professional level of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, though he did not win a national championship. Gallo is one of the actual motorcycle riders in his feature film, The Brown Bunny (2003).
For many years, Gallo has been known and highly respected in hi-fi and music recording circles and is considered by many professionals in the field as having world-class knowledge and experience. He has been published many times by specialty magazines focused on high fidelity designs and equipment as well as music recording techniques and equipment. His collection of vintage hi-fi and recording gear, as well as musical instruments, is amongst the largest and most refined in the world. Gallo is also a fanatic record collector, owning over 35,000 vinyl LP's.
Gallo has no agent, manager, assistant or intern and he makes his films without producers, and with extremely scaled down crews. He has self-distributed his movies and is directly involved in his films' sales for distribution. Gallo has also created all of his films' trailers and posters.
Gallo is one of the most misunderstood, misquoted, misrepresented talents in the past 25 years and a brief review of his IMDb page suggests he has also been incredibly prolific.Buffalo '66- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jim Fall has had a diversified directing career spanning theater, TV, and motion pictures. Jim's feature film career started with the acclaimed independent feature "Trick" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival in Dramatic Competition. It was quickly acquired by Fine Line Features and released in the summer of 1999 becoming Fine Line's highest-grossing film of that year. Jim's studio directing debut, "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" - a big-screen adaptation of the hit Disney Channel series starring Teen Queen Hilary Duff - was a big box office success for Disney, opening at number two below "X-men 2" its opening week.
His TV credits include episodes of "So NoTORIous", VH1's scripted comedy starring Tori Spelling and Zachary Quinto, and "Grosse Pointe", the Darren Star-produced comedy series that has become a cult favorite. Jim also directed the A&E feature "Wedding Wars", starring John Stamos and James Brolin, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. He recently directed and co-wrote "Holiday Engagement" (Hallmark's highest rated Sunday night movie), starring Shelley Long, Bonnie Somerville, and Jordan Bridges, and last year's "Holly's Holiday" (Lifetime) starring Claire Coffee and Ryan McPartlin. His newest feature is "Kristin's Christmas Past" (Lifetime) starring Shiri Appleby, Elizabeth Mitchell.
In theater, he recently directed the world premiere of Mark Saltzman's musical about Lorenz Hart "Falling For Make Believe" at the Colony Theater. Also David Dean Bottrell's sold-out runs of "David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One Man Show" and "David Dean Bottrell is Working", John Cantwell's "Connie Loves Juice", Richard Tanner's "Small Parts", and at the Bootleg Theater, the world premiere of Gary Lennon's "The Interlopers". At the Beverly Hills Playhouse, Jim staged Clinton Leupp's "Miss Coco Peru's Universe" and "Miss Coco Peru's Glorious Wounds...She's Damaged" at the Renberg Theater (GLAAD Award Nomination). His New York credits include Tom O'Leary's "Breath", "Blood Orgy Of The Carnival Queens" (co-written with Robin Carrigan), James C. Kantor's "Christmas On Hell Island", and "Chorus Girls On Mars".
Jim attended Temple University, followed by NYU's film school and also received a film scholarship from The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts.The Lizzie McGuire Movie- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Daniel Myrick was born on 3 September 1963 in Sarasota, Florida, USA. He is a writer and director, known for The Blair Witch Project (1999), Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) and The Objective (2008).The Blair Witch Project (1999)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Kurt Wimmer was born on 9 March 1964. He is a writer and producer, known for Equilibrium (2002), Total Recall (2012) and Point Break (2015).Equilibrium- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Peter Cattaneo was born on 1 July 1964 in Twickenham, London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Full Monty (1997), Opal Dream (2006) and The Rocker (2008).The Full Monty- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Scott Kalvert was born on 15 August 1964 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Basketball Diaries (1995), DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince: Parents Just Don't Understand (1988) and Deuces Wild (2002). He was married to Sonia Kalvert. He died on 5 March 2014 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.The Basketball Diaries- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kátia Lund was born in 1966 in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. She is a director and writer, known for City of God (2002), News from a Personal War (1999) and Anaconda (1997).City of God- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Director
Tony Bancroft has spent the past 16 years developing his skills as an Animator/Director with Walt Disney Feature Animation, Sony Imageworks, and currently with Toonacious Family Entertainment, his own animation studio.
Tony was accepted into the exclusive, Disney-sponsored California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts) after graduating from high school in 1987. While there, his work caught the attention of Walt Disney Studios. He was offered a position in the prestigious Feature Animation division in 1989.
Following his work on such feature length productions as "The Rescuers Down Under", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Aladdin", Tony was appointed Supervising Animator on the 1992 Academy Award winning feature "The Lion King", and was responsible for creating, designing and overseeing the animation of Pumbaa, the warthog.
His exemplary work led, at the age of 30, to the opportunity to co-direct Disney's 36th animation masterpiece, "Mulan". "Mulan's" 1998 release grossed over $300 million worldwide. It earned Tony an Annie Award for Best Director, the animation industry's highest honor. He was also the Supervising Animator of the character Kronk in Disney's Christmas 2000 release of "The Emperor's New Groove".
Tony also served as the Animation Director for Sony Pictures' summer 2002 release, "Stuart Little 2" and, in 2003, was voice director of the English language version of the Miyasaki film "Porco Rosso" through Walt Disney Studios.
In 2001, with his two partners, Tony started Toonacious Family Entertainment, as Executive VP/Creative Production. Using his 16 years experience in the animation industry, Tony has helped to make Toonacious an animation studio committed to producing quality family entertainment.
Along with developing their own projects, Toonacious, through his direction, successfully completed Disney's "Thumper's Story-time", a Lilo and Stitch short, "The Origin of Stitch" and is currently involved with Disney's direct-to-DVD "Tinkerbell" project.
Tony resides in Burbank, California with his wife, Rene, and their three children.Mulan (1998)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Eduardo Sanchez was born in Cuba in 1968. It was at a young age he gained an interest in film making. At Wheaton High School Ed made school movie projects such as Shrimp Fried Vice and Pride (in the name of Love) all of which starred his friends and family, as well as Ed himself.
After High School Ed studied at Montgomery College where he continued to make movies like Star Trek Demented. He later got accepted to the University of Central Florida where he made Gabriel's Dream, a film which he thought was going to be his big break, but that didn't come for almost another decade. In 1997 he and a close friend Daniel Myrick got together and started production on the most successful movie (budget to gross) ever, the The Blair Witch Project (1999). It was a world-wide hit and has become one of the most spoofed films of all time.The Blair Witch Project (1999)- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Troy Duffy was born on 8 June 1971 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Boondock Saints (1999), The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) and The Blood Spoon Council. He has been married to Angela Green since October 2006.The Boondock Saints- Director
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Robert Bierman is known for Vampire's Kiss (1988), A Merry War (1997) and Apology (1986). He is married to Saskia Wickham. They have two children.Vampire's Kiss- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Scott Sanders is known for Black Dynamite (2009), Thick as Thieves (1999) and Black Dynamite (2011).Black Dynamite- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, screenwriter & producer. He trained to be an actor at: American Conservatory Theater, Vince Chase Workshop, Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2001 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Room (2003), a feature film that received the 2003 Audience Award at the New York International Film Festival. In 2004, he produced the documentary Homeless in America (2004), which received the 2004 Social Award.
He is now working on several more projects.The Room (2003)